title: Human zoo

text: As the controversy continued, Hornaday remained unapologetic, insisting that his only intention was to put on an ethnological exhibition. In another letter, he said that he and Grant—who ten years later would publish the racist tract "The Passing of the Great Race"—considered it "imperative that the society should not even seem to be dictated to" by the black clergymen.


title: Human zoo

text: 1903 saw one of the first widespread protests against human zoos, at the "Human Pavilion" of an exposition in Osaka, Japan. The exhibition of Koreans and Okinawans in "primitive" housing incurred protests from the governments of Korea and Okinawa, and a Formosan woman wearing Chinese dress angered a group of Chinese students studying abroad in Tokyo. An Ainu schoolteacher was made to exhibit himself in the zoo to raise money for his schoolhouse, as the Japanese government refused to pay. The fact that the schoolteacher made eloquent speeches and fundraised for his school while wearing traditional dress confused the spectators. An anonymous front-page column in a Japanese magazine condemned these examples and the "Human Pavilion" in total, calling it inhumane to exhibit people as spectacles.


title: Human zoo

text: In 1904, over 1,100 Filipinos were displayed at the St. Louis World's Fair in association with the 1904 Summer Olympics. Following the Spanish-American War, the United States had just acquired new territories such as Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. William H. Taft was the civil governor of the Philippines at the time and allowed the U.S. to put together a Philippines exhibition in an attempt to "showcase the new colony." Filipinos were put into villages, known generally by fair attendees as the "Igorrote Village," despite the variety of ethnic groups represented. While the exhibit was promoted as a display of U.S. power and growth, it is believed that to achieve this perspective, the Filipinos themselves were construed as "racially inferior and incapable of national self-determination in the near future." This was done by encouraging the performance of tribal customs that were seen as bizarre and 'savage' by Americans, such as eating dog. The villages also took part in western-influenced demonstrations, such as attending model school and participating in police drill teams.


title: Human zoo

text: One of the activities the indigenous people held in the zoo had to participate in were the "Special Olympics." This was an activity decided by the organizers of the zoos at the 1904 world's fair. The people that were kept in the zoos were a symbol for the U.S. latest victory, keeping groups of people in the zoo to look at and showcase their newest territories. Igorot, Negrito, Visayan, and Moro were the four tribes that were brought over from the Philippines to show the diversity of the Filipino people. When originally transported to St. Louis people put in the zoos were originally only given rations of rice, some hardtack, and canned goods. A lot of the Filipinos who arrived came coughing and ill from their travels on the train to St. Louis. They were given temporary live quarters while their traditional huts were being built in the zoo for them to live in during the fair. While being a part of the fair the members of the tribes that were brought to the zoo were made to showcase their unique traditions during the fair to entertain. There was also a school made for the children in these tribes, where visitors could observe from an elevated balcony and view the children learning.


title: Human zoo

text: Between 1 May and 31 October 1908 the Scottish National Exhibition, opened by one of Queen Victoria's grandsons, Prince Arthur of Connaught, was held in Saughton Park, Edinburgh. One of the attractions was the Senegal Village with its French-speaking Senegalese residents, on show demonstrating their way of life, art and craft while living in beehive huts.


title: Human zoo

text: In 1909, the infrastructure of the 1908 Scottish National Exhibition in Edinburgh was used to construct the new Marine Gardens to the coast near Edinburgh at Portobello. A group of Somali men, women and children were shipped over to be part of the exhibition, living in thatched huts.


title: Human zoo

text: In 1925, a display at Belle Vue Zoo in Manchester, England, was entitled "Cannibals" and featured black Africans in supposedly native dress.


title: Human zoo

text: In 1931, around 100 other New Caledonian Kanaks, were put on display at the Jardin d'Acclimatation in Paris.


title: Human zoo

text: By the 1930s, a new kind of human zoo appeared in America, nude shows masquerading as education. These included the Zoro Garden Nudist Colony at the Pacific International Exposition in San Diego, California (1935–36) and the Sally Rand Nude Ranch at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco (1939). The former was supposedly a real nudist colony, which used hired performers instead of actual nudists. The latter featured nude women performing in western attire. The Golden Gate fair also featured a "Greenwich Village" show, described in the Official Guide Book as "Model artists' colony and revue theatre."


title: Human zoo

text: As ethnogenic expositions were discontinued in Germany around 1931, there were many repercussions for the performers. Many of the people brought from their homelands to work in the exhibits had created families in Germany, and there were many children that had been born in Germany. Once they no longer worked in the zoos or for performance acts, these people were stuck living in Germany where they had no rights and were harshly discriminated against. During the rise of the Nazi party, the foreign actors in these stage shows were typically able to stay out of concentration camps because there were so few of them that the Nazis did not see them as a real threat. Although they were able to avoid concentration camps, they were not able to participate in German life as citizens of ethnically German origin could. The Hitler Youth did not allow children of foreign parents to participate, and adults were rejected as German soldiers. Many ended up working in war industry factories or foreign laborer camps. After World War II ended, racism in Germany became more concealed or invisible, but it did not go away. Many people of foreign descent intended to leave after the war, but because of their German nationality, it was difficult for them to emigrate.


title: Human zoo

text: As part of the Portuguese World Exhibition in 1940, members of a tribe from the Bissagos Islands of Guinea-Bissau were displayed on an island in a lake in the Lisbon Tropical Botanical Garden.


title: Human zoo

text: In April 1994, an example of an Ivory Coast village was presented as part of an African safari in Port-Saint-Père, near Nantes, in France, later called Planète Sauvage.


title: Human zoo

text: In July 2005, the Augsburg Zoo in Germany hosted an "African village" featuring African crafts and African cultural performances. The event was subject to widespread criticism. Defenders of the event argued that it was not racist since it did not involve exhibiting Africans in a debasing way, as had been done at zoos in the past. Critics argued that presenting African culture in the context of a zoo contributed to exoticizing and stereotyping Africans, thus laying the ground work for racial discrimination.


title: Human zoo

text: In August 2005, London Zoo displayed four human volunteers wearing fig leaves (and bathing suits) for four days.


title: Human zoo

text: In 2007, Adelaide Zoo ran a Human Zoo exhibition which consisted of a group of people who, as part of a study exercise, had applied to be housed in the former ape enclosure by day, but then returned home by night. The inhabitants took part in several exercises, and spectators were asked for donations towards a new ape enclosure.


title: Human zoo

text: Also in 2007, pygmy performers at the Festival of Pan-African Music (Fespam) were housed at a zoo in Brazzaville, Congo. Although members of the group of 20 people—among them an infant, age three months—were not officially on display, it was necessary for them to "collect firewood in the zoo to cook their food, and [they] were being stared at and filmed by tourists and passers-by".


title: Human zoo

text: In 2012, a video surfaced showing a safari trip to the Bay of Bengal. The safari trip included showcasing the Jarawa tribe of the Andaman Islands in their own home. This indigenous tribe had not had much contact with outsiders, and some were asked to perform dances for the tourists. At the beginning of the safari trip there were signs stating not to "feed" the tribespeople, but tourists still brought food to give to the tribespeople. In 2013, the Indian Supreme Court banned these safari trips.


title: Human zoo

text: In August 2014, as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, South African theatre-maker Brett Bailey's show "Exhibit B" was performed in the Playfair Library Hall, University of Edinburgh; then in September at The Barbican in London. This explored the nature of Human Zoos and raised much controversy both amongst the performers and the audiences.


title: Human zoo

text: With a view to tackling the morality of Human Zoo exhibits, 2018 saw the poster exhibition, "Putting People on Display", tour Glasgow School of Art, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Stirling, the University of St Andrews and the University of Aberdeen. Additional posters were added to a selection from the French ACHAC's exhibition, "Human Zoos: the Invention of the Savage", in relation to the Scottish dimension in hosting such shows.


title: Human zoo

text: The threatening, exploitative and degrading practice of "human safari" tourism has been a prevalent problem particularly for indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, such as the Sentinelese.


title: A cappella

text: A cappella (, , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term "a cappella" was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato musical styles. In the 19th century, a renewed interest in Renaissance polyphony, coupled with an ignorance of the fact that vocal parts were often doubled by instrumentalists, led to the term coming to mean unaccompanied vocal music. The term is also used, rarely, as a synonym for "alla breve".


title: A cappella

text: A cappella could be as old as humanity itself. Research suggests that singing and vocables may have been what early humans used to communicate before the invention of language. The earliest piece of sheet music is thought to have originated from times as early as 2000 B.C. while the earliest that has survived in its entirety is from the first century A.D.: a piece from Greece called the Seikilos epitaph.


title: A cappella

text: A cappella music was originally used in religious music, especially church music as well as anasheed and zemirot. Gregorian chant is an example of a cappella singing, as is the majority of secular vocal music from the Renaissance. The madrigal, up until its development in the early Baroque into an instrumentally accompanied form, is also usually in a cappella form. The Psalms note that some early songs were accompanied by string instruments, though Jewish and Early Christian music was largely a cappella; the use of instruments has subsequently increased within both of these religions as well as in Islam.


title: A cappella

text: The polyphony of Christian a cappella music began to develop in Europe around the late 15th century AD, with compositions by Josquin des Prez. The early a cappella polyphonies may have had an accompanying instrument, although this instrument would merely double the singers' parts and was not independent. By the 16th century, a cappella polyphony had further developed, but gradually, the cantata began to take the place of a cappella forms. Sixteenth-century a cappella polyphony, nonetheless, continued to influence church composers throughout this period and to the present day. Recent evidence has shown that some of the early pieces by Palestrina, such as those written for the Sistine Chapel, were intended to be accompanied by an organ "doubling" some or all of the voices. Such is seen in the life of Palestrina becoming a major influence on Bach, most notably in the "Mass in B Minor".


title: A cappella

text: Other composers that utilized the a cappella style, if only for the occasional piece, were Claudio Monteverdi and his masterpiece, "Lagrime d'amante al sepolcro dell'amata" (A lover's tears at his beloved's grave), which was composed in 1610, and Andrea Gabrieli when upon his death many choral pieces were discovered, one of which was in the unaccompanied style. Learning from the preceding two composers, Heinrich Schütz utilized the a cappella style in numerous pieces, chief among these were the pieces in the oratorio style, which were traditionally performed during the Easter week and dealt with the religious subject matter of that week, such as Christ's suffering and the Passion. Five of Schutz's "Historien" were Easter pieces, and of these the latter three, which dealt with the passion from three different viewpoints, those of Matthew, Luke and John, were all done a cappella style. This was a near requirement for this type of piece, and the parts of the crowd were sung while the solo parts which were the quoted parts from either Christ or the authors were performed in a plainchant.


title: A cappella

text: In the Byzantine Rite of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches, the music performed in the liturgies is exclusively sung without instrumental accompaniment. Bishop Kallistos Ware says, "The service is sung, even though there may be no choir... In the Orthodox Church today, as in the early Church, singing is unaccompanied and instrumental music is not found." This a cappella behavior arises from strict interpretation of Psalms 150, which states, "Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord." In keeping with this philosophy, early Russian "musika" which started appearing in the late 17th century, in what was known as "khorovïye kontsertï" (choral concertos) made a cappella adaptations of Venetian-styled pieces, such as the treatise, "Grammatika musikiyskaya" (1675), by Nikolai Diletsky. Divine Liturgies and Western Rite masses composed by famous composers such as Peter Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alexander Arkhangelsky, and Mykola Leontovych are fine examples of this.


title: A cappella

text: Present-day Christian religious bodies known for conducting their worship services without musical accompaniment include many Oriental Orthodox Churches (such as the Coptic Orthodox Church), many Anabaptist communities (including Old Order Anabaptist groups—such as the Amish, Old German Baptist Brethren, Old Order Mennonites, as well as Conservative Anabaptist groups—such as the Dunkard Brethren Church and Conservative Mennonites), some Presbyterian churches devoted to the regulative principle of worship, Old Regular Baptists, Primitive Baptists, Plymouth Brethren, Churches of Christ, Church of God (Guthrie, Oklahoma), the Reformed Free Methodists, Doukhobors, and the Byzantine Rite of Eastern Christianity. Certain high church services and other musical events in liturgical churches (such as the Roman Catholic Mass and the Lutheran Divine Service) may be a cappella, a practice remaining from apostolic times. Many Mennonites also conduct some or all of their services without instruments. Sacred Harp, a type of folk music, is an a cappella style of religious singing with shape notes, usually sung at singing conventions.


title: A cappella

text: Opponents of musical instruments in the Christian worship believe that such opposition is supported by the Christian scriptures and Church history. The scriptures typically referenced are Matthew 26:30; Acts 16:25; Romans 15:9; 1 Corinthians 14:15; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; Hebrews 2:12, 13:15 and James 5:13, which show examples and exhortations for Christians to sing.


title: A cappella

text: There is no reference to instrumental music in early church worship in the New Testament, or in the worship of churches for the first six centuries. Several reasons have been posited throughout church history for the absence of instrumental music in church worship.


title: A cappella

text: Christians who believe in a cappella music today believe that in the Israelite worship assembly during Temple worship only the Priests of Levi sang, played, and offered animal sacrifices, whereas in the church era, all Christians are commanded to sing praises to God. They believe that if God wanted instrumental music in New Testament worship, He would have commanded not just singing, but singing and playing like he did in the Hebrew scriptures.


title: A cappella

text: Instruments have divided Christendom since their introduction into worship. They were considered a Roman Catholic innovation, not widely practiced until the 18th century, and were opposed vigorously in worship by a number of Protestant Reformers, including Martin Luther (1483–1546), Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin (1509–1564) and John Wesley (1703–1791). Alexander Campbell referred to the use of an instrument in worship as "a cow bell in a concert". In Sir Walter Scott's "The Heart of Midlothian", the heroine, Jeanie Deans, a Scottish Presbyterian, writes to her father about the church situation she has found in England (bold added):


title: A cappella

text: Those who do not adhere to the regulative principle of interpreting Christian scripture, believe that limiting praise to the unaccompanied chant of the early church is not commanded in scripture, and that churches in any age are free to offer their songs with or without musical instruments.


title: A cappella

text: Those who subscribe to this interpretation believe that since the Christian scriptures never counter instrumental language with any negative judgment on instruments, opposition to instruments instead comes from an interpretation of history. There is no written opposition to musical instruments in any setting in the first century and a half of Christian churches (33–180 AD). The use of instruments for Christian worship during this period is also undocumented. Toward the end of the 2nd century, Christians began condemning the instruments themselves. Those who oppose instruments today believe these Church Fathers had a better understanding of God's desire for the church, but there are significant differences between the teachings of these Church Fathers and Christian opposition to instruments today.


title: A cappella

text: Since "a cappella" singing brought a new polyphony (more than one note at a time) with instrumental accompaniment, it is not surprising that Protestant reformers who opposed the instruments (such as Calvin and Zwingli) also opposed the polyphony. While Zwingli was destroying organs in Switzerland – Luther called him a fanatic – the Church of England was burning books of polyphony.


title: A cappella

text: Some Holiness Churches such as the Free Methodist Church opposed the use of musical instruments in church worship until the mid-20th century. The Free Methodist Church allowed for local church decision on the use of either an organ or piano in the 1943 Conference before lifting the ban entirely in 1955. The Reformed Free Methodist Church and Evangelical Wesleyan Church were formed as a result of a schism with the Free Methodist Church, with the former retaining a cappella worship and the latter retaining the rule limiting the number of instruments in the church to the piano and organ.


title: A cappella

text: While worship in the Temple in Jerusalem included musical instruments, traditional Jewish religious services in the Synagogue, both before and after the last destruction of the Temple, did not include musical instruments given the practice of scriptural cantillation. The use of musical instruments is traditionally forbidden on the Sabbath out of concern that players would be tempted to repair (or tune) their instruments, which is forbidden on those days. (This prohibition has been relaxed in many Reform and some Conservative congregations.) Similarly, when Jewish families and larger groups sing traditional Sabbath songs known as zemirot outside the context of formal religious services, they usually do so a cappella, and Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebrations on the Sabbath sometimes feature entertainment by a cappella ensembles. During the Three Weeks musical instruments are prohibited. Many Jews consider a portion of the 49-day period of the counting of the omer between Passover and Shavuot to be a time of semi-mourning and instrumental music is not allowed during that time. This has led to a tradition of a cappella singing sometimes known as "sefirah" music.


title: A cappella

text: The popularization of the Jewish chant may be found in the writings of the Jewish philosopher Philo, born 20 BC. Weaving together Jewish and Greek thought, Philo promoted praise without instruments, and taught that "silent singing" (without even vocal chords) was better still. This view parted with the Jewish scriptures, where Israel offered praise with instruments by God's own command The shofar is the only temple instrument still being used today in the synagogue, and it is only used from Rosh Chodesh Elul through the end of Yom Kippur. The shofar is used by itself, without any vocal accompaniment, and is limited to a very strictly defined set of sounds and specific places in the synagogue service. However, silver trumpets, as described in Numbers 10:1-18, have been made in recent years and used in prayer services at the Western Wall.


title: A cappella

text: Peter Christian Lutkin, dean of the Northwestern University School of Music, helped popularize a cappella music in the United States by founding the Northwestern A Cappella Choir in 1906. The A Cappella Choir was "the first permanent organization of its kind in America."


title: A cappella

text: An a cappella tradition was begun in 1911 by F. Melius Christiansen, a music faculty member at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. The St. Olaf College Choir was established as an outgrowth of the local St. John's Lutheran Church, where Christiansen was organist and the choir was composed, at least partially, of students from the nearby St. Olaf campus. The success of the ensemble was emulated by other regional conductors, and a tradition of a cappella choral music was born in the region at colleges like Concordia College (Moorhead, Minnesota), Augustana College (Rock Island, Illinois), Waldorf University (Forest City, Iowa), Luther College (Decorah, Iowa), Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, Minnesota), Augustana College (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), and Augsburg University (Minneapolis, Minnesota). The choirs typically range from 40 to 80 singers and are recognized for their efforts to perfect blend, intonation, phrasing and pitch in a large choral setting.


title: A cappella

text: Movements in modern a cappella over the past century include barbershop and doo wop. The Barbershop Harmony Society, Sweet Adelines International, and Harmony Inc. host educational events including Harmony University, Directors University, and the International Educational Symposium, and international contests and conventions, recognizing international champion choruses and quartets.


title: A cappella

text: Many a cappella groups can be found in high schools and colleges. There are amateur Barbershop Harmony Society and professional groups that sing a cappella exclusively. Although a cappella is technically defined as singing without instrumental accompaniment, some groups use their voices to emulate instruments; others are more traditional and focus on harmonizing. A cappella styles range from gospel music to contemporary to barbershop quartets and choruses.


title: A cappella

text: The Contemporary A Cappella Society (CASA) is a membership option for former students, whose funds support hosted competitions and events.


title: A cappella

text: A cappella music was popularized between the late 2000s and the early to mid-2010s with media hits such as the 2009–2014 TV show "The Sing-Off" and the musical comedy film series "Pitch Perfect".


title: A cappella

text: In July 1943, as a result of the American Federation of Musicians boycott of US recording studios, the a cappella vocal group "The Song Spinners" had a best-seller with "Comin' In on a Wing and a Prayer". In the 1950s, several recording groups, notably The Hi-Los and the Four Freshmen, introduced complex jazz harmonies to a cappella performances. The King's Singers are credited with promoting interest in small-group a cappella performances in the 1960s. Frank Zappa loved Doo wop and a cappella, so Zappa released The Persuasions' first album from his label in 1970. Judy Collins recorded "Amazing Grace" a cappella. In 1983, an a cappella group known as The Flying Pickets had a Christmas 'number one' in the UK with a cover of Yazoo's (known in the US as Yaz) "Only You". A cappella music attained renewed prominence from the late 1980s onward, spurred by the success of Top 40 recordings by artists such as The Manhattan Transfer, Bobby McFerrin, Huey Lewis and the News, All-4-One, The Nylons, Backstreet Boys, Boyz II Men, and *NSYNC.


title: A cappella

text: Contemporary a cappella includes many vocal groups and bands who add vocal percussion or beatboxing to create a pop/rock/gospel sound, in some cases very similar to bands with instruments. Examples of such professional groups include Straight No Chaser, Pentatonix, The House Jacks, Rockapella, Mosaic, Home Free and M-pact. There also remains a strong a cappella presence within Christian music, as some denominations purposefully do not use instruments during worship. Examples of such groups are Take 6, Glad and Acappella. Arrangements of popular music for small a cappella ensembles typically include one voice singing the lead melody, one singing a rhythmic bass line, and the remaining voices contributing chordal or polyphonic accompaniment.


title: A cappella

text: A cappella can also describe the isolated vocal track(s) from a multitrack recording that originally included instrumentation. These vocal tracks may be remixed or put onto vinyl records for DJs, or released to the public so that fans can remix them. One such example is the a cappella release of Jay-Z's "Black Album", which Danger Mouse mixed with The Beatles' "White Album" to create "The Grey Album".


title: A cappella

text: On their 1966 album titled "Album", Peter, Paul and Mary included the song "Norman Normal". All the sounds on that song, both vocals and instruments, were created by Paul's voice, with no actual instruments used.


title: A cappella

text: In 2013, an artist by the name Smooth McGroove rose to prominence with his style of a cappella music. He is best known for his a cappella covers of video game music tracks on YouTube.


title: A cappella

text: in 2015, an a cappella version of Jerusalem by multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier was selected for Beats by Dre "The Game Starts Here" for the England Rugby World Cup campaign.


title: A cappella

text: A cappella has been used as the sole orchestration for original works of musical theatre that have had commercial runs Off-Broadway (theatres in New York City with 99 to 500 seats) only four times. The first was Avenue X which opened on 28 January 1994 and ran for 77 performances. It was produced by Playwrights Horizons with book by John Jiler, music and lyrics by Ray Leslee. The musical style of the show's score was primarily Doo-Wop as the plot revolved around Doo-Wop group singers of the 1960s.


title: A cappella

text: In 2001, The Kinsey Sicks, produced and starred in the critically acclaimed off-Broadway hit, "DRAGAPELLA! Starring the Kinsey Sicks" at New York's legendary Studio 54. That production received a nomination for a Lucille Lortel award as Best Musical and a Drama Desk nomination for Best Lyrics. It was directed by Glenn Casale with original music and lyrics by Ben Schatz.


title: A cappella

text: The a cappella musical Perfect Harmony, a comedy about two high school a cappella groups vying to win the National championship, made its Off Broadway debut at Theatre Row's Acorn Theatre on 42nd Street in New York City in October 2010 after a successful out-of-town run at the Stoneham Theatre, in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Perfect Harmony features the hit music of The Jackson 5, Pat Benatar, Billy Idol, Marvin Gaye, Scandal, Tiffany, The Romantics, The Pretenders, The Temptations, The Contours, The Commodores, Tommy James & the Shondells and The Partridge Family, and has been compared to a cross between Altar Boyz and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.


title: A cappella

text: The fourth a cappella musical to appear Off-Broadway, In Transit, premiered 5 October 2010 and was produced by Primary Stages with book, music, and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russ Kaplan, and Sara Wordsworth. Set primarily in the New York City subway system its score features an eclectic mix of musical genres (including jazz, hip hop, Latin, rock, and country). In Transit incorporates vocal beat boxing into its contemporary a cappella arrangements through the use of a subway beat boxer character. Beat boxer and actor Chesney Snow performed this role for the 2010 Primary Stages production. According to the show's website, it is scheduled to reopen for an open-ended commercial run in the Fall of 2011. In 2011, the production received four Lucille Lortel Award nominations including Outstanding Musical, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League nominations, as well as five Drama Desk nominations including Outstanding Musical and won for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.


title: A cappella

text: Barbershop music is one of several uniquely American art forms. The earliest reports of this style of a cappella music involved African Americans. The earliest documented quartets all began in barber shops. In 1938, the first formal men's barbershop organization was formed, known as the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America (S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A), and in 2004 rebranded itself and officially changed its public name to the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS). Today the BHS has about 22,000 members in approximately 800 chapters across the United States and Canada, and the barbershop style has spread around the world with organizations in many other countries. The Barbershop Harmony Society provides a highly organized competition structure for a cappella quartets and choruses singing in the barbershop style.


title: A cappella

text: In 1945, the first formal women's barbershop organization, Sweet Adelines, was formed. In 1953, Sweet Adelines became an international organization, although it didn't change its name to Sweet Adelines International until 1991. The membership of nearly 25,000 women, all singing in English, includes choruses in most of the fifty United States as well as in Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the organization encompasses more than 1,200 registered quartets and 600 choruses.


title: A cappella

text: In 1959, a second women's barbershop organization started as a break off from Sweet Adelines due to ideological differences. Based on democratic principles which continue to this day, Harmony, Inc. is smaller than its counterpart, but has an atmosphere of friendship and competition. With about 2,500 members in the United States and Canada, Harmony, Inc. uses the same rules in contest that the Barbershop Harmony Society uses. Harmony, Inc. is registered in Providence, Rhode Island.


title: A cappella

text: The popularity of a cappella among high schools and amateurs was revived by television shows and movies such as "Glee" and "Pitch Perfect". High school groups may have conductors or student leaders who keep the tempo for the group, or beatboxers/vocal percussionists.


title: A cappella

text: Since 2013, summer training programs have appeared, such as A Cappella Academy in Los Angeles, California (founded by Ben Bram, Rob Dietz, and Avi Kaplan) and Camp A Cappella in Dayton, Ohio (founded by Deke Sharon and Brody McDonald). These programs teach about different aspects of a cappella music, including vocal performance, arranging, and beatboxing/vocal percussion.


title: A cappella

text: The national anthem of Afghanistan under the Taliban is an a cappella song, as musical instruments are considered "haram" (forbidden or religiously outlawed) .


title: A cappella

text: The first a cappella group after the Islamic Revolution is the , which was able to perform on national television despite a ban on women singing.


title: A cappella

text: Composer Dinesh Subasinghe became the first Sri Lankan to write a cappella pieces for SATB choirs. He wrote "The Princes of the Lost Tribe" and "Ancient Queen of Somawathee" for Menaka De Sahabandu and Bridget Helpe's choirs, respectively, based on historical incidents in ancient Sri Lanka. Voice Print is also a professional a cappella music group in Sri Lanka.


title: A cappella

text: The European a cappella tradition is especially strong in the countries around the Baltic and perhaps most so in Sweden as described by Richard Sparks in his doctoral thesis "The Swedish Choral Miracle" in 2000.


title: A cappella

text: Swedish a cappella choirs have over the last 25 years won around 25% of the annual prestigious European Grand Prix for Choral Singing (EGP) that despite its name is open to choirs from all over the world (see list of laureates in the Wikipedia article on the EGP competition).


title: A cappella

text: The reasons for the strong Swedish dominance are as explained by Richard Sparks manifold; suffice to say here that there is a long-standing tradition, an unusually large proportion of the populations (5% is often cited) regularly sing in choirs, the Swedish choral director Eric Ericson had an enormous impact on a cappella choral development not only in Sweden but around the world, and finally there are a large number of very popular primary and secondary schools ('music schools') with high admission standards based on auditions that combine a rigid academic regimen with high level choral singing on every school day, a system that started with Adolf Fredrik's Music School in Stockholm in 1939 but has spread over the country.


title: A cappella

text: A cappella has gained attention in the UK in recent years, with many groups forming at British universities by students seeking an alternative singing pursuit to traditional choral and chapel singing. This movement has been bolstered by organisations such as The Voice Festival UK.


title: A cappella

text: It is not clear exactly where collegiate a cappella began. The Rensselyrics of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (formerly known as the RPI Glee Club), established in 1873 is perhaps the oldest known collegiate a cappella group. The longest continuously singing group is probably The Whiffenpoofs of Yale University, which was formed in 1909 and once included Cole Porter as a member. Collegiate a cappella groups grew throughout the 20th century. Some notable historical groups formed along the way include Colgate University's The Colgate 13 (1942), Dartmouth College's Aires (1946), Cornell University's Cayuga's Waiters (1949) and The Hangovers (1968), the University of Maine Maine Steiners (1958), the Columbia University Kingsmen (1949), the Jabberwocks of Brown University (1949), and the University of Rochester YellowJackets (1956).


title: A cappella

text: All-women a cappella groups followed shortly, frequently as a parody of the men's groups: the Smiffenpoofs of Smith College (1936), the Night Owls of Vassar College (1942), The Shwiffs of Connecticut College (The She-Whiffenpoofs, 1944), and The Chattertocks of Brown University (1951). A cappella groups exploded in popularity beginning in the 1990s, fueled in part by a change in style popularized by the Tufts University Beelzebubs and the Boston University Dear Abbeys. The new style used voices to emulate modern rock instruments, including vocal percussion/"beatboxing". Some larger universities now have multiple groups. Groups often join one another in on-campus concerts, such as the Georgetown Chimes' Cherry Tree Massacre, a 3-weekend a cappella festival held each February since 1975, where over a hundred collegiate groups have appeared, as well as International Quartet Champions The Boston Common and the contemporary commercial a cappella group Rockapella. Co-ed groups have produced many up-and-coming and major artists, including John Legend, an alumnus of the Counterparts at the University of Pennsylvania, Sara Bareilles, an alumna of Awaken A Cappella at University of California, Los Angeles, and Mindy Kaling, an alumna of the Rockapellas at Dartmouth College. Mira Sorvino is an alumna of the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones of Harvard College, where she had the solo on Only You by Yaz.


title: A cappella

text: Jewish-interest groups such as Queens College's Tizmoret, Tufts University's Shir Appeal, University of Chicago's Rhythm and Jews, Binghamton University's Kaskeset, Ohio State University's Meshuganotes, Rutgers University's Kol Halayla, New York University's Ani V'Ata, University of California, Los Angeles's Jewkbox, and Yale University's Magevet are also gaining popularity across the U.S.


title: A cappella

text: Increased interest in modern a cappella (particularly collegiate a cappella) can be seen in the growth of awards such as the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards (overseen by the Contemporary A Cappella Society) and competitions such as the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella for college groups and the Harmony Sweepstakes for all groups. In December 2009, a new television competition series called "The Sing-Off" aired on NBC. The show featured eight a cappella groups from the United States and Puerto Rico vying for the prize of $100,000 and a recording contract with Epic Records/Sony Music. The show was judged by Ben Folds, Shawn Stockman, and Nicole Scherzinger and was won by an all-male group from Puerto Rico called Nota. The show returned for a second, third, fourth, and fifth season, won by Committed, Pentatonix, Home Free, and The Melodores from Vanderbilt University respectively.


title: A cappella

text: Each year, hundreds of Collegiate a cappella groups submit their strongest songs in a competition to be on The Best of College A Cappella (BOCA), an album compilation of tracks from the best college a cappella groups around the world. The album is produced by Varsity Vocals – which also produces the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella – and Deke Sharon. ). According to ethnomusicologist Joshua S. Dunchan, "BOCA carries considerable cache and respect within the field despite the appearance of other compilations in part, perhaps, because of its longevity and the prestige of the individuals behind it."


title: A cappella

text: Collegiate a cappella groups may also submit their tracks to Voices Only, a two-disc series released at the beginning of each school year. A Voices Only album has been released every year since 2005.


title: A cappella

text: In addition, from 2014 to 2019, female-identifying a cappella groups had the opportunity to send their strongest song tracks to the Women's A Cappella Association (WACA) for its annual best of women's a cappella album. WACA offered another medium for women's voices to receive recognition and released an album every year from 2014 to 2019, featuring female-identifying groups from across the United States. The Women's A Cappella Association hosted seven annual festivals in California before ending operations in 2019.


title: A cappella

text: South Asian a cappella features a mash-up of western and Indian/middle-eastern songs, which places it in the category of South Asian fusion music. A cappella is gaining popularity among South Asians with the emergence of primarily Hindi-English college groups. The first South Asian a cappella group was Penn Masala, founded in 1996 at the University of Pennsylvania. Co-ed South Asian a cappella groups are also gaining in popularity. The first co-ed South Asian a cappella was Anokha, from the University of Maryland, formed in 2001. Also, Dil se, another co-ed a cappella from UC Berkeley, hosts the "Anahat" competition at the University of California, Berkeley annually. Maize Mirchi, the co-ed a cappella group from the University of Michigan hosts "Sa Re Ga Ma Pella", an annual South Asian a cappella invitational with various groups from the Midwest. Another South Asian group from the Midwest is Chai Town who is based in the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.


title: A cappella

text: In addition to singing words, some a cappella singers also emulate instrumentation by reproducing instrumental sounds with their vocal cords and mouth, often pitched using specialised pitch pipes. One of the earliest 20th century practitioners of this method were The Mills Brothers whose early recordings of the 1930s clearly stated on the label that all instrumentation was done vocally. More recently, "Twilight Zone" by 2 Unlimited was sung a cappella to the instrumentation on the comedy television series "Tompkins Square". Another famous example of emulating instrumentation instead of singing the words is the theme song for "The New Addams Family" series on Fox Family Channel (now Freeform). Groups such as Vocal Sampling and Undivided emulate Latin rhythms a cappella. In the 1960s, the Swingle Singers used their voices to emulate musical instruments to Baroque and Classical music. Vocal artist Bobby McFerrin is famous for his instrumental emulation. A cappella group Naturally Seven recreates entire songs using vocal tones for every instrument.


title: A cappella

text: The Swingle Singers used ad libs to sound like instruments, but have been known to produce non-verbal versions of musical instruments. Beatboxing, more accurately known as vocal percussion, is a technique used in a cappella music popularized by the hip-hop community, where rap is often performed a cappella. The advent of vocal percussion added new dimensions to the a cappella genre and has become very prevalent in modern arrangements.


title: A cappella

text: Beatboxing is performed often by shaping the mouth, making pops and clicks as pseudo-drum sounds. A popular phrase that beat boxers use to begin their training is the phrase "boots and cats". As the beat boxer progresses in their training, they remove the vowels and continue on from there, emulating a "bts n cts n" sound, a solid base for beginner beat boxers. The phrase has become popular enough to where Siri recites "Boots and Cats" when you ask it to beatbox.


title: A cappella

text: Jazz vocalist Petra Haden used a four-track recorder to produce an a cappella version of "The Who Sell Out" including the instruments and fake advertisements on her album "" in 2005. Haden has also released a cappella versions of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'", The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" and Michael Jackson's "Thriller".


title: A cappella

text: Christian rock group Relient K recorded the song "Plead the Fifth" a cappella on their album "Five Score and Seven Years Ago". The group recorded lead singer Matt Thiessen making drum noises and played them with an electronic drum machine to record the song, blurring the lines between true a cappella and instrument use.


title: Scone

text: A scone is a baked good, usually made of either wheat or oatmeal with baking powder as a leavening agent, and baked on sheet pans. A scone is often slightly sweetened and occasionally glazed with egg wash. The scone is a basic component of the cream tea. It differs from teacakes and other types of sweets that are made with yeast. Scones were chosen as the Republic of Ireland representative for Café Europe during the Austrian Presidency of the European Union in 2006, while the United Kingdom chose shortbread.


title: Scone

text: The pronunciation of the word within the English-speaking world varies, with some pronouncing it (rhymes with "gone"), and others (rhymes with "tone"). The dominant pronunciation differs by area. Pronunciation rhyming with "tone" is strongest in the English Midlands and Republic of Ireland though it seems to have less prominent patches in Cornwall and Essex. The pronunciation rhyming with "gone" is strongest in Northern England and Scotland, although this also seems to be the favoured pronunciation in Southern England, Wales, the Home Counties, and East Anglia. Natives of the Republic of Ireland and the United States mainly use the pronunciation. British dictionaries usually show the form as the preferred pronunciation, while recognising the form.


title: Scone

text: The origin of the word "scone" is obscure and may derive from different sources. That is, the classic Scottish "scone", the Dutch "schoonbrood" or "spoonbread" (very similar to the drop scone), and possibly other similarly named quick breads may have made their way onto the British tea table, where their similar names merged into one. Thus, "scone" may derive from the Middle Dutch "schoonbrood" (fine white bread), from "schoon" (pure, clean) and "brood" (bread), or it may derive from the Scots Gaelic term "sgonn" meaning a shapeless mass or large mouthful. The Middle Low German term "schöne" meaning fine bread may also have played a role in the origination of this word. And, if the explanation put forward by Sheila MacNiven Cameron is true, the word may also be based on the town of Scone () (, ) in Scotland, the ancient capital of that country – where Scottish monarchs were crowned, and on whose Stone of Scone the monarchs of the United Kingdom are still crowned today.


title: Scone

text: It is believed that historically scones were round and flat, usually as large as a medium-sized plate. They were made and baked on a griddle (or "girdle", in Scots), then cut into triangular sections for serving. Today, many would call the large round cake a bannock. In Scotland, the words are often used interchangeably.


title: Scone

text: When baking powder became available to the masses, scones began to be the oven-baked, well-leavened items we know today.


title: Scone

text: Modern scones are widely available in British bakeries, grocery stores, and supermarkets. A 2005 market report estimated the UK scone market to be worth £64m, showing a 9% increase over the previous five years. The increase is partly due to an increasing consumer preference for impulse and convenience foods.


title: Scone

text: Scones sold commercially are usually round, although some brands are hexagonal as this shape may be tessellated for space efficiency. When prepared at home, they may take various shapes including triangles, rounds and squares. Baking scones at home is often closely tied to heritage baking. They tend to be made using family recipes rather than recipe books, since it is often a family member who holds the "best" and most-treasured recipe.


title: Scone

text: British scones are often lightly sweetened, but may also be savoury. They frequently include raisins, currants, cheese or dates. In Scotland and Ulster, savoury varieties of scone include "soda scones", also known as soda farls, sour dough scones known as "soor dook scones" made with sour milk, and potato scones, normally known as "tattie scones", which resemble small, thin savoury pancakes made with potato flour. Potato scones are most commonly served fried in a full Scottish breakfast or an Ulster fry.


title: Scone

text: The griddle scone (or "girdle scone" in Scots) is a variety of scone which is cooked on a griddle (or girdle) on the stove top rather than baked in the oven. This usage is also common in New Zealand where scones of all varieties form an important part of traditional colonial New Zealand cuisine.


title: Scone

text: Other common varieties include the "dropped scone", or "drop scone", like a pancake, after the method of dropping the batter onto the griddle or frying pan to cook it, and the "lemonade scone", which is made with lemonade and cream instead of butter and milk. There is also the fruit scone or fruited scone, which contains currants, sultanas, peel and glacé cherries, which is just like a plain round scone with the fruit mixed into the dough. To achieve lightness and flakiness, scones may be made with cream instead of milk.


title: Scone

text: In some countries one may also encounter savoury varieties of scone which may contain or be topped with combinations of cheese, onion, bacon, etc.


title: Scone

text: Scones can be presented with various toppings and condiments, typically butter, jam and cream. Strawberries are also sometimes used.


title: Scone

text: Pumpkin scones, made by adding mashed cooked pumpkin to the dough mixture, had increased exposure during the period when Florence Bjelke-Petersen was in the public eye. Date scones, which contain chopped dried dates, can also be found in Australia. Another old style of cooking scones, generally in the colder months, is to deep-fry or deep pan-fry them in dripping or oil, when they are called "puftaloons".


title: Scone

text: In Hungary, a pastry very similar to the British version exists under the name "pogácsa". The name has been adopted by several neighbouring nations' languages. Pogácsa is almost always savoury and served with varied seasonings and toppings, like dill and cheese.


title: Scone

text: Scones make up a part of kiwiana, and are among the most popular recipes in the "Edmonds Cookery Book," New Zealand's best-selling cook book. The "Edmonds" recipe is unsweetened, using only flour, baking powder, salt, butter and milk. Other ingredients such as cheese, sultanas and dates can be added.


title: Scone

text: Cheese scones are a popular snack sold in cafes or tea shops, where they are commonly served toasted with butter.


title: Scone

text: Scones are commonly served with clotted cream and jam; grated cheddar cheese is another popular accompaniment.


title: Scone

text: Scones are quite popular in Argentina as well as Uruguay. They were brought there by Irish, English and Scottish immigrants and by Welsh immigrants in Patagonia (Britons are the third largest foreign community in Argentina). They are usually accompanied by tea, coffee or mate.


title: Scone

text: Scones often appear in . The American version is sweet, heavy, dry and crumbly, similar to British rock cakes. They are usually triangular, and often contain fruit such as blueberries or sultanas, or such flavorings as pumpkin, cinnamon or chocolate chips. They may also be topped with icing. They are often eaten as they are (not topped with butter, jam or cream), along with coffee or tea.


title: Scone

text: In Idaho and Utah, the bread products locally called "scones" are similar to Native American frybread or New Orleans beignets and are made from a sweet yeast dough, with buttermilk and baking powder or soda added, and they are fried rather than baked. They are customarily served with butter and either honey or maple syrup.


title: Scone

text: The plot of Season 10, Episode 3 of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" involves a heated dispute about the proper texture for scones.


title: Scone

text: In a subplot of the "Derry Girls" episode "The Curse", Michelle decides to make scones infused with cannabis (she was originally going to do brownies, but the scone recipe was the only one her mother had) for her friends during Bridie's wake, calling them "funny scones". However, one of the guests takes them to the buffet, leading them to try and get them back and dispose of them. However, it ends up blocking the toilet, and they are kicked out of the wake after they were discovered by Eammon, Bridie's 50-year-old son. After the funeral, Granda Joe reveals that he saved some scones from the wake (he got high on one of them), and Erin looks on in horror as the rest of the family eat them.


title: Scone

text: In Scots the verb "scon" means to crush flat or beat with the open hand on a flat surface, and "scon-cap" or "scone-cap" refers to a man's broad flat cap or "bunnet".


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: The , also known as the GEACPS, was a concept that was developed in the Empire of Japan and propagated to Asian populations which were occupied by it from 1931 to 1945, and which officially aimed at creating a self-sufficient bloc of Asian peoples and states that would be led by the Japanese and be free from the rule of Western powers. The idea was first announced on 1 August 1940 in a radio address delivered by Foreign Minister Yōsuke Matsuoka.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: The intent and practical implementation of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere varied widely depending on the group and government department involved. Policy theorists who conceived it, as well as the vast majority of the Japanese population at large, saw it for its pan-Asian ideals of freedom and independence from Western colonial rule. In practice, however, it was frequently used by militarists and nationalists, who saw an effective policy vehicle through which to strengthen Japan's position and advance its dominance within Asia. The latter approach was reflected in a document released by Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare, "An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus", which laid out the central position of Japan within the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, and promoted the idea of Japanese superiority over other Asians. Japanese spokesmen openly described the Great East Asia Co-Prosperity as a device for the "development of the Japanese race." When World War II ended, the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere became a source of criticism and scorn.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: An earlier, influential concept was the geographically smaller version of the co-prosperity sphere which was called , which was announced by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on 3 November 1938 and was limited to East Asia only.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: The original concept was an idealistic wish to liberate Asia from the rule of European colonial powers. However, some Japanese nationalists believed it could be used to gain resources which would be used to ensure that Japan would continue to be a modern power, and militarists believed that resource-rich Western colonies contained abundant supplies of raw materials which could be used to wage wars. Many Japanese nationalists were drawn to it as an ideal. Many of them remained convinced throughout the war that the Sphere was idealistic, offering slogans in a newspaper competition praising the sphere for constructive efforts and peace.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: Prior to the invasion of Southeast Asia, Konoe planned the Sphere in 1940 in an attempt to create a Great East Asia, comprising Japan, Manchukuo, China, and parts of Southeast Asia, that would, according to imperial propaganda, establish a new international order seeking "co-prosperity" for Asian countries which would share prosperity and peace, free from Western colonialism and domination of the White man. Military goals of this expansion included naval operations in the Indian Ocean and the isolation of Australia. This would enable the principle of hakkō ichiu.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: This was just one of a number of slogans and concepts which were used to justify Japanese aggression in East Asia from the 1930s through the end of World War II. The term "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" is largely remembered by Western scholars as a front for the Japanese control of occupied countries during World War II, in which puppet governments manipulated local populations and economies for the benefit of Imperial Japan.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: To combat the protectionist dollar and sterling zones, Japanese economic planners called for a "yen bloc".


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: Japan's experiment with such financial imperialism encompassed both official and semi-official colonies. In the period between 1895 (when Japan annexed Taiwan) and 1937 (the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War), monetary specialists in Tokyo directed and managed programs of coordinated monetary reforms in Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria, and the peripheral Japanese-controlled islands in the Pacific. These reforms aimed to foster a network of linked political and economic relationships. These efforts foundered in the eventual debacle of the Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: The concept of a unified East Asia was developed by Hachirō Arita, who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1936 to 1940. The Japanese Army said that the new Japanese empire was the Asian equivalent of the Monroe Doctrine, especially with the Roosevelt Corollary. The regions of Asia, it was argued, were as essential to Japan as Latin America was to the United States.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: The Japanese Foreign Minister Yōsuke Matsuoka formally announced the idea of the Co-Prosperity Sphere on 1 August 1940, in a press interview, but it had existed in other forms for many years. Leaders in Japan had long had an interest in the idea. The outbreak of World War II fighting in Europe had given the Japanese an opportunity to demand the withdrawal of support from China in the name of "Asia for Asiatics", with the European powers unable to effectively retaliate. Many of the other countries within the boundaries of the sphere were under colonial rule and elements of their population were sympathetic to Japan (as in the case of Indonesia), occupied by Japan in the early phases of the war and reformed under puppet governments, or already under Japan's control at the outset (as in the case of Manchukuo). These factors helped make the formation of the sphere, while lacking any real authority or joint power, come together without much difficulty.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: After Japan's advancements into French Indochina in 1940, knowing that Japan was completely dependent on other countries for natural resources, President Roosevelt ordered a trade embargo on steel and oil, raw materials that were vital to Japan's war effort. Without steel and oil imports, Japan's military could not fight for long. As a result of the embargo, Japan decided to attack the British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia, seizing the raw materials needed for the war effort. On 1 August 1940, Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yōsuke announced the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere; on 7 December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor; and on 19 December 1941, after the Japanese invasions of the Philippines, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, in a radio broadcast Japanese politician Kishi Nobusuke announced the vast resources available for Japanese use in the newly conquered territories.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: As part of its war drive, Japanese propaganda included phrases like "Asia for the Asiatics!" and talked about the need to liberate Asian colonies from the control of Western powers. The Japanese failure to bring the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War to a swift conclusion was blamed in part on the lack of resources; Japanese propaganda claimed this was due to the refusal by Western powers to supply Japan's military. Although invading Japanese forces sometimes received rapturous welcomes throughout Western colonies in Asia that they had recently captured, the subsequent brutality of the Japanese military led many of the inhabitants of those regions to regard Japan as being worse than their former colonial rulers. The Japanese government directed that economies of occupied territories be managed strictly for the production of raw materials for the Japanese war effort; a cabinet member declared, "There are no restrictions. They are enemy possessions. We can take them, do anything we want". For example, according to estimates, under Japanese occupation, about 100,000 Burmese and Malay Indian laborers died while constructing the Burma-Siam Railway.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: "An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus" – a secret document completed in 1943 for high-ranking government use – laid out that Japan, as the originators and strongest military power within the region, would naturally take the superior position within the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, with the other nations under Japan's umbrella of protection.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: The booklet "Read This and the War is Won"—for the Japanese army—presented colonialism as an oppressive group of colonists living in luxury by burdening Asians. According to Japan, since racial ties of blood connected other Asians to the Japanese, and Asians had been weakened by colonialism, it was Japan's self-appointed role to "make men of them again" and liberate them from their Western oppressors.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: According to Foreign Minister Shigenori Tōgō (in office 1941–1942 and 1945), should Japan be successful in creating this sphere, it would emerge as the leader of Eastern Asia, and the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere would be synonymous with the Japanese Empire.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: The took place in Tokyo on 5–6 November 1943: Japan hosted the heads of state of various component members of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The conference was also referred to as the "Tokyo Conference". The common language used by the delegates during the conference was English. The conference was mainly used as propaganda.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: At the conference Tojo greeted them with a speech praising the "spiritual essence" of Asia, as opposed to the "materialistic civilization" of the West. Their meeting was characterized by praise of solidarity and condemnation of Western colonialism but without practical plans for either economic development or integration. Because of a lack of military representatives at the conference, the conference served little military value.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: With the simultaneous use of Wilsonian and Pan-Asianism rhetoric, the goals of the conference were to solidify the commitment of certain Asian countries to Japan's war effort and to improve Japan's world image; however, the representatives of the other attending countries were neither independent nor treated as equals by Japan, and as a result, Asian countries were violently used to achieve Japan's imperialist ambitions.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: The ideology of the Japanese colonial empire, as it expanded dramatically during the war, contained two contradictory impulses. On the one hand, it preached the unity of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a coalition of Asian races, directed by Japan, against Western imperialism in Asia. This approach celebrated the spiritual values of the East in opposition to the "crass materialism" of the West. In practice, however, the Japanese installed organizationally-minded bureaucrats and engineers to run their new empire, and they believed in ideals of efficiency, modernization, and engineering solutions to social problems. Japanese was the official language of the bureaucracy in all of the areas and was taught at schools as a national language.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: Japan set up puppet regimes in Manchuria and China; they vanished at the end of the war. The Imperial Army operated ruthless administrations in most of the conquered areas, but paid more favorable attention to the Dutch East Indies. The main goal was to obtain oil. The Dutch colonial government destroyed the oil wells, however, the Japanese were able to repair and reopen them within a few months of their conquest. However most of the tankers transporting oil to Japan were sunk by U.S. Navy submarines, so Japan's oil shortage became increasingly acute. Japan sponsored an Indonesian nationalist movement under Sukarno. Sukarno finally came to power in the late 1940s after several years of battling the Dutch.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: With a view of building up the economic base of the Co-Prosperity Sphere, the Japanese Army envisioned using the Philippine islands as a source of agricultural products needed by its industry. For example, Japan had a surplus of sugar from Taiwan, and a severe shortage of cotton, so they tried to grow cotton on sugar lands with disastrous results. They lacked the seeds, pesticides, and technical skills to grow cotton. Jobless farm workers flocked to the cities, where there was minimal relief and few jobs. The Japanese Army also tried using cane sugar for fuel, castor beans and copra for oil, "Derris" for quinine, cotton for uniforms, and abacá for rope. The plans were very difficult to implement in the face of limited skills, collapsed international markets, bad weather, and transportation shortages. The program was a failure that gave very little help to Japanese industry, and diverted resources needed for food production. As Karnow reports, Filipinos "rapidly learned as well that 'co-prosperity' meant servitude to Japan's economic requirements".


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: Living conditions were bad throughout the Philippines during the war. Transportation between the islands was difficult because of a lack of fuel. Food was in very short supply, with sporadic famines and epidemic diseases that killed hundreds of thousands of people. In October 1943, Japan declared the Philippines an independent republic. The Japanese-sponsored Second Philippine Republic headed by President José P. Laurel proved to be ineffective and unpopular as Japan maintained very tight controls.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: The Co-Prosperity Sphere collapsed with Japan's surrender to the Allies in September 1945. Dr. Ba Maw, wartime President of Burma under the Japanese, blamed the Japanese military:


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: In other words, the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere operated not for the betterment of all the Asian countries, but rather for Japan's own interests, and thus the Japanese failed to gather support in other Asian countries. Nationalist movements did appear in these Asian countries during this period and these nationalists did, to some extent, cooperate with the Japanese. However, Willard Elsbree, professor emeritus of political science at Ohio University, claims that the Japanese government and these nationalist leaders never developed "a real unity of interests between the two parties, [and] there was no overwhelming despair on the part of the Asians at Japan's defeat".


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: The failure of Japan to understand the goals and interests of the other countries involved in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere led to a weak association of countries bound to Japan only in theory and not in spirit. Dr. Ba Maw argues that Japan could have engineered a very different outcome if the Japanese had only managed to act in accord with the declared aims of "Asia for the Asiatics". He argues that if Japan had proclaimed this maxim at the beginning of the war, and if the Japanese had actually acted on that idea,


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: Pamphlets were dropped by airplane on the Philippines, Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, Singapore, and Indonesia, urging them to join this movement. Mutual cultural societies were founded in all conquered lands to ingratiate with the natives and try to supplant English with Japanese as the commonly used language. Multi-lingual pamphlets depicted many Asians marching or working together in happy unity, with the flags of all the states and a map depicting the intended sphere. Others proclaimed that they had given independent governments to the countries they occupied, a claim undermined by the lack of power given these puppet governments.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: In Thailand, a street was built to demonstrate it, to be filled with modern buildings and shops, but of it consisted of false fronts. A network of Japanese-sponsored film production, distribution, and exhibition companies extended across the Japanese Empire and was collectively referred to as the Greater East Asian Film Sphere. These film centers mass-produced shorts, newsreels, and feature films to encourage Japanese language acquisition as well as cooperation with Japanese colonial authorities.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: Prior to the escalation of World War II to the Pacific and East Asia, the Japanese planners regarded it as self-evident that the conquests secured in Japan's earlier wars with Russia (South Sakhalin and Kwantung), Germany (South Seas Mandate) and China (Manchuria) would be retained, as well as Korea ("Chōsen"), Taiwan ("Formosa"), the recently seized additional portions of China and occupied French Indochina.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: A reasonably accurate indication as to the geographic dimensions of the Co-Prosperity Sphere are elaborated on in a Japanese wartime document prepared in December 1941 by the Research Department of the Imperial Ministry of War. Known as the "Land Disposal Plan in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" () it was put together with the consent of and according to the directions of the Minister of War (later Prime Minister) Hideki Tōjō. It assumed that the already established puppet governments of Manchukuo, Mengjiang, and the Wang Jingwei regime in Japanese-occupied China would continue to function in these areas. Beyond these contemporary parts of Japan's sphere of influence it also envisaged the conquest of a vast range of territories covering virtually all of East Asia, the Pacific Ocean, and even sizable portions of the Western Hemisphere, including in locations as far removed from Japan as South America and the eastern Caribbean.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: Although the projected extension of the Co-Prosperity Sphere was extremely ambitious, the Japanese goal during the "Greater East Asia War" was not to acquire all the territory designated in the plan at once, but to prepare for a future decisive war some 20 years later by conquering the Asian colonies of the defeated European powers, as well as the Philippines from the United States. When Tōjō spoke on the plan to the House of Peers he was vague about the long-term prospects, but insinuated that the Philippines and Burma might be allowed independence, although vital territories such as Hong Kong would remain under Japanese rule.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: The Micronesian islands that had been seized from Germany in World War I and which were assigned to Japan as C-Class Mandates, namely the Marianas, Carolines, Marshall Islands, and several others do not figure in this project. They were the subject of earlier negotiations with the Germans and were expected to be officially ceded to Japan in return for economic and monetary compensations.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: The plan divided Japan's future empire into two different groups. The first group of territories were expected to become either part of Japan or otherwise be under its direct administration. Second were those territories that would fall under the control of a number of tightly controlled pro-Japanese vassal states based on the model of Manchukuo, as nominally "independent" members of the Greater East Asian alliance.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: Parts of the plan depended on successful negotiations with Nazi Germany and a global victory by the Axis powers. After Germany and Italy declared war on the United States on 11 December 1941, Japan presented the Germans with a drafted military convention that would specifically delimit the Asian continent by a dividing line along the 70th meridian east longitude. This line, running southwards through the Ob River's Arctic estuary, southwards to just east of Khost in Afghanistan and heading into the Indian Ocean just west of Rajkot in India, would have split Germany's "Lebensraum" and Italy's "spazio vitale" territories to the west of it, and Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and its other areas to the east of it. The plan of the Third Reich for fortifying its own "Lebensraum" territory's eastern limits, beyond which the Co-Prosperity Sphere's northwestern frontier areas would exist in East Asia, involved the creation of a "living wall" of "Wehrbauer" "soldier-peasant" communities defending it. However, it is unknown if the Axis powers ever formally negotiated a possible, complementary "second" demarcation line that would have divided the Western Hemisphere.


title: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

text: Contrary to the plan Japan installed a puppet state on the Philippines instead of exerting direct control. In the former French Indochina, the Empire of Vietnam, Kingdom of Kampuchea and Kingdom of Luang Phrabang were founded. The Empire of Vietnam, despite being pro-Japan, attempted to work for independence and made some progressive reforms. The State of Burma did not become a Kingdom.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: "In Flanders Fields" is a war poem in the form of a rondeau, written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. According to legend, fellow soldiers retrieved the poem after McCrae, initially dissatisfied with his work, discarded it. "In Flanders Fields" was first published on December 8 of that year in the London magazine "Punch". Flanders Fields is a common English name of the World War I battlefields in Belgium and France.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: It is one of the most quoted poems from the war. As a result of its immediate popularity, parts of the poem were used in efforts and appeals to recruit soldiers and raise money selling war bonds. Its references to the red poppies that grew over the graves of fallen soldiers resulted in the remembrance poppy becoming one of the world's most recognized memorial symbols for soldiers who have died in conflict. The poem and poppy are prominent Remembrance Day symbols throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, particularly in Canada, where "In Flanders Fields" is one of the nation's best-known literary works. The poem is also widely known in the United States, where it is associated with Veterans Day and Memorial Day.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: John McCrae was a poet and physician from Guelph, Ontario. He developed an interest in poetry at a young age and wrote throughout his life. His earliest works were published in the mid-1890s in Canadian magazines and newspapers. McCrae's poetry often focused on death and the peace that followed.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: At the age of 41, McCrae enrolled with the Canadian Expeditionary Force following the outbreak of the First World War. He had the option of joining the medical corps because of his training and age but he volunteered instead to join a fighting unit as a gunner and medical officer. It was his second tour of duty in the Canadian military; he had previously fought with a volunteer force in the Second Boer War. He considered himself a soldier first; his father was a military leader in Guelph and McCrae grew up believing in the duty of fighting for his country and empire.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: McCrae fought in the Second Battle of Ypres in the Flanders region of Belgium, where the German army launched one of the first chemical attacks in the history of war. They attacked French positions north of the Canadians with chlorine gas on April 22, 1915 but were unable to break through the Canadian line, which held for over two weeks. In a letter written to his mother, McCrae described the battle as a "nightmare",


title: In Flanders Fields

text: Alexis Helmer, a close friend, was killed during the battle on May 2. McCrae performed the burial service himself, at which time he noted how poppies quickly grew around the graves of those who died at Ypres. The next day, he composed the poem while sitting in the back of an ambulance at an Advanced Dressing Station outside Ypres. This location is today known as the John McCrae Memorial Site.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: "In Flanders Fields and Other Poems", a 1919 collection of McCrae's works, contains two versions of the poem:


title: In Flanders Fields

text: a as below and a where the first line ends with "grow" instead of "blow", as discussed under "Publication":


title: In Flanders Fields

text: As with his earlier poems, "In Flanders Fields" continues McCrae's preoccupation with death and how it stands as the transition between the struggle of life and the peace that follows. It is written from the point of view of the dead. It speaks of their sacrifice and serves as their command to the living to press on. As with many of the most popular works of the First World War, it was written early in the conflict, before the romanticism of war turned to bitterness and disillusion for soldiers and civilians alike.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: An article by Veteran's Administration Canada provides this account of the writing of "In Flanders Fields":The day before he wrote his famous poem, one of McCrae's closest friends was killed in the fighting and buried in a makeshift grave with a simple wooden cross. Wild poppies were already beginning to bloom between the crosses marking the many graves. Unable to help his friend or any of the others who had died, John McCrae gave them a voice through his poem. It was the second last poem he was to write.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: Cyril Allinson was a sergeant major in McCrae's unit. While delivering the brigade's mail, he watched McCrae as he worked on the poem, noting that McCrae's eyes periodically returned to Helmer's grave as he wrote. When handed the notepad, Allinson read the poem and was so moved he immediately committed it to memory. He described it as being "almost an exact description of the scene in front of us both". According to legend, McCrae was not satisfied with his work. It is said he crumpled the paper and threw it away. It was retrieved by a fellow member of his unit, either Edward Morrison or J. M. Elder, or Allinson. McCrae was convinced to submit the poem for publication. An early copy of the poem is found in the diary of Clare Gass, who was serving with McCrae as a battlefield nurse, in an entry dated October 30, 1915—nearly six weeks before the poem's first publication in the magazine "Punch" on December 8, 1915.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: Another story of the poem's origin claimed that Helmer's funeral was held on the morning of May 2, after which McCrae wrote the poem in 20 minutes. A third claim, by Morrison, was that McCrae worked on the poem as time allowed between arrivals of wounded soldiers in need of medical attention. Regardless of its true origin, McCrae worked on the poem for months before considering it ready for publication. He submitted it to "The Spectator" in London but it was rejected. It was then sent to "Punch", where it was published on December 8, 1915. It was published anonymously, but "Punch" attributed the poem to McCrae in its year-end index.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: The word that ends the first line of the poem has been disputed. According to Allinson, the poem began with "In Flanders Fields the poppies grow" when first written. McCrae ended the second-to-last line with "grow", "Punch" received permission to change the wording of the opening line to end with "blow". McCrae used either word when making handwritten copies for friends and family. Questions over how the first line should end have endured since publication. Most recently, the Bank of Canada was inundated with queries and complaints from those who believed the first line should end with "grow", when a design for the ten-dollar bill was released in 2001, with the first stanza of "In Flanders Fields", ending the first line with "blow".


title: In Flanders Fields

text: According to historian Paul Fussell, "In Flanders Fields" was the most popular poem of its era. McCrae received numerous letters and telegrams praising his work when he was revealed as the author. The poem was republished throughout the world, rapidly becoming synonymous with the sacrifice of the soldiers who died in the First World War. It was translated into numerous languages, so many that McCrae himself quipped that "it needs only Chinese now, surely". Its appeal was nearly universal. Soldiers took encouragement from it as a statement of their duty to those who died while people on the home front viewed it as defining the cause for which their brothers and sons were fighting.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: It was often used for propaganda, particularly in Canada by the Unionist Party during the 1917 federal election amidst the Conscription Crisis. French Canadians in Quebec were strongly opposed to the possibility of conscription but English Canadians voted overwhelmingly to support Prime Minister Robert Borden and the Unionist government. "In Flanders Fields" was said to have done more to "make this Dominion persevere in the duty of fighting for the world's ultimate peace than all the political speeches of the recent campaign". McCrae, a staunch supporter of the empire and the war effort, was pleased with the effect his poem had on the election. He stated in a letter: "I hope I stabbed a [French] Canadian with my vote".


title: In Flanders Fields

text: The poem was a popular motivational tool in Great Britain, where it was used to encourage soldiers fighting against Germany, and in the United States where it was reprinted across the country. It was one of the most quoted works during the war, used in many places as part of campaigns to sell war bonds, during recruiting efforts and to criticize pacifists and those who sought to profit from the war. At least 55 composers in the United States set the poem "In Flanders Fields" to music by 1920, including Charles Ives, Arthur Foote, and John Philip Sousa. The setting by Ives, which premiered in early 1917, is perhaps the earliest American setting. Fussell criticized the poem in his work "The Great War and Modern Memory" (1975). He noted the distinction between the pastoral tone of the first nine lines and the "recruiting-poster rhetoric" of the third stanza. Describing it as "vicious" and "stupid", Fussell called the final lines a "propaganda argument against a negotiated peace".


title: In Flanders Fields

text: McCrae was moved to the medical corps and stationed in Boulogne, France, in June 1915 where he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and placed in charge of medicine at the Number 3 Canadian General Hospital. He was promoted to the acting rank of Colonel on January 13, 1918, and named Consulting Physician to the British Armies in France. The years of war had worn McCrae down; he contracted pneumonia that day and later came down with cerebral meningitis. On January 28, 1918, he died at the military hospital in Wimereux and was buried there with full military honours. A book of his works, featuring "In Flanders Fields", was published the following year.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: "In Flanders Fields" is very popular in Canada, where it is a staple of Remembrance Day ceremonies and may be the best-known literary piece among English Canadians. It has an official French adaptation, entitled , written by Jean Pariseau and used by the Canadian government in French and bilingual ceremonies. With an excerpted appearance on the ten-dollar bill from 2001 to 2013, the Royal Canadian Mint has released poppy-themed quarters on several occasions. A version minted in 2004 featured a red poppy in the centre and is considered the first multi-coloured circulation coin in the world. To mark the poem's centennial in 2015, a coloured and uncoloured poppy quarter and a "toonie" ($2 coin) were issued as circulation coins, as well as other collector coins. Among its uses in popular culture, the lines "to you from failing hands we throw / the torch, be yours to hold it high" has served as a motto for the Montreal Canadiens hockey club since 1940.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: Canada Post honoured the 50th anniversary of John McCrae's death with a stamp in 1968 and marked the centennial of his famous poem in 2015. Other Canadian stamps have featured the poppy, including ones in 1975, 2001, 2009, 2013 and 2014. Other postal authorities have employed the poppy as a symbol of remembrance, including those of Australia, Gibraltar, the United Kingdom and United States.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: McCrae's birthplace in Guelph, Ontario has been converted into a museum dedicated to his life and the war. McCrae was named a National Historic Person in 1946, and his house was listed as a National Historic Site in 1966.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: In Belgium, the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, named after the poem and devoted to the First World War, is situated in one of Flanders' largest tourist areas. A monument commemorating the writing of the poem is located at Essex Farm Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery, which is thought to have been the location of Helmer's burial and lies within the John McCrae Memorial Site.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: Despite its fame, "In Flanders Fields" is often ignored by academics teaching and discussing Canadian literature. The poem is sometimes viewed as an anachronism; It spoke of glory and honour in a war that has since become synonymous with the futility of trench warfare and the slaughter produced by 20th-century weaponry. Nancy Holmes, professor at the University of British Columbia, speculated that its patriotic nature and use as a tool for propaganda may have led literary critics to view it as a national symbol or anthem rather than a poem.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: The red poppies that McCrae referred to had been associated with conflict since the Napoleonic Wars when a writer of that time first noted how the poppies grew over the graves of soldiers. The damage done to the landscape in Flanders during the battle greatly increased the lime content in the surface soil, leaving the poppy as one of the few plants able to grow in the region.


title: In Flanders Fields

text: Inspired by "In Flanders Fields", American professor Moina Michael resolved at the war's conclusion in 1918 to wear a red poppy year-round to honour the soldiers who had died in the war. She also wrote a poem in response called "We Shall Keep the Faith". She distributed silk poppies to her peers and campaigned to have them adopted as an official symbol of remembrance by the American Legion. Madame E. Guérin attended the 1920 convention where the Legion supported Michael's proposal and was inspired to sell poppies in her native France to raise money for the war's orphans. In 1921, Guérin sent poppy sellers to London ahead of Armistice Day, attracting the attention of Field Marshal Douglas Haig. A co-founder of The Royal British Legion, Haig supported and encouraged the sale. The practice quickly spread throughout the British Empire. The wearing of poppies in the days leading up to Remembrance Day remains popular in many areas of the Commonwealth of Nations, particularly Great Britain, Canada and South Africa and in the days leading up to ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand.


title: Ayatollah

text: Ayatollah ( ; ) is an honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran and Iraq that came into widespread usage in the 20th century.


title: Ayatollah

text: The title is originally derived from Arabic word pre-modified with the definite article and post-modified with the word "Allah", making (). The combination has been translated to English as 'Sign of God', 'Divine Sign' or 'Reflection of God'. It is a frequently-used term in Quran, but its usage in this context is presumably a particular reference to the verse "We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and in their own selves", while it has been also used to refer to The Twelve Imams by Shias.


title: Ayatollah

text: The earliest known address of this title is for Ibn Mutahhar Al-Hilli (died 1374), however it was not in use until the recent century. Glassé states that following domination of Twelver branch by followers of school and demise of school, the title was popularized by s as an attempt to promote their status. Mirza Ali Aqa Tabrizi was the first one to use the term for the sources of emulation in Najaf, especially Akhund Khurasani, to distinguish them from the clerics of lower rank in Tehran, during the democratic revolution of Iran.


title: Ayatollah

text: Hamid Algar maintains that this title entered general usage possibly because it was an "indirect result of the reform and strengthening of the religious institution in Qom". Abdul-Karim Haeri Yazdi who founded Qom Seminary, may be the first to bear the title according to Algar.


title: Ayatollah

text: "Loghatnameh Dehkhoda" indicates that during the Persian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911), the honorific was used by constitutionalists to refer to Mirza Sayyed Mohammad Tabatabai and Seyyed Abdollah Behbahani.


title: Ayatollah

text: The Sunni community of Iran does not use this title. It is also absent in the vocabulary of Shias in Lebanon, Pakistan, and India. In Iraq, while the title is not unknown, it is only used for clerics of Iranian origin.


title: Ayatollah

text: Michael M. J. Fischer opines in "" that the Iranian revolution led to "rapid inflation of religious titles", and almost every senior cleric was called an Ayatollah.


title: Ayatollah

text: The same phenomenon happened to the title Hujjat al-Islam before, which is today a less prestigious title than Ayatollah. However, as of 19th century it was given to people who were not only "Mujtahids", but also were the most distinguished clerics of that time. Today there are "tens of thousands" called with that title, who are just aspiring to become a "Mujtahid".


title: Ayatollah

text: This trend led to invention of a new title called "Ayatollah al-Uzma" (). In the beginning, about half a dozen people were addressed with the latter title, but as of 2015, the number of people who claimed that title was reportedly over 50.


title: Ayatollah

text: Addressing someone with or without this title may have political reasons, rather than for purely religious credentials.


title: Ayatollah

text: Ali Khamenei—who was addressed with mid-level title of "Hujjat al-Islam" when he was in office as President—was bestowed the title Ayatollah immediately after he became Supreme Leader of Iran in 1989, without meeting regular unwritten criteria (such as authoring a "Risalah"). Since the 2010s, sources under government control tend to give him more distinguished titles like "Grand Ayatollah" and "Imam".


title: Ayatollah

text: Certain clerics have been downgraded by not being addressed as an Ayatollah, such as Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari and Hussein-Ali Montazeri.


title: Ayatollah

text: Though no formal hierarchical structure exists among Shia clerics, a "hierarchy of difference" can be elaborated to describe the situation. Traditionally, the title Ayatollah was awarded by popular usage to prominent figures only –who were necessarily a "Mujtahid"– and it was reserved for the very few highest rank clerics. Plus qualification as a definite "Mujtahid", such person was regarded among his peers superior in "aʿlamīyat" () and "riyāsat" (), the latter being determined by popular acclamation, as well as collecting a huge amount of "Khums" (religious taxes). Those conditions being applied, by 1960s a cleric addressed as an Ayatollah was expected to be a "Marja'".


title: Ayatollah

text: An unwritten rule of addressing for Shia clerics has been developed after the 1980s as a result of Iranian Revolution, despite the fact no official institutional way of conferring titles is available. Since 1979, the number of individuals who call themselves an Ayatollah, instead of being recipient of that title, has raised dramatically.<ref name="Momen205/206"></ref> The title that was previously customary for addressing a "Marja'", was gradually applied to an established "Mujtahid". With recent bureaucratization of Shia seminaries under the current regime, four levels of studies were introduced and those clerics who end the fourth level, also known as "Dars-e-Kharej" () and pass the final exam, were called Ayatollahs. Moojan Momen wrote in 2015 that every cleric who finished his training calls himself an Ayatollah and this trend has led to emergence of "thousands of Ayatollahs".


title: Ayatollah

text: Only a few of the most important ayatollahs are accorded the rank of Grand Ayatollah ("Ayatollah Uzma", "Great Sign of God"). When an ayatollah gains a significant following and they are recognized for religiously correct views, they are considered a "Marja'-e-Taqlid", which in common parlance is "grand ayatollah". Usually as a prelude to such status, a "mujtahid" is asked to publish a juristic treatise in which he answers questions about the application of Islam to present-time daily affairs. "Risalah" is the word for treatise, and such a juristic work is called a "risalah-yi'amaliyyah" or "practical law treatise", and it is usually a reinvention of the book "Al-Urwatu l-Wuthqah".


title: The Devil in the White City

text: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (Crown Publishers, ) is a 2003 historical non-fiction book by Erik Larson presented in a novelistic style. It tells the story of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago from the viewpoint of the designers, including Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted, and also tells the story of H. H. Holmes, a criminal figure in that same time often considered by historians as the first modern serial killer.


title: The Devil in the White City

text: "The Devil in the White City" is divided into four parts, the first three happening in Chicago between 1890 and 1893, while part four of the book takes place in Philadelphia circa 1895. The book interweaves the true tales of Daniel Burnham, the architect behind the 1893 World's Fair, and H. H. Holmes, a serial killer who lured his victims to their deaths in his elaborately constructed "Murder Castle".


title: The Devil in the White City

text: Leonardo DiCaprio purchased the film rights to the book in 2010. The film version, as originally planned, would have been directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Billy Ray, and produced jointly by Paramount Pictures, Double Feature Films, and DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions.


title: The Devil in the White City

text: In 2019, Hulu began developing a series based on the book. Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are designated as the executive producers of the project along with Stacey Sher. It was announced in January 2022, that actor Keanu Reeves was in negotiations to star in the series as Daniel Burnham and Todd Field would direct the first two episodes. Production and filming are expected to begin March 2023 in Chicago and Toronto, with the series expected to launch in 2024. In October 2022, Reeves left the production without comment. Field left the project a couple of days later.


title: Judge Dredd (film)

text: Judge Dredd is a 1995 American superhero film based on the "2000 AD" comics character of the same name. It is directed by Danny Cannon and stars Sylvester Stallone in the title role, a law enforcement officer in the crime-ridden futuristic metropolis of Mega-City One. The film co-stars Armand Assante, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Joan Chen, Jürgen Prochnow, and Max von Sydow. It was filmed entirely at Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom, and released by Buena Vista Pictures on June 30, 1995.


title: Judge Dredd (film)

text: The film takes place in the year 2080 and depicts a dystopian world. Following an unspecified disaster that turned Earth into a "cursed" wasteland, the survivors established a corps of Judges whose role combines that of police, judge, jury and executioner. In "Judge Dredd", Dredd, one of the most dedicated Street Judges, has been framed for murder by his own half-brother — the psychotic Rico, who plots to take over Mega-City One with an army of superhuman clones. The film was produced by Charles Lippincott and Beau E. L. Marks, with a screenplay by William Wisher Jr. and Steven E. de Souza.


title: Judge Dredd (film)

text: Reviewers criticized the film for its script and perceived lack of originality and faith to its source material, along with Stallone's acting. The film is often considered to be one of Stallone's worst films, but its visual style, effects, music score, stunts and action sequences were praised, and the film was nominated for four Saturn Awards. A reboot film, entitled "Dredd", was released in 2012.


title: Judge Dredd (film)

text: By the 2080s, much of Earth has become an uninhabitable wasteland. While some humans manage to survive in the barren "Cursed Earth", the majority of humanity resides in huge Mega-Cities with populations of tens of millions. To combat crime, the traditional justice system has been replaced by a corps of Judges whose role combines those of police officer, judge, jury, and executioner.


title: Judge Dredd (film)

text: In Mega-City One, 2139, Joseph Dredd, one of the most dedicated "Street Judges", assists first-year Judge Barbara Hershey in ending a block war. Herman "Fergee" Ferguson, a hacker just released from prison, is caught in the firefight and hides inside a food dispensing robot. Dredd arrests Herman for destruction of property, and sentences him to five years' imprisonment. Rico, a former Judge, escapes from prison and returns to Mega-City One to reclaim his uniform and "Lawgiver" gun. He also finds and reactivates a decommissioned ABC Warrior combat robot.