title: Batmobile

text: In the episode "Jason Todd" during a flashback to Dick Grayson's time as part of the dynamic duo, the Batmobile is shown very briefly, parked inside the Batcave. This version of the car was initially designed by concept artist John Gallagher, who provided the visual effects company Encore VFX with over 30 designs before it was whittled down to one final piece with the efforts of other artists and contributors. This Batmobile was later shown in greater detail during the season finale when the Gotham City Police Department launched an assault on the Batcave.


title: Batmobile

text: In the second season of "Batwoman", Ryan Wilder, the new Batwoman, drives the Batmobile as her vehicle of choice.


title: Batmobile

text: The Batmobile is copyrighted in the 9th circuit under United States law by DC Comics, a status often thought to usually be reserved to sentient fictional characters. This was established in court when a mechanic making Batmobile replicas roughly based on the '60s Adam West version of the Batmobile was sued by DC Comics in 2011 in the case "DC Comics v Mark Towle". The mechanic had argued that the Batmobile was a "functional" element of the show and thus ineligible for copyright; however, the court ruled that the Batmobile was an "automotive character" with its own style, backstory, and theme that remained consistent across versions: a "bat-like appearance" and "always contains the most up-to-date weaponry and technology". In addition, builder George Barris applied for and received a US Design Patent for the car in 1966. Although the patent expired in 1980, during its lifetime it served as the basis for Barris' successfully claiming ownership of the Jim Sermersheim "No. 5" Batmobile replica.


title: Batmobile

text: In 2006, a Batman monster truck made its debut at Charlotte, 2006. This truck was designed after the Batmobile, with a pair of wings and afterburners in the back. It was a major competitor in the Monster Jam live tour, leading driver John Seasock to two consecutive racing wins at the 2007 and 2008 Monster Jam World Finals. In 2013, the truck's design was changed, with smaller wings, and the afterburners replaced with a large Bat-logo. The truck was retired in late 2014 after the DC license expired.


title: Batmobile

text: Kiddie's Manufacturing of Puerto Rico released a kiddie ride based on the "Batman Forever" Batmobile in 1995, for use in shopping malls and arcades. To this day, it is still a popular kiddie ride.


title: Batmobile

text: A later Batmobile kiddie ride, based on the one seen in "Batman: The Brave and The Bold", was released in the late 2000s/early 2010s. This ride included Batman sitting in it.


title: Batmobile

text: ^ In "Batman & Robin", Batman uses the "Bathammer" to battle Mr. Freeze and his henchmen through the frozen streets of Gotham City. The Bathammer is, in essence, a Batmobile for travelling on icy surfaces. It is long and high. The top speed is 100 mph on ice. The Bathammer can move over enormous skids underneath. It also carries vertical stabilizers (3 m long) that can be directed upward in an emergency and used as shield.


title: Chris Sullivan (actor)

text: Chris Sullivan (born July 19, 1980) is an American actor and musician. He starred on the NBC drama "This Is Us", for which he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.


title: Chris Sullivan (actor)

text: Much of Sullivan's early stage experience came in Chicago, where he received improv training at the iO Theater. Among his Chicago stage experiences were in the cast of "Defending the Caveman" at the Lakeshore Theater and the cast of "The Ballad of Emmett Till" at the Goodman Theatre. After appearing in the original Broadway cast of "Lombardi", Sullivan joined the long-running revival of "Chicago" in 2011.


title: Chris Sullivan (actor)

text: He first gained attention for his portrayal of Tom Cleary on the Cinemax drama "The Knick". He also played Taserface in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" and Benny Hammond in "Stranger Things."


title: Chris Sullivan (actor)

text: He has starred in single episodes of various TV series: "A Gifted Man" (2012), "Elementary", "", and "The Americans" (2013).


title: Chris Sullivan (actor)

text: He also played Sprit in the 2008 Sundance Film Festival nominated movie "North Starr", and appeared in such films as "The Normal Heart" and "The Drop" (2014), the latter with "The Knick" co-star Jeremy Bobb.


title: Chris Sullivan (actor)

text: From 2016-2022, Sullivan starred as Toby Damon on "This Is Us". For this role, Sullivan has received two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.


title: Chris Sullivan (actor)

text: Sullivan has done voice-over work. He provided the voice for the camel in the popular "Hump Day" ad by the American auto insurance company GEICO.


title: Chris Sullivan (actor)

text: He is married to producer Rachel Sullivan. Their son was born on July 28, 2020 and their daughter was born in October 2022.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Joseph Edward Duncan III (February 25, 1963 – March 28, 2021) was an American convicted serial killer and child molester who was on death row in federal prison in conjunction with the 2005 kidnappings and murders of members of the Groene family of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. He was also serving eleven consecutive sentences of life without parole in conjunction with the same crimes as well as the 1997 murder of Anthony Martinez of Beaumont, California. Additionally, Duncan confessed to — but had not been charged with — the 1996 murder of two girls, Sammiejo White and Carmen Cubias, in Seattle, Washington. At the time of the attack on the Groene family, Duncan was on the run from a child molestation charge in Minnesota.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Growing up in Tacoma, Washington, Duncan had a criminal history dating to when he was fifteen years old. In 1980, he was sentenced to twenty years in prison for sexually assaulting a boy in Tacoma and as a result had spent all but eight years of his adult life in prison. He was paroled in 1994 but was returned to prison in 1997 for violating the terms of his parole.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: In May 2005, Kootenai County, Idaho, authorities discovered the bodies of Brenda Groene, her boyfriend, and her 13-year-old son in the family home near Coeur d'Alene. Authorities also noted that Groene's two other children were missing: Shasta, aged 8, and Dylan, aged 9. After an intense search for the two children, Shasta was found alive with Duncan at a restaurant in Coeur d'Alene nearly seven weeks later, and he was arrested in conjunction with her kidnapping. When the authorities rescued Shasta, she told them that Duncan said that he was bringing her back to her father because Duncan had changed his mind about killing her. She further said that Duncan stated that she taught him how to love. Dylan's remains were found days later in a remote area near St. Regis, Montana. Duncan was subsequently charged with murdering Dylan as well as the three victims in Coeur d'Alene.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: During his incarceration, authorities connected Duncan with the unsolved murders of Anthony Martinez in California and two girls in Seattle, which all occurred during Duncan's parole from 1994 to 1997. Of those murders, Duncan was charged only in the California case. In all, Duncan was convicted in Idaho for kidnapping and murdering the three victims in Coeur d'Alene, for which he was given six life sentences; in federal court for kidnapping Shasta and Dylan Groene and murdering Dylan, for which he was given three death sentences and three life sentences; and in the state of California for kidnapping and murdering Martinez, for which he was given two life sentences.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: In March 2021, it was reported that Duncan was suffering from a terminal brain tumor. Court filings revealed he underwent brain surgery in October 2020 after being diagnosed with glioblastoma—stage IV brain cancer. He declined treatment from either chemotherapy or radiation therapy. In November 2020, medical staff at the Federal Bureau of Prisons estimated he had between six and twelve months left to live. Duncan died on March 28, 2021, at the age of 58.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Joseph Edward Duncan III was born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on February 25, 1963. He was the fourth of five children born to Joseph Edward Duncan Jr and Lilian Mae Duncan. He had three older sisters and a younger brother. Duncan's father was in the United States Army, and because of this the family moved from city to city both within the U.S. and abroad, changing locations every year or two until the elder Duncan retired to Tacoma, Washington. Duncan's mother was described as a domineering woman, but although he claimed after being arrested in 1980 to have been abused as a child, his younger brother disputed this. Duncan's parents divorced in 1979. His sisters soon left the household and Duncan remained behind with his mother, while his brother went to live with their father. His father would later remarry, giving Duncan a stepfamily. Duncan attended Lakes High School but did not graduate.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Duncan had a long history as a violent sexual predator. He committed his first recorded sex crime in 1978, when he was fifteen years old. In that incident, he raped a 9-year-old boy at gunpoint. The following year, he was arrested for driving a stolen car. He was sentenced as a juvenile and sent to the Jessie Dyslin Boys Ranch in Tacoma, where, according to a report by the Associated Press, he told a therapist assigned to his case that he had bound and sexually assaulted six boys. He also told the therapist that he estimated that he had raped thirteen younger boys by the time he was aged 16.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: In 1980, Duncan stole a number of guns from a neighbor and abducted a 14-year-old boy, raping him at gunpoint. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison for this crime, but was released on parole in 1994 after serving fourteen years. While out on parole, Duncan is known to have lived in several places in the Seattle area. He was arrested again in 1996—this time for marijuana use—and released on parole several weeks later with new restrictions. Authorities believe that Duncan murdered Sammiejo White and Carmen Cubias in Seattle in 1996 and Anthony Martinez in Riverside County, California, in 1997, during his parole period; however, both those cases went cold and were not tied to Duncan until after his arrest in the Groene case. Duncan was arrested in Missouri and returned to prison in 1997 after violating the terms of his parole; he was released from prison on July 14, 2000, with time off for good behavior and moved to Fargo, North Dakota.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: In March 2005, Duncan was charged with the July 3, 2004, molestation of two boys at a playground in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. On April 5, 2005, he appeared before a Becker County judge, who set bail at US$15,000. A Fargo businessman, with whom Duncan had become acquainted, helped him post bail. However, Duncan skipped bail and disappeared. On June 1, a federal warrant was issued for Duncan's arrest on the charge of "unlawful flight to avoid prosecution."


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: On May 16, 2005, authorities discovered the bodies of Brenda Groene, 40; her boyfriend, Mark McKenzie, 37; and her son, Slade Groene, 13, in their home along Lake Coeur d'Alene, outside the city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Two of Brenda's other childrenDylan, 9, and Shasta, 8were missing. An AMBER Alert was issued and searchers combed the area for the missing children while authorities investigated the deaths at the home as homicides. Autopsies determined the cause of death to be "blunt trauma to the head"; authorities also noted that the victims had been bound.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Seven weeks later, in the early morning hours of July 2, 2005, Shasta was seen at a Denny's restaurant in Coeur d'Alene in the company of an unknown man. A waitress, manager, and two customers at the restaurant recognized the girl from media reports. They surreptitiously called police and positioned themselves to prevent the man from leaving. Police officers arrived at the restaurant and arrested the man, later identified as Duncan, without incident. Shasta identified herself to a waitress at the restaurant and to authorities, and was taken to Kootenai Medical Center for medical treatment and to be reunited with her father. Coeur d'Alene police, meanwhile, detained Duncan on kidnapping charges and on his outstanding federal warrant.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: When Shasta was found without Dylan, authorities held little hope of finding the boy alive. Police asked the public for tips, specifically with respect to sightings of the stolen red Jeep Cherokee with Missouri license plates that Duncan was driving at the time of his arrest. Authorities discovered that Duncan had rented the car in Minnesota and never returned it. A gas station employee in Kellogg, Idaho, about east of Coeur d'Alene, recognized the vehicle as one that had stopped at her station hours before Duncan was arrested. The employee suspected the girl wandering around the station might have been Shasta, but did not confront her as nothing appeared out of the ordinary. The employee and her manager notified authorities after reviewing surveillance camera footage and identifying Duncan and Shasta in the video.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: On July 4, 2005, investigators found human remains at a remote makeshift campsite in the Lolo National Forest near St. Regis, Montana. The remains were sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, for DNA testing and were positively identified as those of Dylan. During the trial it emerged that Duncan shot Dylan at point-blank range by holding a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun to his head.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Much of what is known about the murders of the Groene family was revealed by Shasta Groene herself. According to Shasta's police interview, Duncan killed her mother, older brother, and her mother's fiancé, and then kidnapped her and her brother, driving away with them in the stolen Jeep Cherokee.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Shasta told investigators her mother came into Dylan’s and her room and woke them up. Her mother said “someone is in the house” and they went into the living room, where she saw Duncan wearing black gloves and holding a gun. Duncan tied her mother's hands with nylon zip ties and did the same to her mother's fiancé and her brother Slade. Shasta and Dylan were removed from the house and placed outside on the lawn. While she waited with her brother, she heard multiple thumping sounds coming from inside the home. She then saw her injured older brother staggering away from the entrance to the home. Duncan then bludgeoned the three to death; neither Shasta nor Dylan witnessed the murders. Shasta did see Duncan repeatedly bludgeon her older brother; he was slumped over on the ground when Duncan moved both Shasta and Dylan to the car. Both children were taken to other locations, where they were repeatedly molested and tortured for six weeks. Shasta stated that they drove a long distance and stayed in two different campsites, where Duncan told her of having beaten her family members to death with a hammer.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Shasta also told investigators how Dylan was murdered. Duncan insisted that his death was an accident. Initially, Shasta was standing on the other side of Duncan's Jeep when she heard a loud boom. She then ran to the other side of the Jeep and saw Dylan lying on the ground screaming. Duncan was apparently digging through a clear plastic box looking for beer when a shotgun that was also kept in the box went off, hitting Dylan in the stomach. Shasta said that she then saw Duncan put the shotgun to Dylan's head and pull the trigger, but it failed to fire. While Dylan begged Duncan not to kill him, he reloaded the shotgun, put it back to the boy's head and pulled the trigger; Dylan was killed instantly. According to Shasta, immediately after killing Dylan, Duncan started crying and told her that he only killed him to put him out of his misery. A public memorial service was held for Dylan on July 16, 2005, which would have been his tenth birthday, at Real Life Ministries.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Shasta reported that Duncan nearly killed her days after killing Dylan. She said he gave her the choice to be killed either by strangulation or with a gun. Shasta chose the former, and Duncan proceeded to wrap a rope around her neck and pull it tight. However, Shasta begged Duncan to stop, using his nickname "Jet", and he immediately did. He then asked her if she would like to meet his mother, to which she responded yes, and the two drove back towards Coeur d'Alene and stopped at the Denny's restaurant where Shasta was rescued.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Duncan's arrest led the FBI to launch a nationwide review of unsolved missing child cases. He was implicated as a possible suspect in several crimes that occurred between 1994 and 1997, when he was on parole, and between 2000 and 2005, when he was free from prison. Although he was cleared as a suspect in some cases, authorities in California and Washington had enough evidence to believe Duncan had committed unsolved murders in their jurisdictions.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: On April 4, 1997, 10-year-old Anthony Michael Martinez was playing with friends in the front yard of his home in Beaumont, California, when an unknown man approached the group asking for help in finding a missing cat. When the boys refused, the man grabbed Martinez at knifepoint and threw him into his vehicle. After a two-week search, Martinez's body was found nude and partially decomposed in Indio, California, on April 19. Investigators noted that he had been sexually assaulted and bound with duct tape. Although a composite sketch of the suspect was made available and a partial fingerprint taken from the duct tape found on Martinez's body, the case eventually went cold.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: In July 2005, bloggers noticed similarities between Duncan and the composite sketch in the Martinez case, as well as between Duncan's vehicle and the one Martinez's assailant was driving. The FBI and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children became involved, and in turn contacted Riverside County authorities. Riverside authorities were able to match the fingerprint taken from Martinez's body to Duncan, and on August 3 the Riverside County Sheriff's Department officially announced Duncan's connection with the Martinez case. FBI agents reported that Duncan confessed to the murder in an interview on July 19, 2005, describing the crime as “revenge against society again for sending him back to jail for a probation violation."


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: After her rescue, Shasta told investigators that Duncan had told her about other crimes he had committed, including the Martinez murder and the 1996 murders of Sammiejo White, aged 11, and her half-sister Carmen Cubias, aged 9, who both vanished on July 6, 1996, after leaving the Crest Motel in Seattle. Their skeletal remains were found on February 10, 1998, in Bothell, Washington. Duncan confessed to beating the two young girls to death.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Duncan had been convicted in three courts: in Idaho district court, for the kidnapping and murders of Brenda and Slade Groene and Mark McKenzie; the United States District Court for the District of Idaho, for the kidnapping of Shasta and Dylan Groene, the murder of Dylan Groene, and other crimes; and a California superior court, for the kidnapping and murder of Anthony Martinez.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Duncan first appeared in a Kootenai County court on July 13, 2005, where he was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree kidnapping, all in conjunction with the deaths of Brenda and Slade Groene and Mark McKenzie. County prosecutors had initially planned to charge Duncan with the kidnappings of Shasta and Dylan; however, they deferred those charges to the federal courts, as transporting children across state lines for the purpose of sexual exploitation is a federal offense. Trial was set to begin on January 17, 2006, but was delayed until April 4, after the district judge granted a request to the defense for more time to prepare for the trial, and then again to October 26, after the judge in the case stated that, "No one wants to try this case twice, including me." Duncan's attorneys blamed the multiple postponements on the prosecution's insistence on pursuing the death penalty.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: On October 16, 2006, shortly after jury selection began, Kootenai County prosecutors and Duncan's attorney reached a plea bargain in which Duncan pleaded guilty to all state charges against him. He was immediately sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the three kidnapping charges. Sentencing on the three murder charges was continued pending the outcome of his federal trial on kidnapping and murder charges; the judge said that if he did not receive the death penalty on the federal charges, he would return to Kootenai County for a death penalty phase on the state murder charges. Over two years later, after being sentenced to death on federal charges, Kootenai County sentenced Duncan to three additional life sentences. Duncan also agreed to cooperate with Kootenai County sheriff's detectives investigating his crimes and provide passwords to encrypted files stored on his computer.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: On January 18, 2007, Duncan was indicted by a federal grand jury in Coeur d'Alene on ten counts of "kidnapping, kidnapping resulting in death, aggravated sexual abuse of a minor, and sexual exploitation of a child resulting in death," and other crimes related to illegal firearm possession and vehicle theft. He was arraigned the following day at a federal court in Boise, where a judge ordered Duncan to stand trial the following March. Duncan's defense attorneys immediately requested a postponement, which was granted the week the trial was originally scheduled to begin; a new trial date was set for January 22, 2008.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: On December 3, 2007, Duncan pleaded guilty to all ten charges against him. As a condition of the agreement, Shasta Groene would not have to testify in the penalty phase of the trial. Due to a gag order, other details of the plea agreement were not released.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Jury selection for the penalty phase for Duncan's federal trial began on April 14, 2008. During jury selection, Duncan dismissed his attorneys and chose to represent himself. His attorneys objected, asserting he was not competent to do so, and requested a formal hearing as to the issue. The district court ordered an evaluation of Duncan to determine his competence, and accepted the evaluator's conclusion that he was competent to proceed without counsel.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: On August 27, 2008, after three hours of deliberation, the jury recommended the death penalty, and the judge imposed three death sentences for "kidnapping resulting in death, sexual exploitation of a child resulting in death, and use of a firearm in a violent crime resulting in death," all related to the death of Dylan Groene. On November 3, 2008, Duncan was sentenced to an additional three consecutive terms of life without parole in federal prison for kidnapping Shasta Groene and for sexually abusing Shasta and Dylan.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Duncan's standby counsel filed a notice of appeal. Duncan subsequently wrote the court and informed it that any appeal was taken "against his wishes". In July 2011, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court's decision to permit Duncan to represent himself without first holding a hearing as to his competence to do so and remanded for a hearing as to this issue.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Beginning in September 2012, Duncan was incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute in Indiana. On December 6, 2013, a federal judge ruled that he was mentally competent when he gave up the right to appeal his death sentence. Psychiatrists working with the prosecution diagnosed Duncan with pedophilia, sadistic personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder with narcissistic traits, but maintained that he was legally sane.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled on March 27, 2015, that a district judge correctly determined that Duncan was mentally competent when he waived his right to appeal his death sentence. On February 28, 2016, the United States Supreme Court denied Duncan's petition to hear his appeal of a federal judge's ruling in December 2013, which had been affirmed by the Ninth Circuit.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: On February 28, 2017, a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus was filed. On September 27, 2017, it was ordered that the Government's Third Motion for Extension of Time was granted in part and denied in part. The Government's response was due October 30, 2017. The Petitioner's reply was due on or before January 30, 2018.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: On January 18, 2007, the same day Duncan was indicted in federal court, Riverside County officials announced that he was charged with Martinez's murder. Despite attempts by Riverside County officials to extradite Duncan to California, including an appeal by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Duncan's federal trial proceeded. He was eventually extradited to California on January 24, 2009, five months after being sentenced to death by the federal court.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: On March 15, 2011, Duncan pleaded guilty to Martinez's murder, and was sentenced to two life terms on April 5, 2011. As part of a plea deal, the sentence came without the possibility of parole or right to appeal. Although Duncan could have faced a separate death sentence in addition to the ones he had already been sentenced to in federal court, Riverside County District Attorney Paul Zellerbach justified the life sentence by stating that he had consulted with the Martinez family who wanted closure in the case and that "the federal system will kill him long before the state of California would have seriously considered it."


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: Prior to his arrest for murder, Duncan maintained a personal website, titled "The Fifth Nail". According to lore, in addition to the four nails used to pierce the body of Jesus Christ in his crucifixion, there was a fifth nail that was taken away and hidden by the Romans. Duncan adopted the name for his own website and blog. On the website, which depicted Duncan's day-to-day life as a convicted sex offender, he denied being a pedophile and claimed to have been sexually abused as a child.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: After being imprisoned, Duncan maintained a Blogspot website titled "Joseph E. Duncan III returns to the web from Federal death row to expose the meaning of the Fifth Nail". All the content on the site was posted by someone called Silenced, who presumably received letters from Duncan to post on the site on his behalf.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: John Adams, Duncan's public defender in Kootenai County, and prosecutor Bill Douglas declined to comment on the possibility that Duncan was blogging from prison. Inmates do not have access to the internet, and while outgoing letters are scanned for requests for contraband or for help in planning an escape, they are not read word for word.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: The jurors who imposed the death penalty on Duncan were offered counseling in order for them to cope with the horrific evidence they had to see during the trial. Among the evidence viewed in court was a 33-minute video depicting a nude Duncan torturing, physically and verbally assaulting, and sexually abusing a nude, restrained boy identified as Dylan Groene. The video showed this abuse conducted in various interior areas of what appeared to be a dilapidated, single-level wooden shed or small cabin. Other evidence included human remains, a wire noose (from the cabin interior), and other videos of Duncan's continued torture of Dylan. During one of the videos, a child could be heard screaming in pain while a naked Duncan shouted, "The devil is here, boy, the devil himself … The devil likes to watch children suffer and cry!".


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: In 2016, Shasta Groene (then 19 years old) started a petition called Slade and Dylan's law in honor of her two brothers whom Duncan had murdered. In the petition description, she stated that convicted sex offenders should not be let out of jail. This would effectively mean that the three-strike rule for violent sex offenders be reduced to one strike. By the time the petition closed, it had 51,820 supporters.


title: Joseph Edward Duncan

text: In October 2020, Duncan underwent brain surgery after he was diagnosed with glioblastoma. He declined any treatment and rejected chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Medical staff at the Federal Bureau of Prisons estimated he had between six and twelve months left to live. He died on March 28, 2021, at the age of 58. His body was cremated.


title: Environmental protection

text: Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair damage and reverse trends.


title: Environmental protection

text: Due to the pressures of overconsumption, population growth and technology, the biophysical environment is being degraded, sometimes permanently. This has been recognized, and governments have begun placing restraints on activities that cause environmental degradation. Since the 1960s, environmental movements have created more awareness of the multiple environmental problems. There is disagreement on the extent of the environmental impact of human activity, so protection measures are occasionally debated.


title: Environmental protection

text: In the industrial countries, voluntary environmental agreements often provide a platform for companies to be recognized for moving beyond the minimum regulatory standards and thus support the development of the best environmental practice. For instance, in India, Environment Improvement Trust (EIT) has been working for environmental and forest protection since 1998. In developing countries, such as Latin America, these agreements are more commonly used to remedy significant levels of non-compliance with mandatory regulation.


title: Environmental protection

text: An ecosystems approach to resource management and environmental protection aims to consider the complex interrelationships of an entire ecosystem in decision making rather than simply responding to specific issues and challenges. Ideally, the decision-making processes under such an approach would be a collaborative approach to planning and decision making that involves a broad range of stakeholders across all relevant governmental departments, as well as industry representatives, environmental groups, and community. This approach ideally supports a better exchange of information, development of conflict-resolution strategies and improved regional conservation. Religions also play an important role in the conservation of the environment.


title: Environmental protection

text: Many of the earth's resources are especially vulnerable because they are influenced by human impacts across different countries. As a result of this, many attempts are made by countries to develop agreements that are signed by multiple governments to prevent damage or manage the impacts of human activity on natural resources. This can include agreements that impact factors such as climate, oceans, rivers and air pollution. These international environmental agreements are sometimes legally binding documents that have legal implications when they are not followed and, at other times, are more agreements in principle or are for use as codes of conduct. These agreements have a long history with some multinational agreements being in place from as early as 1910 in Europe, America and Africa.


title: Environmental protection

text: Many of the international technical agencies formed after 1945 addressed environmental themes. By the late 1960s, a growing environmental movement called for coordinated and institutionalized international cooperation. The landmark United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm in 1972, establishing the concept of a right to a healthy environment. It was followed by the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme later that year. Some of the most well-known international agreements include the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and the Paris Agreement of 2015.


title: Environmental protection

text: On 8 October 2021, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution recognizing access to a healthy and sustainable environment as a universal right. In the resolution 48/13, the Council called on States around the world to work together, and with other partners, to implement the newly recognized right.


title: Environmental protection

text: On 28 July 2022, the United Nations General Assembly voted to declare the ability to live in “a clean, healthy and sustainable environment” a universal human right. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet hailed the decision and called for urgent action to make it a reality for all.


title: Environmental protection

text: Discussion concerning environmental protection often focuses on the role of government, legislation, and law enforcement. However, in its broadest sense, environmental protection may be seen to be the responsibility of all the people and not simply that of government. Decisions that impact the environment will ideally involve a broad range of stakeholders including industry, indigenous groups, environmental group and community representatives. Gradually, environmental decision-making processes are evolving to reflect this broad base of stakeholders and are becoming more collaborative in many countries.


title: Environmental protection

text: Many constitutions acknowledge Tanzania as having some of the greatest biodiversity of any African country. Almost 40% of the land has been established into a network of protected areas, including several national parks. The concerns for the natural environment include damage to ecosystems and loss of habitat resulting from population growth, expansion of subsistence agriculture, pollution, timber extraction and significant use of timber as fuel.


title: Environmental protection

text: Environmental protection in Tanzania began during the German occupation of East Africa (1884-1919)—colonial conservation laws for the protection of game and forests were enacted, whereby restrictions were placed upon traditional indigenous activities such as hunting, firewood collecting, and cattle grazing. In


title: Environmental protection

text: 1948, Serengeti has officially established the first national park for wild cats in East Africa. Since 1983, there has been a more broad-reaching effort to manage environmental issues at a national level, through the establishment of the National Environment Management Council (NEMC) and the development of an environmental act.


title: Environmental protection

text: Division of the biosphere is the main government body that oversees protection. It does this through the formulation of policy, coordinating and monitoring environmental issues, environmental planning and policy-oriented environmental research. The National Environment Management Council (NEMC) is an institution that was initiated when the National Environment Management Act was first introduced in year 1983. This council has the role to advise governments and the international community on a range of environmental issues. The NEMC the following purposes: provide technical advice; coordinate technical activities; develop enforcement guidelines and procedures; assess, monitor and evaluate activities that impact the environment; promote and assist environmental information and communication; and seek advancement of scientific knowledge.


title: Environmental protection

text: The National Environment Policy of 1997 acts as a framework for environmental decision making in Tanzania. The policy objectives are to achieve the following:


title: Environmental protection

text: Tanzania is a signatory to a significant number of international conventions including the Rio Declaration on Development and Environment 1992 and the Convention on Biological Diversity 1996. The Environmental Management Act, 2004, is the first comprehensive legal and institutional framework to guide environmental-management decisions. The policy tools that are parts of the act include the use of environmental-impact assessments, strategics environmental assessments, and taxation on pollution for specific industries and products. The effectiveness of shifting of this act will only become clear over time as concerns regarding its implementation become apparent based on the fact that, historically, there has been a lack of capacity to enforce environmental laws and a lack of working tools to bring environmental-protection objectives into practice.


title: Environmental protection

text: Formal environmental protection in China House was first stimulated by the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm, Sweden. Following this, they began establishing environmental protection agencies and putting controls on some of its industrial waste. China was one of the first developing countries to implement a sustainable development strategy. In 1983 the State Council announced that environmental protection would be one of China's basic national policies and in 1984 the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) was established. Following severe flooding of the Yangtze River basin in 1998, NEPA was upgraded to the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) meaning that environmental protection was now being implemented at a ministerial level. In 2008, SEPA became known by its current name of Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China (MEP).


title: Environmental protection

text: Environmental pollution and ecological degradation has resulted in economic losses for China. In 2005, economic losses (mainly from air pollution) were calculated at 7.7% of China's GDP. This grew to 10.3% by 2002 and the economic loss from water pollution (6.1%) began to exceed that caused by air pollution.


title: Environmental protection

text: China has been one of the top performing countries in terms of GDP growth (9.64% in the past ten years). However, the high economic growth has put immense pressure on its environment and the environmental challenges that China faces are greater than most countries. In 2010 China was ranked 121st out of 163 countries on the Environmental Performance Index.


title: Environmental protection

text: China has taken initiatives to increase its protection of the environment and combat environmental degradation:


title: Environmental protection

text: Rapid growth in GDP has been China's main goal during the past three decades with a dominant development model of inefficient resource use and high pollution to achieve high GDP. For China to develop sustainably, environmental protection should be treated as an integral part of its economic policies.


title: Environmental protection

text: Quote from Shengxian Zhou, head of MEP (2009): "Good economic policy is good environmental policy and the nature of environmental problem is the economic structure, production form and develop model."


title: Environmental protection

text: Environmental protection has become an important task for the institutions of the European Community after the Maastricht Treaty for the European Union ratification by all of its member states. The EU is active in the field of environmental policy, issuing directives such as those on environmental impact assessment and on access to environmental information for citizens in the member states.


title: Environmental protection

text: The Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland (EPA) has a wide range of functions to protect the environment, with its primary responsibilities including:


title: Environmental protection

text: The Middle Eastern countries become part of the joint Islamic environmental action, which was initiated in 2002 in Jeddah. Under the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the member states join the Islamic Environment Ministers Conference in every two years, focusing on the importance of environment protection and sustainable development. The Arab countries are also awarded the title of best environment management in the Islamic world.


title: Environmental protection

text: In August 2019, the Sultanate of Oman won the award for 2018–19 in Saudi Arabia, citing its project "Verifying the Age and Growth of Spotted Small Spots in the Northwest Coast of the Sea of Oman".


title: Environmental protection

text: In Russia, environmental protection is considered an integral part of national safety. The Federal Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology is the authorized state body tasked with managing environmental protection. However, there are a lot of environmental issues in Russia.


title: Environmental protection

text: The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has identified 17 megadiverse countries. The list includes six Latin American countries: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. Mexico and Brazil stand out among the rest because they have the largest area, population and number of species. These countries represent a major concern for environmental protection because they have high rates of deforestation, ecosystems loss, pollution, and population growth.


title: Environmental protection

text: Brazil has the largest amount of the world's tropical forests, 4,105,401 km (48.1% of Brazil), concentrated in the Amazon region. Brazil is home to vast biological diversity, first among the megadiverse countries of the world, having between 15%-20% of the 1.5 million globally described species.


title: Environmental protection

text: The organization in charge of environment protection is the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment (in Portuguese: Ministério do Meio Ambiente, MMA). It was first created in the year 1973 with the name Special Secretariat for the Environment (Secretaria Especial de Meio Ambiente), changing names several times, and adopting the final name in the year 1999. The Ministry is responsible for addressing the following issues:


title: Environmental protection

text: In 2011, protected areas of the Amazon covered 2,197,485 km (an area larger than Greenland), with conservation units, like national parks, accounting for just over half (50.6%) and indigenous territories representing the remaining 49.4%.


title: Environmental protection

text: With over 200,000 different species, Mexico is home to 10–12% of the world's biodiversity, ranking first in reptile biodiversity and second in mammals—one estimate indicates that over 50% of all animal and plant species live in Mexico.


title: Environmental protection

text: The history of environmental policy in Mexico started in the 1940s with the enactment of the Law of Conservation of Soil and Water (in Spanish: Ley de Conservación de Suelo y Agua). Three decades later, at the beginning of the 1970s, the Law to Prevent and Control Environmental Pollution was created (Ley para Prevenir y Controlar la Contaminación Ambiental).


title: Environmental protection

text: In the year 1972 was the first direct response from the federal government to address eminent health effects from environmental issues. It established the administrative organization of the Secretariat for the Improvement of the Environment (Subsecretaría para el Mejoramiento del Ambiente) in the Department of Health and Welfare.


title: Environmental protection

text: The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, SEMARNAT) is Mexico's environment ministry. The Ministry is responsible for addressing the following issues:


title: Environmental protection

text: In November 2000 there were 127 protected areas; currently there are 174, covering an area of 25,384,818 hectares, increasing federally protected areas from 8.6% to 12.85% of its land area.


title: Environmental protection

text: In 2008, there was 98,487,116 ha of terrestrial protected area, covering 12.8% of the land area of Australia. The 2002 figures of 10.1% of terrestrial area and 64,615,554 ha of protected marine area were found to poorly represent about half of Australia's 85 bioregions.


title: Environmental protection

text: Environmental protection in Australia could be seen as starting with the formation of the first national park, Royal National Park, in 1879. More progressive environmental protection had it start in the 1960s and 1970s with major international programs such as the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, the Environment Committee of the OECD in 1970, and the United Nations Environment Programme of 1972. These events laid the foundations by increasing public awareness and support for regulation. State environmental legislation was irregular and deficient until the Australian Environment Council (AEC) and Council of Nature Conservation Ministers (CONCOM) were established in 1972 and 1974, creating a forum to assist in coordinating environmental and conservation policies between states and neighbouring countries. These councils have since been replaced by the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC) in 1991 and finally the Environment Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC) in 2001.


title: Environmental protection

text: At a national level, the "Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999" is the primary environmental protection legislation for the Commonwealth of Australia. It concerns matters of national and international environmental significance regarding flora, fauna, ecological communities and cultural heritage. It also has jurisdiction over any activity conducted by the Commonwealth, or affecting it, that has significant environmental impact.


title: Environmental protection

text: There are several Commonwealth protected lands due to partnerships with traditional native owners, such as Kakadu National Park, extraordinary biodiversity such as Christmas Island National Park, or managed cooperatively due to cross-state location, such as the Australian Alps National Parks and Reserves.


title: Environmental protection

text: At a state level, the bulk of environmental protection issues are left to the responsibility of the state or territory. Each state in Australia has its own environmental protection legislation and corresponding agencies. Their jurisdiction is similar and covers point source pollution, such as from industry or commercial activities, land/water use, and waste management. Most protected lands are managed by states and territories with state legislative acts creating different degrees and definitions of protected areas such as wilderness, national land and marine parks, state forests, and conservation areas. States also create regulation to limit and provide general protection from air, water, and sound pollution.


title: Environmental protection

text: At a local level, each city or regional council has responsibility over issues not covered by state or national legislation. This includes non-point source, or diffuse pollution, such as sediment pollution from construction sites.


title: Environmental protection

text: Australia ranks second place on the UN 2010 Human Development Index and one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios of the developed economies. This could be seen as coming at the cost of the environment, with Australia being the world leader in coal exportation and species extinctions. Some have been motivated to proclaim it is Australia's responsibility to set the example of environmental reform for the rest of the world to follow.


title: Environmental protection

text: At a national level, the Ministry for the Environment is responsible for environmental policy and the Department of Conservation addresses conservation issues. At a regional level the regional councils administer the legislation and address regional environmental issues.


title: Environmental protection

text: The environmental protection in Switzerland is mainly based on the measures to be taken against global warming. The pollution in Switzerland is mainly the pollution caused by vehicles and the litteration by tourists.


title: Environmental protection

text: Since 1970, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to protect the environment and human health.


title: Environmental protection

text: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters.


title: Environmental protection

text: All US states have their own state-level departments of environmental protection, which may issue regulations more stringent than the federal ones.


title: Environmental protection

text: In January 2010, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson published via the official EPA blog her "Seven Priorities for EPA's Future", which were (in the order originally listed):


title: Environmental protection

text: it is unclear whether these still represent the agency's active priorities, as Jackson departed in February 2013, and the page has not been updated in the interim.


title: Environmental protection

text: The Constitution of India has a number of provisions demarcating the responsibility of the Central and State governments towards Environmental Protection. The state's responsibility with regard to environmental protection has been laid down under article 48-A of our constitution which stated that "The states shall endeavor to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forest and wildlife of the country".


title: Environmental protection

text: Environmental protection has been made a fundamental duty of every citizen of India under Article 51-A (g) of the constitution which says "It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures".


title: Environmental protection

text: Article 21 of the constitution is a fundamental right, which states that "No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law".


title: Environmental protection

text: There are numerous works of literature that contain the themes of environmental protection but some have been fundamental to its evolution. Several pieces such as "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold, "Tragedy of the commons" by Garrett Hardin, and "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson have become classics due to their far reaching influences. The conservationist and Nobel laureate Wangari Muta Maathai devoted her 2010 book Replenishing the Earth to the Green Belt Movement and the vital importance of trees in protecting the environment.


title: Environmental protection

text: The subject of environmental protection is present in fiction as well as non-fictional literature. Books such as "Antarctica" and "Blockade" have environmental protection as subjects whereas "The Lorax" has become a popular metaphor for environmental protection. "The Limits of Trooghaft" by Desmond Stewart is a short story that provides insight into human attitudes towards animals. Another book called "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury investigates issues such as bombs, wars, government control, and what effects these can have on the environment.


title: Austrian People's Party

text: The Austrian People's Party ( , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria.


title: Austrian People's Party

text: Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by Karl Nehammer. It is currently the largest party in the National Council, with 71 of the 183 seats, and won 37.5% of votes cast in the 2019 legislative election. It holds seats in all nine state legislatures, and is part of government in seven, of which it leads six. The ÖVP is a member of the International Democrat Union and the European People's Party. It sits with the EPP group in the European Parliament; of Austria's 19 MEPs, 7 are members of the ÖVP.


title: Austrian People's Party

text: An unofficial successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the ÖVP was founded immediately following the re-establishment of the Republic of Austria in 1945. Since then, it has been one of the two traditional major parties in Austria, alongside the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). It was the most popular party until 1970, and has traditionally governed in a grand coalition with the SPÖ. It was the senior partner in grand coalitions from 1945 to 1966 and the junior partner from 1986 to 2000 and 2007–2017. The ÖVP also briefly governed alone from 1966 to 1970. After the 1999 election, the party formed a coalition with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) until 2003, when a coalition with the FPÖ splinter Alliance for the Future of Austria was formed, which lasted until 2007.


title: Austrian People's Party

text: The party underwent a change in its image after Sebastian Kurz became chairman, changing its colour from the traditional black to turquoise, and adopting the alternate name The New People's Party (). It became the largest party after the 2017 election, and formed a coalition government with the FPÖ. This collapsed eighteen months later, leading to the 2019 election, after which the ÖVP formed a new coalition with The Greens.


title: Austrian People's Party

text: The ÖVP is the successor of the Christian Social Party, a staunchly conservative movement founded in 1893 by Karl Lueger, mayor of Vienna and highly controversial right-wing populist. Most of the members of the party during its founding belonged to the former Fatherland Front, which was led by chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, also a member of the Christian Social Party before the Anschluss. While still sometimes honored by ÖVP members for resisting Adolf Hitler, the regime built by Dollfuss was authoritarian in nature and has been dubbed as Austrofascism. In its present form, the ÖVP was established immediately after the restoration of Austria's independence in 1945 and it has been represented in both the Federal Assembly ever since. In terms of Federal Assembly seats, the ÖVP has consistently been the strongest or second-strongest party and as such it has led or at least been a partner in most Austria's federal cabinets.


title: Austrian People's Party

text: In the 1945 Austrian legislative election, the ÖVP won a landslide victory in Austria's first postwar election, winning almost half the popular vote and an absolute majority in the legislature. However, memories of the hyper-partisanship that had plagued the First Republic prompted the ÖVP to maintain the grand coalition with the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) and the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) that had governed the country since the restoration of independence in early 1945. The ÖVP remained the senior partner in a coalition with the SPÖ until 1966 and governed alone from 1966 to 1970. It reentered the government in 1986, but has never been completely out of power since the restoration of Austrian independence in 1945 due to a longstanding tradition that all major interest groups were to be consulted on policy.


title: Austrian People's Party

text: After the 1999 Austrian legislative election, several months of negotiations ended in early 2000 when the ÖVP formed a coalition government with the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) led by Jörg Haider. The FPÖ had won just a few hundred more votes than the ÖVP, but was considered far too controversial to lead a government. The ÖVP's Wolfgang Schüssel became Chancellor—the first ÖVP Chancellor of Austria since 1970. This caused widespread outrage in Europe and the European Union imposed informal diplomatic sanctions on Austria, the first time that it imposed sanctions on a member state. Bilateral relations were frozen (including contacts and meetings at an inter-governmental level) and Austrian candidates would not be supported for posts in European Union international offices. Austria threatened to veto all applications by countries for European Union membership until the sanctions were lifted. A few months later, these sanctions were dropped as a result of a fact-finding mission by three former European prime ministers, the so-called "three wise men". The 2002 legislative election resulted in a landslide victory (42.27% of the vote) for the ÖVP under Schüssel. Haider's FPÖ was reduced to 10.16% of the vote. At the state level, the ÖVP has long dominated the rural states of Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol and Vorarlberg. It is less popular in the city state of Vienna and in the rural, but less strongly Catholic states of Burgenland and Carinthia. In 2004, it lost its plurality in the State of Salzburg, where they kept its result in seats (14) in 2009. In 2005, it lost its plurality in Styria for the first time.


title: Austrian People's Party

text: After the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) split from the FPÖ in 2005, the BZÖ replaced the FPÖ in the government coalition which lasted until 2007. Austria for the first time had a government containing of a party that was founded during the parliamentary term. In the 2006 Austrian legislative election, the ÖVP were defeated and after much negotiations agreed to become junior partner in a grand coalition with the SPÖ, with new party chairman Wilhelm Molterer as Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor under SPÖ leader Alfred Gusenbauer, who became Chancellor. The 2008 Austrian legislative election saw the ÖVP lose 15 seats, with a further 8.35% decrease in its share of the vote. However, the ÖVP won the largest share of the vote (30.0%) in the 2009 European Parliament election with 846,709 votes, although their number of seats remained the same.


title: Austrian People's Party

text: The ÖVP is described as Christian democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative. The party has also been described as a catch-all party of the centre-right, in the vein of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany. For most of its existence, the ÖVP has explicitly defined itself as Catholic and anti-socialist, with the ideals of subsidiarity as defined by the encyclical "Quadragesimo anno" and decentralisation.


title: Austrian People's Party

text: For the first election after World War II, the ÖVP presented itself as the Austrian Party (), was anti-Marxist and regarded itself as the Party of the center (). The ÖVP consistently held power—either alone or in so-called black–red coalition with the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ)—until 1970, when the SPÖ formed a minority government with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). The ÖVP's economic policies during the era generally upheld a social market economy.


title: Austrian People's Party

text: The party's campaign for the 2017 legislative election under the party chairman Sebastian Kurz was dominated by a rightward shift in policy which included a promised crackdown on illegal immigration and a fight against political Islam, making it more similar to the program of the FPÖ, the party that Kurz chose as his coalition partner after the ÖVP won the election. The party underwent a change in its image after Kurz became chairman, changing its colour from the traditional black to turquoise, and adopting the name The new People's Party ().


title: Austrian People's Party

text: The chart below shows a timeline of ÖVP chairpersons and the Chancellors of Austria. The left black bar shows all the chairpersons ("Bundesparteiobleute", abbreviated as CP) of the ÖVP party and the right bar shows the corresponding make-up of the Austrian government at that time. The red (SPÖ) and black (ÖVP) colours correspond to which party led the federal government ("Bundesregierung", abbreviated as "Govern."). The last names of the respective Chancellors are shown, with the Roman numeral standing for the cabinets.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: Himanta Biswa Sarma (born 1 February 1969) is an Indian politician serving as the 15th and incumbent Chief Minister of Assam. A former member of the Indian National Congress political party. Sarma joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on 23 August 2015. He is a five time Member of the Assam Legislative Assembly from Jalukbari, having been elected in 2001.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: Sarma studied at Cotton College and later obtained a bachelor of laws from Government Law College in Guwahati. He later became a solicitor and practised law at Gauhati High Court before his entry to politics.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: Sarma was the Congress candidate for Jalukbari in 2001 and he defeated AGP leader Bhrigu Phukan. He was made a minister of state in the First Tarun Gogoi cabinet twice. He was inducted into the Second Tarun Gogoi cabinet and was upgraded to a cabinet minister. He served in the third cabinet before he resigned from congress.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: Sarma cited mismanagement by Rahul Gandhi as the reason for his defection from the Indian National Congress party. He led the BJP's successful state election campaign in 2016 and was sworn in as a Cabinet Minister on 24 May 2016. The BJP appointed him the convener (leader) of the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), a regional sub-group of the federal National Democratic Alliance (NDA), aimed at increasing the party's political strength in North-East India. He was sworn in as Chief Minister of Assam on 10 May 2021, succeeding Sarbananda Sonowal. He is often called 'Mama' (meaning maternal uncle) by voters in Assam.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: Sarma was born on 1 February 1969 in Jorhat, Assam, the family, including six siblings, later shifted to Ulubari, Gandhibasti in Guwahati. He belongs to an Assamese family which traces its origins to Latima in Nalbari district. Sarma married Riniki Bhuyan Sarma in 2001, with whom he has a son, Nandil Biswa Sarma, who attended The Doon School, and a daughter, Sukanya Sarma, who attended Mayo College Girls School.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: Sarma was educated at Kamrup Academy School, Guwahati in 1985 and joined Cotton College, Guwahati (now known as Cotton University) for his undergraduate education. He was elected the General Secretary of Cotton College Students Union, serving from 1991 to 1992. Sarma is the seventh chief minister of Assam from Cotton University.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: He obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1990 and Master of Arts in 1992, both in political science, from the university. Thereafter, Sarma obtained a Bachelor of Laws from Government Law College, Guwahati, and became a solicitor in 1995. He practised law at the Gauhati High Court from 1996 to 2001. In 2006, he completed a Doctorate of Philosophy in political science from Gauhati University, defending his dissertation shortly before he was elected to public office.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: Sarma was elected to the Assam Legislative Assembly from Jalukbari for the first time in 2001 when he defeated Asom Gana Parishad leader Bhrigu Kumar Phukan. He was re-elected in 2006, then in 2011 for a third consecutive term with a 78,000 vote margin. Sarma held important portfolios (both state and cabinet) as Minister of State for Agriculture, Planning and Development, Finance, Health, Education, and Assam Accord Implementation from 2002 to 2014.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: He was made Cabinet Minister for Health in 2006, and in 2011 he was also entrusted with the additional charge of Education. During his tenure, three medical colleges in Jorhat, Barpeta and Tezpur were built. He also initiated work for five more medical colleges in Diphu, Nagaon, Dhubri, North Lakhimpur and Kokrajhar, which are now in various startup stages.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: After political disagreements with the former chief minister Tarun Gogoi, Sarma resigned from all positions on 21 July 2014. He was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Jalukbari constituency until his resignation from the Assembly on 15 September 2015. Sarma joined Bharatiya Janata Party on 23 August 2015 at the residence of Amit Shah at New Delhi. He was appointed as the party's Convener of the Election Management Committee for the upcoming Assembly Elections in the state. In May 2016, Sarma won the Jalukbari constituency for the fourth consecutive term and was sworn in as Cabinet Minister on 24 May in Sonowal ministry, in the first BJP Government in North East India. He was allotted portfolios like Finance, Health & Family Welfare, Education, Planning & Development, Tourism, Pension & Public Grievances.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: On 23 April 2017, Sarma was unanimously elected as President of Badminton Association of India. Sarma has been the president of the Assam Badminton Association. He also became the president of the Assam Cricket Association in June 2016 when his party man Pradip Buragohain became the secretary. Sarma was also the longest-serving vice president of the association serving from 2002 to 2016.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: On 25 March 2022, Sarma was re-elected as the president of Badminton Association of India for a second term of four years from 2022 to 2026 in general body meeting in Guwahati.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: On 8 May 2021, Sarma along with Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal were summoned to New Delhi, for discussions on the formation of a new government. Sarma and Sonowal held a series of meetings lasting more than 4 hours with BJP President J P Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah. On 9 May Sonowal tendered his resignation to Governor Jagadish Mukhi, ahead of a meeting the same day to decide the next Chief Minister. Sarma's name was proposed by the outgoing Sonowal, BJP state president Ranjeet Kumar Dass and newly elected MLA Nandita Garlosa. As no other name was presented to be chief minister, Sarma was unanimously elected as the BJP legislature leader.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: On 10 May 2021, Sarma was sworn in as the 15th Chief Minister of Assam by Governor Jagadish Mukhi, succeeding Sonowal. He was congratulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his appointment.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: Sarma urged Muslims to adopt decent family planning in June 2021. He also stressed the need for a new law against illegal cattle smuggling in Assam. Mission Basundhara was launched under Sarma in 2021; it aims at helping residents with issues related to land and property. Assam government under his leadership has announced decision of converting 740 Muslim madrasas funded by state to majoritarian normal schools.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: His tenure experienced a rise in extrajudicial killings, which he has "openly supported". He has demolished many Islamic madrasas in the state under his tenure, alleging association with terrorist groups.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: On 26 July 2021 Assam Police and Mizoram Police (Mizoram is an adjacent state to Assam on its southern boundary) fired upon each other supposedly part of the decades-old Assam-Mizoram border dispute. Assam lost six police personnel and a civilian in the firefight, while one youth from Mizoram suffered a gunshot wound. Both sides charged each other with opening fire first.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: Reports from news media indicate that on 24 July 2021, Himanta Biswa Sarma and Zoramthanga had a one-to-one talk about the boundary dispute where both agreed to settle the matter amicably through talks. Before this could take place, and only two days after the two Chief Ministers held their talks, this incident took place.


title: Himanta Biswa Sarma

text: Days after "skirmish" which left dozens of others injured, the Assam government on 29 July 2021 issued a travel advisory, asking people of the state "not" to travel to Mizoram - the first such travel advisory ever, by a state in the independent India. Himanta retracted from this advisory a day later. Further, Assam's Home and Political Department said on 29 July that the police should carry out an intensive drive against drugs and check all vehicles entering into Assam from Mizoram.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: The Peanuts Movie (known in some countries as Snoopy and Charlie Brown: A Peanuts Movie) is a 2015 American computer-animated comedy film based on Charles M. Schulz's comic strip "Peanuts", produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the fifth full-length "Peanuts" film and the first in 35 years. The film is directed by Steve Martino from a screenplay by Craig and Bryan Schulz (Schulz's son and grandson, respectively), and Cornelius Uliano, and stars the voices of Noah Schnapp as Charlie Brown and, via archival recordings, Bill Melendez as Snoopy and Woodstock. The film sees Charlie Brown trying to improve his odds with the Little Red-Haired Girl, while Snoopy writes a book where he is a World War I Flying Ace trying to save his fellow pilot and love interest Fifi from the Red Baron and his flying circus.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: Development of the film began in 2006, six years after the death of Charles Schulz and the final release of the last "Peanuts" comic strip. Craig Schulz, the son of Charles, pitched a film idea to his son, Bryan Schulz. Twentieth Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios announced development of a computer-animated film in October 2012, with Steve Martino directing, due to his faithfulness to the style of Dr. Seuss in the film, "Horton Hears a Who!" (2008), also produced by Blue Sky. Numerous elements from the comic strip were featured in the film, such as Charlie Brown's skating pond, his house, "the wall" and Lucy's psychiatrist booth, as well as the Snoopy and Woodstock voice tracks from Bill Melendez. The soundtrack was composed by Christophe Beck, with contributions by Meghan Trainor and David Benoit.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: "The Peanuts Movie" premiered in New York City on November 1, 2015, and was released in the United States five days later. It grossed $246 million worldwide against a $99 million budget to become the 7th highest-grossing animated film of 2015. The film was met with generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the animation, voice acting, and faithfulness to the source material. It received nominations for the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Animated Feature, and was the first Blue Sky Studios film to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, but lost to "Inside Out".


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: When the Little Red-Haired Girl moves into the neighborhood, Charlie Brown becomes infatuated with her, though worries his long-running streak of failures will prevent her from noticing him. After Lucy tells him he should try being more confident, Charlie Brown decides to embark upon a series of new activities in hope of finding one that will get the Little Red-Haired Girl to notice him.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: Helped by Snoopy and Woodstock, he performs a magic show act in the school's talent show; however, he is forced to drop his act in order to help his sister Sally with hers. Charlie Brown then signs up for the school dance and gets Snoopy to teach him. At the dance, Charlie Brown attracts praise for his skills, but he slips during his performance. This sets one of his shoes to hit the sprinkler, causing the dance to be cut short and the students to look down upon him once more.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: Charlie Brown is partnered with the Little Red-Haired Girl to write a book report. When she is called away for a week to deal with a family illness, Charlie Brown decides to write the report alone, on the collegiate-level novel "War and Peace", to which he writes a comprehensive report. At the same time, Charlie Brown finds he is the only student to get a perfect score on a standardized test taken earlier that school year. His friends and the other students congratulate him, and his popularity begins to climb.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: However, when he goes to accept a medal at a school assembly, he learns the test papers were accidentally mixed up, and that Peppermint Patty was actually the one who got the perfect score. Saddened that his sudden popularity was all for nothing, Charlie Brown reveals the mistake and declines the medal, thus becoming unpopular again. To make matters worse, his book report is accidentally shredded by Linus' model tri-plane, causing him to admit to the Little Red-Haired Girl that he has caused them both to fail the assignment.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: Meanwhile, Snoopy writes a novel about his World War I Flying Ace persona trying to save Fifi from the Red Baron with help from Woodstock and his friends, using the key events and situations surrounding Charlie Brown as inspiration to develop his story. He acts out his adventure physically and coming across Charlie Brown and the gang several times along the way. Snoopy, in the end, manages to defeat the Red Baron by kamikaze and save Fifi.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: Before leaving school for summer, Charlie Brown is surprised when the Little Red-Haired Girl chooses him for a pen pal. Linus convinces Charlie Brown he needs to tell the Little Red-Haired Girl how he feels about her before she leaves for the summer. Racing to her house, he discovers she is about to leave on a bus for summer camp. He tries to chase the bus but is prevented from reaching it. Just as he is about to give up, Charlie Brown sees a kite fall from the Kite-Eating Tree. The string becomes entangled around his waist and sails away with him. Amazed to see Charlie Brown flying a kite, his friends follow. Upon reaching the bus, Charlie Brown finally asks the Little Red-Haired Girl why she has chosen him in spite of his failures. The Little Red-Haired Girl explains she admires his selflessness and determination, calling him an honest, caring, and compassionate person. As a result, everyone congratulates Charlie Brown for his efforts, hard work, and for being a true friend.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: In the first mid-credits scene, Lucy tries to convince Charlie Brown to kick the football once more. Charlie Brown is apprehensive, but Lucy tells him that she now understands that he is kind, compassionate, brave, and funny and that no one would pull a football away from someone with all of those qualities. Charlie Brown, convinced, agrees once more, only for Lucy to pull the football away and adds smugly that she forgot to say that he is gullible, causing Charlie Brown to smile. In the second mid-credits scene, Snoopy, Fifi, Woodstock, the Beagle Scouts, and Snoopy's siblings celebrate Snoopy's victory over the Red Baron with root beer, that is until the Red Baron shows up again and knocks Snoopy into the root beer causing him to shout "Curse you, Red Baron!" (via thought bubble). In the post-credits scene, Linus' model tri-plane finally sputters to a stop over the pond and falls straight in.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: In 2006, six years after the release of the last original "Peanuts" strip, as well as the death of creator Charles M. Schulz, his son Craig Schulz came up with an idea for a new "Peanuts" film, which he showed to his screenwriter son Bryan Schulz. "I was happy to show my son," Craig said. "He showed me how to make it bigger—how to blow it up more—and he helped me put in structure." When presenting their film to studios, Craig stipulated that the film remain under Schulz control, saying, "We need[ed] to have absolute quality control and keep it under Dad's legacy... You can't bring people in from the outside and expect them to understand "Peanuts"." On October 9, 2012, it was announced that 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios were developing a 3D computer-animated feature film based on the strip, with Steve Martino directing from the screenplay by Craig Schulz, Bryan Schulz, and Cornelius Uliano. Craig, Bryan, and Uliano also produced. Craig, stating there is no one "more protective of the comic strip than myself," chose Martino as director because he showed faithfulness to literature in his adaptation of Dr. Seuss' "Horton Hears a Who!".


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: On the film's plot, Martino said: "Here's where I lean thematically. I want to go through this journey... Charlie Brown is that guy who, in the face of repeated failure, picks himself back up and tries again. That's no small task. I have kids who aspire to be something big and great... a star football player or on Broadway. I think what Charlie Brown is—what I hope to show in this film—is the everyday qualities of perseverance... to pick yourself back up with a positive attitude—that's every bit as heroic... as having a star on the Walk of Fame or being a star on Broadway. That's the [story's] core. This is a feature film story that has a strong dramatic drive, and takes its core ideas from the strip." Martino and his animators spent over a year looking at Charles M. Schulz's original drawing style to help translate the "hand-drawn warmth... into the cool pixel-precision of CGI" without the fear of something getting lost in translation, such as "how the dot of an eye [conveyed] joy or sorrow so efficiently". In addition to receiving the rights to use Bill Melendez's voice for Snoopy and Woodstock, Martino was also able to get the rights to archive music from previous "Peanuts" specials. Classic locations are featured, such as Charlie Brown's skating pond, his house, "the wall" and Lucy's psychiatrist booth, each retaining their "eternal look of the strip." Additionally, despite being outdated technology, rotary phones and typewriters are seen, as well as Lucy's psychiatrist booth still costing a nickel. Adult characters' "wah-wah" voices are represented by a trombone with a plunger mute, as in previous "Peanuts" media, courtesy of New Orleans jazz musician Trombone Shorty. Because of the robust number of existing "Peanuts" characters, the film does not introduce any new characters.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: On January 8, 2013, Leigh Anne Brodsky became the managing director of Peanuts Worldwide and was set to control all the global deals for the film. In April 2013, Fox announced that the film would be released in 3D. In October 2013, it was announced that Paul Feig would also produce. By April 2015, 75% of the animation was complete, with some footage scheduled to debut at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: In October 2014, it was announced that Christophe Beck would score the film. Beck stated, "With the "Peanuts" movies, I grew up on those specials from the '60s and '70s, that, of course, rerun to this day. I'm very fond of all that Vince Guaraldi music, so what we did was try to find spots in the film where we could sort of touch down and remind people who were watching the film that it's still a "Peanuts" movie, and there's still a place for that music in the film. There's a bunch of spots where we quote the Guaraldi music, or we actually re-record his pieces quite faithfully." He also added that the score would be more orchestral than Guaraldi's previous scores, which were mainly a small jazz combo. Jazz pianist David Benoit contributed to Beck's score.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: On July 28, 2015, it was announced that Meghan Trainor would write and perform a song for the film, entitled "Better When I'm Dancin'". Epic Records released the soundtrack album on October 23, 2015. The 20-track album features Trainor's "Better When I'm Dancin", Flo Rida's "That's What I Like" featuring Fitz, "Linus and Lucy", "Skating" and "Christmas Time Is Here" by Vince Guaraldi, from the "A Charlie Brown Christmas" album, and 15 tracks of Beck's original score for the film. An exclusive edition of the soundtrack released at Target features a second Trainor track, "Good to Be Alive". The Japanese edition of the soundtrack includes "Good to Be Alive" and three more tracks from Beck's score. The Japan version of the movie also uses Japanese singer-songwriter Ayaka's "A Song For You" for the trailer and the ending instead of Trainor's, but it was released as a single and did not appear on the Japanese edition of the soundtrack album.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: "The Peanuts Movie" held its premiere in New York City on November 1, 2015, and was released on November 6, 2015, in the United States on 3,897 screens. The release commemorates the 65th anniversary of the comic strip and the 50th anniversary of the TV special "A Charlie Brown Christmas". The film was originally scheduled for November 25, 2015, and in November 2012 was rescheduled to November 6, 2015. The film was released as "Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie" in United Kingdom on December 18, 2015. The Australian release date was supposed to be December 21, 2015 but was postponed to January 8, 2016.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: A video game based on the film, titled "", was released on November 3, 2015, for Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, and published by Activision.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: "The Peanuts Movie" was released on digital platforms on February 12, 2016, before being released on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and 4K Ultra HD a month later on March 8, 2016. The film debuted at the top of the home media sales chart for the week ending on March 13, 2016.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: "The Peanuts Movie" grossed $130.2 million in North America and $116 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $246.2 million.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: The film grossed $12.1 million on its opening day, earning a total of $44 million for the weekend (with 27% of the gross coming from 3D screenings), finishing second at the box office behind "Spectre" ($70.4 million). Outside North America, the film opened in the same week as the U.S. and grossed $4.56 million from 12 markets. China ($2.76 million) and Italy ($1.16 million) delivered the biggest openings. After three weekends, it opened to a total of 49 markets where it had the second biggest opening of 2015 in Mexico ($3.1 million) and debuted in the U.K., Ireland and Malta at No. 2 with $5.5 million (including previews) behind "". One of the final markets was Australia where the film opened on New Year's Day 2016, earning $2.6 million in its first week.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported approval rating and an average rating of based on reviews, making it the highest-rated film produced by Blue Sky Studios. The site's consensus states: ""The Peanuts Movie" offers a colorful gateway into the world of its classic characters and a sweetly nostalgic – if relatively unambitious – treat for the adults who grew up with them." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: "The Hollywood Reporter"s Michael Rechtshaffen found the film to be especially praiseworthy, feeling that Charles Schulz would have been proud of the film, though he criticized the use of Trainor's song in an otherwise good use of Guaraldi's themes with Beck's score. Peter Debruge of "Variety" gave similar sentiments, especially praising the animation of the film. Alonso Duralde of TheWrap felt the film made a nice transition to 3D, saying, while the film might not reach "the melancholy of earlier films... it nonetheless respects the importance of failure and disappointment that Schulz always included in his storytelling". He did, however, feel that "Peanuts" purists would take issue with a few things in the film, such as seeing and hearing so much of the Little Red-Haired Girl, who was always off-panel in the comic strips, and Peppermint Patty acknowledging that Snoopy is a dog and not a child with a big nose (even though, unbeknownst to him, Marcie told her that Snoopy was a beagle in the latter years of the strip). Pete Hammond from "Deadline Hollywood" admitted his trepidation about translating the characters from 2D to 3D, but enjoyed the film overall, only criticizing the amount of fantasy sequences involving Snoopy. Brian Truitt of "USA Today" gave the film three out of four stars, proclaiming the film "is all about simplicity, and what the plot lacks in nuance and complexity is made up for with relatable characters whom people have spent a lifetime watching. The movie is a testament to Charlie Brown's place in pop culture and a showcase for a new generation bound to fall in love with its perennially insecure star". Neil Genzlinger from "The New York Times" named the film an NYT Critics' Pick, calling it "the most charming and the most daring experiment in human genetics ever conducted". However, he also showed concern for the modern children's audiences who may or may not only know the Peanuts gang from the holiday specials.


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: Scott Mendelson from "Forbes" was more critical of the film, saying there was "nothing objectively wrong with "The Peanuts Movie"", but as he personally was not a fan of the "Peanuts" comic strip, that made him "anti-Charlie Brown", loathing each time Charlie Brown failed in the film. Joe McGovern from "Entertainment Weekly" was also not as receptive, giving the film a grade of C+, and criticizing the animation, stating, "Even if you assume that Schulz always wanted his frozen pond reflecting lustrous light and Snoopy frolicking in a lavish Hayao Miyazaki world, the animation steroids injected into the aesthetic here nonetheless shrivel the great melancholy that's so key to the comic's endurance".


title: The Peanuts Movie

text: Although "The Peanuts Movie" has been described as a success, and Fox was reportedly interested in making a sequel and turning "The Peanuts Movie" into a franchise, Fox only had the rights to make one "Peanuts" film. Schulz's widow, Jean, has indicated that a sequel is not imminent, stating, "This one took eight years, so maybe we'll talk again then."


title: 8mm (film)

text: 8mm is a 1999 neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Joel Schumacher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. A German–American production, the film stars Nicolas Cage as a private investigator who delves into the world of snuff films. Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, Peter Stormare, and Anthony Heald appear in supporting roles.


title: 8mm (film)

text: The film received negative reviews, but was a box office success. It was followed by a sequel, "8mm 2", in 2005, although the storylines of the two films are not related.


title: 8mm (film)

text: Private investigator Tom Welles is contacted by Daniel Longdale, attorney for wealthy widow Mrs. Christian, whose husband has recently died. While clearing out her late husband's safe, she and Longdale find an 8mm movie which appears to depict a real murder of a girl, but Mrs. Christian wants to know for certain. Welles is instructed by Longdale and Mrs. Christian not to reproduce the snuff film in any way, and to not tell anyone else about the investigation.


title: 8mm (film)

text: After looking through missing persons files, Welles discovers the girl is Mary Ann Mathews and visits her mother, Janet, in North Carolina. She allows Welles to search her house, and he finds Mary Ann's diary, in which she says she went to Hollywood to become a film star. He asks Mrs. Mathews if she wants to know the truth, even if it is unbearable. She says that she wants to know what happened to her daughter.


title: 8mm (film)

text: In Hollywood, with the help of adult video store employee Max California, Welles delves into the world of underground (and sometimes illegal) fetish pornography. He attempts to find out if snuff films are real, or if there is anyone in this underworld who was connected to this film. Contact with sleazy talent scout Eddie Poole leads them to director Dino Velvet, whose violent pornographic films star a masked man known as "Machine" who rapes and tortures women. To gain more evidence, Welles pretends to be a client interested in commissioning a hardcore BDSM film to be directed by Velvet and starring Machine. Velvet agrees and arranges a meeting in New York City.


title: 8mm (film)

text: The meeting turns out to be an ambush. Longdale and Poole appear and hold Welles at gunpoint. It is now clear that the film was real; Mr. Christian contacted Longdale to procure a snuff film, and being unable to find one, he commissioned Velvet and Poole to make one. Velvet and Machine produce a bound and beaten Max, whom they abducted to force Welles to bring them the only surviving copy of the film. As Longdale and Welles go to Welles' car to retrieve the film, Longdale admits that he never thought Welles would get as far as he did, and just wanted to placate Mrs. Christian with the investigation. Once he delivers it, Longdale and Velvet burn it and kill California. As they are about to kill Welles, he tells them that Mr. Christian paid $1 million for the film; Velvet, Poole, and Machine received $50,000 and Longdale kept the major portion. In an ensuing fight, Velvet and Longdale are both killed; Welles wounds Machine and escapes.


title: 8mm (film)

text: Welles calls Mrs. Christian to tell her his discoveries and recommends going to the police, to which she agrees. Arriving at her estate, Welles is told that Mrs. Christian committed suicide after hearing the news. She left envelopes for the Mathews family and Welles: it contains the rest of his payment and a note reading, "Try to forget us". Welles warns his already frantic wife of the impending danger and to seek shelter in a location known only to them, and hands her his half of the money.


title: 8mm (film)

text: Welles decides to seek justice for Mary Ann by killing the remaining people involved. Welles returns to Hollywood and tracks down Poole. He takes him to the shooting location and tries to kill him, but he is hesitant. He calls Mrs. Mathews to tell her about her daughter and asks for her permission to punish those responsible. Mrs. Mathews breaks down hysterically once presented with the truth, but affirms that she loved her daughter. With that, Welles returns and beats Poole to death with his pistol, burning his body and the pornography from his car. Welles discovers Machine's address in New York, and attacks him at his home. Welles unmasks him, revealing an unremarkable, bespectacled man named George. He reveals to Welles that his sadism did not result from neglect or childhood abuse; he kills people simply because he enjoys it. They struggle, and Welles kills him.


title: 8mm (film)

text: After returning to his family, Welles breaks down in front of his wife as he tries to process all of the evil that he had seen over the course of the investigation. Months later, Welles receives a letter from Mrs. Mathews, thanking him and relating her gratitude for the fact that, in spite of everything, she and Welles were the only people who really cared about Mary Ann.


title: 8mm (film)

text: Principal Photography began February 1998 in Miami, Florida. And filming also took place in New York City, and Sony Pictures Studios, Culver City, California


title: 8mm (film)

text: "8mm" opened in 2,730 theaters in North America and made $14,252,888 in its opening weekend with an average of $6,013 per theater ranking number 1 at the box office. The film made $36,663,315 domestically and $59,955,384 internationally for a total of $96,618,699, more than double its $40 million production budget.


title: 8mm (film)

text: The film received negative reviews from critics. It has a rating of 22% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 85 reviews with an average rating of 4.30/10. The consensus states that "its sadistic violence is unappealing and is lacking in suspense and mystery." The film also has a score of 19 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 20 reviews indicating "overwhelming dislike." Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "C−" on scale of A+ to F. Derek Elley of "Variety" criticized the film, stating that ""8MM" is a movie that keeps jumping the gate and finally unravels all over the floor." Peter Travers for "Rolling Stone" wrote that the film "aims for a psychological depth that the script can't sustain."


title: 8mm (film)

text: Roger Ebert was one of the film's admirers and gave the film three stars out of four, stating on his website "I know some audience members will be appalled by this film, as many were by "Seven". It is a very hard R that would doubtless have been NC-17 if it had come from an indie instead of a big studio with clout. But it is a real film. Not a slick exploitation exercise with all the trappings of depravity but none of the consequences. Not a film where moral issues are forgotten in the excitement of an action climax. Yes, the hero is an ordinary man who finds himself able to handle violent situations, but that's not the movie's point. The last two words of the screenplay are "save me" and by the time they're said, we know what they mean."


title: 8mm (film)

text: The film score was composed by Mychael Danna. It was released on CD by Chapter III in 1999, with a total of 20 tracks:


title: Dean Koontz

text: Dean Ray Koontz (born July 9, 1945) is an American author. His novels are billed as suspense thrillers, but frequently incorporate elements of horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and satire. Many of his books have appeared on "The New York Times" Best Seller list, with fourteen hardcovers and sixteen paperbacks reaching the number-one position. Koontz wrote under a number of pen names earlier in his career, including "David Axton", "Deanna Dwyer", "K.R. Dwyer", "Leigh Nichols" and "Brian Coffey". He has published over 105 novels and a number of novellas and collections of short stories, and has sold over 450 million copies of his work.


title: Dean Koontz

text: Koontz was born on July 9, 1945, in Everett, Pennsylvania, the son of Florence (née Logue) and Raymond Koontz. He has said that he was regularly beaten and abused by his alcoholic father, which influenced his later writing, as also did the courage of his physically diminutive mother in standing up to her husband. In his senior year at Shippensburg State College, he won a fiction competition sponsored by "Atlantic Monthly" magazine. After graduation in 1967, he went to work as an English teacher at Mechanicsburg High School in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. In the 1960s, Koontz worked for the Appalachian Poverty Program, a federally funded initiative designed to help poor children. In a 1996 interview with "Reason" magazine, he said that while the program sounded "very noble and wonderful, ... [i]n reality, it was a dumping ground for violent children ... and most of the funding ended up 'disappearing somewhere.'" This experience greatly shaped Koontz's political outlook. In his book, "The Dean Koontz Companion", he recalled that he


title: Dean Koontz

text: "... realized that most of these programs are not meant to help anyone, merely to control people and make them dependent. I was forced to reconsider everything I'd once believed. I developed a profound distrust of government regardless of the philosophy of the people in power. I remained a liberal on civil-rights issues, became a conservative on defense, and a semi-libertarian on all other matters."


title: Dean Koontz

text: In his spare time, Koontz wrote his first novel, "Star Quest", which was published in 1968. Koontz went on to write over a dozen science fiction novels. Seeing the Catholic faith as a contrast to the chaos in his family, Koontz converted in college because faith provided existential answers for life; he admired Catholicism's "intellectual rigor," saying it permitted a view of life that saw mystery and wonder in all things. He says he sees Catholicism as English writer and Catholic convert G. K. Chesterton did: that it encourages a "joy about the gift of life". Koontz says that spirituality has always been part of his books, as are grace and our struggle as fallen souls, but he "never get[s] on a soapbox".


title: Dean Koontz

text: In the 1970s, Koontz began writing suspense and horror fiction, both under his own name and several pseudonyms, sometimes publishing up to eight books a year. Koontz has stated that he began using pen names after several editors convinced him that authors who switched back and forth between different genres invariably fell victim to "negative crossover" (alienating established fans and simultaneously failing to pick up any new ones). Known pseudonyms used by Koontz during his career include Deanna Dwyer, K. R. Dwyer, Aaron Wolfe, David Axton, Brian Coffey, John Hill, Leigh Nichols, Owen West, Richard Paige, and Anthony North. As Brian Coffey, he wrote the "Mike Tucker" trilogy ("Blood Risk", "Surrounded", "Wall of Masks") in acknowledged tribute to the Parker novels of Richard Stark (Donald E. Westlake). Many of Koontz's pseudonymous novels are now available under his real name. Many others remain suppressed by Koontz, who bought back the rights to ensure they could not be republished; he has, on occasion, said that he might revise some for republication, but only three have appeared — "Demon Seed" and "Invasion" were both heavily rewritten before they were republished, and "Prison of Ice" had certain sections bowdlerised.


title: Dean Koontz

text: After writing full-time for more than 10 years, Koontz had his acknowledged breakthrough novel with "Whispers", published in 1980. The two books before that, "The Key to Midnight" and "The Funhouse", also sold over a million copies, but were written under pen names. His first bestseller was "Demon Seed", the sales of which picked up after the release of the film of the same name in 1977, and sold over two million copies in one year. His first hardcover bestseller, which finally promised some financial stability and lifted him out of the midlist hit-and-miss range, was his book "Strangers".