title: Western blot

text: The western blot method is composed of a gel electrophoresis to separate native proteins by 3-D structure or denatured proteins by the length of the polypeptide, followed by an electrophoretic transfer onto a membrane (mostly PVDF or nitrocellulose) and an immunostaining procedure to visualize a certain protein on the blot membrane. SDS-PAGE is generally used for the denaturing electrophoretic separation of proteins. SDS is generally used as a buffer (as well as in the gel) in order to give all proteins present a uniform negative charge, since proteins can be positively, negatively, or neutrally charged. This type of electrophoresis is known as SDS-PAGE (SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis). Prior to electrophoresis, protein samples are often boiled to denature the proteins present. This ensures that proteins are separated based on size and prevents proteases (enzymes that break down proteins) from degrading samples. Following electrophoretic separation, the proteins are transferred to a membrane (typically nitrocellulose or PVDF). The membrane is often then stained with Ponceau S in order to visualize the proteins on the blot and ensure a proper transfer occurred. Next the proteins are blocked with milk (or other blocking agents) to prevent non-specific antibody binding, and then stained with antibodies specific to the target protein. Lastly, the membrane will be stained with a secondary antibody that recognizes the first antibody staining, which can then be used for detection by a variety of methods. The gel electrophoresis step is included in western blot analysis to resolve the issue of the cross-reactivity of antibodies.


title: Western blot

text: The proteins of the sample are separated using gel electrophoresis. Separation of proteins may be by isoelectric point (pI), molecular weight, electric charge, or a combination of these factors. The nature of the separation depends on the treatment of the sample and the nature of the gel.


title: Western blot

text: By far the most common type of gel electrophoresis employs polyacrylamide gels and buffers loaded with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). SDS-PAGE (SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) maintains polypeptides in a denatured state once they have been treated with strong reducing agents to remove secondary and tertiary structure (e.g. disulfide bonds [S-S] to sulfhydryl groups [SH and SH]) and thus allows separation of proteins by their molecular mass. Sampled proteins become covered in the negatively charged SDS, effectively becoming anionic, and migrate towards the positively charged (higher voltage) anode (usually having a red wire) through the acrylamide mesh of the gel. Smaller proteins migrate faster through this mesh, and the proteins are thus separated according to size (usually measured in kilodaltons, kDa). The concentration of acrylamide determines the resolution of the gel – the greater the acrylamide concentration, the better the resolution of lower molecular weight proteins. The lower the acrylamide concentration, the better the resolution of higher molecular weight proteins. Proteins travel only in one dimension along the gel for most blots.


title: Western blot

text: Samples are loaded into "wells" in the gel. One lane is usually reserved for a "marker" or "ladder", which is a commercially available mixture of proteins of known molecular weights, typically stained so as to form visible, coloured bands. When voltage is applied along the gel, proteins migrate through it at different speeds dependent on their size. These different rates of advancement (different "electrophoretic mobilities") separate into "bands" within each "lane". Protein bands can then be compared to the ladder bands, allowing estimation of the protein's molecular weight.


title: Western blot

text: It is also possible to use a two-dimensional gel which spreads the proteins from a single sample out in two dimensions. Proteins are separated according to isoelectric point (pH at which they have a neutral net charge) in the first dimension, and according to their molecular weight in the second dimension.


title: Western blot

text: To make the proteins accessible to antibody detection, they are moved from within the gel onto a membrane, a solid support, which is an essential part of the process. There are two types of membrane: "nitrocellulose (NC) or polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF"). NC membrane has high affinity for protein and its retention abilities. However, NC is brittle, and does not allow the blot to be used for re-probing, whereas PVDF membrane allows the blot to be re-probed. The most commonly used method for transferring the proteins is called electroblotting. Electroblotting uses an electric current to pull the negatively charged proteins from the gel towards the positively charged anode, and into the PVDF or NC membrane. The proteins move from within the gel onto the membrane while maintaining the organization they had within the gel. An older method of transfer involves placing a membrane on top of the gel, and a stack of filter papers on top of that. The entire stack is placed in a buffer solution which moves up the paper by capillary action, bringing the proteins with it. In practice this method is not commonly used due to the lengthy procedure time.


title: Western blot

text: As a result of either transfer process, the proteins are exposed on a thin membrane layer for detection. Both varieties of membrane are chosen for their non-specific protein binding properties (i.e. binds all proteins equally well). Protein binding is based upon hydrophobic interactions, as well as charged interactions between the membrane and protein. Nitrocellulose membranes are cheaper than PVDF, but are far more fragile and cannot withstand repeated probings.


title: Western blot

text: Total protein staining allows the total protein that has been successfully transferred to the membrane to be visualised, allowing the user to check the uniformity of protein transfer and to perform subsequent normalization of the target protein with the actual protein amount per lane. Normalization with the so-called "loading control" was based on immunostaining of housekeeping proteins in the classical procedure, but is heading toward total protein staining recently, due to multiple benefits. At least seven different approaches for total protein staining have been described for western blot normalization: Ponceau S, stain-free techniques, Sypro Ruby, Epicocconone, Coomassie R-350, Amido Black, and Cy5. In order to avoid noise of signal, total protein staining should be performed before blocking of the membrane. Nevertheless, post-antibody stainings have been described as well.


title: Western blot

text: Since the membrane has been chosen for its ability to bind protein and as both antibodies and the target are proteins, steps must be taken to prevent the interactions between the membrane and the antibody used for detection of the target protein. Blocking of non-specific binding is achieved by placing the membrane in a dilute solution of protein – typically 3–5% bovine serum albumin (BSA) or non-fat dry milk (both are inexpensive) in tris-buffered saline (TBS) or I-Block, with a minute percentage (0.1%) of detergent such as Tween 20 or Triton X-100. Although non-fat dry milk is preferred due to its availability, an appropriate blocking solution is needed as not all proteins in milk are compatible with all the detection bands. The protein in the dilute solution attaches to the membrane in all places where the target proteins have not attached. Thus, when the antibody is added, it cannot bind to the membrane, and therefore the only available binding site is the specific target protein. This reduces background in the final product of the western blot, leading to clearer results, and eliminates false positives.


title: Western blot

text: During the detection process, the membrane is "probed" for the protein of interest with a modified antibody which is linked to a reporter enzyme; when exposed to an appropriate substrate, this enzyme drives a colorimetric reaction and produces a color. For a variety of reasons, this traditionally takes place in a two-step process, although there are now one-step detection methods available for certain applications.


title: Western blot

text: The primary antibodies are generated when a host species or immune cell culture is exposed to the protein of interest (or a part thereof). Normally, this is part of the immune response, whereas here they are harvested and used as sensitive and specific detection tools that bind the protein directly.


title: Western blot

text: After blocking, a solution of primary antibody (generally between 0.5 and 5 micrograms/mL) diluted in either PBS or TBST wash buffer is incubated with the membrane under gentle agitation for typically an hour at room temperature, or overnight at 4°C. It can also be incubated at different temperatures, with lesser temperatures being associated with more binding, both specific (to the target protein, the "signal") and non-specific ("noise"). Following incubation, the membrane is washed several times in wash buffer to remove unbound primary antibody, and thereby minimize background. Typically, the wash buffer solution is composed of buffered saline solution with a small percentage of detergent, and sometimes with powdered milk or BSA.


title: Western blot

text: After rinsing the membrane to remove unbound primary antibody, the membrane is exposed to another antibody known as the secondary antibody. Antibodies come from animal sources (or animal sourced hybridoma cultures). The secondary antibody recognises and binds to the species-specific portion of the primary antibody. Therefore, an anti-mouse secondary antibody will bind to almost any mouse-sourced primary antibody, and can be referred to as an 'anti-species' antibody (e.g. anti-mouse, anti-goat etc.). To allow detection of the target protein, the secondary antibody is commonly linked to biotin or a reporter enzyme such as alkaline phosphatase or horseradish peroxidase. This means that several secondary antibodies will bind to one primary antibody and enhance the signal, allowing the detection of proteins of a much lower concentration than would be visible by SDS-PAGE alone.


title: Western blot

text: Horseradish peroxidase is commonly linked to secondary antibodies to allow the detection of the target protein by chemiluminescence. The chemiluminescent substrate is cleaved by horseradish peroxidase, resulting in the production of luminescence. Therefore, the production of luminescence is proportional to the amount of horseradish peroxidase-conjugated secondary antibody, and therefore, indirectly measures the presence of the target protein. A sensitive sheet of photographic film is placed against the membrane, and exposure to the light from the reaction creates an image of the antibodies bound to the blot. A cheaper but less sensitive approach utilizes a 4-chloronaphthol stain with 1% hydrogen peroxide; the reaction of peroxide radicals with 4-chloronaphthol produces a dark purple stain that can be photographed without using specialized photographic film.


title: Western blot

text: As with the ELISPOT and ELISA procedures, the enzyme can be provided with a substrate molecule that will be converted by the enzyme to a colored reaction product that will be visible on the membrane (see the figure below with blue bands).


title: Western blot

text: Another method of secondary antibody detection utilizes a near-infrared fluorophore-linked antibody. The light produced from the excitation of a fluorescent dye is static, making fluorescent detection a more precise and accurate measure of the difference in the signal produced by labeled antibodies bound to proteins on a western blot. Proteins can be accurately quantified because the signal generated by the different amounts of proteins on the membranes is measured in a static state, as compared to chemiluminescence, in which light is measured in a dynamic state.


title: Western blot

text: A third alternative is to use a radioactive label rather than an enzyme coupled to the secondary antibody, such as labeling an antibody-binding protein like "Staphylococcus" Protein A or Streptavidin with a radioactive isotope of iodine. Since other methods are safer, quicker, and cheaper, this method is now rarely used; however, an advantage of this approach is the sensitivity of auto-radiography-based imaging, which enables highly accurate protein quantification when combined with optical software (e.g. Optiquant).


title: Western blot

text: Historically, the probing process was performed in two steps because of the relative ease of producing primary and secondary antibodies in separate processes. This gives researchers and corporations huge advantages in terms of flexibility, reduction of cost, and adds an amplification step to the detection process. Given the advent of high-throughput protein analysis and lower limits of detection, however, there has been interest in developing one-step probing systems that would allow the process to occur faster and with fewer consumables. This requires a probe antibody which both recognizes the protein of interest and contains a detectable label, probes which are often available for known protein tags. The primary probe is incubated with the membrane in a manner similar to that for the primary antibody in a two-step process, and then is ready for direct detection after a series of wash steps.


title: Western blot

text: After the unbound probes are washed away, the western blot is ready for detection of the probes that are labeled and bound to the protein of interest. In practical terms, not all westerns reveal protein only at one band in a membrane. Size approximations are taken by comparing the stained bands to that of the marker or ladder loaded during electrophoresis. The process is commonly repeated for a structural protein, such as actin or tubulin, that should not change between samples. The amount of target protein is normalized to the structural protein to control between groups. A superior strategy is the normalization to the total protein visualized with trichloroethanol or epicocconone. This practice ensures correction for the amount of total protein on the membrane in case of errors or incomplete transfers. (see western blot normalization)


title: Western blot

text: The colorimetric detection method depends on incubation of the western blot with a substrate that reacts with the reporter enzyme (such as peroxidase) that is bound to the secondary antibody. This converts the soluble dye into an insoluble form of a different color that precipitates next to the enzyme and thereby stains the membrane. Development of the blot is then stopped by washing away the soluble dye. Protein levels are evaluated through densitometry (how intense the stain is) or spectrophotometry.


title: Western blot

text: Chemiluminescent detection methods depend on incubation of the western blot with a substrate that will luminesce when exposed to the reporter on the secondary antibody. The light is then detected by CCD cameras which capture a digital image of the western blot or photographic film. The use of film for western blot detection is slowly disappearing because of non linearity of the image (non accurate quantification). The image is analysed by densitometry, which evaluates the relative amount of protein staining and quantifies the results in terms of optical density. Newer software allows further data analysis such as molecular weight analysis if appropriate standards are used.


title: Western blot

text: Radioactive labels do not require enzyme substrates, but rather, allow the placement of medical X-ray film directly against the western blot, which develops as it is exposed to the label and creates dark regions which correspond to the protein bands of interest (see image above). The importance of radioactive detections methods is declining due to its hazardous radiation , because it is very expensive, health and safety risks are high, and ECL (enhanced chemiluminescence) provides a useful alternative.


title: Western blot

text: The fluorescently labeled probe is excited by light and the emission of the excitation is then detected by a photosensor such as a CCD camera equipped with appropriate emission filters which captures a digital image of the western blot and allows further data analysis such as molecular weight analysis and a quantitative western blot analysis. Fluorescence is considered to be one of the best methods for quantification but is less sensitive than chemiluminescence.


title: Western blot

text: One major difference between nitrocellulose and PVDF membranes relates to the ability of each to support "stripping" antibodies off and reusing the membrane for subsequent antibody probes. While there are well-established protocols available for stripping nitrocellulose membranes, the sturdier PVDF allows for easier stripping, and for more reuse before background noise limits experiments. Another difference is that, unlike nitrocellulose, PVDF must be soaked in 95% ethanol, isopropanol or methanol before use. PVDF membranes also tend to be thicker and more resistant to damage during use.


title: Western blot

text: Two-dimensional SDS-PAGE uses the principles and techniques outlined above. 2-D SDS-PAGE, as the name suggests, involves the migration of polypeptides in 2 dimensions. For example, in the first dimension, polypeptides are separated according to isoelectric point, while in the second dimension, polypeptides are separated according to their molecular weight. The isoelectric point of a given protein is determined by the relative number of positively (e.g. lysine, arginine) and negatively (e.g. glutamate, aspartate) charged amino acids, with negatively charged amino acids contributing to a low isoelectric point and positively charged amino acids contributing to a high isoelectric point. Samples could also be separated first under nonreducing conditions using SDS-PAGE, and under reducing conditions in the second dimension, which breaks apart disulfide bonds that hold subunits together. SDS-PAGE might also be coupled with urea-PAGE for a 2-dimensional gel.


title: Western blot

text: In principle, this method allows for the separation of all cellular proteins on a single large gel. A major advantage of this method is that it often distinguishes between different isoforms of a particular protein – e.g. a protein that has been phosphorylated (by addition of a negatively charged group). Proteins that have been separated can be cut out of the gel and then analysed by mass spectrometry, which identifies their molecular weight.


title: Western blot

text: Researchers use different software to process and align image-sections for elegant presentation of western blot results. Popular tools include Sciugo, Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Illustrator and GIMP.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: Lars and the Real Girl is a 2007 romantic comedy-drama film written by Nancy Oliver and directed by Craig Gillespie. It stars Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner, and Patricia Clarkson. The film follows Lars (Gosling), a kind-hearted but socially awkward young man who develops a romantic yet nonsexual relationship with an anatomically correct sex doll, a "RealDoll" named Bianca.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: Though a commercial failure, "Lars and the Real Girl" was critically acclaimed, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, while Gosling received nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: Lars Lindstrom lives a secluded life in a small Wisconsin town. His mother died when he was born, causing his grief-stricken father to have been a distant parent to Lars and his older brother, Gus. Gus left town as soon as he could support himself, returning only to inherit his half of the household when their father died. As an awkward adult, Lars feels guilt that his birth coincides with his mother's death and he seeks to resolve these conflicting feeling of love and loss.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: The inheritance has been divided between the brothers: Lars lives in the converted garage, while Gus and his pregnant wife Karin live in the house proper. Lars is pathologically shy; interacting with or relating to his family or co-workers is very difficult for him. A colleague at his office job, Margo, likes him, but Lars is impervious to Margo’s attempts to be friendly.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: One evening, Lars happily announces to Gus and Karin that he has a visitor whom he met online, a wheelchair-mobile missionary of Brazilian and Danish descent named Bianca. The pair are startled to discover that Bianca is actually a lifelike doll that Lars ordered from an adult website. Lars treats the doll as a live human being, asking if Bianca can stay in Gus and Karin's guest room, as she and Lars are religious and do not want scandal about their relationship. Gus and Karin play along with Lars’ delusion, but, concerned about his mental health, also convince Lars to take Bianca with him to Dagmar, a family doctor who is also a psychologist. While Dagmar diagnoses Bianca with low blood pressure, she urges Lars to come in with Bianca for weekly treatments, during which Dagmar will attempt to analyze Lars and get to the root of his behavior. Dagmar explains to Gus and Karin that Lars’ delusion is a manifestation of an underlying problem that needs to be addressed, and that they need to assist with Lars' therapy by continuing to treat Bianca as if she was real. During this time, Margo has begun to date another co-worker, which silently bothers Lars.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: Eventually, Lars introduces Bianca as his girlfriend to his co-workers and various townspeople. Sympathetic to Lars, the town inhabitants react to the doll as if she were real, and Bianca soon finds herself involved in volunteer programs, getting a makeover from the local beautician, and working part-time as a model in a clothing store. Due to the town’s acceptance of Bianca, Lars finds himself interacting more with people. When Margo reveals to Lars she has broken up with her boyfriend, Lars agrees to go bowling with her while Bianca attends a school board meeting. The two spend a pleasant evening, though Lars is quick to remind Margo he could never cheat on Bianca. She replies she would never expect that of him and tells him she hopes one day to find a man as faithful as him.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: Lars also asks Gus when he knew he had become a man and what being a man means. Gus says he knew it when he began doing the right things for the right reasons, even when it hurt. Gus gives several examples, including their father keeping them and taking care of them, even though he didn't know how. Gus says that he never should have left Lars alone with their father, and he apologizes for being selfish. Their conversation seems to reach Lars and his dependence on Bianca begins to shift.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: One morning, Lars discovers Bianca is unresponsive, and she's rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Her prognosis isn't good, and Lars announces Bianca would like to be brought home. News of her illness spreads through town, and everyone whose life has been touched by Bianca brings flowers or food to the Lindstrom home. Gus and Karin suggest Lars and Bianca join them for a visit to the lake. When Gus and Karin make their way back from the hike, they discover a despondent Lars in the lake with a “dying” Bianca, after Lars gave her a farewell kiss. The relationship was never sexual, and was Lars' way to let go of his guilt for his mother's (loved one's) death.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: Bianca is given a full-fledged funeral that is well-attended by the townspeople. After Bianca is buried, Lars and Margo linger at the gravesite. Having come to terms with past traumas, ready to accept adult responsibilities, and filled with newfound self-confidence, Lars asks Margo if she would like to take a walk with him, which she happily accepts.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: The film "Lars and the Real Girl" has very clear ties to Ovid’s story of Pygmalion. Lars plays the modern version of Pygmalion in this romantic comedy adaptation. The story of Pygmalion is a story of unusual love as Pygmalion falls in love with his statue of a beautiful ivory woman. To Pygmalion, this statue is real, “He often felt the statue with his hands, to see if it was flesh, or ivory still, and then no longer admitted it was ivory”. Similarly, Lars sees Bianca as a real girl; he holds conversations with her, changes her clothes, puts her to sleep and washes her. Both Lars and Pygmalion find this false connection out of love and loneliness. For Lars, the love is romantic and fulfills a role in his life that was missing, while Pygmalion’s is both romantic and sexual love. Lars and Pygmalion’s stories come to a happy end when both realize what they want in life and put forth the work to accomplish this, though the difference is that Pygmalion's love actually makes the statue into a living woman, Galatea, while Lars must let Bianca "die" and move on.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: In "The Real Story of Lars and the Real Girl", a special feature on the DVD release of the film, screenwriter Nancy Oliver reveals the inspiration for her script was an actual website, RealDoll.com, which is featured prominently in the film. While researching "weird websites" for an article, Oliver found RealDoll.com. She wrote the script in 2002. The script was the third-ranked screenplay in The Black List in 2005.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: The film, set in the American state of Wisconsin, was filmed with a US$12 million budget on location in Alton, Elora, King Township, Toronto, Uxbridge, and Whitevale, all located in the Canadian province of Ontario.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: Film credits include Rosalie MacKintosh as "Bianca wrangler" and Karly Bowen as "assistant Bianca wrangler."


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 9, 2007 before going into limited release in the U.S. on October 12, 2007. It initially opened on seven screens in New York City, New York; and Los Angeles, California, and earned $90,418 on its opening weekend. It later expanded to 321 theaters and remained in release for 147 days, earning $5,972,884 domestically and $5,320,639 in other markets for a worldwide box-office total of $11,293,663.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: The film was featured at the Austin Film Festival, the Heartland Film Festival, the Torino Film Festival, the Glasgow Film Festival, and the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: "Lars and the Real Girl" received positive reviews from critics, with Gosling's performance being universally acclaimed. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a "Certified Fresh" score of 81%, based on reviews from 138 critics, and an average rating of 7.10/10. The site's critical consensus states, ""Lars and the Real Girl" could've so easily been a one-joke movie. But the talented cast, a great script, and direction never condescend to its character or the audience." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 32 reviews.


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" awarded the film three and a half stars out of four and observed, "The film wisely never goes for even one moment that could be interpreted as smutty or mocking. There are so many ways [it] could have gone wrong that one of the film's fascinations is how adroitly it sidesteps them. Its weapon is absolute sincerity. It has a kind of purity to it."


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" called the film "a gentle comedy, offbeat but never cute, never lewd and never going for shortcut laughs that might diminish character."


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" said, "American self-nostalgia is a dependable racket, and if the filmmakers had pushed into the realm of nervous truth, had given Lars and the town folk sustained shadows, not just cute tics and teary moments, it might have worked. Instead the film is palatable audience bait of average accomplishment that superficially recalls the plain style of Alexander Payne, but without any of the lacerating edges or moral ambiguity."


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" described it as "the sweetest, most innocent, most completely enjoyable film around," "a film whose daring and delicate blend of apparent irreconcilables will sweep you off your feet if you're not careful. The creators of this film were fiercely determined not to go so much as a millimeter over the line into sentiment, tawdriness or mockery. It's the rare film that is the best possible version of itself, but "Lars" fits that bill."


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: Lou Lumenick of the "New York Post" awarded the film three out of four stars, calling it "an offbeat comedy that plays as if Preston Sturges came back to life and collaborated with the Coen Brothers on an updated version of the Jimmy Stewart film "Harvey" (1950). He added the script "eschews cheap laughs for character-driven humanist comedy, and is sensitively directed by Craig Gillespie."


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: Alissa Simon of "Variety" stated, "Craig Gillespie's sweetly off-kilter film plays like a Coen brothers riff on Garrison Keillor's "Lake Wobegon" tales, defying its lurid premise with a gentle comic drama grounded in reality ... what's fresh and charming is the way the characters surrounding the protagonist also grow as they help him through his crisis."


title: Lars and the Real Girl

text: The film has received favorable reviews from Christian faith-based media, and has been recommended as an instructional tool and a means for opening a dialogue on tolerance.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: The World Islands (Arabic: جزر العالم; "Juzur al-Ālam") are an archipelago of small artificial islands constructed in the shape of a world map, located in the waters of the Persian Gulf, off the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The World Islands are composed mainly of sand dredged from Dubai's shallow coastal waters, and are one of several artificial island developments in Dubai. The World's developer is Nakheel Properties, and the project was originally conceived by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai. The construction was done by two Dutch (joint venture) specialist companies, Van Oord and Boskalis. The same companies also created the Palm Jumeirah.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: Construction of the 300 islands began in 2003, before being halted due to the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Though 60% of the islands were sold to private contractors in 2008, development on most of the islands has not started. As of July 2012, Lebanon Island was developed and was the only island that had so far been developed commercially, being used for private corporate events and public parties. As of late 2013, only two of the islands had been developed. In January 2014, Kleindienst Group announced the launch of "The Heart of Europe" project; by February 2014, JK Properties, one of Kleindienst Group's brands, announced that the project was "well underway". The first of these series of islands will be Europe, Sweden and Germany with development led by Kleindienst Group.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: Islands in the project range from in area. Distances between islands average ; they are constructed from of sand and 386 million tons of rock. Designed by Creative Kingdom Dubai, the development is an area that covers and is surrounded by an oval-shaped breakwater island. Roughly of shoreline was created. The World's overall development costs were estimated at $13 billion CAD in 2005.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: The archipelago consists of seven sets of islands, representing the continents of Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America, Antarctica, and Oceania. Each artificial island is named for its representative country, landmark, or region such as the France, California, Mount Everest, Australia, New Mexico, Upernavik, Buenos Aires, New York, Mexico, St. Petersburg and India.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: The project was unveiled in May 2003 by Sheikh Mohammed and dredging began four months later in September 2003. By January 2008, 60% of the islands were sold, 20 of which were bought in the first four months of 2007. On 10 January 2008 the final stone on the breakwater was laid, completing development of the archipelago. As of July 2012, a second island, the Lebanon Island (1.5 hectares or 15,045.01 m and 482.21 metres of perimeter) was developed and was 'the only island that has so far been developed commercially, is used for private corporate events and public parties.'


title: The World (archipelago)

text: The Times Online reported in September 2009 that work on The World had been suspended due to the effects of the global financial crisis.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: Nakheel denied 2010 reports that the islands were sinking into the sea as wholly inaccurate. Despite the denial, The Daily Telegraph reported in January 2011 that an independent company, Penguin Marine, provided verification on the erosion of the islands and the silting of the passageways between the islands. Due to finance and technical problems, Penguin Marine, the company contracted to provide transportation to the archipelago, is attempting to get out of the annual fees of $1.6 million paid to Nakheel properties.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: Until early 2012, only one of the islands had been occupied by a building (a show home) on it, and commercial or residential properties were not currently being constructed on any of the other islands. Property prices in the Emirates had fallen 58% from their peak in the fourth quarter of 2008.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: The world economic recovery from the Great Recession has resulted in a rebound for the Dubai real estate market: it has been reported that "residential prices [in Dubai] rose by 17.9% from August 2012 to 2013, while rents soared by 14.9% in the same period."


title: The World (archipelago)

text: The World was supposed to be serviced by four major transportation hubs linked by waterways. Land parcels are supposedly zoned for various uses: estate, mid density, high density, resorts and commercial. A Dubai Infinity Holdings construction planner has stated that developers have been negotiating with Nakheel about temporary siting of a cement batching plant on one of the islands to supply subdivided construction.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: The plan was for utilities to be routed under water, with water plants at each of the hubs pumping fresh water to the islands. Power was to be supplied by the Dubai Grid and distributed through underwater cables, however as of February 2015 no cables had been laid, so that developers currently have to provide their own power from diesel generators. Wastewater and refuse systems are an individual concern for each island.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: Nakheel Group is itself further developing a resort named Coral Island over 20 islands that make up the North American part of The World. The low-rise development will include a marina and hotel village.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: The second largest confirmed development is the purchase of 14 islands that make up Australia and New Zealand by Investment Dar of Kuwait. The islands are being terraformed to be developed as a resort named OQYANA.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: Irish business consortium Larionovo had plans to develop the Ireland island into an Irish-themed resort. The plans include a large internal marina, apartments and villas, a gym, hotel, and an Irish-themed pub. In July 2007 it was announced that the Ireland Island would feature a recreation of Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway. However, on the 25th of November 2008, a provisional liquidator was appointed to Larionovo. As of October 2022, this has not happened. The islands of Great Britain and Moscow on The World were acquired by Premier Real Estate Bureau in the Summer of 2008.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: In April 2008, Salya Corporation announced that it had acquired the islands of Finland and Brunei in The World and planned to develop them into fashion-themed resorts. Salya spent about Dh800 million (US$218 million) to purchase the islands and plans to spend a further Dh2.4 billion (US$654 million) on development. Brunei Island will be turned into a Fashion TV resort and Finland Island will be turned into a fashion community called FTV palace.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: Safi Qurashi, the seven-time multi-millionaire entrepreneur at the head of Premier, and his business partner Mustafa Nagri, paid an estimated US$64 million for the piece of land; he was later convicted for non-payment of cheques and sentenced to seven years in jail.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: However, on appeal he was later found not guilty and released from prison in July 2012 when he was declared innocent of two of the three charges. On the final charges the civil court final judgment showed he owed no money, was a victim of fraud and vindicated him completely by awarding US$10.8 Million to be paid back to him by his former partner who had defrauded him. Safi Qurashi is still the owner of Great Britain Island and continues to live and run his businesses in Dubai and is still confident of developing the Island of Great Britain into a unique destination. This also has not happened as of October 2022


title: The World (archipelago)

text: Josef Kleindienst and his firm JK Properties are developing The Heart of Europe, a collection of seven islands (Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Ukraine, Main Europe, Switzerland and Monaco) in the European section of the World, into an island luxury resort. The resort is meant to create a fully immersive European experience, with outdoor snow, and stores accepting only the Euro as a currency. It is set to open in 2020.


title: The World (archipelago)

text: In June 2020, a street called Raining Street was being built as part of the Heart of Europe project, with plans to create artificial rainfall once the outdoor temperature exceeds 27 degrees Celsius.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: Scott Alexander Scheffler (born June 21, 1996) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. From March to October 2022, he was World Number 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He won the 2022 Masters Tournament.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: Scheffler was born to Diane and Scott Scheffler in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and lived in Montvale, New Jersey, until age six, when the family moved to Dallas, Texas, in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Scheffler's father Scott was a stay-at-home dad, while his mother Diane worked as a chief operating officer at the law firm Thompson & Knight.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: His interest in golf began at age 3, when his parents gave him a set of plastic clubs and ball. After the move to Dallas, Scheffler received tutelage at the Royal Oaks Golf Club under instructor Randy Smith, who coached Justin Leonard to a victory at The Open Championship in 1997. Scheffler had prolific success at the youth level, and won 75 times on the PGA junior circuit, competing against the likes of fellow Dallas-area native Will Zalatoris.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: Entering high school, Scheffler had a diminutive frame at barely in height, but experienced a large growth spurt and soon measured over tall. The rapid growth caused back injuries for Scheffler, particularly during his sophomore year. He played golf and basketball at Highland Park High School in the Dallas suburb of University Park. At Highland Park, Scheffler won individual state titles three years in a row (2012 to 2014), matching a record set by fellow Texan Jordan Spieth. He also had success in AJGA events, won the 2013 U.S. Junior Amateur, and was the top-ranked junior golfer in the country in 2014.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: Scheffler was then recruited to play collegiate golf at the University of Texas from 2014 to 2018, where he helped the team win three Big 12 championships and was named "Phil Mickelson Freshman of the Year" in 2015. He graduated in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in finance. He was also part of the U.S. team that won the 2017 Walker Cup.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: In 2016, Scheffler qualified for his first U.S. Open. He opened with a first-round 69, but would shoot a second-round 78 to miss the cut by one stroke. Again in 2017, Scheffler qualified for the U.S. Open after surviving a 4-for-3 playoff to earn a spot in the field. He and Cameron Champ were the only two amateurs to make the cut at the 2017 U.S. Open. Scheffler finished as low amateur at 1-under-par, one stroke ahead of Champ.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: On May 26, 2019, Scheffler fired a bogey-free, 9-under 63 — playing the back nine in 30 — to force a playoff with 54-hole leader Marcelo Rozo in the Evans Scholars Invitational. He then birdied the second extra hole for his first Web.com Tour victory. On August 18, 2019, Scheffler won the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship in Columbus, Ohio. Scheffler shot 4-under 67 in the final round at Ohio State University's Scarlet Course for a two-shot victory. He totaled a 12-under 272 for the week and finished two shots ahead of Brendon Todd, Beau Hossler and Ben Taylor. This event was part of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals (the Web.com Tour was renamed the Korn Ferry Tour in mid-season). Scheffler led both the Finals points list and the overall points list to earn a fully exempt PGA Tour card for the 2020 season. He was later named Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: In August 2020, Scheffler finished tied for fourth at the 2020 PGA Championship. He won $528,000 in prize money in the tournament.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: On August 21, 2020, Scheffler shot a 12-under 59 at The Northern Trust. His round was the joint second-lowest in PGA Tour history and just the 12th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: In September 2021, Scheffler played on the U.S. team in the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin. The U.S. team won 19–9 and Scheffler went 2–0–1 including a win in his Sunday singles match against world number one Jon Rahm.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: On February 13, 2022, Scheffler won the WM Phoenix Open on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff against Patrick Cantlay. Three weeks later, Scheffler won his second career PGA Tour title at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida. He won by one stroke over Viktor Hovland, Billy Horschel and Tyrrell Hatton. Three weeks after that, Scheffler won the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas, defeating Kevin Kisner in the final match. With this win, Scheffler moved to world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: On April 10, 2022, Scheffler won the Masters Tournament, defeating Rory McIlroy by three strokes. Scheffler became the fifth golfer to enter the Masters Tournament ranked No. 1 in the world and go on to win the Masters, joining Ian Woosnam (1991), Fred Couples (1992), Tiger Woods (2001, 2002) and Dustin Johnson (2020). The victory was his fourth for the 2022 PGA Tour season, making him the first golfer since Arnold Palmer in 1960, and only the second ever, to win as many events including the Masters in that span of time to begin a season. It was his fourth win in his last 6 starts.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: At the next major, the 2022 PGA Championship, he missed the cut. On May 29, 2022, Scheffler lost the Charles Schwab Challenge in a playoff to Sam Burns after Burns made a 38-foot birdie putt. At the U.S. Open, he finished T-2, one stroke behind from the winner Matt Fitzpatrick.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: Entering the 2022 Tour Championship as the leader in the FedEx Cup standings, Scheffler started the tournament in first place with a 2-stroke lead in the starting strokes format. He extended his lead to 6 strokes after 54 holes, but shot a 3-over-par 73 in the final round to lose the tournament by one stroke to Rory McIlroy. This tied Scheffler for the PGA Tour record of largest 54-hole lead blown.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: In September 2022, Scheffler was named 2022 PGA Tour Player of the Year, earning the Jack Nicklaus Award for the first time.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: Scheffler qualified for the U.S. team at the 2022 Presidents Cup; he lost three of the four matches he played, tying the other.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: Scheffler is married to Meredith Scheffler (née Scudder). His father, Scott Scheffler, grew up in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and attended St. Cecilia High School in Englewood. His mother, Diane, grew up in Park Ridge, New Jersey. Scheffler has three sisters named Callie, Molly and Sara.


title: Scottie Scheffler

text: Scheffler is a Christian. He attends Bible study with his caddie Ted Scott, who caddied for Bubba Watson for 15 years. When requesting Scott to be his caddie, Scheffler said "I really want to work with a Christian. That's how I try to live my life." Scheffler and his close friend Sam Burns co-host an annual retreat with members of the College Golf Fellowship, a faith-based ministry.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: Atal Tunnel (also known as Rohtang Tunnel), named after former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee is a highway tunnel built under the Rohtang Pass in the eastern Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas on the Leh-Manali Highway in Himachal Pradesh, India. At a length of 9.02 km, it is the highest highway single-tube tunnel above in the world. With the existing Atal Tunnel and after the completion of under-construction Shinku La Tunnel, which is targeted to be completed by 2025, the new Leh-Manali Highway via Nimmu–Padum–Darcha road will become all-weather roads.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: The tunnel reduces the travel time and overall distance between Manali and Keylong on the way to Leh. The route, which previously went through Gramphu, was long and took 5 to 6 hours in good conditions. A traveller now reaches the South Portal of the tunnel from Manali, a distance of in about 45 minutes, goes through the long tunnel in about 15 minutes, and reaches Keylong which is away in about 60 minutes. The new route via the tunnel brings down the total distance travelled to which can be covered in about 2 hours, a reduction of around 3 to 4 hours when compared to the earlier route. Moreover, the tunnel bypasses most of the sites that were prone to road blockades, avalanches, and traffic snarls.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: The tunnel is at an elevation of whereas the Rohtang Pass is at an elevation of . It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 3 October 2020. The cost of the entire project is ₹3,200 crore (US$438 million). The tunnel was completed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) under Ministry of Defence. The tunnel can be visited by citizens and students of the nation. Honorable Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh in presence of Mos for Defence Shri Ajay Bhat and Director General Border Roads Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhry, VSM dedicated website https://marvels.bro.gov.in to the Nation on 24 Mar 2022. The website will provide information about the tunnel and will facilitate in guided tours for students and citizens. It will also boost tourism in Himachal.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: The Moravian Mission first talked about the possibility of a tunnel through Rohtang Pass to reach Lahaul in 1860.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: The proposal for the construction of a tunnel across Rohtang Pass was first conceived in 1942 by Dr. John Bicknell Auden, Geological Survey of India (GSI) who at that time visited this pass intending to divert the water of Chandra river to Beas.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: When Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister, locals suggested his childhood friend Arjun Gopal visit him to talk about Rohtang Tunnel. Gopal and two companions, Chhering Dorje and Abhay Chand, moved to Delhi. After a year of discussions, Vajpayee went to Lahaul in June 2000 and declared that the Rohtang Tunnel would be constructed. RITES conducted a feasibility study.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: In 2000, the project was estimated to cost ₹500 crore and be completed in seven years. On 26 May 2002, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), a tri-service organisation of the Defence Ministry specialising in road and bridge construction in difficult terrains, headed by Lt. Gen. Prakash Suri, PVSM, was put in charge of construction. The approach road to the tunnel entrance was inaugurated by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: However the project did not move beyond the tree-felling stage by May 2003. By December 2004, the cost estimate had grown to ₹900 crore. In May 2007, the government of Dr. Manmohan Singh awarded the contract to SMEC (Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation) International Private Limited, an Australian company, and the completion date was revised to 2014. However, there was no progress for the next three years, until May 2010.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: Finally, the Cabinet Committee on Security in UPA government cleared the Rohtang Tunnel Project. The work was awarded to a joint venture of AFCONS Infrastructure Limited, an Indian construction company of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, and STRABAG AG, Austria, in September 2009. The drilling of the Rohtang Tunnel through the Himalayan ranges began on 28 June 2010 at the South Portal, north of Manali. Some of the anchoring and slope stabilisation work was subcontracted to Spar Geo Infra Pvt Ltd. Permanent maintenance free earthing system design, supply and installation was sub-contracted to Manav Energy Pvt. Ltd.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: Prime Minister Narendra Modi renamed the tunnel as the Atal Tunnel, in honour of Shree Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on 25 December 2019, Vajpayee's birthday.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: The Atal Tunnel has been planned to ensure an all-seasons, all-weather road route to strategically important areas of Ladakh and the remote Lahaul-Spiti valley. However, the tunnel will provide this connectivity only up to Darcha, north of Keylong in the Lahaul region of Himachal Pradesh. Connectivity to Ladakh will require more tunnels: either at Shikun La, or at the passes located on the present Leh-Manali road. Director General Border Roads Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhry, VSM has initiated plans for construction of tunnel at Shinkula.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: The most challenging task was to continue the excavation during heavy snowfall in winter. Excavation for tunnelling was done from both ends. However, as Rohtang pass closes during the winter, the north portal was not accessible during winter and the excavation was being done only from the south portal in winters. Only about one-fourth of the entire tunnel was excavated from the north end and three-fourths was excavated from the south end. There were more than 46 avalanche sites on approaches to the tunnel.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: Other challenges to the progress of the tunnel included difficulties in disposing more than 8 lakh m³ of excavated rock and soil, heavy ingress of water (as much as 30 lakh litres per day in June 2012) that required constant dewatering, costlier treatment and slowed the progress of excavation from 5-metre per day to just half a metre a day and unstable rocks that slowed blasting and digging. A cloud-burst and flash flood on 8 August 2003 killed 42 labourers who were building the temporary access road. Questions were also raised on the impact of cutting down more than 700 trees on the ecology.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: The tunnel is intended to create an all-weather route to Leh and Lahaul and Spiti valleys in Himachal Pradesh.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: The tunnel was built using the New Austrian tunnelling method and has been equipped with a semi-transverse ventilation system, where large fans separately circulate air throughout the tunnel. A 2.25 m tall and 3.6 m wide emergency tunnel has been integrated into the tunnel cross-section beneath the main carriageway for evacuation during emergencies.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: Fires inside the tunnel will be controlled within an area of 200 metres and fire hydrants are provided at specific locations throughout the tunnel. The tunnel also has a public announcement system to make important announcements in emergency situations for which loudspeakers are installed at regular intervals.


title: Atal Tunnel

text: Heavy snowfall in the Rohtang Pass area is a major concern, especially on the approach roads to the main tunnel. To prevent any damage to the roads and to ensure the safety of the roads and tunnel users alike, avalanche control structures have been constructed. Since the Atal tunnel is likely to witness heavy traffic, CCTV cameras are placed at regular intervals in the tunnel which are connected to two monitoring rooms on both ends of the tunnel for vehicular management and pollution monitoring. Pollution sensors continuously monitor the air quality in the tunnel and if the air quality in the tunnel is below the desired level, fresh air is injected into the tunnel via two heavy duty fans on each side of the tunnel.


title: The Bone Collector

text: The Bone Collector is a 1999 American crime thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. It was produced by Martin Bregman.


title: The Bone Collector

text: The film is based on the 1997 crime novel of the same name written by Jeffery Deaver, concerning the tetraplegic detective Lincoln Rhyme. The film received mixed reviews, and earned about $150 million against a budget of $48 million.


title: The Bone Collector

text: In 1998 New York City, quadriplegic forensics expert Lincoln Rhyme is bed-bound after an accident that left him completely paralyzed from the neck down. Amelia Donaghy, a newly recruited patrol officer, discovers a mutilated corpse buried at a Civil War-era railroad bed. Due to clue-like objects found at the crime scene, Rhyme concludes that the scene was staged and subsequently teams up with an initially hesitant Amelia, impressed by her natural forensic instincts.


title: The Bone Collector

text: The killer poses as a taxi driver and, before Rhyme and Amelia met, abducts married couple Alan and Lindsay Rubin. Alan is the body discovered by Amelia at the railroad station, while Lindsay is revealed to be alive and tied up at a steam junction. Using the clues found at the railroad bed, including a torn piece of scrap paper, Rhyme successfully tracks the whereabouts of Lindsay. The detectives and Amelia arrive too late and she is scalded to death by an open steam pipe. Amelia finds a piece of Lindsay's bone by her body and another scrap of paper. Rhyme instructs Amelia to sever Lindsay's hands, which are securely chained to the pipe, for evidence but she refuses and storms off from the crime scene.


title: The Bone Collector

text: The killer abducts an NYU student, who is taken to a derelict slaughterhouse and tied to a pole. The killer surgically removes a piece of bone from the student, leaving an open wound that attracts nearby rats. Amelia and Rhyme, again using the clues left by the killer at the scene of the previous murder, find the victim's body which has been mutilated by rats. Amelia finds another scrap of paper and a piece of bone. The pressure of the tense investigation and bureaucratic challenges to Amelia and Rhyme's involvement in the case begin to have serious impacts on Rhyme's health and stability. Thelma, Rhyme's carer and nurse, reveals to Amelia that he intends to euthanize himself out of fear of seizures that could leave him in a vegetative state.


title: The Bone Collector

text: After piecing together the message the killer was sending using the scrap paper left at each scene, Amelia and Rhyme are led to an old crime novel called "The Bone Collector", where it is revealed the killer is replicating the crimes from the fictional story. This leads them to the killer's next victims, a grandfather and granddaughter who have been tied to a pier during a rise in tide. The paramedics successfully resuscitate the young girl, but the grandfather is pronounced dead. At the scene, Amelia finds another piece of bone, part of an old police badge, and a subway map. These clues together with the asbestos left by the killer at the scene of Lindsay's death lead Amelia to an abandoned subway station, where she sees numbers on the side of a carriage that has been tampered with to spell out Rhyme's police badge number.


title: The Bone Collector

text: The killer arrives at Rhyme's house and kills both Thelma and Police Captain Howard Cheney. The killer is revealed to be Richard Thompson, the medical technician in charge of Rhyme's medical equipment. Richard's real name is Marcus Andrews, a former forensics expert, who was convicted after Rhyme wrote an article accusing him of planting evidence resulting in the wrongful imprisonment of six innocent people, one of whom hanged himself. Blaming Rhyme for his imprisonment and the abuse he endured during his incarceration, he attempts to kill Rhyme out of revenge. Rhyme retaliates by crushing Marcus' hand in his medical bed, resulting in a struggle between the two that forces them both onto the floor. Unable to move, Rhyme is almost killed by Marcus until Amelia arrives and shoots Marcus dead.


title: The Bone Collector

text: The following Christmas, Rhyme, having abandoned his plans to commit suicide, meets his sister and niece coming to visit him along with Amelia and his other colleagues.


title: The Bone Collector

text: Based on 86 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, "The Bone Collector" has an average approval rating of 29%, with an average score of 4.2/10. The site's consensus states: "A talented cast is wasted on a bland attempt at a suspenseful, serial killer flick." Metacritic gave the film an average score of 45 out of 100 based on the 33 reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.


title: The Bone Collector

text: Eric S. Arnold of "Newsweek" gives a mainly positive review, stating that ""The Bone Collector" may be formulaic—but many good recipes are." William Arnold of the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" describes the film as having "the characteristics of a bad slasher movie" in a mainly negative review, calling the plot "ultimately preposterous". Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film a mixed two stars out of a possible four. He praised the performances by lead and supporting actors, but deplored plot's "utter absurdity", writing: "The movie is a peculiar experience to sit through, because the quality of the acting is so much better than the material deserves."


title: The Bone Collector

text: On January 17, 2019, it was announced that NBC had given the production a pilot order under the name Lincoln based on "The Bone Collector" novel. Sony Pictures Television and Universal Television were shopping the show to the American broadcast networks. VJ Boyd and Mark Bianculli would write the series and also serve as executive producer, and Seth Gordon would direct the potential pilot. In May 2019, NBC picked up the series, which would be titled "", and premiere January 10, 2020. The pilot episode was released early online on January 1, 2020, ahead of its network debut on January 10. The series was cancelled after one season, on June 10, 2020.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, "Every Day Is Mother's Day", was released in 1985. She went on to write 12 novels, two collections of short stories, a personal memoir, and numerous articles and opinion pieces.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: Mantel won the Booker Prize twice: the first was for her 2009 novel "Wolf Hall", a fictional account of Thomas Cromwell's rise to power in the court of Henry VIII, and the second was for its 2012 sequel "Bring Up the Bodies". The third instalment of the Cromwell trilogy, "The Mirror and the Light", was longlisted for the same prize.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: Hilary Mary Thompson was born on 6 July 1952 in Glossop, Derbyshire, the eldest of three children, with two younger brothers, and raised as a Roman Catholic in the mill village of Hadfield where she attended St Charles Roman Catholic Primary School.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: Her parents, Margaret (née Foster) and Henry Thompson (a clerk), were both Catholics of Irish descent, born in England. When Mantel was seven, her mother's lover, Jack Mantel, moved in with the family. He shared a bedroom with her mother, while her father moved to another room. Four years later, when she was eleven, the family, except for her father, moved to Romiley, Cheshire, to escape the local gossip. She never saw her father again.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: When the family relocated, Jack Mantel (1932–1995) became her unofficial stepfather, and she legally took his surname. She attended Harrytown Convent school in Romiley, Cheshire.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: In 1970, she began studies at the London School of Economics to read law. She transferred to the University of Sheffield and graduated as a Bachelor of Jurisprudence in 1973. After university, Mantel worked in the social work department of a geriatric hospital and then as a sales assistant at Kendals department store in Manchester.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: In 1973 she married Gerald McEwen, a geologist. In 1974, she began writing a novel about the French Revolution, but was unable to find a publisher (it was eventually released as "A Place of Greater Safety" in 1992). In 1977 Mantel moved to Botswana with her husband where they lived for the next five years. Later, they spent four years in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia<ref name="open.ac.uk/tourism"></ref> She later said that leaving Jeddah felt like "the happiest day of [her] life"; she published memoirs of this period in "The Spectator",<ref name="spectator/hamra-prize"></ref> and the "London Review of Books".<ref name="lrb/v11/n07/Bookcase"></ref><ref name="lrb/v31/n01/disturb"></ref>


title: Hilary Mantel

text: Mantel's first novel, "Every Day Is Mother's Day," was published in 1985, and its sequel, "Vacant Possession", a year later. After returning to England, she became the film critic of "The Spectator", a position she held from 1987 to 1991, and a reviewer for a number of papers and magazines in Britain and the United States.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: Her third novel, "Eight Months on Ghazzah Street" (1988), drew on her life in Saudi Arabia. It features a threatening clash of values between the neighbours in a city apartment block to explore the tensions between Islamic culture and the liberal West. Her Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize-winning novel "Fludd" is set in 1956 in a fictitious northern village called Fetherhoughton, centring on a Roman Catholic church and a convent. A mysterious stranger brings about transformations in the lives of those around him.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: "A Place of Greater Safety" (1992) won the Sunday Express Book of the Year award, for which her two previous books had been shortlisted. A long and historically accurate novel, it traces the career of three French revolutionaries, Danton, Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins, from childhood to their early deaths during the Reign of Terror of 1794.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: "A Change of Climate" (1994), set in rural Norfolk, explores the lives of Ralph and Anna Eldred, as they raise their four children and devote their lives to charity. It includes chapters about their early married life as missionaries in South Africa, when they were imprisoned and deported to Bechuanaland, and the tragedy that occurred there.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: "An Experiment in Love" (1996), which won the Hawthornden Prize, takes place over two university terms in 1970. It follows the progress of three girls – two friends and one enemy – as they leave home and attend university in London. Margaret Thatcher makes a cameo appearance in this novel, which explores women's appetites and ambitions, and suggests how they are often thwarted. Though Mantel used material from her own life, it is not an autobiographical novel.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: Her next book, "The Giant, O'Brien" (1998), is set in the 1780s, and is based on the true story of Charles Byrne (or O'Brien). He came to London to earn money by displaying himself as a freak. His bones hang today in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. The novel treats O'Brien and his antagonist, the Scots surgeon John Hunter, less as characters in history than as mythic protagonists in a dark and violent fairytale, necessary casualties of the Age of Enlightenment. She adapted the book for BBC Radio 4, in a play starring Alex Norton (as Hunter) and Frances Tomelty.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: In 2003 Mantel published her memoir, "Giving Up the Ghost", which won the MIND "Book of the Year" award. That same year she brought out a collection of short stories, "Learning To Talk". All the stories deal with childhood and, taken together, the books show how the events of a life are mediated as fiction. Her 2005 novel, "Beyond Black", was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2005. Novelist Pat Barker said it was "the book that should actually have won the Booker". Set in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it features a professional medium, Alison Hart, whose calm and jolly exterior conceals grotesque psychic damage. She trails around with her a troupe of "fiends", who are invisible but always on the verge of becoming flesh.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: The long novel "Wolf Hall", about Henry VIII's minister Thomas Cromwell, was published in 2009 to critical acclaim. The book won that year's Booker Prize and, upon winning the award, Mantel said, "I can tell you at this moment I am happily flying through the air". Judges voted three to two in favour of "Wolf Hall" for the prize. Mantel was presented with a trophy and a £50,000 cash prize during an evening ceremony at the Guildhall, London. The panel of judges, led by the broadcaster James Naughtie, described "Wolf Hall" as an "extraordinary piece of storytelling". Leading up to the award, the book was backed as the favourite by bookmakers and accounted for 45% of the sales of all the nominated books. It was the first favourite since 2002 to win the award. On receiving the prize, Mantel said that she would spend the prize money on "sex and drugs and rock' n' roll".


title: Hilary Mantel

text: The sequel to "Wolf Hall", called "Bring Up the Bodies", was published in May 2012 to wide acclaim. It won the 2012 Costa Book of the Year and the 2012 Booker Prize; Mantel thus became the first British writer and the first woman to win the Booker Prize more than once. Mantel was the fourth author to receive the award twice, following J. M. Coetzee, Peter Carey and J. G. Farrell. This award also made Mantel the first author to win the award for a sequel. The books were adapted into plays by the Royal Shakespeare Company and were produced as a mini-series by BBC. In 2020 Mantel published the third novel of the Thomas Cromwell trilogy, called "The Mirror and the Light". "The Mirror and the Light" was selected for the longlist for the 2020 Booker Prize.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: In 2014, Mantel published a collection of 10 short stories, "The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher", which The Guardian called a "flawed but absorbing selection" singling out the story "Sorry to Disturb" for praise. The New York Times described the collection as having "narrators much more outwardly meek and inwardly turbulent than the murderous royals and puppeteers so beloved in her historical fiction". The controversial title story is about an assassin who disguises himself as a plumber and takes over an apartment opposite the hospital where the Prime Minister is undergoing eye surgery. The woman who owns the apartment, and who is in effect a hostage, turns out to be surprisingly sympathetic to the assassin's cause.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: She was also working on a short non-fiction book, titled "The Woman Who Died of Robespierre", about the Polish playwright Stanisława Przybyszewska. Mantel also wrote reviews and essays, mainly for "The Guardian", the "London Review of Books" and the "New York Review of Books". "The Culture Show" programme on BBC Two broadcast a profile of Mantel on 17 September 2011.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: In December 2016, Mantel spoke with "Kenyon Review" editor David H. Lynn on the KR Podcast about the way historical novels are published, what it is like to live in the world of one character for more than ten years, writing for the stage, and the final book in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, "The Mirror and the Light".


title: Hilary Mantel

text: She delivered five 2017 Reith Lectures on BBC Radio Four, talking about the theme of historical fiction. Her final one of these lectures was on the theme of adaptation of historical novels for stage or screen. Mantel's lectures were selected by its producer, Jim Frank, as amongst the best of the long-running series.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: Mantel married Gerald McEwen in 1973. They divorced in 1981 but remarried in 1982. McEwen gave up geology to manage his wife's business. They lived in Budleigh Salterton, Devon.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: During her twenties, Mantel had a debilitating and painful illness. She was initially diagnosed with a psychiatric illness, hospitalised, and treated with antipsychotic drugs, which reportedly produced psychotic symptoms. In consequence, Mantel refrained from seeking help from doctors for some years. Finally, in Botswana and desperate, she consulted a medical textbook and realised she was probably suffering from a severe form of endometriosis, a diagnosis confirmed by doctors in London. The condition and (at the time) necessary surgery – a surgical menopause at the age of 27 – left her unable to have children, and continued to disrupt her life. She later said "you've thought your way through questions of fertility and menopause and what it means to be without children because it all happened catastrophically". This led Mantel to see the problematised woman's body as a theme in her writing. She later became patron of the Endometriosis SHE Trust.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: Mantel died on 22 September 2022, aged 70, at a hospital in Exeter, from complications of a stroke that had occurred three days earlier.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: During her university years, Mantel identified as a socialist, and was a member of the Young Communist League.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: In a 2013 speech on media and royal women at the British Museum, Mantel commented on Catherine Middleton, then the Duchess of Cambridge, saying that Middleton was forced to present herself publicly as a personality-free "shop window mannequin" whose sole purpose is to deliver an heir to the throne. Mantel expanded on these views in an essay, "Royal Bodies", for the "London Review of Books" (LRB): "It may be that the whole phenomenon of monarchy is irrational, but that doesn't mean that when we look at it we should behave like spectators at Bedlam. Cheerful curiosity can easily become cruelty".


title: Hilary Mantel

text: These remarks stimulated substantial public debate. The Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband and Prime Minister David Cameron both criticised Mantel's remarks, while Jemima Khan defended Mantel. Zing Tsjeng praised the LRB essay, finding the "clarity of prose and analysis is just incredible".


title: Hilary Mantel

text: In September 2014, in an interview published in "The Guardian", Mantel said she had fantasised about the murder of the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1983, and fictionalised the event in a short story called "The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: 6 August 1983". Allies of Thatcher called for a police investigation, to which Mantel responded: "Bringing in the police for an investigation was beyond anything I could have planned or hoped for, because it immediately exposes them to ridicule."


title: Hilary Mantel

text: Mantel discussed her religious views in her 2003 memoir, "Giving Up the Ghost". Brought up as a Roman Catholic, she ceased to believe at age 12, but said the religion left a permanent mark on her:


title: Hilary Mantel

text: [the] real cliché, the sense of guilt. You grow up believing that you're wrong and bad. And for me, because I took what I was told really seriously, it bred a very intense habit of introspection and self-examination and a terrible severity with myself. So that nothing was ever good enough. It's like installing a policeman, and one moreover who keeps changing the law.


title: Hilary Mantel

text: In a 2013 interview with "The Telegraph", Mantel stated: "I think that nowadays the Catholic Church is not an institution for respectable people. [...] When I was a child I wondered why priests and nuns were not nicer people. I thought that they were amongst the worst people I knew." These statements, as well as the themes explored in her earlier novel "Fludd", led the Catholic bishop Mark O'Toole to comment: "There is an anti-Catholic thread there, there is no doubt about it. "Wolf Hall" is not neutral."


title: The Quarrymen

text: The Quarrymen (also written as "the Quarry Men") are a British skiffle/rock and roll group, formed by John Lennon in Liverpool in 1956, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Originally consisting of Lennon and several schoolfriends, the Quarrymen took their name from a line in the school song of their school, the Quarry Bank High School. Lennon's mother, Julia, taught her son to play the banjo, showed Lennon and Eric Griffiths how to tune their guitars in a similar way to the banjo, and taught them simple chords and songs.


title: The Quarrymen

text: Lennon founded a skiffle group that was briefly called the Blackjacks, but they changed the name before any public performances. Some accounts credit Lennon with choosing the new name; other accounts credit his close friend Pete Shotton with suggesting the name. The Quarrymen played at parties, school dances, cinemas and amateur skiffle contests before Paul McCartney joined in October 1957. George Harrison joined in early 1958 at McCartney's recommendation, though Lennon initially resisted because he felt Harrison (14 when he was introduced to Lennon) was too young. McCartney and Harrison attended the Liverpool Institute.


title: The Quarrymen

text: The group made an amateur recording in 1958, performing Buddy Holly's "That'll Be the Day" and "In Spite of All the Danger", a song written by McCartney and Harrison. The group moved towards rock and roll, causing several of the original members to leave. This left Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison, who performed under several other names, including Johnny and the Moondogs and Japage 3 before returning to the Quarrymen name in 1959. In 1960, the group changed their name to "The Beatles" (chosen for its double meaning). The name was conceived of late at night by Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe, by then the group's fourth member, and introduced to the other two the next day. They were initially booked as "The Silver Beetles" by local clubs who saw it as a more sellable name than "The Beatles" and went on to be the best-selling music act of all time.


title: The Quarrymen

text: In 1997, the four surviving original members of the Quarrymen reunited to perform at the 40th anniversary celebrations of the garden fête performance at which Lennon and McCartney met for the first time. Since 1998, they have performed in countries outside the UK and released four albums. Three original members still perform as the Quarrymen.


title: The Quarrymen

text: In the mid-1950s, there was a revival in the United Kingdom of the musical form "skiffle" that had originated in the United States and had been popular in the US in the 1920s, '30s and '40s. In addition to its popularity among British teenagers as music to listen to, it also spawned a craze of teenage boys starting their own groups to perform the music. One of the primary attractions was that it did not require great musical skills or expensive instruments to be played. Early British skiffle was played by traditional jazz musicians, with the most successful British proponent of the genre in the 1950s being Lonnie Donegan. The Quarrymen's initial repertoire included several songs that Donegan had recorded. When Lennon wanted to try making music himself, he and fellow Quarry Bank school friend, Griffiths, took guitar lessons in Hunt's Cross, Liverpool, although Lennon gave up the lessons soon after, as they were based on theory and not actual playing.


title: The Quarrymen

text: As Griffiths already knew how to play the banjo, Lennon's mother showed them how to tune the top four strings of their guitars to the same notes as a banjo, and taught them the chords of D, C, and D7, as well as the Fats Domino song, "Ain't That a Shame". They practised at Lennon's aunt's house (called Mendips) at 251 Menlove Avenue where Lennon lived, or at Griffiths' house in Halewood Drive. They learned how to play "Rock Island Line", "Jump Down Turn Around (Pick a Bale of Cotton)", "Alabamy Bound" and "Cumberland Gap", and later learned how to play "That's All Right" and "Mean Woman Blues".


title: The Quarrymen

text: Lennon and Griffiths decided to form a skiffle group in November 1956. This initial line-up consisted of Lennon and Griffiths on guitars, Pete Shotton on washboard, and school friend Bill Smith on tea chest bass. The group, initially called the Blackjacks, quickly changed their name to the Quarrymen. Both Lennon and Shotton have been credited with coining the name Quarrymen after a line in their school's song: 'Quarrymen, old before our birth. Straining each muscle and sinew.' The choice of name was tongue-in-cheek as Lennon regarded the reference in the school song to "straining each muscle and sinew" as risible. Smith's tenure in the band was extremely short, and he was replaced in quick succession by Nigel Walley, Ivan Vaughan, and Len Garry throughout late 1956 and early 1957. Also during this period, drummer Colin Hanton and banjo player Rod Davis joined the group. This group of Lennon, Griffiths, Shotton, Garry, Hanton, and Davis formed the first stable line-up of the group.


title: The Quarrymen

text: The group first rehearsed in Shotton's house on Vale Road, but because of the noise, his mother told them to use the corrugated air-raid shelter in the back garden. Rehearsals were moved from the cold air-raid shelter to Hanton's or Griffiths' house — as Griffiths' father had died in WWII, and his mother worked all day. The band also often visited Lennon's mother at 1 Blomfield Road, listening to her collection of rock and roll records by Elvis, Shirley and Lee's "Let the Good Times Roll", and Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula" which they added to their repertoire. After his tenure on tea-chest bass, Walley became the group's manager. He sent flyers to local theatres and ballrooms, and put up posters designed by Lennon: "Country-and-western, rock n' roll, skiffle band — The Quarrymen — Open for Engagements — Please Call Nigel Walley, Tel. Gateacre 1715".


title: The Quarrymen

text: Walley managed to secure the group several paid engagements throughout the spring of 1957, including one at The Cavern Club. A jazz club at the time, the Cavern tolerated skiffle as it was considered an offshoot of jazz. Lennon, however, began leading the band in several rock and roll numbers, prompting the club's manager to send up a note ordering the group to "cut out the bloody rock".


title: The Quarrymen

text: In July 1957, Canadian impresario Carroll Levis held a talent contest in Liverpool, the winners of which would appear on the television series "Star Search." The Quarrymen played "Worried Man Blues", and were loudly applauded, but a group from Wales (called the Sunnyside Skiffle Group) "jumped all over the stage" and outshone the static Quarrymen, and were asked by Levis to fill in the last few minutes of the contest with a second song. Lennon argued heatedly with Levis backstage, saying the Sunnyside Skiffle Group had brought a bus full of supporters with them, and were given "the upper hand" advantage by Levis. After the competition, Levis used a clap-o-meter (a machine to measure the decibels of the audience's reaction to the groups) as they were asked to walk back out onto the stage. The Quarrymen and the Sunnyside Skiffle Group tied by both reaching ninety on the meter, but after a second test, the Quarrymen lost by a small margin.


title: The Quarrymen

text: On 6 July 1957, The Quarrymen played at the St. Peter's Church "Rose Queen" garden fête in Woolton. They first played on the back of a moving flatbed lorry, in a procession of floats that carried the Rose Queen and retiring Rose Queen, Morris dancers, Boy Scouts, Brownies, Girl Guides and Cubs, led by the Band of the Cheshire Yeomanry. At 4:15, they played on a permanent stage in the field behind the church, before a display by the City of Liverpool Police Dogs. They were playing "Come Go with Me" when Paul McCartney arrived, and in the Scout hut after the set, Ivan Vaughan introduced McCartney to Lennon, who chatted for a few minutes before the band set up in the church hall for their performance at that evening's "Grand Dance". McCartney demonstrated how he tuned his guitar and then sang Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock", Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula", and a medley of Little Richard songs.


title: The Quarrymen

text: Vaughan and McCartney left before the evening show which started at 8 o'clock. During the performance, there was an unexpected thunderstorm, which made the lights go out. Bob Molyneux, a young schoolmate from Quarry Bank, recorded part of the performance on his Grundig TK8 portable reel-to-reel tape recorder. The tape included versions of Lonnie Donegan's "Puttin' on the Style" and Elvis' "Baby Let's Play House". In 1963, Molyneux offered the tape to Lennon via Ringo Starr, but Lennon never responded, so Molyneux put the tape in a vault.


title: The Quarrymen

text: As they were walking home after the evening performance, Lennon and Shotton discussed the afternoon encounter with McCartney, and Lennon said that perhaps they should invite McCartney to join the band. Two weeks later, Shotton encountered McCartney cycling through Woolton, and conveyed Lennon's casual invitation for him to join the Quarrymen, and Vaughan also invited McCartney to join. McCartney said he would join after Scout camp in Hathersage, Derbyshire, and a holiday with his family at Butlins holiday camp in Filey, North Yorkshire. Shotton and Davis both left the Quarrymen in August, feeling that the group was moving away from skiffle and towards rock, leaving their instruments superfluous. When McCartney returned from holiday, he began rehearsing with the Quarrymen, playing songs such as "Bye Bye Love" (The Everly Brothers) and "All Shook Up", which Lennon and the group had been trying to learn, without success.


title: The Quarrymen

text: McCartney made his debut with the band on 18 October 1957 at a Conservative Club social held at the New Clubmoor Hall in the Norris Green section of Liverpool. Lennon and McCartney wore cream-coloured sports jackets, which were paid for by the whole group—Walley collected half a crown per week from each member until they were paid for — and the others wore white shirts with tassels and black bootlace ties. To the irritation of the other group members, McCartney endlessly practised the lead guitar intro to "Raunchy".


title: The Quarrymen

text: The Quarrymen continued to play sparse gigs throughout the autumn of 1957, mostly for local promoter Charlie McBain. During this period, the group almost entirely excised skiffle from their repertoire, focusing on covers of songs by rock and roll singers such as Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Little Richard, and Larry Williams, and the Quarrymen's sound increasingly relied on harmony singing between Lennon and McCartney. An extremely important influence for them at the time was Buddy Holly and his group the Crickets. Around this time, Lennon and McCartney both started writing songs influenced by Holly – Lennon's "Hello Little Girl" and McCartney's "I Lost My Little Girl" – and both were impressed with each other's efforts. The two young men began writing together.


title: The Quarrymen

text: After McCartney's poor performance on lead guitar at the Conservative Club, the group needed another guitarist to accommodate their new rock-focused repertoire; McCartney recommended his school friend George Harrison. Harrison first saw the group perform on 6 February 1958 at Wilson Hall, where McCartney introduced him to Lennon. Harrison subsequently auditioned for The Quarrymen in March at Rory Storm's Morgue Skiffle Club, playing "Guitar Boogie Shuffle". Lennon thought Harrison (having just turned 15) was too young to join the band, so McCartney engineered another meeting on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, where Harrison played "Raunchy" for Lennon. After McCartney's constant advocacy, Lennon allowed Harrison to join the Quarrymen as lead guitarist. Harrison's entry into the Quarrymen shifted the group even more away from skiffle, in addition to ending Lennon's use of banjo chords. Around this time, John Duff Lowe, another school friend of McCartney, joined the group on piano.


title: The Quarrymen

text: With Harrison's entry, the Quarrymen now had four guitarists. Lennon and McCartney suggested to Griffiths that he instead buy a bass guitar, but Griffiths refused because of the expense. The two subsequently convinced Nigel Walley, still acting as the group's manager, to fire Griffiths. Walley regretted the incident, and as a result gradually severed his ties with the Quarrymen. Around this same time, Len Garry contracted tubercular meningitis, and spent seven months in the hospital, never playing with the group again. This left Colin Hanton as the last of the group of Lennon's Quarry Bank classmates that originally comprised the group. In March, McCartney bought an Elpico amplifier with two inputs, and he and Harrison added pickups to their guitars, giving the Quarrymen an electric sound for the first time.


title: The Quarrymen

text: Percy Phillips operated a studio called Phillips' Sound Recording Services at 38 Kensington, Liverpool, between the kitchen and a front room that served as an electrical goods shop. Actors from the Liverpool Playhouse often stayed in the room above the studio, and were asked by Phillips to record monologues and poems. Phillips had just turned 60 years old when Harrison heard about the studio from guitarist Johnny Byrne of the Raving Texans, who had recorded a version of "Butterfly" there on 22 June 1957. The Quarrymen booked a recording session on 12 July 1958. They recorded straight to disc, as tape would have been an extra expense. The sound was recorded live by a single microphone in the centre of the room, and Lennon suggested that Hanton put a scarf over the snare drum to lower the volume. They first recorded a McCartney original (credited as McCartney/Harrison) followed by Buddy Holly's "That'll Be the Day". Both feature Lennon on lead vocals. When the recording was finished, Phillips handed the group a fragile 78rpm record, which was passed around the band for one week each, or lent out to friends. It was later lost until Lowe rediscovered it in 1981, and sold it to McCartney for an undisclosed amount. The recordings would later be issued on the Beatles' rarities album "Anthology 1".


title: The Quarrymen

text: Soon after the recording session, Hanton had a fight with the rest of the group and quit. Lowe too lost contact with the group after leaving Liverpool Institute, leaving the Quarrymen as just a trio of guitarists: Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison. Lennon's mother was killed in a road accident on 15 July 1958, dealing him a devastating emotional blow. The group remained mostly inactive throughout the summer, as Lennon took up a job in a restaurant at the Liverpool Airport. McCartney and Harrison, meanwhile, went on holiday hitchhiking in Wales, playing with a local skiffle group called the Vikings. Although Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison remained extremely close, the trio only performed a handful of times in the last months of 1958. When asked why they had neither a drummer or a bass player, they would respond "The rhythm's in the guitars."


title: The Quarrymen

text: In the autumn of 1958, the group had another chance to audition for Carroll Levis, nearly a year and a half after the Quarrymen's first "Star Search". For the audition, the group changed their name to Johnny and the Moondogs. Lennon was without a guitar, his having broken recently. Johnny and the Moondogs passed the first heat of the competition in Liverpool, and were invited to appear in the finals in Manchester. The group performed Buddy Holly's "Think It Over" to positive reception, but were unable to stay until the end of the competition to receive the results. As they were leaving, Lennon saw a cutaway electric guitar by the stage door, picked it up and walked off with it, later saying that the trip "wasn't a total loss."


title: The Quarrymen

text: Following their "Star Search" audition, Johnny and the Moondogs changed their name to Japage 3 (combining letters from each of the member's names: John, Paul, and George). Lennon had a friend from art school, named Derek Hodkin, who owned a tape recorder, and Lennon convinced him to record the group (along with McCartney's brother Mike on drums). The group then asked Hodkin to act as their manager, and he agreed. Despite Hodkin's management, bookings for the group dried up. Harrison began a stint as rhythm guitarist in the Les Stewart Quartet, who had a weekly club engagement. By May, Japage 3 was defunct, although the three continued to see each other socially, and Lennon and McCartney continued to write songs together.


title: The Quarrymen

text: In the summer of 1959, Mona Best decided to open a club in her cellar, and offered the Les Stewart Quartet a residency if they would help convert the cellar. Harrison and fellow Quartet guitarist Ken Brown, however, missed a show, causing Les Stewart to fire the two and drop the residency. This caused distress to Best, but Harrison offered a solution: he recruited Lennon and McCartney to play, and they returned to calling themselves the Quarrymen. After helping Best finish converting the cellar, the new four guitarist line-up of the Quarrymen (Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Brown) opened the Casbah Coffee Club on 29 August 1959. The opening night performance was attended by about 300 local teenagers, but as the cellar had no air conditioning and people were dancing, the temperature rose until it became hard to breathe. The Quarrymen were afforded the use of Brown's three input amplifier (which, along with McCartney's Elpico, meant that all four guitarists were electric), and sang through one microphone connected to the club's small PA system.


title: The Quarrymen

text: The group continued their Casbah residency into the new year, occasionally securing other gigs. In January, Brown grew ill and was unable to play the show. Best, however, insisted that the Quarrymen still pay Brown, but Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison refused; the incident resulted in the loss of their residency at the Casbah and Brown's departure from the group. Shortly after, however, Lennon convinced fellow art school student Stuart Sutcliffe to purchase a bass guitar and join the group. The group had no bookings, but began rehearsing vigorously to allow the musical novice Sutcliffe practice on his new instrument.


title: The Quarrymen

text: In early 1960, the Quarrymen returned to Phillips' Sound Recording Services to record Lennon's new original song "One After 909", although this recording does not survive. Around the same time, the three made a rehearsal tape at McCartney's home. Harrison was absent (as he had an apprenticeship), and the tape features several jams and original songs, including the McCartney instrumental "Cayenne". With few gigs during this period the group often wrote letters to secure bookings, several of which survive. The four disliked the Quarrymen name, and went through several others during this period, including Los Paranoias. By March 1960, Lennon and Sutcliffe came up with a new name: the Beatles. The Beatles (after several line-up changes, including adding Mona's son Pete Best on drums) continued to perform around Liverpool and in Hamburg, Germany, before being signed to Parlophone Records in 1962.


title: The Quarrymen

text: Since the break-up of the Beatles in 1970 and the death of John Lennon in 1980, members of the Quarrymen have reunited several times. From 1994 to 1995, Rod Davis and John Lowe recorded an album with studio musicians. This album, "Open for Engagements", was released in 1995 under the Quarrymen name.


title: The Quarrymen

text: The surviving members of the 1957 line-up of the Quarrymen reunited in 1997 for the 40th anniversary of their performance at the 1957 Woolton village fete, which was the location of the first meeting of Lennon and McCartney. All five surviving members from that day, Pete Shotton, Rod Davis, Len Garry, Eric Griffiths and Colin Hanton, performed. Following this, the group continued to perform, undertaking tours of the UK, the US, Germany, Japan, Russia, Cuba and other countries. The group's repertoire focuses on the skiffle and early rock and roll they played in their original incarnation with the added roots rock historical perspective of illustrating how American roots music inspired the nascent Beatles.


title: The Quarrymen

text: In 2000, producer and the Beatles' historian Martin Lewis produced the group performing the Del-Vikings song "Come Go with Me" (the first song McCartney recalled hearing Lennon sing on the first day they met) for use on the soundtrack of the Michael Lindsay-Hogg film "Two of Us", a film about the last day that Lennon and McCartney saw each other in April 1976.


title: The Quarrymen

text: Eric Griffiths died in 2005, and Pete Shotton retired, owing to ill-health. Shotton died in 2017. As of 2016, Davis, Garry, and Hanton continue to perform around the world. Lowe occasionally performs with them. In September and October 2010, the band undertook a US tour celebrating the 70th birthday of their founder, Lennon. They appeared in a charity concert for Amnesty International honouring Lennon in New York City on Lennon's birthday, Saturday 9 October 2010. Since 2016, former Beatles bassist Chas Newby has been performing with the band.


title: The Quarrymen

text: Since their 1997 reformation, the Quarrymen have recorded three albums, consisting mostly of covers of 1950s rock and skiffle.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: , also called , is the Japanese "kami" of foxes, fertility, rice, tea and sake, of agriculture and industry, of general prosperity and worldly success, and one of the principal kami of Shinto. In earlier Japan, Inari was also the patron of swordsmiths and merchants. Represented as male, female, or androgynous, Inari is sometimes seen as a collective of three or five individual "kami". Inari appears to have been worshipped since the founding of a shrine at Inari Mountain in 711 AD, although some scholars believe that worship started in the late 5th century.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: By the 16th century, Inari had become the patron of blacksmiths and the protector of warriors, and worship of Inari spread across Japan in the Edo period. Inari is a popular figure in both Shinto and Buddhist beliefs in Japan. More than one-third (32,000) of the Shinto shrines in Japan are dedicated to Inari. Modern corporations, such as cosmetic company Shiseido, continue to revere Inari as a patron kami, with shrines atop their corporate headquarters.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: According to myth, Inari, as a goddess, was said to have come to Japan at the time of its creation amidst a harsh famine that struck the land. "She [Inari] descended from Heaven riding on a white fox, and in her hand she carried sheaves of cereal or grain. "Ine", the word now used for rice, is the name for this cereal. What she carried was not rice but some cereal that grows in swamps. According to legend, in the ancient times Japan was water and swamp land."


title: Inari Ōkami

text: Inari has been depicted both as male and as female. The most popular representations of Inari, according to scholar Karen Ann Smyers, are a young female food goddess, an old man carrying rice, and an androgynous bodhisattva. No one view is correct; the preferred gender of depiction varies according to regional traditions and individual beliefs. Because of their close association with "kitsune", Inari is often believed to be a fox; though this belief is widespread, both Shinto and Buddhist priests discourage it. Inari also appears in the form of a snake or dragon, and one folktale has Inari appear to a wicked man in the shape of a monstrous spider as a way of teaching him a lesson.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: Inari is sometimes identified with other mythological figures. Some scholars suggest that Inari is the figure known in classical Japanese mythology as the Shinto male deity Uka-no-Mitama (or possibly Uke Mochi); others suggest Inari is the same figure as the Shinto female deity, Toyouke. Some take Inari to be identical to any grain "kami".


title: Inari Ōkami

text: Inari's female aspect is often identified or conflated with Dakiniten, a Buddhist deity who is a Japanese transformation of the Indian "dakini", or with Benzaiten of the Seven Lucky Gods. Dakiniten is portrayed as a female or androgynous bodhisattva riding a flying white fox. Inari's association with Buddhism may have begun in the 8th century, when Shingon Buddhist monk and founder, Kūkai, took over administration of the temple of Tōji, and chose Inari as a protector of the temple. Thus, Inari is still closely associated with Shingon Buddhism to this day.