title: Izanami

text: Her name is given in the "Kojiki" (ca. 712 AD) both as "Izanami-no-Kami" (伊弉冉神) and "Izanami-no-Mikoto" (伊弉冉尊), while the "Nihon Shoki" (720 AD) refers to her as "Izanami-no-Mikoto", with the name written in different characters (伊邪那美命).


title: Izanami

text: The names "Izanagi" ("Izanaki") and "Izanami" are often interpreted as being derived from the verb (historical orthography ) or "iⁿzanap"- from Western Old Japanese 'to invite' , with "-ki" / "-gi" and "-mi" being taken as masculine and feminine suffixes, respectively. The literal translation of Iⁿzanaŋgî and Iⁿzanamî are 'Male-who-invites' and 'Female-who-invites'. Shiratori Kurakichi proposed an alternative theory which instead sees the root "iza-" (or rather "isa-") to be derived from "isao" (historical orthography: "isawo") meaning 'achievement' or 'merit'.


title: Izanami

text: The etymological origin of the verb is suggested to be a precursor to the Middle Korean lemma "yènc"- meaning 'to place/put on [the top of]' reconstructed as "*yenc-a" (place-INF) in OK. This does coincide with other related mythological figures related to a source in the Korean peninsula like Susanöwo.


title: Izanami

text: The first gods Kunitokotachi and Amenominakanushi summoned two divine beings into existence, the male Izanagi and the female Izanami, and charged them with creating the first land. To help them do this, Izanagi and Izanami were given a spear decorated with jewels, named "Amenonuhoko" (heavenly spear). The two deities then went to the bridge between heaven and earth, "Ame-no-ukihashi" ("floating bridge of heaven"), and churned the sea below with the spear. When drops of salty water fell from the spear, Onogoroshima was created. They descended from the bridge of heaven and made their home on the island.


title: Izanami

text: Eventually they wished to be mated, so they built a pillar called "Ame-no-mihashira" (天の御柱,"pillar of heaven"; the "mi-" is an honorific prefix) and around it they built a palace called "Yahiro-dono" (八尋殿,one "hiro" is approximately 1.82 m, so the "eight-"hiro"-palace" would have been 14.56 m). Izanagi and Izanami circled the pillar in opposite directions and, when they met on the other side, Izanami spoke first in greeting. Izanagi did not think that this was proper, but they mated anyhow. They had two children, Hiruko ("leech-child"), who later came to be known in Shintoism as the god Ebisu, and Awashima, but they were born deformed and were not considered deities.


title: Izanami

text: They put the children into a boat and set them out to sea, then petitioned the other gods for an answer as to what they did wrong. They were told that the male deity should have spoken first in greeting during the marriage ceremony. So Izanagi and Izanami went around the pillar again, this time Izanagi speaking first when they met, and their marriage was finally successful.


title: Izanami

text: They bore six more islands and many deities. Izanami died giving birth to the child Kagu-tsuchi (incarnation of fire) or Ho-Musubi (causer of fire). She was then buried on Mt. Hiba, at the border of the old provinces of Izumo and Hōki, near modern-day Yasugi of Shimane Prefecture. Izanagi was so angry at the death of his wife that he killed the newborn child, thereby creating dozens of deities.


title: Izanami

text: The "Kojiki" talks of the death of Izanami and her tomb, which was located at the boundary between country Izumo and Hōki. It implies that Izanami transferred her soul to an animal and a human before her death, but does not state whether or not Izanami had incarnations.


title: Izanami

text: Izanagi-no-Mikoto lamented the death of Izanami-no-Mikoto and undertook a journey to Yomi ("the shadowy land of the dead"). He searched for Izanami-no-Mikoto and found her. At first, Izanagi-no-Mikoto could not see her for the shadows hid her appearance. He asked her to return with him. Izanami-no-Mikoto informed Izanagi-no-Mikoto that he was too late. She had already eaten the food of the underworld and was now one with the land of the dead. She could no longer return to the living but would try to ask for permission to leave.


title: Izanami

text: The news shocked Izanagi-no-Mikoto, but he refused to leave her in Yomi. While Izanami-no-Mikoto was sleeping, he took the comb that bound his long hair and set it alight as a torch. Under the sudden burst of light, he saw the horrid form of the once beautiful and graceful Izanami-no-Mikoto. She was now a rotting form of flesh with maggots and foul creatures running over her ravaged body.


title: Izanami

text: Crying out loud, Izanagi-no-Mikoto could no longer control his fear and started to run, intending to return to the living and abandon his death-ridden wife. Izanami-no-Mikoto woke up, shrieking and indignant, and chased after him. She also sent "Yakusa-no-ikazuchi-no-kami" ("Raijin") and "shikome" (foul women) to hunt for Izanagi-no-Mikoto and bring him back to Yomi.


title: Izanami

text: Izanagi-no-Mikoto burst out of the entrance and pushed a boulder in the mouth of the "Yomotsuhirasaka" (; cavern that was the entrance of Yomi) to create a separation between the world of the living and the world of the dead, as well as separating Izanagi from Izanami.


title: Izanami

text: Izanami-no-Mikoto screamed from behind this impenetrable barricade and told Izanagi-no-Mikoto that if he left her she would destroy 1,000 residents of the living every day. He furiously replied he would give life to 1,500 residents.


title: Izanami

text: Izanagi is said to have performed ritualistic cleansing, "harai", after witnessing the decomposing body of his wife. This is the traditional explanation for the purification rituals often performed at Shinto shrines in Japanese religion, where shrine-goers wash themselves with water before entering the sacred space. While he bathed, Izanagi gave birth to the sun goddess, Amaterasu, from his left eye, the moon god, Tsukuyomi, from his right eye, and the storm god, Susanoo, from his nose.


title: Izanami

text: While similar in many aspects, the version of the tale of Izanagi and Izanami in the "Nihonshoki" differs from the "Kojiki" version in that Izanagi does not descend into the Underworld (Yomi), instead residing permanently on the island of Awaji in a temple. Additionally, in the "Nihonshoki", the three deities Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi, and Susanoo were said to have been created by both Izanagi and Izanami, instead of Izanagi alone.


title: Izanami

text: Izanami appears as a playable god in the video game Smite. She also, alongside Amaterasu and Susanoo, appears in the video game DKO (Divine Knockout).


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: Dido Elizabeth Belle (June 1761 – July 1804) was a British heiress and a member of the Lindsay family of Evelix. She was born into slavery and illegitimate; her mother, Maria Belle, was an enslaved African woman in the British West Indies. Her father was Sir John Lindsay, a British career naval officer who was stationed there. Her father was knighted and promoted to admiral. Lindsay took Belle with him when he returned to England in 1765, entrusting her upbringing to his uncle William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, and his wife Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Mansfield. The Murrays educated Belle, bringing her up as a free gentlewoman at their Kenwood House, together with another great-niece, Lady Elizabeth Murray, whose mother had died. Lady Elizabeth and Belle were second cousins. Belle lived there for 30 years. In his will of 1793, Lord Mansfield provided an outright sum and an annuity to her, making her an heiress.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: Dido Elizabeth Belle was born into slavery in 1761 in the British West Indies to an enslaved African woman known as Maria Belle. (Her name was spelled as Maria Bell in her daughter's baptism record.) Her father was 24-year-old Sir John Lindsay, a member of the Lindsay family of Evelix branch of the Clan Lindsay and a descendant of the Clan Murray, who was a career naval officer and then captain of the British warship HMS "Trent", based in the West Indies. He was the son of Sir Alexander Lindsay, 3rd Baronet and his wife Amelia, daughter of David Murray, 5th Viscount Stormont. Lindsay is thought to have found Maria Belle held as a slave on a Spanish ship which his forces captured in the Caribbean. Lindsay returned to London after the war in 1765 with his young daughter, Dido Belle. When they arrived in England he took her to Kenwood House just outside the city, the home of his uncle, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, and his wife Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Mansfield. Belle was baptised as Dido Elizabeth Belle in 1766 at St George's, Bloomsbury. The Murray family raised Belle as an educated woman along with their niece and Dido's cousin, Lady Elizabeth Murray, whose mother had died.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: A contemporary obituary of Sir John Lindsay, who had eventually been promoted to admiral, acknowledged that he was the father of Dido Belle, and described her: "[H]e has died, we believe, without any legitimate issue but has left one natural daughter, a Mulatta who has been brought up in Lord Mansfield's family almost from her infancy and whose amiable disposition and accomplishments have gained her the highest respect from all his Lordship's relations and visitants." At one time, historians thought her mother was an African slave on a ship captured by Lindsay's warship during the Siege of Havana, but this specific date is unlikely, as Dido was born in 1761.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: The Earl and Countess of Mansfield lived at Kenwood House in Hampstead, just outside the City of London. Childless, they were already raising their motherless great-niece, Lady Elizabeth Murray, born in 1760. It is possible that the Mansfields took Belle in to be Lady Elizabeth's playmate and, later in life, her personal attendant. Her role within the family suggests that she became more that of a lady's companion than a lady's maid.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: At Kenwood House, "Belle was treated like the rest of the family when she was in company with only the family," says Mansfield. Dido Elizabeth Belle worked as an amanuensis for Lord Mansfield in his later years.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: Belle lived at Kenwood House for 31 years. Her position was unusual because she had been born into slavery according to colonial law. Lord and Lady Mansfield to some extent treated her and brought her up as a member of the Murray family. As she grew older, she often assisted Mansfield by taking dictation of his letters, which showed she had been educated.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: One of Mansfield's friends, American Thomas Hutchinson, a former governor of Massachusetts who as a Loyalist had moved to London, recalled in his personal diary that Belle "was called upon by my Lord every minute for this thing and that, and showed the greatest attention to everything he said". He described her as "neither handsome nor genteel – pert enough". He also talked about his first impressions of her at Lord Mansfield's house, saying "A Black came in after dinner and sat with the ladies, and after coffee, walked with the company in the gardens, one of the young ladies having her arm within the other. She had a very high cap, and her wool was much frizzled in her neck, but not enough to answer the large curls now in fashion. I knew her history before, but my Lord mentioned it again. Sir Lindsay, having taken her mother prisoner in a Spanish vessel, brought her to England, where she delivered of this girl, of which she was then with child, and which was taken care of by Lord M., and has been educated by his family. He calls her Dido, which I suppose is all the name she has. He knows he has been reproached for showing a fondness for her – I dare say not criminal".


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: A brief reference to Belle occurs in volume II of James Beattie's Elements of Moral Science. Beattie refers to her intelligence, saying "But I happened, a few days after, to see his theory overturned, and my conjecture established by a negro girl about ten years old, who had been six years in England, and not only spoke with the articulation and accent of a native, but repeated some pieces of poetry, with a degree of elegance, which would have been admired in any English child of her years." Following this is a footnote which states, "She was in Lord Mansfield's family; and at his desire, and in his presence, repeated those pieces of poetry to me. She was called Dido, and I believe is still alive." This and the quotations from Thomas Hutchinson are some of the few direct references to Dido found in primary source material.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: Lord Mansfield ruled on a related matter of the status of slaves in England in his capacity as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. When called on in 1772 to judge Somerset v Stewart, the case of an escaped slave whose owner wanted to send him back to the West Indies for sale, he decreed:


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: Mansfield's ruling that slavery did not exist in common law and had never been introduced by positive law was taken by abolitionists to mean that slavery was abolished in England. Mansfield later said his decision was intended only to apply to the slave at issue in the case. At the time, it was suggested that Mansfield's personal experience with raising Dido Belle influenced his decision. Thomas Hutchinson later recalled a comment by a slave-owner: "A few years ago there was a cause before his Lordship brought by a Black for recovery of his liberty. A Jamaica planter, being asked what judgment his Lordship would give [answered] 'No doubt... he will be set free, for Lord Mansfield keeps a Black in his house which governs him and the whole family.'"


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: The notion of a mixed-race child born in this era to be raised as part of an aristocratic British family was virtually unheard of, and the social conventions of Mansfield's household are somewhat unclear. A 2007 exhibit at Kenwood suggests that Dido’s African origins may have played a part in the disparity, yet it was also usual to treat illegitimate children as lesser family, therefore she wasn't permitted to dine in with guests, as was reported by Thomas Hutchinson. He said Belle joined the ladies afterwards for coffee in the drawing-room. In 2014, author Paula Byrne wrote that Belle's exclusion from this particular dinner was pragmatic rather than the custom. She notes that other aspects of Belle's life, such as being given expensive medical treatments and luxurious bedroom furnishings, were evidence of her position as Lady Elizabeth's equal at Kenwood.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: As Belle grew older, she took on the responsibility of managing the dairy and poultry yards at Kenwood. This was a typical occupation for ladies of the gentry, but helping her uncle with his correspondence was less usual. This was normally done by a male secretary or a clerk. Belle was given an annual allowance of £30 10s. By contrast, Lady Elizabeth received around £100, but she was a beneficiary in her own right through her mother's family. Belle, quite apart from her race, was illegitimate, in a time and place when great social stigma usually accompanied such status.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: For comparision: The annual wage of a female domestic worker holding the position of a housekeeper in a high-status household ranged from £20 to £70 at that time, while a Royal Navy lieutenant would draw about £100 a year. About £200 purchased a 3-bedroom house with garden outside the city of London.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: Belle's father died in 1788 without legitimate heirs, bequeathing £1000 to be shared by his "reputed children", John and Elizabeth Lindsay (as noted in his will). Historian Gene Adams believed this suggested that Lindsay referred to his daughter as Elizabeth, and she may have been named Dido by his uncle and aunt after they took charge of her. Another source says that there was another natural daughter, known as Elizabeth Palmer (born c. 1765), who lived in Scotland.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: Belle's legal status while Lord Mansfield was alive is uncertain. In his will written in 1783, published in 1793, Lord Mansfield officially confirmed or conferred Belle's freedom. To secure her future after his death, he bequeathed to her £500 as an outright sum and a £100 annuity. In 1799, Belle also inherited £100 from Lady Margery Murray, one of two female relatives who had come to live with and help care for the Murrays in their later years.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: However, William Murray left his niece Elizabeth Murray £10,000. Her father was in line to inherit his uncle's title and entire wealth.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: After Lord Mansfield's death in March 1793, Belle married Jean Louis Charles Davinière (anglicized to John Davinier) on 5 December 1793 at St George's, Hanover Square. Belle's husband was a Frenchman from Ducey in the Normandy. His date of birth is unknown, but he was baptised on 16 November 1768; assuming this happened shortly after birth, he was seven years younger than his wife. He had left France for England towards the end of the 1780s and found work as servant or valet with John ('Fish') Craufurd. They were both then residents of the parish. The Daviniers had at least three sons: twins Charles and John, both baptised at St George's on 8 May 1795; and William Thomas, baptised there on 26 January 1802.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: Belle died in 1805 at the age of 43, and was interred in July of that year at St George's Fields, Westminster, a burial ground close to what is now Bayswater Road. In the 1970s, the site was redeveloped and her grave was moved. Her husband later remarried and had two more children with his second wife.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: Two of Belle's sons, William Thomas and Charles, were employed by the East India Company; William in England and Charles in India. Presumably, both of them had enjoyed a good private school education in their childhood, with tuition in English, Greek, Latin, French, accounting, land surveying, mathematics and drawing.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: Charles Davinière joined the army in 1811 and initially served as ensign with the Madras Army (one of the territorial armies of the East India Company (HEIC), preceding the British Indian Army). He was assigned to the 15th Madras Native Infantry (MNI) and later to the 30th MNI (that was formed from the 2nd Battailon, 15th MNI, in 1824). He was promoted to lieutenant in 1817 and captain in 1827. In August 1837, he was "to have charge of Infantry recruits" in the headquarters at Fort St. George. Becoming major in 1841, Davinière retired on health grounds in 1845 or 1847, still serving then with the 30th MNI. Nonetheless, he was promoted one more time, to lieutenant colonel of the Madras Infantry, in 1855. The reason seems unclear; possibly he was reactivated for an unknown number of years.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: Charles Davinière had married Hannah Nash, youngest daughter of J. Nash, Esquire of Kensington, at Kensington Church in August 1836. After his (final) retirement, Charles lived with his wife, children, and servants at Lansdowne Villas in Notting Hill, where he died on 24 January 1873.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: William Thomas Davinière married a widow, Fanny Graham, and had a daughter, Emily. Emily died unmarried in 1870, several years after the death of her parents.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: Belle's last known descendant, her great-great-grandson Harold Davinier, died childless in South Africa in 1975.


title: Dido Elizabeth Belle

text: The family commissioned a painting of Dido and Elizabeth. Completed in 1779, it was formerly attributed to Johann Zoffany but, following research by the BBC TV programme "Fake or Fortune?", it has now been verified by the Scottish National Gallery as a painting in the Zoffany style by the Scottish portraitist David Martin. It is "unique in British art of the 18th century in depicting a black woman and a white woman as near equals". It shows Dido alongside and slightly behind her cousin Elizabeth, carrying exotic fruit and wearing a turban with a large ostrich feather. The painting is owned by the present Earl of Mansfield and housed at Scone Palace in Perth, Scotland. In 2007, it was exhibited in Kenwood House, together with more information about Belle, during an exhibition marking the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807.


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: Abdulrazak Gurnah (born 20 December 1948) is a Tanzanian-born British novelist and academic. He was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee during the Zanzibar Revolution. His novels include "Paradise" (1994), which was shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize; "Desertion" (2005); and "By the Sea" (2001), which was longlisted for the Booker and shortlisted for the "Los Angeles Times" Book Prize.


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: Gurnah was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents". He is Emeritus Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent.


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: Abdulrazak Gurnah was born on 20 December 1948 in the Sultanate of Zanzibar. He left the island, which later became part of Tanzania, at the age of 18 following the overthrow of the ruling Arab elite in the Zanzibar Revolution, arriving in England in 1968 as a refugee. He is of Arab heritage, and his father and uncle were businessmen who had immigrated from Yemen. Gurnah has been quoted saying, "I came to England when these words, such as asylum-seeker, were not quite the same – more people are struggling and running from terror states."


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: He initially studied at Christ Church College, Canterbury, whose degrees were at the time awarded by the University of London. He then moved to the University of Kent, where he earned his PhD with a thesis titled "Criteria in the Criticism of West African Fiction", in 1982.


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: From 1980 to 1983 Gurnah lectured at Bayero University Kano in Nigeria. He then became a professor of English and postcolonial literature at the University of Kent, where he taught until his retirement in 2017; he is now professor emeritus of English and postcolonial literatures at the university.


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: Although Gurnah's novels were received positively by critics, they were not commercially successful and, in some cases, were not published outside the United Kingdom. After he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021, publishers and booksellers struggled to keep up with the increase in demand for his work. It was not until after the Nobel announcement that Gurnah received bids from American publishers for his novel "Afterlives;" Riverhead Books plans to release it in August 2022. Riverhead also acquired rights to "By the Sea" and "Desertion," two Gurnah works that had gone out of print.


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: Alongside his work in academia Gurnah is a writer and novelist. He is the author of many short stories, essays and ten novels.


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: While his first language is Swahili, he has used English as his literary language. However Gurnah integrates bits of Swahili, Arabic and German into most of his writings. He has said that he had to push back against publishers to continue this practice and they would have preferred to "italicize or Anglicize Swahili and Arabic references and phrases in his books". Gurnah has criticized the practices in both British and American publishing that want to "make the alien seem alien" by marking "foreign" terms and phrases with italics or by putting them in a glossary. As academic Hamid Dabashi notes, Gurnah "is integral to the manner in which Asian and African migratory and diasporic experiences have enriched and altered English language and literature. ... Calling authors like Gurnah diasporic, exilic, or any other such self-alienating term conceals the fact that English was native to him even before he set foot in England. English colonial officers had brought it home to him."


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: Gurnah began writing out of homesickness during his 20s. He started with writing down thoughts in his diary, which turned into longer reflections about home, and eventually grew into writing fictional stories about other people. This created a habit of using writing as a tool to understand and record his experience of being a refugee, living in another land and the feeling of being displaced. These initial stories eventually became Gurnah's first novel, "Memory of Departure" (1987), which he wrote alongside his Ph.D. dissertation. This first book set the stage for his ongoing exploration of the themes of "the lingering trauma of colonialism, war and displacement" throughout his subsequent novels, short stories and critical essays.


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: Consistent themes run through Gurnah's writing, including exile, displacement, belonging, colonialism and broken promises by the state. Most of his novels tell stories about people living in the developing world, affected by war or crisis, who may not be able to tell their own stories.


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: Much of Gurnah's work is set on the coast of East Africa and many of his novels' protagonists were born in Zanzibar. Though Gurnah has not returned to live in Tanzania since he left at 18, he has said that his homeland "always asserts himself in his imagination, even when he deliberately tries to set his stories elsewhere."


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: Literary critic Bruce King posits that Gurnah's novels place East African protagonists in their broader international context, observing that in Gurnah's fiction "Africans have always been part of the larger, changing world". According to King, Gurnah's characters are often uprooted, alienated, unwanted and therefore are, or feel, resentful victims". Felicity Hand suggests that Gurnah's novels "Admiring Silence" (1996), "By the Sea" (2001) and "Desertion" (2005) all concern "the alienation and loneliness that emigration can produce and the soul-searching questions it gives rise to about fragmented identities and the very meaning of 'home'." She observes that Gurnah's characters typically do not succeed abroad following their migration, using irony and humour to respond to their situation.


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: Novelist Maaza Mengiste has described Gurnah's works by saying: "He has written work that is absolutely unflinching and yet at the same time completely compassionate and full of heart for people of East Africa. [...] He is writing stories that are often quiet stories of people who aren’t heard, but there’s an insistence there that we listen."


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: Aiming to build the readership for Gurnah's writing in Tanzania, the first translator of his novels into Swahili, academic Dr Ida Hadjivayanis of the School of Oriental and African Studies, has said: "I think if his work could be read in East Africa it would have such an impact. ... We can't change our reading culture overnight, so for him to be read the first steps would be to include Paradise and After Lives in the school curriculum."


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: Gurnah edited two volumes of "Essays on African Writing" and has published articles on a number of contemporary postcolonial writers, including V. S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie and Zoë Wicomb. He is the editor of "A Companion to Salman Rushdie" (Cambridge University Press, 2007). Since 1987 he has been a contributing editor of "Wasafiri" and he is on the magazine's advisory board. He has been a judge for awards including the Caine Prize for African Writing, the Booker Prize. and the RSL Literature Matters Awards.


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: Gurnah's 1994 novel "Paradise" was shortlisted for the Booker, the Whitbread and the Writers' Guild Prizes as well as the ALOA Prize for the best Danish translation. His novel "By the Sea" (2001) was longlisted for the Booker and shortlisted for the "Los Angeles Times" Book Prize, while "Desertion" (2005) was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers' Prize.


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: In 2006 Gurnah was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2007 he won the RFI Témoin du Monde (Witness of the world) award in France for "By the Sea".


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: On 7October 2021 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2021 "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents". Gurnah was the first Black writer to receive the prize since 1993, when Toni Morrison won it, and the first African writer since 2007, when Doris Lessing was the recipient.


title: Abdulrazak Gurnah

text: Gurnah lives in Canterbury and has British citizenship. He maintains close ties with Tanzania, where he still has family and where he says he goes when he can: "I am from there. In my mind I live there."


title: Shubman Gill

text: Shubman Gill (born 8 September 1999) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for Punjab in domestic cricket as a right-handed opening batsman. He was the vice-captain of the India U-19 team for 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.


title: Shubman Gill

text: He made his List-A debut against Vidharbha in 2017 and first-class debut for Punjab against Bengal in the 2017–18 Ranji Trophy, in late 2017, with a half-century in the game, and 129 runs in the next match against Services. He made his international debut for the Indian cricket team in January 2019.


title: Shubman Gill

text: He was drafted into India's Under-19 side as the vice-captain for the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. Shubman scored 372 runs at an average of 124.00 at the tournament, where he batted at number three to play a crucial role in India's record fourth world title and was adjudged the edition's Player of the Tournament. His match-winning 102 not out in the semi-final against arch-rivals Pakistan U-19 drew praises from batting greats such as Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, and Sourav Ganguly.


title: Shubman Gill

text: Shubman Gill's father Lakhwinder Singh was a farmer and Didar Singh Gill is his grandfather. He was born in "'Chak Khere wala" (also reported as "Chak Jaimal Singh Wala")' village, which is present near Jalalabad of Fazilka district in Punjab state. Shubman Gill has a sister and her name is Shaheen Gill. His father Lakhwinder created a cricket ground in his farm for Gill's practice and a turf pitch to play, he used to challenge village boys to take his lad's wicket and if they were successful he would give them 100 rupees for it. According to Lakhwinder Singh he left farming in his village and moved to Mohali to make his boy a professional cricketer. For some years Gill took coaching from his school, after his father admitted him in Punjab cricket association's academy. Gill spent some years of his life in his village. His father has a farm in the village. Gill happened to play cricket on the farm during childhood and the farm workers used to bowl to him. Gill's father wanted to become a professional cricketer. In Gill's childhood he was interested in farming and he still wants to do farming according to his father. Shubman Gill is emotionally very attached to his village and his farm. His many forefathers were farmers.


title: Shubman Gill

text: Shubman Gill was born in Fazilka, Punjab. His family owned agricultural lands there. His father, Lakhwinder Singh, an agriculturist, wanted to become a cricketer but could not fulfil his dream. Instead, he decided to make Gill a good cricketer. He observed his son's cricketing ability at an early age and welcomed the opportunity to modify his cricketing capacity. He would ask the hired help on the farm to throw balls at Shubman to help him practice batting. Gill's father was convinced of his talent, and moved the family to Mohali and rented a house near the PCA Stadium.


title: Shubman Gill

text: Gill's father said that Shubman was passionate about cricket since the age of three. “He only played cricket since he was three-years-old. Kids of that age would play with toys. He never asked for such things. It was only bat and ball for him. He used to sleep with a bat and ball”, Gill's father, Lakhwinder Singh said.


title: Shubman Gill

text: On his Under-16 state debut for Punjab, he hit an unbeaten double-century in the Vijay Merchant Trophy. In 2014, he scored 351 runs in Punjab's Inter-District Under-16 competition and shared a record opening stand of 587 runs with Nirmal Singh.


title: Shubman Gill

text: He made his List A debut for Punjab in the 2016–17 Vijay Hazare Trophy on 25 February 2017 against Vidharbha team. He made his first-class debut for Punjab in the 2017–18 Ranji Trophy on 17 November 2017. Later the same month, in his second first-class match, he scored his maiden century, batting for Punjab against Services. He scored 129 against Bengal team.


title: Shubman Gill

text: In January 2018, he was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders for in the 2018 IPL auction. He made his Twenty20 debut for Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2018 Indian Premier League on 14 April 2018.


title: Shubman Gill

text: In October 2018, he was named in India C's squad for the 2018–19 Deodhar Trophy. In the final round-robin match, against India A, he scored an unbeaten century to help send India C through to the final. The following month, he was named as one of eight players to watch ahead of the 2018–19 Ranji Trophy. In December 2018, during Punjab's match against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy, Gill scored his maiden double century in first-class cricket, scoring 268 runs. On 25 December 2018, on the fourth day of the match against Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy, with Punjab needing 338 runs from 57 overs, Gill scored 148 off 154 balls to almost single-handedly take his side to victory. The match finished as a draw, with Punjab ending the run chase at 324/8 in 57 overs.


title: Shubman Gill

text: By 1 January 2019, Gill had scored 990 runs in first-class cricket, from fourteen innings across eight matches. One week later, he scored his 1,000th run in first-class cricket, in his fifteenth innings. He was the leading run-scorer for Punjab in the 2018–19 Ranji Trophy, with 728 runs in five matches. In March 2019, he was named as one of eight players to watch by the International Cricket Council (ICC) ahead of the 2019 Indian Premier League tournament. He also won the Emerging Player of the tournament award in the 2019 Indian Premier League.


title: Shubman Gill

text: In August 2019, he was named as the captain of the India Blue team for the 2019–20 Duleep Trophy. In October 2019, Gill was selected as the captain of the India C team for the 2019–20 Deodhar Trophy. In November 2019, he became the youngest cricketer to lead a side in the tournament. He was 20 years and 57 days old, beating Virat Kohli's record, when he was 21 years 124 days old, during the 2009–10 tournament.


title: Shubman Gill

text: Ahead of the 2022 IPL auction, Gill left the Kolkata Knight Riders and was drafted by the newly formed Gujarat Titans franchise.


title: Shubman Gill

text: In September 2022, Gill was signed up by Glamorgan as their overseas player for the remainder of the 2022 County Championship season. He did debut at Sophia ground opposite Worcestershire


title: Shubman Gill

text: In December 2017, he was named vice captain of India's squad for the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He was the leading run-scorer for India in the tournament, with 372 runs. He was also named the player of the tournament. Following India's matches in the tournament, the International Cricket Council (ICC) named Gill as the rising star of the squad.


title: Shubman Gill

text: In January 2019, Gill was added to India's squad for the limited-overs leg for their series against New Zealand. On 31 January 2019, he made his One Day International (ODI) cricket debut against New Zealand in the fourth ODI match of the series at Seddon Park, Hamilton.


title: Shubman Gill

text: In August 2019, Gill became the youngest batsman for an Indian team to score a double century in a first-class match. He was 19 years and 334 days old when he scored 204 runs for India A against West Indies A at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad and Tobago. The following month, he was named in India's Test squad for their series against South Africa, but he did not play. In December 2019, Gill was named as the captain of India A squad for their tour of New Zealand. In February 2020, he was again named in India's Test squad, this time for their series against New Zealand.


title: Shubman Gill

text: Gill made his Test debut for India on 26 December 2020, against Australia, helping India to a comeback win in the second match of the series. In the fourth Test at the Gabba, he scored 91 runs to help India win the series.


title: Shubman Gill

text: On 16 December 2022, against Bangladesh, Gill scored the first century of his Test career and was dismissed for 110 runs.


title: Apache Spark

text: Apache Spark is an open-source unified analytics engine for large-scale data processing. Spark provides an interface for programming clusters with implicit data parallelism and fault tolerance. Originally developed at the University of California, Berkeley's AMPLab, the Spark codebase was later donated to the Apache Software Foundation, which has maintained it since.


title: Apache Spark

text: Apache Spark has its architectural foundation in the resilient distributed dataset (RDD), a read-only multiset of data items distributed over a cluster of machines, that is maintained in a fault-tolerant way. The Dataframe API was released as an abstraction on top of the RDD, followed by the Dataset API. In Spark 1.x, the RDD was the primary application programming interface (API), but as of Spark 2.x use of the Dataset API is encouraged even though the RDD API is not deprecated. The RDD technology still underlies the Dataset API.


title: Apache Spark

text: Spark and its RDDs were developed in 2012 in response to limitations in the MapReduce cluster computing paradigm, which forces a particular linear dataflow structure on distributed programs: MapReduce programs read input data from disk, map a function across the data, reduce the results of the map, and store reduction results on disk. Spark's RDDs function as a working set for distributed programs that offers a (deliberately) restricted form of distributed shared memory.


title: Apache Spark

text: Inside Apache Spark the workflow is managed as a directed acyclic graph (DAG). Nodes represent RDDs while edges represent the operations on the RDDs.


title: Apache Spark

text: Spark facilitates the implementation of both iterative algorithms, which visit their data set multiple times in a loop, and interactive/exploratory data analysis, i.e., the repeated database-style querying of data. The latency of such applications may be reduced by several orders of magnitude compared to Apache Hadoop MapReduce implementation.


title: Apache Spark

text: Among the class of iterative algorithms are the training algorithms for machine learning systems, which formed the initial impetus for developing Apache Spark.


title: Apache Spark

text: Apache Spark requires a cluster manager and a distributed storage system. For cluster management, Spark supports standalone (native Spark cluster, where you can launch a cluster either manually or use the launch scripts provided by the install package. It is also possible to run these daemons on a single machine for testing), Hadoop YARN, Apache Mesos or Kubernetes. For distributed storage, Spark can interface with a wide variety, including Alluxio, Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), MapR File System (MapR-FS), Cassandra, OpenStack Swift, Amazon S3, Kudu, Lustre file system, or a custom solution can be implemented. Spark also supports a pseudo-distributed local mode, usually used only for development or testing purposes, where distributed storage is not required and the local file system can be used instead; in such a scenario, Spark is run on a single machine with one executor per CPU core.


title: Apache Spark

text: Spark Core is the foundation of the overall project. It provides distributed task dispatching, scheduling, and basic I/O functionalities, exposed through an application programming interface (for Java, Python, Scala, .NET and R) centered on the RDD abstraction (the Java API is available for other JVM languages, but is also usable for some other non-JVM languages that can connect to the JVM, such as Julia). This interface mirrors a functional/higher-order model of programming: a "driver" program invokes parallel operations such as map, filter or reduce on an RDD by passing a function to Spark, which then schedules the function's execution in parallel on the cluster. These operations, and additional ones such as joins, take RDDs as input and produce new RDDs. RDDs are immutable and their operations are lazy; fault-tolerance is achieved by keeping track of the "lineage" of each RDD (the sequence of operations that produced it) so that it can be reconstructed in the case of data loss. RDDs can contain any type of Python, .NET, Java, or Scala objects.


title: Apache Spark

text: Besides the RDD-oriented functional style of programming, Spark provides two restricted forms of shared variables: "broadcast variables" reference read-only data that needs to be available on all nodes, while "accumulators" can be used to program reductions in an imperative style.


title: Apache Spark

text: A typical example of RDD-centric functional programming is the following Scala program that computes the frequencies of all words occurring in a set of text files and prints the most common ones. Each , (a variant of ) and takes an anonymous function that performs a simple operation on a single data item (or a pair of items), and applies its argument to transform an RDD into a new RDD.


title: Apache Spark

text: val data = sc.textFile("/path/to/somedir") // Read files from "somedir" into an RDD of (filename, content) pairs.


title: Apache Spark

text: val wordFreq = tokens.map((_, 1)).reduceByKey(_ + _) // Add a count of one to each token, then sum the counts per word type.


title: Apache Spark

text: wordFreq.sortBy(s => -s._2).map(x => (x._2, x._1)).top(10) // Get the top 10 words. Swap word and count to sort by count.


title: Apache Spark

text: Spark SQL is a component on top of Spark Core that introduced a data abstraction called DataFrames, which provides support for structured and semi-structured data. Spark SQL provides a domain-specific language (DSL) to manipulate DataFrames in Scala, Java, Python or .NET. It also provides SQL language support, with command-line interfaces and ODBC/JDBC server. Although DataFrames lack the compile-time type-checking afforded by RDDs, as of Spark 2.0, the strongly typed DataSet is fully supported by Spark SQL as well.


title: Apache Spark

text: val url = "jdbc:mysql://yourIP:yourPort/test?user=yourUsername;password=yourPassword" // URL for your database server.


title: Apache Spark

text: Spark Streaming uses Spark Core's fast scheduling capability to perform streaming analytics. It ingests data in mini-batches and performs RDD transformations on those mini-batches of data. This design enables the same set of application code written for batch analytics to be used in streaming analytics, thus facilitating easy implementation of lambda architecture. However, this convenience comes with the penalty of latency equal to the mini-batch duration. Other streaming data engines that process event by event rather than in mini-batches include Storm and the streaming component of Flink. Spark Streaming has support built-in to consume from Kafka, Flume, Twitter, ZeroMQ, Kinesis, and TCP/IP sockets.


title: Apache Spark

text: In Spark 2.x, a separate technology based on Datasets, called Structured Streaming, that has a higher-level interface is also provided to support streaming.


title: Apache Spark

text: Spark MLlib is a distributed machine-learning framework on top of Spark Core that, due in large part to the distributed memory-based Spark architecture, is as much as nine times as fast as the disk-based implementation used by Apache Mahout (according to benchmarks done by the MLlib developers against the alternating least squares (ALS) implementations, and before Mahout itself gained a Spark interface), and scales better than Vowpal Wabbit. Many common machine learning and statistical algorithms have been implemented and are shipped with MLlib which simplifies large scale machine learning pipelines, including:


title: Apache Spark

text: GraphX is a distributed graph-processing framework on top of Apache Spark. Because it is based on RDDs, which are immutable, graphs are immutable and thus GraphX is unsuitable for graphs that need to be updated, let alone in a transactional manner like a graph database. GraphX provides two separate APIs for implementation of massively parallel algorithms (such as PageRank): a Pregel abstraction, and a more general MapReduce-style API. Unlike its predecessor Bagel, which was formally deprecated in Spark 1.6, GraphX has full support for property graphs (graphs where properties can be attached to edges and vertices).


title: Apache Spark

text: Like Apache Spark, GraphX initially started as a research project at UC Berkeley's AMPLab and Databricks, and was later donated to the Apache Software Foundation and the Spark project.


title: Apache Spark

text: Apache Spark has built-in support for Scala, Java, R, and Python with 3rd party support for the .NET CLR, Julia, and more.


title: Apache Spark

text: Spark was initially started by Matei Zaharia at UC Berkeley's AMPLab in 2009, and open sourced in 2010 under a BSD license.


title: Apache Spark

text: In 2013, the project was donated to the Apache Software Foundation and switched its license to Apache 2.0. In February 2014, Spark became a Top-Level Apache Project.


title: Apache Spark

text: In November 2014, Spark founder M. Zaharia's company Databricks set a new world record in large scale sorting using Spark.


title: Apache Spark

text: Spark had in excess of 1000 contributors in 2015, making it one of the most active projects in the Apache Software Foundation and one of the most active open source big data projects.


title: Apache Spark

text: Spark 3.3.0 is based on Scala 2.13 (and thus works with Scala 2.12 and 2.13 out-of-the-box), but it can also be made to work with Scala 3.


title: Apache Spark

text: Apache Spark is developed by a community. The project is managed by a group called the "Project Management Committee" (PMC).


title: Suet

text: Suet has a melting point of between 45 °C and 50 °C (113 °F and 122 °F) and congelation between 37 °C and 40 °C (98.6 °F and 104 °F). Its high smoke point makes it ideal for deep frying and pastry production.


title: Suet

text: The primary use of suet is to make tallow, although it is also used as an ingredient in cooking, especially in traditional baked puddings, such as British Christmas pudding. Suet is made into tallow in a process called rendering, which involves melting fats and extended simmering, followed by straining, then cooling. The entire process is then usually repeated to refine the product.


title: Suet

text: The word "suet" is derived from Anglo-Norman , from Old French , from Latin ("tallow", "grease", "hard animal fat"). "Sebum" is from the Proto-Indo-European root *"seyb"- ("pour out, trickle"), so it shares a root with sap and soap.


title: Suet

text: In the 17th century economy of the Viceroyalty of Peru, Chile's husbandry and agriculture based economy had a peripheral role exporting mainly suet, jerky and leather to the other provinces of the viceroyalty. The importance of this trade led Chilean historian Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna to label the 17th century the "century of suet" (Spanish: "siglo del sebo").


title: Suet

text: Suet is found in several traditional British dishes. Suet pastry is soft in contrast to the crispness of shortcrust pastry, which makes it ideal for certain sweet and savoury dishes. Suet is most widely used in sweet British baked puddings, such as jam roly-poly and spotted dick. Savoury dishes include dumplings, which are made using a mixture of suet, flour and water rolled into balls that are added to stews during the final twenty minutes or so of cooking. In the savoury dish steak and kidney pie or steak and kidney pudding, a bowl is lined with a suet pastry, the meat is placed inside and a lid of suet pastry tightly seals the meat. The pudding is then steamed for approximately four hours before serving. Suet is also an ingredient of traditional mincemeat, which is also referred to as 'fruit mince'.


title: Suet

text: As it is the fat from around the kidneys, the connective tissue, blood and other non-fat content must be removed. It then must be coarsely grated. It must be refrigerated prior to use and used within a few days of purchase, similar to raw meat.


title: Suet

text: Due to its high energy content, cold weather explorers use suet to supplement the high daily energy requirement needed to travel in such climates. Typically the energy requirement is around 5,000–6,000 Cal per day for sledge hauling or dog-sled travelling. Suet is added to food rations to increase the fat content and help meet this high energy requirement.


title: Suet

text: Pre-packaged suet sold in supermarkets is dehydrated suet. It is mixed with flour to make it stable at room temperature, requiring some care when using it for recipes calling for fresh suet, as the proportions of flour to fat can change. Most modern processed recipes stipulate packaged suet.


title: Suet

text: Consumption of suet is forbidden according to the Jewish religion and it was reserved for ritual altar sacrifices. This restriction only applies to those animals which were used for sacrifices, and thus does not include wild animals such as deer. Maimonides in his book Guide To The Perplexed, writes that one of the ideas behind this commandment is that the Torah wants to teach people to develop the discipline to avoid very tasty foods that are unhealthy.


title: Suet

text: Woodpeckers, goldfinches, juncos, cardinals, thrushes, jays, kinglets, bluebirds, chickadees, nuthatches, wrens, and starlings prefer suet based bird feeders.


title: Suet

text: Bird feed is commonly used in the form of cakes of suet, which can be made with other solid fats, such as lard. Rolled oats, bird seed, cornmeal, raisins, and unsalted nuts are often incorporated into the suet cakes.


title: Earwax

text: Earwax, also known by the medical term cerumen, is a brown, orange, red, yellowish or gray waxy substance secreted in the ear canal of humans and other mammals. It protects the skin of the human ear canal, assists in cleaning and lubrication, and provides protection against bacteria, fungi, and water.


title: Earwax

text: Earwax consists of dead skin cells, hair, and the secretions of cerumen by the ceruminous and sebaceous glands of the outer ear canal. Major components of earwax are long chain fatty acids, both saturated and unsaturated, alcohols, squalene, and cholesterol. Excess or compacted cerumen is the buildup of ear wax causing a blockage in the ear canal and it can press against the eardrum or block the outside ear canal or hearing aids, potentially causing hearing loss.


title: Earwax

text: Cerumen is produced in the cartilaginous portion which is the outer third portion of the ear canal. It is a mixture of viscous secretions from sebaceous glands and less-viscous ones from modified apocrine sweat glands. The primary components of earwax are shed layers of skin, with, on average, 60% of the earwax consisting of keratin, 12–20% saturated and unsaturated long-chain fatty acids, alcohols, squalene and 6–9% cholesterol.


title: Earwax

text: There are two distinct genetically determined types of earwax: the wet type, which is dominant, and the dry type, which is recessive. East Asians, Southeast Asians and Native Americans are more likely to have the dry type of earwax (gray and flaky), while African and European people are more likely to have wet type earwax (honey-brown, dark orange to dark-brown and moist). 30-50% of South Asians, Central Asians and Pacific Islanders have the dry type of cerumen. Cerumen type has been used by anthropologists to track human migratory patterns, such as those of the Inuit. In Japan, wet-type earwax is more prevalent among the Ainu, in contrast to the Yamato majority. The wet type earwax differs biochemically from the dry type mainly by its higher concentration of lipid and pigment granules; for example the wet type is 50% lipid while the dry type is only 20%.


title: Earwax

text: A specific gene has been identified that determines whether people have wet or dry earwax. The difference in cerumen type has been tracked to a single base change (a single nucleotide polymorphism) in a gene known as "ATP-binding cassette C11 gene", specifically rs17822931. Dry-type individuals are homozygous for adenine whereas wet-type requires at least one guanine. Wet-type earwax is associated with armpit odor, which is increased by sweat production. Researchers have conjectured that the reduction in sweat or body odor was beneficial to the ancestors of East Asians and Native Americans who are thought to have lived in cold climates.


title: Earwax

text: Cleaning of the ear canal occurs as a result of the "conveyor belt" process of epithelial migration, aided by jaw movement. Cells formed in the centre of the tympanic membrane migrate outwards from the umbo (at a rate comparable to that of fingernail growth) to the walls of the ear canal, and move towards the entrance of the ear canal. The cerumen in the ear canal is also carried outwards, taking with it any particulate matter that may have gathered in the canal. Jaw movement assists this process by dislodging debris attached to the walls of the ear canal, increasing the likelihood of its expulsion.


title: Earwax

text: Removing earwax is in the scope of practice for audiologists and otorhinolaryngologists (ear, nose, and throat) doctors.


title: Earwax

text: The lubrication provided by cerumen prevents desiccation of the skin within the ear canal. The lubricative properties arise from the high lipid content of the sebum produced by the sebaceous glands. In wet-type cerumen, these lipids include cholesterol, squalene, and many long-chain fatty acids and alcohols.


title: Earwax

text: While studies conducted up until the 1960s found little evidence supporting antibacterial activity for cerumen, more recent studies have found that cerumen has a bactericidal effect on some strains of bacteria. Cerumen has been found to reduce the viability of a wide range of bacteria, including "Haemophilus influenzae", "Staphylococcus aureus", and many variants of "Escherichia coli", sometimes by as much as 99%. The growth of two fungi commonly present in otomycosis was also significantly inhibited by human cerumen. These antimicrobial properties are due principally to the presence of saturated fatty acids, lysozyme and, especially, to the slight acidity of cerumen (pH typically around 6.1 in average individuals). Conversely, other research has found that cerumen can support microbial growth and some cerumen samples were found to have bacterial counts as high as 10/g cerumen. The bacteria were predominantly commensals.


title: Earwax

text: Earwax is produced by sebaceous and ceruminous glands in the ear canal, which leads from the outer ear to the eardrum. Earwax helps protect the ear by trapping dust and other foreign particles that could filter through and damage the eardrum. Normally, earwax moves toward the opening of the ear and falls out or is washed away, but some people's ears produce too much wax. This is referred to as excessive earwax or impacted cerumen.


title: Earwax

text: Excessive earwax may impede the passage of sound in the ear canal, causing mild conductive hearing loss, pain in the ear, itchiness, or dizziness. Untreated impacted wax can result in hearing loss, social withdrawal, poor work function and even mild paranoia. People with impacted wax may also present with perforated eardrums; this is usually self-induced as compacted earwax alone cannot perforate the eardrum, though for example the use of earbuds could be responsible. A physical exam usually checks for visibility of the tympanic membrane, which can be blocked by excessive cerumen.


title: Earwax

text: Impacted cerumen may improve on its own, but treatment by a doctor is generally safe and effective. Hearing usually returns completely after the impacted earwax is removed.


title: Earwax

text: Hearing aids may be associated with increased earwax impaction, as they prevent earwax from being removed from the ear canal, thus causing blockage which leads to it being impacted. It is estimated to be the cause of 60–80% of hearing aid faults. Earwax can get into a hearing aid's vents and receivers, and degrades the components inside the hearing aid due to its acidity. Excessive earwax can also cause tinnitus, a constant ringing in the ears, ear fullness, hearing loss and ear pain.


title: Earwax

text: Movement of the jaw helps the ears' natural cleaning process. The American Academy of Otolaryngology discourages earwax removal, unless the excess earwax is symptomatic.


title: Earwax

text: While a number of methods of earwax removal are effective, their comparative merits have not been determined. A number of softeners are effective; however, if this is not sufficient, the most common method of cerumen removal is syringing with warm water. A curette method is more likely to be used by audiologists and otolaryngologists when the ear canal is partially occluded and the material is not adhering to the skin of the ear canal. Cotton swabs, on the other hand, push most of the earwax farther into the ear canal and remove only a small portion of the top layer of wax that happens to adhere to the fibers of the swab.


title: Earwax

text: This process is referred to as "cerumenolysis". Topical preparations for the removal of earwax may be better than no treatment, and there may not be much difference between types, including water and olive oil. However, there were not enough studies to draw firm conclusions, and the evidence on irrigation and manual removal is equivocal.


title: Earwax

text: Microsuction involves the use of a vacuum suction probe to break up and extract impacted cerumen. Microsuction can be preferred over other methods as it avoids the presence of moisture in the ear, is often faster than irrigation, and is performed with direct vision of the earwax being removed. Typically, a camera with lights and guide hole is utilised, with a long metal vacuum probe being inserted into the guide hole - the practitioner is then able to see inside the ear and remove earwax under pressure. Potential adverse effects include dizziness, temporary tinnitus, and reduced hearing due to volume of the pump and the proximity of the vacuum probe to the ear drum - the frequency of these are reduced where the cerumen is softened in the five days preceding microsuction. In general, microsuction is well tolerated and even preferred by many patients.


title: Earwax

text: Once the cerumen has been softened, it may be removed from the ear canal by irrigation, but the evidence on this practice is equivocal. This may be effectively accomplished with a spray type ear washer, commonly used in the medical setting or at home, with a bulb syringe. Ear syringing techniques are described in great detail by Wilson & Roeser and Blake et al. who advise pulling the external ear up and back, and aiming the nozzle of the syringe slightly upwards and backwards so that the water flows as a cascade along the roof of the canal. The irrigation solution flows out of the canal along its floor, taking wax and debris with it. The solution used to irrigate the ear canal is usually warm water, normal saline, sodium bicarbonate solution, or a solution of water and vinegar to help prevent secondary infection.


title: Earwax

text: Affected people generally prefer the irrigation solution to be warmed to body temperature, as dizziness is a common side effect of ear washing or syringing with fluids that are colder or warmer than body temperature.


title: Earwax

text: Earwax can be removed with an ear pick/curette, which physically dislodges the earwax and scoops it out of the ear canal. In the West, use of ear picks is usually only done by health professionals. Curetting earwax using an ear pick was common in ancient Europe and is still practised in East Asia. Since the earwax of most Asians is of the dry type, it is extremely easily removed by light scraping with an ear pick, as it simply falls out in large pieces or dry flakes.


title: Earwax

text: It is generally advised not to use cotton swabs (Q-Tips or cotton buds), as doing so will likely push the wax farther down the ear canal, and if used carelessly, perforate the eardrum. Abrasion of the ear canal, particularly after water has entered from swimming or bathing, can lead to ear infection. Also, the cotton head may fall off and become lodged in the ear canal. Therefore, cotton swabs should be used only to clean the external ear.


title: Earwax

text: Ear candling, also called ear coning or thermal-auricular therapy, is an alternative medicine practice claimed to improve general health and well-being by lighting one end of a hollow candle and placing the unlit end in the ear canal. It, however, is not recommended as it is dangerous, ineffective, and counterproductive. Advocates say that the dark residue that shows after the procedure consists of extracted earwax, proving the efficacy of the procedure. Studies have shown that the same dark residue is left, whether or not the candle (which is made of cotton fabric and beeswax and leaves a residue after burning) is inserted into an ear. This demonstrates that the waxy residue is derived from the burnt candle wax itself and not the ear. The color of the candle wax matches the light brown-colored wax of the human ear, making the distinction between the two waxes more difficult for a layperson. Because the candle itself is a hollow tube, some of the hot burnt wax could drop down inside the candle, into the ear canal, potentially injuring the eardrum. The American Academy of Otolaryngology states that ear candles are not a safe option for removing ear wax, and that no controlled studies or scientific evidence support their use for ear wax removal. Survey responses from medical specialists (otolaryngologists) in the United Kingdom reported ear injuries from ear candling including; burns, ear canal occlusions and ear drum perforations and secondary ear canal infections with temporary hearing loss. The Food and Drug Administration has successfully taken several regulatory actions against the sale and distribution of ear candles since 1996, including seizing ear candle products and ordering injunctions. They are now marked as "providing no health benefit".


title: Earwax

text: Home "ear vacs" were ineffective at removing ear-wax, especially when compared to a Jobson-Horne probe.


title: Earwax

text: A postal survey of British general practitioners found that only 19% always performed cerumen removal themselves. It is problematic as the removal of cerumen is not without risk, and physicians and nurses often have inadequate training for removal. Irrigation can be performed at home with proper equipment as long as the person is careful not to irrigate too hard. All other methods should be carried out only by individuals who have been sufficiently trained in the procedure.


title: Earwax

text: The author Bull advised physicians: "After removal of wax, inspect thoroughly to make sure none remains. This advice might seem superfluous, but is frequently ignored." This was confirmed by Sharp et al., who, in a survey of 320 general practitioners, found that only 68% of doctors inspected the ear canal after syringing to check that the wax was removed. As a result, failure to remove the wax from the canal made up approximately 30% of the complications associated with the procedure. Other complications included otitis externa (swimmer's ear), which involves inflammation or bacterial infection of the external acoustic meatus, as well as pain, vertigo, tinnitus, and perforation of the ear drum. Based on this study, a rate of major complications in 1/1000 ears syringed was suggested.


title: Earwax

text: Claims arising from ear syringing mishaps account for about 25% of the total claims received by New Zealand's Accident Compensation Corporation ENT Medical Misadventure Committee. While high, this is not surprising, as ear syringing is an extremely common procedure. Grossan suggested that approximately 150,000 ears are irrigated each week in the United States, and about 40,000 per week in the United Kingdom. Extrapolating from data obtained in Edinburgh, Sharp et al. place this figure much higher, estimating that approximately 7000 ears are syringed per 100,000 population per annum. In the New Zealand claims mentioned above, perforation of the tympanic membrane was by far the most common injury resulting in significant disability.


title: Earwax

text: In the United Kingdom 2 to 6% of the population have cerumen that is impacted. In America 3.6% of emergency visits caused by ear issues were due to impacted cerumen. In Brazil 8.4–13.7% of the population have impacted cerumen.


title: Earwax

text: The treatment of excess ear wax was described by Aulus Cornelius Celsus in "De Medicina" in the 1st century:


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: Urasawa's first major work was illustrating the action series "Pineapple Army" (1985–1988), which was written by Kazuya Kudo. The first serial that he wrote and illustrated himself, and his first major success, was the sports manga "Yawara!" (1986–1993). He then illustrated the adventure series "Master Keaton" (1988–1994), which was written by Hokusei Katsushika and Nagasaki, and created the sports manga "Happy!" (1993–1999). The thriller "Monster" (1994–2001) was his first to receive international acclaim and success, which continued with the science fiction mystery "20th Century Boys" (1999–2006). Following the acclaimed "Pluto" (2003–2009), which is a re-imagining of "Astro Boy" by Osamu Tezuka, one of Urasawa's biggest influences, he and Nagasaki created the mystery series "Billy Bat" (2008–2016). After two short series, a sequel to "Master Keaton" with Nagasaki and "", Urasawa began his currently ongoing "Asadora!" in 2018.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: Urasawa cited Osamu Tezuka as one of his heroes, being particularly fond of his manga "Phoenix". "The Greatest Robot on Earth" and "The Artificial Sun" arcs of Tezuka's "Astro Boy" were his first experiences with manga at four or five years old. Around that same age is when he started to draw manga, and at eight he created his first complete story. Even at a young age, Urasawa saw the gulf between his work and that of a "real manga artist." He said that he could also identify manga that was "commercialized" and made just for the money, something he did not want to do. Thus he never thought of becoming a professional manga artist, and graduated from Meisei University with a degree in economics.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: When Urasawa visited Shogakukan to apply for a business job, he decided to bring some manga he had drawn out of curiosity. An editor from "Weekly Shōnen Sunday" did not give him the time of day, but the head editor of "Big Comic Original" happened to walk by and felt the work was better suited for "Big Comic Spirits", and took Urasawa to their editorial department. He ended up submitting manga for their 1982 New Manga Artist Award, which his unpublished work "Return" won. It was only then that he thought about becoming a professional manga artist. It was a year after winning the award that Urasawa met Takashi Nagasaki, who would become his longtime editor and collaborator.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: After working as an assistant, Urasawa made his professional debut in 1983 with "Beta!", which was published in a special issue of "Golgo 13". He then created the short serialized work "Dancing Policeman" the following year. Urasawa began his first major serialized work, "Pineapple Army", in 1985 in the semimonthly "Big Comic Original". He was the illustrator of the series, while Kazuya Kudo was its writer. It ended in 1988 and was collected into eight "tankōbon" volumes. While working on "Pineapple Army", Urasawa began "Yawara!" in the weekly "Big Comic Spirits" in 1986 which he wrote and illustrated himself. It earned him the 1989 Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category. That same year it was adapted into a live-action film and an anime television series. It ended in 1993 and was collected into 29 volumes.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: When "Pineapple Army" ended, Urasawa began "Master Keaton" for "Big Comic Original" in November 1988. He illustrated it, while Hokusei Katsushika wrote it. It ended in August 1994 and was collected into 18 volumes. An anime television adaptation began in 1998, before finishing as an original video animation in 2000. Likewise when "Yawara!" ended, Urasawa began another solo series in "Big Comic Spirits". "Happy!" ran from 1993 until 1999 and was collected into 23 volumes. It was adapted into two live-action television films in 2006.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: Following "Master Keaton"s end, Urasawa began "Monster" in "Big Comic Original" in December 1994. It earned him the 1999 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, and his second Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category in 2001. It ended in December 2001, was collected into 18 volumes, and adapted into an anime television series in 2004. Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, praised "Monster" and proclaimed "Urasawa is a national treasure in Japan." With "Happy!"s ending, Urasawa began "20th Century Boys" in "Big Comic Spirits" in 1999. It earned him the 2001 Kodansha Manga Award in the General category, and his third Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category in 2002. It ended in 2006 and was collected into 22 volumes. The story briefly continued as "21st Century Boys" in 2007, which was collected into two volumes. "20th Century Boys" was adapted into three live-action films, which were released in 2008 and 2009.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: While working on "20th Century Boys", Urasawa began adapting "The Greatest Robot on Earth" story arc of Osamu Tezuka's "Astro Boy" into the series "Pluto". It was serialized in "Big Comic Original" from September 9, 2003 to April 5, 2009 and collected into 8 volumes. It earned him his second Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. In 2008, Urasawa began working for Kodansha, serializing "Billy Bat" in "Morning". It ran from October 16, 2008 to August 18, 2016 and was collected into 20 volumes. Also in 2008, Urasawa and Nagasaki took guest teaching posts at Nagoya Zokei University, where they taught "Modern Expression Course: Manga Classes" two to three times a year, although the class met every month. Initially planned for only five students, he agreed to expand it to fifteen in an effort to create more "real artists."


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: Oricon held a poll on the Mangaka that Changed the History of Manga in 2010, "mangaka" being the Japanese word for a manga artist, and Urasawa came in tenth. In 2011, Urasawa illustrated a picture book adaptation of Kosuke Hamada's story "Red Oni Cries".


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: Urasawa began writing a sequel to "Master Keaton" in 2012 titled "Master Keaton Remaster". When asked why he went back to a series after so many years, Urasawa stated it was because with the original series he had a hard time making the story he wanted due to contractual obligation, and because people affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami said they had enjoyed the series, so he wanted to do something for them. Beginning in the March 2012 issue of "Big Comic Original" it finished in 2014 and was collected into a single volume. As a guest at the 2012 Japan Expo in France, Urasawa talked about how he entered the manga industry, gave a live drawing demonstration, and performed two songs as a musician, and joined rock band Hemenway on stage the following day.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: Between 2013 and 2014, Urasawa contributed to the essay series "The Old Guys" that was published in Shueisha's "Jump X" magazine. His contributions and those of the other 32 writers who participated were collected into a July 2015 volume of the same name. In August 2013, Urasawa created his first "monster manga" titled "Kaiju Kingdom", a 41-page one-shot published in "Big Comic". Urasawa is the host of the NHK Educational TV documentary series "Urasawa Naoki no Manben", which focuses on a different manga artist each episode and explores their individual styles. It began as a one-off special in November 2014, a first season was launched in September 2015, a second in March 2016, a third in September 2016, and a fourth in March 2017. After three years, the show returned in October 2020 with "Neo" added to the end of its title. The show won the December 2015 Planning Award as part of Quick Japan's annual TV of the Year awards, decided by broadcast writers. The June 9, 2021 episode on Yoshikazu Yasuhiko won the Grand Prize in the entertainment category at the 2022 Japan Media Arts Festival. Beginning in July 2015, Urasawa started contributing to the "Musica Nostra" column series that was published in Shueisha's "Grand Jump" magazine.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: An art exhibition of Urasawa's work was on display in Tokyo from January 16 to March 31, 2016, before moving to Osaka from November 26 to January 25, 2017. It included illustrations, manga manuscripts, story notes, and childhood manga. Urasawa contributed a short, full color, left-to-right manga titled "Tanshin Funin/Solo Mission" to the February 2016 French comics anthology "The Tipping Point" to commemorate publisher Humanoids' 40th anniversary. Re-titled "Turning Point", the anthology was published in Japan in September 2017. He created a short three-page manga about 1960s British rock band the Beatles time-traveling to 2016. Released in June 2016 on the website of Tokyo radio station InterFM897, it coincides with the TV program "KKBOX Here comes The Beatles" and celebrates the 50th anniversary of the band's visit to Japan.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: On April 9, 2017, Urasawa began co-hosting a radio program with actor and comedian Junji Takada. "Junji and Naoki" airs Sundays at 5pm on Nippon Cultural Broadcasting and features both men talking about their lives, professions, and favorite hobbies. That year Urasawa also began the limited series "" in a collaboration with France's Louvre Museum. It began in "Big Comic Original" in October 2017 and ended on February 20, 2018.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: In January 2018, Urasawa attended the 45th Angoulême International Comics Festival in France, where he received the Fauve Special Award and the Fauve Polar SNCF Special Award for mystery. The festival also held an art exhibit of his work, before it moved to Paris from February 13 to March 31. Urasawa was the subject of the June 23 Wowow Prime TV program "Nonfiction W Urasawa Naoki ~Tensai Mangaka no Owaranai Tabi~", which followed him around Europe, including to the 2018 Angoulême International Comics Festival and meeting Klaus Voormann in Germany. Urasawa began "Asadora!" in "Big Comic Spirits" on October 6, 2018. The November 2018 issue of "Monthly Big Comic Spirits", released on September 27, was given the special title "Urasawa Jack". It included Urasawa's one-shot "It's a Beautiful Day", which adapted a story told to him by musician Kenji Endo, an interview between him and Shigeru Izumiya, and a calendar featuring illustrations of "beautiful women" by the artist. On December 27, Urasawa co-hosted a special radio program about Osamu Tezuka alongside Chiaki Kuriyama for Nippon Cultural Broadcasting.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: In 2019, he designed the official posters of the 2019 Osaka Women's Marathon and a classic car charity event organized by Toshiaki Karasawa for reconstruction after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. On January 23, 2019, Japan House Los Angeles presented the first North American exhibit of Urasawa's work, titled "This is MANGA – the Art of NAOKI URASAWA". The exhibit ran until March 28, 2019, and featured more than 400 original drawings and storyboards. Urasawa participated in an artist discussion and book signing on opening day. The exhibit moved to Japan House London from June 5 to July 28, also attended by the artist. Urasawa was a 2019 nominee for entry into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: In 2020, Urasawa drew advertisements for the Samsonite Red luggage brand, and was chosen to create one of the official posters for the 2020 Summer Olympics. For the second year in a row, he drew the poster for the Osaka Women's Marathon. In June, Urasawa created the cover portrait for Universal Japan's 250th anniversary release of music by Ludwig van Beethoven. He also appears in July 2020's "ZK/Zunō Keisatsu 50 Mirai e no Kodō", a documentary film about the rock band Zunō Keisatsu. Urasawa directed and illustrated the music video, and illustrated the cover art, for Kazuyoshi Saito's March 2021 digital single "Boy". In November 2021, Urasawa's first one-shot for Shueisha, "Dr. Toguro Dokuro no Saigo", was published in "Grand Jump" to celebrate the magazine's 10th anniversary. By December 2021, his various works had over 140 million copies in circulation worldwide. He has an acting role in the upcoming 2022 film "Tenjō no Hana", portraying poet Haruo Satō.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: Fusanosuke Natsume said that prior to entering university, Urasawa's style showed influence from Shinji Nagashima and Osamu Tezuka's 1970s work, but went on to claim that in 1979 it became aligned with that of Katsuhiro Otomo. When talking in 1997 about the future of manga, Urasawa opined that "Tezuka created the form that exists today, then caricatures appeared next, and comics changed again when Katsuhiro Otomo came on the scene. I don't think there's any room left for further changes." He has also expressed admiration for French "bande dessinée" artist Moebius and American novelist Stephen King. Although Urasawa's works like "Yawara!" had light entertainment with cute young girls, Natsume says Urasawa developed his own personal style with "Monster", which he described as realistic, or directorially based, with cinematic panel layouts similar to Otomo and gekiga artists. Natsume also noted that many of his characters resemble famous movie stars. Urasawa himself described his approach to manga as similar to storyboarding a movie, and acknowledged his work as adult-oriented, stating that even as a child he never liked manga aimed at children. However, he noted that he and Otomo both prefer to have their work called manga and not gekiga.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: When asked where he gets ideas from, Urasawa said "I have been illustrating all my life. Inspiration is everywhere, when I get in the bath, when I get out. It's whether you are perceiving these ideas and whether you are able to catch them." He also said that he does not worry about what the readers want, and simply draws stories that he finds interesting. The artist said that while manga is often looked at as simple, he makes sure to use subtleties to show dramatic expressions and convey emotion, claiming "You won't find two expressions that are the same" in his work.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: On his storytelling process, Urasawa states, "When I start a new project, I start with the larger arc of the story. I visualize a movie trailer for that story, and after I compose this movie trailer in my mind, there comes a point where I'm so excited about it that I have to write the story. And then I imagine, 'Where do I start to begin to tell this narrative?' and that's usually the first chapter." He does not plan the story out in advance, claiming that it tells him where it wants to go, and that if the story does not keep surprising even him, then he can not continue making it.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: He also does not determine the page or panel layouts in advance. Having drawn manga for over five decades, he just follows his instincts, explaining "When I start to structure a story narratively, the question of tempo — developing a character moment-to-moment and then jumping to a two-page spread — how do you determine where that happens? It's like breathing to me — I know when it feels right."


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: For most of his career, Urasawa has written two different series simultaneously. With one of them being a weekly serialization and the other having a semimonthly schedule, Urasawa had six deadlines a month and said the only time off he had was when sleeping or eating. Urasawa frequently collaborates with manga editor and author Takashi Nagasaki, to the point where Nagasaki has been called his "producer." The two met when Nagasaki was made Urasawa's editor upon his debut. Although the two continue to collaborate even after Nagasaki became freelance, they rarely socialize outside of work. Urasawa said that following the anime adaptation of "Yawara!", he has requested that he be able to check the scripts for any adaptation of his works. Until 2018's ongoing "Asadora!", none of Urasawa's manga had ever been legally available in digital formats. The author stated that he prefers physical books. However, his earlier works began receiving digital releases in 2022, limited to Japan.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: Urasawa is also a musician. He stated "A lot of artists really struggled to decide whether to become manga artists or rock musicians, so the two are intertwined, they're synonymous!" Urasawa started playing guitar in junior high school inspired by folk rock singer-songwriters Takuro Yoshida and Bob Dylan.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: Urasawa wrote and performed the song , which was released on a CD included in the 2002 first pressing of volume 11 of "20th Century Boys". He released the limited single on June 4, 2008, and his debut album on November 29, 2008. Both were produced by Koji Wakui, while the album features Hiroyuki Namba and other musicians. A single featuring a remix of T. Rex's "20th Century Boy" and Urasawa's "Bob Lennon (Kenji no Uta)" was released on August 19, 2009. Urasawa and Mitsuru Kuramoto wrote and performed under the name to be the theme of the 2011 NTT Docomo TV show "Tsubuyaki Sanshirō ~Ippon Nau!~". In 2012 he performed a Japanese cover of Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country" and "Guta lala suda lala" from his series "20th Century Boys" at the Japan Expo, and the following day he joined rock band Hemenway on stage.


title: Naoki Urasawa

text: Urasawa's second album, which he wrote and produced himself, was released in 2016. Urasawa wrote a demo for a song titled and sent it to musician Mike Viola, who finished the track and invited Urasawa to Los Angeles to play on it. The people playing on the song are Urasawa, Viola, drummer Jim Keltner, and Mitsuru Kuramoto. It is included on the album "The Best of Mike Viola" which was released on January 22, 2020 with the performance credited to Monaka. In 2020, Urasawa was one of many people who submitted lyrics that were adopted by Sunplaza Nakano-kun into a new version of Bakufu Slump's 1984 song .


title: Vicki Peterson

text: Victoria Anne Theresa Peterson Cowsill (born January 11, 1958) is an American rock musician and songwriter. She has been the lead guitarist for the Bangles since their foundation in 1981. After their first disbandment in 1989, she has returned to the band for all subsequent reunions. In intervening years, she has performed with other artists, most extensively with the Continental Drifters.


title: Vicki Peterson

text: Peterson described herself as a solo artist in her early years – "I was a kid who brought her guitar to every sleep-over and summer afternoon in the park to play her newest creation to anyone who would listen…" In high school she formed a band that went through various incarnations as Crista Galli, Aishi, the Muze, the Fans, and Those Girls from 1976 to 1980.


title: Vicki Peterson

text: In 1981, she founded the Bangs, later renamed the Bangles, with her sister Debbi Peterson, and Susanna Hoffs.


title: Vicki Peterson

text: After the Bangles disbanded in 1989, Peterson played with the Continental Drifters and the Psycho Sisters, in both cases alongside Susan Cowsill. In addition to performing their own material, the Psycho Sisters freelanced as backing singers (Steve Wynn's "Fluorescent", Giant Sand's "Center of the Universe"), and Peterson has also contributed harmony vocals to recordings by the Hoodoo Gurus, John Doe, Tom Petty and Belinda Carlisle. Additionally, she filled in for a pregnant Charlotte Caffey on the 1994–95 Go-Go's reunion tour. In 1999 the Bangles reformed and have recorded and played sporadically since.


title: Vicki Peterson

text: Peterson married musician John Cowsill, brother of her Continental Drifters and Psycho Sisters bandmate Susan Cowsill, on October 25, 2003. An earlier relationship had ended when her fiancé Bobby Donati died of leukemia in 1991.


title: Vicki Peterson

text: In August 2014, after playing together as the Psycho Sisters for more than 20 years, Peterson and Susan Cowsill released their first album, entitled "Up on the Chair, Beatrice". In 2017, she and John Cowsill joined with Bill Mumy as the band Action Skulls to release an album (also including posthumous contributions from the bassist Rick Rosas) entitled "Angels Hear".


title: Eva Marcille

text: Eva Marcille Sterling (née Pigford; born October 30, 1984) is an American actress, fashion model and television personality. She started her career by winning the third cycle of "America's Next Top Model".


title: Eva Marcille

text: Sterling was born in Los Angeles, California as Eva Pigford. Her middle name, Marcille, is an amalgam of her grandmothers' names "Marjorie" and "Lucille". Her parents are both African American. She attended Raymond Avenue Elementary School, Marina Del Rey Middle School, and Washington Preparatory High School (2002). She attended Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia; however, she left the school shortly after winning the third season of "America's Next Top Model" at the age of 19.


title: Eva Marcille

text: Marcille was the winner of the third cycle of "America's Next Top Model" in 2004, beating fellow contestant Yaya DaCosta. Her prizes included a CoverGirl cosmetics contract, a spread in "Elle", and a modeling contract with Ford Models.


title: Eva Marcille

text: Marcille has appeared on the cover of "Brides Noir", "Women's Health and Fitness" (May 2005), "King" (June 2005), "IONA" (November 2005), and "Essence". Her other modeling credits include CoverGirl, DKNY, Samsung, Red by Marc Ecko, "Jewel", "In Touch Weekly" (June 2005), "King" (November 2005), "WeTheUrban", IONA, "UNleashed", "Star Magazine", "Elle", "Elle Girl", Apple Bottoms, Lerner Catalog, Avon Campaign 4 and Rolling Out.


title: Eva Marcille

text: Marcille's runway shows include the Marc Bouwer Fall 2005, Elle Girl presents Dare to Be You: Wal-Mart Meets America's Next Top Model 2005, Gharani Strok Fall 2005, Deborah Lindquist Spring 2006, Naqada Spring 2006, 8th Annual 'Models of Perfection' Show 2006, and L.A. Fashion Week's Monarchy Collection Fall 2007.


title: Eva Marcille

text: On November 15, 2006, Marcille left her managers Benny Medina and Tyra Banks. After leaving Banks and Medina for new management, she officially dropped "Pigford" from her name, now going by Eva Marcille (her middle name). She has stated she did this in order to not use her modeling fame to get into acting but earn her acting roles.


title: Eva Marcille

text: Marcille is now signed to L.A. Models. She has been featured on "America's Next Top Model: Exposed" on the CW. She has also been featured as one of CoverGirl's Top Models in Action.


title: Eva Marcille

text: Marcille has guest-starred on several series on UPN and The CW Network. Her guest-star credits include two episodes of "Kevin Hill", one episode of "Smallville", one episode of "Everybody Hates Chris", and one episode of "The Game" as herself. Marcille has also appeared on "Tyler Perry's House of Payne".


title: Eva Marcille

text: In addition, Marcille hosted BET J's reality show "My Model Looks Better Than Your Model", as well as "Rip the Runway" on BET. Furthermore, she has appeared in several music videos, including "Baby" by Angie Stone (featuring Betty Wright), 50 Cent's "I Get Money" and Jamie Foxx's "DJ Play a Love Song".


title: Eva Marcille

text: Marcille was cast as a regular on a FOX show called "The Wedding Album" in 2006, but FOX canceled it before it aired.


title: Eva Marcille

text: In 2005, Marcille appeared in a first-season episode of the MTV improv show "Nick Cannon Presents Wild 'N Out". In December 2007, Marcille played a featured role in an episode of "Smallville".


title: Eva Marcille

text: In 2008 she joined the cast of "The Young and the Restless" as a young mother named Tyra Hamilton. After a few months, her character, who was planned to be temporary was made permanent. In 2009, Marcille was nominated for two NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series for her "Y&R" role but didn't get the awards. She did however win a Young Hollywood award.


title: Eva Marcille

text: She appeared in a June 2009 episode of the BET prank show "Played by Fame", where contestants have nightmarish dates with celebrities.


title: Eva Marcille

text: In August 2013, Marcille appeared in the video clip "J'accélère (I accelerate)" by French rapper Rohff.


title: Eva Marcille

text: On August 5, 2015, Marcille was in the main cast as the role of Tara in the TV One series "Born Again Virgin." In February 2016, she was in a reality series titled "About the Business".


title: Eva Marcille

text: In August 2017, Marcille competed in the first season of VH1's "Scared Famous", which premiered on October 23, 2017. She joined Season 10 of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" as a friend of Nene Leakes and was promoted to a full-time cast member in 2018 for season 11. She departed the series after two seasons in 2020.


title: Eva Marcille

text: In July 2006, Marcille began dating actor Lance Gross. The couple became engaged on December 24, 2008 and split up in March 2010. She dated rapper Flo Rida from 2010 to 2012. Marcille has a daughter from her previous relationship with Kevin McCall. She and McCall split in spring 2014, with Marcille stating she has custody of their daughter. In August 2019, she revealed that her daughter's last name has been legally changed from McCall to Sterling.


title: Eva Marcille

text: Eva became engaged to Atlanta-based attorney Michael Sterling in December 2017. They married on October 7, 2018. The couple have two sons, born in April 2018 and September 2019. In 2019 she also founded cEVAd, a CBD oil company. The company launched during the birth of her son Maverick.


title: Rumble Fish

text: Rumble Fish is a 1983 American drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It is based on the 1975 novel "Rumble Fish" by S. E. Hinton, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Coppola. The film stars Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Vincent Spano, Diane Lane, Diana Scarwid, Nicolas Cage, and Dennis Hopper.


title: Rumble Fish

text: The film centers on the relationship between a character called The Motorcycle Boy (Rourke), a revered former gang leader wishing to live a more peaceful life, and his younger brother, Rusty James (Dillon), a teenaged hoodlum who aspires to become as feared as his brother.


title: Rumble Fish

text: Coppola wrote the screenplay for the film with Hinton on his days off from shooting "The Outsiders". He made the films back-to-back, retaining much of the same cast and crew, particularly Matt Dillon and Diane Lane. "Rumble Fish" is dedicated to Coppola's brother August.


title: Rumble Fish

text: The film is notable for its avant-garde style with a film noir feel, shot on stark high-contrast black-and-white film, using the spherical cinematographic process with allusions to French New Wave cinema and German Expressionism. "Rumble Fish" features an experimental score by Stewart Copeland, drummer of the musical group the Police, who used a Musync, a new device at the time.


title: Rumble Fish

text: Set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the film begins in a diner called Benny's Billiards, where local tough guy Rusty James is told by Midget that rival group leader Biff Wilcox wants to meet him that night in an abandoned garage lot for a fight. Accepting the challenge, Rusty James then talks with his friends: the wily Smokey, loyal B.J., and tall, nerdy Steve; who all have a different take on the forthcoming fight. Steve mentions that Rusty James' older brother, "The Motorcycle Boy," would not be pleased with the fight as he had previously created a truce forbidding gang fights, or "rumbles." Rusty James dismisses him, saying that the Motorcycle Boy (whose real name is never revealed) has been gone for two months, leaving without explanation or promise of return.


title: Rumble Fish

text: Rusty James visits his girlfriend, Patty, then meets his cadre and walks to the abandoned garage lot, where Biff and his buddies suddenly appear. The two battle, with the fight ending when Rusty James disarms Biff and beats him almost unconscious. The Motorcycle Boy arrives dramatically on his motorcycle and his appearance distracts Rusty James who is slashed by Biff in the side with a shard of glass. Incensed, the Motorcycle Boy sends his motorcycle flying into Biff. The Motorcycle Boy and Steve take Rusty James home (past Officer Patterson, a street cop who's long hated the Motorcycle Boy) and nurse him to health through the night. Steve and the injured Rusty James talk about how the Motorcycle Boy is 21 years old, colorblind, partially deaf, and noticeably aloof; the last trait causing many to believe he is insane.


title: Rumble Fish

text: The Motorcycle Boy and Rusty James share the next evening with their alcoholic, welfare-dependent father, who says that the Motorcycle Boy takes after his mother whereas, it is implied, Rusty James takes after him. Things start to go wrong for Rusty James and he's eventually kicked out of school after his frequent fights. Despite Rusty James's desire to resume gang activity, the Motorcycle Boy implies that he has no interest in doing so. Shortly after, Rusty James goes to a party at a lakeside cabin hosted by Smokey, where he has sex with another girl, causing Patty to break up with him. At Benny's sometime later, Rusty James sees that Patty and Smokey have begun dating, and Smokey confesses that he set up the entire party so that Rusty James would cheat on Patty, driving her to leave him for Smokey.


title: Rumble Fish

text: The two brothers and Steve head across the river one night to a strip of bars, where Rusty James enjoys briefly forgetting his troubles. The Motorcycle Boy mentions that he located their long-lost mother during his recent trip while she was with a movie producer, which took him to California although he did not reach the ocean. Later, Steve and Rusty James wander drunkenly home, and are attacked by thugs, but both are saved by the Motorcycle Boy. As he nurses Rusty James again, the Motorcycle Boy tells him that the gang life and the rumbles he yearns for and idolizes are not what he believes them to be. Steve calls the Motorcycle Boy crazy, a claim which the Motorcycle Boy does not deny, further prompting Rusty James to believe his brother is insane, just like his runaway mother supposedly was.


title: Rumble Fish

text: Rusty James meets up with the Motorcycle Boy the next day in a pet store, where the latter is strangely fascinated with the Siamese fighting fish, which he refers to as "rumble fish." Officer Patterson suspects they will try to rob the store. The brothers leave and meet their father, who explains to Rusty James that, contrary to popular belief, neither his mother nor brother are crazy, but rather they were both born with an acute perception. The brothers go for a motorcycle ride through the city and arrive at the Pet Store where the Motorcycle Boy breaks in and starts to set the animals loose. Rusty James makes a last-gasp effort to convince his brother to reunite with him, but the Motorcycle Boy refuses, explaining that the differences between them are too great for them to ever have the life Rusty James speaks of. The Motorcycle Boy takes the fish and rushes to free them in the river, but is fatally shot by Officer Patterson before he can. Rusty James, after hearing the gunshot, finishes his brother's last attempt while a large crowd of people converges on his body.


title: Rumble Fish

text: Rusty James finally reaches the Pacific Ocean (something the Motorcycle Boy failed to do) and enjoys the shining sun and flocks of birds flying around the beach. He also tries to forget what happened to his brother.


title: Rumble Fish

text: Francis Ford Coppola was drawn to S. E. Hinton's novel "Rumble Fish" because of the strong personal identification he had with the subject matter — a younger brother who hero-worships an older, intellectually superior brother, which mirrored the relationship between Coppola and his brother, August. A dedication to August appears as the film's final end credit. The director said that he "started to use "Rumble Fish" as my carrot for what I promised myself when I finished "The Outsiders"". Halfway through the production of "The Outsiders", Coppola decided that he wanted to retain the same production team, stay in Tulsa, and shoot "Rumble Fish" right after "The Outsiders". He wrote the screenplay for "Rumble Fish" with Hinton on Sundays, their day off from shooting "The Outsiders".