title: Garrote

text: The garrote () is known to have been used in the first century BC in Rome. It is referred to in accounts of the Second Catilinian Conspiracy, where conspirators including Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura were strangled with a "laqueus" in the Tullianum, and the implement is shown in some early reliefs, e.g., "Répertoire de Reliefs grecs et romains", tome I, p. 341 (1919). It was also used in the Middle Ages in Spain and Portugal. It was employed during the "conquista" of the Americas, notably in the execution of the Inca emperor Atahualpa.


title: Garrote

text: In the Ottoman Empire, execution by strangulation was reserved for very high officials and members of the ruling family. Unlike the Spanish version, a bowstring was used instead of a tightening collar.


title: Garrote

text: During the Peninsular War of 1808–1814, French forces regularly used the garrote to execute Spanish "guerrilleros", priests, and other opponents of Napoleonic rule. Around 1810 the earliest known metallic garrote appeared in Spain, and on 28 April 1828, the garrote was declared the sole method of executing civilians in that country. In May 1897, the last public garroting in Spain was performed in Barcelona. After that, all executions were performed inside prisons.


title: Garrote

text: The last civilian executions in Spain, both by garroting, were those of the poisoner Pilar Prades in May 1959 and the spree killer José María Jarabo in July 1959. Recent legislation had caused many crimes (such as robbery–murder) to fall under the jurisdiction of military law; thus, prosecutors rarely requested civilian executions. Military executions were still performed in Spain until the 1970s. The garrotings of Heinz Chez (real name Georg Michael Welzel) and Salvador Puig Antich in March 1974, both convicted in the Francoist State of killing police officers, were the last state-sanctioned garrotings in Spain and in the world.


title: Garrote

text: With the 1973 Penal Code, prosecutors once again started requesting execution in civilian cases, but the death penalty was abolished in 1978 after "caudillo" Francisco Franco's death. The last man to be sentenced to death by garroting was José Luis Cerveto "el asesino de Pedralbes" in October 1977, for a double robbery–murder in May 1974. Cerveto requested execution, but his sentence was commuted. Another prisoner whose civilian death sentence was commuted was businessman Juan Ballot, for the contract killing of his wife in Navarre in November 1973.


title: Garrote

text: In Spain, the death penalty was abolished after a new constitution was adopted in 1978. The writer Camilo José Cela obtained a garrote (which had probably been used for the execution of Puig Antich) from the "Consejo General del Poder Judicial" to display at his foundation. The device was kept in storage in Barcelona. It was displayed in the room that the Cela Foundation devoted to his novel "La familia de Pascual Duarte" until Puig Antich's family asked for its removal.


title: Garrote

text: In 1990, Andorra became the last country to officially abolish the death penalty by garrotting, though this method had not been employed there since the late 12th century.


title: Blur (band)

text: Blur are an English rock band formed in London in 1988. The band consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Their debut album, "Leisure" (1991), incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing. Following a stylistic change influenced by English guitar pop groups such as the Kinks, the Beatles and XTC, Blur released "Modern Life Is Rubbish" (1993), "Parklife" (1994) and "The Great Escape" (1995). As a result, the band helped to popularise the Britpop genre and achieved mass popularity in the UK, aided by a chart battle with rival band Oasis in 1995 dubbed "The Battle of Britpop".


title: Blur (band)

text: Blur's self-titled fifth album (1997) saw another stylistic shift, influenced by the lo-fi styles of American indie rock groups, and became their third UK chart-topping album. Its single "Song 2" brought the band mainstream success in the US for the first time. Their next album, "13" (1999) saw the band experimenting with electronic and gospel music, and featured more personal lyrics from Albarn. Their seventh album, "Think Tank" (2003), continued their experimentation with electronic sounds and was also shaped by Albarn's growing interest in hip hop and world music, featuring more minimal guitar work. Coxon left the band during early recording sessions for "Think Tank", and Blur disbanded for several years after the end of the album's associated tour, with the members engaged in other projects.


title: Blur (band)

text: In 2009, Blur reunited with Coxon back in the band and embarked on a European reunion tour. In the following years, they released several singles and compilations and toured internationally. In 2012, they received a Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. Their eighth album, "The Magic Whip" (2015), was the sixth consecutive Blur studio album to top the British chart. The group have largely been on hiatus since "the Magic Whip" tour, but have announced plans to reunite in 2023 for various live dates.


title: Blur (band)

text: Blur were formed in December 1988 when bassist Alex James joined Damon Albarn's band, Circus, and they changed the name to Seymour after J. D. Salinger's "". Already in the band were drummer Dave Rowntree, who had joined in October, and guitarist Graham Coxon, Albarn's childhood friend from Essex, who was studying at London's Goldsmiths College along with Albarn and James. The group performed live for the first time in summer 1989 in the goods shed of the East Anglian Railway Museum at Chappel & Wakes Colne. In November, Food Records' A&R representative Andy Ross attended a Seymour performance that convinced him to court the group for his label. The only concern held by Ross and Food was that they disliked the band's name. Food drew up a list of alternatives, from which the group decided on "Blur". Food Records finally signed the newly christened band in March 1990.


title: Blur (band)

text: From March to July 1990, Blur toured Britain, opening for the Cramps, and testing out new songs. In October 1990, after their tour was over, Blur released the single "She's So High", which reached number 48 in the UK Singles Chart. The band had trouble creating a follow-up single, but they made progress when paired with producer Stephen Street. The resulting single release, "There's No Other Way", became a hit, peaking at number eight. As a result of the single's success, Blur became pop stars and were accepted into a clique of bands who frequented the Syndrome club in London dubbed "The Scene That Celebrates Itself". "NME" magazine wrote in 1991, "[Blur] are [the] acceptable pretty face of a whole clump of bands that have emerged since the whole Manchester thing started to run out of steam."


title: Blur (band)

text: The band's third single, "Bang", performed relatively disappointingly, reaching only number 24. Andy Ross and Food owner David Balfe were convinced Blur's best course of action was to continue drawing influence from the Madchester genre. Blur attempted to expand their musical sound, but the recording of the group's debut album was hindered by Albarn having to write his lyrics in the studio. Although the resulting album "Leisure" (1991) peaked at number seven on the UK Albums Chart, it received mixed reviews, and according to journalist John Harris, "could not shake off the odour of anti-climax".


title: Blur (band)

text: After discovering they were £60,000 in debt, Blur toured the United States in 1992 in an attempt to recoup their financial losses. The group released the single "Popscene" to coincide with the start of the tour. Featuring "a rush of punk guitars, '60s pop hooks, blaring British horns, controlled fury, and postmodern humor", "Popscene" was a turning point for the band musically. However, upon its release it only charted at number 32. "We felt 'Popscene' was a big departure; a very, very English record", Albarn told the "NME" in 1993, "But that annoyed a lot of people ... We put ourselves out on a limb to pursue this English ideal and no-one was interested." As a result of the single's lacklustre performance, plans to release a single named "Never Clever" were scrapped and work on Blur's second album was pushed back.


title: Blur (band)

text: During the two-month American tour, the band became increasingly unhappy, often venting frustrations on each other, leading to several physical confrontations. The band members were homesick; Albarn said, "I just started to miss really simple things ... I missed everything about England so I started writing songs which created an English atmosphere." Upon the group's return to Britain, Blur (Albarn in particular) were upset by the success rival group Suede had achieved while they were gone. After a poor performance at a 1992 gig that featured a well-received set by Suede on the same bill, Blur were in danger of being dropped by Food. By that time, Blur had undergone an ideological and image shift intended to celebrate their English heritage in contrast to the popularity of American grunge bands like Nirvana. Although sceptical of Albarn's new manifesto for Blur, Balfe gave assent for the band's choice of Andy Partridge (of XTC) to produce their follow-up to "Leisure". The sessions with Partridge proved unsatisfactory, but a chance reunion with Stephen Street resulted in him returning to produce the group.


title: Blur (band)

text: Blur completed their second album "Modern Life Is Rubbish" in December 1992, but Food Records said the album required more potential hit singles and asked them to return to the studio for a second time. The band complied and Albarn wrote "For Tomorrow", which became the album's lead single. "For Tomorrow" was a minor success, reaching number 28 on the charts. "Modern Life Is Rubbish" was released in May 1993. The announcement of the album's release included a press photo which featured Blur, dressed in a mix of mod and skinhead attire, posing alongside a mastiff with the words "British Image 1" spraypainted behind them. At the time, such imagery was viewed as nationalistic and racially insensitive by the British music press; to quieten concerns, Blur released the "British Image 2" photo, which was "a camp restaging of a pre-war aristocratic tea party". "Modern Life Is Rubbish" peaked at number 15 on the British charts, but failed to break into the US "Billboard" 200, selling only 19,000 copies there.


title: Blur (band)

text: The success of "Parklife" (1994) revived Blur's commercial fortunes. The album's first single, the disco-influenced "Girls & Boys", found favour on BBC Radio 1 and peaked at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart, and number 59 in the US "Billboard" Hot 100 where it remains the band's highest-charting single. "Parklife" entered the British charts at number one and stayed on the album charts for 90 weeks. Enthusiastically greeted by the music press—the "NME" called it "a Great Pop Record ... bigger, bolder, narkier and funnier [than "Modern Life is Rubbish"]"—"Parklife" is regarded as one of Britpop's defining records. Blur won four awards at the 1995 Brit Awards, including Best Band and Best Album for "Parklife". Coxon later pointed to "Parklife" as the moment when "[Blur] went from being regarded as an alternative, left field arty band to this amazing new pop sensation".


title: Blur (band)

text: Blur began working on their fourth album "The Great Escape" at the start of 1995. Building upon the band's previous two albums, Albarn's lyrics for the album consisted of several third-person narratives. James reflected, "It was all more elaborate, more orchestral, more theatrical, and the lyrics were even more twisted ... It was all dysfunctional, misfit characters fucking up." The release of the album's lead single "Country House" played a part in Blur's public rivalry with Manchester band Oasis termed the "Battle of Britpop". Partly due to increasing antagonisms between the groups, Blur and Oasis released their new singles on the same day, an event the "NME" called "The British Heavyweight Championship". The debate over which band would top the British singles chart became a media phenomenon, and Albarn appeared on the "News at Ten". At the end of the week, "Country House" ultimately outsold Oasis' "Roll With It" by 274,000 copies to 216,000, becoming Blur's first number one single.


title: Blur (band)

text: "The Great Escape", which Albarn told the public was the last instalment in the band's Life Trilogy, was released in September 1995 to ecstatic reviews. The "NME" hailed it as "spectacularly accomplished, sumptuous, heart-stopping and inspirational", while "Mojo" argued "Blur are the very best that '95 Britpop has to offer and this is a most gong-worthy sound, complete with head-slicing guitars, catchy tunes and very funny words". Entering the UK charts at number one, the album sold nearly half a million copies in its first month of sale. However, opinion quickly changed and Blur found themselves largely out of favour with the media once again. Following the worldwide success of Oasis' "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" (which went quadruple platinum in the United States), the media quipped "[Blur] wound up winning the battle but losing the war." Blur became perceived as an "inauthentic middle class pop band" in comparison to the "working class heroes" Oasis, which Albarn said made him feel "stupid and confused". Alex James later summarised, "After being the People's Hero, Damon was the People's Prick for a short period ... basically, he was a loser – very publicly."


title: Blur (band)

text: An early 1996 "Q" magazine interview revealed that relations between Blur members had become very strained; journalist Adrian Deevoy wrote that he found them "on the verge of a nervous breakup". Coxon, in particular, began to resent his bandmates: James for his playboy lifestyle, and Albarn for his control over Blur's musical direction and public image. The guitarist struggled with drinking problems and, in a rejection of the group's Britpop aesthetic, made a point of listening to noisy American alternative rock bands such as Pavement. In February 1996, when Coxon and James were absent for a lip-synced Blur performance broadcast on Italian television, they were replaced by a cardboard cutout and a roadie, respectively. Blur biographer Stuart Maconie later wrote that, at the time, "Blur were sewn together very awkwardly".


title: Blur (band)

text: Although he had previously dismissed it, Albarn grew to appreciate Coxon's tastes in lo-fi and underground music, and recognised the need to significantly change Blur's musical direction once again. "I can sit at my piano and write brilliant observational pop songs all day long but you've got to move on", he said. He subsequently approached Street, and argued for a more stripped-down sound on the band's next record. Coxon, recognising his own personal need to—as Rowntree put it—"work this band", wrote a letter to Albarn, describing his desire for their music "to scare people again". After initial sessions in London, the band left to record the rest of the album in Iceland, away from the Britpop scene.


title: Blur (band)

text: The result was "Blur", the band's fifth studio album, released in February 1997. Although the music press predicted that the lo-fi sonic experimentation would alienate Blur's teenage girl fan-base, they generally applauded the effort. Pointing out lyrics such as "Look inside America/She's alright", and noting Albarn's "obligatory nod to Beck, [and promotion of] the new Pavement album as if paid to do so", reviewers felt the band had come to accept American values during this time—an about-face of their attitude during the Britpop years. Despite cries of "commercial suicide", the album and its first single, "Beetlebum", debuted at number one in the UK. Although the album could not match the sales of its predecessors in Britain, internationally "Blur" was more successful. In the US, the album received strong reviews, reached number 61 on the "Billboard" 200 and was certified gold. The album's "Song 2" single was also popular on alternative radio, reaching number six on the "Billboard" Modern Rock chart and remaining on that chart for 26 weeks. After it was licensed for use in various media—such as soundtracks, advertisements and television shows—"Song 2" became the most recognisable Blur song in the US. After the success of "Blur", the band embarked on a nine-month world tour.


title: Blur (band)

text: In February 1998, a few months after completing the tour, Blur released "Bustin' + Dronin'" for the Japanese market. The album is a collection of Blur songs remixed by artists such as Thurston Moore, William Orbit and Moby. Among the tracks, the band were most impressed by Orbit's effort and enlisted him to replace Street as producer for their next album, citing a need to approach the recording process from a fresh perspective.


title: Blur (band)

text: Released in March 1999, Blur's sixth studio album "13" saw them drift still further away from their Britpop-era attitude and sound. Orbit's production style allowed for more jamming, and incorporated a "variety of emotions, atmospheres, words and sounds" into the mix. "13" was creatively dominated by Coxon, who "was simply allowed to do whatever he chose, unedited", by Orbit. Albarn's lyrics—more heart-felt, personal and intimate than on previous occasions—were reflective of his break-up with Elastica frontwoman Justine Frischmann, his partner of eight years. The album received generally favourable reviews from the press. While "Q" called it "a dense, fascinating, idiosyncratic and accomplished art rock album", the "NME" felt it was inconsistent and "(at least) a quarter-of-an-hour too long". "13" debuted at the top of the UK charts, staying at that position for two weeks. The album's lead single, the gospel-based "Tender", opened at the second spot on the charts. After "Coffee & TV", the first Blur single to feature Coxon on lead vocals, only reached number 11 in the UK, manager Chris Morrison demanded a chart re-run because of what he deemed was a sales miscalculation.


title: Blur (band)

text: In July 1999, in celebration of their tenth anniversary, Blur released a 22-CD limited edition box-set of their singles. The accompanying tour saw Blur play the A-sides of the 22 singles in their chronological order of release. In October 2000, the group released the compilation "", which debuted at number three in the UK and went 4× Platinum due to 1,200,000 copies being shipped. Dismissed by the band as "the first record we have seen as product", the track listing and release dates of "Blur: The Best Of" were determined on the basis of market research and focus groups conducted by Blur's record label, EMI. By this time, the group had largely disowned the upbeat pop singles from the Britpop era, and favoured the more arty, experimental work on "Blur" and "13". In an otherwise highly enthusiastic review of the best-of for the "NME", Steve Sutherland criticised the band's "sheer disregard" for their earlier work; "Just because these songs embarrassed them once they started listening to broadsheet critics and retreated wounded from the big-sales battle with Oasis doesn't mean that we're morons to love them."


title: Blur (band)

text: After "13" and the subsequent tours in 1999–2000, band members pursued other projects. Graham Coxon recorded a string of solo albums, while Damon Albarn dedicated his time to Gorillaz, the animated band he had created with Jamie Hewlett. Alex James worked with Fat Les and co-wrote several songs with Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Marianne Faithfull.


title: Blur (band)

text: Recording for Blur's next album began in London in November 2001, but concerted work started in June 2002, with the sessions moving to Marrakech, Morocco soon after, and then to Devon back in the UK. Not long after the sessions began, Coxon left the group. Coxon said "there were no rows" and "[the band] just recognised the feeling that we needed some time apart". Before the album was released, Blur released a new single, "Don't Bomb When You Are the Bomb" as a very limited white label release. The song is largely electronic, and was part of the band's protest against war in the Middle East. Albarn, however, attempted to assuage fans' fears that the album would be electronic by providing reassurances that the band's new album would be "a rockin' record", and also said that it has "a lot of finely crafted pop songs". Early in 2002, Blur recorded a song that would be played by European Space Agency's Beagle 2 lander once it touched down; however, attempts to locate the probe after it landed on Mars were fruitless.


title: Blur (band)

text: "Think Tank", released in May 2003, was filled with atmospheric, brooding electronic sounds, featuring simpler guitar lines played by Albarn, and largely relying on other instruments to replace Coxon. The guitarist's absence also meant that "Think Tank" was almost entirely written by Albarn. Its sound was seen as a testament to Albarn's increasing interest in African and Middle Eastern music, and to his complete control over the group's creative direction. "Think Tank" was yet another UK number one and reached number 56 in the United States. It was also nominated for best album at the 2004 Brit Awards. The band did a successful tour in 2003, with former Verve guitarist Simon Tong filling in for Coxon.


title: Blur (band)

text: In 2005, XFM News reported that Blur would record an EP, and denied that they would hire a replacement guitarist for Coxon. There were also some aborted recordings made in 2005. Overall the band kept a low profile and did no studio or touring work as a three-piece. After Coxon significantly thawed on the subject of rejoining Blur, in 2007 band members announced that they would reunite, and that they intended to record together first in August, with the date later being pushed back to September, then October. Though the band members finally met up in October, they posted on their website that they had only "met up for an enjoyable lunch" and that there were no "other music plans for Blur".


title: Blur (band)

text: In December 2008, Blur announced they would reunite for a concert at London's Hyde Park on 3 July 2009. Days later, the band added a second date, for 2 July. A series of June preview shows were also announced, ending at Manchester Evening News arena on the 26th. All the shows were well received; "The Guardian"s music critic Alexis Petridis gave their performance at Goldsmiths college a full five stars, and wrote "Blur's music seems to have potentiated by the passing of years ... they sound both more frenetic and punky and more nuanced and exploratory than they did at the height of their fame". Blur headlined the Glastonbury Festival on 28 June, where they played for the first time since their headline slot in 1998. Reviews of the Glastonbury performance were enthusiastic; "The Guardian" called them "the best Glastonbury headliners in an age". The band released their second greatest hits album "" on 15 June 2009.


title: Blur (band)

text: Blur also headlined at other summer festivals, including Oxegen 2009 in Ireland, and the Scottish outdoor show of T in the Park. Their T in the Park headline slot was put in jeopardy after Graham Coxon was admitted to hospital with food poisoning. Ultimately, the band did play, albeit an hour and a half after they were scheduled to appear. After the completion of the reunion dates, James said the group had not discussed further plans, and Albarn told "Q" soon after that Blur had no intention of recording or touring again. He said, "I just can't do it anymore", and explained that the main motivation for participating in the reunion was to repair his relationship with Coxon, which he succeeded at. Coxon also said that no further Blur activity was planned, telling NME.com in September, "We're in touch and we say 'Wotcha' and all that but nothing has been mentioned about any more shows or anything else".


title: Blur (band)

text: In January 2010, "No Distance Left to Run", a documentary about the band, was released in cinemas and a month later on DVD. The same month, their 1994 album "Parklife" was one of ten classic album covers from British artists commemorated on a UK postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail; the collection was unveiled by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. In April 2010, Blur released their first new recording since 2003, "Fool's Day", for the Record Store Day event, as a vinyl record limited to 1000 copies; it was later made available as a free download on their website. "No Distance Left to Run" was nominated as Best Long Form Music Video for the 53rd Grammy Awards, Blur's first-ever Grammy nomination.


title: Blur (band)

text: In February 2012, Blur were awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Music award at the 2012 Brit Awards. Later that month, Albarn and Coxon premiered a new track together live, "Under the Westway". In April, the band announced that a box-set entitled "Blur 21"—containing all seven Blur studio albums, four discs of unreleased rarities and three DVDs—would be released in July. Blur had also entered the studio early that year to record material for a new album, but in May producer William Orbit told the "NME" that Albarn had halted recording. Blur's official Twitter and Facebook pages announced that the band would release two singles "The Puritan" and "Under the Westway" on 2 July. That August, Blur headlined a show at Hyde Park for the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. In 2013, the band performed at the Rock Werchter in Belgium, the Spanish and Portuguese dates of the Primavera Sound festival, and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in the United States.


title: Blur (band)

text: In April 2015, Blur released their first studio album in twelve years, "The Magic Whip". Conceived over five days in Hong Kong after a cancelled Japan tour in 2013, the album was inspired by the city as well. "There's nothing pastoral about it", Albarn said, "it's very urban". "The Magic Whip" also marks the return of Coxon, absent on all but one track on "Think Tank", and Stephen Street, Blur's producer during the Britpop era.


title: Blur (band)

text: "The Magic Whip" received positive reviews. Awarding the album a full five stars, "The Daily Telegraph" called "The Magic Whip" "a triumphant comeback that retains the band's core identity while allowing ideas they'd fermented separately over the past decade to infuse their sound with mature and peculiar new flavour combinations". The "NME" concurred, saying Blur were "a reunited band making music to rival their very best". It was also a commercial success, becoming the sixth consecutive Blur LP since "Parklife" (1994) to top the British charts. The "Guardian" also noted that at times during its first week of release, "The Magic Whip" sold "more than the rest of the top five combined". "The Magic Whip" also became Blur's highest charting album in the United States when it peaked at number 24 on the "Billboard" 200. That December "New World Towers", a documentary on the recording process of "The Magic Whip", was released in select British theatres.


title: Blur (band)

text: Blur went on hiatus following the 2015 "Magic Whip" tour. They briefly reunited in March 2019 for a surprise performance at an Albarn-organized Africa Express event in London.


title: Blur (band)

text: On 14 November 2022, Blur announced that they will perform at Wembley Stadium on 8 July 2023 - their first headline performance since 2015. Looking forward to the event, Albarn said, "We really love playing these songs and thought it’s about time we did it again”. Coxon also stated, "I’m really looking forward to playing with my Blur brothers again and revisiting all those great songs. Blur live shows are always amazing for me: a nice guitar and an amp turned right up and loads of smiling faces”. Blur are also scheduled to perform at Malahide Castle in Dublin on 24 June 2023 and at the Beauregard Festival in Paris on 6 July.


title: Blur (band)

text: Blur's musical style has been described as Britpop, indie rock, alternative rock, art pop, art rock, and pop rock. The band's music includes influences from indie rock and lo-fi. The band's seventh studio album "Think Tank" moved into more of an electronic sound. Some of the band's influences include, David Bowie, Bobby Womack, William Onyeabor, the B-52's, the Kinks, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, the Jam and Depeche Mode.


title: Lance Reddick

text: Lance Reddick (born December 31, 1962) is an American actor and musician. He is best known for playing Cedric Daniels in "The Wire" (2002–2008), Phillip Broyles in "Fringe" (2008–2013), and Chief Irvin Irving in "Bosch" (2014–2020). In film, he is best known for starring as Charon in the "John Wick" franchise (2014–present), David Gentry in "Angel Has Fallen" (2019), and Guillermin in "Godzilla vs. Kong" (2021).


title: Lance Reddick

text: He is also known for portraying Detective Johnny Basil on "Oz" (1997–2003), Matthew Abaddon in "Lost" (2004–2010), and Albert Wesker in the Netflix series "Resident Evil" (2022). He has provided the voice and likeness for video game characters Martin Hatch in "Quantum Break", Sylens in "Horizon Zero Dawn" and "Horizon Forbidden West", and Commander Zavala in the "Destiny" franchise.


title: Lance Reddick

text: Reddick was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Dorothy Gee and Solomon Reddick. He attended Friends School of Baltimore. As a teenager, he studied music at the Peabody Preparatory Institute and a summer program teaching music theory and composition at the Walden School. Reddick studied classical music composition at University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music, earning a Bachelor of Music degree. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts in the 1980s. Reddick attended the Yale School of Drama in the early 1990s, receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1994.


title: Lance Reddick

text: Reddick was cast as Cedric Daniels in the HBO series "The Wire", after having also auditioned for the roles of Bubbles and Bunk Moreland. He joined ABC's hit series "Lost" in 2008, where he played Matthew Abaddon, an employee of Charles Widmore, in multiple episodes. He was the third of five actors from the HBO hit series "Oz" to star in the drama. "Lost" producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have said they were interested in Reddick for the part of Mr. Eko, but he was unavailable due to filming "The Wire" so they approached Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje instead.


title: Lance Reddick

text: Reddick released his debut album "Contemplations & Remembrances" in 2007 and in early 2008, he was cast in a key role for the pilot of "Fringe" in which fellow "Oz" actor Kirk Acevedo also had a regular role. Reddick played Phillip Broyles, the head of an FBI department investigating paranormal activities. Reddick described the hard-driving character as "a real hard-ass, but he's also one of the good guys." Like "Lost", "Fringe" is co-created and produced by J. J. Abrams. There was some doubt about whether Reddick could appear in both "Lost" and "Fringe" in the 20082009 television season. However, Abrams stated that though Reddick was a series regular on "Fringe", he would do episodes of "Lost" whenever required. Reddick appeared in the 2013 thriller "White House Down". He starred in the YouTube web series "DR0NE", where he was also credited as a co-producer.


title: Lance Reddick

text: In 2014, Reddick appeared as Charon in the action-thriller film "John Wick", a role he has reprised in its two sequels. In July 2021, it was confirmed that Reddick will reprise his role in "". He voiced the character Commander Zavala in the 2014 and 2017 video games "Destiny" and "Destiny 2", respectively.


title: Lance Reddick

text: Also in 2014, he started portraying the role of Chief Irvin Irving in the Amazon Prime series "Bosch". Comparing his three large roles as police commanders, Reddick stated Daniels, his character from "The Wire", was "a cop at heart". Broyles, his "Fringe" character, was "a soldier", while Irving "is the quintessential politician".


title: Lance Reddick

text: In 2016, Reddick was cast in the post-apocalyptic horror film "The Domestics". The film was released on June 28, 2018. Reddick later starred in the 2018 horror thriller film "Monster Party". He also voiced the character Sylens in the 2017 video game "Horizon Zero Dawn" and reprised his role in the sequel "Horizon Forbidden West". In 2021, Reddick appeared in the film "Godzilla vs. Kong". in 2022 Reddick portrayed Albert Wesker in the live action "Resident Evil" series from Netflix, which was cancelled after one season.


title: Office Space

text: Office Space is a 1999 American black comedy film written and directed by Mike Judge. It satirizes the worklife of a typical 1990s software company, focusing on a handful of individuals weary of their jobs. It stars Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Gary Cole, Stephen Root, David Herman, Ajay Naidu, and Diedrich Bader.


title: Office Space

text: "Office Space" was filmed in Dallas and Austin, Texas. It is based on Judge's "Milton" cartoon series and was his first foray into live-action filmmaking and his second full-length motion picture release, following "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America". The film's sympathetic depiction of ordinary information technology workers garnered a cult following within that field, but it also addresses themes familiar to white-collar employees and the workforce in general. It was a box office disappointment, making $12.2 million on a $10 million production budget; however, after repeated airings on Comedy Central, it sold well on home video, and has become a cult film.


title: Office Space

text: Several aspects of the film have become Internet memes. A scene where the three main characters systematically destroy a dysfunctional printer has been widely parodied. Swingline introduced a red stapler to its product line after the Milton character used one painted that color in the film. Judge's 2009 film "Extract" is also set in an office and was intended as a companion piece to "Office Space".


title: Office Space

text: Peter Gibbons is a frustrated and unmotivated programmer who works at Initech. Unable to stand up to his overcritical girlfriend, Anne, he is in love with local waitress Joanna but is afraid to speak to her. He is friends with co-workers Samir Nagheenanajar (who loathes that no one can ever pronounce his last name correctly) and Michael Bolton (who loathes being associated with the famous singer of the same name). Another co-worker in the office is Milton Waddams, a meek collator who is mostly ignored by the rest of the office except Peter. Also, there is Tom Smykowski, a jaded product manager who is routinely scared of being fired. The staff suffers under top-heavy, callous management, especially from Initech's vice president Bill Lumbergh, whom Peter hates and avoids confronting. Lumbergh takes obvious delight in micromanaging all his staff, particularly Milton and Peter. He makes Milton move his desk constantly, takes his beloved red stapler, and makes him do more and more work, whilst making Peter work almost every weekend.


title: Office Space

text: Anne persuades Peter to attend an occupational hypnotherapy session led by Dr. Swanson. Swanson hypnotizes Peter and tells him to feel relaxed and stop caring about his job until he snaps his fingers. However, Swanson suddenly dies of a heart attack before snapping Peter out of his relaxed state. Peter sleeps soundly through most of the next day, ignoring phone calls from Lumbergh and Anne, who angrily breaks up with him while confirming suspicions that she has been cheating on him.


title: Office Space

text: Peter begins dating Joanna, who shares his loathing of management and love of kung fu movies. She is required to wear "pieces of flair" (buttons meant to allow employees to "express themselves"). Her boss often hassles her for not wearing more than the required minimum.


title: Office Space

text: Meanwhile, a pair of business consultants, Bob Slydell and Bob Porter ("the Bobs") are brought in to help the company downsize. Peter eventually shows up to work and casually disregards office protocol, violating the dress code and messily removing a cubicle wall blocking his view out the window. Impressed by Peter's frank insights into Initech's problems, the Bobs promote him despite Lumbergh's misgivings. Michael and Samir, however, are fired. Milton is also to be terminated, but it is learned that he was laid off five years ago but neither Milton nor the accounting department was notified. To avoid confrontation, the Bobs and Lumbergh tell accounting to cease Milton's salary payments without telling him. Milton is subjected to further mistreatment, including the confiscation of his stapler and the constant moving of his desk, eventually down to the basement.


title: Office Space

text: Tired of being mistreated, Peter, Michael, and Samir decide to take revenge by infecting Initech's accounting system with a computer virus designed by Michael to divert huge numbers of fractions of pennies into a bank account (a technique that has long been known and described as salami slicing). Such transactions are small enough to avoid detection but will result in the accrual of a substantial amount of money over time. Peter successfully installs the virus and on Michael and Samir's last day, he steals a frequently malfunctioning printer, which the three proceed to destroy. At a party, Peter hears rumors from a colleague that Joanna had slept with Lumbergh. When Joanna confirms this, a heated exchange leads to them breaking up. Frustrated with her job, Joanna gives her boss the finger (in front of customers) and quits in response to another lecture about her lack of "flair".


title: Office Space

text: Peter discovers that a bug in Michael's code has caused the virus to steal over $300,000 which is very conspicuous and guarantees they will be caught. The trio tries to devise a plan to launder the money to no avail. Peter decides to accept full responsibility for the crime. He writes a confession and slips it under Lumbergh's office door after hours, along with traveler's checks for the stolen money. Peter then learns that the "Lumbergh" that Joanna slept with was Ron Lumbergh, an ex-colleague unrelated to Bill Lumbergh. He meets Joanna, who has started a new job at another restaurant. He apologizes to her, and they reconcile.


title: Office Space

text: The next morning, Peter drives to Initech expecting to be arrested but discovers that the building is on fire, which destroys all evidence of the scheme. He sees Milton at the scene, apparently having made good on repeated threats to burn down the building after being mistreated. Samir and Michael begin new jobs at Initech's rival Intertrode, while Peter's neighbor Lawrence helps him find a new job as a construction worker, an occupation which he enjoys. As Peter digs through the rubble that was once Initech's building, Peter finds the burnt remains of Milton's stapler, leading him to look to the sky and smile. Milton, having found and taken the traveler's checks while searching for his stapler in Lumbergh's office, thinking the envelope contained his missing paycheck, uses the money to vacation in Mexico, where he threatens to put strychnine in the resort's guacamole after being neglected by staff.


title: Office Space

text: "Office Space" originated in the series of three animated "Milton" short films that Judge created about an office worker by that name. They first aired on "Liquid Television" and on "Saturday Night Live". The inspiration came from a temp job which he had that involved alphabetizing purchase orders and another job as an engineer for Parallax Graphics for three months in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1980s, "just in the heart of Silicon Valley and in the middle of that overachiever yuppie thing, it was just awful".


title: Office Space

text: Peter Chernin, head of 20th Century Fox, where Judge had a deal, wanted to make a film out of the Milton character, inspired by a former coworker of Judge's in Silicon Valley who had threatened to quit if the company moved his desk again. "You don't want to know what he does at home after work", Judge replied. Instead he suggested an ensemble cast–based film; someone at the studio responded with "Car Wash" but "just set in an office".


title: Office Space

text: Milton was not the only character inspired by someone from Judge's past. During his jobs in Silicon Valley, where he barely made enough to afford his rent, he had a neighbor who was an auto mechanic. Not only did the man make more money, he had flexible work hours and seemed to Judge to be much more content with his life and work than he himself was. The neighbor inspired Lawrence, Peter's neighbor in the film.


title: Office Space

text: The setting of the film reflects a prevailing trend that Judge observed in the United States. "It seems like every city now has these identical office parks with identical adjoining chain restaurants", he said in an interview. "There were a lot of people who wanted me to set this movie in Wall Street, or like the movie "Brazil", but I wanted it very unglamorous, the kind of bleak work situation like I was in".


title: Office Space

text: Judge wrote a treatment in 1996, and the script after the first season of "King of the Hill". Fox president Tom Rothman was happy with the draft as he was looking for lighter material to balance the event movies like "Titanic" that dominated the studio's output at the time. He considered it "the most brilliant workplace satire I'd ever read". Despite that, Judge hated the ending and wished he could have completely rewritten the third act.


title: Office Space

text: David Herman was the only actor Judge had in mind for a specific part: Michael Bolton. Herman had been trying to leave his seven-year contract at "MADtv", but the show would not let him. So, at its next table reading, he managed to get himself fired by screaming all his lines. Greg Daniels said they could always find a place for him on "King of the Hill", where he had been doing some voice work; soon after he read Judge's "Office Space" script and was delighted with it.


title: Office Space

text: At the first read-through of the script, Judge was pleased with Herman's performance, and felt Stephen Root improved on his own take on Milton, but was not happy with the rest of the cast. He considered abandoning the film, but Rothman said it worked and just needed the right actors. According to Judge, while Fox at first told him to just get the best actors possible since the film's budget would not be large enough to consider bankable stars, the studio soon changed its mind. In the wake of the success of "Good Will Hunting", he was advised to get that film's stars, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Again, he almost changed his mind about the film (Rothman said in 2019 that while A-list stars are often unlikely to take roles in low-budget productions, those films should nevertheless make the effort to attract them). He had agreed to meet with Damon in New York, but then Ron Livingston's agent asked if his client could audition for the lead. Casting director Nancy Klopper was impressed, and after Judge saw the video he told the studio that he wanted Livingston in the part.


title: Office Space

text: Jennifer Aniston was cast to accommodate Fox's desire to have a recognizable star in the film, although they were concerned that her part was so small; the subplot involving her battle with her boss over her "flair" was added as a result and she was written out of the sex-dream sequence, along with dialogue indicating she actually had slept with Lumbergh. However, she had liked the script since she was not getting many other films like that at that point, and she had gone to the same high school as Herman. Kate Hudson also read for the part.


title: Office Space

text: After casting the Indian American Ajay Naidu as Samir, who had originally been written as Iranian, the character was rewritten to be Jordanian, and Naidu worked with a dialect coach to get the accent right. John C. McGinley auditioned for Lumbergh, but was ultimately cast as Slydell. Judge says that after Gary Cole read for Lumbergh, there was no doubt as to who would play him. "He made the character 10 times funnier." A casting search in Texas yielded Greg Pitts for Drew, but no one who could play the Tchotchkie's manager, so Judge took that role himself.


title: Office Space

text: Judge made the transition from animation to live-action with the help of Tim Suhrstedt, the film's director of photography, who taught him about lenses and where to put the camera. Judge says, "I had a great crew, and it's good going into it not pretending you're an expert". Principal photography began in Texas in May 1998.


title: Office Space

text: Several issues arose during filming. By the third day of shooting, temperatures had risen over , and smoke from fires in Mexico was filling the sky over Austin, making it white. Suhrstedt says that forced the postponement of the opening traffic-jam scene until it cleared.


title: Office Space

text: Studio executives who saw the dailies were not happy with the footage that Judge was getting. Judge quoted studio executies as stating, "More energy! More energy! We gotta reshoot it! You're failing! You're failing!" They also asked for Livingston to smile more. But at that point, only the early scenes had been filmed; Judge told the studio that happier scenes would come later. Livingston says he heard they believed he was on drugs and were considering firing him.


title: Office Space

text: In addition, Fox did not like the gangsta rap music used in the film. Rothman told him he had to take it out, and Judge said after production he would do so if the next focus group also disliked it. A young man in that focus group said the fact that the characters worked in an office but listened to gangsta rap was one of the things he liked about the movie, and Rothman relented.


title: Office Space

text: The scene where Peter, Michael and Samir take their office printer out into a field and batter it to pieces was inspired by Judge's experience with his own printer while writing "Beavis and Butt-head Do America". He told his cowriter Joe Stillman that he was so frustrated by it that when he was done with the script he planned to take it out into a field and destroy it while videotaping the process. Suhrstedt says the whole sequence was largely improvised, but Naidu adds that they were trying to do it in a way that evoked how the Mafia would do it to someone it wanted to punish or kill; Livingston thus played his part like the "don", circling behind Naidu and Herman while they struck the blows with bat, feet and fists. Years afterward, Naidu says, he met some actual mafiosi in New York who told him that they were huge fans of the film, and the scene was "authentic".


title: Office Space

text: McGinley says the film contains many improvised moments. "It was like jazz on that set". One example he recalled was when Paul Willson as Bob Porter cannot pronounce Samir's last name: "Naga ... Naga ... well, not gonna work here anymore anyway." Naidu, for his part, improvised the break dancing, which he did with local friends after shooting his scenes during the day.


title: Office Space

text: The improvisation also helped solve some problems with the script. Originally Bolton was to refer to the singer he shared his name with as a "no-singing asshole". However, Herman recalled, it was decided that the film could not say that since it would imply he did not sing his own songs, so he came up with "no-talent ass-clown".


title: Office Space

text: Judge was very exacting in his demands for how the Initech set looked; he said regularly that it had to seem "oppressive". The production went as far as screen-testing different types of gray cubicles; Judge also wanted the cubicles to be tall so that Lumbergh would have to lean in to be seen from Peter's desk. Considerable effort was also expended to making sure the TPS reports looked realistic.


title: Office Space

text: The glasses Root wore to play Milton had lenses so thick that he had to wear contact lenses to see through them. Even so, he still had no depth perception; he had to practice reaching for the stapler and was as a result grateful it had been painted red. Swingline provided the stapler after the filmmakers could not get permission to use either the Boston or Bostitch brands from their manufacturer.


title: Office Space

text: Judge hated the onesheet poster that the studio created for "Office Space", which depicted an office worker completely covered in Post-it notes. He said, "People were like, 'What is this? A big bird? A mummy? A beekeeper?' And the tagline 'Work Sucks'? It looked like an Office Depot ad. I just hated it. I hated the trailers, too and the TV ads especially". McGinley, too, felt it looked like Big Bird from the children's series "Sesame Street", and that he would not go to see such a film. For the home release Judge was upset that the same image was used, albeit with Milton peeking over the man from behind.


title: Office Space

text: The studio also had a man live in a Plexiglas cube above Times Square for five days, who was broadcast live on the Internet as he answered calls and emails from people dissatisfied with their jobs. Livingston, when he visited the cube for press events, found that most reporters preferred to talk to the man in the cube and not him. He was not surprised, as tracking for the movie was not good and "there was a foregone conclusion that it wasn't going to open well." Producer Michael Rotenberg elaborated that "[i]t took a few research screenings to realize that audiences often have issues with satire."


title: Office Space

text: Another problem that Rothman later conceded was that they could not put Aniston on the poster due to her small role. Later he admitted that the marketing campaign did not work and said, ""Office Space" isn't like "American Pie". It doesn't have the kind of jokes you put in a 15-second television spot of somebody getting hit on the head with a frying pan. It's sly. And let me tell you, sly is hard to sell".


title: Office Space

text: "Office Space" was released on February 19, 1999, at the end of the release calendar's "dump months", in 1,740 theatres, grossing $4.2 million on its opening weekend. That was eighth overall and second for new releases after "October Sky". Herman said he was elated after seeing the film in Los Angeles and hearing it had made $7 million, until friends more familiar with the movie business told him that was considered a poor performance.


title: Office Space

text: Suhrstedt saw it later in Burbank, and the theater was almost full. He assured Judge that word of mouth would slowly increase the audience. However, in early March, Fox pulled it from three-quarters of the screens it had been on after it barely made a million dollars that weekend. The movie's grosses continued to decline precipitously, and after the end of March, when it pulled in less than $40,000 from 75 screens, it was pulled from release altogether. According to Judge, a studio executive blamed the movie exclusively for the failure, telling him "Nobody wants to see your little movie about ordinary people and their boring little lives".


title: Office Space

text: It went on to make $10.8 million in North America. The international release brought an additional $2 million. On home release, $8 million in DVD, Blu-ray Disc and VHS sales were sold at release as of April 2006.


title: Office Space

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 80% based on 102 reviews and an average rating of 6.84/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Mike Judge lampoons the office grind with its inspired mix of sharp dialogue and witty one-liners." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 based on reviews from 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore during opening weekend gave the film an average grade of "C+" on a scale ranging from A+ to F.


title: Office Space

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three out of four stars and wrote that Judge: "Treats his characters a little like cartoon creatures. That works. Nuances of behavior are not necessary, because in the cubicle world every personality trait is magnified, and the captives stagger forth like grotesques." In his review for the "San Francisco Chronicle", Mick LaSalle writes, "Livingston is nicely cast as Peter, a young guy whose imagination and capacity for happiness are the very things making him miserable." In "USA Today", Susan Wloszczyna wrote, "If you've ever had a job, you'll be amused by this paean to peons."


title: Office Space

text: Owen Gleiberman in "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a "C" rating and criticized it for feeling "cramped and underimagined". In his review for "The Globe and Mail", Rick Groen wrote: "Perhaps his TV background makes him unaccustomed to the demands of a feature-length script (the ending seems almost panicky in its abruptness), or maybe he just succumbs to the lure of the easy yuk...what began as discomfiting satire soon devolves into silly farce." In his review in "The New York Times", Stephen Holden wrote, "It has the loose-jointed feel of a bunch of sketches packed together into a narrative that doesn't gather much momentum."


title: Office Space

text: In 2008, "Entertainment Weekly" named "Office Space" one of "The 100 best films from 1983 to 2008", ranking it at #73.


title: Office Space

text: Disappointed in the film's $12 million domestic gross, Judge decided to move on and began work on what eventually became "Extract", a similarly themed followup to "Office Space". Fox suggested that next time, he pay more heed to the studio's casting suggestions. However, he soon learned that the film had not gone unnoticed within the industry. "Jim Carrey invited me to his house. Chris Rock left me the best voicemail ever. I had dinner with Madonna", who found the Michael Bolton character's anger "sexy", Judge said.


title: Office Space

text: Four years later, Judge was working on the "Idiocracy" screenplay with Etan Cohen. During a break, the two went to an Austin Starbucks, and the baristas were doing impressions of Lumbergh. Cohen asked Judge if they were only doing it because he was present, whereupon the barista turned around and asked the two if they had ever seen the movie.


title: Office Space

text: Other cast members found the film had reached people when strangers began associating them with their characters. Cole said that a year after release, on the service jobs he works when not acting, people began shouting dialogue from the movie at him. Aniston says that even today, when she is eating "at a certain type of restaurant", people will ask if she likes their flair.


title: Office Space

text: Comedy Central premiered "Office Space" on August 5, 2001; that airing drew 1.4 million viewers. By 2003, the channel had broadcast the film another 35 times. These broadcasts helped develop the film's cult following; Livingston credits the regular airings the film received on the Comedy Central cable channel for making "Office Space" a cult favorite: "It felt like it kind of went viral before that concept even existed."


title: Office Space

text: Since then, Livingston has been approached by college students and office workers. He said, "I get a lot of people who say, 'I quit my job because of you.' That's kind of a heavy load to carry." Livingston says that people tell him watching "Office Space" made them feel better, which he still appreciates.


title: Office Space

text: "Office Space" has become a cult classic, selling well on home video and DVD. , it had sold 2.6 million copies on VHS and DVD. In the same year, it was in the top 20 best-selling Fox DVDs. , it had sold over six million DVDs in the United States alone.


title: Office Space

text: Four years after the film's release, Judge recalled that one of his assistant directors on the film told him they had gone out to eat at a TGI Fridays and noticed that the waitstaff were no longer wearing buttons on their uniforms, the "flair" Joanna quits her job over in the film. Asked why, the manager told him that after "Office Space" had come out, customers started making jokes about it, so the chain dropped the requirement from its dress code. "So, maybe I made the world a better place" he told "Deadline Hollywood" in 2014.


title: Office Space

text: In 2008, "Entertainment Weekly" ranked it fifth on its list "25 Great Comedies From the Past 25 Years", despite having originally given the film a poor review. In February 2009, a reunion of many of the cast members took place at the Paramount Theatre in Austin to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the film. Rothman said in 2019 that despite his connection to several films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture, he hopes "Office Space" will be mentioned before them in his obituary.


title: Office Space

text: ""[Office Space]" spoke to a generation in a way that few movies have," said John Altschuler, who produced "Extract", Judge's later companion piece. "Nobody does this kind of material. It's all about the weirdness of real people in real life."


title: Office Space

text: In a 2017 profile of Judge, "New York Times Magazine" writer Willy Staley observed that the film has been compared to Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener", in which a lawyer's clerk, like Peter, shows up at the office one day but declines all work, telling his boss "I would prefer not to". Staley's own high school English teacher, he recalled, brought up "Office Space" in class to get students to appreciate how tedious Franz Kafka's work at an insurance company was. "It's such a brutal portrayal of workplace misery that its most useful points of comparison date back to when office culture was first unleashed on humanity."


title: Office Space

text: Several elements of the film have become memes reused in other contexts. "TPS report" has come to connote pointless, mindless paperwork, and an example of "literacy practices" in the work environment that are "meaningless exercises imposed upon employees by an inept and uncaring management" and "relentlessly mundane and enervating". According to Judge, the abbreviation stood for "Test Program Set" in the movie. The PC LOAD LETTER error message has likewise become a stand-in for any confusing, vague message from a computer. The printer scene has been widely parodied, including by one U.S. presidential campaign, and the popularity of Milton's red stapler led the manufacturer to make a real one for sale.


title: Office Space

text: The film is credited with coining the now-popular slang term "ass clown", from one of the characters using it to refer to singer Michael Bolton. In 2015 the comedy website Funny or Die put together several videos in which it spliced in the actual Michael Bolton over Herman in scenes from the film. Most of them were ones that referenced the confusion coming from the character and the singer having the same name. Bolton performed the scenes exactly as Herman had, with one exception: in his conversation with Samir, he turned to the camera and substituted the words "extremely talented" for "no-talent" before "ass-clown".


title: Office Space

text: Before the 2009 Austin reunion screening a printer was destroyed outside the theater, in reference to the scene in the film where Peter, Michael and Samir destroy the dysfunctional printer on the latter two's final day at Initech That scene has frequently been parodied; often by amateurs, using a similar electronic device, in an open space somewhere, emulating the original's character blocking, camera angles and moves, sound effects and use of slow motion, all set to Geto Boys' "Still".


title: Office Space

text: The Fox animated series "Family Guy" did its own parody of the scene in 2008, during the show's seventh season. In "I Dream of Jesus", the season's second episode, Brian and Stewie Griffin, tired of Peter constantly playing The Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird", steal his 45 rpm single of the song and demolish it in a similar scene. For television a clean version of "Still" had to be used.


title: Office Space

text: During the campaign for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election, Texas senator Ted Cruz ran a political advertisement parodying the scene, showing an impersonator of likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and two assistants destroying her personal email server with a baseball bat in an open field.


title: Office Space

text: Stephen Root says he realized the movie's impact when people started asking him to sign their staplers. The red Swingline stapler featured prominently in the film was not available until April 2002 when the company released it in response to repeated requests by fans of the film. Its appearance in the film was achieved by taking a standard Swingline stapler and spray-painting it red. Root says when he shows up on sets today, the crew has usually ordered several boxes of red Swingline staplers and left them waiting for him.


title: Office Space

text: Kongregate released a mobile game based on the film, titled "Office Space: Idle Profits", on iOS and Android in 2017. It was a free-to-play idle clicker that offers in-app purchases. In 2022 it was shut down.


title: Office Space

text: Shortly after the release of "Office Space", Judge, despite his disappointment at the movie's lackluster box office, began writing the script for "Extract", which he describes as a companion piece. The studio later asked him to put it aside to work on "Idiocracy", which it believed would be more commercial. After that film, like "Office Space", failed at the box office but became a cult favorite, Judge returned to "Extract" and it was released in 2009. It similarly makes light of workplace dysfunction, but from the perspective of a manager rather than a worker.


title: Office Space

text: "There's been talk of doing more with "Office Space", as a show or sequel, but it's never seemed right," Judge said ahead of the film's 20th anniversary. As for the former possibility, he recalled that because of the film, NBC offered him the chance to shape the American version of the British sitcom "The Office", which similarly bases its humor in depictions of the absurdity of white-collar work and its effect on those who do it. Among the material the network sent, however, were some reviews, one of which said the series "succeeds where movies like "Office Space" failed." Judge passed on the offer.


title: Shershaah

text: Shershaah () is a 2021 Indian Hindi-language biographical war film based on the life of Vikram Batra, martyred in Kargil War, directed by Vishnuvardhan in his Hindi film debut and written by Sandeep Shrivastava. The film was produced by Dharma Productions and Kaash Entertainment, with Hiroo Yash Johar, Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta, Shabbir Boxwala, Ajay Shah and Himanshu Gandhi serving as producers. Sidharth Malhotra stars in dual roles as Batra and his twin brother Vishal, with Kiara Advani as his girlfriend Dimple Cheema.


title: Shershaah

text: Announced in May 2019, principal photography began in the same month and concluded in January 2020. Initially slated to be released on 3 July 2020, the film was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film then premiered on 12 August 2021 on Amazon Prime Video.


title: Shershaah

text: "Shershaah" received positive reviews from both the critics and audience, alike. The performances (especially Malhotra's and Advani's), direction, music, cinematography, action sequences, editing, and visual effects received high critical acclaim. However, the writing received some criticism. On 31 August 2021, Amazon stated that "Shershaah" had become the most watched Indian film on the platform in India.


title: Shershaah

text: "Shershaah" led the 67th Filmfare Awards with 19 nominations, including Best Actor (Malhotra) and Best Actress (Advani), and won 7 awards including Best Film, Best Director (Vishnuvardhan), Best Music Director (Tanishk Bagchi, B Praak, Jasleen Royal, Javed-Mohsin and Vikram Montrose), Best Male Playback Singer (Praak for "Mann Bharrya") and Best Female Playback Singer (Asees Kaur for "Raatan Lambiyaan").


title: Shershaah

text: The young Vikram is playing cricket when he gets into a fight with elder teenage kids over a ball, revealing the fearless nature he later became known for. Vikram, watching the TV series "Param Vir Chakra" used to talk about his wish to join the Indian Army. His desire to join the army increases intensely as he grows up.


title: Shershaah

text: In his college days, Vikram, studying English as his major subject, wanted to join the Indian Navy or the Indian Army. He was selected for the Merchant Navy which made his girlfriend Dimple happy yet confused about his career. Vikram and Dimple wanted to get married, however, Dimple's father refuses to accept Vikram because they belong to different castes. Meanwhile, Vikram realised that he was not meant for the Merchant Navy but for the Army. He cracks CDS (Combined Defence Services) after completing his master's degree and joins the Indian Army. Vikram was commissioned as a Lieutenant of Jammu and Kashmir Rifles and posted in Sopore of Jammu and Kashmir. He develops cordial relations with both his men and locals and takes part in counter-insurgency operations. On one such operation, he defies his CO Lt. Sanjeev "Jimmy" Jamwal but neutralises the perpetrators and saves Jimmy's life. Jimmy reprimands his approach but gets close to him later.


title: Shershaah

text: The Delta Company, of which Vikram is also a part as lieutenant, catches an insurgent group's henchman. In retaliation, the leader Haider ambushes Delta Company by luring them with intel of a weapons cache. Vikram's friend Naib Subedar Bansi Lal is among those killed. Traumatised and vengeful, he tracks down Haider and obtains authorisation from the unit's CO, Lt. Col. Y. K. Joshi for an operation. Delta Company led by Vikram raids Haider's house, killing him. Subsequently, he prepares to go on leave as unbeknownst to him the Kargil War nears.


title: Shershaah

text: In May 1999 at Rawalpindi, Pakistan, the Pakistani Army chief began an offensive move to capture Kashmir and sends troops to capture Kargil. As news about a potential war gains traction, Vikram decides to cut short his vacation and return. He makes promise to his friend Sunny ""I'll either come back after raising the Indian flag in victory or return wrapped in it. But I'll come for sure.""


title: Shershaah

text: The unit is moved to the Ghumri Army Base, as a reserve force, along with other regiments to acclimatise and prepare. The base comes under artillery fire that results in multiple casualties, including Vikram's senior, Major Ajay Singh Jasrotia. Three weeks into the war, 13 JAK RIF is moved to active-duty to relieve 2nd Rajputana Rifles (2 RAJ RIF) and tasked with recapturing Point 5140 at 17,000 feet. Vikram adopts the codename "Shershaah" and victory signal "Yeh Dil Maange More", for radio communication. Jimmy and Vikram lead their companies and recapture Point 5140 without casualties, garnering praise in the army and public. During the war, Vikram gets promoted to the rank of Captain.


title: Shershaah

text: Following their impressive victory, the Army Command tasks 13 JAK RIF with capturing Point 4875 which overlooks National Highway 1 and would figuratively end the war. They begin the assault on Point 4875 the next day, but take heavy casualties due to rough terrain and multiple enemy bunkers. Eventually, they destroy the four bunkers they are aware of. Unaware of a fifth camouflaged bunker, they take heavy fire. Vikram tasks Rifleman Yash Paul to use a Pakistani RPG-7 at the bunker. A sniper however hits him before he can fire. Vikram runs across open ground to rescue him and does so successfully but is hit multiple times by both sniper and AK-47 rounds. As he collapses, he watches Subedar Raghunath Singh take command and charge at the final bunker. He dies from his injuries watching the Indian Army raise the national flag. He is posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra for his actions on Point 4875.


title: Shershaah

text: The ending shows his funeral in Palampur Kangra and a distraught Dimple. The real Vikram is also shown in the credits.


title: Shershaah

text: Karan Johar confirmed in 2018 that he would be producing a biopic on the life of Captain Vikram Batra. The Batra family wanted Sidharth Malhotra to play Batra. He was eventually selected to portray the double role of Batra and his identical twin brother Vishal. Several actresses were in discussions to play Batra's fiancée, Dimple Cheema before Kiara Advani was cast. Malhotra started military training for the film in April 2019. Before the official announcement of the film, it was speculated that the title will be "Mera Dil Maange More" but later was changed to "Shershaah".


title: Shershaah

text: The film was officially announced on 2 May 2019, with the title confirmed and shooting locations to be Chandigarh, Palampur, Kangra , Kargil, Ladakh and Kashmir Valley. Principal photography commenced on 7 May 2019 and the film wrapped on 12 January 2020. Patchwork shots were completed by 23 October 2020.


title: Shershaah

text: The songs featured in the film were composed by Tanishk Bagchi, B Praak, Jasleen Royal, Javed-Mohsin and Vikram Montrose with lyrics written by Manoj Muntashir, Rashmi Virag, Anvita Dutt, Jaani and Bagchi. John Stewart Eduri composed the film score. The music album which was released by Sony Music India on 16 August 2021, was considered as the biggest soundtracks of 2021 and had crossed 1 billion streams in all music platforms, becoming the fastest Indian album to do so. The soundtrack remains the only work that does not feature the collaboration between Vishnuvardhan and Yuvan Shankar Raja, who had been his norm composer in all his previous films.


title: Shershaah

text: "Raataan Lambiyan" and "Ranjha" peaked at the Billboard Hot 100 and additionally topped the Billboard Global 200. Songs topped the national and global charts, in all music and video platforms. The song "Mann Bharrya 2.0" was recreation of B Praak's single "Mann Bharrya" released in April 2017. It was recreated by the same team of original song with singer B Praak and composer-songwriter Jaani.


title: Shershaah

text: The film was scheduled to release theatrically on 3 July 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 20 February 2021, the new release date was announced as 2 July 2021, before being postponed again. The film premiered on 12 August 2021 on Amazon Prime Video. On 31 August 2021, Amazon stated that "Shershaah" had become the most watched Indian film on the platform. The film was streamed by audiences in over 4,100 Indian cities and towns, and in 210 countries and territories.


title: Shershaah

text: Upon release, "Shershaah" received positive reviews from the film critics, who praised Malhotra's performance and the action sequences but some criticised the writing of the film. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 54% based on 13 reviews and an average rating of 5.2/10.


title: Shershaah

text: Taran Adarsh of "Bollywood Hungama" gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5 calling "Shershaah" "power-packed" and wrote, ""Shershaah" salutes the valor, courage and bravery of Kargil war hero Captain Vikram Batra, Inspirational and emotional. A game changer for Sidharth Malhotra. Commanding act. Unmissable!. Director VishnuVardhan narrates the story of Shershaah with utmost competency. Screenwriting is absorbing for most parts. The war sequences are executed with flourish. The finale is sure to leave you moist-eyed".


title: Shershaah

text: Anna M. M. Vetticad of "Firstpost" gave the film 2.75 stars out 5 opining "Captain Vikram Batra biopic is gripping as an Army procedural", noting it as Malhotra's best performance since "Kapoor and Sons", and that "VishnuVardhan could not have found a more suitable mainstream star to join him in memorialising one of India’s favorite war heroes." Saibal Chatterjee of "NDTV" gave the film 2.5 stars by saying Malhotra "has what it takes to portray Batra with efficiency." He concluded "The cinematic firepower and flint take Shershaah much higher - and further - as a war drama".


title: Shershaah

text: Anupama Chopra of "Film Companion" wrote, "The film's clunky structure doesn’t allow it to accrue tension or exert a grip, but it comes to life in the second hour once the battle begins". Shubhra Gupta of "The Indian Express" gave the film 2 stars out of 5 saying that "the Sidharth Malhotra film has neither the necessary drama inherent in a cracking war film, nor does it raise patriotic goosebumps". Writing for "Hindustan Times", Rohan Nahaar praised the screenplay but criticised the direction stating that the "smartly choreographed action, a reverent tone, and Sidharth Malhotra's sincere performance can't make up for Vishnuvardhan's uneven direction".


title: Shershaah

text: The talk Vishal Batra gives in the beginning of the film resembles the TEDx talk he gave in 2017 (evident from the same title and similar clothes.)


title: Shershaah

text: The film depicts Vikram Batra and Dimple Cheema getting married, while she is unaware. In an interview with The Quint in 2016, Cheema revealed that, "while doing the "parikrama" of the "Nishan Sahib", he was walking behind me. On completing the "parikrama", he said 'Congratulations, Mrs. Batra'. I swirled around to see him holding one end of my "dupatta"." In Sikhism, completion of four rounds around the "Nishan Sahib" is considered a marriage ritual. The depiction of Batra filling Cheema's hair parting with his blood (a Hindu marriage ritual) was also confirmed by her in the same interview.


title: Shershaah

text: The film shows Batra telling his friend, "I'll either come back after raising the Indian flag in victory or return wrapped in it. But I'll come for sure." Although, his twin, Vishal Batra confirmed Batra saying the words to "a friend", it has been disputed as to who he actually said those words to.


title: Shershaah

text: The movie portrays a Pakistani troop threatening Batra over the radio. Batra himself narrated this himself in his famous interview with Barkha Dutt recalling, "Oh "Shershaah", you've come. Don't try to come up, otherwise you'll have a tough time... and that was the time they gave us a challenge and my guys they... they went wild." The film also shows Pakistani troops asking the Indians to give them Madhuri Dixit. This has been previously confirmed by others who served in the unit.


title: Shershaah

text: In the aftermath of capture of 5140, Batra is shown to use a journalist's satellite phone to call Cheema. In reality, he had borrowed a satellite phone but had called his father instead. His incomplete message, "Daddy, I've captured", was initially misinterpreted as a message of his capture.


title: Shershaah

text: While climbing 4875, Batra is shown to charge at a bunker and kill three enemy troops alone in hand-to-hand combat. However, in reality, he had killed five enemy troops and sustained multiple injuries while doing so.


title: Shershaah

text: Unlike the film, Batra died instantly after being hit by the sniper and did not live to see his men capture the point.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid (Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular formula . It is a colorless, odorless and viscous liquid that is miscible with water.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Pure sulfuric acid does not exist naturally on Earth due to its strong affinity to water vapor; it is hygroscopic and readily absorbs water vapor from the air. Concentrated sulfuric acid is highly corrosive towards other materials, from rocks to metals, since it is an oxidant with powerful dehydrating properties. Phosphorus pentoxide is a notable exception in that it is not dehydrated by sulfuric acid, but to the contrary dehydrates sulfuric acid to sulfur trioxide. Upon addition of sulfuric acid to water, a considerable amount of heat is released; thus the reverse procedure of adding water to the acid should not be performed since the heat released may boil the solution, spraying droplets of hot acid during the process. Upon contact with body tissue, sulfuric acid can cause severe acidic chemical burns and even secondary thermal burns due to dehydration. Dilute sulfuric acid is substantially less hazardous without the oxidative and dehydrating properties; however, it should still be handled with care for its acidity.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Sulfuric acid is a very important commodity chemical, and a nation's sulfuric acid production is a good indicator of its industrial strength. It is widely produced with different methods, such as contact process, wet sulfuric acid process, lead chamber process and some other methods. Sulfuric acid is also a key substance in the chemical industry. It is most commonly used in fertilizer manufacture, but is also important in mineral processing, oil refining, wastewater processing, and chemical synthesis. It has a wide range of end applications including in domestic acidic drain cleaners, as an electrolyte in lead-acid batteries, in dehydrating a compound, and in various cleaning agents.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Although nearly 100% sulfuric acid solutions can be made, the subsequent loss of at the boiling point brings the concentration to 98.3% acid. The 98.3% grade is more stable in storage, and is the usual form of what is described as "concentrated sulfuric acid". Other concentrations are used for different purposes. Some common concentrations are:


title: Sulfuric acid

text: "Chamber acid" and "tower acid" were the two concentrations of sulfuric acid produced by the lead chamber process, chamber acid being the acid produced in the lead chamber itself (<70% to avoid contamination with nitrosylsulfuric acid) and tower acid being the acid recovered from the bottom of the Glover tower. They are now obsolete as commercial concentrations of sulfuric acid, although they may be prepared in the laboratory from concentrated sulfuric acid if needed. In particular, "10 M" sulfuric acid (the modern equivalent of chamber acid, used in many titrations), is prepared by slowly adding 98% sulfuric acid to an equal volume of water, with good stirring: the temperature of the mixture can rise to 80 °C (176 °F) or higher.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Pure sulfuric acid contains not only molecules, but is actually an equilibrium of many other chemical species, as it is shown in the table below.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Pure sulfuric acid is a colorless oily liquid, and has a vapor pressure of <0.001 mmHg at 25 °C and 1 mmHg at 145.8 °C, and 98% sulfuric acid has a <1 mmHg vapor pressure at 40 °C.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: In the solid state, sulfuric acid is a molecular solid that forms monoclinic crystals with nearly trigonal lattice parameters. The structure consists of layers parallel to the (010) plane, in which each molecule is connected by hydrogen bonds to two others. Hydrates are known for "n" = 1, 2, 3, 4, 6.5, and 8, although most intermediate hydrates are stable against disproportionation.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Anhydrous is a very polar liquid, having a dielectric constant of around 100. It has a high electrical conductivity, caused by dissociation through protonating itself, a process known as autoprotolysis.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: In spite of the viscosity of the acid, the effective conductivities of the and ions are high due to an intramolecular proton-switch mechanism (analogous to the Grotthuss mechanism in water), making sulfuric acid a good conductor of electricity. It is also an excellent solvent for many reactions.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Because the hydration reaction of sulfuric acid is highly exothermic, dilution should be performed by adding the acid to the water rather than the water to the acid, to avoid acid splashing. Because the reaction favors the rapid protonation of water, addition of acid to the water ensures that the "acid" is the limiting reagent. This reaction may be thought of as the formation of hydronium ions:


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Concentrated sulfuric acid has a powerful dehydrating property, removing water () from other chemical compounds such as table sugar (sucrose) and other carbohydrates, to produce carbon, steam, and heat. Dehydration of table sugar (sucrose) is a common laboratory demonstration. The sugar darkens as carbon is formed, and a rigid column of black, porous carbon called a carbon snake may emerge as shown in the figure.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Similarly, mixing starch into concentrated sulfuric acid gives elemental carbon and water that is absorbed by the sulfuric acid, slightly diluting it. The effect of this can be seen when concentrated sulfuric acid is spilled on paper, which is composed of cellulose; the cellulose reacts to give a burnt appearance in which the carbon appears much like soot that results from fire.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: The reaction with copper(II) sulfate can also demonstrate the dehydration property of sulfuric acid. The blue crystals change into white powder as water is removed:


title: Sulfuric acid

text: As an acid, sulfuric acid reacts with most bases to give the corresponding sulfate. For example, the blue copper salt copper(II) sulfate, commonly used for electroplating and as a fungicide, is prepared by the reaction of copper(II) oxide with sulfuric acid:


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Sulfuric acid can also be used to displace weaker acids from their salts. Reaction with sodium acetate, for example, displaces acetic acid, , and forms sodium bisulfate:


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Similarly, reacting sulfuric acid with potassium nitrate can be used to produce nitric acid and a precipitate of potassium bisulfate. When combined with nitric acid, sulfuric acid acts both as an acid and a dehydrating agent, forming the nitronium ion , which is important in nitration reactions involving electrophilic aromatic substitution. This type of reaction, where protonation occurs on an oxygen atom, is important in many organic chemistry reactions, such as Fischer esterification and dehydration of alcohols.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: When allowed to react with superacids, sulfuric acid can act as a base and can be protonated, forming the ion. Salts of have been prepared using the following reaction in liquid HF:


title: Sulfuric acid

text: The above reaction is thermodynamically favored due to the high bond enthalpy of the Si–F bond in the side product. Protonation using simply fluoroantimonic acid, however, has met with failure, as pure sulfuric acid undergoes self-ionization to give ions:


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Even dilute sulfuric acid reacts with many metals via a single displacement reaction, like other typical acids, producing hydrogen gas and salts (the metal sulfate). It attacks reactive metals (metals at positions above copper in the reactivity series) such as iron, aluminium, zinc, manganese, magnesium, and nickel.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Benzene undergoes electrophilic aromatic substitution with sulfuric acid to give the corresponding sulfonic acids:


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Pure sulfuric acid is not encountered naturally on Earth in anhydrous form, due to its great affinity for water. Dilute sulfuric acid is a constituent of acid rain, which is formed by atmospheric oxidation of sulfur dioxide in the presence of water – i.e. oxidation of sulfurous acid. When sulfur-containing fuels such as coal or oil are burned, sulfur dioxide is the main byproduct (besides the chief products carbon oxides and water).


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Sulfuric acid is formed naturally by the oxidation of sulfide minerals, such as iron sulfide. The resulting water can be highly acidic and is called acid mine drainage (AMD) or acid rock drainage (ARD). This acidic water is capable of dissolving metals present in sulfide ores, which results in brightly colored, toxic solutions. The oxidation of pyrite (iron sulfide) by molecular oxygen produces iron(II), or :


title: Sulfuric acid

text: When iron(III) oxidation of pyrite occurs, the process can become rapid. pH values below zero have been measured in ARD produced by this process.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: ARD can also produce sulfuric acid at a slower rate, so that the acid neutralizing capacity (ANC) of the aquifer can neutralize the produced acid. In such cases, the total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration of the water can be increased from the dissolution of minerals from the acid-neutralization reaction with the minerals.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Sulfuric acid is used as a defense by certain marine species, for example, the phaeophyte alga "Desmarestia munda" (order Desmarestiales) concentrates sulfuric acid in cell vacuoles.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: In the stratosphere, the atmosphere's second layer that is generally between 10 and 50 km above Earth's surface, sulfuric acid is formed by the oxidation of volcanic sulfur dioxide by the hydroxyl radical:


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Because sulfuric acid reaches supersaturation in the stratosphere, it can nucleate aerosol particles and provide a surface for aerosol growth via condensation and coagulation with other water-sulfuric acid aerosols. This results in the stratospheric aerosol layer.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: The permanent Venusian clouds produce a concentrated acid rain, as the clouds in the atmosphere of Earth produce water rain. Jupiter's moon Europa is also thought to have an atmosphere containing sulfuric acid hydrates.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Sulfuric acid is produced from sulfur, oxygen and water via the conventional contact process (DCDA) or the wet sulfuric acid process (WSA).


title: Sulfuric acid

text: The sulfur dioxide is oxidized to sulfur trioxide by oxygen in the presence of a vanadium(V) oxide catalyst. This reaction is reversible and the formation of the sulfur trioxide is exothermic.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: The sulfur trioxide is absorbed into 97–98% to form oleum (), also known as fuming sulfuric acid or pyrosulphuric acid. The oleum is then diluted with water to form concentrated sulfuric acid.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Directly dissolving in water, called the "wet sulfuric acid process", is rarely practiced because the reaction is extremely exothermic, resulting in a hot aerosol of sulfuric acid that requires condensation and separation.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: A method that is the less well-known is the metabisulfite method, in which metabisulfite is placed at the bottom of a beaker and 12.6 molar concentration hydrochloric acid is added. The resulting gas is bubbled through nitric acid, which will release brown/red vapors of nitrogen dioxide as the reaction proceeds. The completion of the reaction is indicated by the ceasing of the fumes. This method does not produce an inseparable mist, which is quite convenient.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Burning sulfur together with saltpeter (potassium nitrate, ), in the presence of steam, has been used historically. As saltpeter decomposes, it oxidizes the sulfur to , which combines with water to produce sulfuric acid.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Alternatively, dissolving sulfur dioxide in an aqueous solution of an oxidizing metal salt such as copper(II) or iron(III) chloride:


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Two less well-known laboratory methods of producing sulfuric acid, albeit in dilute form and requiring some extra effort in purification. A solution of copper(II) sulfate can be electrolyzed with a copper cathode and platinum/graphite anode to give spongy copper at cathode and evolution of oxygen gas at the anode, the solution of dilute sulfuric acid indicates completion of the reaction when it turns from blue to clear (production of hydrogen at cathode is another sign):


title: Sulfuric acid

text: More costly, dangerous, and troublesome yet novel is the electrobromine method, which employs a mixture of sulfur, water, and hydrobromic acid as the electrolytic solution. The sulfur is pushed to bottom of container under the acid solution. Then the copper cathode and platinum/graphite anode are used with the cathode near the surface and the anode is positioned at the bottom of the electrolyte to apply the current. This may take longer and emits toxic bromine/sulfur bromide vapors, but the reactant acid is recyclable. Overall, only the sulfur and water are converted to sulfuric acid and hydrogen (omitting losses of acid as vapors):


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Prior to 1900, most sulfuric acid was manufactured by the lead chamber process. As late as 1940, up to 50% of sulfuric acid manufactured in the United States was produced by chamber process plants.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: In the early to mid 19th century "vitriol" plants existed, among other places, in Prestonpans in Scotland, Shropshire and the Lagan Valley in County Antrim Ireland, where it was used as a bleach for linen. Early bleaching of linen was done using lactic acid from sour milk but this was a slow process and the use of vitriol sped up the bleaching process.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Sulfuric acid is a very important commodity chemical, and indeed, a nation's sulfuric acid production is a good indicator of its industrial strength. World production in the year 2004 was about 180 million tonnes, with the following geographic distribution: Asia 35%, North America (including Mexico) 24%, Africa 11%, Western Europe 10%, Eastern Europe and Russia 10%, Australia and Oceania 7%, South America 7%. Most of this amount (≈60%) is consumed for fertilizers, particularly superphosphates, ammonium phosphate and ammonium sulfates. About 20% is used in chemical industry for production of detergents, synthetic resins, dyestuffs, pharmaceuticals, petroleum catalysts, insecticides and antifreeze, as well as in various processes such as oil well acidicizing, aluminium reduction, paper sizing, and water treatment. About 6% of uses are related to pigments and include paints, enamels, printing inks, coated fabrics and paper, while the rest is dispersed into a multitude of applications such as production of explosives, cellophane, acetate and viscose textiles, lubricants, non-ferrous metals, and batteries.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: The major use for sulfuric acid is in the "wet method" for the production of phosphoric acid, used for manufacture of phosphate fertilizers. In this method, phosphate rock is used, and more than 100 million tonnes are processed annually. This raw material is shown below as fluorapatite, though the exact composition may vary. This is treated with 93% sulfuric acid to produce calcium sulfate, hydrogen fluoride (HF) and phosphoric acid. The HF is removed as hydrofluoric acid. The overall process can be represented as:


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Ammonium sulfate, an important nitrogen fertilizer, is most commonly produced as a byproduct from coking plants supplying the iron and steel making plants. Reacting the ammonia produced in the thermal decomposition of coal with waste sulfuric acid allows the ammonia to be crystallized out as a salt (often brown because of iron contamination) and sold into the agro-chemicals industry.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Another important use for sulfuric acid is for the manufacture of aluminium sulfate, also known as paper maker's alum. This can react with small amounts of soap on paper pulp fibers to give gelatinous aluminium carboxylates, which help to coagulate the pulp fibers into a hard paper surface. It is also used for making aluminium hydroxide, which is used at water treatment plants to filter out impurities, as well as to improve the taste of the water. Aluminium sulfate is made by reacting bauxite with sulfuric acid:


title: Sulfuric acid

text: The sulfur–iodine cycle is a series of thermo-chemical processes possibly usable to produce hydrogen from water. It consists of three chemical reactions whose net reactant is water and whose net products are hydrogen and oxygen.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: The compounds of sulfur and iodine are recovered and reused, hence the consideration of the process as a cycle. This process is endothermic and must occur at high temperatures, so energy in the form of heat has to be supplied.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: The sulfur–iodine cycle has been proposed as a way to supply hydrogen for a hydrogen-based economy. It is an alternative to electrolysis, and does not require hydrocarbons like current methods of steam reforming. But note that all of the available energy in the hydrogen so produced is supplied by the heat used to make it.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: The sulfur–iodine cycle is currently being researched as a feasible method of obtaining hydrogen, but the concentrated, corrosive acid at high temperatures poses currently insurmountable safety hazards if the process were built on a large scale.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: The hybrid sulfur cycle (HyS) is a two-step water splitting process intended to be used for hydrogen production. Based on sulfur oxidation and reduction, it is classified as a hybrid thermochemical cycle because it uses an electrochemical (instead of a thermochemical) reaction for one of the two steps. The remaining thermochemical step is shared with the sulfur-iodine cycle.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Sulfuric acid is used in large quantities by the iron and steelmaking industry to remove oxidation, rust, and scaling from rolled sheet and billets prior to sale to the automobile and major appliances industry. Used acid is often recycled using a spent acid regeneration (SAR) plant. These plants combust spent acid with natural gas, refinery gas, fuel oil or other fuel sources. This combustion process produces gaseous sulfur dioxide () and sulfur trioxide () which are then used to manufacture "new" sulfuric acid. SAR plants are common additions to metal smelting plants, oil refineries, and other industries where sulfuric acid is consumed in bulk, as operating a SAR plant is much cheaper than the recurring costs of spent acid disposal and new acid purchases.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Hydrogen peroxide () can be added to sulfuric acid to produce piranha solution, a powerful but very toxic cleaning solution with which substrate surfaces can be cleaned. Piranha solution is typically used in the microelectronics industry, and also in laboratory settings to clean glassware.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Sulfuric acid is used for a variety of other purposes in the chemical industry. For example, it is the usual acid catalyst for the conversion of cyclohexanone oxime to caprolactam, used for making nylon. It is used for making hydrochloric acid from salt via the Mannheim process. Much is used in petroleum refining, for example as a catalyst for the reaction of isobutane with isobutylene to give isooctane, a compound that raises the octane rating of gasoline (petrol). Sulfuric acid is also often used as a dehydrating or oxidizing agent in industrial reactions, such as the dehydration of various sugars to form solid carbon.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Sulfuric acid at high concentrations is frequently the major ingredient in acidic drain cleaners which are used to remove grease, hair, tissue paper, etc. Similar to their alkaline versions, such drain openers can dissolve fats and proteins via hydrolysis. Moreover, as concentrated sulfuric acid has a strong dehydrating property, it can remove tissue paper via dehydrating process as well. Since the acid may react with water vigorously, such acidic drain openers should be added slowly into the pipe to be cleaned.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: The study of vitriol, a category of glassy minerals from which the acid can be derived, began in ancient times. Sumerians had a list of types of vitriol that they classified according to the substances' color. Some of the earliest discussions on the origin and properties of vitriol is in the works of the Greek physician Dioscorides (first century AD) and the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD). Galen also discussed its medical use. Metallurgical uses for vitriolic substances were recorded in the Hellenistic alchemical works of Zosimos of Panopolis, in the treatise "Phisica et Mystica", and the Leyden papyrus X.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Medieval Islamic chemists like Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (died c. 806 – c. 816 AD, known in Latin as Geber), Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (865 – 925 AD, known in Latin as Rhazes), Ibn Sina (980 – 1037 AD, known in Latin as Avicenna), and Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Watwat (1234 – 1318 AD) included vitriol in their mineral classification lists.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: Sulfuric acid was called "oil of vitriol" by medieval European alchemists because it was prepared by roasting "green vitriol" (iron(II) sulfate) in an iron retort. The first vague allusions to it appear in the works of Vincent of Beauvais, in the "Compositum de Compositis" ascribed to Saint Albertus Magnus, and in pseudo-Geber's "Summa perfectionis" (all thirteenth century AD).


title: Sulfuric acid

text: In the seventeenth century, the German-Dutch chemist Johann Glauber prepared sulfuric acid by burning sulfur together with saltpeter (potassium nitrate, ), in the presence of steam. As saltpeter decomposes, it oxidizes the sulfur to , which combines with water to produce sulfuric acid. In 1736, Joshua Ward, a London pharmacist, used this method to begin the first large-scale production of sulfuric acid.


title: Sulfuric acid

text: In 1746 in Birmingham, John Roebuck adapted this method to produce sulfuric acid in lead-lined chambers, which were stronger, less expensive, and could be made larger than the previously used glass containers. This process allowed the effective industrialization of sulfuric acid production. After several refinements, this method, called the lead chamber process or "chamber process", remained the standard for sulfuric acid production for almost two centuries.