title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: The majority of cases of acanthosis nigricans are associated with obesity and otherwise idiopathic. This is likely because of insulin resistance and more likely to occur in darker-skinned persons. This can also be referred to as pseudoacanthosis nigricans. In some cases, AN attributable to obesity and insulin resistance will occur on ones face. Most typically it will be present as a horizontal band on the forehead, but may also appear as perioral hyperpigmentation, periorbital hyperpigmentation, or generalized facial skin darkening.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: Acanthosis nigricans has been linked to the use of nicotinic acid, glucocorticoid use, combined oral contraceptive pills, and growth hormone therapy.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: Malignant acanthosis nigricans refers to acanthosis nigricans occurring as a paraneoplastic syndrome associated with a cancer. Malignant acanthosis nigricans is most commonly associated with gastrointestinal adenocarcinomas, as well as genitourinary cancers such as those of the prostate, breast, and ovary. Other cancers, such as those of the lung, stomach, and lymphoma, are occasionally associated with acanthosis nigricans.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: This form of acanthosis nigricans is more likely to involve mucous membranes (25–50% of cases) Malignant acanthosis nigricans that may either precede (18%), accompany (60%), or follow (22%) the onset of an internal cancer. Malignancy-associated acanthosis nigricans is usually rapid in onset and may be accompanied by skin tags, multiple seborrheic keratoses, or tripe palms.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: Acral acanthotic anomaly refers to a variant of acanthosis nigricans limited to the elbows, knees, knuckles, and dorsal surfaces of the feet, in the absence of any other findings, in otherwise healthy individuals. While the etiology remains unknown, its presence does not suggest a likelihood of malignancy.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: Acanthosis nigricans is caused by increased activation of growth factor receptor proteins, usually due to endocrine dysfunction. This is most commonly insulin-mediated activation of IGF receptors on keratinocytes, as a result of hyperinsulinaemia or insulin resistance, as seen in diabetes mellitus.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: In conjunction with increased end levels of IGF, it is likely that perspiration and friction may be necessary predeterminants for lesions, since the level of insulin is usually not enough to activate IGF receptors across the body.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: Acanthosis nigricans is typically diagnosed clinically. A skin biopsy may be needed in unusual cases. If no clear cause is obvious, it may be necessary to search for one. Blood tests, an endoscopy, or X-rays may be required to eliminate the possibility of diabetes or cancer as the cause.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: On biopsy, hyperkeratosis, epidermal folding, leukocyte infiltration, and melanocyte proliferation may be seen.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: Acanthosis nigricans is conventionally divided into benign and malignant forms, although may be divided into syndromes according to cause:


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: An alternate classification system still used to describe acanthosis nigricans was proposed in 1994. It delineates acanthosis nigricans syndromes according to their associated syndromes, including benign and malignant forms, forms associated with obesity and drugs, acral acanthosis nigricans, unilateral acanthosis nigricans, and mixed and syndromic forms.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: People with acanthosis nigricans should be screened for diabetes and, although rare, cancer. Controlling blood glucose levels through exercise and diet often improves symptoms. Topical fade creams (normally used for eliminating age spots) can lighten skin cosmetically in less severe cases. Selenium sulfide topical 2 percent applied in thin layer to dry skin ten minutes prior to bathing may clear symptoms. Selenium sulfide applied to dry scalp or skin is an inexpensive well tolerated treatment to balance skin's biome and works by drying fungus like tinea versicolor that can coexist with acanthosis and exacerbate discoloration. Acanthosis nigricans maligna may resolve if the causative tumor is successfully removed.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: Acanthosis nigricans is likely to improve in circumstances where a known cause is removed. For example, obesity-related acanthosis nigricans will improve with weight loss, and drug-induced acanthosis nigricans is likely to resolve when the drug is ceased. Hereditary variants may or may not fade with age, and malignancy-associated variants may, after a malignancy is removed, fade.


title: About Damn Time

text: "About Damn Time" is a song by American singer and rapper Lizzo, released on April 14, 2022, by Nice Life Recordings and Atlantic Records as the lead single from her fourth studio album "Special" (2022). The song reached number one in the United States, becoming her second number one single there, while reaching the top three in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The song was nominated at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards for Song of the Year, Best Pop Video, and Song of Summer. The song also received three nominations at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.


title: About Damn Time

text: "About Damn Time" was the final song created for "Special". Prior to the song's creation, Lizzo felt the album was not yet complete, so she wanted to write a song that had the same uplifting emotional impact as "Good as Hell."


title: About Damn Time

text: Blake Slatkin, a co-writer and co-producer of the song, explained in a 2022 "Billboard" interview that he and Ricky Reed began creating the song in January of that year. According to Slatkin, the song began with four piano chords which Reed used as a basis for a bassline. At that point, the two played Lizzo the instrumental, motivating her to travel to the studio to contribute to the track. Slatkin credits Lizzo with crafting the hook and melodies. The song required approximately thirty additional studio sessions to finish, spanning four months. At one point, the song featured an entirely different chorus from the one included in the final release.


title: About Damn Time

text: About the song's thematic content, Lizzo stated, "I think life had thrown some major traumas and hard experiences at us, especially globally these last few years. And I wanted to write a song that allowed us to take a moment and celebrate our survival, and celebrate how far we’ve come."


title: About Damn Time

text: "Billboard" Rania Aniftos said "About Damn Time" has a "feel-good" chorus, and Rachel Brodsky of "Stereogum" described the song as "a funk-pop cut with tons of instant-classic Lizzo-isms". Similarly, Alex Gallagher of "NME" called the song "a funk-tinged, classically Lizzo cut that comes replete with a groove-heavy bassline, an instantly memorable flute melody and lyrical gems". Nardine Saad from the "Los Angeles Times" said the song has an "affirmative, instantly uplifting disco beat", Ree Hines from "Today" labeled the record as "a uplifting disco bop".


title: About Damn Time

text: The song's chorus features a piano motif interpolated from the 1984's tune "Hey DJ" by The World's Famous Supreme Team.


title: About Damn Time

text: For the week dated April 30, 2022, "About Damn Time" debuted at number 50 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, with 7,000 digital downloads and 6.5 million U.S. streams. On the week dated May 14, 2022, the song jumped from number 60 to number 19, becoming her fourth top 20 hit. One week later, the song rose to number nine becoming her fourth top 10 hit. The song has peaked at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in its 14th week, becoming her second number one on the chart after "Truth Hurts", and the first number one hit to feature the word "damn" in its title. "About Damn Time" held at number one on the Hot 100 for 2 consecutive weeks.


title: About Damn Time

text: Lizzo previewed the song on "The Late Late Show with James Corden" in March 2022. She first performed the song in full on "Saturday Night Live" on April 16, 2022, where she pulled double duty as both host and musical guest.


title: About Damn Time

text: During the months following the song's release, Lizzo promoted "About Damn Time" heavily through TikTok, including a video celebrating the appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court of the United States. TikTok personality Jaeden Gomez choreographed an easily replicable dance for the song that became a viral phenomenon on the platform; Lizzo spotlighted Gomez's choreography in multiple performance and tutorial videos.


title: About Damn Time

text: On June 26, 2022, Lizzo performed "About Damn Time" at the 22nd BET Awards; during the song, Lizzo stated, "It’s about damn time we stand in our power. Black people, my people." On June 27, "The Late Late Show with James Corden" premiered a Carpool Karaoke segment with Lizzo, which culminated in Corden and Lizzo performing the song's TikTok choreography with a troupe of dancers. Jaeden Gomez appeared as a cameo in the segment.


title: About Damn Time

text: The song's music video was directed by Christian Breslauer. In the video, Lizzo runs out of a "Stressed & Sexy" support group meeting. While dancing in an office building, her outfit changes from a sweatsuit into a sequined jumpsuit that she wears for the remainder of the video. In further scenes, Lizzo dances down a hallway with an illuminated dance floor and plays a flute while walking atop the water in a swimming pool.


title: About Damn Time

text: “About Damn Time” was used in the pre-game montage for the October 15, 2022 broadcast of "Hockey Night in Canada" on Canadian sports channel Sportsnet celebrating its 70th season on television. The montage began with host Ron MacLean summarizing events that occurred when the program went on the air in 1952 before cutting into the song beginning. The game the montage served as the intro for pitted the Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Maple Leafs, which was broadcast on all Sportsnet regional channels except Sportsnet East, which broadcast the game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Washington Capitals instead.


title: Seaspiracy

text: Seaspiracy () is a 2021 documentary film about the environmental impact of fishing directed by and starring Ali Tabrizi, a British filmmaker. The film examines human impacts on marine life and advocates for ending fish consumption.


title: Seaspiracy

text: The film explores environmental issues affecting oceans, including plastic pollution, ghost nets and overfishing, and argues that commercial fisheries are the main driver of marine ecosystem destruction. The film rejects the concept of sustainable fishing and criticises several marine conservation organisations, including the Earth Island Institute and its dolphin safe label and the sustainable seafood certifications of the Marine Stewardship Council. It also criticises efforts by organisations to reduce household plastic, contrasting their impact with that of ghost nets. It accuses these initiatives of being a cover-up for the environmental impact of fishing and corruption in the fishing industry. "Seaspiracy" concludes by supporting marine reserves and for ending fish consumption.


title: Seaspiracy

text: The film was produced by Kip Andersen, director of the documentary "Cowspiracy," and used the same production team as this previous film. Initial financial support was provided by British entrepreneur Dale Vince, and it was acquired by Netflix in 2020.


title: Seaspiracy

text: The film premiered on Netflix globally in March 2021 and garnered immediate attention in several countries. The film received mixed reviews; reviewers praised it for bringing attention to its subject matter, but it was accused of scientific inaccuracy and was criticised by some ocean experts. Organisations and individuals interviewed or negatively portrayed in the film disputed its assertions and accused the film of misrepresenting them. "Seaspiracy" also prompted responses from other environmental organisations, academics and seafood industry groups, and several media outlets fact-checked the veracity of certain statements in the film.


title: Seaspiracy

text: Tabrizi acts as both the narrator and protagonist of the film, discovering key pieces of information at the same moment as the viewer. This framing device serves to provide narrative momentum and suspense. The film centers early on the collapse of whale, shark, dolphin and sea turtle populations. The film asserts that the focus of environmental groups on comparatively small consumer plastics like straws has obfuscated the larger problem of plastic waste from fishing gear, or ghost nets, as well as the devastation of bycatch. The film also suggests environmental organizations have been unable to define or effectively implement sustainable fishing, sustainable seafood or dolphin-safe products. These criticisms are particularly focused on the Marine Stewardship Council, the Earth Island Institute and the Plastic Pollution Coalition.


title: Seaspiracy

text: The film's settings are global, including the Taiji dolphin drive hunt in southern Japan, whaling in the Faroe Islands, Thai and Chinese fish markets, coastal West Africa, and salmon aquaculture farms in Scotland. At various moments, Tabrizi and his crew appear to face imminent peril from local authorities or corrupt fishing industry players; some of the action is presented through hidden camera techniques, and animation is used to depict scenes of violence. Activities of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society—an American conservation group focused on direct action at sea—feature prominently in the film, including an extended section documenting illegal fishing practices and worker exploitation in Liberian waters. The film also includes an investigation into modern slavery conditions on Thai fishing vessels, and interviews several survivors.


title: Seaspiracy

text: That the cessation of fish consumption is the solution to collapsing fish stocks and human exploitation remains a consistent message throughout the film. Statistics repeatedly buttress this point, including various fish species listed at >90% wild population loss, and the claim that global oceans could be essentially devoid of fish by 2048. The possibility of fish farming aquaculture is introduced, only to be dismissed after a trip to Scotland. The film suggests the problem of feed for farmed fish as well as the prevalence of disease and coastal degradation make aquaculture untenable.


title: Seaspiracy

text: "Seaspiracy" received production support and initial funding by British renewable energy entrepreneur Dale Vince after meeting "Cowspiracy" director Kip Anderson in 2016. The same production team was used as this previous film. Ali Tabrizi had previously directed a film called "Vegan" in 2018. "Seaspiracy" was acquired by Netflix in 2020 and released on the platform on March 24, 2021.


title: Seaspiracy

text: The documentary was one of the top ten most watched films on Netflix in several countries in the week of its release and generated significant traction on social media.


title: Seaspiracy

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 75% based on 8 critic reviews, and an average rating of 7.7/10.


title: Seaspiracy

text: Natalia Winkelman of "The New York Times" gave a mixed-to-negative review, concluding that the film "does present some pieces of reporting — including an inquiry into dolphin-safe tuna can labels — that are surprising and memorable. But even the film's notable points seem to emerge only briefly before sinking beneath the surface, lost in a sea of murky conspiratorial thinking."


title: Seaspiracy

text: Aswathi Pacha also reviewed the film negatively in "The Hindu", citing concerns over its scientific veracity and accusations of misrepresentation from participants.


title: Seaspiracy

text: Liz Allen of "Forbes" was also critical of the film, writing "While perhaps produced with good intentions, Seaspiracy fails to provide a critical lens to the problems it unveils".


title: Seaspiracy

text: John Serba of "Decider" said, ""Seaspiracy" isn't the purest form of documentary journalism, but Tabrizi makes his point with enough principled persuasion to make it worth your time," while also questioning its tone, saying "some of the fishing industry's troublesome ethical quandaries occur in the shadows, but to call its corrupt elements conspiratorial is almost pointlessly sensational". "The Independent" rated it 4 out of 5 stars and called it a "shocking indictment of the commercial fishing industry".


title: Seaspiracy

text: Emma Stefanski of "Thrillist" said, "If shock and awe are what it takes to get the message across, then "Seaspiracy" is effective, if not particularly multifaceted."


title: Seaspiracy

text: "Common Sense Media" gave the film a 4 out of 5 stars and 15+ rating, calling it "tough but necessary viewing" and "backed with evidence from journalists, authors, marine biologists, oceanographers, frontline activists, and industry insiders". It questions the use of director Ali Tabrizi as protagonist to be followed around.


title: Seaspiracy

text: Writing for the American socialist publication "Jacobin", Spencer Roberts says that the film "is not without its faults. Its interview style is abrasive. It has excessive animation. It makes a couple of statistical misinterpretations and several oversimplifications. Yet the film is mainly accurate and devastatingly detailed." Addressing the disputes over its scientific accuracy, he says "[i]t's fair to say that "Seaspiracy" cited some studies that can be considered dated or disputed, but it also left out some of the most harrowing statistics published in recent years", including the bycatch of 8.5 million sea turtles from 1990 to 2008, total fish hauls peaking in 1996, and perhaps 25% of all fishing ships using forced labor.


title: Seaspiracy

text: Greenpeace commended the film for promoting various marine issues, but challenged the conclusion of abstaining from fish consumption, distinguishing between industrial fishing and traditional harvesting. Greenpeace instead suggested alternate solutions. A representative of Fauna and Flora International wrote that the film has "bitterly divided the environmental community" and described its interpretation of scientific studies as "highly problematic and often woefully misleading." Although also questioning its "western-centric and absolutist perspective", it accepted that it was "broadly right on some central issues... with significant caveats".


title: Seaspiracy

text: Charles Clover of Blue Marine Foundation and author of the book "The End of the Line" criticised the film's scientific accuracy, saying "there are a few jaw-dropping factual errors" such as its framing of whale strandings. He said such strandings have a variety of causes other than plastic pollution alone, and accused "Seaspiracy" of deriving its narrative from previous documentaries, such as the film adaptation of his book. Nonetheless, he praised its communication of marine fisheries and conservation issues to a new audience, stating "[t]he problem of overfishing is immense, global, remote, horrifying and it is really hard to get people to focus on. Until now, Tabrizi's generation thought banning plastic straws was more important. But it isn't. Overfishing is." Although he found a "lot to admire" in the film's criticisms of the fishing industry and sustainable seafood certification organisations, he called the film's conclusion of not eating fish "thoroughly unsatisfactory".


title: Seaspiracy

text: Environmental journalism outlets "Earther" (a publication of "Gizmodo") and "Hakai Magazine" both gave negative reviews. They both criticised the film for suggesting that previous media had not covered the facts discussed in the film, and questioned its tone and accuracy. A reviewer in "Hakai Magazine" wrote, "had Tabrizi looked at any of these issues in greater depth, he'd have found that journalists have been covering these sorts of stories for years and have not glossed over the nuance."


title: Seaspiracy

text: Internal documents leaked before the film's release authored by the National Fisheries Institute, a trade group representing the US seafood industry, revealed a new media strategy to protect the fishing industry and to characterize the then-unreleased documentary as a "dishonest attack". The National Fisheries Institute appealed to Netflix ahead of the film's release to "distinguish between legitimate documentaries and propaganda", stating "audiences will not recognize the film's true agenda [as] a vegan indoctrination movie".


title: Seaspiracy

text: After the movie was released, a spokesperson for Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) said the film's coverage of Scottish salmon aquaculture was "wrong, misleading and inaccurate". The Global Aquaculture Alliance also criticised the film, saying "reputable NGOs have worked tirelessly with industry over the past 20-plus years to continually improve the lives of the people working in aquaculture and fisheries as well as the ecosystems in which aquaculture and fisheries are practiced", and suggested abandoning fisheries and aquaculture would "abandon the approximately 250 million people employed by the industry and rob billions of people of a healthful source of protein".


title: Seaspiracy

text: Bryce Stewart, a University of York marine ecologist and fisheries biologist, criticised the film's scientific accuracy and neutrality, calling it "the worst kind of journalism" and questioning its lack of coverage of the impacts of climate change on oceans. He said that "the biggest error is to say that sustainable fisheries don't exist. This is like saying that sustainable agriculture doesn't exist. All food production systems have an impact on the natural world, but obviously some more than others." He acknowledged "the movie was right to highlight overfishing as the biggest current threat to marine biodiversity. This is widely accepted by scientists and the evidence for this is very strong".


title: Seaspiracy

text: Daniel Pauly, project leader of the Sea Around Us project at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia, wrote in "Vox" that the documentary "make[s] the important point that industrial fishing is... a too often out-of-control, sometimes criminal enterprise that needs to be reined in and regulated." However, he said it also "undermines [its message] with an avalanche of falsehoods", citing its coverage of marine debris, bycatch and sustainable fishing, as well as "blames the ocean conservation community, i.e., the very NGOs trying to fix things, rather than the industrial companies actually causing the problem".


title: Seaspiracy

text: In an article in "Nature Ecology and Evolution", Dyhia Belhabib criticised the film's conclusion of ending fish consumption, calling this "embedded in white privilege and colonialism" and "[ignoring] that more than 90% of the global fishing effort is small-scale and coastal in nature". She proposed management solutions and decolonisation of ocean science and advocacy.


title: Seaspiracy

text: The Marine Stewardship Council, Earth Island Institute and Plastic Pollution Coalition disputed their negative portrayal in the documentary, and suggested that their representatives' comments were cherry-picked. Oceana disputed the statement that they receive funding from the seafood industry. Christina Hicks, an academic at Lancaster University and James Cook University who appeared in the film, did not endorse it. She said she committed her career to the fishing industry, in which "there are issues but also progress and fish remain critical to food and nutrition security in many vulnerable geographies". However, "The Guardian" columnist George Monbiot expressed his support for the film and its message. While acknowledging some inaccuracies, Monbiot says that the main point of the film is correct: the fishing industry is the greatest cause of the ecological destruction of the oceans, and cites the 2019 IPBES report as evidence to back this assertion. The marine conservation biologist Callum Roberts from the University of Exeter also argued against criticism. He said "my colleagues may rue the statistics, but the basic thrust of it is we are doing a huge amount of damage to the ocean and that's true. At some point you run out. Whether it's 2048 or 2079, the question is: 'Is the trajectory in the wrong direction or the right direction?'"


title: Seaspiracy

text: The scientific accuracy of several statements in "Seaspiracy" has been questioned by several fisheries scientists and marine conservationists. "BBC News," "Newsweek" and "Radio Times" have each written a fact check article about the film.


title: Seaspiracy

text: In "Seaspiracy", narrator Tabrizi criticises a public focus on plastic straws, stating that they only account for 0.03% of ocean plastic. He contrasts this with fishing nets, saying they make up 46% of the Great Pacific garbage patch. The fishing net statement derives from a 2018 study, which examines floating marine debris by weight. The study found that at least 46% of floating plastic in the Great Pacific garbage patch came from fishing nets.


title: Seaspiracy

text: According to the "BBC News" fact check, the share of plastic straws in ocean plastic (0.03%) seems to be calculated using numbers from two studies. One study is on plastic straws on coastlines, the other on floating marine plastic in the Great Pacific garbage patch. The fact check cites Jenna Jambeck, the author of the coastline study, saying "no-one really knows how much of it is straws, but experts agree that it is certainly a lot less than dumped fishing gear." The author of the latter study on the Great Pacific garbage patch, is quoted as saying "[fishing gear] fragments much more slowly and is also very buoyant; prime candidates to hang around in the GPGP", as opposed to thinner plastics like straws and bags, which disintegrate and sink.


title: Seaspiracy

text: An article in "Forbes" concluded that the film's focus on the Great Pacific garbage patch was "misleading", as this region of the ocean accumulates buoyant plastics and therefore "does not provide a particularly accurate depiction of the marine plastic in the entire ocean overall".


title: Seaspiracy

text: The film says that a leading fisheries expert found "that if current fishing trends continue, we will see virtually empty oceans by the year 2048."


title: Seaspiracy

text: This prediction originates from the conclusion section of a 2006 study by a team of marine ecologists led by Dr. Boris Worm published in "Science". In the final paragraphs of the study, the authors extrapolated from the percentage of fisheries that have already collapsed and predicted that 32 years later, no more fish would be caught in the ocean. When interviewed for the BBC fact-check article about "Seaspiracy" in 2021, Worm said, "the 2006 paper is now 15 years old and most of the data in it is almost 20 years old. Since then, we have seen increasing efforts in many regions to rebuild depleted fish populations". The BBC also noted that other experts had taken issue with the original 2006 study.


title: Seaspiracy

text: The film criticises dolphin safe labels on tuna and says that "the internationally recognized seafood label was a complete fabrication since it guaranteed nothing". This is in response to Mark Palmer, associate director of the International Marine Mammal Project of the Earth Island Institute, who says on camera that "dolphin safe" tuna cannot be guaranteed, and that observers can be bribed. Palmer has accused the documentary of taking him out of context.


title: Seaspiracy

text: Senior fisheries scientist Sara McDonald of the Monterey Bay Aquarium was quoted by "Newsweek" in a "Seaspiracy" fact check article: "The U.S. dolphin-safe program has been very effective. Dolphin mortality in the 1980s was 130,000. In 2018, there were 819 documented deaths." However, a representative of the Natural Resources Defense Council stated that although "the U.S. laws are good if everyone is being honest, that doesn't mean nothing ever gets in. [Law enforcement] can't catch it all." "Newsweek's" fact-check article concluded that dolphin safe labels cannot guarantee that no dolphins are harmed during fishing.


title: Thomas J. Tierney

text: Thomas J. Tierney (born 5 March 1954) is an American business executive and corporate writer, who is the co-founder of the nonprofit Bridgespan Group that provides management consulting to nonprofits and philanthropists. He has been chairman of eBay since July 2015.


title: Thomas J. Tierney

text: Tierney is cited by the book "Management Consultancy in the 21st Century" as a specialist in customer service and marketing.


title: Thomas J. Tierney

text: Tierney was born in San Francisco, California in 1954. Tierney earned a BA in Economics from the University of California, Davis in 1976, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1980.


title: Thomas J. Tierney

text: He joined Bain & Company in 1980, and served as the managing director of its San Francisco office from 1987 to 1992. In June 1992 he was appointed chief executive officer of Bain & Company, a post which he held until January 2000, during which time the company grew significantly, venturing into business internationally and generating revenues six times what they had been.


title: Thomas J. Tierney

text: In 1998, Tierney co-founded The Bridgespan Group, described by Bloomberg as an "independent, nonprofit affiliate of Bain & Company designed to provide general management consulting services to foundations and nonprofit organizations". He launched the organization in 1999, and was appointed its chairman. In March 2003, Tierney was appointed an Independent Director at eBay, and he has been its Lead Independent Director since April 2012.


title: Thomas J. Tierney

text: Aside from his Bridgespan and eBay position, Tierney has been the Director of The Nature Conservancy, director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and has held numerous other posts on non-profit boards, including the Hoover Institution, The United Way of the Bay Area, the Committee for Economic Development and the WGBH Educational Foundation. He has also served administratively with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Tierney is still associated with Harvard Business School, where he was appointed chair of the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative Advisory Board in January 2009. He occasionally lectures at the school and has contributed numerous articles to "The Harvard Business Review" and books, including Forbes's "Learning From The Chief Executive Officer" and "Aligning the Stars" (2002), the latter co-authored with Jay W. Lorsch, which documents business strategy and organization. In 2011, he co-authored "Give Smart: Philanthropy That Gets Results" with Joel L. Fleishman.


title: Thomas J. Tierney

text: Tierney said of "Give Smart: Philanthropy That Gets Results": "The basic premise behind the book is that there must be ideas relevant to philanthropy that have been proven over time, ideas that were as useful to Andrew Carnegie as they are to Bill Gates. One of the reasons [co-author] Joel [Fleishman] and I teamed up was that he has done extensive research on twentieth-century philanthropy, a lot of which he used in "The Foundation"".


title: Girls' Last Tour

text: A 12-episode anime television adaptation produced by White Fox, mainly covering the manga's first four volumes, aired in Japan from October to December 2017.


title: Girls' Last Tour

text: The series follows two girls, Yuuri and Chito, as they navigate the ruins of civilization after an unknown apocalypse. As they travel in their Kettenkrad, they seek food and supplies while surviving day-to-day, sometimes encountering other survivors during their journey.


title: Girls' Last Tour

text: "Girls' Last Tour" was written and illustrated by Tsukumizu and serialized in Shinchosha's "Kurage Bunch" online magazine between February 21, 2014, and January 12, 2018, and collected in six volumes. Yen Press released the series in North America. A manga anthology illustrated by various artists was released on October 13, 2017.


title: Girls' Last Tour

text: An anime television series adaptation by White Fox was announced by Kadokawa at Anime Expo 2017, with Takaharu Ozaki as director, Kazuyuki Fudeyasu in charge of series composition, and Mai Toda adapting the character designs for animation. The series aired in Japan between October 6 and December 22, 2017, on AT-X and other stations. The voice actresses of the protagonists, Inori Minase and Yurika Kubo, perform the opening and ending themes, and "More One Night". Sentai Filmworks have licensed the series and streamed the series on Anime Strike. MVM Films has licensed the series in the UK.


title: Girls' Last Tour

text: "Girls' Last Tour" won the 50th Seiun Award for Best Comic category in 2019. The English release of the first two volumes were included on the American Library Association's list of 2018 Great Graphic Novels for Teens.


title: Girls' Last Tour

text: The anime series won the "Best Slice of Life" category in the 2nd Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2018. IGN also listed "Girls' Last Tour" as one of the best anime of the 2010s, describing it as a "morose anime" which is "made brighter through [Chito and Yuuri's] perspective on a barren world".


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: The "Guinea Pig" series has garnered controversy for its depictions of violence. One or more entries in the series were suspected to have influenced Tsutomu Miyazaki, a serial killer who kidnapped and murdered four young girls. The second film in the series, "", was supposedly withdrawn from the market, and has achieved particular notoriety because of an incident in which American actor Charlie Sheen is said to have watched the film and believed that it depicted the actual killing and dismemberment of a real woman, prompting him to report it to authorities.


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: The "Guinea Pig" films were released on DVD by distributor Unearthed Films. As a tribute to the Japanese film series, Unearthed Films began producing a series of horror films titled "American Guinea Pig".


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: is a 1985 film directed by Satoru Ogura, and the first entry in the series. The film depicts a group of men who kidnap and graphically torture a young woman in a variety of ways—these include hitting her, kicking her, pinching her with pliers, forcing her to endure sound torture, burning her with hot oil, pouring maggots on her, and poking a needle through one of her eyes.


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: is a 1985 film written and directed by Hideshi Hino, based on his horror manga works, and is the second entry in the series. The plot revolves around a man dressed as a samurai who drugs and abducts a woman, takes her to his home, dismembers her, and adds her body parts to a collection.


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: This entry in the series has been called "notorious". It garnered controversy for its graphic content and was reportedly withdrawn from the market after being examined by a number of Japanese boards of education. It was also suspected to have influenced serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki—also known as the Otaku Murderer—who abducted and murdered four young girls in the Saitama and Tokyo prefectures. Miyazaki had an extensive collection of videotapes, many of which were horror films; one of the "Guinea Pig" films was reported to have been found in Miyazaki's collection, though writer-director Hino has asserted that it was not "Flower of Flesh and Blood".


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: In 1991, American actor Charlie Sheen is said to have obtained a copy of the film from film writer and critic Chris Gore. Upon watching and becoming convinced that what was on screen was a genuine snuff film that depicted the dismemberment and killing of a woman, Charlie Sheen quickly reported it to authorities in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation purportedly opened an inquiry into those involved in the film's production and distribution. Any official investigations were dropped after it was demonstrated that special effects were used to simulate the violence in the film. This incident, and the frequency with which it has been recounted by "hard core" fans of horror films, has been compared to an urban legend.


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: , also known as "Guinea Pig 3: He Never Dies", is a 1986 film directed by Masayuki Hisazumi (or Masayuki Kusumi). After an introduction given by an American reporter discussing strange cases from around the world, the story begins, centering around an unlucky salaryman named Hideshi. One evening, Hideshi attempts to slit his wrists, and finds that he cannot feel pain. He then discovers that he has somehow become immortal, and invites a co-worker to his home, asking that he bring sharp gardening utensils with him. When his co-worker arrives, Hideshi plays a practical joke on him by using the tools to mutilate himself, then ends up decapitating himself with a set of gardening shears, terrifying the co-worker to the point of fainting during the ordeal. Eventually, the co-worker’s girlfriend enters Hideshi’s apartment to see why her fiancé was taking so long, only to find Hideshi’s still-living head on a blood-spattered coffee table. More confused than scared, she goes to wake the co-worker, then the two begin to clean the apartment so Hideshi doesn’t get in trouble with his landlord. As the others get to work cleaning, Hideshi announces that he has become more confident, and would like to return to his job the next day.


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: Though "He Never Dies" features graphic imagery, it is more darkly comedic in tone than its predecessors and its successors except "Devil Woman Doctor".


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: is a 1988 film written and directed by Hideshi Hino, based again on his horror manga works. Sources differ on whether it is the fourth or sixth film in the series. In a 2009 interview with "Vice", Hino said that he had "nothing to do with" the fourth "Guinea Pig" film, implying that he does not consider "Mermaid in a Manhole" to be the fourth entry in the series. However, Stephen Biro, co-founder of the home video distribution company Unearthed Films, listed "Mermaid in a Manhole" as the fourth film in the series. In his book "The Encyclopedia of Japanese Horror Films", Salvador Jimenez Murguía claims that it was "the sixth "Guinea Pig" film to be produced, although it was released fourth."


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: The plot of "Mermaid in a Manhole" follows an artist who has become estranged from his wife. One day while visiting the sewers beneath the streets of Okinawa, he encounters a mermaid that he had once met as a child. After noticing that she has boils growing on her body, the artist offers to help her, and brings the mermaid to his house to continue illustrating her. Over time, her illness gets worse, and eventually she begins suffering the symptoms of a horrendous infestation in which countless worms of various sizes burst out of the boils on her body. On the verge of death, she begs the artist to kill her, and he does, stabbing her to death then dismembering her body. Later, the artist's two neighbours, who were intrigued by what the artist had been doing after one of them found a fish head in the trash, go to investigate, but flee after they come across the artist holding the pieces of the mermaid while listlessly singing about her death.


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: When the local police take control of the scene and investigate, they find that instead of the dismembered body being that of a mermaid, it was that of a human woman instead. The neighbours are interviewed, and everyone suspects the artist to have killed his wife, a statement which the investigation finds to be true; hallucinating, the schizophrenic artist had murdered his wife, who had been suffering from stomach cancer. Now imprisoned, the artist sits, manically muttering to himself about how he was sure he had killed the mermaid. Yet, despite all the evidence against it, a single scale was found in the bathtub in the artist's house, belonging to an unidentified species.


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: is a 1988 film directed by Kazuhito Kuramoto. It revolves around a scientist who tries to find a cure for his sister's grave illness. The scientist needs a "guinea pig" to perform experiments on. A stranger approaches the scientist, offering a body for the experiments, for which the scientist will pay. When the experiments do not go well, the scientist becomes enraged and hacks the body to pieces. The stranger approaches the scientist again and supplies another body so the experiments can continue.


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: is a 1990 film directed by Hajime Tabe. Much like "Mermaid in a Manhole", sources differ on whether "Devil Woman Doctor" is the fourth or sixth entry in the series. The front cover art for the VHS release of the film by Sai Enterprise describes it as the fourth film in the series. According to Salvador Jimenez Murguía: "despite being chronologically labeled as the fourth in the series, ["Devil Woman Doctor"] is often referred to as the final ["Guinea Pig"] film."


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: "Devil Woman Doctor" tells the story of a female doctor played by Japanese drag actor Peter. The film takes the form of several vignettes in which she encounters numerous patients, including a family whose heads explode if they get upset and a woman whose heart explodes when she becomes scared, a man with dissociative identity disorder who finds a new life as a street comedian, a yakuza member who has a sentient tumour with a human face growing on his stomach, and a zombie who lives a relatively normal life with his still-living girlfriend. The doctor then saves a woman from an animate internal organ before meeting a man who sweats blood, and attempts to remove a living tattoo from another patient, who she eventually has to flay alive to finally remove the troublesome ink. In the final scene, a group of four men discuss their particularly bizarre conditions. The first patient produces soybean paste under his feet and can spit eggs containing infant aliens from his mouth, the second has an elastic penis, the third constantly emits smoke from his body, and the fourth has a heart which moves around inside him. The Devil Woman Doctor then arrives on the scene and proclaims to the audience that each of the four conditions presented by the patients are incurable. As the credits roll, several of the film's characters hit each other with metal discs coated in sharp metal spikes, causing large amounts of blood to spurt from them, though no one appears to be seriously injured despite the graphic scene. Rather than horror, the tone of this installment is more akin to extremely violent and surreal slapstick comedy.


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: In 1986, , a making-of documentary about the production of the first three "Guinea Pig" films, was released. The existence of behind-the-scenes footage demonstrating special effects used in the "Guinea Pig" series is thought to have assuaged fears about the "Guinea Pig" films being snuff films.


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: In the 1980s, the "Guinea Pig" films were released on VHS by a variety of companies, including Midnight 25 Video, Japan Home Video, MAD Video, and Sai Enterprise.


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: In the early 2000s, distributor Unearthed Films released the "Guinea Pig" films and the associated making-of documentaries on DVD. Each release was a double feature containing two films: "Devil's Experiment" / "Android of Notre Dame", "Mermaid in a Manhole" / "He Never Dies", "Flower of Flesh and Blood" / "Making of Guinea Pig", and "Devil Woman Doctor" / "Making of Devil Woman Doctor". The following year, Unearthed Films released a DVD box set containing the six "Guinea Pig" films, the two making-of documentaries and the "Slaughter Special".


title: Guinea Pig (film series)

text: As a tribute to the "Guinea Pig" series, Unearthed Films began producing a horror film series known as "American Guinea Pig". The films in this series are as follows: "American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore" (2014), "American Guinea Pig: Bloodshock" (2015), "American Guinea Pig: The Song of Solomon" (2017), and "American Guinea Pig: Sacrifice" (2017).


title: Jim Nantz

text: James William Nantz III (born May 17, 1959) is an American sportscaster who has worked on telecasts of the National Football League (NFL), NCAA Division I men's basketball, the NBA and the PGA Tour for CBS Sports since the 1980s. He has anchored CBS's coverage of the Masters Tournament since 1989 and been the lead play-by-play announcer on CBS's NFL coverage since 2004.


title: Jim Nantz

text: Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Nantz grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, Colts Neck Township, New Jersey, and Marlboro Township, New Jersey, where he attended Marlboro High School. In high school, he was co-captain of the basketball team and co-captain and number one player on the golf team. He was a member of Bamm Hollow Country Club.


title: Jim Nantz

text: Nantz then matriculated at the University of Houston where he played on the Cougars men's golf team, rooming with future professional golfers Fred Couples and Blaine McCallister. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Radio and Television Broadcasting in 1981. It was during this time that Nantz got his first experience in sports broadcasting with the CBS Radio Network, transmitting taped interviews to Win Elliot for the latter's "Sports Central USA" weekend reports.


title: Jim Nantz

text: Nantz started as an anchor and sportscaster for KHOU in Houston, Texas in the early 1980s and then became a weekend sports anchor on KSL-TV in Salt Lake City (1982–1985) where he called BYU football games and Utah Jazz games along with Hot Rod Hundley.


title: Jim Nantz

text: Nantz joined CBS Sports in 1985, initially working as a studio host for the network's college football and basketball coverage, and as an on-course reporter for PGA Tour golf, as well as calling NFL games on Westwood One (from 1988 to 1990, when he was moved to television, Nantz called "Sunday Night Football" games for what was then called CBS Radio Sports). Nantz has anchored CBS' coverage of the Masters Tournament since 1989. He teamed with Billy Packer to call the NCAA Final Four men's basketball finals from 1991 until 2008. From 2008 to 2013, Clark Kellogg had been his analyst. From 2010 to 2013, Nantz and Kellogg were joined during the Final Four by Steve Kerr of Turner Sports. From 2013 to 2014, Greg Anthony partnered with Nantz. Following Anthony's suspension, Bill Raftery and Grant Hill were selected to replace him and are Nantz's new partners. Since 2002, Nantz has opened each broadcast by saying, "Hello, friends".


title: Jim Nantz

text: After hosting CBS's pre-game program "The NFL Today" from 1998 to 2003, he became "The NFL on CBS" top play-by-play announcer in 2004. That move sent Greg Gumbel to the studio, and Nantz to the stadium booth with Phil Simms. In 1991 and 1992, Nantz, like Tim Brant, was paired with analyst Hank Stram on NFL broadcasts. In 1993, he had previously filled-in for his predecessor, Greg Gumbel as "NFL Today" host while Gumbel was away covering the American League Championship Series for CBS. Verne Lundquist and Dan Fouts were the #2 team for much of the 1993 season. However, Nantz and Randy Cross would call the second round playoff game for CBS () not called by Pat Summerall and John Madden. Meanwhile, Tim Ryan and Matt Millen were the #3 team for much of the 1993 season.


title: Jim Nantz

text: On February 4, 2007, Nantz called the play-by-play of Super Bowl XLI. He joins Curt Gowdy, Kevin Harlan, and Dick Enberg as the only play-by-play announcers to ever call both a Super Bowl and an NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Game. (Greg Gumbel called CBS's previous Super Bowls, Super Bowl XXXV and Super Bowl XXXVIII.) Nantz is also one of two men to host a Super Bowl, announce an NCAA Men's Basketball Championship game, and host coverage of The Masters from Butler Cabin with Brent Musburger being the other. Musburger also accomplished all three feats with CBS. During Super Bowl XLVII, Joe Flacco unknowingly hit Nantz with the Vince Lombardi Trophy during the presentation, but Nantz simply brushed it off.


title: Jim Nantz

text: In 2014, Nantz and broadcast partner Phil Simms called "Thursday Night Football" games in a deal with CBS and the NFL Network. Tracy Wolfson was the sideline reporter for the Thursday games along with the Sunday games on CBS. In 2017, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo replaced Phil Simms as Nantz's color commentator for CBS' NFL telecasts.


title: Jim Nantz

text: Nantz and Romo called Super Bowl LIII in 2019 and Super Bowl LV in 2021. On January 9, 2022, Tom McCarthy filled in for Nantz for a Week 18 game featuring the Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Nantz, like Romo the year before, had to sit out of the final week of the regular season due to COVID protocols.


title: Jim Nantz

text: Nantz has appeared on episodes of "The Price Is Right" to present a Showcase prize that involves CBS Sports properties, one to attend the 2009 Final Four in Detroit and another in 2010 for Super Bowl XLIV (with Phil Simms), as part of changes to the long-time game show to use product placement models and CBS crossovers, including sports packages. Nantz appeared as himself in the 1996 film "Tin Cup" and has appeared in episodes of several television series including "Arliss", "Yes, Dear", "Criminal Minds", and "How I Met Your Mother" (season 5, episode 14 + 15 and season 9, episode 24). He portrayed the announcer for the fictional baseball team in the short-lived series "Clubhouse", and his voice can be heard in the 1998 film "Scrapple".


title: Jim Nantz

text: Nantz teamed with Gary McCord to provide extensive commentary in the 1999 PC golf game "", and his commentary is featured in the "Golden Tee Golf" arcade game series. From 2012 until 2016 (when they were replaced with Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis), Nantz, along with Phil Simms, provided commentary for the "Madden NFL" series. In 2013, Nantz appeared in a Papa John's Pizza ad with Peyton Manning, quarterback of the Denver Broncos, and founder John Schnatter. He has also been part of Capital One's March Madness ad campaign featuring Charles Barkley, Samuel L. Jackson, and Spike Lee.


title: Jim Nantz

text: Nantz's first book, "Always By My Side – A Father's Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other", was released in May 2008. Nantz tells personal stories from football, basketball, and golf, and how he has met people along the way who remind him of the virtues his father instilled in him. The foreword to the book was written by one of his father figures, friend and frequent golf partner, former President George H. W. Bush. Nantz's father, Jim Nantz Jr., died in 2008 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease; he was treated at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. In January 2011, Nantz and The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, launched the Nantz National Alzheimer Center. The mission of the Center is to improve care and treatment for patients with Alzheimer's disease through the advancement of research and the investigation of its causes, including the role of concussions and other past neurological trauma.


title: Jim Nantz

text: Nantz was married to Ann-Lorraine "Lorrie" Carlsen Nantz for 26 years before divorcing in 2009. The couple lived in Westport, Connecticut, and had one child, daughter Caroline. In November 2009, Nantz was ordered to pay his ex-wife $916,000 a year in child support and alimony. Nantz acknowledged dating a 29-year-old woman before the divorce was final, although the judge concluded the marriage deteriorated years earlier and "this remote event in no way contributed to the breakdown of the marriage." Nantz was said to earn $7 million in 2009.


title: Jim Nantz

text: On June 9, 2012, Nantz married Courtney Richards in a ceremony at the Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California, specifically at the tee of the course's famed seventh hole. Nantz and his wife have a daughter born in 2014 and a son born in 2016.


title: Jim Nantz

text: Nantz and his family used to live in a home overlooking the Pebble Beach Links that he bought in October 2011. The home's most notable feature is a 50%-scale replica of the seventh hole at Pebble Beach, located in the backyard. The backyard hole is a popular spot for visiting golfers, sports luminaries, and other celebrities. Visitors who make a hole-in-one have their names inscribed on a rock that stands next to the tee box. Nantz and his family currently reside in Nashville, Tennessee.


title: Jim Nantz

text: In 2009, Nantz partnered with wine producer Peter Deutsch to launch a private wine label "The Calling" with its first vintage released in 2012. The wine's name is in reference to Nantz's calling of the Masters Tournament.


title: Makuuchi

text: , or , is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers ("rikishi"), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments.


title: Makuuchi

text: This is the only division that is featured on NHK's standard live coverage of sumo tournaments. The lower divisions are shown on their satellite coverage, with only the "makuuchi" broadcast having bilingual English commentary.


title: Makuuchi

text: "Makuuchi" literally means "inside the curtain", a reference to the early period of professional sumo, when there was a curtained-off area reserved for the top ranked wrestlers, to sit before appearing for their bouts.


title: Makuuchi

text: Wrestlers are considered for promotion or demotion in rank before each grand tournament according to their performance in the one previous. Generally, a greater number of wins than losses ("kachi-koshi") results in a promotion, and the reverse ("make-koshi") results in demotion. There are stricter criteria for promotion to the top two ranks, which are also privileged when considered for demotion.


title: Makuuchi

text: At the top fixed positions of the division are the, "titleholder" or "san'yaku" ranks of "yokozuna", "ōzeki", "sekiwake" and "komusubi". There are typically 8–12 "san'yaku" wrestlers, with the remainder, called "maegashira", ranked in numerical order from 1 downwards.


title: Makuuchi

text: There must be at least one "sekiwake" and "komusubi" on each side of the "banzuke", normally two total, but there may be more. Although there is usually a "yokozuna" there is no requirement for one, and it has sometimes happened that no active "yokozuna" or no "ōzeki" were listed in the ranks. If there is more than one "yokozuna" but only one "ōzeki", the lower rank will be filled out by designating one of the "yokozuna" as "yokozuna-ōzeki". There is no recorded instance of there being fewer than two "yokozuna" and "ōzeki" in total.


title: Makuuchi

text: There are a number of privileges and responsibilities associated with the "san'yaku" ranks. Any wrestler who reaches one of them is entitled to purchase one of the membership shares in the Japan Sumo Association, regardless of the total number of tournaments they have spent in the top "makuuchi" division. They may be called on to represent all sumo wrestlers on certain occasions. For example, when the president of the Sumo Association makes a formal speech on the opening and closing days of a tournament, he is flanked by all the "san'yaku" wrestlers in their "mawashi". Similarly they may be called to assist in welcoming a VIP, such as the Emperor, to the arena.


title: Makuuchi

text: The "san'yaku" can be split into two groups: The senior "yokozuna" and "ōzeki", and junior "sekiwake" and "komusubi".


title: Makuuchi

text: The former group have special promotion criteria and higher salaries, and have additional perks such as a higher number of junior wrestlers to assist them, an entitlement to park in the Sumo Association compound and voting rights in the election for Association directors. Senior "yokozuna" and "ōzeki" also have added responsibilities. They are expected to represent wrestler views to the Association, assist in advertising events and meet event sponsors.


title: Makuuchi

text: The latter group, "sekiwake" and "komusubi", have lesser responsibilities and are still eligible for one of the three special prizes, or "sanshō" that are awarded for exceptional performance at the end of each tournament.


title: Makuuchi

text: is the highest rank in sumo. The name literally means "horizontal rope" and comes from the most visible symbol of their rank, the worn around the waist. The rope is similar to the "shimenawa" used to mark off sacred areas in Shinto, and like the "shimenawa" it serves to purify and mark off its content. The rope, which may weigh up to , is not used during the matches themselves, but is worn during the "yokozuna" "dohyō-iri" ring entrance ceremony.


title: Makuuchi

text: As the sport's biggest stars, "yokozuna" are in many ways the grandmasters and the public face of sumo. As such, the way they conduct themselves is highly scrutinized, as it is seen as reflecting on the image of sumo as a whole. As of July 2021, a total of 73 sumo wrestlers have earned the rank of "yokozuna."


title: Makuuchi

text: The birth of the rank of "yokozuna" is unclear, and there are two competing legends. According to one, a 9th-century wrestler named Hajikami tied a "shimenawa" around his waist as a handicap and dared any to touch it, creating sumo as it is now known in the process. According to the other, legendary wrestler Akashi Shiganosuke tied the "shimenawa" around his waist in 1630 as a sign of respect when visiting the Emperor, and was posthumously awarded the title for the first time. There is little supporting evidence for either theory—in fact, it is not even certain that Akashi actually existed—but it is known that by November 1789, "yokozuna" starting from the fourth "yokozuna", Tanikaze Kajinosuke, and the fifth "yokozuna", Onogawa Kisaburō, were depicted in ukiyo-e prints as wearing the "shimenawa". These two wrestlers were both awarded "yokozuna" licences by the prominent Yoshida family.


title: Makuuchi

text: Before the Meiji Era, the title "yokozuna" was conferred on "ōzeki" who performed sumo in front of the "shōgun". This privilege was more often determined by a wrestler's patron having sufficient influence rather than purely on the ability and dignity of the wrestler. Thus there are a number of early wrestlers who were, by modern standards, "yokozuna" in name only. In these early days "yokozuna" was also not regarded as a separate rank in the listings, but as an "ōzeki" with special dispensation to perform his own ring entering ceremony.


title: Makuuchi

text: At first, the Yoshida family and a rival family, Gojo, fought for the right to award a wrestler a "yokozuna" licence. The Yoshida family won this dispute, because the 15th "yokozuna" Umegatani Tōtarō I, one of the strongest wrestlers, expressed his wish that he be awarded a licence by the Yoshida family in February 1884, and Gojo licences are no longer recognized officially.


title: Makuuchi

text: In May 1890, the name "yokozuna" was written on the "banzuke" for the first time due to the 16th "yokozuna" Nishinoumi Kajirō I's insistence that his "yokozuna" status be recorded. In February 1909, during the reigns of the 19th "yokozuna", Hitachiyama Taniemon, and the 20th, Umegatani Tōtarō II, it was officially recognized as the highest rank. Since the establishment of the on 21 April 1950, wrestlers have been promoted to "yokozuna" by the Japan Sumo Association. The first "yokozuna" promoted by the Sumo Association was the 41st "yokozuna" Chiyonoyama Masanobu.


title: Makuuchi

text: In modern sumo, the qualifications that an "ōzeki" must satisfy to be promoted are that he has enough power, skill and dignity/grace (品格 "hinkaku") to qualify. There are no absolute criteria, nor is there a set quota: there have been periods with no wrestlers at "yokozuna" rank, and there have been periods with as many as four simultaneously.


title: Makuuchi

text: The power and skill aspects are usually considered with reference to recent tournament performance. The "de facto" standard is to win two consecutive championships as "ōzeki" or an equivalent performance. In the case where the "equivalent performance" criterion is used the wrestler's record over the previous three tournaments is taken into account with an expectation of at least one tournament victory and one runner-up performances, with none of the three records falling below twelve wins. Thus a consistent high level of performance is required. Winning two tournaments with a poor performance between them is not usually sufficient. Also achieving runner-up performance in three consecutive tournaments is not sufficient, with example being Ozeki Kisenosato in 2013 and 2016. The rules are not set in stone and hence in reaching their conclusion the Yokozuna Deliberation Council and Sumo Association can interpret the criteria more leniently or strictly and also take into account other factors, such as total number of tournament victories, the quality of the wins and whether the losses show any serious vulnerabilities.


title: Makuuchi

text: The issue of "hinkaku" (dignity and grace) is more contentious, as it is essentially a subjective issue. For example, Hawaiian-born "ōzeki" Konishiki, in particular, was felt by many to be unfairly kept from "yokozuna" status due to his non-Japanese origin, and many Sumo Association members even openly said that foreigners ("gaijin") could never achieve the "hinkaku" needed to be a "yokozuna". In the case of Konishiki, other issues such as his weight were also cited. The debate concerning foreigners having the dignity to be a "yokozuna" was finally laid to rest on 27 January 1993, when Hawaiian-born "ōzeki" Akebono was formally promoted to "yokozuna" after only eight months as an "ōzeki". Since then, the issue of whether foreigners have the necessary dignity has become a moot point as six of the nine wrestlers to achieve sumo's ultimate rank following Akebono in 1993 were not born in Japan: Musashimaru in the United States and Asashōryū, Hakuhō, Harumafuji, Kakuryū, and Terunofuji all in Mongolia.


title: Makuuchi

text: Other wrestlers have also been held back. For example, Chiyonoyama in the 1950s was not immediately promoted due to his relative youth despite winning consecutive tournaments, although he later achieved the top rank. On the other hand, Futahaguro was given the title of "yokozuna" in 1986, despite immaturity being cited in opposition to his promotion. After being promoted, he was involved in several misbehaviors that embarrassed the Sumo Association such as hitting one of his "tsukebito" (manservant or personal assistant) over a trivial matter in a scandal that had six of his seven "tsukebito" decide to leave him. The promotion again proved to be a fiasco when it was later revealed that he had a heated argument with his stable boss, Tatsunami, and stormed out of the "heya", allegedly striking Tatsunami's wife on the way. Futahaguro eventually retired after only one and a half years at the top rank and became the only "yokozuna" in sumo history ever to retire without having won at least one top division championship.


title: Makuuchi

text: Elevation to "yokozuna" rank is a multi-stage process. After a tournament, the Yokozuna Deliberation Council, a body of lay people (that is, not former sumo wrestlers) who are appointed by the Japan Sumo Association to provide an independent quality control on "yokozuna" promotion, meet and discuss the performance of the top-ranked wrestlers. Usually at the instigation of the Japan Sumo Association they can make a recommendation that a particular "ōzeki"-ranked wrestler has the necessary attributes to be promoted. Their recommendation is then passed to the Judging division and then the Board of Directors of the Sumo Association who make the final decision.


title: Makuuchi

text: If a wrestler is deemed to have met the criteria then he will be visited in his training stable by a member of the Sumo Association Board of Directors who will formally give him the news. In the following days a "tsuna" or ceremonial rope will then be made in his stable and he will practice the ring entrance ceremony with advice from a previous or current "yokozuna". Finally, he will have his inaugural ceremonial ring entry ceremony held at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, which is usually completed within a couple of weeks of the tournament end.


title: Makuuchi

text: As opposed to all other sumo ranks, a "yokozuna" cannot be demoted. However, during tournaments, expectations are very high for "yokozuna". A "yokozuna" is expected to win or at least be a serious contender for championships on a regular basis. A "yokozuna" is expected to retire if he can no longer compete at the peak of the sport, or in some cases (such as Futahaguro or Harumafuji) is deemed to have not upheld the dignity of the rank. Expectations are so high that, even in the course of one tournament, a "yokozuna" who early on appears to be headed for a losing tournament will feel the pressure to retire. It is common and expected for a "yokozuna" to withdraw from a tournament with a real or imagined injury to avoid a "make-koshi" (a losing record) and the expectation to retire. These expectations are a large part of the reason that the promotion criteria for "yokozuna" are so strict in the first place.


title: Makuuchi

text: In extremely rare instances the Yokozuna Deliberation Council can, with over two-thirds of the members in favor, issue notices to "yokozuna" whose performance as well as poise and character are contrary to what is expected of the rank. These notices are, in increasing level of severity:


title: Makuuchi

text: The formal birth of the rank from Tanikaze's time appears to have in part come from a desire to let the very best have a separate ring entry ceremony ("dohyō-iri") from the remaining top division wrestlers. The "dohyō-iri" is a ceremonial presentation of all the top division wrestlers which is held before the competitive bouts of the day. The normal ceremony for top division wrestlers is to be introduced and form a circle around the wrestling ring ("dohyō") wearing specially decorated heavy silk "aprons", called "keshō-mawashi". A brief symbolic "dance" is carried out before filing off to change into their fighting "mawashi" and prepare for their bouts.


title: Makuuchi

text: A "yokozuna", however, is introduced after the lower ranked wrestlers and is flanked by two other top division wrestler "assistants". The "dewsweeper" or "tsuyuharai" precedes the "yokozuna", while the "sword bearer" or "tachimochi" follows him into the arena. The sword is a Japanese katana and symbolises the samurai status of the yokozuna. The "tachimochi" will always be the more highly ranked of the assisting wrestlers. As indicated above, during the ceremony the "yokozuna" will wear his "tsuna" around his waist. The ceremonial aprons of all three form a matching set.


title: Makuuchi

text: Once in the ring the "yokozuna" takes centre stage and performs a much more complex ritual dance. The dance can take one of two forms, one of which the "yokozuna" usually chooses when he is first promoted. In addition to the slightly different routine the choice of the "yokozuna"'s ritual can also be determined by the knot used to tie the rope around his waist: the "Unryū" style has only one loop at the back, while the "Shiranui" style has two. The styles are named after 10th "yokozuna" Unryū Kyūkichi and 11th "yokozuna" Shiranui Kōemon of the Edo period, although there is no historical proof that they actually carried out the dances that have been attributed to them. Indeed there are some scholars who believe that in fact the two concerned have had their ring entering rituals mixed up by earlier historians.


title: Makuuchi

text: When a former "yokozuna" reaches the age of 60, he usually performs a special ring-entering ceremony known as "kanreki dohyō-iri", wearing a red "tsuna", in celebration of his longevity. This ceremony first started with the former "yokozuna" Tachiyama in 1937.


title: Makuuchi

text: As of July 2021, there have been a total of 73 "yokozuna", although formal record keeping only started with Tanikaze and Onogawa in 1789.


title: Makuuchi

text: The "ōzeki" , or champion rank, is immediately below "yokozuna" in the ranking system. Until the "yokozuna" rank was introduced, "ōzeki" was the highest rank attainable. Technically there must always be a minimum of two "ōzeki" on the "banzuke", one on the east side and one on the west. If there are fewer than two regular "ōzeki" in practice, then one or more "yokozuna" will be designated ""yokozuna-ōzeki"". This was seen for five tournaments from May 1981 to January 1982, when three "yokozuna" (Wakanohana, Chiyonofuji and Kitanoumi) fulfilled this role at various times. The designation would not be used again until the March 2020 "banzuke", when only Takakeishō held the "ōzeki" rank and Kakuryū was designated "yokozuna-ōzeki". There is no limit to the number of "ōzeki". In 2012 there were six "ōzeki" in the May, July, and September tournaments.


title: Makuuchi

text: The promotion of a wrestler to "ōzeki" is a multi-tournament process. A wrestler at the rank of "sekiwake" will be considered for promotion if he has achieved a total of at least 33 wins over the three most recent tournaments, including ten or more wins in the tournament just completed. Promotion is discretionary and there are no hard-and-fast rules, though a three-tournament record of 33 wins is considered a near-guarantee. Other factors toward promotion will include tangibles such as winning a tournament or defeating "yokozuna", as well as the wrestler's overall consistency, prowess, and quality of sumo—for example, a record of illegal maneuvers or reliance on certain dodging techniques would count against the dignity expected of an "ōzeki".


title: Makuuchi

text: Promotions are recommended by the Judging Division to the Board of Directors of the Japan Sumo Association. If it is a first promotion to the rank a member of the Board of Directors will formally visit the wrestler's stable to inform the new "ōzeki" of his promotion. The "ōzeki" will usually make a speech on this occasion, promising to do his best to uphold the dignity of the rank.


title: Makuuchi

text: During the Edo period, wrestlers often made their debuts as "ōzeki" based on size alone, though their real competitiveness had not been tested. The system was called "guest ōzeki" (). Most of these vanished from the "banzuke" soon after, but a few wrestlers, notably Tanikaze Kajinosuke, remained as real wrestlers.


title: Makuuchi

text: Like the other "san'yaku" ranks, but unlike a "yokozuna", an "ōzeki" may be relegated. For an "ōzeki", relegation is a two-step procedure. First, the "ōzeki" must have a losing record in a tournament (7-8 or worse), known as a "make-koshi". At this point, the "ōzeki" is called "kadoban". If he makes a winning record (8-7 or better) in the next tournament (which is called "kachi-koshi"), he is restored to regular "ōzeki" status. If, on the other hand, he suffers another losing record in the next tournament while "kadoban", he is relegated to "sekiwake" in the following tournament. (No matter how badly he does, he will not fall lower than "sekiwake".)


title: Makuuchi

text: If he wins ten or more bouts in this tournament, he is restored to "ōzeki" for the following tournament. However, if he fails to win ten or more bouts, he is treated just like any other wrestler in any further attempts at being promoted back to "ōzeki". This system has been in place since the Nagoya Tournament of 1969. Since that time, six wrestlers have managed an immediate return to "ōzeki": Mienoumi, Takanonami, Musōyama, Tochiazuma (who managed it on two occasions), Tochinoshin and Takakeishō.


title: Makuuchi

text: Mitakeumi is the only wrestler to be demoted from "ōzeki" after three consecutive losing records instead of two. He entered the July 2022 "basho" at "kadoban" status, but withdrew in the middle of the tournament after a stablemate tested positive for COVID-19. Under the Sumo Association's COVID protocols at the time, Mitakeumi's "ōzeki" rank and "kadoban" status were extended to the following tournament in September, where he sustained another losing record and was subsequently demoted.


title: Makuuchi

text: is the third-highest rank in professional sumo wrestling, and is one of the "san'yaku" ranks. The term is believed to derive from guarding the "ōzeki" (大関 or 関) at his side (脇).


title: Makuuchi

text: It represents the highest rank a wrestler can achieve by continuously making a "kachi-koshi" (a winning record in the tournament) in tournaments. Promotion to "sekiwake" depends on either a space being available, which is quite common, or having a record in the previous tournament that is very convincing. Typically 11–4 or better as a "komusubi" is sufficient for promotion to "sekiwake" even with no normal space available; lower ranks need progressively more wins. There are special promotion criteria, typically a minimum of 33 wins over three tournaments, for advancement from "sekiwake" to "ōzeki"; merely recording consecutive winning records while at the "sekiwake" rank is not enough to advance. In the 1980s, Sakahoko stayed at "sekiwake" for nine consecutive tournaments without even getting close to "ōzeki" consideration, and Gōeidō was stuck at the rank for fourteen consecutive tournaments, a modern-day record, between May 2012 and July 2014, before being promoted to "ōzeki" in September 2014.


title: Makuuchi

text: Unlike the higher ranks of "ōzeki" and "yokozuna", a wrestler will nearly always lose the rank immediately after having a "make-koshi" tournament (a losing record during a tournament). Very occasionally, however, a lucky "sekiwake" might keep his rank even with a 7–8 record if there are no obvious candidates to replace him, as when the "komusubi" and the upper "maegashira" have also had losing records. This has happened five times since the six-tournaments-a-year era began in 1958, most recently with Gōeidō in July 2013. In each case the wrestler was merely moved from the "sekiwake" East rank to the less prestigious West side.


title: Makuuchi

text: For many purposes "sekiwake" and the "komusubi" rank are treated together as the junior "san'yaku" ranks, as opposed to "ōzeki" and "yokozuna". For example, records of number of tournaments ranked in junior "san'yaku" are often referred to in sumo publications.


title: Makuuchi

text: For wrestlers reaching this rank the benefits are similar to that for a "komusubi". The salary is higher than for a "maegashira" and also the wrestler is usually called to appear to flank the chairman of the Sumo Association during the speeches he makes on opening and closing days of the 15-day tournaments that are held six times a year. He may also be called on to represent the wrestlers on behalf of the Sumo Association at other events, especially if the number of "ōzeki" and "yokozuna" is low. If this is the highest rank a wrestler reaches, even if it is only for one tournament, he will always be referred to as "former sekiwake (ring name)" after his retirement, an indicator of a successful sumo career, even if not achieving the exceptional standards of the two highest ranks.


title: Makuuchi

text: At any time there must be a minimum of two wrestlers ranked at "sekiwake". If circumstances require, this can rise typically to three or four. The minimum of two requirement means that a certain amount of luck can lead to wrestlers achieving this rank on occasion, if the performance of other wrestlers leaves no obvious candidates to fill the rank. This luck factor is less common than it is for "komusubi" promotions.


title: Makuuchi

text: literally means "the little knot", the knot referring to the match-up between two wrestlers. It is the fourth highest rank in sumo wrestling and is the lowest of the so-called titleholder ranks, or "san'yaku".


title: Makuuchi

text: At "komusubi", achieving a "kachi-koshi" (winning record in a tournament) is not sufficient to guarantee promotion to a higher rank. Promotion to the next highest rank, "sekiwake", depends on either a space being available, which is quite common, or having at least 11 wins in the previous tournament if no normal "sekiwake" slot is available. This general requirement can be seen by the promotion of Tochiōzan to a third "sekiwake" slot for March 2014 with 11 wins when the other two "sekiwake" had winning records, while Tochinoshin was not promoted with 10 wins for November 2015 in a similar situation.


title: Makuuchi

text: For many purposes this and the "sekiwake" rank are treated together as the junior "san'yaku" ranks, as opposed to "ōzeki" and "yokozuna", where extremely stringent promotion criteria exist. Records of number of tournaments ranked in junior "san'yaku" are often referred to in sumo publications because these two ranks are so difficult to retain.


title: Makuuchi

text: For wrestlers reaching this rank the benefits are a salary increase and also appearing to flank the chairman of the Sumo Association during the speeches he makes on opening and closing days of the official tournaments, held six times a year. He may also be called on to represent the wrestlers on behalf of the Sumo Association at other events, especially if the number of "ōzeki" and "yokozuna" are low. If this is the highest rank a wrestler reaches, even if it is only for one tournament, he will always be referred to as "former "komusubi" (ring name)" after his retirement, which is an indicator of a fairly successful sumo career.


title: Makuuchi

text: At any time there must be a minimum of two wrestlers ranked as "komusubi". If circumstances require this can rise to three or four, for example if both "komusubi" have winning records and an upper "maegashira" produces such a good score that he cannot reasonably be denied a promotion. However, this is relatively rare. The minimum of two requirement means that a certain amount of luck can lead to wrestlers achieving this rank on occasion, if the performance of other wrestlers leaves no obvious candidates to fill the rank.


title: Makuuchi

text: "Komusubi" is widely regarded as a difficult rank to maintain, as wrestlers at this rank are likely to face all the "ōzeki" and" yokozuna" in the first week of a tournament, with a "yokozuna" normally scheduled for the opening day. "Komusubi" face mainly "maegashira" in the second week, but often wrestlers new to the rank are so demoralised by this point that they lose these matches too. Few men making their "komusubi" debut return a "kachi-koshi" or winning record in the ensuing tournament.


title: Makuuchi

text: Before World War II, when there were fewer tournaments per year and more weight was placed on the performance at each tournament, there were several instances of "komusubi" immediately advancing to "ōzeki" after nearly winning a tournament, but there have been no instances of this since then.


title: Makuuchi

text: All the "makuuchi" wrestlers who are not ranked in "san'yaku" are ranked as "maegashira", numbered from one at the top downwards. In each rank there are two wrestlers, the higher ranked is designated as "east" and the lower as "west", so No. 1 east is treated as a higher rank than No. 1 west, and so on.


title: Makuuchi

text: The number of wrestlers in "makuuchi" is fixed (at 42 since 2004) but the number in "san'yaku" is not. Thus the number of "maegashira" ranks can vary, but is typically between 15 and 17. (This gives a "makuuchi" division split of around 10 "san'yaku" and 32 "maegashira").


title: Makuuchi

text: Movement within the "maegashira" ranks can be minor or extreme, depending on a wrestler's score in the previous 15-bout tournament. For example, a "maegashira" 2 who has an 8–7 record might only be promoted one level to "maegashira" 1 for the next tournament. Conversely, a "maegashira" 14 who wins the division championship could be promoted as high as "komusubi". Indeed, this happened in March 2000 when Takatōriki of the Futagoyama stable won the championship with a 13–2 record.


title: Makuuchi

text: "Maegashira" ranked five or below are likely to only fight amongst themselves (unless their winning record in the middle of a tournament prompts their scheduling with higher-ranked wrestlers) while those ranked "maegashira" four or above are likely to have several matches against "san'yaku" wrestlers, including "ōzeki" and "yokozuna". Wrestlers at "maegashira" 1 and 2 will usually face everybody in the "san'yaku" (with the exception that you cannot face someone from your own stable), and these are therefore considered very difficult ranks to maintain. If a lower-ranked "maegashira" has a score which puts them in contention for the title in the second week of the tournament, it is not uncommon for them to be matched against higher-ranked opponents later in the "basho"; for instance, in January 2020, the lowest-ranked wrestler in the tournament, "maegashira" 17 Tokushōryū, was in contention for the title having only faced opponents in the lower half of the "banzuke" and was matched against "ōzeki"


title: Makuuchi

text: Takakeisho, the highest-ranked "rikishi" participating in the tournament, on the final day, clinching the "basho" with his victory.


title: Makuuchi

text: When a "maegashira" defeats a "yokozuna", it is called a gold star or "kinboshi" and he is rewarded monetarily for the victory for the remainder of his career. A bout where a wrestler earns a "kinboshi" defeat of a "yokozuna" generally causes great excitement at a sumo venue and it is common and expected for audience members to throw their seat cushions into the ring (and onto the wrestlers) after such a bout, though this is technically prohibited.


title: Tony Tan Caktiong

text: Tony Tan Caktiong, (; born 1953) is a Filipino billionaire businessman. He is the founder and chairman of Jollibee Foods Corporation, and the co-chairman of DoubleDragon Properties.


title: Tony Tan Caktiong

text: Tan Caktiong was born to Chinese immigrant parents from Fujian. His father worked in a restaurant in China and as a cook in a Buddhist monastery in Manila before setting up his own restaurant in Davao City Tony Tan Caktiong attended high school at Chiang Kai Shek College and graduated from the University of Santo Tomas with a degree in chemical engineering in 1975. Tan had initially planned an ice cream parlor when he founded Jollibee, then added dishes such as hamburgers, french fries, and fried chicken.


title: Tony Tan Caktiong

text: Tan Caktiong founded the fast food chain Jollibee in 1978, after having started it as an ice cream parlor in 1975. Expansion and acquisition of Greenwich Pizza Corp. enabled it to enter the pizza-pasta segment. In early 2006, Jollibee Foods Corporation bought out the remaining shares of its partners in Greenwich Pizza Corporation, equivalent to a 20% stake, for P384 million in cash.


title: Tony Tan Caktiong

text: As of August 2008, Tan Caktiong's Jollibee has a total of 1,480 stores worldwide including Jollibee, Red Ribbon, Chowking, Greenwich, Manong Pepe's and Mang Inasal.


title: Tony Tan Caktiong

text: In 2012, Tan Caktiong, through his holding company, Honeystar Holdings Corporation, invested in Injap Land Corporation, a property company founded by Edgar Sia II. With Tan Caktiong's entry, the company was renamed DoubleDragon Properties Corporation.


title: Tony Tan Caktiong

text: Tan Caktiong is married to Grace Tan Caktiong. He is also the brother of Ernesto Tanmantiong, who is the President and CEO of Jollibee Foods Corporation.


title: Old Dominion University

text: Old Dominion University (Old Dominion or ODU) is a public research university in Norfolk, Virginia. It was established in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary and is now one of the largest universities in Virginia with an enrollment of 24,286 students for the 2021 academic year. Old Dominion University also enrolls over 700 international students from 89 countries. Its main campus covers straddling the city neighborhoods of Larchmont, Highland Park, and Lambert's Point, approximately from Downtown Norfolk.


title: Old Dominion University

text: Old Dominion University is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". According to the National Science Foundation, ODU spent $60.3 million on research and development in 2018. It contributes nearly $2 billion annually in economic impact to the regional economy.


title: Old Dominion University

text: The university offers 168 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to approximately 24,000 students across seven colleges and three schools. Old Dominion University has approximately 124,000 alumni in all 50 states and 67 countries. Old Dominion University derives its name from one of Virginia's state nicknames, "The Old Dominion", given to the state by King Charles II of England for remaining loyal to the crown during the English Civil War.


title: Old Dominion University

text: Old Dominion University was founded in 1930 as a Norfolk extension of the College of William and Mary. This branch was envisioned by administrators and officials such as Robert M. Hughes, a member of the Board of Visitors of William and Mary from 1893 to 1917, and J. A. C. Chandler, the eighteenth president of that school. In 1924 after becoming the director of the William and Mary extension in Norfolk, Joseph Healy began organizing classes and finding locations for faculty and staff. Due to his work, along with that of Robert M. Hughes, Dr. J. A. C. Chandler, and A. H. Foreman, a two-year branch division was established on March 13, 1930. On September 12, 1930, the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary held its first class with 206 students (125 men and 81 women) in the old Larchmont School building, an unused elementary school on Hampton Boulevard. On September 3, 1930, H. Edgar Timmerman became the Division's first director.


title: Old Dominion University

text: "The Division", as it was often called, started out in the old Larchmont School building and allowed people with fewer financial assets to attend a school of higher education for two years. Tuition for the first year was US$50. The following September, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, more commonly known as Virginia Tech, also began offering classes at "The Division.", expanding course offerings to teachers and engineers. Created as it was in the first year of the Great Depression, the college benefited from federal funding as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. The Public Works Administration provided funds for the Administration Building, now Rollins Hall, and Foreman Field, named after A. H. Foreman, an early proponent of the college. The college grew south along Hampton Boulevard, turning an empty field into a sprawling campus.


title: Old Dominion University

text: In 1932, Lewis Warrington Webb joined the faculty as an instructor of engineering; he would later be called "the Father of Old Dominion". After serving ten years as an instructor at the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary, Webb was appointed assistant director in 1942. Webb also served as director of the Defense and War Training Program from 1940 to 1944. Through its defense and training classes, the Norfolk Division contributed to the American WWII war effort. The program also allowed the school to remain open during a period when many young men were in armed service. The program attracted many women, who learned aircraft repair, drafting, and other war-related subjects. In 1946, Webb was appointed Director of the Norfolk Division. Webb's dream was to see the Norfolk Division become an independent institution.


title: Old Dominion University

text: The two-year Norfolk Division rapidly evolved into a four-year institution, gaining independence from William and Mary in 1962. On February 16, 1962, the William and Mary system was dissolved under General Assembly legislation that was signed by Governor Albertis S. Harrison. Later that year the Norfolk Division was renamed Old Dominion College. Dr. Webb served as the first president of Old Dominion College from 1962 to 1969.


title: Old Dominion University

text: Frank Batten, who was the publisher of "The Virginian-Pilot" and "The Ledger-Star" and member of the Norfolk Division's advisory board, was chosen as the first rector of Old Dominion College on May 27, 1962, holding the position until 1970. (The College of Engineering was named in his honor in 2004.) In 1964, the first students lived on campus in dormitories Rogers Hall and Gresham Hall, named for members of the advisory board.


title: Old Dominion University

text: Growth in enrollment, expansion of research facilities, and preparation for graduate programs led the board to seek to university status. In 1969, Old Dominion College transitioned to Old Dominion University under the leadership of President James L. Bugg, Jr. During Bugg's tenure, the earliest doctoral programs were established, along with a university-wide governance structure with representation from faculty, administrators and students. Bugg also reestablished the Army ROTC program that had been originally created in 1948 but abandoned during the Korean War.


title: Old Dominion University

text: In the 1970s, under President Alfred B. Rollins, Jr., Old Dominion established partnerships between regional organizations such as NASA, the U.S. Navy, Eastern Virginia Medical School, and Norfolk State University. Under Rollins, the university expanded its state and private funding, improved student services and introduced an honors program.


title: Old Dominion University

text: Since this time, the university has continued to expand, now enrolling over 24,000 students. The Norfolk campus has experienced significant growth in both student population and geography. Additionally, ODU has established satellite campuses in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, and Hampton.


title: Old Dominion University

text: As a comprehensive university, Old Dominion University offers and develops humanities, science, health sciences, technology, engineering, business, arts, education, and professional programs. The university offers 73 bachelor's degrees, 60 master's degrees, and 35 doctoral degrees in a wide range of fields.


title: Old Dominion University

text: Because Hampton Roads is a major international maritime and commerce center, the university has a special mission for the Commonwealth of Virginia in commerce, and in international affairs and cultures. With the principal marine and aerospace activities of the Commonwealth concentrated in Hampton Roads, the university has a significant commitment to science, engineering and technology, specifically in marine science, aerospace and other fields of major importance to the region. Many departments conduct cooperative research with NASA. ODU is one of the few universities in the US to offer MBA concentrations in maritime, transportation, and port logistics management and also has well-respected programs in marine science and coastal and transportation engineering. Due to its location in a large metropolitan area, Old Dominion University places particular emphasis on urban issues, including education and health care, and on the arts.


title: Old Dominion University

text: Old Dominion University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS/COC) to award baccalaureate, masters, education specialist, and doctoral degrees. The Batten College of Engineering and Technology is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET. The Strome College of Business is AACSB accredited. The Darden College of Education, the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Sciences are accredited by National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.


title: Old Dominion University

text: The College of Arts and Letters offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the humanities, arts, and social sciences.


title: Old Dominion University

text: Departments include: Art, African American & African Studies, Asian Studies, Communication & Theatre Arts, English, History, Humanities, Interdisciplinary Studies, International Studies, Music, Philosophy & Religious Studies, Political Science & Geography, Sociology & Criminal Justice, Women's Studies, and World Languages & Cultures.


title: Old Dominion University

text: The College of Sciences offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs across seven departments: Biological Sciences, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics & Statistics, Ocean & Earth Sciences, Physics, and Psychology.


title: Old Dominion University

text: The College of Health Sciences offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs across five schools: School of Community & Environmental Health, Gene W. Hirschfeld School of Dental Hygiene, School of Medical Diagnostic and Translational Services, School of Nursing, and School of Rehabilitation Sciences.


title: Old Dominion University

text: Planning is underway for the establishment of a new School of Public Health. ODU is also currently exploring an integration of institutions with Eastern Virginia Medical School, which is approximately 2 miles south of ODU's main campus.


title: Old Dominion University

text: In his 2022 State of the University Address, President Hemphill announced plans for the establishment of a new School of Data Science. The School of Data Science will offer undergraduate and graduate degree programs.


title: Old Dominion University

text: The Batten College of Engineering and Technology offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs across six departments: Civil & Environmental Engineering, Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Engineering Management & Systems Engineering, Engineering Technology, and Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. The college offers several concentrations, including coastal engineering, transportation engineering, experimental aeronautics, laser and plasma engineering, bioelectrics, computational engineering, and ship maintenance, repair, and operations.


title: Old Dominion University

text: In 2010, the Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology became the first college in the United States offering all degrees in the emerging discipline of Modeling and Simulation (B.S., M.E., M.S., D.Eng., Ph.D.).


title: Old Dominion University

text: On October 1, 2020, Old Dominion University launched the School of Cybersecurity, the first of its kind in the country. The ODU School of Cybersecurity offers a B.S degree program in Cybersecurity, Cyber Operations, and an M.S in Cybersecurity. Faculty and staff are drawn from across all colleges and reporting units at the university, including information technology services, VMASC, and military affairs.


title: Old Dominion University

text: The Strome College of Business college offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs across six departments and three schools: Economics, Finance, Management, Marketing, Information Technology & Decision Sciences, International Business, along with the School of Accountancy, School of Public Service, and the Harvey Lindsay School of Real Estate.


title: Old Dominion University

text: The Gregory A. Lumsden Trading Room and Research Lab (LTR), opened in fall 2012, is equipped with 24 Bloomberg terminals, making it one of the largest labs in the United States.


title: Old Dominion University

text: In 2014, the College of Business and Public Administration was renamed to the Strome College of Business after the Strome family donated $11 million to the college.


title: Old Dominion University

text: In 2019, the Strome College of Business opened the Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (IIE) in downtown Norfolk. IIE is a one-stop shop for the community, students, faculty/staff and alumni seeking resources and services for innovation, entrepreneurship, and new enterprises and programs. The Institute contains the Strome Entrepreneurial Center (SEC), Tempo, the Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC), the Women's Business Center (WBC), the Business Development Center (BDC), and the Open Seas Technology Innovation Hub.


title: Old Dominion University

text: The Darden College of Education and Progressional Studies offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs across six departments. Programs include: educational leadership and school administration, counseling, human services, higher education, exercise science, athletic training, sport management, physical education, recreation and tourism studies, early childhood education, speech pathology, special education, fashion merchandising, instructional design and technology, business and industry training, community college teaching, and technology education.


title: Old Dominion University

text: The Darden College of Education also works in collaboration with other academic colleges to prepare teachers in fields of secondary education, such as English education, biology education, etc. Students complete a major in the field they wish to teach, in addition to education coursework, "practica", and student teaching.


title: Old Dominion University

text: The Perry Honors College provides high-acheiving undergraduates an opportunity to get the most out of their academic experience. Traditional classes are combined with Honors courses, experiential learning, undergraduate research, campus events, and a capstone experience. Honors courses are offered in a small class setting with some of the best faculty members on campus, providing an environment for holding lively discussions and building personal relationships.