title: Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier

text: The second member of the "Kuznetsov" class took a much more roundabout route to active service. Known first as "Riga" and then "Varyag", she was laid down by the Nikolayev South Shipyard in 1985 and launched in 1988. "Varyag" had not yet been commissioned when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, and the ship was left to deteriorate in the elements. In 1998, the unfinished hull was sold by Ukraine to what was apparently a Chinese travel agency for ostensible use as a floating hotel and casino. After an eventful journey under tow, she arrived in China in February 2002 and was berthed at the Dalian naval shipyard, where she was overhauled and completed as China's first aircraft carrier.


title: Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier

text: In September 2012, the ship was commissioned in the Chinese navy as "Liaoning". The ship was named after the province where the shipyard is located, and its Chinese ship class is Type 001. Today, she serves as the first aircraft carrier of the PLAN, and its home port is Qingdao.


title: Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier

text: The second Chinese aircraft carrier was constructed in China according to a modified design, known as Type 002. The ship was laid down in 2013 at the Dalian naval shipyard and was launched on 26 April 2017. Sea trials began on 13 May 2018, and the ship was commissioned as "Shandong" on 17 December 2019.


title: Toyota Chaser

text: The Toyota Chaser is a mid-size car produced by Toyota in Japan. Most Chasers are four-door sedans and hardtop sedans; a two-door hardtop coupé was available on the first generation only. It was introduced on the 1976 Toyota Corona Mark II platform, and was sold new by Toyota at "Toyota Vista Store" dealerships only in Japan, together with the Toyota Cresta.


title: Toyota Chaser

text: The Toyota Chaser has been known as one of the 'triplet sedans' of Toyota, because it shares the same chassis with the Toyota Cressida/Mark II, and the Cresta, and afforded Toyota the opportunity to sell one platform at several different dealership sales channels. Most of the models use double wishbone suspension with coil springs, especially beginning with the X81 series. The Chaser and its platform sisters are considered a class below the Crown, allowing Toyota to offer a sedan with similar levels of luxury content, yet offering buyers lower tax liability and a more sporty image with a slightly smaller body length.


title: Toyota Chaser

text: The Chaser was first produced in July 1977 with chassis codes X30, X31, X40 and X41, and evolved from the X20 generation Mark II GSS hardtop coupe. They were powered by the four-cylinder 1.8-liter 3T-U, 13T-U and 2-liter 18R-U, and the six-cylinder 2.0 L M-U/EU engines – all single cam engines tuned for economy and clean emissions rather than performance. The Chaser is a lightly redesigned Toyota Mark II, with a wider front grille and without parking lights. The Chaser also has taillights of a different design. Unlike the Mark II, there were no station wagons or commercial models offered.


title: Toyota Chaser

text: In order to provide buyers with a luxury sports sedan, but not incur tax consequences for exceeding dimension regulations, the vehicle was limited to an engine size at 2000 cc as well as dimensions under long, wide, and high. Engine displacements of 1.8 L and 2.0 L were offered to keep the annual road tax bill affordable to Japanese buyers. The Chaser was offered as a competitor to the Nissan Skyline coupé and sedan. The performance image was shared with the Toyota Celica Camry, also introduced at the same time, but at a different Japanese dealership called "Toyota Corolla Store".


title: Toyota Chaser

text: Production swapped to the X60 Chaser in 1980, with the addition of the new 2.0-litre six-cylinder 1G-EU single cam petrol engine and a 2.2 L four-cylinder L-series diesel engine. Body styles offered were a four-door sedan and 4-door hardtop, no longer offering the 2-door hardtop with this generation (replaced by first generation Toyota Soarer). The "Avante" trim level had a sport tuned suspension using Michelin tires. This generation saw a new competitor from Nissan called the with a lower asking price in comparison to the Japanese market favorite, the Skyline. In August 1982, the 2.0 L 6–cylinder 1G-GEU twincam engine was added.


title: Toyota Chaser

text: This series first appeared in August 1984. The "Avante" series previously introduced became a luxury upgrade starting with this generation and body styles were reduced again to a 4-door hardtop only. The exterior dimensions of this car were slightly smaller in comparison to sister cars Mark II and Cresta, but the Chaser was more performance oriented, while maintaining the advanced features and luxurious interior of the Cresta. October 1985, Mark II / Cresta 1G-GTEU vehicles equipped with "GT twin turbo" has appeared. Disc brakes are larger in diameter, and was now equipped with bucket seats, but Toyota's TEMS electronic suspension wasn't installed. Only Chaser "GT twin turbo S" 5-speed MT that there was only low-cost upgrades (early types only.)


title: Toyota Chaser

text: Minor change in August 1986. The 1G-GEU engine received various improvements, while the LPG-powered engine was changed to the 3Y-PU. As for appearance, larger bumpers and a new front grille accompanied substantial changes to the equipment. The early type rear combination lamps were kept with minor revisions. In January 1987 a special edition "Lordly" was released, in May 1987 the special edition "Chaser Avante" was released. August 1987 brought the "New Extra XG Chaser" special edition. In September 1987 new versions of the 2L and 2L-T diesel engines complying with the 1986 car emissions standards were introduced. January 1988 special edition "Avante Supra" released as a companion to the third-generation Supra. In April 1988 special edition "Extra XG with Auto Air Conditioner" was launched.


title: Toyota Chaser

text: In August 1988, the X81 series of Chasers were introduced to the Japanese market. The following models were offered: XL, XG, Raffine, SXL, Avante, Avante Twin Cam 24, GT Twin Turbo and Avante G, with the GT Twin Turbo model the most powerful variant, powered by the 1G-GTE engine putting out at 6200 rpm. The Avante G model was the highest special edition model in terms of equipment. In August 1989, two more models were added to the Avante lineup: the Avante G-L, an even more luxurious model of the Avante G (which was already highly equipped for a car of the time), and a new Avante G with a 3.0 L normally aspirated 7M-GE engine replacing the 2.0 L supercharged 1G-GZE from the previous model.


title: Toyota Chaser

text: In August 1990, there were major revisions to the entire Chaser lineup and some of the models received entirely new engines. The top-range models, Avante G and GT Twin Turbo, received the new 2.5 L 1JZ engine, the same type that powered Toyota's contemporary sports car, the JZA70 Supra, although the 3.0 L Avante G remained part of the line. The Avante G 2.5 received a normally aspirated 1JZ-GE engine with a maximum at 6000 rpm, while the GT Twin Turbo received the powerful twin-turbocharged 1JZ-GTE twin turbo engine capable of at 6200 rpm, the maximum horsepower allowed under Japanese regulations.


title: Toyota Chaser

text: In October 1992, the X90 Chaser replaced the previous X81 Chaser. It had a larger body, better handling and more engine power. The body was curvier and the car was significantly longer. The Chaser lineup was largely carried over from the X81 Chaser except the GT Twin Turbo, which was abolished and replaced by the new Tourer V. The top-of-the-line Avante G model received a natural aspirated 2JZ-GE, the next evolution of the JZ series of engines after the 1JZ. The Tourer V was equipped with the 1JZ-GTE engine as the most powerful offering. Manual transmissions were optional for all engine offerings, from the 1.8 liter 4S-FE and 2.4 turbodiesel 2L-TE up through the 2.0 1G-FE inline 6 and 1JZ-GE 2.5 inline 6. The Tourer S trim received the non-turbo 1JZ-GE. In September 1992, the Tourer models received equipment upgrades, although not to the level of the Avante G, and their prices were correspondingly higher.


title: Toyota Chaser

text: With the retirement of the Cressida model after the X81 generation, only the Mark II, Chaser, and Cresta were sold in the Japanese car market. Each of the members of the Cressida family supposedly had different characteristics - the Chaser was geared towards sporty driving, the Cresta towards luxury, and the Mark II was the baseline model. Apart from trim, the cars mostly differed in front and rear end design, with the Cresta also receiving different doors.


title: Toyota Chaser

text: In September 1996, the X100 Chaser replaced the X90 Chaser. The product lineup consisted mostly of Avante and Tourer trim, with the Avante as the luxury model (with more interior accessories) and the Tourer as the sporty model (with large 16-inch wheels). Toyota's VVTi, the company's version of variable-valve timing, was added to the 1JZ engines; they were also upgraded to have more torque, since they had already reached the agreed voluntary limit set by Japanese Automobile Manufacturer's Association regarding horsepower. The 1JZ-GTE was powered by a single turbo configuration instead of the twin turbo of its predecessors. New to the lineup was the Avante Four and the Avante Four G Package (basically the Avante 2.5 L with a full-time 4WD system). These cars were only available with a 4-speed electronic control type (ECT) automatic transmission. The Tourer V and the automatic-only Avante G 3.0 L (2JZ) models had the option of electronic control flex lockup attaching 4-speed automatic (intelligent) (ECT-iE) transmission, besides the ECT-E automatic in the lower-end models.


title: Toyota Chaser

text: In 1997, the lineup remained largely unchanged, although three basic models were added: the XL, Raffine and Tourer 2.0 L. The XL and Raffine models were powered by the 1.8 L "4S-FE" engine while the Tourer 2.0 L was powered by the "1G-FE" engine, rated at at 5,600 rpm. These models were only sold with the 4-speed electronic control type (ECT) automatic transmission.


title: Toyota Chaser

text: In 1998, the base Tourer model received the optional manual gearbox and a 4WD option was added to the base Avante models; the Avante Four S Package received a higher special-edition interior. Additionally, the Chaser received a facelift, with the most significant changes to the rear tail lights. Other changes included new fog lights with a slightly redesigned front bar to accommodate them, different interior fabric, a 3-spoke steering wheel instead of 4 spokes, orange gauge lighting instead of white and a grille with 2 horizontal bars instead of 3.


title: Toyota Chaser

text: The Chaser was discontinued in June 2001. It was replaced with a new model called the Verossa which shared the same model code. The Cresta suffered the same fate, but the Mark II continued for another generation (X110) before it was also discontinued. In 2004, the all-new X120 Mark X was introduced in Japan, incorporating many characteristics of the Chaser and the Cresta. In fact, the aim of the Mark X was to combine the characteristics of the 3 models into one single model.


title: Toyota Chaser

text: Although X100 Chasers took part in the Japanese Touring Car Championship in the 1990s, the Chaser became famous in drifting events, due to its traditional front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout. Numerous Toyota Chasers, especially the later X90s and X100s, have been modified for use in drift.


title: Jill Dando

text: Jill Wendy Dando (9 November 1961 – 26 April 1999) was an English journalist, television presenter and newsreader. She spent most of her career at the BBC and was the corporation's Personality of the Year in 1997. At the time of her death, her television work included co-presenting the BBC One programme "Crimewatch" with Nick Ross.


title: Jill Dando

text: On the morning of 26 April 1999, Dando was shot dead outside her home in Fulham, southwest London, prompting the biggest murder inquiry conducted by the Metropolitan Police and the country's largest criminal investigation since the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper. A local man, Barry George, was convicted and imprisoned for the murder, but after eight years in prison he was acquitted following an appeal and retrial. In 2012, the Serbian 'warlord' Arkan was named as a suspect in the case, although he had died in 2000. No other suspect has been charged with Dando's murder, and the case remains unsolved despite police identifying over 2,000 potential suspects.


title: Jill Dando

text: Jill Wendy Dando was born at Ashcombe House Maternity Home in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. She was the daughter of Jack Dando (February 1918 – February 2009) and Winifred Mary Jean Hockey (August 1928 – January 1986), who died of leukaemia aged 57. Her only sibling, brother Nigel (born 1952), worked as a journalist for BBC Radio Bristol before retiring in 2017, having previously worked as a journalist in local newspapers since the 1970s. Dando was raised as a Baptist and remained a devout follower. When she was three years old, it was discovered that she had a hole in her heart and a blocked pulmonary artery. She had heart surgery on 12 January 1965.


title: Jill Dando

text: Dando was educated at Worle Infant School, Greenwood Junior School, Worle Comprehensive School, and Broadoak Sixth Form Centre, where she was head girl, and completed her A-levels. She then went on to study Journalism at Cardiff Metropolitan University.


title: Jill Dando

text: Dando was a member of Weston-super-Mare Amateur Dramatic Society and Exeter Little Theatre Company, with whom she appeared in plays at the Barnfield Theatre. She was a volunteer at Sunshine Hospital Radio in Weston-super-Mare in 1979.


title: Jill Dando

text: Dando's first job was as a trainee reporter for the local weekly newspaper, the "Weston Mercury", where her father and brother worked. After five years as a print journalist, she started to work for the BBC, becoming a newsreader for BBC Radio Devon in 1985. That year, she transferred to BBC South West, where she presented a regional news magazine programme, "Spotlight South West". In 1987, she worked for Television South West, then "BBC Spotlight" in Plymouth. In early 1988, Dando moved from regional to national television in London to present BBC television news, specifically the short on-the-hour bulletins that aired on both BBC1 and BBC2 from 1986 until the mid-1990s.


title: Jill Dando

text: Dando presented the BBC television programmes "Breakfast Time", "Breakfast News", the "BBC One O'Clock News", the "Six O'Clock News", the travel programme "Holiday", the crime appeal series "Crimewatch" (from 1995 until her death) and occasionally "Songs of Praise". In 1994, she moved to Fulham. On 25 April 1999, Dando presented the first episode of "Antiques Inspectors". She was scheduled to present the "Six O'Clock News" on the evening of the following day. She was featured on the cover of that week's "Radio Times" magazine (from 24 to 30 April). Dando was also booked to host the British Academy Television Awards 1999, alongside Michael Parkinson, at Grosvenor House Hotel on 9 May. On 5 September, BBC One resumed airing of "Antiques Inspectors", the final series to be recorded by Dando. The series had made its debut on 25 April, with filming of the final episode completed two days before that. The programme was subsequently cancelled following her death, but it was decided later in the year that it should be aired as a tribute to the presenter. The final episode aired on 24 October.


title: Jill Dando

text: At the time of her death, Dando was among those with the highest profile of the BBC's on-screen staff, and had been the 1997 BBC Personality of the Year. "Crimewatch" reconstructed her murder in an attempt to aid the police in the search for her killer. After Barry George was charged with the murder but acquitted, "Crimewatch" made no further appeals for information concerning the case.


title: Jill Dando

text: From 1989 to 1996, Dando dated BBC executive Bob Wheaton. She then had a brief relationship with national park warden Simon Basil. In December 1997, Dando met gynaecologist Alan Farthing on a blind date set up by a mutual friend. Farthing was separated from his wife at the time. A couple of months after Farthing's divorce was finalised, the couple announced that they were engaged on 31 January 1999. Their wedding was set to take place on 25 September.


title: Jill Dando

text: On the morning of 26 April 1999, 37-year-old Dando left Farthing's home in Chiswick. She returned alone, by car, to the house she owned in Fulham. She had lived in the house, but by April 1999 was in the process of selling it and did not visit it frequently. As Dando reached her front door at about 11:32, she was shot once in the head. Her body was discovered about fourteen minutes later by neighbour Helen Doble. Police were called at 11:47. Dando was taken to the nearby Charing Cross Hospital where she was declared dead on arrival at 13:03 BST.


title: Jill Dando

text: Forensic study indicated that Dando had been shot by a bullet from a 9mm Short calibre semi-automatic pistol, with the gun pressed against her head at the moment of the shot. The cartridge appeared to have been subject to workshop modification, possibly to reduce its charge. Richard Hughes, her next door neighbour, heard a scream from Dando ("I thought it was someone surprising somebody") but heard no gunshot. Hughes looked out of his front window and, while not realising what had happened, made the only certain sighting of the killer—a six-foot-tall (183 cm) white man aged around 40, walking away from Dando's house.


title: Jill Dando

text: After the murder, there was intense media coverage. An investigation by the Metropolitan Police, named Operation Oxborough, proved fruitless for over a year. Dando's status as a well-known public figure had brought her into contact with thousands of people, and she was known to millions. There was huge speculation regarding the motive for her murder.


title: Jill Dando

text: Within six months, the Murder Investigation Team had spoken to more than 2,500 people and taken more than 1,000 statements. With little progress after a year, the police concentrated their attention on Barry George, who lived about half a mile from Dando's house. He had a history of stalking women, sexual offences and other antisocial and attention seeking behaviour. George was put under surveillance, arrested on 25 May 2000 and charged with Dando's murder on 28 May.


title: Jill Dando

text: George was tried at the Old Bailey, convicted, and on 2 July 2001 was sentenced to life imprisonment. Concern about this conviction was widespread on the basis that the case against George appeared thin. Two appeals were unsuccessful, but after discredited forensics evidence was excluded from the prosecution's case, George's third appeal succeeded in November 2007. The original conviction was quashed and a second trial lasting eight weeks ended in George's acquittal on 1 August 2008.


title: Jill Dando

text: After George's acquittal, some newspapers published articles which appeared to suggest that he was guilty of the Dando murder and other offences against women. In December 2009, George accepted substantial damages from News Group Newspapers over articles in "The Sun" and the "News of the World", following a libel action in the High Court.


title: Jill Dando

text: The original police investigation had explored the possibility of a contract killing, but since Dando was living with her fiancé and was only rarely visiting her Fulham residence, it was considered unlikely that a professional assassin would have been sufficiently well informed about Dando's movements to have known at what time she was going to be there. CCTV evidence of Dando's last journey (mainly security video recordings from a shopping centre in Hammersmith, which she visited on her way to Fulham) did not show any sign of her being followed.


title: Jill Dando

text: On the night of her death, Dando's BBC colleague Nick Ross said on "Newsnight" that retaliatory attacks by criminals against police, lawyers and judges were almost unknown in the UK. Forensic examination of the cartridge case and bullet recovered from the scene of the attack suggested that the weapon used had been the result of a workshop conversion of a replica or decommissioned gun. It was argued that a professional assassin would not use such a poor quality weapon. The police therefore soon began to favour the idea that the killing had been carried out by a crazed individual acting on an opportunist basis. This assumed profile of the perpetrator led to the focus on George.


title: Jill Dando

text: Cold case reviews by the police after 2008 concluded that Dando was killed by a professional assassin in a "hard contact execution". Pressing the gun against her head would have acted as a suppressor — muffling the sound of the shot and preventing the killer from being splattered with blood. In 2012 a cold case review named Serbian warlord Arkan as a suspect, although by this time he had died.


title: Jill Dando

text: In early 1999 the UK and NATO were involved in the Kosovo War, opposing Serbia. Immediately after the Dando killing a number of telephone calls were made to the BBC and other media outlets claiming responsibility for the killing on behalf of Serb groups. These calls stated that the murder was revenge for the NATO bombing campaign in Serbia, and threatened further killings. These calls were not judged wholly credible and may have been hoaxes. Nevertheless, at George's first trial, his defence barrister, Michael Mansfield, proposed that the Serbian warlord Arkan had ordered Dando's assassination in retaliation for the NATO bombing of the RTS headquarters. Mansfield suggested that Dando's earlier presentation of an appeal for aid for Kosovar Albanian refugees may have attracted the attention of Bosnian-Serb hardliners. Dando's appeal for aid for the Kosovar Albanian refugees had been shown on television three weeks before her murder.


title: Jill Dando

text: In 2019 it was reported that the British National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) had given an intelligence report to the Dando murder enquiry claiming that the murder was in retaliation for the RTS bombing and Arkan had ordered the killing. The report highlighted a possible connection between the bullet used to kill Dando and bullets used in assassinations in Germany, namely handmade markings found on them. An opposition journalist, Slavko Ćuruvija, was assassinated outside his home in Belgrade just a few days before Dando's murder and the method used in both cases was identical. In 2019, four men of the Serbian Secret Service were convicted of this murder. Journalist Bob Woffinden advanced the view that a Yugoslav group was behind the Dando killing and, in various newspaper articles, contested all the grounds on which the police had dismissed this possibility.


title: Jill Dando

text: Dando's funeral took place on 21 May 1999 at Clarence Park Baptist Church in Weston-super-Mare. She was buried next to her mother in the town's Ebdon Road Cemetery. The gross value of her estate was £1,181,207; after her debts and income tax, the value was £863,756; after inheritance tax, it was £607,000, all of which her father inherited because she died intestate.


title: Jill Dando

text: Dando's co-presenter Nick Ross proposed the formation of an academic institute in her name and, together with her fiancé Alan Farthing, raised almost £1.5 million. The Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science was founded at University College London on 26 April 2001, the second anniversary of her murder.


title: Jill Dando

text: A memorial garden designed and realised by the BBC Television "Ground Force" team in Dando's memory, using plants and colours that were special to her, is located within Grove Park, Weston-super-Mare, and was opened on 2 August 2001. The BBC set up a bursary award in Dando's memory, which enables one student each year to study broadcast journalism at University College Falmouth. Sophie Long, who was then a postgraduate who had grown up in Weston-super-Mare and is now a presenter on BBC News, gained the first bursary award in 2000.


title: Jill Dando

text: In 2007, Weston College opened a new university campus on the site of the former Broadoak Sixth Form Centre where Dando studied. The sixth-form building has been dedicated to her and named the Jill Dando Centre.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Born in Johannesburg to Swazi and Xhosa parents, Makeba was forced to find employment as a child after the death of her father. She had a brief and allegedly abusive first marriage at the age of 17, gave birth to her only child in 1950, and survived breast cancer. Her vocal talent had been recognized when she was a child, and she began singing professionally in the 1950s, with the Cuban Brothers, the Manhattan Brothers, and an all-woman group, the Skylarks, performing a mixture of jazz, traditional African melodies, and Western popular music. In 1959, Makeba had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film "Come Back, Africa", which brought her international attention, and led to her performing in Venice, London, and New York City. In London, she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became a mentor and colleague. She moved to New York City, where she became immediately popular, and recorded her first solo album in 1960. Her attempt to return to South Africa that year for her mother's funeral was prevented by the country's government.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba's career flourished in the United States, and she released several albums and songs, her most popular being "Pata Pata" (1967). Along with Belafonte she received a Grammy Award for her 1965 album "An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba". She testified against the South African government at the United Nations and became involved in the civil rights movement. She married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panther Party, in 1968. As a result, she lost support among white Americans. Her visa was revoked by the US government when she was traveling abroad, forcing her and Carmichael to relocate to Guinea. She continued to perform, mostly in African countries, including at several independence celebrations. She began to write and perform music more explicitly critical of apartheid; the 1977 song "Soweto Blues", written by her former husband Hugh Masekela, was about the Soweto uprising. After apartheid was dismantled in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa. She continued recording and performing, including a 1991 album with Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, and appeared in the 1992 film "Sarafina!". She was named an FAO Goodwill Ambassador in 1999, and campaigned for humanitarian causes. She died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba was among the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition. She brought African music to a Western audience, and popularized the world music and Afropop genres. She also made popular several songs critical of apartheid, and became a symbol of opposition to the system, particularly after her right to return was revoked. Upon her death, former South African President Nelson Mandela said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a "sangoma", or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile".


title: Miriam Makeba

text: When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba began her professional musical career with the Cuban Brothers, a South African all-male close harmony group, with whom she sang covers of popular American songs. Soon afterwards, at the age of 21, she joined a jazz group, the Manhattan Brothers, who sang a mixture of South African songs and pieces from popular African-American groups. Makeba was the only woman in the group. With the Manhattan Brothers she recorded her first hit, "Laku Tshoni Ilanga", in 1953, and developed a national reputation as a musician. In 1956 she joined a new all-woman group, the Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional South African melodies. Formed by Gallotone Records, the group was also known as the Sunbeams. Makeba sang with the Skylarks when the Manhattan Brothers were travelling abroad; later, she also travelled with the Manhattan Brothers. In the Skylarks, Makeba sang alongside Rhodesian-born musician Dorothy Masuka, whose music Makeba had followed, along with that of Dolly Rathebe. Several of the Skylarks' pieces from this period became popular; the music historian Rob Allingham later described the group as "real trendsetters, with harmonisation that had never been heard before." Makeba received no royalties from her work with the Skylarks.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: While performing with the Manhattan Brothers in 1955, Makeba met Nelson Mandela, then a young lawyer; he later remembered the meeting, and that he felt that the girl he met "was going to be someone." In 1956, Gallotone Records released "Lovely Lies", Makeba's first solo success; the Xhosa lyric about a man looking for his beloved in jails and hospitals was replaced with the unrelated and innocuous line "You tell such lovely lies with your two lovely eyes" in the English version. The record became the first South African record to chart on the United States Billboard Top 100. In 1957, Makeba was featured on the cover of "Drum" magazine.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: In 1959, Makeba sang the lead female role in the Broadway-inspired South African jazz opera "King Kong"; among those in the cast was the musician Hugh Masekela. The musical was performed to racially integrated audiences, raising her profile among white South Africans. Also in 1959, she had a short guest appearance in "Come Back, Africa", an anti-apartheid film produced and directed by the American independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. Rogosin cast her after seeing her on stage in "African Jazz and Variety" show, on which Makeba was a performer for 18 months. The film blended elements of documentary and fiction and had to be filmed in secret as the government was expected to be hostile to it. Makeba appeared on stage, and sang two songs: her appearance lasted four minutes. The cameo made an enormous impression on viewers, and Rogosin organised a visa for her to attend the premiere of the film at the twenty-fourth Venice Film Festival in Italy, where the film won the prestigious Critics' Choice Award. Makeba's presence has been described as crucial to the film, as an emblem of cosmopolitan black identity that also connected with working-class black people due to the dialogue being in Zulu.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba's role in "Come Back, Africa" brought her international recognition and she travelled to London and New York to perform. In London she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became her mentor, helping her with her first solo recordings. These included "Pata Pata", which would be released many years later, and a version of the traditional Xhosa song "Qongqothwane", which she had first performed with the Skylarks. Though "Pata Pata"—described by "Musician" magazine as a "groundbreaking Afropop gem"—became her most famous song, Makeba described it as "one of my most insignificant songs". While in England, she married Sonny Pillay, a South African ballad singer of Indian descent; they divorced within a few months.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba then moved to New York, making her US music debut on 1 November 1959 on "The Steve Allen Show" in Los Angeles for a television audience of 60 million. Her New York debut at the Village Vanguard occurred soon after; she sang in Xhosa and Zulu, and performed a Yiddish folk song. Her audience at this concert included Miles Davis and Duke Ellington; her performance received strongly positive reviews from critics. She first came to popular and critical attention in jazz clubs, after which her reputation grew rapidly. Belafonte, who had helped Makeba with her move to the US, handled the logistics for her first performances. When she first moved to the US, Makeba lived in Greenwich Village, along with other musicians and actors. As was common in her profession, she experienced some financial insecurity, and worked as a babysitter for a period.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Soon after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Makeba learned that her mother had died. When she tried to return home for the funeral, she found that her South African passport had been cancelled. Two of Makeba's family members were killed in the massacre. The incident left her concerned about her family, many of whom were still in South Africa, including her daughter: the nine-year-old Bongi joined her mother in the US in August 1960. During her first few years in the US, Makeba had rarely sung explicitly political music, but her popularity had led to an increase in awareness of apartheid and the anti-apartheid movement. Following the Sharpeville killings, Makeba felt a responsibility to help, as she had been able to leave the country while others had not. From this point, she became an increasingly outspoken critic of apartheid and the white-minority government; before the massacre, she had taken care to avoid overtly political statements in South Africa.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Her musical career in the US continued to flourish. She signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, and released "Miriam Makeba", her first studio album, in 1960, backed by Belafonte's band. RCA Victor chose to buy out Makeba's contract with Gallotone Records, and despite the fact that Makeba was unable to perform in South Africa, Gallotone received US$45,000 in the deal, which meant that Makeba received no royalties for her debut album. The album included one of her most famous hits in the US, "Qongqothwane", which was known in English as "The Click Song" because Makeba's audiences could not pronounce the Xhosa name. "Time" magazine called her the "most exciting new singing talent to appear in many years", and "Newsweek" compared her voice to "the smoky tones and delicate phrasing" of Ella Fitzgerald and the "intimate warmth" of Frank Sinatra. The album was not commercially successful, and Makeba was briefly dropped from RCA Victor: she was re-signed soon after as the label recognised the commercial possibilities of the growing interest in African culture. Her South African identity had been downplayed during her first signing, but it was strongly emphasised the second time to take advantage of this interest. Makeba made several appearances on television, often in the company of Belafonte. In 1962, Makeba and Belafonte sang at the birthday party for US President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, but Makeba did not go to the party afterwards because she was ill. Kennedy nevertheless insisted on meeting her, so Belafonte sent a car to pick her up.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: In 1964, Makeba released her second studio album for RCA Victor, "The World of Miriam Makeba". An early example of world music, the album peaked at number eighty-six on the "Billboard" 200. Makeba's music had a cross-racial appeal in the US; white Americans were attracted to her image as an "exotic" African performer, and black Americans related their own experiences of racial segregation to Makeba's struggle against apartheid. Makeba found company among other African exiles and émigrés in New York, including Hugh Masekela, to whom she was married from 1963 to 1968. During their marriage, Makeba and Masekela were neighbours of the jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie in Englewood, New Jersey; they spent much of their time in Harlem. She also came to know actors Marlon Brando and Lauren Bacall, and musicians Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles. Fellow singer-activist Nina Simone became friendly with Makeba, as did actor Cicely Tyson; Makeba and Simone performed together at Carnegie Hall. Makeba was among black entertainers, activists, and intellectuals in New York at the time who believed that the civil rights movement and popular culture could reinforce each other, creating "a sense of intertwined political and cultural vibrancy"; other examples included Maya Angelou and Sidney Poitier. She later described her difficulty living with racial segregation, saying "There wasn't much difference in America; it was a country that had abolished slavery but there was apartheid in its own way."


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba's music was also popular in Europe, and she travelled and performed there frequently. Acting on the advice of Belafonte, she added songs from Latin America, Europe, Israel, and elsewhere in Africa to her repertoire. She visited Kenya in 1962 in support of the country's independence from British colonial rule, and raised funds for its independence leader Jomo Kenyatta. Later that year she testified before the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid about the effects of the system, asking for economic sanctions against South Africa's National Party government. She requested an arms embargo against South Africa, on the basis that weapons sold to the government would likely be used against black women and children. As a result, her music was banned in South Africa, and her South African citizenship and right to return were revoked. Makeba thus became a stateless person, but she was soon issued passports by Algeria, Guinea, Belgium and Ghana. In her life, she held nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship in ten countries.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Soon after her testimony, Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia, invited her to sing at the inauguration of the Organisation of African Unity, the only performer to be invited. As the fact of her ban from South Africa became well known she became a "cause célèbre" for Western liberals, and her presence in the civil rights movement provided a link between that movement and the anti-apartheid struggle. In 1964 she was taught the song "Malaika" by a Kenyan student while backstage at a performance in San Francisco; the song later became a staple of her performances.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Throughout the 1960s, Makeba strengthened her involvement with a range of black-centred political movements, including the civil rights, anti-apartheid, Black Consciousness, and Black Power movements. She briefly met the Trinidadian-American activist Stokely Carmichael—the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a prominent figure in the Black Panther Party—after Belafonte invited him to one of Makeba's concerts; they met again in Conakry six years later. They entered a relationship, initially kept secret from all but their closest friends and family. Makeba participated in fundraising activities for various civil rights groups, including a benefit concert for the 1962 Southern Christian Leadership Conference that civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as the "event of the year". Following a concert and rally in Atlanta in support of King, Makeba and others were denied entrance to a restaurant as a result of Jim Crow laws, leading to a televised protest in front of the establishment. She also criticised King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference for its investment in South African companies, informing press that "Now my friend of long standing supports the country's persecution of my people and I must find a new idol". Her identity as an African woman in the civil rights movement helped create "an emerging liberal consensus" that extreme racial discrimination, whether domestically or internationally, was harmful. In 1964 she testified at the UN for a second time, quoting a song by Vanessa Redgrave in calling for quick action against the South African government.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: On 15 March 1966, Makeba and Belafonte received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording for "An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba". The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid, including several songs critical of the South African government, such as "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" ("Watch our Verwoerd", a reference to Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the architects of apartheid). It sold widely and raised Makeba's profile in the US; Belafonte and Makeba's concert tour following its release was often sold out, and the album has been described as the best they made together. Makeba's use of lyrics in Swahili, Xhosa, and Sotho led to her being seen as a representation of an "authentic" Africa by American audiences. In 1967, more than ten years after she first recorded the song, the single "Pata Pata" was released in the US on an album of the same title, and became a worldwide hit. During its recording, she and Belafonte had a disagreement, after which they stopped recording together.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba married Carmichael in March 1968; this caused her popularity in the US to decline markedly. Conservatives came to regard her as a militant and an extremist, an image that alienated much of her fanbase. Her performances were cancelled and her coverage in the press declined despite her efforts to portray her marriage as apolitical. White American audiences stopped supporting her, and the US government took an interest in her activities. The Central Intelligence Agency began following her, and placed hidden microphones in her apartment; the Federal Bureau of Investigation also placed her under surveillance. While she and her husband were travelling in the Bahamas, she was banned from returning to the US, and was refused a visa. As a result, the couple moved to Guinea, where Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Touré. Makeba did not return to the US until 1987.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Guinea remained Makeba's home for the next 15 years, and she and her husband became close to President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife, Andrée. Touré wanted to create a new style of African music, creating his own record label Syliphone for this purpose, and all musicians received a minimum wage if they practised for several hours every day. Makeba later stated that "I've never seen a country that did what Sékou Touré did for artists." After her rejection from the US she began to write music more directly critical of the US government's racial policies, recording and singing songs such as "Lumumba" in 1970 (referring to Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated Prime Minister of the Congo), and "Malcolm X" in 1974.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba performed more frequently in African countries, and as countries became independent of European colonial powers, was invited to sing at independence ceremonies, including in Kenya, Angola, Zambia, Tanganyika, and Mozambique. In September 1974 she performed alongside a multitude of well-known African and American musicians at the Zaire 74 festival in Kinshasa, Zaire (formerly the Congo). She also became a diplomat for Ghana, and was appointed Guinea's official delegate to the UN in 1975; that year, she addressed the United Nations General Assembly. She continued to perform in Europe and Asia, as well as her African concerts, but not in the US, where a "de facto" boycott was in effect. Her performances in Africa were immensely popular: she was described as the highlight of FESTAC 77, a Pan-African arts festival in Nigeria in 1977, and during a Liberian performance of "Pata Pata", the stadium proved so loud that she was unable to complete the song. "Pata Pata", like her other songs, had been banned in South Africa. Another song she sang frequently in this period was "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", though she never recorded it. Makeba later stated that it was during this period that she accepted the label "Mama Africa".


title: Miriam Makeba

text: In 1976, the South African government replaced English with Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in all schools, setting off the Soweto uprising. Between 15,000 and 20,000 students took part; caught unprepared, the police opened fire on the protesting children, killing hundreds and injuring more than a thousand. Hugh Masekela wrote "Soweto Blues" in response to the massacre, and the song was performed by Makeba, becoming a staple of her live performances for many years. A review in the magazine "Musician" said that the song had "searingly righteous lyrics" about the uprising that "cut to the bone". She had separated from Carmichael in 1973; in 1978 they divorced and in 1981 she married Bageot Bah, an airline executive.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba's daughter Bongi, who was a singer in her own right and had often accompanied her mother on stage, died in childbirth in 1985. Makeba was left responsible for her two grandchildren, and decided to move out of Guinea. She settled in the Woluwe-Saint-Lambert district of the Belgian capital Brussels. In the following year, Masekela introduced Makeba to Paul Simon, and a few months later she embarked on Simon's very successful Graceland Tour. The tour concluded with two concerts held in Harare, Zimbabwe, which were filmed in 1987 for release as "Graceland: The African Concert". After touring the world with Simon, Warner Bros. Records signed Makeba and she released "Sangoma" ("Healer"), an album of healing chants named in honour of her "sangoma" mother. Her involvement with Simon caused controversy: "Graceland" had been recorded in South Africa, breaking the cultural boycott of the country, and thus Makeba's participation in the tour was regarded as contravening the boycott (which Makeba herself endorsed).


title: Miriam Makeba

text: In preparation for the Graceland tour, she worked with journalist James Hall to write an autobiography titled "Makeba: My Story". The book contained descriptions of her experience with apartheid, and was also critical of the commodification and consumerism she experienced in the US. The book was translated into five languages. She took part in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, a popular-music concert staged on 11 June 1988 at London's Wembley Stadium, and broadcast to an audience of 600 million across 67 countries. Political aspects of the concert were heavily censored in the US by the Fox television network. The use of music to raise awareness of apartheid paid off: a survey after the concert found that among people aged between 16 and 24, three-quarters knew of Mandela, and supported his release from prison.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Following growing pressure from the anti-apartheid movement both domestically and internationally, in 1990 State President Frederik Willem de Klerk reversed the ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from prison. Mandela was released in February 1990. He persuaded Makeba to return to South Africa, which she did, using her French passport, on 10 June 1990.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba, Gillespie, Simone, and Masekela recorded and released her studio album, "Eyes on Tomorrow", in 1991. It combined jazz, R&B, pop, and traditional African music, and was a hit across Africa. Makeba and Gillespie then toured the world together to promote it. In November she made a guest appearance on a US sitcom, "The Cosby Show". In 1992, she starred in the film "Sarafina!" which centred on students involved in the 1976 Soweto uprising. Makeba portrayed the title character's mother, Angelina, a role which "The New York Times" described as having been performed with "immense dignity".


title: Miriam Makeba

text: On 16 October 1999, Makeba was named a Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In January 2000, her album, "Homeland", produced by the New York City based record label Putumayo World Music, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music Album category. She worked closely with Graça Machel-Mandela, the South African first lady, advocating for children suffering from HIV/AIDS, child soldiers, and the physically handicapped. She established the Makeba Centre for Girls, a home for orphans, described in an obituary as her most personal project. She also took part in the 2002 documentary "", which examined the struggles of black South Africans against apartheid through the music of the period. Makeba's second autobiography, "Makeba: The Miriam Makeba Story", was published in 2004. In 2005 she announced that she would retire and began a farewell tour, but despite having osteoarthritis, continued to perform until her death. During this period, her grandchildren Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Lee, and her great-grandchild Lindelani, occasionally joined her performances.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: On 9 November 2008, Makeba fell ill during a concert in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy. The concert had been organised to support the writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a criminal organisation active in the Campania region. She suffered a heart attack after singing her hit song "Pata Pata", and was taken to the Pineta Grande clinic, where doctors were unable to revive her.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: The groups with which Makeba began her career performed "mbube", a style of vocal harmony which drew on American jazz, ragtime, and Anglican church hymns, as well as indigenous styles of music. Johannesburg musician Dolly Rathebe was an early influence on Makeba's music, as were female jazz singers from the US. Historian David Coplan writes that the "African jazz" made popular by Makeba and others was "inherently hybridized" rather than derivative of any particular genre, blending as it did marabi and jazz, and was "Americanized African music, not Africanized American music". The music that she performed was described by British writer Robin Denselow as a "unique blend of rousing township styles and jazz-influenced balladry".


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba released more than 30 albums during her career. The dominant styles of these shifted over time, moving from African jazz to recordings influenced by Belafonte's "crooning" to music drawing from traditional South African musical forms. She has been associated with the genres of world music and Afropop. She also incorporated Latin American musical styles into her performances. Historian Ruth Feldstein described her music as "[crossing] the borders between what many people associated with avant-garde and 'quality' culture and the commercial mainstream"; the latter aspect often drew criticism. She was able to appeal to audiences from many political, racial, and national backgrounds.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: She was known for having a dynamic vocal range, and was described as having an emotional awareness during her performances. She occasionally danced during her shows, and was described as having a sensuous presence on stage. She was able to vary her voice considerably: an obituary remarked that she "could soar like an opera singer, but she could also whisper, roar, hiss, growl and shout. She could sing while making the epiglottal clicks of the Xhosa language." She sang in English and several African languages, but never in Afrikaans, the language of the apartheid government in South Africa. She once stated "When Afrikaaners sing in my language, then I will sing theirs." English was seen as the language of political resistance by black South Africans due to the educational barriers they faced under apartheid; the Manhattan Brothers, with whom Makeba had sung in Sophiatown, had been prohibited from recording in English. Her songs in African languages have been described as reaffirming black pride.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba said that she did not perform political music, but music about her personal life in South Africa, which included describing the pain she felt living under apartheid. She once stated "people say I sing politics, but what I sing is not politics, it is the truth", an example of the mixing of personal and political issues for musicians living during apartheid. When she first entered the US, she avoided discussing apartheid explicitly, partly out of concern for her family still in South Africa. Nonetheless, she is known for using her voice to convey the political message of opposition to apartheid, performing widely and frequently for civil rights and anti-apartheid organisations. Even songs that did not carry an explicitly political message were seen as subversive, due to their being banned in South Africa. Makeba saw her music as a tool of activism, saying "In our struggle, songs are not simply entertainment for us. They are the way we communicate."


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba's use of the clicks common in languages such as Xhosa and Zulu (as in "Qongqothwane", "The Click Song") was frequently remarked upon by Western audiences. It contributed to her popularity and her exotic image, which scholars have described as a kind of othering, exacerbated by the fact that Western audiences often could not understand her lyrics. Critics in the US described her as the "African tribeswoman" and as an "import from South Africa", often depicting her in condescending terms as a product of a more primitive society. Commentators also frequently described her in terms of the prominent men she was associated with, despite her own prominence. During her early career in South Africa she had been seen as a sex symbol, an image that received considerably less attention in the US.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba was described as a style icon, both in her home country and the US. She wore no makeup and refused to straighten her hair for shows, thus helping establish a style that came to be known internationally as the "Afro look". According to music scholar Tanisha Ford, her hairstyle represented a "liberated African beauty aesthetic". She was seen as a beauty icon by South African schoolgirls, who were compelled to shorten their hair by the apartheid government. Makeba stuck to wearing African jewellery; she disapproved of the skin-lighteners commonly used by South African women at the time, and refused to appear in advertisements for them. Her self-presentation has been characterised by scholars as a rejection of the predominantly white standards of beauty that women in the US were held to, which allowed Makeba to partially escape the sexualisation directed at women performers during this period. Nonetheless, the terms used to describe her in the US media have been identified by scholars as frequently used to "sexualize, infantalize, and animalize" people of African heritage.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba was among the most visible Africans in the US; as a result, she was often emblematic of the continent of Africa for Americans. Her music earned her the moniker "Mama Africa", and she was variously described as the "Empress of African Song", the "Queen of South African music", and Africa's "first superstar". Music scholar J. U. Jacobs said that Makeba's music had "both been shaped by and given shape to black South African and American music". The jazz musician Abbey Lincoln is among those identified as being influenced by Makeba. Makeba and Simone were among a group of artists who helped shape soul music. Longtime collaborator Belafonte called her "the most revolutionary new talent to appear in any medium in the last decade". Speaking after her death, Mandela called her "South Africa's first lady of song", and said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Outside her home country Makeba was credited with bringing African music to a Western audience, and along with artists such as Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita, Ali Farka Touré, Baaba Maal and Angélique Kidjo, with popularising the genre of world music. Her work with Belafonte in the 1960s has been described as creating the genre of world music before the concept entered the popular imagination, and also as highlighting the diversity and cultural pluralism within African music. Within South Africa, Makeba has been described as influencing artists such as kwaito musician Thandiswa Mazwai and her band Bongo Maffin, whose track "De Makeba" was a modified version of Makeba's "Pata Pata", and one of several tribute recordings released after her return to South Africa. South African jazz musician Simphiwe Dana has been described as "the new Miriam Makeba". South African singer Lira has frequently been compared with Makeba, particularly for her performance of "Pata Pata" during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Football World Cup. A year later, Kidjo dedicated her concert in New York to Makeba, as a musician who had "paved the way for her success". In an obituary, scholar Lara Allen referred to Makeba as "arguably South Africa's most famous musical export".


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba was among the most visible people campaigning against the apartheid system in South Africa, and was responsible for popularising several anti-apartheid songs, including "Meadowlands" by Strike Vilakezi and "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" (Watch out, Verwoerd) by Vuyisile Mini. Due to her high profile, she became a spokesperson of sorts for Africans living under oppressive governments, and in particular for black South Africans living under apartheid. When the South African government prevented her from entering her home country, she became a symbol of "apartheid's cruelty", and she used her position as a celebrity by testifying against apartheid before the UN in 1962 and 1964. Many of her songs were banned within South Africa, leading to Makeba's records being distributed underground, and even her apolitical songs being seen as subversive. She thus became a symbol of resistance to the white-minority government both within and outside South Africa. In an interview in 2000, Masekela said that "there [was] nobody in Africa who made the world more aware of what was happening in South Africa than Miriam Makeba."


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba has also been associated with the movement against colonialism, with the civil rights and black power movements in the US, and with the Pan-African movement. She called for unity between black people of African descent across the world: "Africans who live everywhere should fight everywhere. The struggle is no different in South Africa, the streets of Chicago, Trinidad or Canada. The Black people are the victims of capitalism, racism and oppression, period". After marrying Carmichael she often appeared with him during his speeches; Carmichael later described her presence at these events as an asset, and Feldstein wrote that Makeba enhanced Carmichael's message that "black is beautiful". Along with performers such as Simone, Lena Horne, and Abbey Lincoln, she used her position as a prominent musician to advocate for civil rights. Their activism has been described as simultaneously calling attention to racial and gender disparities, and highlighting "that the liberation they desired could not separate race from sex". Makeba's critique of second-wave feminism as being the product of luxury led to observers being unwilling to call her a feminist. Scholar Ruth Feldstein stated that Makeba and others influenced both black feminism and second-wave feminism through their advocacy, and the historian Jacqueline Castledine referred to her as one of the "most steadfast voices for social justice".


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba's 1965 collaboration with Harry Belafonte won a Grammy Award, making her the first African recording artist to win this award. Makeba shared the 2001 Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. They received their prize from Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden, during a nationally televised ceremony at Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, on 27 May 2002.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: Makeba won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986, and in 2001 was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". She also received several honorary doctorates. In 2004, she was voted 38th in a poll ranking 100 Great South Africans.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: From 25 to 27 September 2009, a tribute television show to Makeba entitled "Hommage à Miriam Makeba" and curated by Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist Angélique Kidjo, was held at the Cirque d'hiver in Paris. The show was presented as "Mama Africa: Celebrating Miriam Makeba" at the Barbican in London on 21 November 2009. A documentary film titled "Mama Africa", about Makeba's life, co-written and directed by Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki, was released in 2011. On 4 March 2013, and again on International Women's Day in 2017, Google honoured her with a Google Doodle on their homepage. In 2014 she was honoured (along with Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and Steve Biko) in the Belgian city of Ghent, which named a square after her, the "Miriam Makebaplein". Makeba was named 1967's "woman of the year" by "Time" magazine in 2020, as one of a list of 100 "women of the year" for the years 1920–2019.


title: Miriam Makeba

text: In 2016 the French singer Jain released "Makeba", a tribute. "Mama Africa", a musical about Makeba, was produced in South Africa by Niyi Coker. Originally titled "Zenzi!", the musical premiered to a sold-out crowd in Cape Town on 26 May 2016. It was performed in the US in St. Louis, Missouri and at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City between October and December 2016. The musical returned to South Africa in February 2017 for what would have been Makeba's 85th birthday. American-born African jazz singer Somi wrote a play about Makeba, "Dreaming Zenzile", which premiered in 2021, and released a tribute album dedicated to her, "Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba" (2022).


title: Miriam Makeba

text: This is a list of albums and songs, including covers, by Miriam Makeba that have received significant mention in commentary about her or about the musical and political movements she participated in.


title: Russell's teapot

text: Russell's teapot is an analogy, formulated by the philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), to illustrate that the philosophic burden of proof lies upon a person making empirically unfalsifiable claims, rather than shifting the burden of "disproof" to others.


title: Russell's teapot

text: Russell specifically applied his analogy in the context of religion. He wrote that if he were to assert, without offering proof, that a teapot, too small to be seen by telescopes, orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, he could not expect anyone to believe him solely because his assertion could not be proven wrong.


title: Russell's teapot

text: Russell's teapot is still invoked in discussions concerning the existence of God, and has had influence in various fields and media.


title: Russell's teapot

text: In an article titled "Is There a God?" commissioned, but never published, by "Illustrated" magazine in 1952, Russell wrote:


title: Russell's teapot

text: Chemist Peter Atkins said that the point of Russell's teapot is that there is no burden on anyone to disprove assertions. Occam's razor suggests that the simpler theory with fewer assertions (e.g., a universe with no supernatural beings) should be the starting point in the discussion rather than the more complex theory. Responding to the invocation of Russell's "Celestial Teapot" by biologist Richard Dawkins as evidence against religion, an apologia by philosopher Paul Chamberlain contends that such arguments rely on an undue distinction between positive and negative claims. Chamberlain says it is logically erroneous to assert that positive truth claims bear a burden of proof while negative truth claims do not; he says ""every truth claim", whether positive or negative, has a burden of proof."


title: Russell's teapot

text: In his books "A Devil's Chaplain" (2003) and "The God Delusion" (2006), Dawkins used the teapot as an analogy of an argument against what he termed "agnostic conciliation", a policy of intellectual appeasement that allows for philosophical domains that concern exclusively religious matters. Science has no way of establishing the existence or non-existence of a god. Therefore, according to the agnostic conciliator, because it is a matter of individual taste, belief and disbelief in a supreme being are deserving of equal respect and attention. Dawkins presents the teapot as a "reductio ad absurdum" of this position: if agnosticism demands giving equal respect to the belief and disbelief in a supreme being, then it must also give equal respect to belief in an orbiting teapot, since the existence of an orbiting teapot is just as plausible scientifically as the existence of a supreme being.


title: Russell's teapot

text: Philosopher Brian Garvey argues that the teapot analogy fails with regard to religion because, with the teapot, the believer and non-believer are simply disagreeing about one item in the universe and may hold in common all other beliefs about the universe, which is not true of an atheist and a theist. Garvey argues that it is not a matter of the theist propounding existence of a thing and the atheist simply denying it – each is asserting an alternative explanation of why the cosmos exists and is the way it is: "the atheist is not just denying an existence that the theist affirms – the atheist is in addition committed to the view that the universe is not the way it is because of God. It is either the way it is because of something other than God, or there is no reason it is the way it is."


title: Russell's teapot

text: Philosopher Peter van Inwagen argues that while Russell's teapot is a fine piece of rhetoric, its logical argument form is less than clear, and attempting to make it clear reveals that the Teapot Argument is very far from cogent. Another philosopher, Alvin Plantinga, states that a falsehood lies at the heart of Russell's argument. Russell's argument assumes that there is no evidence against the teapot, but Plantinga disagrees:


title: Russell's teapot

text: Philosopher Gary Gutting rejects Russell's teapot for similar reasons, arguing that Russell's argument accords theism far less support than it actually has. Gutting points out that numerous sensible, competent people appeal to personal experience and arguments in support of God's existence. Thus, to simply reject the existence of God, out of hand, seems unjustified, according to Gutting.


title: Russell's teapot

text: The literary critic James Wood, without believing in God, says that belief in God "is a good deal more reasonable than belief in a teapot" because God is a "grand and big idea" which "is not analogically disproved by reference to celestial teapots or vacuum cleaners, which lack the necessary bigness and grandeur" and "because God cannot be reified, cannot be turned into a mere thing".


title: Russell's teapot

text: One counter-argument, advanced by philosopher Eric Reitan, is that belief in God is different from belief in a teapot, because teapots are physical and therefore in principle verifiable, and that given what we know about the physical world, we have no good reason to think that belief in Russell's teapot is justified and at least some reason to think it not.


title: Russell's teapot

text: Other thinkers have posited non-disprovable analogies, such as J. B. Bury in his 1913 book, "History of Freedom of Thought":


title: Russell's teapot

text: Some people speak as if we were not justified in rejecting a theological doctrine unless we can prove it false. But the burden of proof does not lie upon the rejecter... If you were told that in a certain planet revolving around Sirius there is a race of donkeys who speak the English language and spend their time in discussing eugenics, you could not disprove the statement, but would it, on that account, have any claim to be believed? Some minds would be prepared to accept it, if it were reiterated often enough, through the potent force of suggestion.


title: Russell's teapot

text: Astronomer Carl Sagan in his 1995 book "The Demon-Haunted World" offered a similar non-disprovable analogy called the Dragon in the Garage as an example of skeptical thinking. If Sagan claimed there was a dragon in his garage, you would wish to verify it for yourself but if Sagan's dragon was impossible to detect:


title: Russell's teapot

text: Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there's no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists?


title: Russell's teapot

text: The concept of Russell's teapot has influenced more explicitly religion-parodying concepts such as the Invisible Pink Unicorn and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. 1960s musician and psychedelic poet Daevid Allen of the band Gong employed the image of a flying teapot in his Planet Gong Universe and the "Flying Teapot" album trilogy, and refers to Russell's teapot in his book "Gong Dreaming 2: The Histories & Mysteries of Gong from 1969–1975".


title: Daimyo

text: From the "shugo" of the Muromachi period through the Sengoku to the "daimyo" of the Edo period, the rank had a long and varied history. The backgrounds of "daimyo" also varied considerably; while some "daimyo" clans, notably the Mōri, Shimazu and Hosokawa, were cadet branches of the Imperial family or were descended from the "kuge", other "daimyo" were promoted from the ranks of the samurai, notably during the Edo period.


title: Daimyo

text: "Daimyo" often hired samurai to guard their land, and they paid the samurai in land or food as relatively few could afford to pay samurai in money. The "daimyo" era ended soon after the Meiji Restoration with the adoption of the prefecture system in 1871.


title: Daimyo

text: The were the first group of men to hold the title daimyo. They arose from among the "shugo" during the Muromachi period (approximately 1336 – 1573). The "shugo-daimyo" held not only military and police powers, but also economic power within a province. They accumulated these powers throughout the first decades of the Muromachi period.


title: Daimyo

text: Major "shugo-daimyo" came from the Shiba, Hatakeyama, and Hosokawa clans, as well as the tozama clans of Yamana, Ōuchi, Takeda and Akamatsu. The greatest ruled multiple provinces.


title: Daimyo

text: The Ashikaga shogunate required the "shugo-daimyo" to reside in Kyoto, so they appointed relatives or retainers, called "shugodai", to represent them in their home provinces. Eventually, some of these in turn came to reside in Kyoto, appointing deputies in the provinces.


title: Daimyo

text: The Ōnin War was a major uprising in which "shugo-daimyo" fought each other. During this and other wars of the time, "kuni ikki", or provincial uprisings, took place as locally powerful warriors sought independence from the "shugo-daimyo". The deputies of the "shugo-daimyo", living in the provinces, seized the opportunity to strengthen their position. At the end of the fifteenth century, those "shugo-daimyo" who succeeded remained in power. Those who had failed to exert control over their deputies fell from power and were replaced by a new class, the "sengoku-daimyo", who arose from the ranks of the "shugodai" and "jizamurai".


title: Daimyo

text: Among the were many who had been "shugo-daimyo", such as the Satake, Imagawa, Takeda, Toki, Rokkaku, Ōuchi, and Shimazu. New to the ranks of the daimyo were the Asakura, Amago, Nagao, Miyoshi, Chōsokabe, Hatano, and Oda. These came from the ranks of the "shugodai" and their deputies. Additional "sengoku-daimyo" such as the Mōri, Tamura, and Ryūzōji arose from the "jizamurai". The lower officials of the shogunate and rōnin (Late Hōjō, Saitō), provincial officials (Kitabatake), and "kuge" (Tosa Ichijō) also gave rise to "sengoku-daimyo".


title: Daimyo

text: The Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 marked the beginning of the Edo period. "Shōgun" Tokugawa Ieyasu reorganized roughly 200 daimyo and their territories into "han," which were assessed by rice production. Those heading "han" assessed at 10,000 "koku" (50,000 bushels) or more were considered daimyo. Ieyasu also categorized the daimyo according to their relation to the ruling Tokugawa family: the "shinpan" were related to the Tokugawa; the "fudai" had been vassals of the Tokugawa or allies in battle; and the "tozama" had not allied with the Tokugawa before the battle (did not necessarily fight against the Tokugawa).


title: Daimyo

text: The "shinpan" were collaterals of Ieyasu, such as the Matsudaira, or descendants of Ieyasu other than in the main line of succession. Several "shinpan", including the Tokugawa of Owari (Nagoya), Kii (Wakayama), and Mito, as well as the Matsudaira of Fukui and Aizu, held large "han".


title: Daimyo

text: A few "fudai daimyo", such as the Ii of Hikone, held large "han," but many were small. The shogunate placed many "fudai" at strategic locations to guard the trade routes and the approaches to Edo. Also, many "fudai daimyo" took positions in the Edo shogunate, some rising to the position of "rōjū." The fact that "fudai daimyo" could hold government positions, while "tozama" in general could not, was a main difference between the two.


title: Daimyo

text: "Tozama daimyo" held mostly large fiefs far away from the capital, with e.g. the Kaga "han" of Ishikawa Prefecture, headed by the Maeda clan, assessed at 1,000,000 "koku". Other famous "tozama" clans included the Mori of Chōshū, the Shimazu of Satsuma, the Date of Sendai, the Uesugi of Yonezawa, and the Hachisuka of Awa. Initially, the Tokugawa regarded them as potentially rebellious, but for most of the Edo period, marriages between the Tokugawa and the "tozama", as well as control policies such as "sankin-kōtai", resulted in peaceful relations.


title: Daimyo

text: Daimyo were required to maintain residences in Edo as well as their fiefs, and to move periodically between Edo and their fiefs, typically spending alternate years in each place, in a practice called "sankin-kōtai".


title: Daimyo

text: In 1869, the year after the Meiji Restoration, the daimyo, together with the "kuge," formed a new aristocracy, the "kazoku". In 1871, the han were abolished, and prefectures were established. In this year, around 200 daimyo returned their titles to the emperor, who consolidated their han into 75 prefectures. Their military forces were also demobilized, with the daimyo and their samurai followers pensioned into retirement. The move to abolish the feudal domains effectively ended the daimyo era in Japan. This was effectively carried out through the financial collapse of the feudal-domain governments, hampering their capability for resistance.


title: Daimyo

text: In the wake of the changes, many daimyo remained in control of their lands, being appointed as prefectural governors; however, they were soon relieved of this duty and called en masse to Tokyo, thereby cutting off any independent base of power from which to potentially rebel. Despite this, members of former daimyo families remained prominent in government and society, and in some cases continue to remain prominent to the present day. For example, Morihiro Hosokawa, the former Prime Minister of Japan, is a descendant of the daimyo of Kumamoto.


title: Édouard-Henri Avril

text: Édouard-Henri Avril (21 May 1849 – 28 July 1928) was a French painter and commercial artist. Under the pseudonym Paul Avril, he was an illustrator of erotic literature. His career saw collaboration with influential people like Octave Uzanne, Henry Spencer Ashbee and Friedrich Karl Forberg.


title: Édouard-Henri Avril

text: Avril was a soldier before starting his career in art. He was awarded with the Legion of Honour for his actions in the Franco-Prussian War.


title: Édouard-Henri Avril

text: Avril was born in Algiers. His father was a colonel of the gendarmerie. Avril himself fought and was wounded in the Franco-Prussian War before starting his studies in art. He was awarded with the Legion of Honour on 31 May 1871 for injuries sustained during the war. The injuries resulted in retirement from his military career on 23 January 1872.


title: Édouard-Henri Avril

text: Biographical material of his life is scarce due to the obscene nature of his work, and because he worked under a pseudonym of "Paul Avril". His pseudonym can lead to a confusion with his brother, who was named Paul-Victor Avril, and was also an artist and worked as an engraver.


title: Édouard-Henri Avril

text: From 1874 to 1878 he was at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He worked for the illustrated newsmagazine "Le Monde illustré" in 1882.


title: Édouard-Henri Avril

text: Having been commissioned to illustrate Théophile Gautier's novel "Fortunio", he adopted the pseudonym "Paul Avril". His reputation was soon established and he received many commissions to illustrate both major authors and the so-called "galante literature" of the day, a form of erotica. However, his reputation as a commercial illustrator of novels was established before he began illustrating the more underground erotic literature. These books were typically sold in small editions on a subscription basis, organised by collectors. Erotica of that time received very limited prints and sometimes were limited to only 100 or so copies, or were sold only within exclusive circles of collectors.


title: Édouard-Henri Avril

text: Because of the perceived obscenity of Avril and his works, it is difficult to assess the impact that his art might have had on the culture of the time.


title: Édouard-Henri Avril

text: Avril's major work were the illustrations in 1906 for "De Figuris Veneris: A Manual of Classical Erotica". Another important work illustrated by Avril was John Cleland's "Fanny Hill" (also known as "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure"), which was a significant and controversial publication of its time as it was the first novel to bring erotica to English literature. The book's edition illustrated by Avril includes "Les charmes de Fanny exposés" that is one of his better known pictures. He illustrated such works as Gustave Flaubert's "Salammbô", Gautier's "Le Roi Caundale", Jean Baptiste Louvet de Couvray's "Adventures of the Chevalier de Faublas", Mario Uchard's "Mon Oncle Barbassou" (scenes in a harem), Jules Michelet's "The Madam", Hector France's "Musk, Hashish and Blood", the writings of Pietro Aretino, and the anonymous lesbian novel "Gamiani".


title: Édouard-Henri Avril

text: Classicizing works illustrated by Avril include "Oeuvres d’Horace" (1887), Une nuit de Cléopâtre (1894), "Daphnis et Chloé" (1898), and "Les sonnets luxurieux de l’Aretin" (1904). Avril might be best known for his sapphic, or lesbian, illustrations.


title: Édouard-Henri Avril

text: Prolific erotica collector Henry Spencer Ashbee commissioned Avril to design a bookplate for him. Avril worked with Octave Uzanne, who after leaving the Société des Amis des Livres, which he found too conservative and too concerned with the reissue of old works, started two new bibliographic societies. The Société des Bibliophiles Contemporaines (1889–1894) consisted of 160 people from literary circles, including Avril.


title: Stablecoin

text: Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies where the price is designed to be pegged to a reference asset. The reference asset may be fiat money, exchange-traded commodities (such as precious metals or industrial metals), or a cryptocurrency.


title: Stablecoin

text: In theory, the peg makes stablecoins "stable" and not subject to changes in value; however, in practice, stablecoins have been proven time and time again to lack stability, and many stablecoins have plummeted in value as the ponzi scheme they are tied to crashes.


title: Stablecoin

text: Stablecoins have a number of purported purposes. They can theoretically be used for payments, and are in theory more likely to retain their price than cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and altcoins, which are highly volatile.


title: Stablecoin

text: Reserve-backed cryptocurrencies are coins that are stabilized by assets. Furthermore, such coins, assuming they are managed in good faith, and have a mechanism for redeeming the asset(s) backing them, are unlikely to drop below the value of the underlying physical asset, due to arbitrage. However, in practice, few stablecoins actually meet these assumptions.


title: Stablecoin

text: Backed stablecoins are subject to the same volatility and risk associated with the backing asset. If the backed stablecoin is backed in a decentralized manner, then they are relatively safe from predation, but if there is a central vault, they may be robbed, or suffer loss of confidence.


title: Stablecoin

text: The value of stablecoins of this type is based on the value of the backing currency, which is held by a third-party–regulated financial entity. In this setting, the trust in the custodian of the backing asset is crucial for the stability of price of the stablecoin. Fiat-backed stablecoins can be traded on exchanges and are redeemable from the issuer. The cost of maintaining the stability of the stablecoin is equivalent to the cost of maintaining the backing reserve and the cost of legal compliance, maintaining licenses, auditors and the business infrastructure required by the regulator.


title: Stablecoin

text: Cryptocurrencies backed by fiat currency are the most common and were the first type of stablecoins on the market. Their characteristics are:


title: Stablecoin

text: Holders of commodity-backed stablecoins can redeem their stablecoins at the conversion rate to take possession of real assets. The cost of maintaining the stability of the stablecoin is the cost of storing and protecting the commodity backing.


title: Stablecoin

text: Cryptocurrency-backed stablecoins are issued with cryptocurrencies as collateral, which is conceptually similar to fiat-backed stablecoins. However, the significant difference between the two designs is that while fiat collateralization typically happens off the blockchain, the cryptocurrency or crypto asset used to back this type of stablecoins is done on the blockchain, using smart contracts in a more decentralized fashion. In many cases, these work by allowing users to take out a loan against a smart contract via locking up collateral, making it more worthwhile to pay off their debt should the stablecoin ever decrease in value. To prevent sudden crashes, a user who takes out a loan may be liquidated by the smart contract should their collateral decrease too close to the value of their withdrawal.


title: Stablecoin

text: The technical implementation of this type of stablecoins is more complex and varied than that of the fiat-collateralized kind which introduces a greater risks of exploits due to bugs in the smart contract code. With the tethering done on-chain, it is not subject to third-party regulation creating a decentralized solution. The potentially problematic aspect of this type of stablecoins is the change in value of the collateral and the reliance on supplementary instruments. The complexity and non-direct backing of the stablecoin may deter usage, as it may be difficult to comprehend how the price is actually ensured. Due to the nature of the highly volatile and convergent cryptocurrency market, a very large collateral must also be maintained to ensure the stability.


title: Stablecoin

text: Live stablecoins projects of this type are Havven (the pair: nUSD stablecoin and HAV the collateral-backed nUSD), DAI (pair: CDP Collateralized Debt Position and MKR governance token used to control the supply) and others. There is also Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), see BitGo.


title: Stablecoin

text: Seigniorage-style coins, also known as algorithmic stablecoins, utilize algorithms to control the stablecoin's money supply, similar to a central bank's approach to printing and destroying currency. Seigniorage-based stablecoins are a less popular form of stablecoin.


title: Stablecoin

text: TerraUSD (UST), created by Do Kwon, was meant to maintain a 1:1 peg with the United States dollar. Instead of being backed by dollars, UST was designed to keep its peg through a complex system connected with another Terra network token, Terra (LUNA). In May 2022 UST broke its peg with its price plunging to 10 cents, while LUNA fell to "virtually zero", down from an all-time high of $119.51. The collapse wiped out almost $45 billion of market capitalization over the course of a week.


title: Stablecoin

text: The Bank of International Settlements lists the possible merits of the subject as enhancement of anti-money laundering efforts, operational resilience, customer data protection, financial inclusion, tax compliance, and cybersecurity.


title: Stablecoin

text: Nellie Liang, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance reported to the Senate banking committee that the rapid growth of the stablecoin market capitalization and its potential for financial services innovation require urgent congressional regulation.


title: Stablecoin

text: Tether is currently the world's largest market capitalization stablecoin. It has been accused of failing to produce audits for reserves used to collateralize the quantity of minted USDT stablecoin. Tether has since issued assurance reports on USDT backing, although some speculation persists.


title: Stablecoin

text: Contrary to their name, stablecoins have historically lacked stability and can be prone to failure due to volatility and upkeep required in many cases. To the investor, they lack any concrete benefit over simply holding the fiat currency (or other goods) that the stablecoin is pegged to; therefore, once the peg is put in jeopardy, the stablecoin can quickly crash. Stablecoins such as TerraUSD, USDD, DEI and others crashed to zero in 2022 alone.


title: Stablecoin

text: Griffin and Shams' research attributed the creation of unbacked USDT to the rise in Bitcoin's price in 2017. Following that, research indicated little to no evidence that Tether USD minting events influenced Bitcoin values unless they were publicized to the public by Whale Alert.


title: Stablecoin

text: The stablecoin project Basis, which had received over $100 million in venture capital funding, shut down in December 2018, citing concerns about US regulation.


title: Adam Nimoy

text: Adam B. Nimoy (born August 9, 1956) is an American television director. Nimoy is the son of actor Leonard Nimoy and the actress Sandra Zober.


title: Adam Nimoy

text: Adam Nimoy was born in Los Angeles, California, to actor Leonard Nimoy and actress Sandra Zober. He has an older sister, Julie. Aaron Bay-Schuck is Nimoy's stepbrother.


title: Adam Nimoy

text: Nimoy obtained his Bachelor of Science at University of California, Berkeley, and his juris doctor at Loyola Law School.


title: Adam Nimoy

text: Adam Nimoy began his work in the entertainment industry as an attorney in entertainment law, specializing in music and music publishing. According to lead singer Kurt Harland, Adam was instrumental in clearing the many "Star Trek" samples used on Information Society's self-titled debut record, such as the "Pure energy!" snippet used in the number-three US hit "What's On Your Mind? (Pure Energy)".


title: Adam Nimoy

text: He was a business-affairs executive for EMI America Records and Enigma Records before becoming a TV director. His credits include episodes of "NYPD Blue", "Nash Bridges", "The Practice", "Ally McBeal", "Gilmore Girls", "", "Babylon 5", "The Outer Limits", for which he directed his father in the episode "I, Robot", and "Sliders".


title: Adam Nimoy

text: After his father's death in 2015, Nimoy revealed a documentary project the two of them had been working on about the elder Nimoy's famous "Star Trek" character which the younger planned to direct. Nimoy stated that with his father's passing, the project would now take on a stronger focus on the life and career of Leonard Nimoy, as well as the character of Spock. In March 2015, Nimoy announced plans to crowd-fund the project's $600,000 budget and provide credit and other perks to the fans who contributed. By that June, the project successfully completed funding through Kickstarter.com, raising $621,721, ahead of its July 1 deadline. The documentary, "For the Love of Spock", received the support of interview subjects including William Shatner, George Takei, Walter Koenig, J. J. Abrams, and Seth MacFarlane. The film was released on April 16, 2016, at the Tribeca Film Festival.


title: Adam Nimoy

text: Nimoy appeared as himself in "The Spock Resonance", the November 5, 2015, episode of the CBS sitcom "The Big Bang Theory", in which he interviews "Star Trek" fan Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) for the documentary on his father (who had previously lent his voice to the 2012 episode "The Transporter Malfunction", in the series' fifth season).


title: Adam Nimoy

text: Nimoy has taught Thesis Film Post Production and Advanced Approaches to Directing at the New York Film Academy.


title: Adam Nimoy

text: Special thanks are given to Adam in the liner notes of the album "Emergency Third Rail Power Trip" (1983, Enigma Records) by the band Rain Parade. "Spock" is also thanked.


title: Adam Nimoy

text: Nimoy was married to his first wife Nancy for 18 years. They had two children. His second wife, Martha, died of cancer.


title: Adam Nimoy

text: In August 2017, Nimoy announced his engagement to actress Terry Farrell, who portrayed Jadzia Dax on "". They married on March 26, 2018, in a civil ceremony at City Hall in San Francisco on what would have been his father's 87th birthday. The marriage ended in divorce in 2022.


title: Rakia

text: Rakia, Rakija, Rachiu or Raki (), is the collective term for fruit spirits (or fruit brandy) popular in the Balkans. The alcohol content of rakia is normally 40% ABV, but home-produced rakia can be stronger (typically 50%).


title: Rakia

text: Fruit spirits are known by similar names in many languages of the Balkans: ; ; ; ; (/rɑːˈkiː/, /rɑːˈkuː/, /rɑːˈkɜːr/). Similar drinks include "sadjevec" in Slovenia, "'ţuică" (or "pălincă") in Romania, and pálenka in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.


title: Rakia

text: Rakija is produced from fermented and distilled fruits, typically plums and grapes, but also apricots, pears, cherries or raspberries. Other fruits but less commonly used are peaches, apples, figs, blackberries, and quince. Common flavours are "šljivovica" and "țuică", produced from plums, "kajsija", produced from apricots, or "grozdova"/"lozova" in Bulgaria, "raki rrushi" in Albania and Kosovo, "lozovača"/"komovica" in Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina all produced from grapes. These are the same as "Zivania" in Cyprus.


title: Rakia

text: Similar spirits are produced in Romania, Moldova, Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Caucasus. In Albania, rakia is most commonly made out of grapes in mild climate regions and out of plums (and sometimes out of mulberry, thanë (carnelian cherry), or walnuts) in colder climate areas.


title: Rakia

text: Plum and grape rakia are sometimes mixed with other ingredients, such as herbs, honey, sour cherries and walnuts, after distillation.


title: Rakia

text: Normally, rakia is colorless, unless herbs or other ingredients are added. Some types of rakia are kept in wooden barrels (oak or mulberry) for extra aroma and a golden color.


title: Rakia

text: Greek ouzo (from grape) and tsipouro (from pomace), Turkish rakı (from sun-dried grapes) and arak in Lebanon and Levant region differ from rakia as they are redistilled with some herbs (commonly anise). Some tsipouro in Greece is made without anise in the same manner as pomace rakia (or pomace brandy). "Boğma rakı" in Turkey (common name of the domestic raki which is produced at homes and villages) is similar to rakia in the Balkans.


title: Rakia

text: Raki () (a type of rakia) is a traditional drink in Albania. Until the 19th century, meyhanes would serve wine or meze. Rakia is deeply connected to the Albanian tradition and as such it is produced everywhere in Albania and Kosovo, sometimes professionally and sometimes in an artisanal way. Skrapar is a region of Albania known for the production of rakia. In fact, Skrapar spirit is very popular not only in Albania but also elsewhere in Europe. In every part of Albania, Skrapar spirit is always required in all festive ceremonies, as the best alcoholic beverage. Grapes are grown in pergolas that are arranged in tall trees such as oaks, plums, etc. Overall, the Skrapar area produces a strong spirit with an alcohol content of up to 45%. The most famous villages for the production of rakia are Zaberzan, Muzhakë, Rog, and Vendreshë. After the grapes are harvested, they are pressed and collected in wooden barrels. Today, plastic barrels are used. The crushed grape, at this stage is called bërsi, is left for 25 days, almost a month which is also the right time for fermentation. Proper grape fermentation is also understood by a strong characteristic odor. When this fermentation is achieved, the shoots are ready to produce spirit. The grape shoots are then boiled in tinned and sealed copper pots, the wood used must be oak wood which produces a lot of heat needed to turn the shoots into steam. These vapors then pass through copper pipes which pass through a cold container from where the opposite process is achieved, that of distillation, ie the return to liquid state of the vapors. At the bottom of the tube is placed a small nape from which the spirit flows into a glass or plastic container. The spirit is then stored in small glass bottles. Rakia is produced in a similar way in Kosovo, where it is usually served with meze. Orahovac is the best-known producer of rakia in the country and there is an annual festival dedicated to rakia.


title: Rakia

text: Rakija (Cyrillic: Ракија) is very popular and widespread in Bosnia and Herzegovina, just like in its neighboring countries. A major contributing factor to the production of rakija in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the diversity and availability of fruit in the valley of the river Drina and the untouched and very often wild nature in the mountains.


title: Rakia

text: The traditional old craft of producing rakija has managed to survive long throughout time and it is still widely practiced. The production of homemade rakija for private use is the most popular.


title: Rakia

text: Bulgaria cites an old piece of pottery from the 14th century in which the word "rakiya" () is inscribed. The country has taken measures to declare the drink as a national drink in the European Union to allow lower excise duty domestically but has yet yielded no concrete results. During an archaeological study, Bulgarian archaeologists discovered an 11th-century fragment of a distillation vessel used for the production of rakiya. Due to the age of the fragment, contradicting the idea that rakiya production only began in the 16th century, some historians believe this indicates that rakiya did originally come from Bulgaria.


title: Rakia

text: The EU recognizes 12 brands of Bulgarian rakiya through the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) marks, which protect the name of products from a specific region that follow a traditional production process.


title: Rakia

text: Rakija () is one of the most popular alcoholic drinks in Serbia. It is the national drink of Serbia. According to Dragan Đurić, President of the Association of Producers of Natural Spirits, the EU protects the names of beverages by allowing the prefix "Serbian". In Serbia there are 10,000 private producers of rakija. Two thousand are on the official register and only about a hundred cellars produce high-quality spirit.The most popular rakijas in Serbia are: "sljivovica"-it is made from plum, apricot rakija and pear rakija.