title: Blacksmith

text: A modern blacksmith has a range of options and tools to accomplish this. The basic types of welding commonly employed in a modern workshop include traditional forge welding as well as modern methods, including oxyacetylene and arc welding.


title: Blacksmith

text: In forge welding, the pieces to join are heated to what is generally referred to as "welding heat". For mild steel most smiths judge this temperature by color: the metal glows an intense yellow or white. At this temperature the steel is near molten.


title: Blacksmith

text: Any foreign material in the weld, such as the oxides or "scale" that typically form in the fire, can weaken it and cause it to fail. Thus the mating surfaces to be joined must be kept clean. To this end a smith makes sure the fire is a reducing fire: a fire where, at the heart, there is a great deal of heat and very little oxygen. The smith also carefully shapes mating faces so that as they come together foreign material squeezes out as the metal is joined. To clean the faces, protect them from oxidation, and provide a medium to carry foreign material out of the weld, the smith sometimes uses flux—typically powdered borax, silica sand, or both.


title: Blacksmith

text: The smith first cleans parts to be joined with a wire brush, then puts them in the fire to heat. With a mix of drawing and upsetting the smith shapes the faces so that when finally brought together, the center of the weld connects first and the connection spreads outward under the hammer blows, pushing out the flux (if used) and foreign material.


title: Blacksmith

text: The dressed metal goes back in the fire, is brought near to welding heat, removed from the fire, and brushed. Flux is sometimes applied, which prevents oxygen from reaching and burning the metal during forging, and it is returned to the fire. The smith now watches carefully to avoid overheating the metal. There is some challenge to this because, to see the color of the metal, the smith must remove it from the fire—exposing it to air, which can rapidly oxidize it. So the smith might probe into the fire with a bit of steel wire, prodding lightly at the mating faces. When the end of the wire sticks on to the metal, it is at the right temperature (a small weld forms where the wire touches the mating face, so it sticks). The smith commonly places the metal in the fire so he can see it without letting surrounding air contact the surface. (Note that smiths don't always use flux, especially in the UK.)


title: Blacksmith

text: Now the smith moves with rapid purpose, quickly taking the metal from the fire to the anvil and bringing the mating faces together. A few light hammer taps bring the mating faces into complete contact and squeeze out the flux—and finally, the smith returns the work to the fire. The weld begins with the taps, but often the joint is weak and incomplete, so the smith reheats the joint to welding temperature and works the weld with light blows to "set" the weld and finally to dress it to the shape.


title: Blacksmith

text: A range of treatments and finishes can inhibit oxidation and enhance or change the appearance of the piece. An experienced smith selects the finish based on the metal and on the intended use of the item. Finishes include (among others): paint, varnish, bluing, browning, oil, and wax.


title: Blacksmith

text: A blacksmith's striker is an assistant (frequently an apprentice) whose job is to swing a large sledgehammer in heavy forging operations, as directed by the blacksmith. In practice, the blacksmith holds the hot iron at the anvil (with tongs) in one hand, and indicates where to strike the iron by tapping it with a small hammer in the other hand. The striker then delivers a heavy blow to the indicated spot with a sledgehammer. During the 20th century and into the 21st century, this role has become increasingly unnecessary and automated through the use of trip hammers or reciprocating power hammers.


title: Blacksmith

text: When iron ore is smelted into usable metal, a certain amount of carbon is usually alloyed with the iron. (Charcoal is almost pure carbon.) The amount of carbon significantly affects the properties of the metal. If the carbon content is over 2%, the metal is called cast iron, because it has a relatively low melting point and is easily cast. It is quite brittle, however, and cannot be forged so therefore not used for blacksmithing. If the carbon content is between 0.25% and 2%, the resulting metal is tool steel, which can be heat treated as discussed above. When the carbon content is below 0.25%, the metal is either "wrought iron (wrought iron is not smelted and cannot come from this process) " or "mild steel." The terms are never interchangeable. In preindustrial times, the material of choice for blacksmiths was wrought iron. This iron had a very low carbon content, and also included up to 5% of glassy iron silicate slag in the form of numerous very fine stringers. This slag content made the iron very tough, gave it considerable resistance to rusting, and allowed it to be more easily "forge welded," a process in which the blacksmith permanently joins two pieces of iron, or a piece of iron and a piece of steel, by heating them nearly to a white heat and hammering them together. Forge welding is more difficult with modern mild steel, because it welds in a narrower temperature band. The fibrous nature of wrought iron required knowledge and skill to properly form any tool which would be subject to stress. Modern steel is produced using either the blast furnace or arc furnaces. Wrought iron was produced by a labor-intensive process called "puddling", so this material is now a difficult-to-find specialty product. Modern blacksmiths generally substitute mild steel for making objects traditionally of wrought iron. Sometimes they use electrolytic-process pure iron.


title: Blacksmith

text: Many blacksmiths also incorporate materials such as bronze, copper, or brass in artistic products. Aluminum and titanium may also be forged by the blacksmith's process. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, while brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. Each material responds differently under the hammer and must be separately studied by the blacksmith.


title: Blacksmith

text: Steel with less than 0.6% carbon content cannot be hardened enough by simple heat-treatment to make useful hardened-steel tools. Hence, in what follows, wrought-iron, low-carbon-steel, and other soft unhardenable iron varieties are referred to indiscriminately as just "iron".


title: Blacksmith

text: In Hindu mythology, Tvastar also known as Vishvakarma is the blacksmith of the devas. The earliest references of Tvastar can be found in the Rigveda.


title: Blacksmith

text: Hephaestus (Latin: Vulcan) was the blacksmith of the gods in Greek and Roman mythology. A supremely skilled artisan whose forge was a volcano, he constructed most of the weapons of the gods, as well as beautiful assistants for his smithy and a metal fishing-net of astonishing intricacy. He was the god of metalworking, fire, and craftsmen.


title: Blacksmith

text: In Celtic mythology, the role of Smith is held by eponymous (their names do mean 'smith') characters : Goibhniu (Irish myths of the Tuatha Dé Danann cycle) or Gofannon (Welsh myths/ the Mabinogion). Brigid or Brigit, an Irish goddess, is sometimes described as the patroness of blacksmiths.


title: Blacksmith

text: In the Nart mythology of the Caucasus the hero known to the Ossetians as Kurdalægon and the Circassians as Tlepsh is a blacksmith and skilled craftsman whose exploits exhibit shamanic features, sometimes bearing comparison to those of the Scandinavian deity Odin. One of his greatest feats is acting as a type of male midwife to the hero Xamyc, who has been made the carrier of the embryo of his son Batraz by his dying wife the water-sprite Lady Isp, who spits it between his shoulder blades, where it forms a womb-like cyst. Kurdalaegon prepares a type of tower or scaffold above a quenching bath for Xamyc, and, when the time is right, lances the cyst to liberate the infant hero Batraz as a newborn babe of white-hot steel, whom Kurdalægon then quenches like a newly forged sword.


title: Blacksmith

text: The Anglo-Saxon Wayland Smith, known in Old Norse as Völundr, is a heroic blacksmith in Germanic mythology. The Poetic Edda states that he forged beautiful gold rings set with wonderful gems. He was captured by king Níðuðr, who cruelly hamstrung him and imprisoned him on an island. Völundr eventually had his revenge by killing Níðuðr's sons and fashioning goblets from their skulls, jewels from their eyes and a brooch from their teeth. He then raped the king's daughter, after drugging her with strong beer, and escaped, laughing, on wings of his own making, boasting that he had fathered a child upon her.


title: Blacksmith

text: Seppo Ilmarinen, the Eternal Hammerer, blacksmith and inventor in the "Kalevala", is an archetypal artificer from Finnish mythology.


title: Blacksmith

text: Ogun, the god of blacksmiths, warriors, hunters and others who work with iron is one of the pantheon of Orisha traditionally worshipped by the Yoruba people of Nigeria.


title: Blacksmith

text: Gold, silver, and copper all occur in nature in their native states, as reasonably pure metals humans probably worked these metals first. These metals are all quite malleable, and humans' initial development of hammering techniques was undoubtedly applied to these metals.


title: Blacksmith

text: During the Chalcolithic era and the Bronze Age, humans in the Mideast learned how to smelt, melt, cast, rivet, and (to a limited extent) forge copper and bronze. Bronze is an alloy of copper and approximately 10% to 20% Tin. Bronze is superior to just copper, by being harder, being more resistant to corrosion, and by having a lower melting point (thereby requiring less fuel to melt and cast). Much of the copper used by the Mediterranean World came from the island of Cyprus. Most of the tin came from the Cornwall region of the island of Great Britain, transported by sea-borne Phoenician and Greek traders.


title: Blacksmith

text: Copper and bronze cannot be hardened by heat-treatment, they can only be hardened by cold working. To accomplish this, a piece of bronze is lightly hammered for a long period of time. The localized stress-cycling causes work hardening by changing the size and shape of the metal's crystals. The hardened bronze can then be ground to sharpen it to make edged tools.


title: Blacksmith

text: Clocksmiths as recently as the 19th century used work hardening techniques to harden the teeth of brass gears and ratchets. Tapping on just the teeth produced harder teeth, with superior wear-resistance. By contrast, the rest of the gear was left in a softer and tougher state, more capable of resisting cracking.


title: Blacksmith

text: Bronze is sufficiently corrosion-resistant that artifacts of bronze may last thousands of years relatively unscathed. Accordingly, museums frequently preserve more examples of Bronze Age metal-work than examples of artifacts from the much younger Iron Age. Buried iron artifacts may completely rust away in less than 100 years. Examples of ancient iron work still extant are very much the exception to the norm.


title: Blacksmith

text: Concurrent with the advent of alphabetic characters in the Iron Age, humans became aware of the metal iron. However, in earlier ages, iron's qualities, in contrast to those of bronze, were not generally understood. Iron artifacts, composed of meteoric iron, have the chemical composition containing up to 40% nickel. As this source of this iron is extremely rare and fortuitous, little development of smithing skills peculiar to iron can be assumed to have occurred. That we still possess any such artifacts of meteoric iron may be ascribed to the vagaries of climate, and the increased corrosion-resistance conferred on iron by the presence of nickel.


title: Blacksmith

text: During the (north) Polar Exploration of the early 20th century, Inughuit, northern Greenlandic Inuit, were found to be making iron knives from two particularly large nickel-iron meteors. One of these meteors was taken to Washington, D.C., where it was remitted to the custody of the Smithsonian Institution.


title: Blacksmith

text: The Hittites of Anatolia first discovered or developed the smelting of iron ores around 1500 BC. They seem to have maintained a near monopoly on the knowledge of iron production for several hundred years, but when their empire collapsed during the Eastern Mediterranean upheavals around 1200 BC, the knowledge seems to have escaped in all directions.


title: Blacksmith

text: In the Iliad of Homer (describing the Trojan War and Bronze Age Greek and Trojan warriors), most of the armor and weapons (swords and spears) are stated to have been of bronze. Iron is not unknown, however, as arrowheads are described as iron, and a "ball of iron" is listed as a prize awarded for winning a competition.


title: Blacksmith

text: The events described probably occurred around 1200 BC, but Homer is thought to have composed this epic poem around 700 BC; so exactitude must remain suspect.


title: Blacksmith

text: When historical records resume after the 1200 BC upheavals and the ensuing Greek Dark Age, iron work (and presumably blacksmiths) seem to have sprung like Athena, fully-grown from the head of Zeus. Very few artifacts remain, due to loss from corrosion, and re-use of iron as a valuable commodity. What information exists indicates that all of the basic operations of blacksmithing were in use as soon as the Iron Age reached a particular locality. The scarcity of records and artifacts, and the rapidity of the switch from Bronze Age to Iron Age, is a reason to use evidence of bronze smithing to infer about the early development of blacksmithing.


title: Blacksmith

text: It is uncertain when Iron weapons replaced Bronze weapons because the earliest Iron swords did not significantly improve on the qualities of existing bronze artifacts. Unalloyed iron is soft, does not hold an edge as well as a properly constructed bronze blade and needs more maintenance. Iron ores are more widely available than the necessary materials to create bronze however, which made iron weapons more economical than comparable bronze weapons. Small amounts of steel are often formed during several of the earliest refining practices, and when the properties of this alloy were discovered and exploited, steel edged weapons greatly outclassed bronze.


title: Blacksmith

text: Iron is different from most other materials (including bronze), in that it does not immediately go from a solid to a liquid at its melting point. HO is a solid (ice) at −1 C (31 F), and a liquid (water) at +1 C (33 F). Iron, by contrast, is definitely a solid at , but over the next it becomes increasingly plastic and more "taffy-like" as its temperature increases. This extreme temperature range of variable solidity is the fundamental material property upon which blacksmithing practice depends.


title: Blacksmith

text: Another major difference between bronze and iron fabrication techniques is that bronze "can" be melted. The melting point of iron is much higher than that of bronze. In the western (Europe & the Mideast) tradition, the technology to make fires hot enough to melt iron did not arise until the 16th century, when smelting operations grew large enough to require overly large bellows. These produced blast-furnace temperatures high enough to melt partially refined ores, resulting in "cast iron". Thus cast iron frying pans and cookware did not become possible in Europe until 3000 years after the introduction of iron smelting. China, in a separate developmental tradition, was producing cast iron at least 1000 years before this.


title: Blacksmith

text: Although iron is quite abundant, good quality steel remained rare and expensive until the industrial developments of Bessemer process "et al." in the 1850s. Close examination of blacksmith-made antique tools clearly shows where small pieces of steel were forge-welded into iron to provide the hardened steel cutting edges of tools (notably in axes, adzes, chisels, etc.). The re-use of quality steel is another reason for the lack of artifacts.


title: Blacksmith

text: The Romans (who ensured that their own weapons were made with good steel) noted (in the 4th century BC) that the Celts of the Po River Valley had iron, but not good steel. The Romans record that during battle, their Celtic opponents could only swing their swords two or three times before having to step on their swords to straighten them.


title: Blacksmith

text: In southern Asia and western Africa, blacksmiths form endogenous castes that sometimes speak distinct languages.


title: Blacksmith

text: Prior to the industrial revolution, a "village smithy" was a staple of every town. Factories and mass-production reduced the demand for blacksmith-made tools and hardware.


title: Blacksmith

text: The original fuel for forge fires was charcoal. Coal did not begin to replace charcoal until the forests of first Britain (during the AD 17th century), and then the eastern United States of America (during the 19th century) were largely depleted. Coal "can be" an inferior fuel for blacksmithing, because much of the world's coal is contaminated with sulfur. Sulfur contamination of iron and steel make them "red short", so that at red heat they become "crumbly" instead of "plastic". Coal sold and purchased for blacksmithing should be largely free of sulfur.


title: Blacksmith

text: European blacksmiths before and through the medieval era spent a great deal of time heating and hammering iron before forging it into finished articles. Although they were unaware of the chemical basis, they were aware that the quality of the iron was thus improved. From a scientific point of view, the reducing atmosphere of the forge was both removing oxygen (rust), and soaking more carbon into the iron, thereby developing increasingly higher grades of steel as the process was continued.


title: Blacksmith

text: During the eighteenth century, agents for the Sheffield cutlery industry scoured the British country-side, offering new carriage springs for old. Springs must be made of hardened steel. At this time, the processes for making steel produced an extremely variable product—quality was not ensured at the initial point of sale. Springs that had survived cracking through hard use over the rough roads of the time, had proven to be of a better quality steel. Much of the fame of Sheffield cutlery (knives, shears, etc.) was due to the extreme lengths the companies took to ensure they used high-grade steel.


title: Blacksmith

text: During the early to mid-nineteenth century, both European armies as well as both the U.S. Federal and Confederate armies employed blacksmiths to shoe horses and repair equipment such as wagons, horse tack, and artillery equipment. These smiths primarily worked at a traveling forge that when combined with a limber, comprised wagons specifically designed and constructed as blacksmith shops on wheels to carry the essential equipment necessary for their work.


title: Blacksmith

text: Lathes, patterned largely on their woodturning counterparts, had been used by some blacksmiths since the middle-ages. During the 1790s Henry Maudslay created the first screw-cutting lathe, a watershed event that signaled the start of blacksmiths being replaced by machinists in factories for the hardware needs of the populace.


title: Blacksmith

text: Samuel Colt neither invented nor perfected interchangeable parts, but his insistence (and other industrialists at this time) that his firearms be manufactured with this property, was another step towards the obsolescence of metal-working artisans and blacksmiths. (See also Eli Whitney).


title: Blacksmith

text: As demand for their products declined, many more blacksmiths augmented their incomes by taking in work shoeing horses. A shoer-of-horses was historically known as a farrier in English. With the introduction of automobiles, the number of blacksmiths continued to decrease, many former blacksmiths becoming the initial generation of automobile Mechanics. The nadir of blacksmithing in the United States was reached during the 1960s, when most of the former blacksmiths had left the trade, and few if any new people were entering the trade. By this time, most of the working blacksmiths were those performing farrier work, so the term "blacksmith" was effectively co-opted by the farrier trade.


title: Blacksmith

text: In the final part of the 18th century, forged ironwork continued to decline due to the aforementioned industrial revolution, shapes of the elements in the designs of window grilles and other decorative functional items continued to contradict natural forms, surfaces begin to be covered in paint, cast iron elements are incorporated into the forged designs.


title: Blacksmith

text: Main features of Neoclassicism ironwork (also referred to as Louis XVI style and Empire style ironwork) include smooth straight bars, decorative geometric elements, double or oval volutes and the usage of elements from Classical antiquity (Meander (art), wreaths etc.).


title: Blacksmith

text: During the 20th century various gases (natural gas, acetylene, etc.) have also come to be used as fuels for blacksmithing. While these are fine for blacksmithing iron, special care must be taken when using them to blacksmith steel. Each time a piece of steel is heated, there is a tendency for the carbon content to leave the steel (decarburization). This can leave a piece of steel with an effective layer of unhardenable iron on its surface. In a traditional charcoal or coal forge, the fuel is really just carbon. In a properly regulated charcoal/coal fire, the air in and immediately around the fire should be a reducing atmosphere. In this case, and at elevated temperatures, there is a tendency for vaporized carbon to soak "into" steel and iron, counteracting or negating the decarburizing tendency. This is similar to the process by which a case of steel is developed on a piece of iron in preparation for case hardening.


title: Blacksmith

text: A renewed interest in blacksmithing occurred as part of the trend in "do-it-yourself" and "self-sufficiency" that occurred during the 1970s. Currently there are many books, organizations and individuals working to help educate the public about blacksmithing, including local groups of smiths who have formed clubs, with some of those smiths demonstrating at historical sites and living history events. Some modern blacksmiths who produce decorative metalwork refer to themselves as artist-blacksmiths. In 1973 the Artists Blacksmiths’ Association of North America was formed with 27 members. By 2013 it had almost 4000 members. Likewise the British Artist Blacksmiths Association was created in 1978, with 30 charter members and had about 600 members in 2013 and publish for members a quarterly magazine.


title: Blacksmith

text: While developed nations saw a decline and re-awakening of interest in blacksmithing, in many developing nations blacksmiths continued doing what blacksmiths have been doing for 3500 years: making and repairing iron and steel tools and hardware for people in their local area.


title: Joyce Meyer

text: Pauline Joyce Meyer (née Hutchison; June 4, 1943) is an American Charismatic Christian author, speaker and president of Joyce Meyer Ministries. Joyce and her husband Dave have four grown children, and live outside St. Louis, Missouri. Her ministry is headquartered near the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri.


title: Joyce Meyer

text: Meyer was born Pauline Joyce Hutchison in south St. Louis in 1943. Her father went into the army to fight in World War II soon after she was born. She has said in interviews that he began sexually abusing her upon his return, and discusses this experience in her meetings. To this day, she speaks with a working-class St. Louis accent.


title: Joyce Meyer

text: A graduate of O'Fallon Technical High School in St. Louis, she married a part-time car salesman shortly after her senior year of high school. The marriage lasted five years. She maintains that her husband frequently cheated on her and persuaded her to steal payroll checks from her employer. They used the money to go on a vacation to California. She states that she returned the money years later. After her divorce, Meyer frequented local bars before meeting Dave Meyer, an engineering draftsman. They were married on January 7, 1967.


title: Joyce Meyer

text: Meyer also reports that she was praying intensely while driving to work one morning in 1976 when she said she heard God call her name. She had been born-again at age nine, but her unhappiness drove her deeper into her faith. She says that she came home later that day from a beauty appointment "full of liquid love" and was "drunk with the Spirit of God" that night while at the local bowling alley.


title: Joyce Meyer

text: Meyer was briefly a member of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in St. Louis, a congregation of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. She began leading an early-morning Bible class at a local cafeteria and became active in Life Christian Center, a charismatic church in Fenton. Within a few years, Meyer was the church's associate pastor. The church became one of the leading charismatic churches in the area, largely because of her popularity as a Bible teacher. She also began airing a daily 15-minute radio broadcast on a St. Louis radio station.


title: Joyce Meyer

text: In 1985, Meyer resigned as associate pastor and founded her own ministry, initially called "Life in the Word." She began airing her radio show on six other stations from Chicago to Kansas City.


title: Joyce Meyer

text: In 1993, her husband Dave suggested that they start a television ministry. Initially airing on superstation WGN-TV in Chicago and Black Entertainment Television (BET), her program, now called "Enjoying Everyday Life", is still on the air today.


title: Joyce Meyer

text: In 2002, mainstream publisher Hachette Book Group paid Meyer over $10 million for the rights to her backlist catalog of independently released books.


title: Joyce Meyer

text: In 2004 St. Louis Christian television station KNLC, operated by the Rev. Larry Rice of New Life Evangelistic Center, dropped Meyer's programming. According to Rice, a longstanding Meyer supporter, Meyer's "excessive lifestyle" and her teachings often going "beyond Scripture" were the impetus for canceling the program.


title: Joyce Meyer

text: Meyer, who owns several homes and travels in a private jet (currently a Gulfstream G-IV), has been criticized by some for living an excessive lifestyle. She responded that she doesn't have to defend her spending habits because "... there's no need for us to apologize for being blessed." Meyer commented, "You can be a businessman here in St. Louis, and people think the more you have, the more wonderful it is ... but if you're a preacher, then all of a sudden it becomes a problem."


title: Joyce Meyer

text: In November 2003, the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" published a four-part special report detailing Meyer's "$10 million corporate jet, her husband's $107,000 silver-gray Mercedes sedan, her $2 million home and houses worth another $2 million for her four children," a $20 million headquarters, furnished with "$5.7 million worth of furniture, artwork, glassware, and the latest equipment and machinery," including a "$30,000 malachite round table, a $23,000 marble-topped antique commode, a $14,000 custom office bookcase, a $7,000 Stations of the Cross in Dresden porcelain, a $6,300 eagle sculpture on a pedestal, another eagle made of silver bought for $5,000, and numerous paintings purchased for $1,000 to $4,000 each," among many other expensive items – all paid for by the ministry. The articles prompted Wall Watchers (a Christian nonprofit watchdog group) to call on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to investigate Meyer and her family.


title: Joyce Meyer

text: Following the adverse publicity about her lifestyle and Ministry Watch's request for an IRS probe, Meyer announced in 2004 plans to take a salary reduction from the $900,000 per year she had been receiving from Joyce Meyer Ministries (in addition to the $450,000 her husband received) and instead personally keep more of the royalties from her outside book sales which Meyer had previously donated back to Joyce Meyer Ministries. She now retains royalties on books sold outside the ministry through retail outlets such as Walmart, Amazon.com, and bookstores, while continuing to donate to her ministry royalties from books sold through her conferences, catalogues, website, and television program. "The net effect of all of this," notes Ministry Watch, "was most likely a sizable increase in the personal compensation of Joyce Meyer and reduced revenues for JMM." In an article in the "St. Louis Business Journal", Meyer's public relations director, Mark Sutherland, confirmed that her new income would be "way above" her previous levels. Joyce Meyer Ministries says it has made a commitment to maintain transparency in financial dealings,


title: Joyce Meyer

text: publish their annual reports, have a Board majority who are not Meyer relatives and submit to a voluntary annual audit. On December 18, 2008, this ministry received a "C" grade (71–80 score) for financial transparency from Ministry Watch.


title: Joyce Meyer

text: Joyce Meyer Ministries was one of six investigated by the United States Senate inquiry into the tax-exempt status of religious organizations by Senator Chuck Grassley. The inquiry sought to determine if Meyer made any personal profit from financial donations, asking for a detailed accounting for such things as cosmetic surgery and foreign bank accounts and citing such expenses as the $23,000 commode mentioned earlier. Grassley also requested that Meyer's ministry make the information available by December 6, 2007. In her November 29 response to Grassley, Meyer notes that the commode is a chest of drawers. Meyer writes that it was part of a large lot of items totaling $262,000 that were needed to furnish the ministry's headquarters purchased in 2001. She said the commode's price tag was an "errant value" assigned by the selling agent and apologized for "not paying close attention to specific 'assigned values' placed on the pieces." Joyce Meyer Ministries responded with a newsletter to its e-mail list subscribers on November 9, 2007. The organization referred to its annual financial reports, asserting that, in 2006, the ministry spent 82 percent of its total expenses "for outreach and program services toward reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as attested by independent accounting firm Stanfield & O'Dell, LLP." The message also quoted an October 10, 2007, letter from the Internal Revenue Service which stated, "We determined that you [Joyce Meyer Ministries] continue to qualify as an organization exempt from federal income tax under IRC section 501(c)(3)." The same information was also posted to the ministry website. Joyce Meyer Ministries was one of two ministries to comply with the Senate's requests for financial records. It also made commitments to future financial transparency. Neither party were found to have done any wrongdoing.


title: Joyce Meyer

text: In 2009, Joyce Meyer Ministries received accreditation from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). In an announcement on March 12, 2009, the ECFA said that Joyce Meyer Ministries and Oral Roberts University had met their requirements of "'responsible stewardship', which involves ministries' financial accountability, transparency, board governance and fund-raising practices."


title: Joyce Meyer

text: On May 5, 2009, Christopher Coleman, the chief of security of Joyce Meyer Ministries was arrested on suspicion of murder after police discovered the bodies of Coleman's wife, Sheri Coleman, and two sons at their residence having died of apparent strangulation. On May 10, 2011, after a lengthy trial, Christopher Coleman was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to three life sentences. According to the prosecuting attorney Kris Reitz, the murders were committed as part of a premeditated plan to leave his wife for another woman who he had been having an affair with, according to Reitz, Coleman was concerned that if his extra-marrital affair were made public it would result in him losing his job at Joyce Meyer Ministries. Meyer provided pre-recorded testimony during Coleman's criminal trial. The case was featured in an episode of Forensic Files II on March 6, 2022, titled "Words Matter".


title: Joyce Meyer

text: The family of Sheri Coleman filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Joyce Meyer Ministries citing that the deaths of the three to be the result of Meyer's negligence as a counselor. According to the suit, Christopher Coleman had anonymously sent several threatening letters to his family as a way to remove suspicion from himself for the murder. The suit also alleged that as counselor for both Christopher and Sheri Coleman, Meyer should have had reasonable suspicion that the letters were sent by Coleman and warned Sheri. The suit was dismissed by Circuit Judge Richard Aguirre in 2013.


Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (previously known as Ilmor Engineering and Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines) is a Formula One engine manufacturer, owned by Mercedes-Benz.


title: Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains

text: The company supplied Sauber during the season, McLaren from to and from , Force India from to , Brawn in , the Mercedes factory team since , Williams since , Lotus in , Manor Racing in , Racing Point Force India in , Racing Point from to and Aston Martin from . Their engines have won ten Formula One Constructors' Championships and eleven Drivers' Championships. Beside those Formula One constructors, the company currently supplies road-legal Formula One engines for the Mercedes-AMG ONE sports car.


text: Ilmor was founded by Mario Illien and Paul Morgan in 1983, as an independent British Formula One engine manufacturer. The company name was taken from the surnames of the founders. It originally started building engines for IndyCars with the money of IndyCar team owner and chassis manufacturer Roger Penske.


text: Daimler-Benz (later known as Daimler) acquired General Motors' 25% share of Ilmor in 1993. In 2002, Daimler increased its share to 55% and renamed the company Mercedes-Ilmor. In 2005, it became the sole owner of Ilmor and renamed the company first to Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines, then to Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines. In December 2011, the company was renamed to Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains along with the renaming of Mercedes GP to incorporate the Mercedes-AMG sub-brand.


text: At the same time, the small Special Projects part of the company, which between 2003 and 2011 had been contracted to co-develop, co-assembly, arrangement, preparation and tune up Honda's IndyCar Series engines, split away to become a separate company, owned by Mario Illien and Roger Penske. This new company, which is totally independent of Mercedes, is once again known as Ilmor Engineering Ltd.


text: In 1991, Ilmor entered Formula One as the engine supplier to the Leyton House team (formerly March). In 1992, Leyton House changed its name back to March and continued using Ilmor engines. Ilmor also delivered engines to Tyrrell Racing in that year. Powered by an Ilmor V10, March scored 3 points, and Tyrrell 8 points.


text: Ilmor already had a good name in F1, and so the Sauber sportscar-team and Mercedes-Benz that were planning their Formula One entrance together signed a deal with Ilmor to produce racing engines for them. However, Mercedes stepped back from the project with the engines only carrying the slogan "Concept by Mercedes-Benz" and the engines were officially called "Saubers".


text: However, after an unexpectedly fast performance in 1993, Sauber convinced Mercedes to enter officially in 1994. In 1994, Ilmor also supplied the new Pacific GP team of Keith Wiggins with the old 1993 spec engines. Pacific only managed to qualify seven times in thirty-two attempts, although the engine was not implicated in this poor display.


text: Ilmor became the Mercedes's trusted engine builder partner and assembler to McLaren in 1995 after Ilmor decided to reposition its Formula One involvement by ceasing its independent engine supply program. The partnership took its first win at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix. Mika Häkkinen picked up Drivers' Championships in and , and the team won the Constructors' Championship in 1998. After a winless season, McLaren bounced back and won the Drivers' Championship in with Lewis Hamilton.


text: In 2001, Paul Morgan was killed whilst landing his vintage aeroplane at Sywell Aerodrome, Northamptonshire. This led to Mercedes-Benz increasing their financial involvement in Ilmor, with the company being renamed Mercedes-Ilmor Ltd.


text: The new Formula One regulations in 2014 saw Mercedes produce a hybrid 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engine, which features both a kinetic energy recovery system and a heat energy recovery system. The Mercedes engine started the season with a clear advantage, with Mercedes-engined cars scoring the majority of the points. Since the introduction of the new engine formula, Mercedes-powered cars have achieved pole position in 121 out of 182 races as of the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and have won 114 out of 182 races during this period.


text: In March 2020, in light of the delayed seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and working with UCL Mechanical Engineering and Institute of Healthcare Engineering, Mercedes HPP announced that they would be making breathing aids to help keep patients out of intensive care. Mercedes HPP created a device within a week. On the first day of production, Mercedes HPP manufactured 600 Continuous Positive Airway Pressure devices, with plans to increase this to 1,000 devices per day. These devices were being produced on machines that typically manufactured pistons and turbochargers for Formula 1 engines. Mercedes would go on to win the Drivers' and Constructors' championships in 2020.


title: Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 2011

text: "Billboard" publishes annual lists of songs based on chart performance over the course of a year based on Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems and SoundScan information. For 2011, the list of the top 100 "Billboard" Hot 100 Year-End songs was published on December 9, calculated with data from December 4, 2010 to November 26, 2011. At the number one position was Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", which stayed atop the Hot 100 for seven consecutive weeks, and in the top thirty for most of the year.


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: Shake It Up (sometimes stylized as Shake It Up!) is an American sitcom that originally aired on Disney Channel from November 7, 2010, to November 10, 2013. Created by Chris Thompson and starring Bella Thorne and Zendaya, the show follows the adventures of CeCe Jones (Bella Thorne) and Rocky Blue (Zendaya) as they star as background dancers on a local show, "Shake It Up Chicago". It also chronicles their misadventures on and off-set and their troubles and rising social status at school. Davis Cleveland, Roshon Fegan, Adam Irigoyen, Kenton Duty, and Caroline Sunshine play other main characters in the series. The show's original concept was for Disney to create a female buddy comedy with a dance aspect.


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: On September 29, 2011, Disney Channel announced it had increased "Shake It Up"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s second season order to 26 episodes. A 90-minute special episode "Made In Japan" aired August 17, 2012, as the season two finale. On June 4, 2012, Disney Channel announced that "Shake It Up" was renewed for a third season and announced that Kenton Duty would not be a regular cast member for season 3, but would instead make special guest appearances. Despite this announcement, he did not appear in a single episode.


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: On July 25, 2013, Disney Channel officially announced that "Shake It Up " would end its run after three seasons. The final episode aired on November 10, 2013.


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: "Shake It Up" follows the adventures of best friends CeCe Jones (Bella Thorne) and Rocky Blue (Zendaya) who, with the help of Rocky's brother Ty (Roshon Fegan) and his best friend Deuce Martinez (Adam Irigoyen), fulfill their dreams of becoming professional dancers when they land roles as dancers on a local show "Shake It Up, Chicago!". CeCe and Rocky deal with their circumstances, by adapting and maintaining their social status at school while watching CeCe's little brother, Flynn (Davis Cleveland), and the antics of their TV show which includes matching the skills of their competition, notably brother and sister, Gunther and Tinka (Kenton Duty and Caroline Sunshine). The show also has storylines which include Rocky's brother, who also has dance and rapping skills. Singer Selena Gomez performs the theme song, "Shake It Up", which was featured on the "" soundtrack.


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: The show was ordered up as Disney's attempt at its first female buddy show, but with a dance-driven aspect. Initially carrying the working title "Dance, Dance Chicago", the original description was described as the journey of two kids on a contemporary "American Bandstand"-type show. Veteran television producers Chris Thompson, a former writer for "Laverne & Shirley" and creator of "Bosom Buddies" and Rob Lotterstein, who had worked on several series including "Boy Meets World" were assigned to work on the story. Casting for the show began in October 2009. Bella Thorne and Zendaya were cast as the two female leads, as well as "Camp Rock" cast member Roshon Fegan in a co-lead role. On May 21, 2010, with the title change revealed as "Shake It Up", the production for the show was announced to begin in July, and anticipated for a fall 2010 premiere. President of Disney Entertainment, Gary Marsh said the Bella Thorne/Zendaya duo were the most engaging best friends they had seen on the network. On what makes the show different, Marsh said "while buddy comedies have been around since the start of television, ... this is the first time anyone has incorporated dancing into the underlying premise of a sitcom."


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: The concept of the show has been noted to be very similar to that of fellow Disney Channel series "Hannah Montana", and according to The "Sun-Sentinel", "Shake It Up" is the same approach with dance. Additionally, the show is Disney's third series to have a show-within-a-show following "Silverstone" in "The Famous Jett Jackson" and "So Random/Mackenzie Falls" in "Sonny with a Chance". Chuck Barney of the "Contra Costa Times" said that the show's plots "play out in typical Disney Channel style with uncomplicated story lines, broad humor and moral uplift." In an interview, Bella Thorne said of the show, "It is about them going through the stuff that teens go through every day. The writing is very realistic. I have gone through most of these problems." Rosero McCoy, a choreographer for "" was tapped to be a choreographer for the show, along with Claude Racine. The series was shot at Los Angeles Center Studios.


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: The series succeeds "Hannah Montana", "Jonas", "I'm in the Band" and "Phineas and Ferb" as Disney's latest foray into music-oriented series. According to Rick Bently of the "Fresno Bee", the show's timing was to capitalize off the success of the current dance series' "Dancing With the Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance". Original music for the series has been produced and recorded by the show's cast and various artists, with the theme song "Shake It Up" performed by American singer and actress Selena Gomez. The theme was written and produced by Aris Archontis, Jeanne Lurie and Chen Neeman, who also penned the opening title themes to fellow Disney series "Sonny with a Chance" and "Good Luck Charlie".


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: In initial casting, Disney searched for two female co-leads. Although boasting elaborate credits of prior television experience, including guest starring on "Wizards of Waverly Place", Bella Thorne was cast after never dancing professionally before, and took dance classes three times a week to improve. Zendaya had theater background prior to her casting, and grew up in theater when her mother worked in the California Shakespeare Theater in Oakland, California. Having the same agent that discovered Miley Cyrus, she won the role after several auditions and over 200 other hopefuls. On the casting of the two, Judy Taylor, Senior Vice President of Casting for Disney Channel, commented that Zendaya was "completely engaging" with a "great presence" and that Thorne had "high energy" and viewers would "want to get to know her better the instant you meet her." One goal was for the two leads to have chemistry working together, and Thorne said of her relationship with Zendaya, "When we first met, there was this energy. It was like we were meant to be together."


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: Adam Irigoyen was cast as Deuce Martinez Irigoyen credited his family for his success, moving him out to Los Angeles two years prior for him to start his career. Irigoyen previously worked on "Wizards of Waverly Place". Davis Cleveland, whose work included guest appearances on "Good Luck Charlie", "Zeke and Luther" and "Hannah Montana", was cast as CeCe's younger brother, Flynn.


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: Roshon Fegan, who co-starred in both "Camp Rock" films, was cast as Rocky's older brother Ty. In the recurring role of Gary Wilde, R. Brandon Johnson was cast the day before the pilot and began taping the next day. Kenton Duty was cast as Gunther, after four audition attempts. Stefanie Scott was originally cast as Gunther's twin sister Tinka, but Disney Channel decided to cast her as Lexi on "A.N.T. Farm" instead. Casting for Tinka ran again and Caroline Sunshine landed the role after canceling plans for a family vacation so she could audition. The brother/sister duo of Gunther and Tinka is said to be inspired by Ryan and Sharpay Evans of Disney's "High School Musical" series.


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: Some notable celebrity guest-stars are Renée Taylor, Chris Trousdale, Ben Savage, John D'Aquino, Anneliese van der Pol, Kent Boyd and Cat Deeley of "So You Think You Can Dance" and "America's Best Dance Crew" contestants: Jabbawockeez (season 1 winners), Breaks8 (season 1), Quest Crew (season 3 winners), Poreotics (season 5 winners), Jungle Boogie (season 5), Saltare (season 5), IaMmE Crew (season 6 winners), ICONic Boyz (season 6 runners-up), Instant Noodles (season 6), Elektrolytes (season 7 winners) and Beat Freaks (season 3 runners-up).


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: On June 5, 2011, a "Good Luck Charlie" episode "Charlie Shakes It Up" premiered. In this episode "Good Luck Charlie" characters Teddy, Amy and Charlie all go to Chicago to visit their great-aunt Nell so they can get into the will and get rich. When they arrive, they take the wrong car and are mistaken for the Duncan Sisters (two famous dancers) on "Shake It Up Chicago!". Rocky and CeCe notice that they are imposters when Flynn wants to get the real Duncan Sisters' autograph. After Teddy and Amy explain the truth, the real Duncan Sisters appear into the studio. Deuce locks them into the janitor's closet and Teddy, Amy and Charlie perform. Only CeCe, Rocky, Deuce, Flynn, and Gary appeared in the crossover because Disney claimed they only needed "base characters". It was counted as a "Good Luck Charlie" episode and not a "Shake It Up" episode.


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: It was announced during the 2011 Licensing International Expo that a "Shake It Up" movie was in the works. It was confirmed that the movie title would be "" and it was also announced that the movie would be 90 minutes long. It was broadcast on August 17, 2012, as an extended length season two final episode.


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: On December 23, 2011, a rebroadcast of the episode "Party It Up", in which a female character complimented CeCe and Rocky, with the line "I could just eat you guys up...you know, if I ate", aired on the channel that evening. Former Disney Channel star Demi Lovato, who left "Sonny with a Chance" in the fall of 2010 for counseling because of personal issues, commented on the episode, criticizing the network through Twitter for normalizing eating disorders when Lovato had struggled through the issue, and as one of the reasons for leaving the company's fold. Disney Channel's public relations account responded to Lovato by stating that that episode and an episode of "So Random!" which had an eating disorder joke, "1 full meal a week" and "a minute on the lips, forever on the hips" would be pulled from the network's airing cycle and reviewed further. Later in 2012, the episode started airing regularly on Disney Channel with the joke removed. Disney's PR team said the studio never intended to make light of eating disorders.


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: The series originally aired from November 7, 2010, to November 10, 2013, on Disney Channel. It premiered on November 12, 2010, on Family Channel and Disney Channel (UK and Ireland) and ended on December 6, 2013, and January 31, 2014, respectively. It aired on Disney Channel (Australia and New Zealand) as a preview on December 31, 2010, and premiered on February 25, 2011, and ran until February 13, 2014. The series aired on Disney Channel (Europe, Middle East and Africa) from January 29, 2011, until February 2, 2014. It is currently airing on Disney Channel (Southeast Asia) and re-runs are airing on 7Two in Australia


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: An Indian adaptation of the show, also titled "Shake It Up", premiered on Disney Channel India on March 30, 2013. However, it is centered on two teenage boys as opposed to two teenage girls.


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: The series has earned mixed reviews. Tom Gliatto of "People" magazine gave the series two out of four stars, writing, ""Shake It Up" doesn't shake up the kid-com formula one bit, but it has something more than the usual shiny-sparkly cuteness." It currently scores a 4.4 out of 10 on TV.com. Currently the most watched episode of the series is "Start It Up" with 6.2 million viewers. The episode "Weird It Up" is the least watched episode, scoring 2.5 million viewers.


title: Shake It Up (American TV series)

text: According to Nielsen Media Research, the series premiere of "Shake It Up" garnered 6.2 million viewers and made its debut as the highest-rated series premiere in Disney Channel's 27-year history, followed by "Wizards of Waverly Place" with 5.9 million viewers, then "Liv and Maddie"s premiere which had 5.8 million viewers then "The Suite Life on Deck"s and "Austin & Ally"s premieres which garnered 5.7 million viewers, and then the March 24, 2006 series premiere of "Hannah Montana," which garnered 5.4 million viewers. The premiere scored an 11.0 rating (2.7 million viewers) among the 9- to 14-year-old demographic and a 10.6 rating (2.6 million viewers) among the 6- to 11-year-old demographic. It also became the channel's highest-rated Sunday premiere for an original series on record with total viewers, kids aged 6 to 11 and teens aged 9 to 14.


title: Water Lilies (Monet series)

text: Water Lilies (or Nymphéas, ) is a series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionist Claude Monet (1840–1926). The paintings depict his flower garden at his home in Giverny, and were the main focus of his artistic production during the last thirty years of his life. Many of the works were painted while Monet suffered from cataracts.


title: Water Lilies (Monet series)

text: Monet's long-standing preference for producing and exhibiting a series of paintings related by subject and perspective began in 1889, with at least ten paintings done at the "Valley of the Creuse", which were shown at the Galerie Georges Petit. Among his other famous series are his "Haystacks".


title: Water Lilies (Monet series)

text: During the 1920s, the state of France built a pair of oval rooms at the Musée de l'Orangerie as a permanent home for eight water lily murals by Monet. The exhibit opened to the public on 16 May 1927, a few months after Monet's death. Sixty water lily paintings from around the globe were assembled for a special exhibition at the Musée de l'Orangerie in 1999.


title: Water Lilies (Monet series)

text: The paintings are on prominent display at museums all over the world, including the Princeton University Art Museum, Musée Marmottan Monet, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the National Museum of Wales, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, The Toledo Museum of Art the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Portland Art Museum and the Legion of Honor. In 2020, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston celebrated its 150-anniversary with some of Monet's Water Lilies paintings.


title: Water Lilies (Monet series)

text: On 19 June 2007, one of Monet's "Water Lily" paintings sold for £18.5 million at a Sotheby's auction in London. On 24 June 2008 another of his "Water Lily" paintings, "Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas", sold for almost £41 million at Christie's in London, almost double the estimate of £18 to £24 million.


title: Water Lilies (Monet series)

text: In May 2010, it was announced that the 1906 "Nymphéas" work would be auctioned in London in June 2010. The painting had an estimated sale price of between £30 and £40 million. Giovanna Bertazzoni, Christie's auction house director and head of impressionist and modern art, said, "Claude Monet's water-lily paintings are amongst the most recognised and celebrated works of the 20th Century and were hugely influential to many of the following generations of artists." The sale took place on 23 June 2010 at the auction house and the painting attracted bids of up to £29 million, but it ultimately failed to sell.


title: Water Lilies (Monet series)

text: On 6 May 2014, one of the "Water Lilies", "Le Bassin aux Nymphéas", was auctioned at Christie's, New York City for $27 million.[16]


title: Water Lilies (Monet series)

text: In June 2014, one of the Water Lilies, "Nymphéas", sold for $54 million USD at a Sotheby's auction in London. This piece was auctioned to an anonymous buyer, but the piece went on to be part of the exhibition "Painting the Modern Garden: From Monet to Matisse" at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, starting in 2015. The co-chairman of Sotheby's modern and impressionist art department, Helena Newman, claims that the result is at the top of the original estimated selling price. This price was between 34 and 51 million USD.


title: Water Lilies (Monet series)

text: While many of Monet’s masterpieces have sold, there are still an estimated 250 oil paintings from this series. The collection is widely popular, with many of these pieces residing in exhibits that have yet to go to auction. The paintings have been catalogued by Daniel Wildenstein in his Monet: Catalogue Raisonné.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets under management (AUM) as of December 2022. Its net portfolio is US$287 billion (S$403 billion) as of 2022, with S$37 billion divested and S$61 billion invested during the year.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: Its one-year total shareholder return (TSR) was 5.8%, with longer term 10 and 20-year TSRs at 7% and 8% respectively, compounded annually. Its TSR since inception was 14%, compounded over 48 years.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: Headquartered in Singapore, it has 12 offices in 8 countries around the world, including in Beijing, Hanoi, Mumbai, Shanghai, Shenzhen; and London, Brussels, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Mexico City outside Asia. It is an active shareholder and investor, with four key structural trends guiding its long term portfolio construction – Digitisation, Sustainable Living, Future of Consumption, and Longer Lifespans. Temasek's portfolio covers a broad spectrum of sectors. Its key focus investment areas include Consumer, Media & Technology, Life Sciences & Agri-Food, and Non-bank Financial Services.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: Temasek has held overall corporate global credit ratings of “Aaa/AAA” by rating agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's respectively since its inaugural credit ratings in 2004. It has also attained perfect quarterly scores on the Linaburg-Maduell Transparency Index, a measure of the openness of government-owned investment funds. Temasek is primarily anchored in Asia, but with a global portfolio, with a 60% underlying exposure to developed economies.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: While Temasek is largely attributed as being a sovereign wealth fund (SWF), there are major differences as it invests mostly in equities, is the outright owner of many assets and companies, and pays taxes like other commercial investment firms.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: In addition to Temasek, the Government of Singapore also owns GIC Private Limited, a traditional SWF which manages about US$744 billion (S$1.006 trillion) of assets as of 2022 and the compulsory pension program Central Provident Fund with asssets of US$397 billion (S$540 billion), giving a total AUM of US$1.64 trillion.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: Temasek is a company incorporated in Singapore, and operates under the provisions of the Singapore Companies Act. It is neither a government agency nor a statutory board. Like any other commercial company, Temasek pays taxes that contributes to government revenue in the countries it operates in, distributes dividends to its shareholder and has its own board of directors and a professional management team. Its sole shareholder is Singapore's Ministry of Finance.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: Temasek is designated a Fifth Schedule entity under the Constitution of Singapore, which imposes certain safeguards to protect the government's past reserves. For instance, the approval of the President of Singapore is required for any transaction which is likely to result in a draw-down of Temasek's cash reserves. The president also has the right to appoint, terminate, or renew the members of Temasek's board of directors. In most other respects, however, Temasek operates as an independent commercial investment holding company.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: In a 2009 speech, Ho Ching, Temasek Holdings' Executive Director and CEO, said that the company had made an effort to instill discipline and professionalism, and to be tested and measured by providing public markers of performance. She noted that Temasek's bonds spreads and credit ratings have been regularly and independently monitored as public markers of Temasek's financial position and credit risks. Temasek had also openly and accurately disclosed its financial information through its annual report (although Ho said that, as a private company, it was not legally obliged to do so).


title: Temasek Holdings

text: At the point of Singapore's independence in August 1965, the Government of Singapore had ownership or joint ownership of various local companies, such as Malaysia-Singapore Airlines (later split up into Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines) and the Singapore Telephone Board (which became Singapore Telecommunications). As part of its push for local and foreign private investment in sectors such as manufacturing and shipbuilding, the government's Economic Development Board (EDB) also bought minority stakes in a variety of local companies. During the first ten years after independence, the government acquired or established several companies, such as the Keppel Corporation (originally Keppel Shipyard, taken over from the Royal Navy after the British military withdrawal from Singapore), ST Engineering (originally a weapon manufacturer set up to supply the Singapore Armed Forces), and the shipping company Neptune Orient Lines.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: On 25 June 1974, Temasek was incorporated under the Singapore Companies Act to hold and manage the assets previously held directly by the Singapore government, named for an early settlement on the island. The goal was for Temasek to own and manage these investments on a commercial basis, allowing the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Trade and Industry to focus on policymaking.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: In February 2020, Temasek announced a company-wide wage freeze and voluntary pay cuts for senior management in part to help fund community programs aimed at alleviating the impact of COVID-19.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: On 1 October 2021, Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, the current chief executive officer of Temasek International (TI), succeeded Ho Ching as executive director and chief executive officer of Temasek Holdings.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: Temasek's initial portfolio of S$354 million comprised shares previously held by the Singapore Government, including a bird park, a hotel, a shoemaker, a detergent producer, naval yards converted into a ship repair business, a start-up airline, and an iron and steel mill.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: Temasek's 2006 acquisition of Shin Corporation, owned by the family of then Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was particularly controversial, with protestors burning effigies of Lee and Ho on the streets of Bangkok. The deal was a factor in exacerbating the Thai political crisis, which eventually led to the downfall of Thaksin and a review of the transaction's legality. The military junta that overthrew Thaksin later tried unsuccessfully to force Temasek to divest a large part of its investment in Shin Corp. As of 2015, Temasek's stake in Intouch Corporation (as Shin Corporation was renamed) had reduced to 42%. In 2016, Temasek sold a further 21% stake in Intouch Holdings, the Thai telecoms conglomerate formerly known as Shin Corp.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: In June 2018, Temasek invested S$340 million in a minority stake in UST Global, a digital technology services company. The size of the stake was not disclosed.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: Temasek purchased 30 per cent of Haldor Topsoe's shares in March 2019. The investment company was selected in recognition of the value that it would add through its deep insights and connections in Asian growth and other emerging markets, according to the Danish engineering firm. The transaction price was not disclosed.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: Beginning in 2015, Temasek began making large investments in agricultural and agricultural-related companies and ventures.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: In August 2020, Temasek Holdings added a 3.9 per cent stake in BlackRock Inc, worth about US$3.5 billion, becoming one of its largest shareholders. According to people familiar with the matter, Temasek was one of several players that bought the money manager's shares when PNC Financial Services Group Inc. sold a US$14 billion stake earlier in the year.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: In November 2020 Temasek with Creadev led a EUR140 million series C financing of French biotechnology company InnovaFeed.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: In 2021, Temasek invested in cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Following FTX's collapse in November 2022, Temasek wrote down the value of their $275 million investment in FTX to zero.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: In February 2022, Temasek led a $200 million fundraising round for a Singaporean cryptocurrency financing company, Amber Firm.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: In May 2022, Temasek was finalizing talks to lead a $50 million financing round for DotPe, an Indian startup backed by Google.


title: Temasek Holdings

text: As a company, Temasek has been carbon neutral since 2020. The firm has publicly stated that its goal is to reduce the net carbon emissions attributed to its entire portfolio to half of 2010 levels by 2030. It aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.


title: Hardy (singer)

text: Michael Wilson Hardy (born September 13, 1990), known professionally as HARDY (stylized in all caps), is an American country music singer and songwriter. He has written songs for Florida Georgia Line, Chris Lane, Blake Shelton, Dallas Smith, Thomas Rhett, and Morgan Wallen. He released his debut album "A Rock" for Big Loud Records, as well as the mixtape "Hixtape, Vol. 1." He has charted the singles "Rednecker" and "One Beer" and was featured on "Some Things Never Change".


title: Hardy (singer)

text: Michael Wilson Hardy was born September 13, 1990, to Mike and Sarah Hardy, in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Hardy initially fell in love with music because of his dad. Growing up, he would often listen to music with his father, which he has cited as the source of some of his earliest and fondest memories. The love of music grew from there, but did not become a major goal of his until he was older.


title: Hardy (singer)

text: He attended Neshoba Central High School in Philadelphia, Mississippi. It was during that time that he wrote his first song to "impress a girl." Hardy then went on to attend Middle Tennessee State University, where he got a degree in songwriting in the Recording Industry Management program.


title: Hardy (singer)

text: After graduating, Hardy took a trip to visit his sister, in Nashville, which led to the start of his career. While there, he realized that it was possible to make Country music into a career. Hardy met Florida Georgia Line in 2012 at a party where he was introduced to them by a mutual acquaintance. He was eventually reconnected with the group years later.


title: Hardy (singer)

text: After moving to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue songwriting, he became a writing partner of the duo Florida Georgia Line. Among the songs that Hardy wrote include "Up Down" by Morgan Wallen. Due to the song's success and encouragement from record producer Joey Moi, Hardy was signed to Big Loud Records in 2018.


title: Hardy (singer)

text: In October 2018, he released an EP titled "This Ole Boy", which he promoted by joining Wallen's If I Know Me Tour. This was followed in 2019 by the single "Rednecker", and a second EP titled "Where to Find Me". To support the EP, Hardy joined Florida Georgia Line on their Can't Say I Ain't Country Tour.


title: Hardy (singer)

text: Hardy also co-wrote Florida Georgia Line's singles "Simple" and "Talk You Out of It", Blake Shelton's singles "God's Country" and "Hell Right", "Drop" by Dallas Smith, Chris Lane's single "I Don't Know About You", and Jameson Rodgers' debut single "Some Girls".


title: Hardy (singer)

text: In September 2019, Hardy released a collaborative mixtape titled "Hixtape, Vol. 1", which featured a total of 17 artists including Thomas Rhett, Keith Urban, Tracy Lawrence, Jake Owen, Trace Adkins, Joe Diffie, Zakk Wylde, Cole Swindell, Dustin Lynch, and Morgan Wallen.


title: Hardy (singer)

text: Hardy was set to be on tour with Thomas Rhett in 2020 for Rhett's Center Point Road Tour, but the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In September 2020, Hardy released his debut album "A Rock", which included his single "One Beer". He was also featured on Dallas Smith’s single "Some Things Never Change". In June 2021, he was featured on the Brantley Gilbert single "The Worst Country Song of All Time". In July 2021, he was featured on Dierks Bentley's single "Beers on Me", which he co-wrote.


title: Hardy (singer)

text: He later toured with Sean Stemaly in 2021 and created "Hixtape Volume 2". This album included artists such as Matt Stell, Jon Pardi, Jimmie Allen, Colt Ford, Randy Houser, Rhett Akins, and Lainey Wilson. In the Fall of 2021, Hardy went on tour with Jason Aldean, as well. The "Back in the Saddle" tour kicked off in August 2021, and included Lainey Wilson, in addition to Hardy.


title: Hardy (singer)

text: Morgan Wallen announced his plans for his 2022 "Dangerous" tour, which included Hardy for almost all of the nearly 50 stops, including stops in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.


title: Hardy (singer)

text: In October 2022, Hardy announced that his album, "The Mockingbird & The Crow", would be released on January 20, 2023, via Big Loud Records.


title: Hardy (singer)

text: Hardy released 3 songs from "The Mockingbird & The Crow" on October 9, 2022: "TRUCK BED", "here lies country music", and "mockingbird & THE CROW", the final of which marks a distinct shift from the Country to the Rock genre.


title: Hardy (singer)

text: In 2019, Hardy received his first nomination for the Country Music Association awards. Held at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, Hardy was nominated for Song of the Year for Blake Shelton's "God's Country", which Hardy co-wrote with Devin Dawson and Jordan Schmidt. He was then again nominated in the 2021 CMA Awards as New Artist of the Year. Hardy has yet to win a CMA award.


title: Hardy (singer)

text: Hardy was nominated for two awards in the 2020 Academy of Country Music Awards: Song of the Year, for Blake Shelton's "Gods Country" that Hardy co-wrote, and Songwriter of the Year. Following that, in 2021, he received three nominations: New Male Artist, Songwriter of the Year, and Music Event of the Year, for his song "One Beer" along with Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson. Hardy was nominated for two awards in the 2022 Academy of Country Music Awards, held at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. He did not win the award for New Male Artist, losing to Parker McCollum. He was, however, named the Academy of Country Music's 2022 Songwriter of the Year, making that his first ACM Award.


title: Hardy (singer)

text: Hardy proposed to his now wife Caleigh Ryan in August 2021 at The Lyric in Oxford, Mississippi which is where the couple met in 2017. The two married on October 29, 2022.


title: The Act of Killing

text: The Act of Killing (, meaning "Butcher") is a 2012 documentary film about individuals who participated in the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–1966. The film is directed by Joshua Oppenheimer and co-directed by Christine Cynn and an anonymous Indonesian.


title: The Act of Killing

text: It is a Danish-British-Norwegian co-production, presented by Final Cut for Real in Denmark and produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen. The executive producers were Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, Joram ten Brink, and Andre Singer. It is a Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) project of the University of Westminster.


title: The Act of Killing

text: "The Act of Killing" won the 2013 European Film Award for Best Documentary, the Asia Pacific Screen Award, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 86th Academy Awards. It also won best documentary at the 67th BAFTA awards. In accepting the award, Oppenheimer said that the United States and the United Kingdom have "collective responsibility" for "participating in and ignoring" the crimes, which was omitted from the video BAFTA posted online. This participation has been extensively documented by numerous professional historians, journalists and an international tribunal, and documents declassified in 2021 indicate that the UK was even more closely involved than previously thought. After a screening for US Congress members, Oppenheimer demanded that the US acknowledge its role in the killings.


title: The Act of Killing

text: The Indonesian government had responded negatively to the film. Its presidential spokesman on foreign affairs, Teuku Faizasyah, claimed that the film is misleading with respect to its portrayal of Indonesia.


title: The Act of Killing

text: The film was ranked 19th on a list of the best documentaries ever made in a 2015 poll by the British Film Institute. In 2016, it was named the 14th greatest film released since 2000 by a poll of critics published by the BBC.


title: The Act of Killing

text: The film focuses on the perpetrators of the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–1966 in the present day. The genocide led to the killing of almost a million people, ostensibly for belonging to the local communist community. When Suharto overthrew Sukarno, the President of Indonesia, following the failed coup of the 30 September Movement in 1965, the gangsters Anwar Congo and Adi Zulkadry in Medan (North Sumatra) were promoted from selling black market movie theatre tickets to leading the most powerful death squad in North Sumatra. They also extorted money from the ethnic Chinese as the price for keeping their lives. Anwar is said to have personally killed 1000 people.


title: The Act of Killing

text: Today, Anwar is revered by the right wing of a paramilitary organization, Pemuda Pancasila, that grew out of the death squads. The organization is so powerful that its leaders include government ministers who are openly involved in corruption, election rigging and clearing people from their land for developers.


title: The Act of Killing

text: Invited by Oppenheimer, Anwar recounts his experiences killing for the cameras, and makes scenes depicting their memories and feelings about the killings. The scenes are produced in the style of their favorite films: gangster, Western, and musical. Various aspects of Anwar and his friends' filmmaking process are shown, but as they dig into Anwar's personal experiences, the reenacted scenes begin to take over the narrative. Oppenheimer has called the result "a documentary of the imagination".


title: The Act of Killing

text: Some of Anwar's friends state that the killings were wrong, while others worry about the consequences of the story on their public image.


title: The Act of Killing

text: After Anwar plays a victim, he cannot continue. Oppenheimer, from behind the camera, states that it was worse for the victims because they knew they were going to be killed, whereas Anwar was only acting. Anwar then expresses doubts over whether or not he has sinned, tearfully saying he does not want to think about it. He revisits the rooftop where he claims many of his killings took place, and retches repeatedly while describing how he had killed people during the genocide. The dancers from the film's theatrical poster are seen before the credits begin to roll.


title: The Act of Killing

text: In 2001, while conducting interviews for their 2003 film "The Globalisation Tapes", Oppenheimer and Cynn began delving into the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–1966. After moving up the ranks of those involved with the killings, Oppenheimer's interviews led him to meet Anwar Congo in 2005. The film was shot mostly in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, between 2005 and 2011. After seeing an early preview of "The Act of Killing", filmmakers Werner Herzog and Errol Morris signed on as executive producers.


title: The Act of Killing

text: Many of the people who worked on the film are not credited by name, instead appearing as "Anonymous," for fear of both legal and extrajudicial retribution for their participation.


title: The Act of Killing

text: Coinciding with the release of the film's director's cut in 2013, a free BitTorrent Bundle of behind the scenes content was uploaded to the internet by the distributor.


title: The Act of Killing

text: "The Act of Killing" received widespread acclaim from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 95% approval rating with an average rating of 8.80/10 based on 156 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Raw, terrifying, and painfully difficult to watch, "The Act of Killing" offers a haunting testament to the edifying, confrontational power of documentary cinema." On Metacritic, the film holds an average score of 91 out of 100, based on 33 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim."


title: The Act of Killing

text: Nick Schager of "The Village Voice" called it a "masterpiece." Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges called the film "an important exploration of the complex psychology of mass murderers" and wrote that "it is not the demonized, easily digestible caricature of a mass murderer that most disturbs us. It is the human being." Award-winning filmmaker Ruhi Hamid said: "It is the most extraordinary film I have ever seen. It actually turns around what we think of as documentaries. ...an extraordinary record of a horrendous part of Indonesian history."


title: The Act of Killing

text: In some quarters Oppenheimer has been accused of treating his subjects in bad faith. As far as their goal at the beginning was to glorify mass murder, Oppenheimer responds that could never have been his goal, therefore that side of them may have been betrayed. In an interview with "The Village Voice", Oppenheimer said: "When I was entrusted by this community of survivors to film these justifications, to film these boastings, I was trying to expose and interrogate the nature of impunity. Boasting about killing was the right material to do that with because it is a symptom of impunity."


title: The Act of Killing

text: Australian National University Professor of Asian History and Politics Robert Cribb stated that the film lacks historical context. In reply, Oppenheimer said that "the film is essentially not about what happened in 1965, but rather about a regime in which genocide has, paradoxically, been effaced [yet] celebrated – in order to keep the survivors terrified, the public brainwashed, and the perpetrators able to live with themselves... It never pretends to be an exhaustive account of the events of 1965. It seeks to understand the impact of the killing and terror today, on individuals and institutions."


title: The Act of Killing

text: Bradley Simpson, historian at the University of Connecticut and director of the Indonesia/East Timor Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, states the "brilliant Oscar-nominated film" has prompted vigorous debate among Indonesians about the crimes and the need to hold responsible parties accountable, and suggests that it could have a similar effect in the United States, whose own role in the killings "has never officially been acknowledged, much less accounted for, though some of the relevant documents have been made available to the public."


title: The Act of Killing

text: An Indonesian academic, Soe Tjen Marching, analyzed the film in relation to Hannah Arendt's theory of the banality of evil.


title: The Act of Killing

text: The primary subjects in the film, Anwar Congo and Herman Koto, have seen the film and neither feels deceived, according to Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer says that upon watching the film Anwar Congo "started to cry...Tearfully, he told me: 'This is the film I expected. It's an honest film, a true film.' He said he was profoundly moved and will always remain loyal to it." Oppenheimer went on to say that in the call with Congo he also became down on himself saying "There is nothing left for me to do in life but to die". Oppenheimer seeing Congo so moved and almost ashamed for what he had done, said this to him. "You're only 70 years old, Anwar. You might live another 25 years. Whatever good you do in those years is not undermined by the awful things in your past." He felt it may have been cliche, but he felt it was honest and all he could manage to say to Congo. A subsequent interview on Al Jazeera's program "101 East" revealed that Anwar had misgivings about the film and the negative reaction to it in Indonesia, which was causing problems for him. He confided these concerns directly to Oppenheimer in an apparent Skype conversation displayed within the program.


title: The Act of Killing

text: "The Act of Killing" was ranked 19th among all documentaries ever made in a 2015 poll by the British Film Institute, as well as the 14th greatest film since 2000 in a 2016 critics' poll by BBC. It was ranked 16th in "The Guardian"'s Best Films of the 21st Century list.


title: Vlade Divac

text: Vlade Divac (, ; born February 3, 1968) is a Serbian professional basketball executive and former player who was most recently the vice president of basketball operations and general manager of the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA).


title: Vlade Divac

text: Divac spent most of his playing career in the NBA. At , he played center and was known for his passing skills. He was among the first group of European basketball players to transfer to the NBA in the late 1980s and was named one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors. He is one of seven players in NBA history to record 13,000 points, 9,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists, and 1,500 blocked shots, along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Pau Gasol. Divac was also the first player born and trained outside the United States to play in over 1,000 games in the NBA. On August 20, 2010, he was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in recognition of his play in international competition. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.


title: Vlade Divac

text: Divac is a humanitarian, helping children in his native country of Serbia and in Africa. In October 2008, he was appointed as government adviser in Serbia for humanitarian issues. In February 2009, he was elected President of the Serbian Olympic Committee for a four-year term and re-elected in November 2012. In 2013, Divac received an honor from the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame.


title: Vlade Divac

text: Divac began playing basketball in his home town Prijepolje for the team KK Elan. He began his professional career in Yugoslavia playing for Sloga from Kraljevo, and was immediately noted for scoring 27 points against Crvena zvezda.


title: Vlade Divac

text: In the summer of 1986, Divac was the top star of the basketball transfer season, and he ended up signing with KK Partizan for DM14,000.


title: Vlade Divac

text: In the 1986-87 Yugoslav First League season, with players like Divac, Aleksandar Đorđević, Žarko Paspalj, Željko Obradović, and with coach Duško Vujošević at the helm, Partizan had a "dream team", which won the Yugoslavian League title. In the subsequent 1987-88 FIBA European Champions Cup season (now called EuroLeague), the club failed to reach the top of the EuroLeague, after having lost to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the semifinal in Ghent. Jugoplastika, with Dino Rađa and Toni Kukoč, was a stronger team in the subsequent three years, reigning both in Yugoslavia and in Europe.


title: Vlade Divac

text: Divac had an unusual style compared to most other centers of his generation: despite his height, he possessed good mobility, had good control of the ball, and was a decent shooter. On occasion, he would also act as a play maker. His trademark moves included a mid-range shot at the top of the key and flip shots around the rim, while facing the complete opposite direction. His quirky moves complemented how he liked playing gags on the court: in the 1989 EuroBasket, he lifted teammate Zoran Radović for a slam dunk. In just four professional seasons in Europe, he became the most sought-after big man on the continent, after Arvydas Sabonis.


title: Vlade Divac

text: Drafted into the NBA in 1989 by the Los Angeles Lakers, Divac became one of the first European players to have an impact in the league. Under the mentorship of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, he improved his play and adapted to the American style of basketball. Though he spoke no English, he quickly became popular among his teammates and the public for his charm and joviality. In the 1989–90 season, he was selected into the NBA All-Rookie Team.


title: Vlade Divac

text: Divac earned a reputation for flopping, or deceiving the officials into calling a foul on the other team by purposely falling to the floor upon contact with an opposing player. Veteran NBA forward P.J. Brown claimed that Divac might have been the best of all time at flopping. Divac freely admitted doing so, adding that he usually did it when he felt like the officials had missed some calls and owed him. However, when the NBA instituted anti-flopping penalties in 2012, Divac expressed his support for such rules, stating that he felt players after him were "overdo[ing] it" with respect to flopping. Ian Thomsen, a "Sports Illustrated" columnist, grouped Divac with fellow international players Anderson Varejão and Manu Ginóbili as the players who "made [flopping] famous", exaggerating contact on the court in a manner analogous to diving in FIBA games.


title: Vlade Divac

text: On July 1, 1996, Divac was traded to the Charlotte Hornets for the draft rights to Kobe Bryant. After initially considering retirement upon being traded to the Hornets, Divac developed a close relationship with head coach Dave Cowens and flourished in Charlotte's system. On February 12, 1997, Divac scored 18 points, grabbed 9 rebounds, and recorded a career high 12 blocks in a 113-100 win over the New Jersey Nets. Alongside Glen Rice, Anthony Mason, and Muggsy Bogues, Divac helped the Hornets to a franchise record 54 regular season wins that season. That postseason, Divac averaged 18 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game in a first round loss to the New York Knicks.


title: Vlade Divac

text: The next year, during the 1998 NBA playoffs, the Hornets beat their division rival Atlanta Hawks in the first round, before losing to the defending champion Chicago Bulls in the conference semifinals.


title: Vlade Divac

text: During the 1998–99 NBA lockout, in January 1999, Divac played 2 games for Partizan's eternal rival KK Crvena zvezda, in the 1998–99 EuroLeague season.


title: Vlade Divac

text: His debut for the "crveno-beli" took place mid-season, on Orthodox Christmas, versus a heavily favoured Žalgiris side led by Tyus Edney, Mindaugas Žukauskas, Saulius Štombergas, and Jiří Zídek Jr. Supported by a raucous home crowd and energized by Divac's arrival, as well as his 16 points and 8 rebounds, Crvena zvezda pulled off a 77–69 memorable upset win.


title: Vlade Divac

text: Divac's brief stint with Crvena zvezda, for which he reportedly got paid US$250,000 per game, immediately became a sore point with KK Partizan fans, who unfurled a banner calling him a traitor, at their club's next game.


title: Vlade Divac

text: The issue of playing for the hated cross-town rival reignited several years later, when Divac returned to KK Partizan as club president. At the time, he stated his decision to play for Crvena zvezda was "a mistake".


title: Vlade Divac

text: On January 22, 1999, Divac signed a six-year, $62.5 million contract as a free agent with the Sacramento Kings, where he played for six seasons alongside fellow countryman Peja Stojaković. Teamed with Stojaković, Hedo Türkoğlu, Chris Webber and Mike Bibby, Divac revitalized the Sacramento Kings franchise. The Kings rose in the NBA ranks, becoming a perennial playoff contender and eventually a championship contender, leading the league in wins in 2001-02. The Kings, however, could not get past the Los Angeles Lakers, who beat them controversially in a 7-game series in 2002, which has later been dubbed by some as the 'greatest tragedy in sports history'.


title: Vlade Divac

text: After the 2003–04 NBA season, Divac became a free agent. On July 20, 2004, he signed a two-year contract to return to the Lakers, part of Mitch Kupchak's plan to overhaul Laker basketball. The Lakers, following a defeat in the NBA Finals, had traded away or released most of their players, including Shaquille O'Neal, Gary Payton, Karl Malone, Derek Fisher, and more; Divac was supposed to help fill that void.


title: Vlade Divac

text: However, Divac suffered back problems and could not play most of the season, and even when he returned, could only play about nine minutes per game, averaging 2.3 points per game and 2.1 rebounds per game in 15 games, he played 8 games early in the season and 7 more in the final month of the season.


title: Vlade Divac

text: On July 14, 2005, 37-year-old Divac announced his retirement, ending his 16-year NBA and 22-year professional basketball career. Divac accepted a position with the Lakers as a European liaison to help with scouting overseas.


title: Vlade Divac

text: The Kings retired Divac's No. 21 jersey in a ceremony on March 31, 2009. Over his 16 years in the NBA, Divac earned over $93 million in salary. In September 2009, he played for the "NBA Generations" team in the 2009 NBA Asia Challenge, a series of exhibitions against Korean Basketball League and Philippine Basketball Association players.


title: Vlade Divac

text: In summer 1986, at 18, right after signing for KK Partizan, Divac debuted for the senior Yugoslavia national basketball team at the 1986 FIBA World Championship in Madrid, on invitation by the head coach Krešimir Ćosić. However, the excellent rookie's performance was spoiled by the event in the semi-finals against the Soviet Union. Forty-five seconds before the end, Yugoslavia had a comfortable lead of 9 points, but the Soviets scored two three-pointers within a few seconds and cut the difference to 3 points. Yugoslavia tried to hold the ball for the remaining time, opting to continue the play with throw-ins instead of free throws following fouls, but with only 14 seconds left, Divac committed a double dribble, the Soviets were awarded the ball, and tied the score with another three-pointer. In the overtime, the Soviets won by 1 point and Yugoslavs had to be content with the bronze.


title: Vlade Divac

text: The next year, Divac participated in the team that took the gold at the 1987 FIBA Junior World Championship (which was later split into separate under-19 and under-21 events) in Bormio, Italy. That event launched the young generation of Yugoslavian basketball players, also featuring stars like Rađa and Kukoč, regarded as likely the best in history. Before the breakup of Yugoslavia, they would also take the titles at EuroBasket 1989 and the 1990 FIBA World Championship in Argentina, where they were led by Dražen Petrović, as well as the EuroBasket 1991 title, with Aleksandar Đorđević at point guard.


title: Vlade Divac

text: When Yugoslavia won the gold in the 1990 FIBA World Championship, fans rushed onto the court. One of them was holding a Croatian flag, one of the six republics that made up Yugoslavia. Divac claims that he told the man that he should not be waving that flag, since this was a win for Yugoslavia. Divac claims the man made a derogatory remark about the Yugoslav flag, at which point Divac took his flag from him. This happened during a very tense time where nationalistic pride was threatening to tear Yugoslavia apart and ignite a war. The taking of the flag made Divac a hero to Serbs, and a villain to Croatians. Divac has stated that he did not mean it as an act against Croatia and he would have taken away a Serbian flag if a Serb fan had done the same.


title: Vlade Divac

text: This action, along with the Yugoslav Wars, alienated Divac from many of his former Croatian friends, particularly Dražen Petrović, whom he considered his best friend. When FR Yugoslavia won the gold medal at the EuroBasket 1995, and Croatia won bronze, Croatia, still at war with Serbs from Croatia, walked off the podium during the medal ceremony. The teams had not faced each other in the tournament.


title: Vlade Divac

text: In 2002, Divac was part of the team that won the FIBA World Cup in Indianapolis, beating Argentina in the final and the USA earlier on.


title: Vlade Divac

text: Through the twilight of his playing career and afterwards, Divac focused on three fields: humanitarian work, sport management, and investment.


title: Vlade Divac

text: In late 2000, following the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević whose policies Divac had been openly critical of throughout mid-to-late 1990s, Divac and former teammate Predrag Danilović took over their former club KK Partizan. They did so on initiative by Ivica Dačić, the club's outgoing president and, more importantly, a suddenly marginalized politician who, due to his association with Milošević, was forced to leave his post at the club. Seeing that various state-owned companies and community property were being taken over in a dubious manner during the power vacuum that resulted from régime change, Dačić saw it prudent to bring the club's two former greats as a safeguard against the same happening to KK Partizan. Divac became the club's president while Danilović took the vice-president role.


title: Vlade Divac

text: Freshly retired from playing, Danilović was actually running the club's day-to-day operations since Divac was still very actively involved with the Sacramento Kings at the time. The head coach they inherited, Darko Russo, finished out the 2000–01 season before they decided in summer 2001 to bring back their mentor Duško Vujošević to be the new head coach.


title: Vlade Divac

text: Though the duo never stated so outright, their additional motivation in getting involved with KK Partizan again was perceived to be gaining the upper hand on the club's eventual privatisation process once the new Law on Sports was passed in the Serbian parliament. Since the exact ownership structure of a publicly owned KK Partizan was not and still is not really clear, potential investors decided to stay away, at least until the law came into effect. Divac and Danilović appeared pretty much out of nowhere in this regard but enjoyed plenty of fan and public support because most preferred to see their beloved club owned and operated by its former stars rather than a faceless corporation or a group of politicians, managers or businessmen close to the ruling coalition. However, after a few years the duo ran out of patience and pulled out of the venture in late 2004 because it became too much of a financial burden with no end goal in sight. While he stopped performing any official functions at the club, Divac continued to be involved with it in a lesser capacity for a few years afterwards.


title: Vlade Divac

text: In October 2005, right after ending his playing career with the Los Angeles Lakers, Divac got hired as the Lakers' European scout, reporting directly to the team's general manager Mitch Kupchak. He left the position in 2006.


title: Vlade Divac

text: In June 2006, through his friendship with Predrag Mijatović, Divac linked up with Ramón Calderón as part of the lawyer's candidate bid for the presidency of Real Madrid. When Calderón closely won the club elections on July 2, 2006, Divac was announced as the head of operations at Real Madrid basketball club though the scope of his job description soon got reduced to consulting duties as president Calderón's adviser for basketball and club's international coordinator.


title: Vlade Divac

text: However, Divac's role in the club's day-to-day operations turned out to be largely symbolic, and he even admitted as much in a March 2007 interview for Croatian weekly "Globus": "I literally do nothing and I only serve as part of the "royal club"'s image. I only accepted the job because of Mijatović, who is currently the football director at Real". By the end of 2007, following a financial settlement between the two parties, Divac moved on from the post for which he had been reportedly receiving an annual compensation of €300,000.


title: Vlade Divac

text: In October 2008, Divac's political advisory engagement within the Serbian government as the sports, diaspora, and humanitarian advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister and Internal Affairs Minister Ivica Dačić, got announced.


title: Vlade Divac

text: Divac was proposed in 2000 as Yugoslavia's candidate for the Sport Commission of the International Olympic Committee in spring 2000. This candidature was withdrawn under pressure from Milošević regime. In February 2009, Divac ran for presidency of the Olympic Committee of Serbia against incumbent president Ivan Ćurković. He won the race after Ćurković withdrew just before the scheduled voting. In November 2012, he was re-elected as the sole candidate; the end of his second mandate coincides with the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.


title: Vlade Divac

text: In December 2014, Kosovo was accepted as a full member of the International Olympic Committee. Divac and the Serbian Olympic Committee have been criticised, chiefly by the Democratic Party of Serbia, for failing to take any effort to prevent that. Divac stated that he is not happy with the decision of the IOC, but could not have prevented it as it had already been made, and said he would accept it "in the interest of the athletes".


title: Vlade Divac

text: On May 9, 2017, he was succeeded by Serbian former basketball coach Božidar Maljković on position of the president of Olympic Committee of Serbia.


title: Vlade Divac

text: In early March 2015, Divac was hired by the Sacramento Kings as their vice president of basketball and franchise operations. Brought into the organization by the principal owner Vivek Ranadivé towards the end of a turbulent season, Divac's arrival came in the wake of head coach Mike Malone's firing and the eventual hiring of George Karl. Working alongside the team's general manager Pete D'Alessandro, Divac's initial duties with the Kings were reported to be advising the front office and coaches as well as assisting with branding and fan outreach. However, such broadly defined job responsibilities immediately led to press speculation about Divac's role within the organization that in addition to general manager D'Alessandro also featured assistant GM Mike Bratz, special assistant to the GM Mitch Richmond, director of player personnel and analytics Dean Oliver, adviser to the chairman Chris Mullin, as well as a head coach, Karl, who has always wanted to be involved in personnel issues. Within a month of Divac's hiring, ESPN's Marc Stein reported that "despite the Kings not yet announcing their new power structure, Divac is indeed already regarded as the team's top basketball official by owner Ranadivé".


title: Vlade Divac

text: On June 10, 2015, two weeks before the NBA draft, general manager D'Alessandro left the Kings by accepting a front-office position with the Denver Nuggets amid reports he did so due to being stripped of his decision-making power after Ranadivé hired Divac.