title: Elli AvrRam

text: AvrRam has done some acting projects in Sweden, the most noticeable of them is the December 2008 crime drama romance film, Förbjuden Frukt, where she played the role of Selen – the lead character's teen girlfriend. The film is set against the backdrop of violent crime, where she falls in love with a boy with a criminal past.


title: Elli AvrRam

text: In 2010, AvrRam participated in Miss Greece beauty contest. She also appeared on the Swedish TV-show Gomorron Sverige.


title: Elli AvrRam

text: In September 2012, AvrRam moved to Mumbai on a tourist visa to pursue an acting career in Bollywood. About the decision of acting in Hindi movies, she expressed in an interview with N Magazine, "[When] I was 14, I had a TV in my room and watched "Devdas" which is almost four hours long. I didn't move the entire time. I thought, 'Wow, I want to act and dance like that. I have to do Bollywood movies.'" She signed up with a modeling agency and soon got a work visa. The agency helped her getting auditions. The first considerable project she managed to get was a TV commercial for Eveready Industries India with the leading Indian actor Akshay Kumar.


title: Elli AvrRam

text: She eventually got her first major breakthrough by bagging a lead role in Saurabh Varma's comedy thriller film "Mickey Virus". AvrRam recollected, "The photographer who took pictures of me knew a director who was looking for a girl for a lead role. I called him and had come to audition for his film." She disclosed, "Before I auditioned for "Mickey Virus", I asked director to send me the script so I could memorize the words, because I didn't know Hindi yet. I was sent four pages of dialogue and there was no one who could tell me how to pronounce certain words. At the audition they liked my acting but the accent wasn't right." She was shortlisted along with 200 other hopefuls and managed to beat others. AvrRam revealed in an interview, "When I told the director that mom worked with Ingmar Bergman, he gave a strong reaction: 'What!? Has she worked with Bergman?' They were incredibly impressed." For her Bollywood launch, AvrRam has taken formal training in dance form and Hindi pronunciation. In this film she plays the role of Kamayani George, the love interest of the character Mickey Virus, played Manish Paul, who is a popular TV host and is making his debut in film industry. The film, shot in Delhi, released on 25 October 2013.


title: Elli AvrRam

text: The first Swedish actress to act in Bollywood, AvrRam has been noted for looks very similar to the actress Katrina Kaif.


title: Elli AvrRam

text: In 2013, AvrRam participated as a contestant on an Indian reality TV show, "Bigg Boss 7", where celebrities from various walks of life live together in a large house, completely cut off from the outside world. They try to avoid being evicted every week by public votes, with the aim of prize money at the end. The show, based on Dutch-based Endemol's Big Brother, went on air in September 2013 and is hosted by the actor Salman Khan. After spending ten weeks on the show, she got evicted in November 2013. AvrRam said in an interview with PTI, "I did not come to Bigg Boss for money or fame but with the agenda to have fun. This show has helped me become a household name. I am very humbled by the appreciation I have received from audiences and will cherish this experience for years to come."


title: Elli AvrRam

text: In October 2013, colleges in Chandigarh reportedly banned the students from possessing or displaying posters of AvrRam in the campus and dormitories as the college authorities considered her images inappropriate.


title: Elli AvrRam

text: In 2014, Elli appeared as a guest contestant in Colors TV's dance reality show "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa" in its "seventh season" for the teen ka tadka special week along with Sophie Choudry.


title: Elli AvrRam

text: In 2015, he third film, "Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon" released in September. The film received good reviews and was a success at the box office. In 2017, she appeared in two films "Naam Shabana" and "Poster Boys". She later presented the reality show "The Great Indian Laughter Challenge".


title: Elli AvrRam

text: In 2018, appeared in the film "Baazaar" in the song "Billionaire" along with Rohan Mehra and Saif Ali Khan. While the film faild at the box office, the song got good reviews.


title: Elli AvrRam

text: AvrRam performed a dance act on the song "Chamma Chamma" for the film "Fraud Saiyaan". The special song, was released in December 2018 by Tips Industries and gained over 15 million YouTube views in just three days of its release. Despite popularity of song, film was flopped in box-office At the song launch event, AvrRam said, "I signed up for this dance song because it's such an iconic thing to get to be part of the recreation of it." She appeared in another song "Zila Hilela" along with Sidharth Malhotra in Ekta Kapoor's movie "Jabariya Jodi".


title: Elli AvrRam

text: In March 2019, she appeared in a music video called", Haaye Oye," released by "Sony Music India." In 2020, she acted in the film "Malang" playing the role of Jesse. In 2021, she made her Tamil debut with the film "Naane Varuvean" opposite National award winning superstar Dhanush. Her last special dance number "Har Funn Maula" with megastar Aamir Khan got more than 90 million views on YouTube .


title: Gary Speed

text: Gary Andrew Speed (8 September 1969 – 27 November 2011) was a Welsh professional footballer and manager. As manager of Wales, Speed is often credited as being the catalyst for the change in fortunes of the national team and as setting the pathway to future successes.


title: Gary Speed

text: Having played for the Leeds United youth team, he began his professional career with the club in 1988. With Leeds, he won the English First Division championship in 1991–92, and later played for Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield United. He captained the Wales national football team until retiring from international football in 2004. He was the most capped outfield player for Wales and the second overall with 85 caps between 1990 and 2004 until being overtaken by Chris Gunter in 2018, playing mainly as a left-sided attacking midfielder. Speed was appointed manager of Sheffield United in 2010, but left the club after a few months in December 2010 to manage the Wales national team, remaining in this role until his death 11 months later.


title: Gary Speed

text: Rarely troubled by injury or suspension, he held the record for the most appearances in the Premier League at 535, until it was surpassed by David James. At the time of his death, only James and Ryan Giggs had played in more Premier League matches than Speed. Including appearances in the Football League and cup competitions, he made 840 domestic appearances.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed was born in Mancot, Flintshire, Wales, although his parents Roger and Carol, sister Lesley and sons Thomas and Edward were all born in Chester. He attended Hawarden High School.


title: Gary Speed

text: He supported Everton as a youngster. Whilst at school, he was employed as a paperboy and played for Flintshire Schoolboys, a local boys' team, and for Aston Park Rangers. As a youngster, Speed excelled at cricket and football.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed began his career with Leeds United as a trainee when he left school in June 1988, and was Peter Swan's boot boy, before he signed a professional contract on 13 June 1988. Leeds manager Howard Wilkinson first noticed Speed in a youth team game while the player was playing in a left back position. Under Wilkinson, he made his first team debut aged 19 in a goalless draw against Oldham Athletic in the Football League Second Division. He would go on to play in nine out of the ten outfield positions, although he was predominantly a left-sided player.


title: Gary Speed

text: He went on to play a key role, playing 41 of a possible 42 games and scoring seven goals, as Leeds won the Football League First Division championship title in 1992, as part of a midfield that also comprised Gordon Strachan, Gary McAllister and David Batty – former Leeds manager Eddie Gray considered it to be one of the greatest midfield line-ups in the modern era. Wilkinson named Speed as the club's player of the season.


title: Gary Speed

text: In September 1992, Speed was pivotal in Leeds' UEFA Champions League first-round tie against VfB Stuttgart. Stuttgart had won 3–0 at home and looked to be going through already. Speed helped Leeds to a 4–1 victory at Elland Road, scoring one of them with a "superb left-foot volley" which he later described as his best-ever goal. Although Leeds went out of the tie on the away goals rule, the club was later reinstated, for Stuttgart had fielded an ineligible player.


title: Gary Speed

text: On 4 October 1995, Speed scored the winning goal as Leeds beat second division side Notts County in the second round of the League Cup. The match had seemed to be going to extra time, but Speed's 90th-minute winning goal kept Leeds from needing a replay to overcome their lower-league opponents.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed featured in the 1996 Football League Cup Final defeat by Aston Villa. Before transferring to Everton, Speed played in 312 games for Leeds United, scoring 57 goals.


title: Gary Speed

text: A childhood Everton fan, Speed was signed by Joe Royle before the 1996–97 season, for a fee of £3.5 million. He made his debut on 17 August 1996, scoring against Newcastle United. In November of that year, Speed scored a hat-trick – the only one of his career – as Everton beat Southampton 7–1 at Goodison Park. Speed finished the season with 11 goals, joint top-scorer with Duncan Ferguson. Speed was also voted Everton Player of Year for his performances during his first season at the club.


title: Gary Speed

text: Howard Kendall succeeded Royle as the manager at the start of the 1997–98 season, and nominated Speed as club captain. However, by the turn of the year the relationship between Speed and Kendall had soured. Speed played his last game for the club on 18 January 1998, scoring in a 3–1 win over Chelsea. He did not travel for their next game, away to West Ham United, and was subsequently sold to Newcastle for £5.5 million. The reasons underlying Speed's departure were never revealed. He told the "Liverpool Echo": "You know why I'm leaving, but I can't explain myself publicly because it would damage the good name of Everton Football Club and I'm not prepared to do that."


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed was signed for Newcastle United on 6 February 1998 by Kenny Dalglish, for a fee of £5.5 million. He made his debut as a starter in a 1–0 home Premier League defeat to West Ham United the next day. His first goal came in his fifth match, the sixth round proper of the 1997–98 FA Cup. At home to Barnsley, he scored the second goal of a 3–1 home win with a 27th-minute strike. His only league goal of the 1997–98 season came in a 3–1 home win over Chelsea in the penultimate league match on 2 May, with Newcastle's third in the 59th minute. He finished the season by playing the 1998 FA Cup Final, which Newcastle lost 2–0 to Arsenal on 16 May.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed featured in the club's FA Cup Final defeat to Manchester United on 22 May 1999. On 19 September 1999, he scored a goal in Newcastle's 8–0 Premier League victory over Sheffield Wednesday in which his teammate Alan Shearer scored a joint-record five times. He also played in the UEFA Champions League with Newcastle in the 2002–03 season, scoring the 58th-minute equaliser in a 2–1 home victory over Dynamo Kyiv in the group stage on 29 October 2002.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed moved to Bolton Wanderers on a two-year deal in a £750,000 switch from Newcastle United in July 2004. He became the first player to make 500 Premier League appearances when he played in Bolton's 4–0 victory over West Ham United in December 2006.


title: Gary Speed

text: On 1 May 2007, Speed was named as the first-team coach for Bolton after Sam Allardyce stepped down from his job as manager. However, in October he left the coaching job and returned to being just a player with the club. Conflicting reports of the incident claimed that then manager Sammy Lee relieved him of his duties to concentrate on playing, but Speed, in an interview with the "Bolton News", claimed he chose to step down.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed scored a header for Bolton against Reading on 25 August 2007, making him, at the time, the only player to have scored in every Premiership season to date. Ryan Giggs later matched this achievement on 20 October 2007, and passed it on 8 February 2009. It had been reported in December 2007 that Speed was a target for Derby County, but it was confirmed on 24 December 2007 that he would join Sheffield United on loan on 1 January 2008, with a view to a permanent move for a fee of about £250,000.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed made his debut on the day of his transfer, being named in the starting eleven for a 0–0 away draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers on New Year's Day 2008. He played regularly for the rest of the season and deputised as captain when Chris Morgan was unavailable. Having seen his penalty parried, Speed netted the rebound to score his first goal for United in a victory over Coventry City in March of that year. He went on to finish the season on three goals for United, scoring both goals in a 2–1 home victory over Bristol City in the penultimate game of the 2007–08 season. In an interview with BBC Wales on 10 May 2008, Speed hinted that the 2008–09 season may be his last playing before moving into coaching or management but stated that he had not yet made up his mind.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed started the next season as a regular fixture in the United midfield, but succumbed to a back injury in November 2008. Despite undergoing surgery to correct the problem he failed to regain his fitness and missed the rest of the season, concentrating instead on a coaching role at the club. In June 2009, he was approached by Swansea City with regards to taking on the managerial role left vacant by Roberto Martínez. He continued training and completed the 2010 London Marathon in aid of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, the cancer charity founded by Speed's former Newcastle manager, who had died of the illness in 2009. Speed's finishing time was 3 hours, 49 minutes and 22 seconds.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed finally announced his retirement from playing in his 41st year, but agreed to remain at Sheffield United for at least one more season as a coach. Despite this he was again registered as a player and was named on the bench for the first round League Cup game against Hartlepool United at the outset of the following season.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed played for Wales at youth level and earned three caps for the under-21 team. He played 85 times for Wales, making him the second highest capped player only behind goalkeeper Neville Southall who made 92 appearances until Speed was surpassed by Chris Gunter in 2018. Speed captained Wales on 44 occasions. His first appearance for the national side had come on 20 May 1990 in a 1–0 friendly win against Costa Rica at Ninian Park as a second-half replacement for Glyn Hodges. He did not score until his 27th cap, a 3–2 away defeat in Moldova in a Euro 1996 qualifier on 12 October 1994. Speed's first appearance as captain was during his 46th cap, a 3–0 away win in Malta on 3 June 1998.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed broke the record held by Dean Saunders for most caps by a Welsh outfield player when he won his 76th against Finland in a Euro 2004 qualifier on 10 September 2003. He captained the side to a 1–1 draw. Speed retired from international football in 2004 after the side's 3–2 defeat to Poland in a 2006 World Cup qualifier.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed was a versatile player who could play in left midfield, central midfield, and also at left-back, but playing mainly as a left-side attacking midfielder, with a knack for directing powerful headers towards goal. He possessed great tactical awareness, and could both create and score goals. Regularly a captain, he was said by his teammates to have been an 'inspirational figure' who led by example and demanded the best from those around him.


title: Gary Speed

text: He was well known as a 'consummate professional' both on and off the field. Hardworking, honest and self-critical, he was not blessed with exceptional talent at a young age, but instead developed his technique through many hours of hard work on the training field. He had a reputation as an extremely fit footballer who looked after his body. He had a modern approach to diet and fitness, a rare quality amongst players of his generation. His level of fitness allowed him to avoid injury and to continue playing until the age of 39; he rarely missed a game.


title: Gary Speed

text: He also had a reputation as a friendly and supportive person, who cared for and took an interest in the lives of the people around him; his 'nice guy' persona made him a popular and well respected figure amongst his peers.


title: Gary Speed

text: With the 2010–11 season only three games old, Sheffield United manager Kevin Blackwell was dismissed with Speed being confirmed as the club's new manager on a three-year contract on 17 August 2010. On 21 October 2010, Speed was given a one-game touchline ban and a £22,000 fine by The Football Association for his unsporting behaviour at the home fixture against Watford on 2 October 2010. On 11 December 2010, Speed was linked with the vacant Wales manager job along with John Hartson, Brian Flynn, Chris Coleman and Lars Lagerbäck. Sheffield United confirmed that they had given Speed permission to talk to the Football Association of Wales over the vacant position. With just four months managerial experience, Speed was confirmed as the new Welsh national team manager on 14 December 2010 succeeding John Toshack who had stepped down in September 2010. Sheffield United released Speed from his contract after compensation was paid by the FAW. Former Welsh national team manager Mark Hughes supported the move to appoint Speed, saying, "He's got a strong personality, he's good with people, (the players) will relate better to Gary than they perhaps did to the previous manager."


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed's first game as Wales manager was 8 February 2011 in the inaugural Nations Cup, which the Republic of Ireland won 3–0. Speed's first competitive match was the Euro 2012 qualifier at home to England 26 March 2011 and Speed appointed twenty-year-old Aaron Ramsey captain, making Ramsey the youngest ever Wales captain. Wales lost to England 2–0, and in August 2011 Wales attained their lowest ever FIFA ranking of 117th. This was followed by a 2–1 home win against Montenegro, a 1–0 away loss to England, a 2–0 home win against Switzerland and a 1–0 away win against Bulgaria. Consequently, in October 2011, Wales were ranked 45th in the world by FIFA. Speed's last game as manager of Wales was on 12 November 2011, a 4–1 home win in a friendly match against Norway. On 21 December 2011, the day of the final FIFA rankings of the year, Wales were awarded the title of 'Best Movers' of the year having gained more ranking points than any other nation in 2011.


title: Gary Speed

text: Outside his football career, Speed was known by friends as a humble and modest person, also echoed by David Moyes. He also took part in charitable works and fighting for footballers' rights.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours for services to football.


title: Gary Speed

text: In 2018, 7 years after his death, an old letter written by Speed in which he noted of being depressed and wishing to sleep and "never wake up" was uncovered by his widow Louise. The letter was addressed to Louise and it was written when Speed was 17 years old.


title: Gary Speed

text: On 26 November 2011, Speed appeared as a guest on the BBC One television programme "Football Focus"; presenter Dan Walker later described him as being in "fine form". After the programme finished at 1 pm, Speed chatted to various other pundits at the MediaCity studios in Salford before joining former Newcastle United teammate Alan Shearer to watch their old club play against Manchester United at Old Trafford, a short walk from the studios across the Manchester Ship Canal. At 5 pm, Speed drove home to Huntington, Cheshire, about an hour's drive from Old Trafford.


title: Gary Speed

text: The following morning, just before 7 am, his wife Louise found his body hanging in the garage of his home. She telephoned the ambulance service at 7:08 a.m. and the police were also informed. They confirmed that he was dead, and announced that they were not treating his death as suspicious. Although the facts were not fully established, it was reported that Speed's death had been a suicide. His death was announced to the public by the Football Association of Wales a few hours later. An inquest into Speed's death convened on 29 November 2011; it was adjourned until 30 January 2012.


title: Gary Speed

text: The coroner at the inquest reached a narrative verdict and stated that cause of death was by "self suspension", but that there was insufficient evidence to determine whether it was intentional as he may have intended to make a "dramatic gesture" and then "nodded off to sleep". The inquest heard that the pressure of management had put some strain on his marriage and that he and Louise had argued the night before his death. However, family friend Alan Shearer had told Speed that such arguments were normal within a long-term relationship, and Louise told the inquest how recent conversations between her and her husband "went on about our future together and how excited he was about our journey together".


title: Gary Speed

text: As a boy, Speed was coached by Barry Bennell, who was later convicted as a serial child sex offender. In February 2018, after Bennell's conviction, an anonymous victim of the coach told Al Jazeera that he had witnessed Speed being abused. However, police twice interviewed Speed during earlier investigations into Bennell's behaviour, and he said that he was never harmed by him; the inquest into Speed's death found no links to Bennell.


title: Gary Speed

text: News of Speed's death was first announced by the Football Association of Wales, who extended their sympathies and condolences to Speed's family. Throughout the day similar messages were released from many people within football, as well as national figures in Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom. Close friends and former teammates such as Robbie Savage, Ryan Giggs, Simon Grayson, Alan Shearer, Craig Bellamy and John Hartson all expressed their deep sorrow at his death. Many British politicians expressed sadness at Speed's death and sent condolences to his family, including Prime Minister David Cameron and Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband. Among the international figures to pay tribute to Speed was UEFA President Michel Platini. FIFA President Sepp Blatter described Speed as "a model professional and a fantastic ambassador for the game". Both the FIFA and Welsh flags at FIFA's headquarters were at half mast as a mark of respect.


title: Gary Speed

text: The match between Swansea City and Aston Villa at the Liberty Stadium, held only hours after Speed's death was announced, was dedicated to his memory. A minute's silence was to be held before the match. However, the fans applauded instead and sang Speed's name. Several players who played in the match were severely affected by the news. Four Welsh internationals played in the match; Ashley Williams, Neil Taylor and Joe Allen, of Swansea, all played under Speed for Wales, and Allen in particular was said to be struggling with the news. James Collins was the other Welsh international, and he had also played with Speed at international level. Collins' Villa teammates Shay Given and Jermaine Jenas had both played with Speed at Newcastle United, and both were badly affected by the news. Given openly wept during and after the minute's applause. Both managers, Alex McLeish and Brendan Rodgers, paid tribute to Speed. Rodgers, who had spoken to Speed a lot since he had become Wales manager, said that the game had lost a legend, while Neil Taylor said that he hoped Wales could qualify for the 2014 World Cup to honour him.


title: Gary Speed

text: Along with this match, several others saw tributes toward Speed. The only other Premier League match played that day was between Liverpool and Manchester City. Craig Bellamy of Liverpool was withdrawn from Liverpool's squad by his manager Kenny Dalglish, as he was too affected by the news to play. Bellamy played with Speed for Newcastle United and Wales, where Speed had also been his manager. Dalglish himself had signed Speed for Newcastle, and expressed his sadness at the news, saying that he thought Speed was not only a great footballer but also a great person. Another of Speed's former teammates, Hugo Viana, also paid tribute to him. Viana, a Portuguese international played alongside Speed at Newcastle from 2002 to 2004. After his team Braga had lost 3–2 to Porto, Viana displayed a shirt reading "Gary Rest in Peace".


title: Gary Speed

text: At Sheffield United there were tributes for the former player, coach and manager before the team's home fixture against Torquay United in the FA Cup. Former teammates and colleagues were invited to the match; there was a minute's applause before the match; players warmed up in specially designed shirts; players and coaches wore black armbands; the match day programme was dedicated to Speed; Sheffield United captain Chris Morgan and former Sheffield United and Welsh international Rob Page laid wreaths on pitch side just before kick-off. Sheffield United striker Ched Evans, the only player to be managed by Speed at both club and international level, paid tribute to Speed during the match; Evans revealed a message under his shirt after scoring his first goal which read: "Rest in peace Speedo." Evans stated after the match "I was a man on a mission. I had a message on my top for Gary Speed which I wanted to show. I'm thankful I got the goal ... The crowd started singing [Speed's name], it gave me goose pimples."


title: Gary Speed

text: During the following week, tributes were paid to Speed from across the football season. A minute's applause was held before the League Cup quarter-final ties, as well as across the Football League midweek matches. Similar events were staged at every Premier League match on the weekend of 4 December, as well as Wales's rugby match against Australia at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Speed's wife Louise and his two children attended the Football League Championship game at Elland Road between Speed's former club Leeds and Millwall, which Leeds won 2–0, and again held a minute's applause. Speed's fellow midfielders from the 1991–92 title-winning side Gary McAllister, David Batty and Gordon Strachan laid wreaths in his memory. Speed's father, Roger, also led a minute's tribute at Goodison Park, where Speed's former club Everton lost 1–0 to Stoke City. Speed's father and sons were again present a week later at the Reebok Stadium, as another of his son's former teams Bolton Wanderers lost 2–1 to Aston Villa.


title: Gary Speed

text: On 4 January, the Football Association of Wales announced that a match in Speed's memory would be played on 29 February at Cardiff City Stadium. The friendly international, against Costa Rica, commemorated Speed's debut for Wales, where his team won against the same country 1–0, the memorial saw Costa Rica win by the same score.


title: Gary Speed

text: On 25 September 2012, Everton visited Leeds United in the League Cup. Starting from the 11th minute of the fixture, both sets of supporters chanted Speed's name for 11 minutes.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed's funeral, attended by around 250 members of his family and close friends took place in the village of Hawarden on 9 December 2011. In keeping with his wife Louise's wishes, only small crowds gathered on the main road outside St Deiniol's Church and no members of the press were admitted. Speed was later cremated in Pentre Bychan Crematorium, Wrexham.


title: Gary Speed

text: Speed's work to improve the professional standard of the Football Association of Wales, including improvements to training facilities, team culture, and its national visibility, was credited as a major contributor to the success that Wales would enjoy in the decade after his death, beginning with their qualification for Euro 2016 and culminating in their appearance at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, bringing to an end a 64-year drought at the World Cup. His memory became part of "the sense of collective purpose" of the organization. On the eve of the Qatar World Cup, Speed's former teammate Neville Southall wrote that the biggest difference between the Welsh squad that had qualified and those that came before started "with a single word: belief," and that "for the initial source of the belief, though, you have to go back to my old mate Gary Speed. Gary had a burning ambition to take Wales into a tournament and, in his time as manager, he made players believe in themselves." Wales captain Gareth Bale paid tribute to Speed on the occasion, saying "Gary Speed's vision was to grow the FAW, not just the football, but the infrastructure: building a training base, having a high-performance centre and recovery centre, just like a top club," adding "I'm sure he's looking down on us with a big smile and happy that Welsh football is in a great place."


title: Now and Then (film)

text: Now and Then is a 1995 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Lesli Linka Glatter and starring Christina Ricci, Rosie O'Donnell, Thora Birch, Melanie Griffith, Gaby Hoffmann, Demi Moore, Ashleigh Aston Moore, and Rita Wilson. The supporting cast features Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo, Cloris Leachman, and Bonnie Hunt, among many others. The plot follows four women who recount a pivotal summer they shared together as adolescents in 1970.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: It was filmed largely in the Country Walk subdivision off Coffee Bluff Road in Savannah, Georgia (called Shelby, Indiana in the movie), using the Gaslight Addition and Old Town Cemetery, highlighting the downtown area. Additional filming was done in Statesboro, Georgia in locations including the Bulloch County Court House (also featured in the film "1969") and the building now housing the Averitt Center for the Arts.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: Though the film received unfavorable reviews upon release, it was a box office success, grossing $37.5 million against a $12 million budget. The film is considered a cult classic for its depiction of girlhood and centering of female friendships.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: In 1995, four women and childhood friends reunite in their hometown of Shelby, Indiana. They include sci-fi author Samantha Albertson, glitzy actress Tina "Teeny" Tercell, dry-humored gynecologist Dr. Roberta Martin, and content homemaker Chrissy DeWitt, who is heavily pregnant and expecting to give birth to her first child any day.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: The story flashes back to 1970 as Samantha recounts the memorable summer shared by them as young adolescents. Twelve-year-old Samantha seeks to earn enough money to purchase a tree house to place in Chrissy's backyard in their affluent suburban neighborhood, the Gaslight Addition.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: Each of the four girls is going through her own individual struggles. Samantha’s parents are in the midst of a divorce, Teeny is in pursuit of stardom and is boy-crazy, tomboy Roberta experiences embarrassment due to her developing breasts, and Chrissy is naive about sex and life in general due to her mother's overprotectiveness.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: Motivated by Samantha's interest in the occult, the girls regularly sneak out at night to hold seances in the cemetery. During one, a cracked tombstone convinces them they have resurrected the spirit of a young boy identified only as Dear Johnny, who died in 1945. This sets the girls on a quest to find out what happened to him.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: At a library in a nearby town, Roberta discovers an article about her mother’s death due to a car accident: she was hit head on, trapped in her car for an hour, and then later died of massive head trauma and internal bleeding—facts previously unknown to her. Samantha finds an obituary that briefly mentions Johnny and his mother tragically dying, but many of the pages are missing, leaving their cause of their deaths a mystery.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: Meanwhile, the girls get into all sorts of other adventures, including an ongoing prank war with a group of neighborhood boys called the Wormer brothers and a fight at a softball game after a local boy insults Roberta. Roberta has her first kiss with Scott Wormer and makes him swear not to tell anyone.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: One night after some tension prompted by her mother dating someone new, Samantha storms out of her home. She and Teeny hang out in the tree house display at the store, where Samantha confides her parents are getting a divorce. Teeny comforts her and breaks her favorite necklace in two, giving one half to Samantha as a "best friends for life" bracelet.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: A thunderstorm breaks out as the girls head home, and Samantha accidentally drops her bracelet in a storm drain. She nearly drowns trying to retrieve it, but is rescued by Crazy Pete, a local old man who only comes out at night to ride his bike. This causes the girls to change their impression of Crazy Pete, who admits he only goes out at night because he prefers not to be around people.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: Later, at Samantha’s grandmother’s, as she refuses to tell them what happened to Johnny, they sneak into the attic. They discover old newspapers that reveal Jonathan Sims and his mother, Beverly Anne, were shot and killed when they interrupted a burglary; father and husband, Peter, came home to find their bodies.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: Roberta becomes upset and angry that two innocent people were killed and that her mother died violently, contrary to what she was told. Samantha tells them her parents are divorcing, and the girls make a pact to always be there for one another.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: They go to the cemetery to perform one last seance to put Dear Johnny's soul to rest. His tombstone suddenly rises surrounded by bright light and a figure appears from behind. It turns out to just be the groundskeeper, who chastises the girls for "playing" in the cemetery and explains the damaged tombstone is being replaced because he was the one who cracked it. Chrissy then refuses to participate in future seances, deeming them a waste of time. The entire ordeal prompts Samantha to realize her childhood is coming to an end.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: While leaving, Samantha notices Crazy Pete going to the tombstone. Realizing he is Peter, she comforts him, while he advises her not to dwell on things. Some time after, the tree house is finally bought, and Samantha narrates, "The treehouse was supposed to bring us more independence. But what the summer actually brought was independence from each other."


title: Now and Then (film)

text: The film returns to 1995, where Chrissy goes into labor and gives birth to a baby girl. Later, in their old tree house, Roberta reveals that Crazy Pete died the previous year and Samantha confesses Pete was Dear Johnny's father. The friends reaffirm their pact and vow to remain close.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: "Now and Then" was released in North American theaters on October 20, 1995, ultimately grossing $37.5 million worldwide. In its opening weekend, it debuted in the number two spot behind "Get Shorty" and above the thriller "Seven".


title: Now and Then (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "Now and Then" has a 33% approval rating based on reviews from 21 critics, with an average rating of 5.2/10. On Metacritic, it has a score of 50% based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."


title: Now and Then (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" criticized the story, saying it was "made of artificial bits and pieces" whereas "What distinguished "Stand by Me" was the psychological soundness of the story: We could believe it and care about it." Ebert instead praised another film about girlhood "The Man in the Moon" for its truthful storytelling and said that in comparison this film was "a gimmicky sitcom." Alison Macor of "The" "Austin Chronicle" wrote the film is “sweet and it's often funny, but ultimately its slice-of-life approach tries too hard to incorporate current events like the Vietnam War.”


title: Now and Then (film)

text: Though critics were lukewarm towards the story, multiple reviews praised the four young leads’ acting. Macor acknowledged “the four young actresses effectively convey that on-the-verge feeling between puberty and teen-hood”. In a positive review, Edward Guthmann of the "San Francisco Chronicle" wrote "Now and Then" “nicely captures the giddiness, excitement and resistance to adult responsibility that are specific to 12-year-old girls. It's not particularly deep, but it's a good-natured, sprightly comedy that ought to find its most appreciative audience among preteen girls.”


title: Now and Then (film)

text: In the years since "Now and Then"s release, the film has gained a large cult following through home video, repeat airings on cable TV, and as a staple at girls’ sleepovers.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: In a "New York Times" piece discussing the film’s cultural impact, Ilana Kaplan wrote "Now and Then" was ahead of its time for “giving the complexities of girlhood a weight that coming-of-age films [had heretofore] typically neglected…[The film] showed tween girls as fully realized characters who weren’t written off or secondary. Tackling death and grief, along with budding sexuality gave their stories weight when narratives about female adolescence were often surface-level.”


title: Now and Then (film)

text: Screenwriter I. Marlene King went on to create the drama series "Pretty Little Liars", which she said is influenced by "Now and Then". King would reunite with director Lesli Linka Glatter for "Liars", with the latter directing the pilot episode and two season finales. Though King announced in 2012 she would be developing "Now and Then" as a series for ABC Family, the project did not come to materialize. According to King, ABC Family wanted to change the concept "so the 'now' was present day and the 'then' would be the ‘90s. I didn’t want to do that — I felt that kind of ruins how special the movie is...I didn’t want to take a chance on changing the time period. To me, there will never be a 1970s again, so to try to set it in the ‘90s when we had cell phones and things like that, I don’t think it would work."


title: Now and Then (film)

text: Columbia Records released a soundtrack album on October 10, 1995. It was made up of tunes from the 1960s and 1970s.


title: Now and Then (film)

text: One of the songs is anachronistic for a story set in the summer of 1970: ""Knock Three Times"" was released in 1971.


title: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

text: Vidhu Vinod Chopra (born 5 September 1952) is an Indian film director, producer, editor, screenwriter, lyricist and actor. His well-known films as director are "Parinda" (1988), "" (1994). He is also known for producing "Munna Bhai film series", "3 Idiots" (2009), "PK" (2014), "Sanju" (2018) under his banner Vinod Chopra Films.


title: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

text: Chopra was born and grew up in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. His father was D. N. Chopra and veteran filmmaker Ramanand Sagar was his half-brother. His father's family originally came from Peshawar, British India. His mother was Shanti Devi Mahalakshmi who left Kashmir with him and family after the exodus and mass killings of Kashmiri Pandits due to the Kashmir conflict in 1990. He dedicated his movie "Shikara" to his mother which is based on the same theme. He studied film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune.


title: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

text: Chopra's first student short film, "Murder at Monkey Hill", won the National Film Award for Best Short Experimental Film and the Guru Dutt Memorial Award for Best Student Film.


title: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

text: This was followed by a short documentary highlighting the plight of India's destitute children, called "An Encounter with Faces", which was nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short Subject category in 1979. It also won the Grand Prix at the Tampere Film Festival in 1980.


title: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

text: "Sazaye Maut", his first full-length feature film, was an adaptation of his previous short, "Murder at Monkey Hill". It starred Naseeruddin Shah, Radha Saluja and Dilip Dhawan. Vanraj Bhatia composed the music for the film. For "Khamosh", his next directorial venture, Chopra assembled a cast featuring some of the finest acting talent in India. Shabana Azmi, Amol Palekar, Naseeruddin Shah and Pankaj Kapoor, among others, appeared in prominent roles. An inventive meta thriller set in Kashmir, "Khamosh" remains one of the notable Indian films in the genre.


title: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

text: "Parinda" (1989), is a landmark film in Hindi cinema. It expanded the orbit of the crime drama and the vocabulary of images used in Hindi films while garnering widespread critical acclaim and numerous awards. Several modern Indian filmmakers have expressed their admiration for and drawn inspiration from Chopra's film.


title: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

text: Chopra's next film, "", was a patriotic romantic drama set during the decline of the British Raj. With Anil Kapoor and Manisha Koirala in leading roles, it was also the last film to have its music composed by the legendary R. D. Burman. Burman received a Filmfare Award for Best Music Director and the film won a total of nine awards at the 40th Filmfare Awards.


title: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

text: He founded his own production company, Vinod Chopra Films, in 1985. Since then, the company has gone on to produce major Bollywood films, and is currently one of the biggest and most successful film production houses in India. Bengali filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak affectionately gave him the name 'Vidhu'.


title: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

text: His critically acclaimed films include "Parinda", "", "Mission Kashmir", the "Munna Bhai" series, "Parineeta", and "3 Idiots". "3 Idiots" went on to become one of the most successful films in India, and became the first film in the country to cross Rs. 200 crore at the boxoffice. It also found popular appeal in markets like Taiwan and Korea. His other films,PK and Sanju were one of the highest grossing Indian films. He also made his Hollywood directorial debut with the film "Broken Horses" in 2015. However, it received a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 22%, and was a commercial disaster, only making Rs. 60 lakh in its opening weekend.


title: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

text: His latest film, "Shikara" is a Hindi language historical romance film released on 7 February 2020 marking his return to direction in India after 13 years. His last directorial feature film, "" released in 2007.


title: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

text: Vidhu Vinod Chopra has received one nomination at the Academy Awards, six National Film Awards, and five awards from fourteen nominations at the Filmfare Awards.


title: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

text: He has been married thrice, his first wife was actress Renu Saluja (m. 1976–1983), he was then married to filmmaker Shabnam Sukhdev (m. 1985–1989), the daughter of S. Sukhdev (1933–1979) a well known director of documentaries for the Films Division of India. He has a daughter with Shabnam, Ishaa Chopra, who works as a dance instructor and choreographer.


title: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

text: He is currently married to Indian film critic Anupama Chopra, whom he married on 1 June 1990. He has two children with her, a son, Agni and a daughter, Zuni Chopra.


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: Wild Card is a 2015 American action thriller film directed by Simon West and starring Jason Statham, Michael Angarano, Milo Ventimiglia, Dominik Garcia-Lorido, Anne Heche, and Sofia Vergara. Based on the 1985 novel "Heat" by William Goldman, it is a remake of the 1986 adaptation that starred Burt Reynolds. The film was released in the United States on January 30, 2015 in a limited release and through video on demand.


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: "Wild Card" received negative reviews and was a box-office bomb, making only $6.7 million worldwide against a $30 million budget.


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: Nick Wild is a recovering gambling addict who takes odd jobs in Las Vegas as a ""chaperone"" (his version of a bodyguard) to support his addiction. After helping a client impress a woman, he accepts a proposition from a young man, Cyrus Kinnick, to show him around Vegas and provide protection while he gambles.


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: While eating at a diner, Nick's waitress friend Roxy hands him a message from a woman he knows, Holly, who wants him to stop by her house. Holly, a professional escort, explains she had a date the previous night at the Golden Nugget. Afterward, she was brutally raped and beaten by three unknown men in their hotel room. Holly asks Nick to find out who they are so that she can sue them.


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: Nick discovers that the man responsible for raping Holly is Danny DeMarco, a gangster, who had two of his thugs dump her in a hospital car park. Nick goes to the hotel to confront DeMarco and a confrontation develops, resulting in Nick overpowering DeMarco and his men, who are tied up. Nick calls Holly, who contemplates castrating DeMarco, who then breaks down and begs her forgiveness. Holly decides to just take the $50,000 from DeMarco's desk and leaves.


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: Holly splits the money with Nick and leaves Las Vegas. Nick takes Cyrus to a casino and whilst playing blackjack with dealer friend Cassandra, Nick goes on a huge winning streak with the next dealer, amassing over a half a million dollars. But when he goes to the cashier, he has a sudden anxiety attack and decides to keep on gambling, eventually losing all his winnings (as well as his original $25,000) on a single blackjack bet with Cassandra. The next morning, Cyrus, revealed to be a self-made millionaire, wants Nick to mentor him on being brave, but Nick declines. At the bar, DeMarco's men arrive to deliver Nick to DeMarco, but Nick fends them off.


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: Nick meets with Baby, the mafia boss of Las Vegas. Baby has received a complaint from DeMarco, who claims that Nick broke into his hotel room, pistol-whipped him, and killed two of his men – all to fund his gambling addiction. Baby takes Nick to a room with DeMarco, where Nick tells his side of the story: that DeMarco killed his own men, to save face after begging for his life, and that DeMarco bears a cut on his penis. Baby tells DeMarco to drop his pants to prove Nick wrong, but he refuses and leaves.


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: At the local diner, Cyrus offers Nick a check for $500,000 and a plane ticket to Corsica for what he has learned from Nick. DeMarco and his men appear in the diner. Cyrus shows his newfound manliness by singing loudly as a distraction so Nick can escape. Nick thinks about his sailboat and then kills the thugs and DeMarco with his utensils behind the diner.


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: Afterwards, Cyrus insists Nick take the check and the ticket, and Nick accepts. Nick then drives out of Las Vegas.


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: Simon West said that Jason Statham developed the project himself "maybe over five years". At one point, Brian De Palma was slated to direct until West replaced him. West stated:


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: I rang him up and said, "I'm about to put the record straight and fix this film for you." I did ask him, what's your one piece of advice for me when shooting this? He said, "Just make sure that Nick is the toughest guy you've ever seen in your life." That, I think is his approach – no matter how complicated the character is intellectually, no matter how much dialogue there is, or twists and turns Goldman puts in the script, at the end of the day, he has this one thing that he has above his desk that reminds him what the character should be. It was the same for me – once he told me that, "Nick's the toughest guy in Vegas", every scene informs that. Even when he's not doing anything, everybody in the room knows that, and everybody knows his history, what he's capable of. And so he ultimately doesn't have to do that much, because he is the toughest guy in Vegas.


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: "It was nice firstly to have a script that was so set, because on any big movie scripts are constantly in flux," said West. "It also made it easy to sell to actors like Stanley Tucci and Sofia Vergara because their parts were very set out. There's nothing in the script that's really aged, there's no pyrotechnics or technology really."


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: Filming began in early 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The principal photography began in February 2013.


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: each one of the action moments is character-driven, so you're right, it builds up. So when it does explode, it's exploding for the right reason. The first one, he's getting back into his old skills – precision fighting. The only way he's going to get out alive is by relying on his old skills. And he's a master of that. The second fight explodes out of anger, and it's really anger at himself for going back to being a gambling addict. They're character-driven fights. Whereas traditionally in action films, they're light relief – they're almost commercial breaks in the story. These ones come out of the situation his character's in, not just that he's in jeopardy and has to fight his way out of it – they're emotional fights.


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: "Wild Card" has generally received negative reviews from film critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 32% based on reviews from 56 critics, with an average rating of 4.85 out of 10. The site's consensus states: "Hardcore Jason Statham fans may enjoy parts of "Wild Card", but all other action aficionados need not apply." On Metacritic the film has a score of 40 out of 100 based on reviews from 19 critics.


title: Wild Card (2015 film)

text: Betsy Sharkey of the "Los Angeles Times" gave the film a negative review, calling "Wild Card" "predictable". She summed up her review by saying that "Wild Card" "is no royal flush, no full house, no three of a kind. A bust is I think the term I'm searching for".


title: Homing pigeon

text: The homing pigeon, also called the mail pigeon or messenger pigeon, is a variety of domestic pigeons ("Columba livia domestica") derived from the wild rock dove, selectively bred for its ability to find its way home over extremely long distances. The rock dove has an innate homing ability, meaning that it will generally return to its nest using magnetoreception. Flights as long as have been recorded by birds in competitive pigeon racing. Their average flying speed over moderate distances is around and speeds of up to have been observed in top racers for short distances. In 2019 after sixty years a new world record was set in Netherlands for the fastest racing pigeon flight, distance flown 239 kilometers at speed above 143 kilometers per hour.


title: Homing pigeon

text: Because of this skill, domesticated pigeons were used to carry messages as messenger pigeons. They are usually referred to as "pigeon post" if used in post service, or "war pigeon" during wars. Until the introduction of telephones, homing pigeons were used commercially to deliver communication.


title: Homing pigeon

text: Messenger pigeons are often incorrectly categorized as English Carrier pigeons, an ancient breed of fancy pigeons. They were used historically to send messages but lost the homing instinct long ago. Modern-day homing pigeons (homers) or racing pigeons (racing homers) do have "Carrier blood" in them because they are in part descendants of the old-style Carriers. This is one reason why they are still commonly but erroneously called "carrier pigeons".


title: Homing pigeon

text: By 3000 BC, Egypt was using homing pigeons for pigeon post, taking advantage of a singular quality of this bird, which when taken far from its nest is able to find its way home due to a particularly developed sense of orientation. Messages were then tied around the legs of the pigeon, which was freed and could reach its original nest. By the 19th century homing pigeons were used extensively for military communications.


title: Homing pigeon

text: The sport of flying messenger pigeons was well-established as early as 3000 years ago. They were used to proclaim the winner of the Ancient Olympics.


title: Homing pigeon

text: Messenger pigeons were used as early as 1150 in Baghdad and also later by Genghis Khan. By 1167 a regular service between Baghdad and Syria had been established by Sultan Nur ad-Din. In Damietta, by the mouth of the Nile, the Spanish traveller Pedro Tafur saw carrier pigeons for the first time, in 1436, though he imagined that the birds made round trips, out and back. The Republic of Genoa equipped their system of watch towers in the Mediterranean Sea with pigeon posts. Tipu Sultan of Mysore (1750–1799) also used messenger pigeons; they returned to the Jamia Masjid mosque in Srirangapatna, which was his headquarters. The pigeon holes may be seen in the mosque's minarets to this day.


title: Homing pigeon

text: In 1818, a great pigeon race called the Cannonball Run took place at Brussels. In 1860, Paul Reuter, who later founded Reuters press agency, used a fleet of over 45 pigeons to deliver news and stock prices between Brussels and Aachen, the terminus of early telegraph lines. The outcome of the 1815 Battle of Waterloo has often been claimed to have been delivered to London by pigeon but there is no evidence for this, and it is very unlikely; the pigeon post was rare until the 1820s. During the Franco-Prussian War pigeons were used to carry mail between besieged Paris and the French unoccupied territory. In December 1870, it took ten hours for a pigeon carrying microfilms to fly from Perpignan to Brussels.


title: Homing pigeon

text: Historically, pigeons carried messages only one way, to their home. They had to be transported manually before another flight. However, by placing their food at one location and their home at another location, pigeons have been trained to fly back and forth up to twice a day reliably, covering round-trip flights up to 160 km (100 mi). Their reliability has lent itself to occasional use on mail routes, such as the Great Barrier Pigeongram Service established between the Auckland, New Zealand, suburb of Newton and Great Barrier Island in November 1897, possibly the first regular air mail service in the world. The world's first "airmail" stamps were issued for the Great Barrier Pigeon-Gram Service from 1898 to 1908.


title: Homing pigeon

text: In the 19th century, newspapers sometimes used carrier pigeons. To get news from Europe quicker, some New York City newspapers used carrier pigeons. The distance from Europe to Halifax, Nova Scotia, is relatively short. So reporters stationed themselves in Halifax, wrote the information received from incoming ships, and put the messages in capsules attached to the legs of homing pigeons. The birds would then fly to New York City where the information would be published.


title: Homing pigeon

text: Homing pigeons were still employed in the 21st century by certain remote police departments in Odisha state in eastern India to provide emergency communication services following natural disasters. In March 2002, it was announced that India's Police Pigeon Service messenger system in Odisha was to be retired, due to the expanded use of the Internet. The Taliban banned the keeping or use of homing pigeons in Afghanistan.


title: Homing pigeon

text: Research has been performed with the intention of discovering how pigeons, after being transported, can find their way back from distant places they have never visited before. Most researchers believe that homing ability is based on a "map and compass" model, with the compass feature allowing birds to orient and the map feature allowing birds to determine their location relative to a goal site (home loft). While the compass mechanism appears to rely on the sun, the map mechanism has been highly debated. Some researchers believe that the map mechanism relies on the ability of birds to detect the Earth's magnetic field.


title: Homing pigeon

text: A prominent theory is that the birds are able to detect a magnetic field to help them find their way home. Scientific research previously suggested that on top of a pigeon's beak a large number of iron particles are found which remain aligned to Earth's magnetic north like a natural compass, thus acting as compass which helps pigeon in determining its home. However, a 2012 study disproved this theory, putting the field back on course to search for an explanation as to how animals detect magnetic fields.


title: Homing pigeon

text: A light-mediated mechanism that involves the eyes and is lateralized has been examined somewhat, but developments have implicated the trigeminal nerve in magnetoception. Research by Floriano Papi (Italy, early 1970s) and more recent work, largely by Hans Wallraff, suggest that pigeons also orient themselves using the spatial distribution of atmospheric odors, known as olfactory navigation.


title: Homing pigeon

text: Other research indicates that homing pigeons also navigate through visual landmarks by following familiar roads and other man-made features, making 90-degree turns and following habitual routes, much the same way that humans navigate.


title: Homing pigeon

text: Research by Jon Hagstrum of the US Geological Survey suggests that homing pigeons use low-frequency infrasound to navigate. Sound waves as low as 0.1 Hz have been observed to disrupt or redirect pigeon navigation. The pigeon ear, being far too small to interpret such a long wave, directs pigeons to fly in a circle when first taking air, in order to mentally map such long infrasound waves.


title: Homing pigeon

text: Various experiments suggest that different breeds of homing pigeons rely on different cues to different extents. Charles Walcott at Cornell University was able to demonstrate that while pigeons from one loft were confused by a magnetic anomaly in the Earth it had no effect on birds from another loft away. Other experiments have shown that altering the perceived time of day with artificial lighting or using air conditioning to eliminate odors in the pigeons' home roost affected the pigeons' ability to return home.


title: Homing pigeon

text: A message may be written on thin light paper, rolled into a small tube, and attached to a messenger pigeon's leg. They will only travel to one "mentally marked" point that they have identified as their home, so "pigeon post" can only work when the sender is actually holding the receiver's pigeons.


title: Homing pigeon

text: With training, pigeons can carry up to 75 g (2.5 oz) on their backs. As early as 1903, the German apothecary Julius Neubronner used carrier pigeons to both receive and deliver urgent medication. In 1977, a similar system of 30 carrier pigeons was set up for the transport of laboratory specimens between two English hospitals. Every morning a basket with pigeons was taken from Plymouth General Hospital to Devonport Hospital. The birds then delivered unbreakable vials back to Plymouth as needed. The carrier pigeons became unnecessary in 1983 because of the closure of one of the hospitals. In the 1980s a similar system existed between two French hospitals located in Granville and Avranche.


title: Homing pigeon

text: Birds were used extensively during World War I. One homing pigeon, Cher Ami, was awarded the French Croix de guerre for his heroic service in delivering 12 important messages, despite having been very badly injured.


title: Homing pigeon

text: During World War II, the Irish Paddy, the American G.I. Joe and the English Mary of Exeter all received the Dickin Medal. They were among 32 pigeons to receive this award, for their gallantry and bravery in saving human lives with their actions. Eighty-two homing pigeons were dropped into the Netherlands with the First Airborne Division Signals as part of Operation Market Garden in World War II. The pigeons' loft was located in London, which would have required them to fly to deliver their messages. Also in World War II, hundreds of homing pigeons with the Confidential Pigeon Service were airdropped into northwest Europe to serve as intelligence vectors for local resistance agents. Birds played a vital part in the Invasion of Normandy as radios could not be used for fear of vital information being intercepted by the enemy.


title: Homing pigeon

text: During the Second World War, the use of pigeons for sending messages was highlighted in Britain by the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret as Girl Guides joining other Guides sending messages to the World Chief Guide in 1943, as part of a campaign to raise money for homing pigeons.


title: Homing pigeon

text: The humorous IP over Avian Carriers (RFC 1149) is an Internet protocol for the transmission of messages via homing pigeon. Originally intended as an April Fools' Day RFC entry, this protocol was implemented and used, once, to transmit a message in Bergen, Norway, on 28 April 2001.


title: Homing pigeon

text: In September 2009, a South African IT company based in Durban pitted an 11-month-old bird armed with a data packed 4 GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country's biggest Internet service provider, Telkom. The pigeon, Winston, took an hour and eight minutes to carry the data . In all, the data transfer took two hours, six minutes, and fifty-seven seconds—the same amount of time it took to transfer 4% of the data over the ADSL.


title: Homing pigeon

text: Homing pigeons have been reported to be used as a smuggling technique, getting objects and narcotics across borders and into prisons. For instance, between 2009 and 2015, pigeons have been reported to carry contraband items such as cell phones, SIM cards, phone batteries and USB cords into prisons in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. There have also been cases where homing pigeons were used to transport drugs into prisons.


title: Homing pigeon

text: Pigeon races are sometimes considered as a type of animal exploitation and against animal welfare, particularly where betting is involved, and animal welfare is regarded as secondary. For example, the animal rights organisation PETA criticises Taiwanese owners for flying birds across wide oceans where few reach their destination, claiming a fatality rate of 98%.


title: Michel Gondry

text: Michel Gondry (; born 8 May 1963) is a French filmmaker noted for his inventive visual style and distinctive manipulation of mise en scène. Along with Charlie Kaufman, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as one of the writers of the 2004 film "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", a film he also directed.


title: Michel Gondry

text: His other films include the surrealistic science fantasy comedy "The Science of Sleep" (2006), the comedy "Be Kind Rewind" (2008), the superhero action comedy "The Green Hornet" (2011), the drama "The We and the I" (2012), and the romantic science fantasy tragedy "Mood Indigo" (2013).


title: Michel Gondry

text: He is well known for his music video collaborations with Daft Punk, Donald Fagen, Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Kanye West, Björk, Beck, The Chemical Brothers, Kylie Minogue, Idles, and The White Stripes.


title: Michel Gondry

text: Gondry's vision and career began with his emphasis on emotion. Much of his inspiration, he says, came from the film "Le voyage en ballon". He stated: "When I watch this movie, I dream I'm flying and then I do stories where people are flying. I think it's directly influencing."


title: Michel Gondry

text: His career as a filmmaker began with creating music videos for the French rock band Oui Oui, in which he also served as a drummer. The style of his videos for Oui Oui caught the attention of music artist Björk, who asked him to direct the video for her song "Human Behaviour". The collaboration proved long-lasting, with Gondry directing a total of eight music videos for Björk.


title: Michel Gondry

text: Other artists who have collaborated with Gondry on more than one occasion include Daft Punk, The White Stripes, The Chemical Brothers, The Vines, Steriogram, Radiohead, and Beck. Gondry's video for Lucas Secon's "Lucas with the Lid Off" was nominated in the Best Music Video (short form) category at the 37th Grammy Awards, (one of two Gondry music videos nominated that year along with Sinéad O'Connor's "Fire On Babylon").


title: Michel Gondry

text: Gondry has also created numerous television commercials. He pioneered the "bullet time" technique later adapted in "The Matrix" in the 1996 "Smarienberg" commercial for Smirnoff vodka, as well as directing a trio of inventive holiday-themed advertisements for clothing retailer Gap.


title: Michel Gondry

text: Gondry, along with directors Spike Jonze and David Fincher, is representative of the influx of music video directors into feature film. Gondry made his feature film debut in 2001 with "Human Nature", garnering mixed reviews. His second film, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (also his second collaboration with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman), was released in 2004 and received very favorable reviews, becoming one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year.


title: Michel Gondry

text: "Eternal Sunshine" utilizes many of the image manipulation techniques that Gondry had experimented with in his music videos. Gondry won an Academy Award alongside Kaufman and Pierre Bismuth for the screenplay of "Eternal Sunshine". The style of Gondry's music videos often relies on videography and camera tricks which play with frames of reference.


title: Michel Gondry

text: Gondry also directed the musical documentary "Dave Chappelle's Block Party" (2006) which followed comedian Dave Chappelle as he attempted to hold a large, free concert in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. His following film, "The Science of Sleep", hit theaters in September 2006. This film stars Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, and marked a return to the fantastical, surreal techniques he employed in "Eternal Sunshine".


title: Michel Gondry

text: According to the Guinness World Records 2004, Gondry's Levi's 501 Jeans "Drugstore" spot holds the record for "Most awards won by a TV commercial". The commercial was never aired in North America because of the suggestive content involving purchasing latex condoms.


title: Michel Gondry

text: He was asked by French comic duet Éric and Ramzy to direct "", but declined; by his suggestion, Éric and Ramzy subsequently asked Mr Oizo to direct another movie, "".


title: Michel Gondry

text: In September 2006, Gondry made his debut as an installation artist at Deitch Projects in New York City's SoHo gallery district. The show, called "The Science of Sleep: An Exhibition of Sculpture and Pathological Creepy Little Gifts" featured props from his film, "The Science of Sleep", as well as film clips and a selection of gifts that the artist had given to women he was interested in, many of them former or current collaborators, Karen Baird, Kishu Chand, Dorothy Barrick and Lauri Faggioni.


title: Michel Gondry

text: A leitmotif of the film is a 'Disastrology' calendar; Gondry commissioned the painter Baptiste Ibar to draw harrowing images of natural and human disasters.


title: Michel Gondry

text: His brother Olivier "Twist" Gondry is also a television commercial and music video director creating videos for bands such as The Stills, Hot Hot Heat, Daft Punk and The Vines. Michel's son Paul Gondry is an artist, actor, and film director as well.


title: Michel Gondry

text: Gondry was an Artist in Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005 and 2006. Later directing the music video for the Paul McCartney song "Dance Tonight", in which Gondry makes a cameo appearance.


title: Michel Gondry

text: Gondry directed "Unnatural Love", the fifth episode in season two of HBO's "Flight of the Conchords". Interior Design one third of the 2008 anthology film "Tokyo!" was next for Gondry. Interior Design was based on the comic book "Cecil and Jordan in New York" by Gabrielle Bell but was adapted from New York City to Tokyo for the film.


title: Michel Gondry

text: In 2009, "The Thorn in the Heart", another feature documentary, was released, it is about Michel's aunt Suzette and her son Jean-Yves. In 2011, Gondry directed "The Green Hornet", a superhero film by Sony starring Seth Rogen, Jay Chou and Christoph Waltz; Rogen co-wrote the script. In 2011, he was the head of the jury for the short film competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Michel Gondry

text: His film "The We and the I" was selected to be screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Michel Gondry

text: On 3 January 2013, Gondry released his latest animated short "Haircut Mouse" on his official Vimeo channel. In February 2013, Gondry released a hand-drawn animated documentary on famed linguist Noam Chomsky, "Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?".


title: Michel Gondry

text: Gondry produced the video for Metronomy's single "Love Letters", taken from the album of the same name.


title: Sheila Atim

text: Sheila Atim (born 1991) is a Ugandan-British actress, singer, composer, and playwright. She made her professional acting debut in 2013 at Shakespeare's Globe in "The Lightning Child", a musical written by her acting teacher Ché Walker.


title: Sheila Atim

text: Following critically acclaimed stage roles in the Donmar Warehouse's all-female Shakespeare trilogy in 2016 among others, Atim won the 2018 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her role as Marianne Laine in an original production of "Girl from the North Country". She has composed songs for several productions and premiered her play "Anguis" at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She has also been cast in several television series, including the cancelled "Game of Thrones" successor series "Bloodmoon", the BBC's "The Pale Horse" and Amazon's "The Underground Railroad", directed by Barry Jenkins. In 2021, she starred in Netflix's successful sports drama "Bruised", directed and produced by Halle Berry. In 2022, she won another Laurence Olivier Award, this time for Best Lead Actress, for her performance in the play "Constellations".


title: Sheila Atim

text: Sheila Atim was born 1991 in Uganda and moved to the United Kingdom with her mother at the age of five months. She grew up in Rainham, London, and attended the Coopers' Company and Coborn School. She did some occasional modelling as a teenager after being recruited when she shaved the side of her head for a school prom. She appeared in a 2009 London Fashion Week event, "All Walks beyond the Catwalk", organized by the British Fashion Council to showcase clothes for "real women". She later said that "modelling was never a big earner for me. I was unusual looking, so I couldn't go for commercial castings."


title: Sheila Atim

text: Atim graduated with a degree in biomedical science from King's College London and trained as an actor at the Weekend Arts Centre in Belsize Park, London. She became involved in a workshop for a new play, "The Lightning Child", which led to her being cast by her acting teacher Ché Walker for her professional acting debut at Shakespeare's Globe in 2013. In 2020, she told the King's College alumni magazine that "I look back and feel a strong connection between my scientific and artistic sides. Science often comes up in my work – even the way I approach things in the rehearsal room is affected by having taken BioMed. Sometimes it’s little private parallels and analogies I make for myself."


title: Sheila Atim

text: "The Lightning Child", written by Walker and Arthur Darvill, ran for several weeks from mid-September 2013 and was the first musical staged at Shakespeare's Globe. It received mixed reviews, with the "Financial Times" describing it as "a bold experiment, but sadly not a successful one" and "The Guardian" review calling it "oddly conventional and pointlessly excessive". "The Independent" said that despite the production being overlong and having problems with the structure, it was "hard not to like" the show.


title: Sheila Atim

text: Atim played Keira, the physical embodiment of obsessive–compulsive disorder, in "Ghost Town" at the York Theatre Royal in early 2014. "What's On Stage" praised her "mesmeric physical presence" and "The Yorkshire Times" review said that Atim "dominated the stage". Following this, Atim appeared with Ako Mitchell in Walker's two-hander "Klook's Last Stand", being praised by "The Guardian" for an energetic performance and "tremendous stage presence" by "The Daily Telegraph". In the autumn of 2014 she appeared in "Rachel" at the Finborough Theatre and followed this by joining the touring production of Kae Tempest's "Hopelessly Devoted". In addition to this, Atim played three roles in Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) productions: the Attendant in "The Jew of Malta", Julia in "Love's Sacrifice", and Assistant to Lady Politic Would-Be in "Volpone". Walker's "The Etienne Sisters", which included songs composed by Atim, opened two days before the end of her run in "Volpone".


title: Sheila Atim

text: Atim's first major stage role was the non-speaking part of The Woman in "Les Blancs" at the National Theatre in 2016. "The Stage" said of her performance that "at the centre of the narrative is its most potent character: a gaunt, stooped and silent woman." "The New York Times" described a "spine-tingling production" and suggested that Atim's character may be an emblem of Africa. "The Times" later referred to her performance as "mesmerising".


title: Sheila Atim

text: Atim received acclaim for her 2016 performances in the Donmar Warehouse's all-female Shakespeare trilogy set in a women's prison, when she played Ferdinand in "The Tempest", Gadshill and Lady Percy in "Henry IV", and Lucius in "Julius Caesar". "The Guardian" said Atim was "a glorious, giddy Ferdinand and a moving Lady Percy – [and] frequently seems to be physically stabbing the text as much as speaking it" and "The Independent" wrote "Sheila Atim (Ferdinand) and Leah Harvey (Miranda) are adorably funny and charming as they capture the giddy gaucheries of first love." Atim won a 2018 Clarence Derwent Award, presented to best supporting actors in London productions, for her roles in "The Tempest" and "Les Blancs".


title: Sheila Atim

text: Her leading role in "Babette" received a more mixed assessment, with "The Times" saying she was "the best thing about [the] production" while "The Daily Telegraph" review said "It's a pity ... that Babette, whose story this is, should remain, in Atim's somewhat remote performance, so distant a figure."


title: Sheila Atim

text: She played Marianne Laine in the original run of the musical "Girl from the North Country" at The Old Vic in London from 26 July to 7 October 2017. Following the success of The Old Vic production, it transferred into London's West End at the Noël Coward Theatre from 29 December for a limited 12-week run until 24 March 2018. The play is set during the Great Depression and Atim's character Marianne Laine is a black woman, who was adopted by a white couple that run a struggling guesthouse. The character is pregnant and appears to have been forsaken by the father of her unborn child. The music for the show consists of songs by Bob Dylan and amongst the numbers that Atim performs are his "Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)" and "Idiot Wind". "The Guardian" described Atim as "outstanding" in the role, with delivery of "Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)" being "direct, unaffected and perfectly poised" and her performance of "Idiot Wind" a "beautiful reading". "The Times" stated that "Atim, in a strong cast, is standout," in an article that was headlined "She sings Dylan better than Bob." For her "Girl from the North Country" role, she received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Play at the 18th WhatsOnStage awards and won the 2018 Laurence Olivier award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical.


title: Sheila Atim

text: In 2018, she played Emilia opposite Mark Rylance's Iago in "Othello" at Shakespeare's Globe, where according to "The Independent", "she unleashed a fury that blew the greatest actor of his generation off the stage."


title: Sheila Atim

text: Atim presented her first play as an author, "Anguis", at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It features Cleopatra being interviewed by a scientist and singing, Atim also having composed the songs. "The Times" considered it to be an "intriguing look at female power ... that marks [Atim] as a playwright to watch", whereas "The Scotsman", while praising the songs and some performances, lamented that "the stories of the hugely privileged queen and the stressed-out modern black Londoner never quite come together as strongly as the situation promises."


title: Sheila Atim

text: Atim played Viola and Sebastian in a film version of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", and won the Screen Nation 2019 Best Female Performance film award. In 2018 she portrayed Limehouse Nell in ITV's "Harlots".


title: Sheila Atim

text: Atim plays piano, violin, bass, and drums. She composed the score for the play "Time Is Love" at London's Finborough Theatre in 2019, the year that she was named one of the cast of the "Game of Thrones" prequel series "Bloodmoon". The planned series was cancelled following the pilot episode. She appeared as an alleged witch in the 2020 BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie's "The Pale Horse" and in 2021 she appeared in the television series "The Underground Railroad" and "The Irregulars" and the film "Bruised".


title: Sheila Atim

text: In June 2019, Atim was named an MBE for her services to drama. She is also on the Board of Trustees of The Old Vic Theatre Trust.


title: Abraham's family tree

text: Abraham is known as the patriarch of the Israelite people through Isaac, the son born to him and Sarah in their old age and the patriarch of Arabs through his son Ishmael, born to Abraham and Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian servant.


title: Abraham's family tree

text: Although Abraham's forefathers were from southern Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq) according to the biblical narrative, Yahweh led Abraham on a journey to the land of Canaan, which he promised to his children.


title: Abraham's family tree

text: The genealogy of Abraham appears in Genesis 5, Genesis 10:1-7, 20, 22-23, 31-32, and Genesis 11. The documentary hypothesis attributes these genealogies to the Priestly source.


title: Abraham's family tree

text: Abram and Sarai prospered materially but had no children. Abram thought to leave his estate to a trusted servant, but God promised him a son and heir. When he was 86 years old, Sarai suggested and Abram agreed that a practical way to have a child was through Sarai’s servant Hagar. Hagar conceived right away and in time Ishmael was born. This situation brought strife rather than happiness between Hagar and Sarai. Nevertheless, God saw Hagar’s suffering and promised that although this was not the child promised to Abram, he would nevertheless make Ishmael’s descendants into a great nation also.


title: Abraham's family tree

text: In chapter 17 of Genesis, "Almighty God" changed Abram’s name to Abraham, for he would be a father of many nations. In addition, his wife Sarai's name was changed to Sarah, for she would be a mother of nations. Three visitors came to Abraham and said that he would have a son. Sarah believed she was too old to have a child and laughed. Yet she did conceive (Genesis 21:1-7) and had a baby named Isaac. After the death of his mother, Sarah, Isaac married Rebekah. Abraham then married Keturah, who bore him six more sons – Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah.


title: Abraham's family tree

text: The following is a family tree for the descendants of the line of Noah's son Shem, through Abraham to Jacob and his sons. Dashed lines are marriage connections.


title: Abraham's family tree

text: The family members and descendants of Abraham are called "aal-Ibrahim", figuratively "The (people of) Abraham".


title: Abraham's family tree

text: Other sources, particularly the widely accepted Hadith, also gives references to the Family of Abraham:


title: Abraham's family tree

text: These are Aal Ibrahim added to them all the believers among the descendants of Abraham. "And that was Our [conclusive] argument which We gave Abraham against his people. We raise by degrees whom We will. Indeed, your Lord is Wise and Knowing. And We gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - all [of them] We guided. And Noah, We guided before; and among his descendants, David and Solomon and Job and Joseph and Moses and Aaron. Thus do We reward the doers of good. And Zechariah and John and Jesus and Elias - and all were of the righteous. And Ishmael and Elisha and Jonah and Lot - and all [of them] We preferred over the worlds. And [some] among their fathers and their descendants and their brothers - and We chose them and We guided them to a straight path." Vs.83-87 S.6


title: Listeria

text: Listeria is a genus of bacteria that acts as an intracellular parasite in mammals. Until 1992, 17 species were known, each containing two subspecies. By 2020, 21 species had been identified. The genus is named in honour of the British pioneer of sterile surgery Joseph Lister. "Listeria" species are Gram-positive, rod-shaped, and facultatively anaerobic, and do not produce endospores. The major human pathogen in the genus "Listeria" is "L. monocytogenes". It is usually the causative agent of the relatively rare bacterial disease listeriosis, an infection caused by eating food contaminated with the bacteria. Listeriosis can cause serious illness in pregnant women, newborns, adults with weakened immune systems and the elderly, and may cause gastroenteritis in others who have been severely infected.


title: Listeria

text: Listeriosis is a serious disease for humans; the overt form of the disease has a case-fatality rate of around 20%. The two main clinical manifestations are sepsis and meningitis. Meningitis is often complicated by encephalitis, when it is known as meningoencephalitis, a pathology that is unusual for bacterial infections. "L. ivanovii" is a pathogen of mammals, specifically ruminants, and has rarely caused listeriosis in humans. The incubation period can vary from three to 70 days.


title: Listeria

text: The first documented case of listeriosis was in 1924. In the late 1920s, two researchers independently identified "L. monocytogenes" from animal outbreaks. They proposed the genus "Listerella" in honour of surgeon and early antiseptic advocate Joseph Lister, but that name was already in use for a slime mould and a protozoan. Eventually, the genus "Listeria" was proposed and accepted. All species within the genus "Listeria" are Gram-positive, catalase-positive rods and do not produce endospores. The genus "Listeria" was classified in the family Corynebacteriaceae through the seventh edition (1957) of "Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology". The 16S rRNA cataloging studies of Stackebrandt, et al. demonstrated that "L. monocytogenes" is a distinct taxon within the "Lactobacillus-Bacillus" branch of the bacterial phylogeny constructed by Woese. In 2004, the genus was placed in the newly created family Listeriaceae. The only other genus in the family is "Brochothrix".


title: Listeria

text: The genus "Listeria" is known to contain 21 species: "L. aquatica, L. booriae, L. cornellensis, L. costaricensis, L. goaensis, L. fleischmannii, L. floridensis, L. grandensis, L. grayi, L. innocua, L. ivanovii, L. marthii, L. monocytogenes, L. newyorkensis, L. riparia, L. rocourtiae, L. seeligeri, L. thailandensis, L. valentina, L. weihenstephanensis", and "L. welshimeri". "Listeria dinitrificans", previously thought to be part of the genus "Listeria", was reclassified into the new genus "Jonesia". Under the microscope, "Listeria" species appear as small rods, which are sometimes arranged in short chains. In direct smears, they may be coccoid, and can be mistaken for streptococci. Longer cells may resemble corynebacteria. Flagella are produced at room temperature, but not at 37 °C. Hemolytic activity on blood agar has been used as a marker to distinguish "L. monocytogenes" from other "Listeria" species, but it is not an absolutely definitive criterion. Further biochemical characterization may be necessary to distinguish between the different species of "Listeria".


title: Listeria

text: "Listeria" can be found in soil, which can lead to vegetable contamination. Animals can be carriers. "Listeria" has been found in uncooked meats, uncooked vegetables, fruits including cantaloupe and apples, pasteurized or unpasteurized milk, foods made from milk, and processed foods. Pasteurization and sufficient cooking kill "Listeria"; however, contamination may occur after cooking and before packaging. For example, meat-processing plants producing ready-to-eat foods, such as hot dogs and deli meats, must follow extensive sanitation policies and procedures to prevent "Listeria" contamination. "Listeria monocytogenes" is commonly found in soil, stream water, sewage, plants, and food. "Listeria" is responsible for listeriosis, a rare but potentially lethal foodborne illness. The case fatality rate for those with a severe form of infection may approach 25%. ("Salmonellosis", in comparison, has a mortality rate estimated at less than 1%.) Although "L. monocytogenes" has low infectivity, it is hardy and can grow in temperatures from 4 °C (39.2 °F) (the temperature of a refrigerator) to 37 °C (98.6 °F), (the body's internal temperature). Listeriosis is a serious illness, and the disease may manifest as meningitis, or affect newborns due to its ability to penetrate the endothelial layer of the placenta.


title: Listeria

text: "Listeria" uses the cellular machinery to move around inside the host cell. It induces directed polymerization of actin by the ActA transmembrane protein, thus pushing the bacterial cell around.


title: Listeria

text: "Listeria monocytogenes", for example, encodes virulence genes that are thermoregulated. The expression of virulence factor is optimal at 39 °C, and is controlled by a transcriptional activator, PrfA, whose expression is thermoregulated by the PrfA thermoregulator UTR element. At low temperatures, the PrfA transcript is not translated due to structural elements near the ribosome binding site. As the bacteria infect the host, the temperature of the host denatures the structure and allows translation initiation for the virulent genes.


title: Listeria

text: The majority of "Listeria" bacteria are attacked by the immune system before they are able to cause infection. Those that escape the immune system's initial response, however, spread through intracellular mechanisms, which protects them from circulating immune factors (AMI).


title: Listeria

text: To invade, "Listeria" induces macrophage phagocytic uptake by displaying D-galactose in their teichoic acids that are then bound by the macrophage's polysaccharides. Other important adhesins are the internalins. "Listeria" uses internalin A and B to bind to cellular receptors. Internalin A binds to E-cadherin, while internalin B binds to the cell's Met receptors. If both of these receptors have a high enough affinity to "Listeria"s internalin A and B, then it will be able to invade the cell via an indirect zipper mechanism. Once phagocytosed, the bacterium is encapsulated by the host cell's acidic phagolysosome organelle. "Listeria", however, escapes the phagolysosome by lysing the vacuole's entire membrane with secreted hemolysin, now characterized as the exotoxin listeriolysin O. The bacteria then replicate inside the host cell's cytoplasm.


title: Listeria

text: "Listeria" must then navigate to the cell's periphery to spread the infection to other cells. Outside the body, "Listeria" has flagellar-driven motility, sometimes described as a "tumbling motility". However, at 37 °C, flagella cease to develop and the bacterium instead usurps the host cell's cytoskeleton to move. "Listeria", inventively, polymerizes an actin tail or "comet", from actin monomers in the host's cytoplasm with the promotion of virulence factor ActA. The comet forms in a polar manner and aids the bacterial migration to the host cell's outer membrane. Gelsolin, an actin filament severing protein, localizes at the tail of "Listeria" and accelerates the bacterium's motility. Once at the cell surface, the actin-propelled "Listeria" pushes against the cell's membrane to form protrusions called filopods or "rockets". The protrusions are guided by the cell's leading edge to contact adjacent cells, which then engulf the "Listeria" rocket and the process is repeated, perpetuating the infection. Once phagocytosed, the bacterium is never again extracellular: it is an intracellular parasite like "S. flexneri," "Rickettsia" spp., and "C. trachomatis".


title: Listeria

text: The Center for Science in the Public Interest has published a list of foods that have sometimes caused outbreaks of "Listeria": hot dogs, deli meats, milk (even if pasteurized), cheeses (particularly soft-ripened cheeses such as feta, Brie, Camembert, blue-veined, or Mexican-style "queso blanco"), raw and cooked poultry, raw meats, ice cream, raw fruit, vegetables, and smoked fish. Cold-cut meats were implicated in an outbreak in Canada in 2008; improperly handled cantaloupe was implicated in both the outbreak of listeriosis from Jensen Farms in Colorado in 2011, and a similar listeriosis outbreak across eastern Australia in early 2018. 35 people died across these two outbreaks. The Australian company GMI Food Wholesalers was fined A$236,000 for providing "L. monocytogenes"-contaminated chicken wraps to the airline Virgin Blue in 2011. Caramel apples have also been cited as a source of listerial infections which hospitalized 26 people, of whom five died. In 2019, the United Kingdom experienced nine cases of the disease, of which six were fatal, in an outbreak caused by contaminated meat (produced by North Country Cooked Meats) in hospital sandwiches. In 2019, two people in Australia died after probably eating smoked salmon and a third fell ill but survived the disease. In September 2019, three deaths and a miscarriage were reported in the Netherlands after the consumption of listeria-infected deli meats produced by Offerman.


title: Listeria

text: Preventing listeriosis as a foodborne illness requires effective sanitation of food contact surfaces. Ethanol is an effective topical sanitizer against "Listeria". Quaternary ammonium can be used in conjunction with alcohol as a food-contact safe sanitizer with increased duration of the sanitizing action.


title: Listeria

text: Keeping foods in the home refrigerated below 4 °C (39 °F) discourages bacterial growth. Unpasteurized dairy products may pose a risk. Cooking all meats (including beef, pork, poultry, and seafood) to a safe internal temperature, typically 73 °C (165 °F), will kill the food-borne pathogen.


title: Listeria

text: "Non-invasive listeriosis": bacteria are retained within the digestive tract. Symptoms are mild, lasting only a few days and requiring only supportive care. Muscle pain and fever can be treated with over-the-counter pain relievers; diarrhea and gastroenteritis can be treated with over-the-counter medications.


title: Listeria

text: "Invasive listeriosis": bacteria have spread to the bloodstream and central nervous system. Treatment includes intravenous delivery of high-dose antibiotics and hospital in-patient care of (probably) not less than two weeks stay, depending on the extent of the infection. Ampicillin, penicillin, or amoxicillin are typically administered for invasive listeriosis; gentamicin may be added in cases of patients with compromised immune systems. In cases of allergy to penicillin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, vancomycin, and fluoroquinolones may be used. For effective treatment the antibiotic must penetrate the host cell and bind to penicillin-binding protein 3 (PBP3). Cephalosporins are not effective for treating listeriosis.


title: Listeria

text: In cases of pregnancy, prompt treatment is critical to prevent bacteria from infecting the fetus; antibiotics may be given to pregnant women even in non-invasive listeriosis. Mirena Nikolova, "et al.", states that applying antibiotics is crucial during the third trimester because cell-mediated immunity is reduced during this time. Pfaff and Tillet say that listeriosis can cause long-term consequences—including meningitis, preterm labor, newborn sepsis, stillbirths—when contracted during pregnancy. Oral therapies in less severe cases may include amoxicillin or erythromycin. Higher doses may be given to pregnant women to ensure penetration of the umbilical cord and placenta. Infected pregnant women may receive ultrasound scans to monitor the health of the fetus.


title: Listeria

text: Asymptomatic patients who have been exposed to "Listeria" typically are not treated, but are informed of the signs and symptoms of the disease and advised to return for treatment if any develop.


title: Listeria

text: Some "Listeria" species are opportunistic pathogens: "L. monocytogenes" is most prevalent in the elderly, pregnant mothers, and patients infected with HIV. With improved healthcare leading to a growing elderly population and extended life expectancies for HIV infected patients, physicians are more likely to encounter this otherwise-rare infection (only seven per 1,000,000 healthy people are infected with virulent "Listeria" each year). Better understanding the cell biology of "Listeria" infections, including relevant virulence factors, may lead to better treatments for listeriosis and other intracytoplasmic parasite infections. Researchers are now investigating the use of "Listeria" as a cancer vaccine, taking advantage of its "ability to induce potent innate and adaptive immunity."


title: Parliament-Funkadelic

text: Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, both active since the 1960s. Their distinctive funk style drew on psychedelic culture, outlandish fashion, science-fiction, and surreal humor; it would have an influential effect on subsequent funk, post-punk, hip-hop, and techno artists of the 1980s and 1990s, while their collective mythology would help pioneer Afrofuturism. The groups released albums such as "Maggot Brain" (1971), "Mothership Connection" (1975), and "One Nation Under a Groove" (1978) to critical praise, and scored charting hits with singles such as "Give Up the Funk" (1975) and "Flash Light" (1978). Overall, the collective achieved thirteen top ten hits in the American R&B music charts between 1967 and 1983, including six number one hits.


title: Parliament-Funkadelic

text: The collective's origins date back to the doo-wop group the Parliaments, formed by Clinton during the late 1950s in suburban New Jersey. By the late 1960s, Clinton had gained experience as a producer-writer for Motown Records and, under the influence of artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, and Frank Zappa, he relocated to Detroit and enlisted musicians from his New Jersey days in his own two sister bands Parliament and Funkadelic; the first would go on to develop a commercially successful style of science fiction-inspired funk, while the second blended funk with psychedelic rock. The name "Parliament-Funkadelic" became the catch-all term for the dozens of related musicians recording and touring different projects in Clinton's orbit, including the female vocal spinoff groups the Brides of Funkenstein and Parlet. Financial and label issues slowed the collective's recorded output in the 1980s while Clinton and other members began solo careers, with Clinton also consolidating the collective's multiple projects and touring under names such as George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars. In the 1990s, their sound became the chief inspiration for the West Coast hip hop subgenre G-funk.


title: Parliament-Funkadelic

text: Prominent collective members have included bassist Bootsy Collins (who formed the spinoff group Bootsy’s Rubber Band), keyboardist Bernie Worrell, guitarists Eddie "Maggot Brain" Hazel, Michael Hampton, and Garry "Diaper Man" Shider, and horn players Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker. Some former members of Parliament perform under the name "Original P". Sixteen members of Parliament-Funkadelic were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. In 2019, the group was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.


title: Parliament-Funkadelic

text: The P-Funk story began in 1956 in Newark, New Jersey, with a doo-wop group formed by fifteen-year-old George Clinton. This was The Parliaments, a name inspired by Parliament cigarettes. By the early 1960s, the group had solidified into the five-man lineup of Clinton, Ray "Stingray" Davis, Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins, Calvin Simon and Grady Thomas. Later, the group rehearsed in a barbershop in Plainfield, New Jersey co-owned by Clinton and entertained the customers. After having performed for almost ten years, the Parliaments had added a rhythm section in 1964 -- for tours and background work -- consisting of guitarist Frankie Boyce, his brother Richard on bass, and drummer Langston Booth; The Parliaments finally achieved a hit single in 1967 with "(I Wanna) Testify" while Clinton began commuting to Detroit as a songwriter and producer for Motown Records.


title: Parliament-Funkadelic

text: The West End of Plainfield, New Jersey was once home to the Silk Palace, a barbershop at 216 Plainfield Avenue owned in part by Clinton, staffed by various members of Parliament-Funkadelic and known as the "hangout for all the local singers and musicians" in Plainfield's 1950s and 1960s doo-wop, soul, rock and proto-funk music scene.