title: Waitrose

text: Waitrose shops vary considerably in size. For example, the smallest branch, little Waitrose at King's Cross station, London, occupies of retail space and the largest, Southend-on-Sea, over .


title: Waitrose

text: Some Waitrose shops incorporate an in-house restaurant selling hot and cold food sourced in the main from the shop. Until early 2020, the myWaitrose card, which customers can obtain online, offered free hot drinks from the store's self-service machines with a purchase of goods; this was withdrawn due to the COVID pandemic but as of April 2022 the coffee machines remain in situ in most stores but not in use.


title: Waitrose

text: Internationally, Waitrose holds a licensing agreement with Spinneys of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which operate two purpose-built branches, of which the first opened in the Dubai Mall in October 2008.


title: Waitrose

text: Announcing its foray into the convenience sector in July 2008, Waitrose opened its first convenience shop in Nottingham in December of that year. In September 2009, it was announced that a large scale rollout of the concept was planned, opening up to 300 shops in 5 to 10 years. The new arm will operate in a two-tier environment, with the majority of sites expected to trade from 2,500 to 3,000 sq ft and some trading from a larger 5,000–7,000 sq ft floor plate. A trial of a 'little Waitrose' fascia on smaller floor plate shops may yet lead to brand differentiation of some or all of the convenience estate.


title: Waitrose

text: Shell operates around 35 Little Waitrose stores at selected petrol stations owned by Shell in the UK.


title: Waitrose

text: In May 2009, Waitrose started a franchise deal with the motorway service station operator Welcome Break.


title: Waitrose

text: In April 2000, the online food retailer Ocado was launched, with the Ocado service being only available in certain areas of Britain. John Lewis Partnership came on board as a principal supplier and part owner in October 2000, although the relationship between the two began formally in January 2002. In August 2020, Waitrose announced they would cease operations with Ocado, which ended on 1 September 2020. Ocado partnered with Waitrose's rival store Marks & Spencer. Arrangements were amended in 2010 to a ten-year agreement to supply products to Ocado. In February 2011, John Lewis Pension trust divested itself of its Ocado shares.


title: Waitrose

text: Waitrose operates its own delivery service, Waitrose.com (previously WaitroseDeliver), which originally was only available in certain shops, delivering goods ordered through the internet and serviced from the local branch. Not to be confused with Ocado, which is an unrelated business, which formerly had a licence to distribute Waitrose items until 1 September 2020, when Waitrose ended its relationship with Ocado, to instead operate deliveries solely by itself from centralised fulfilment centres. As well as ordinary online groceries shopping, Waitrose.com also hosts the online ordering system for Waitrose's special order food and cakes service "Waitrose Entertaining". Waitrose became the first supermarket to abolish all delivery charges as of May 2009.


title: Waitrose

text: In October 2011, Waitrose opened a "Dotcom Fulfilment Centre" in Acton, West London, less than two miles from its original shop. The shop employs over 200 Partners and provides Waitrose internet food deliveries for most of west and central London from a dedicated site. The shop, whilst not open to the public, is laid out in a similar manner to a regular shop and even offers service counter lines, much like a normal Waitrose supermarket.


title: Waitrose

text: In March 2020, Waitrose announced that it was to add its Waitrose.com online delivery service to 24 more of its stores across the UK in preparation for its split with Ocado in September 2020.


title: Waitrose

text: Waitrose had a 5.3% share of the food market as of 2016. Additionally, it had an 18% and 10% share of the organic food and fish markets respectively, during 2008.


title: Waitrose

text: Waitrose closed four convenience shops and one supermarket in the UK in 2018. This was followed by the announcement of twelve further store closures in 2019. In September 2020, a further four stores were announced as closing.


title: Waitrose

text: Waitrose has received a number of awards. Its wines have been given awards by Decanter magazine and the International Wine and Spirit Competition. The supermarket chain has also received awards for its retail service, including awards from Which? magazine. Compassion in World Farming and the RSPCA have given Waitrose awards for animal welfare.


title: Sufi whirling

text: Sufi whirling (or Sufi turning) ( borrowed from Persian Sama-zan, Sama, meaning "listening", from Arabic, and zan, meaning doer, from Persian) is a form of physically active meditation which originated among certain Sufi groups, and which is still practiced by the Sufi Dervishes of the Mevlevi order and other orders such as the Rifa'i-Marufi. It is a customary meditation practice performed within the sema, or worship ceremony, through which dervishes (also called "semazens", from Persian ) aim to reach the source of all perfection, or dharma. This is sought through abandoning one's nafs, ego or personal desires, by listening to the music, focusing on God, and spinning one's body in repetitive circles, which has been seen as a symbolic imitation of planets in the Solar System orbiting the sun.


title: Sufi whirling

text: The Mevlevi practice gave rise to an Egyptian form, "tanoura", distinguished by the use of a multicolored skirt. This has also developed into a performance dance by non-Sufis, including dancers outside the Islamic world.


title: Sufi whirling

text: As an order, the whirling Dervishes were founded by mystic poet Rumi in the 13th century. Initially, Sufi fraternities ( "ṭarāʾiq") were organized as leaderships where members followed prescribed disciplines in service to a sheikh or master to establish trust with him. A member of such a fraternity is referred to as a Persian "darwish". These turuk were responsible for organizing an Islamic expression of religious life, often founded by independent saints or resulted from the division of existing orders. Each Sufi tariqa stems from a unique "silsila", or "chain of order" in which a member must learn, as the "silsila" binds each member to Allah through one's chain of order. One's "silsila" extends through the member's individual teacher, to their teacher and so on, through time until one is connected to the Prophet and thus Allah. The Prophet himself is revered as the originator of Sufism, which has in turn been traced down through a series of saints.


title: Sufi whirling

text: A dervish practices multiple rituals, the primary of which is the "dhikr", a remembering of Allah. The "dhikr" involves recitation of devotional Islamic prayer. This "dhikr" is coupled with physical exertions of movement, specifically dancing and whirling, in order to reach a state assumed by outsiders to be one of "ecstatic trances". As explained by Sufis:


title: Sufi whirling

text: In the symbolism of the Sema ritual, the semazen's camel's hair hat (sikke) represents the tombstone of the ego; his wide, white skirt ("tennure") represents the ego's shroud. By removing his black cloak ("hırka"), he is spiritually reborn to the truth. At the beginning of the Sema, by holding his arms crosswise, the semazen appears to represent the number one, thus testifying to god's unity. While whirling, his arms are open: his right arm is directed to the sky, ready to receive god's beneficence; his left hand, upon which his eyes are fastened, is turned toward the earth. The semazen conveys god's spiritual gift to those who are witnessing the Sema. Revolving from right to left around the heart, the semazen embraces all humanity with love. The human being has been created with love in order to love. Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi says, "All loves are a bridge to Divine love. Yet, those who have not had a taste of it do not know!"


title: Sufi whirling

text: Among the Mevlevi order, the practice of "dhikr" is performed in a traditional dress: a "tennure", a sleeveless white frock, the "destegul", a long sleeved jacket, a belt, and a black overcoat or "khirqa" to be removed before the whirling begins. As the ritual dance begins, the dervish dons a felt cap, a "sikke", in addition to a turban wrapped around the head, a trademark of the Mevlevi order. The sheikh leads the ritual with strict regulations. To begin,


title: Sufi whirling

text: The sheikh stands in the most honored corner of the dancing place, and the dervishes pass by him three times, each time exchanging greetings, until the circling movement starts. The rotation itself is on the left foot, the center of the rotation being the ball of the left foot and the whole surface of the foot staying in contact with the floor. The impetus for the rotation is provided by the right foot, in a full 360-degree step. If a dervish should become too enraptured, another Sufi, who is in charge of the orderly performance, will gently touch his frock in order to curb his movement, The dance of the dervishes is one of the most impressive features of the mystical life in Islam, and the music accompanying it is of exquisite beauty, beginning with the great hymn in honor of the Prophet (na't-i sharif, written by Jalaluddin himself) and ending with short, enthusiastic songs, some things sung in Turkish.


title: Sufi whirling

text: The Western world, having witnessed Sufi whirling through tourism, have described the various forms of "dhikr" as "barking, howling, dancing, etc." The practice of each "tariqa" is unique to its individual order, specific traditions and customs may differ across countries. The same "tariqa" in one country will not mirror that of another country as each order's ritual stresses "emotional religious life" in various forms. The Mevleviyah order, like many others, practice the "dhikr" by performing a whirling meditation. Accompanying the "dhikr" practices of whirling and prayer, the custom of "sama" serves to further one's "nourishment of the soul" through devotional "hearing" of the "'subtle' sounds of the hidden world or of the cosmos." In contrast to the use of "sama", whirling and devotional prayer in the practice of "dhikr", the "tariqa" orders perform Sufi whirling in addition to playing musical instruments, consuming glowing embers, live scorpions and glass, puncturing body parts with needles and spikes, or practicing clairvoyance and levitation. The dervish practice can be performed by community residents or lay members, members have typically been those of lower classes. Within Islamic faith, unlike Middle Eastern law, women have equal status to men, allowing women to participate in "dhikr" as dervishes themselves. Women were received into a "tariqa" order by a male sheikh, but traditionally were instructed to practice the "dhikr" alone or with an established branch of females within a specific order. Sufi whirling, a worship of "dhikr", became a gender and class neutral practice throughout the Central Islamic region.


title: Sufi whirling

text: The custom of "sama" among Sufi orders has a history of controversy within the Islamic faith. In one argument, the use of the term "sama" is considered to suggest physically "listening" in a spiritual context. A differing opinion argues that "sama" is in fact "hearing", as "to hear" can pertain to any sound in addition to any "subtle" sounds of the spiritual realm. Those in support of "sama" further claim that the term is actually synonymous with "understanding" and therefore recognition and application of the Revelation as well as the act of "attaining higher knowledge." Sama can also refer to considerate listening to an honest temporal leader who ensures social justice and makes word of God mainstream.The spread of "sama" among Sufi orders began some time around the mid third/ninth century C.E. in Baghdad, eventually finding acceptance and favor in Persian, Turkish and Indian Islam. The custom of "sama" evolved in practice over time as it complemented Sufi "dhkir", whirling and among some orders dancing and a meal. Rules of propriety and conditions were adopted upon the widespread concern surrounding the necessity of "sama" with the "dhikr"; in order to distinguish between entertainment and valuable spiritual practice, the "sama" was distinguished as heard from the ego, heart or spirit. Despite the application of rules, some sheikhs continued to limit or disapprove the practice of "sama". While controversy continuously questioned the place of "sama" in Sufi orders, the music itself was not affected. More recently, the custom of "sama" is most commonly performed within a "dhikr" ceremony. Those in support of "sama" continue to argue that "according to that which it is not "sama" and dance which induce ecstasy, but ecstasy which arouses dance, or furthermore, that "sama" is only a revealing instrument and that it only supplies that which is brought to it by the hearer."


title: Sufi whirling

text: In 2005, UNESCO proclaimed the "Mevlevi Sema Ceremony" of Turkey as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.


title: Sufi whirling

text: Dervish communities, in the Middle Ages, served a central role in social, religious and political life throughout "central Islamic lands." Dervish orders were at one time much larger in size than they are today, as the government has taken control over most Dervish monasteries throughout this area. In 1925, Turkey ordered the dissolution of all Sufi fraternities by decree, the Mevlevi managed to survive among small villages throughout the Middle East. In 1954, the Turkish government granted the Mevlevi order a special permission to perform ritual whirling practices for tourists during two weeks each year. Outside of tourist entertainment, Orthodox theologians have now vocally discounted the Dervish practice resulting in "faqirs", or wandering, mendicant dervishes throughout central Islamic regions. Despite strict government control over Dervish practices, the Mevleviyah order continued its existence in Turkey to this day.


title: Sufi whirling

text: While only men have historically been permitted to take part in the ceremony, some communities now allow women to participate.


title: Sufi whirling

text: In Egypt, the practice of whirling has been adapted as tanoura ( ""). The word "tanoura" or "tannoura" refers to the colorful skirt worn by the whirler, with a color representing each Sufi order. The word may also refer to the dancer, traditionally a Sufi man. Tanoura is associated with Sufism and is performed at Sufi festivals, but it is also performed by non-Sufis as a folk dance or concert dance.


title: Sufi whirling

text: Although it is mainly used for visual effects, the dancers also augment their balance with the tanoura, through a dynamic centrifugal effect.


title: Sufi whirling

text: In Sufi shrines in Pakistan, such as the Lal shrine in Sehwan, Sindh, the practice of Sufi whirling is called "Dhamaal" and is performed to honor Sufi saints, or qalandars. Unlike the Turkish practice, Dhamaal may be practiced by any devotee – priests as well as pilgrims. Dhamaal is usually preceded by the beating of a drum (naghara) and ringing of bells, as pilgrims raise their hands, start to skip steps standing at one place and gradually work into a trance as the beats get faster. As the beats get faster, rhythms change and the drum beats are accompanies by the playing of shehnai.


title: Sufi whirling

text: Practitioners associate the dance with Lal Shahbaz Qalandar and with protests following the Battle of Karbala. They regard the rhythm of the drum to evoke the rhythm of the creation of the universe, as illustrated in the concept of "Kun Fyakun".


title: Sufi whirling

text: The tanoura tradition has attracted some interest from Westerners in the belly dancing community. These performers include both men and women, solo and in groups. Such performances may be augmented with pyrotechnics or props, such as veils, wings and ribbons.


title: Sufi whirling

text: The techniques used in Egyptian Tanoura can also be adopted by belly dancers to help with their balance and control dizziness.


title: Sufi whirling

text: Sufi whirling has also been promoted by actor and memoirist Annabelle Gurwitch as a form of stress relief.


title: Sufi whirling

text: A defining feature of whirling is continuous rotation (clockwise or counterclockwise) around a central radical axis while avoiding vertigo. In untrained dancers, this sustained rotation causes dizziness or motion-induced vertigo. Training for whirling targets the inner ear, which is responsible for balance functions in humans. To counteract this effect, whirling dance performers practice various balancing and psychological techniques.


title: Sufi whirling

text: Guinness World Records for "most Sufi whirls in one hour" were awarded in London in 2012, to Shafik Ibrahim Abd El Hamed in the male category with 2,905 rotations, and Tara Lee Oakley in the female category with 2,191. These records were surpassed in Zurich in 2015 by Nicole McLaren, with 3,552 rotations.


title: Sufi whirling

text: The longest continuous whirling performance has been recorded at more than four hours. The most people simultaneously whirling is 755, set in Taiwan in 2011.


title: Reflex

text: In biology, a reflex, or reflex action, is an involuntary, unplanned sequence or action and nearly instantaneous response to a stimulus.


title: Reflex

text: Reflexes are found with varying levels of complexity in organisms with a nervous system. A reflex occurs via neural pathways in the nervous system called reflex arcs. A stimulus initiates a neural signal, which is carried to a synapse. The signal is then transferred across the synapse to a motor neuron which evokes a target response. These neural signals do not always travel to the brain, so many reflexes are an automatic response to a stimulus that does not receive or need conscious thought.


title: Reflex

text: Many reflexes are fine-tuned to increase organism survival and self-defense. This is observed in reflexes such as the startle reflex, which provides an automatic response to an unexpected stimuli, and the feline righting reflex, which reorients a cat's body when falling to ensure safe landing. The simplest type of reflex, a short-latency reflex, has a single synapse, or junction, in the signaling pathway. Long-latency reflexes produce nerve signals that are transduced across multiple synapses before generating the reflex response.


title: Reflex

text: The myotatic or muscle stretch reflexes (sometimes known as "deep tendon reflexes") provide information on the integrity of the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system. This information can be detected using electromyography (EMG). Generally, decreased reflexes indicate a peripheral problem, and lively or exaggerated reflexes a central one. A stretch reflex is the contraction of a muscle in response to its lengthwise stretch.


title: Reflex

text: While the reflexes above are stimulated mechanically, the term H-reflex refers to the analogous reflex stimulated electrically, and tonic vibration reflex for those stimulated to vibration.


title: Reflex

text: A tendon reflex is the contraction of a muscle in response to striking its tendon. The Golgi tendon reflex is the inverse of a stretch reflex.


title: Reflex

text: Newborn babies have a number of other reflexes which are not seen in adults, referred to as primitive reflexes. These automatic reactions to stimuli enable infants to respond to the environment before any learning has taken place. They include:


title: Reflex

text: Many of these reflexes are quite complex requiring a number of synapses in a number of different nuclei in the CNS (e.g., the escape reflex). Others of these involve just a couple of synapses to function (e.g., the withdrawal reflex).


title: Reflex

text: Processes such as breathing, digestion, and the maintenance of the heartbeat can also be regarded as reflex actions, according to some definitions of the term.


title: Reflex

text: In medicine, reflexes are often used to assess the health of the nervous system. Doctors will typically grade the activity of a reflex on a scale from 0 to 4. While 2+ is considered normal, some healthy individuals are hypo-reflexive and register all reflexes at 1+, while others are hyper-reflexive and register all reflexes at 3+.


title: Reflex

text: Naively, we might imagine that reflexes are immutable. In reality, however, most reflexes are flexible and can be substantially modified to match the requirements of the behavior in both vertebrates and invertebrates.


title: Reflex

text: A good example of reflex modulation is the stretch reflex. When a muscle is stretched at rest, the stretch reflex leads to contraction of the muscle, thereby opposing stretch (resistance reflex). This helps to stabilize posture. During voluntary movements, however, the intensity (gain) of the reflex is reduced or its sign is even reversed. This prevents resistance reflexes from impeding movements.


title: Reflex

text: The underlying sites and mechanisms of reflex modulation are not fully understood. There is evidence that the output of sensory neurons is directly modulated during behavior—for example, through presynaptic inhibition. The effect of sensory input upon motor neurons is also influenced by interneurons in the spinal cord or ventral nerve cord and by descending signals from the brain.


title: Reflex

text: Breathing can also be considered both involuntary and voluntary, since breath can be held through internal intercostal muscles.


title: Nimesulide

text: Nimesulide is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) with pain medication and fever reducing properties. Its approved indications are the treatment of acute pain, the symptomatic treatment of osteoarthritis, and primary dysmenorrhoea in adolescents and adults above 12 years old.


title: Nimesulide

text: Side effects may include liver problems. It has a multifactorial mode of action and is characterized by a fast onset of action. It works by blocking the production of prostaglandins (a chemical associated with pain), thereby relieving pain and inflammation.


title: Nimesulide

text: It may be used for pain, including period pains. Nimesulide is not recommended long-term, as for chronic conditions such as arthritis. This is due to its association with an increased risk of liver toxicity, including liver failure. Despite its risk of hepatotoxicity, a 2012 evaluation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) concluded that the overall benefit/risk profile of nimesulide is favourable and in line with that of the other NSAIDs such as diclofenac, ibuprofen, and naproxen provided that the duration of use is limited to 15 days and the dose does not exceed 200 mg/day.


title: Nimesulide

text: Less than 10 days of nimesulide does not appear to increase the risk of hypothermia, gastrointestinal bleeding, epigastric pain, vomiting, diarrhea, or transient, asymptomatic elevation of liver enzymes compared to ketoprofen, paracetamol, mefenamic acid, aspirin, or ibuprofen in children. However, data does not speak to populations less than 6 months old.


title: Nimesulide

text: Women should use the drug with caution during lactation and nimesulide is contraindicated during pregnancy, and research suggest that it is also contraindicated in lactating women.


title: Nimesulide

text: Nimesulide is available in a variety of forms: tablets, powder for dissolution in water, suppositories, mouth dissolving tablets, and topical gel.


title: Nimesulide

text: Due to concerns about the risk of liver toxicity, nimesulide has been withdrawn from market in several countries (Spain, Finland, Belgium, and Ireland). Liver problems have resulted in both deaths and the need for transplantation. This may occur in as little as three days after starting the medication.


title: Nimesulide

text: Nimesulide is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), acting specifically as a relatively selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor. However, the pharmacological profile of nimesulide is peculiar, and additional, unknown/yet-to-be-identified mechanisms appear to also be involved. One pathway that has been implicated in its actions is the ecto-5'-nucleotidase (e-5′NT/CD73)/adenosine A receptor pathway.


title: Nimesulide

text: Nimesulide undergoes extensive biotransformation, mainly to 4-hydroxynimesulide (which also appears to be biologically active).


title: Nimesulide

text: Moderate chronic kidney disease does not necessitate dosage adjustment, while in patients with severe chronic kidney disease or liver disease, nimesulide is contraindicated.


title: Nimesulide

text: Nimesulide has a relatively rapid onset of action, with meaningful reductions in pain and inflammation observed within 15 minutes from drug intake.


title: Nimesulide

text: The therapeutic effects of nimesulide are the result of its complex mode of action, which targets a number of key mediators of the inflammatory process such as: COX-2 mediated prostaglandins, free radicals, proteolytic enzymes, and histamine.


title: Nimesulide

text: Clinical evidence is available to support a particularly good profile in terms of gastrointestinal tolerability.


title: Nimesulide

text: Nimesulide was launched in Italy for the first time as Aulin and Mesulid in 1985 and is available in more than 50 countries worldwide, including among others France, Portugal, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, Thailand, and Brazil. Nimesulide has never been filed for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) evaluation in the United States, where it is not marketed.


title: Nimesulide

text: Nimesulide is available throughout the world as original product with the following trademarks: Sulide, Nimalox, Mesulid (Novartis, Brazil, Boehringer Ingelheim, Greece, Italy), Coxtal (Sanofi, China, Bulgaria), Sintalgin (Abbott, Brazil), Eskaflam (GSK, Brazil, Mexico), Octaprin, Nimside (Teva, Pakistan), Nise (Russia, Venezuela, Vietnam, Ukraine), Nilsid (Egypt); Aulin (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Italy, Romania, Poland), Ainex, Drexel, Donulide, Edrigyl, Enetra, Heugan, Mesulid, Minapon, NeRelid, Nexen, Nidolon, Nilden (Mexico); Emsulide, Nimed, Nimedex, Nimesil (Czech Republic, Moldova, Latvia, Kazhakhstan, Georgia, Poland), Nimulid (Trinidad & Tobago), Nimutab, Nimdase, Nimopen-MP Nise, Nimuwin, Nisulid, Nodard Plus, Nicip, Nimcap, Nic-P, Nic-Spas, Nimupain (India); Mesulid, Novolid, Relmex (Ecuador); Remisid (Ukraine); Coxulid, Emulid, Frenag, Fuzo, Motival, Nimeksil, Nimelid, Nîmes, Nimesdin, Romasulid, Sulidin, Suljel, Thermo Sulidin (Turkey), Xilox (Hungary); Modact-IR (Pakistan); and ad Sulidene and Zolan for veterinary use. Many generic and copy-products also exist (Lusemin, Medicox, Nidol, Nimalox, Nimesil, Nimotas, Nimulid, Nizer, Sorini, Ventor, Vionim, Neolide, Willgo among others), new-aid, Nexulide (Syria), Nims, Nice, Nimulide (Nepal)


title: Nimesulide

text: Several reports have been made of adverse drug reactions in India. On February 12, 2011, Indian Express reported that the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare finally had decided to suspend the pediatric use of the analgesic, Nimesulide suspension. From 10 March 2011 onward Nimesulide formulations are not indicated for human use in children below 12 years of age.


title: Nimesulide

text: On September 13, 2011 Madras High Court revoked a suspension on manufacture and sale of paediatric drugs nimesulide and phenylpropanolamine (PPA).


title: Nimesulide

text: On September 21, 2007 the EMA released a press release on their review on the liver-related safety of nimesulide. The EMA has concluded that the benefits of these medicines outweigh their risks, but that there is a need to limit the duration of use to ensure that the risk of patients developing liver problems is kept to a minimum. Therefore, the EMA has limited the use of systemic formulations (tablets, solutions, suppositories) of nimesulide to 15 days.


title: Nimesulide

text: The Irish Medicines Board has decided to suspend Nimesulide from the Irish market and refer it to the EU Committee for Human Medicinal Products (CHMP) for a review of its benefit/risk profile. The decision is due to the reporting of six cases of potentially-related liver failures to the IMB by the National Liver Transplant Unit, St. Vincent's University Hospital. These cases occurred in the period from 1999 to 2006.


title: Nimesulide

text: In May 2008, Italy's leading daily paper "Corriere della Sera" and other media outlets reported that a top-ranking official at Italy's medicines agency AIFA had been filmed by police while accepting bribes from employees of pharmaceutical companies. The money allegedly was being paid to ensure that certain drugs would be spared scrutiny from the drugs watchdog. The investigation had started in 2005 following suspicions that some AIFA drug tests had been faked. Eight arrests were made. Nimesulide can be bought carrying a prescription from a physician that is kept as a receipt at the chemist shop, nominally allowing strong control over selling.


title: Nimesulide

text: The original manufacturer of nimesulide is Helsinn Healthcare SA, Switzerland, which acquired the rights for the drug in 1976. After the patent protection terminated in 2015, a number of other companies started production and marketing of Nimesulide.


title: Nikolai Fomin

text: Nikolai Maximovich Fomin (, ; born 1937 in Novoekonomichne, Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR) is a Ukrainian engineer.


title: Nikolai Fomin

text: He was the chief engineer of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant from 1981 until the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.


title: Nikolai Fomin

text: Fomin was a member of the central CPSU, but was expelled after the Chernobyl disaster. He started his career at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. In 1972 he began working at the Chernobyl plant. As chief engineer, he approved the infamous turbine safety test that led to the explosion of the reactor. However, the deputy chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov was the principal person responsible for the test.


title: Nikolai Fomin

text: Fomin learned of the accident at about 4 am on April 26, 1986, and participated in cleaning up the aftermath. He was subsequently arrested together with plant director Viktor Bryukhanov. The start of the trial, originally scheduled for March 24, 1987, had to be postponed several times due to Fomin's suicide attempt. During the trial, Fomin partly blamed the operators for deviating from the test plan. Eventually, he and Bryukhanov were found guilty and were each sentenced to 10 years in prison.


title: Nikolai Fomin

text: While in prison, Fomin received psychiatric treatment several times. For health reasons, he was released from prison early and transferred to a psychiatric hospital. After his release from the hospital, he worked at the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant. Since his retirement in 2000, he has lived with his wife, children and grandchildren in Udomlya.


title: Carlo Rizzi (The Godfather)

text: Carlo Rizzi is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel "The Godfather". In the 1972 film adaptation, he was portrayed by Gianni Russo.


title: Carlo Rizzi (The Godfather)

text: Described in the novel as "a punk, sore at the world", Rizzi was born in Nevada and moved to New York City following trouble with the law. He befriends Sonny Corleone and in 1941, he meets Sonny's sister Connie at a surprise birthday party for their father, crime boss Vito Corleone. Rizzi and Connie marry in 1945. Vito disapproves of Connie's marriage to a small-time criminal who is not a full-blooded Sicilian (Rizzi's father was Sicilian but his mother was from northern Italy), but consents to the marriage on condition that they have a traditional Sicilian wedding.


title: Carlo Rizzi (The Godfather)

text: Rizzi basks in the glory of marrying into the Corleone crime family. However, Vito instructs "consigliere" Tom Hagen to forbid Rizzi to have any significant knowledge of the family's inner workings and only to "give him a living". He operates a small sports book under the family's supervision, though he proves inept even at that.


title: Carlo Rizzi (The Godfather)

text: Rizzi hates how his in-laws treat him, and regularly abuses and cheats on Connie to assert his own power over the Corleone family. When Connie complains to her parents, Vito refuses to intervene, presumably to punish her for her poor choice in a husband. In truth, Vito is outraged by Rizzi's behavior, but he feels powerless to act because Italian tradition forbids fathers to interfere in their children's marriages.


title: Carlo Rizzi (The Godfather)

text: In contrast to his parents, Sonny has no patience for Carlo's treatment of Connie and he has to be physically restrained by Vito from assaulting Rizzi. Once, when Sonny visits Connie, he finds her with a black eye after a particularly severe attack. Furious, Sonny finds and beats Rizzi up in the street, threatening to kill him if he ever hurts Connie again. Humiliated, Rizzi seeks revenge by secretly making a deal with the Corleones' chief rival, Emilio Barzini, to murder Sonny.


title: Carlo Rizzi (The Godfather)

text: Rizzi sets the plan in motion by having his mistress call his house, provoking a pregnant Connie into an argument in which he whips her with his belt. In a deleted scene, Connie walks in on Carlo while he is showering and accuses him of cheating on her; Carlo asks her to make him dinner. When Connie calls Sonny, he loses his temper and races off to find Rizzi. En route, Sonny is killed by Barzini's men in a hail of gunfire at the causeway toll booth.


title: Carlo Rizzi (The Godfather)

text: After Sonny's death, Vito seems to take a liking to Rizzi, and allows him to run a family-controlled labor union. When Michael becomes operating head of the family after Vito semi-retires, he plans to move the family's business interests to Nevada. Michael treats Rizzi as a trusted lieutenant, promising he will be his "right-hand man" once the move is complete. Michael even agrees to be godfather to Rizzi's and Connie's second child. However, Vito and Michael had figured out early on that Rizzi set Sonny up, and they brought him deeper within the family fold solely as a ploy to make him vulnerable. Vito cannot bring himself to make his daughter a widow, and so leaves it to Michael to carry out Carlo's execution after his death.


title: Carlo Rizzi (The Godfather)

text: Vito dies in 1955, and Michael succeeds him as head of the family. As Connie's and Rizzi's child is baptized, Michael's men assassinate the other heads of the Five Families and Las Vegas casino kingpin Moe Greene on Michael's orders. Hours later, Michael confronts Rizzi, saying he knows Rizzi set Sonny up to be murdered. He assures Rizzi that his life will be spared, but he is being exiled from the family; Rizzi, believing he is safe, confesses that he conspired with Barzini. As he is about to be driven to the airport, Peter Clemenza, Michael's "caporegime" and Sonny's godfather, garrotes him to death.


title: Carlo Rizzi (The Godfather)

text: Connie is angry with Michael for having Rizzi killed, despite Rizzi's abuse and his role in Sonny's death, and resents her brother for many years afterward. In the novel, Connie quickly recovers from Rizzi's death and, a few weeks later, apologizes to Michael for accusing him. Free from her abusive and loveless marriage, Connie remarries about a year later.


title: Carlo Rizzi (The Godfather)

text: Carlo Rizzi was portrayed by Gianni Russo. The role led to Russo having a career acting as "tough guys" in films and television. Russo's portrayal of Rizzi led him to be the spokesperson for the 2016 brand of Don Corleone Organic Italian Vodka.


title: Henny Penny

text: "Henny Penny", more commonly known in the United States as "Chicken Little" and sometimes as "Chicken Licken", is a European folk tale with a moral in the form of a cumulative tale about a chicken who believes that the world is coming to an end. The phrase features prominently in the story, and has passed into the English language as a common idiom indicating a hysterical or mistaken belief that disaster is imminent. Similar stories go back more than 25 centuries and "Henny Penny" continues to be referred to in a variety of media.


title: Henny Penny

text: The story is listed as Aarne–Thompson–Uther type 20C, which includes international examples of folktales that make light of paranoia and mass hysteria.


title: Henny Penny

text: There are several Western versions of the story, of which the best-known concerns a chick that believes the sky is falling when an acorn falls on its head. The chick decides to tell the king and, on its journey, meets other animals (mostly other fowl) which join it in the quest. After this point, there are many endings. In the most familiar, a fox invites them to its lair and then eats them all. Alternatively, the last one, usually Cocky Lockey, survives long enough to warn the chick, who escapes. In others all are rescued and finally speak to the king.


title: Henny Penny

text: In most retellings, the animals have rhyming names, commonly Chicken Licken or Chicken Little, Henny Penny or Hen-Len, Cocky Locky, Ducky Lucky or Ducky Daddles, Drakey Lakey, Goosey Loosey or Goosey Poosey, Gander Lander, Turkey Lurkey and Foxy Loxy or Foxy Woxy.


title: Henny Penny

text: In the United States, the most common name for the story is "Chicken Little", as attested by illustrated books for children dating from the early 19th century. In Britain and its other former colonies, it is best known as "Henny Penny" and "Chicken Licken", titles by which it also went in the United States.


title: Henny Penny

text: The story was part of the oral folk tradition and only began to appear in print after the Brothers Grimm had set a European example with their collection of German tales in the early years of the 19th century. One of the earliest to collect tales from Scandinavian sources was Just Mathias Thiele, who in 1823 published an early version of the Henny Penny story in the Danish language. The names of the characters there are Kylling Kluk, Høne Pøne, Hane Pane, And Svand, Gaase Paase, and Ræv Skræv. In Thiele's untitled account, a nut falls on Kylling Kluk's back and knocks him over. He then goes to each of the other characters, proclaiming that "I think all the world is falling" and setting them all running. The fox Ræv Skræv joins in the flight and, when they reach the wood, counts them over from behind and eats them one by one. Eventually the tale was translated into English by Benjamin Thorpe after several other versions had appeared.


title: Henny Penny

text: Once the story began to appear in the English language, the titles by which they went varied considerably and have continued to do so. John Greene Chandler (1815-1879), an illustrator and wood engraver from Petersham, Massachusetts, published an illustrated children's book titled "The Remarkable Story of Chicken Little" in 1840. In this American version of the story, the characters' names are Chicken Little, Hen-Pen, Duck-Luck, Goose-Loose, and Fox-Lox; Chicken Little is frightened by a leaf falling on her tail.


title: Henny Penny

text: A Scots version of the tale is found in Robert Chambers's "Popular Rhymes, Fireside Stories, and Amusements of Scotland" of 1842. It appeared among the "Fireside Nursery Stories" and was titled "The hen and her fellow travellers". The characters included Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, Ducky Daddles, Goosie Poosie, and an unnamed (fox). Henny Penny became convinced that "the lifts were faun" (the heavens were falling) when a pea fell on her head.


title: Henny Penny

text: In 1849, a "very different" English version was published under the title "The Story of Chicken-Licken" by Joseph Orchard Halliwell. In this Chicken-licken was startled when "an acorn fell on her bald " and encounters the characters Hen-len, Cock-lock, Duck-luck, Drake-lake, Goose-loose, Gander-lander, Turkey-lurkey and Fox-lox.


title: Henny Penny

text: It was followed in 1850 by "The wonderful story of Henny Penny" in Joseph Cundall's compilation, "The Treasury of pleasure books for young children". Each story there is presented as if it were a separate book, and in this case had two illustrations by Harrison Weir. In reality the story is a repetition of the Chambers narration in standard English, except that the dialect phrase "so she , and she gaed, and she gaed" is retained and the cause of panic is mistranslated as "the clouds are falling".


title: Henny Penny

text: Benjamin Thorpe's translation of Thiele's Danish story was published in 1853 and given the title "The Little Chicken Kluk and his companions". Thorpe describes the tale there as "a to the Scottish story…printed in Chambers" (see above) and gives the characters approximately the same names as in Chambers.


title: Henny Penny

text: Comparing the different versions, we find that in the Scots and English stories the animals want "to tell the king" that the skies are falling; while in the American story, as in the Danish, they are not given any specific motivation. In all versions they are eaten by the fox, although in different circumstances.


title: Henny Penny

text: The name "Chicken Little" and the fable's central phrase, "The sky is falling!" have been applied to people accused of being unreasonably afraid, or those trying to incite an unreasonable fear in those around them.


title: Henny Penny

text: The first use of the name "Chicken Little" to "one who warns of or predicts calamity, especially without justification" recorded by the "Merriam-Webster Dictionary" is in 1895, but idiomatic use of the name significantly predates that attestation. In fact, this usage is recorded in the United States very soon after the publication of Chandler's illustrated children's book in 1840. Already, in 1842, a journal article about the Government of Haiti referred to "Chicken Little" in an offhand manner. An "oration" delivered to the city of Boston on July 4, 1844, contains the passage:


title: Henny Penny

text: Fearmongering whether justified or not can sometimes elicit a societal response called "Chicken Little syndrome", described as "inferring catastrophic conclusions possibly resulting in paralysis". It has also been defined as "a sense of despair or passivity which blocks the audience from actions". The term began appearing in the 1950s and the phenomenon has been noted in many different societal contexts.


title: Henny Penny

text: Walt Disney Animation Studios has made two versions of the story. The first was "Chicken Little", a 1943 animated short released during World War II as one of a series produced at the request of the U.S. government for the purpose of discrediting Nazism. It tells a variant of the parable in which Foxy Loxy takes the advice of a book on psychology (on the original 1943 cut, it is "Mein Kampf") by striking the least intelligent first. Dim-witted Chicken Little is convinced by him that the sky is falling and whips the farmyard into mass hysteria, which the unscrupulous fox manipulates for his own benefit. The dark comedy is used as an allegory for the idea that fear-mongering weakens the war effort and costs lives. It is also one of the versions of the story in which Chicken Little appears as a character distinct from Henny Penny.


title: Henny Penny

text: The second Disney film was the very loosely adapted "Chicken Little", released in 2005 as a 3D computer-animated feature. It is an updated science fiction sequel to the original fable in which Chicken Little is partly justified in his fears. In this version, Foxy Loxy is changed from a male to a female, and from the main antagonist to a local bully. Another film adaptation was the animated TV episode "Henny Penny" (1999), which was part of the HBO series "". In this modern update, the story is given a satirical and political interpretation.


title: Henny Penny

text: There have also been a number of musical settings. American composer Vincent Persichetti used the fable as the plot of his only opera "The Sibyl: A Parable of Chicken Little" (Parable XX), op. 135 (1976), which premiered in 1985. In 1998, there was Joy Chaitin and Sarah Stevens-Estabrook's light-hearted musical version of the fable, "Henny Penny". Designed for between six and a hundred junior actors, it has additional characters as optional extras: Funky Monkey, Sheepy Weepy, Mama Llama, Pandy Handy and Giraffy Laughy (plus an aggressive oak-tree).


title: Henny Penny

text: In Singapore, a more involved musical was performed in 2005. This was Brian Seward's " The Acorn - the true story of Chicken Licken". It is a tale of mixed motivations as certain creatures (including some among the 'good guys') take advantage of the panic caused by Chicken Licken. In 2007 American singer and composer Gary Bachlund set the text of Margaret Free's reading version of "Chicken Little" ("The Primer", 1910) for high voice and piano. In his note to the score Bachlund makes it clear that he intends a reference to alarmism and its tragic consequences.


title: Henny Penny

text: There are many CDs, films, novels, and songs titled "The Sky is Falling", but the majority refer to the idiomatic use of the phrase rather than to the fable from which it derives. The following are some lyrics which genuinely refer or allude to the story:


title: Henny Penny

text: A very early example containing the basic motif and many of the elements of the tale is some 25 centuries old and appears in the Buddhist scriptures as the "Daddabha Jataka" (J 322). In it, the Buddha, upon hearing about some particular religious practices, comments that there is no special merit in them, but rather that they are "like the noise the hare heard." He then tells the story of a hare disturbed by a falling fruit who believes that the earth is coming to an end. The hare starts a stampede among the other animals until a lion halts them, investigates the cause of the panic and restores calm. The fable teaches the necessity for deductive reasoning and subsequent investigation.


title: Henny Penny

text: The Australian author Ursula Dubosarsky tells the Tibetan version of the Jataka tale in rhyme, in her book "The Terrible Plop" (2009), which has since been dramatised, using the original title "Plop!". In this version, the animal stampede is halted by a bear, rather than a lion, and the ending has been changed from the Tibetan original.


title: Henny Penny

text: The Br'er Rabbit story, "Brother Rabbit Takes Some Exercise", is closer to the Eastern versions. In this story, Br'er Rabbit initiates the panic but does not take part in the mass flight, although Br'er Fox does. In this case it is Br'er Terrapin that leads the animals back to question Br'er Rabbit.


title: Durdle Door

text: Durdle Door (sometimes written Durdle Dor) is a natural limestone arch on the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth in Dorset, England. It is privately owned by the Weld Family who own the Lulworth Estate, but it is also open to the public.


title: Durdle Door

text: The form of the coastline around Durdle Door is controlled by its geology—both by the contrasting hardnesses of the rocks, and by the local patterns of faults and folds. The arch has formed on a concordant coastline where bands of rock run parallel to the shoreline. The rock strata are almost vertical, and the bands of rock are quite narrow. Originally a band of resistant Portland limestone ran along the shore, the same band that appears one mile along the coast forming the narrow entrance to Lulworth Cove. Behind this is a band of weaker, easily eroded rocks, and behind this is a stronger and much thicker band of chalk, which forms the Purbeck Hills. These steeply dipping rocks are part of the Lulworth crumple, itself part of the broader Purbeck Monocline, produced by the building of the Alps during the mid-Cenozoic.


title: Durdle Door

text: The limestone and chalk are in closer proximity at Durdle Door than at Swanage, to the east, where the distance is over .


title: Durdle Door

text: Around this part of the coast nearly all of the limestone has been removed by sea erosion, whilst the remainder forms the small headland which includes the arch. Erosion at the western end of the limestone band has resulted in the arch formation. UNESCO teams monitor the condition of both the arch and adjacent beach.


title: Durdle Door

text: The isthmus that joins the limestone to the chalk is made of a band of Portland limestone, a narrow and compressed band of Cretaceous Wealden clays and sands, and then narrow bands of greensand and sandstone.


title: Durdle Door

text: In Man O' War Bay, the small bay immediately east of Durdle Door, the band of Portland and Purbeck limestone has not been entirely eroded away, and is visible above the waves as Man O'War Rocks. Similarly, offshore to the west, the eroded limestone outcrop forms a line of small rocky islets called (from east to west) The Bull, The Blind Cow, The Cow, and The Calf.


title: Durdle Door

text: As the coastline in this area is generally an eroding landscape, the cliffs are subject to occasional rockfalls and landslides; a particularly large slide occurred just to the east of Durdle Door in April 2013, resulting in destruction of part of the South West Coast Path.


title: Durdle Door

text: There is a dearth of early written records about the arch, though it has kept a name given to it probably over a thousand years ago. In the late 18th century there is a description of the "magnificent arch of Durdle-rock Door", and early 19th-century maps called it "Duddledoor" and "Durdle" or "Dudde Door". In 1811 the first Ordnance Survey map of the area named it as "Dirdale Door". "Durdle" is derived from the Old English , meaning to pierce, bore or drill, which in turn derives from , meaning hole. Similar names in the region include Durlston Bay and Durlston Head further east, where a coastal stack suggests the existence of an earlier arch, and the Thurlestone, an arched rock in the neighbouring county of Devon to the west. The "Door" part of the name probably maintains its modern meaning, referring to the arched shape of the rock; in the late 19th century there is reference to it being called the "Barn-door", and it is described as being "sufficiently high for a good-sized sailing boat to pass through it."


title: Durdle Door

text: Music videos have been filmed at Durdle Door, including parts of Tears for Fears' "Shout", Billy Ocean's "Loverboy", Cliff Richard's "Saviour's Day" and Bruce Dickinson's "Tears of the Dragon".


title: Durdle Door

text: The landscape around Durdle Door has been used in scenes in several films, including "Wilde" (1997) starring Stephen Fry, "Nanny McPhee" starring Emma Thompson, the 1967 production of "Far From The Madding Crowd" (the latter also filmed around nearby Scratchy Bottom), and the Bollywood film "Housefull 3". In 2022, Durdle Door was where the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) regenerated into the Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant), in the "Doctor Who" episode "The Power of the Doctor". Ron Dawson's children's story "Scary Bones meets the Dinosaurs of the Jurassic Coast" creates a myth of how Durdle Door came to be, as an 'undiscovered' dinosaur called "Durdle Doorus" is magically transformed into rock.


title: Durdle Door

text: Dorset-born Arthur Moule, a friend of Thomas Hardy and missionary to China, wrote these lines about Durdle Door for his 1879 book of poetry "Songs of heaven and home, written in a foreign land":


title: Parambrata Chatterjee

text: Parambrata Chattopadhyay (born 27 June 1980) is an Indian actor and director. Parambrata started his career with Bengali television and films. He has acted as the fictional character Topshe from Feluda under Sandip Ray's direction. He made his Hindi debut in "Kahaani" (2012), starring with Vidya Balan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. His notable works include "Bhalo Theko" (2003), "Baishe Srabon" (2011), "Sold" (2014) directed by Jeffrey D. Brown,


title: Parambrata Chatterjee

text: "Kadambari " (2017), "Anukul" (2017), "Pari" (2018), "Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi" (2019), "Dwitiyo Purush"(2020), "Bulbbul" (2020) .


title: Parambrata Chatterjee

text: Parambrata was born in Kolkata, in the state of West Bengal, India, to parents who worked as film critics. He is the son of Satinath Chatterjee and Sunetra Ghatak, maternal grandson of Ashish Chandra Ghatak and Gita Ghatak, and grandnephew of filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak. Bengali author and activist Mahasweta Devi is Parambrata's aunt.


title: Parambrata Chatterjee

text: He has often been targeted by fundamentalists for his secularist views. He was previously in a relationship with actress Swastika Mukherjee. He has been in a relationship with Ike Schouten, a doctor from The Netherlands, for nearly a decade. Parambrata studied at Patha Bhavan school in Kolkata.


title: Parambrata Chatterjee

text: Chatterjee has acted in many television series, tele-films, short films and films. His directorial debut feature film is "Jiyo Kaka" (2011) starring Rituparna Sengupta and Rudranil Ghosh. His second directorial venture was "Hawa Bodol" (2013). Seven months after the success of "Kahaani", he was signed by Jeffrey D. Brown, who won an Academy Award for his debut short film in 1986, for his film "Sold".


title: Parambrata Chatterjee

text: On 30 May 2011, he became a producer along with colleague, Rudranil Ghosh, by launching their own production house, Workshop Productions Pvt. Ltd, in association with Dipak Raha of Durgandh Group.


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (film)

text: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a 1978 American jukebox musical comedy film directed by Michael Schultz, written by Henry Edwards and starring an ensemble cast led by Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees. Depicting the loosely constructed story of a band as they wrangle with the music industry and battle evil forces bent on stealing their instruments and corrupting their hometown of Heartland, the film is presented in a form similar to that of a rock opera, with the songs providing "dialogue" to carry the story. George Burns has most of the spoken lines that act to clarify the plot and provide further narration but there are a few other lines throughout the movie (the robot girls waking Mr. Mustard as Strawberry leaves her house in Heartland).


text: The film's soundtrack, released as an accompanying double album, features new versions of songs originally written and performed by The Beatles. The film draws primarily from two of the band's albums, 1967's "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and 1969's "Abbey Road". The film covers all of the songs from the "Sgt. Pepper" album with the exceptions of "Within You, Without You" and "Lovely Rita", and also includes nearly all of "Abbey Road".


text: The production was loosely adapted from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road", a 1974 off-Broadway production directed by Tom O'Horgan. The film was met with minor box office success but overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics.


text: The film was produced by Robert Stigwood, founder of RSO Records, who had earlier produced "Saturday Night Fever". RSO Records also released the soundtrack to the film "Grease" in 1978, which had Barry Gibb producing and Peter Frampton playing lead guitar on the title track. In 1976, the Bee Gees had recorded three Beatles cover songs, "Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight", "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" and "Sun King", for the musical documentary "All This and World War II".


text: The Beatles' former producer, George Martin, served as musical director, conductor, arranger and producer of the film's soundtrack album.


text: Before the film's release, Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees announced: "Kids today don't know the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper. And when those who do see our film and hear us doing it, that will be the version they relate to and remember. Unfortunately, the Beatles will be secondary. You see, there is no such thing as the Beatles. They don't exist as a band and never performed "Sgt. Pepper" live, in any case. When ours comes out, it will be, in effect, as if theirs never existed. When you heard the Beatles do Long Tall Sally or Roll Over Beethoven, did you care about Little Richard's or Chuck Berry's version?"


text: Mr. Kite (George Burns), elderly mayor of the small, wholesome town of Heartland, recounts the history of Heartland's celebrated marching band. Sgt. Pepper and his Lonely Hearts Club Band brought happiness through its music, even causing troops in World Wars I and II to stop fighting. In August 1958, Sgt. Pepper died of a heart attack in the middle of a performance, at the unveiling of a new weather vane in his likeness. Sgt. Pepper left the band's magical musical instruments to the town; so long as they remain in Heartland, its people will live happily ever after. Heartland City Hall, which doubles as a Sgt. Pepper museum, contains the instruments. Sgt. Pepper left his musical legacy to his handsome and good-hearted grandson, Billy Shears (Peter Frampton). Billy forms a new Lonely Hearts Club Band with his three best friends: brothers Mark, Dave, and Bob Henderson (The Bee Gees). Billy's charming but avaricious half-brother, Dougie (Paul Nicholas), serves as the band's manager.


text: Heartland loves the new band ("With a Little Help from My Friends"), and soon Big Deal Records president B.D. Hoffler (Donald Pleasence) invites them to Hollywood with the promise of a record deal, to which the band accepts. Billy bids farewell to his sweet hometown girlfriend, Strawberry Fields (Sandy Farina) ("Here Comes the Sun"). Once in Hollywood, B.D. introduces the band to their new labelmates, sexy singers Lucy (Dianne Steinberg) and the Diamonds (Stargard), and they negotiate the contract over a sex-and-drug-induced dinner. Hitting it off with Lucy, Billy all but forgets about Strawberry. The band quickly succeeds with hit records and sold-out shows.


text: Meanwhile, villainous Mr. Mustard (Frankie Howerd) and his henchman the Brute drive to Heartland in their computer- and robot-equipped van. Mustard receives orders from the mysterious FVB to steal the magical instruments from City Hall and distribute them among FVB and its affiliates. Without the instruments, Heartland—now under Mustard's control—quickly degenerates into a hotbed of vice and urban decay. Strawberry takes an early morning bus to Hollywood ("She's Leaving Home") to tell the band. Mustard, who has a crush on Strawberry, follows. In Hollywood, the band and Strawberry steal Mustard's van and use its computer to locate the stolen instruments. They recover the cornet from the deranged, money-driven anti-aging specialist Dr. Maxwell Edison (Steve Martin), and the tuba from mind-controlling cult leader Father Sun (Alice Cooper). They find the drum still in Mustard's van. However, the computer malfunctions before they can locate the final missing instrument–the saxophone–which remains in the hands of FVB.


text: As Heartland continues to deteriorate, Dougie and the band convince B.D. to organize a benefit concert to save the town ("Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!)". Dougie and Lucy, who have bonded over their shared love of money, plot to run off with the show's proceeds ("You Never Give Me Your Money"). They hide bags of money in Mustard's van while Billy, Strawberry, and the Hendersons are watching Earth, Wind & Fire perform at the benefit ("Got to Get You into My Life"). Mustard and the Brute suddenly arrive and take back the van, which also contains the recovered instruments. They also kidnap Strawberry, with whom Mustard has fallen in love from afar ("When I'm Sixty-Four"). Mustard drives off with Dougie, Lucy, Strawberry, and the money hidden on board. Billy and the Hendersons see the van leave and pursue it in the town's hot air balloon.


text: Mustard drives to FVB's headquarters, where the Future Villain Band plans to take over the world. This Orwellian hard-rock group (Aerosmith) contrasts the wholesomeness of Sgt. Pepper's band. FVB is described as "the evil force that would poison young minds, pollute the environment, and subvert the democratic process"; they perform in militaristic uniforms on a high platform stage made to look like stacks of money, accompanied by uniformed youth twirling flags. To turn Strawberry into a "mindless groupie", FVB chains her up onstage while the band plays "Come Together" and lead singer (Steven Tyler) fondles her. Dougie and Lucy are also tied up and forced to watch. Billy and the Hendersons arrive and engage FVB in hand-to-hand combat. The singer is thrown off the stage to his death, but unfortunately, so is Strawberry.


text: The town of Heartland, now cleaned up and the instruments returned, holds an elaborate funeral for Strawberry ("Golden Slumbers"/"Carry That Weight"). The depressed Billy attempts to get Strawberry off his mind ("The Long and Winding Road"); when he cannot, the Hendersons worry for him ("A Day in the Life"). Billy attempts suicide by jumping from a rooftop. Before he can hit the ground, in a form of Deus ex machina, the Sgt. Pepper weather vane atop City Hall comes to life (Billy Preston). Wielding magical lightning bolts, Pepper catches Billy ("Get Back"). Pepper dances through the town square, transforming Mustard and the Brute into a bishop and a monk. Mustard's van is transformed into a Volkswagen Beetle. Dougie and Lucy are transformed into a priest and a nun. Strawberry is restored to life, and happily embraces Billy. Sgt. Pepper transforms the band members' mourning suits into shiny new uniforms.


text: In the finale, the cast appear with numerous celebrities in a tribute to the original Beatles album cover.


text: Additionally, the film becomes a time capsule of late 1970s pop culture with the last scene in which the cast is joined by "Our Guests at Heartland" to sing the reprise of the title track while standing in a formation imitating the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" album cover. The scene was filmed at MGM Studios on December 16, 1977; indeed, according to co-star Carel Struycken (Mustard's henchman Brute), "Sgt. Pepper" was the last film to be made at MGM under that studio's then existing management.


text: The film began as a 1974 live Broadway show called "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road", which was produced by The Robert Stigwood Organization. Stigwood had purchased the rights to use 29 Beatles songs for the play and was determined to do something with them, so he brought the songs to Henry Edwards to write a script. Edwards had never written a script for a film, but had impressed Stigwood with musical analysis he'd written for "The New York Times". "I spread the songs out on my apartment floor and went to work", said Edwards. "Mr Stigwood wanted a concept. I told him I'd like to do a big MGM-like musical. We'd synthesize forms and end up with an MGM musical but with the music of today."


text: With a script in place, the cast was assembled. In the spring of 1977, Frampton, The Bee Gees, and Martin met to begin work on the soundtrack. Filming started in October 1977 on the backlot of MGM Studios in Culver City, where the set of Heartland, USA was built. Interiors were filmed at Universal City Studios.


text: Although Universal had high hopes for the movie – anticipating "this generation's "Gone with the Wind" " – it worked out differently. According to film historian Leonard Maltin's "TV, Movie & Video Guide", the picture "just doesn't work" and "ranges from tolerable to embarrassing. As for the Bee Gees' acting, well, if you can't say something nice..." On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 11% score based on 27 reviews with an average rating of 3.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads "I thought you might like to know that the Beatles (aka the act you've known for all these years) are ill-served by this kitschy, aggressively whimsical fantasy film that's most certainly not a thrill".


text: In "Rolling Stone", Paul Nelson ridiculed virtually every aspect of the production. He said that Frampton had "absolutely no future in Hollywood" while Schultz "would seem to need direction merely to find the set, let alone the camera". Nelson commented on the musical soundtrack: "The album proves conclusively that you can't go home again in 1978. Or, if you do, you'd better be aware of who's taken over the neighborhood." "The New York Times"s Janet Maslin wrote that the "musical numbers are strung together so mindlessly that the movie has the feel of an interminable variety show", also adding that "conceived in a spirit of merriment...watching it feels like playing shuffleboard at the absolute insistence of a bossy shipboard social director. When whimsy gets to be this overbearing, it simply isn't whimsy any more." Similarly, David Ansen of "Newsweek" dismissed "Sgt. Pepper" as "a film with a dangerous resemblance to wallpaper".


text: A more positive review came from "The Valley Independent", whose Ron Paglia called the film "Good, campy fun", citing Steve Martin's performance as "a high point" and the celebrity-filled finale as "something special" before concluding "there's much to enjoy." "The Intelligencer"s Lou Gaul described the production as "A sort of modern "Fantasia" for today's teens".


text: When asked about the film in a 1979 interview, George Harrison expressed his sympathy for Stigwood, Frampton and the Bee Gees, acknowledging that they had all worked hard to achieve success before making "Sgt. Pepper". He said of Frampton and the Bee Gees: "I think it's damaged their images, their careers, and they didn't need to do that. It's just like the Beatles trying to do the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones can do it better."


text: At the 1978 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film received a nomination for Worst Picture. When the ballot was revised in 2003, it kept that nomination while also receiving nominations for Worst Supporting Actress (Dianne Steinberg, who played Lucy in the film) and Worst On-Screen Group (Lucy and the Diamonds).


text: The film was a minor commercial success, earning $20.4 million against the production budget of $13 million.


title: SpaceX Crew-5

text: SpaceX Crew-5 is the fifth crewed operational NASA Commercial Crew Program flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the eighth overall crewed orbital flight. The mission launched on 5 October 2022 and transported four crew members to the International Space Station (ISS), docking there on 6 October 2022 at 21:01 UTC. Two NASA astronauts, one JAXA astronaut, and one Russian cosmonaut are participating in the mission. Three of the crew members were assigned following delays to Boeing's Starliner program. Commander Nicole Mann was reassigned to the flight from Boeing's Boe-CFT mission, while Pilot Josh Cassada and Mission Specialist Koichi Wakata transferred from Boeing Starliner-1. Anna Kikina was reassigned from Soyuz MS-22. Three of the four crew members are making their first space flight while Wakata is a veteran of four previous space flights.


title: SpaceX Crew-5

text: This mission is the first Crew Dragon mission to fly a Russian cosmonaut, Anna Kikina who was selected in July 2022 for this mission as a part of the Soyuz-Dragon crew swap system of keeping at least one NASA astronaut and one Roscosmos cosmonaut on each of the crew rotation missions. This ensures both countries have a presence on the station, and the ability to maintain their separate systems if either Soyuz or commercial crew vehicles are grounded for an extended period. This is the first time a Russian cosmonaut flew on a U.S. spacecraft since Nikolai Budarin flew on STS-113 and also first launch of a Russian cosmonaut on a U.S. space capsule. The seat exchange was approved in June 2022 (by the Russians only).


title: SpaceX Crew-5

text: The fifth SpaceX operational mission in the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) launched on 5 October 2022 and is scheduled to last approximately six months.


title: The Night Begins to Shine

text: "The Night Begins to Shine" is a song by the fictional band B.E.R. popularized by the "Teen Titans Go!" TV series. The song was originally co-written and produced in 2005 as an "'80s-style song" for a music library. The song was first featured in the "Teen Titans Go!" episode "Slumber Party" as a throwaway joke. The song became popular with fans of the show. The song was subsequently featured in the episode "40%, 40%, 20%", and was prominently featured in two specials, the four-part 2017 special "The Day the Night Stopped Beginning to Shine and Became Dark Even Though It Was the Day" and a five-part sequel released in 2020, "The Night Begins to Shine 2".


title: The Night Begins to Shine

text: The special also featured two other songs by B.E.R., "Forever Mine" and "Rise Up", as well as three covers of the song from Fall Out Boy, CeeLo Green, and Puffy AmiYumi. In 2021, Cartoon Network announced a spin-off series from "Teen Titans Go!" that will see the show's characters "journey back to the world of Night Begins to Shine ... to protect the only key to the world’s salvation, a magical mixtape".


title: The Night Begins to Shine

text: The official soundtrack, "Teen Titans Go! (Songs from The Night Begins to Shine Special)", was released on July 28, 2017 through WaterTower Music and features music from the television special. All tracks are written by Carl Burnett, Frank Enea, and William J. Regan, except "Forever Mine", which was first written by Enea and rerecorded by B.E.R.


title: The Night Begins to Shine

text: Upon its official release, "The Night Begins to Shine" peaked at #23 on the "Billboard" Hot Rock Songs chart and #7 on the "Billboard" Rock Digital Songs chart. The song also peaked at #66 on the iTunes music charts and #1 on the iTunes rock music charts.


title: The Night Begins to Shine

text: The song was covered by Fall Out Boy, CeeLo Green, and Puffy AmiYumi for a four-part "Teen Titans Go!" storyline. The soundtrack peaked at #8 on the "Billboard" Kid Albums chart and #17 on the "Billboard" Soundtracks chart.


title: CKY (video series)

text: The CKY video series is a series of videos produced by Bam Margera and Brandon DiCamillo and other residents of West Chester, Pennsylvania. "CKY" stands for "Camp Kill Yourself". The series was part of the basis for what eventually became "Jackass".


title: CKY (video series)

text: Four videos were released, Landspeed presents: CKY (later called CKY), CKY2K, CKY3, and CKY4: The Latest & Greatest. There is also a "CKY" documentary DVD, which is a supplemental item in the "CKY Box Set", as well as two "CKY Trilogy" sets, both of which are compilation DVDs featuring scenes from the previous "CKY" DVDs. The videos were named after Bam Margera's brother Jess and his band CKY.


title: CKY (video series)

text: The videos feature Bam Margera, Brandon DiCamillo, their friends, and Margera's relatives performing various stunts and pranks, interspersed with skate footage of Margera and other professional skateboarders. A trademark of the skating footage was to show unsuccessful trick attempts immediately followed by the same skater pulling the trick off. "CKY" started when Margera and his friends were in the same graphics arts class at school in West Chester, Pennsylvania. During class, they would go out to a field and film skits, eventually being compiled into the "CKY" series. In a 2002 interview, Margera said that more than 400,000 copies of the series have been sold.


title: CKY (video series)

text: In 2018, producer Joe Frantz confirmed that he had begun remastering all four videos for HD release. They were released in 2019 on the now-defunct streaming service DCTV.


title: CKY (video series)

text: In addition to Margera and DiCamillo, the core members of the CKY crew included Margera's brother Jess, Ryan Dunn, Chris Raab (Raab Himself), and Rake Yohn. Jess's involvement with the video side of "CKY" became increasingly limited as CKY the band became popular, and touring and recording commitments took up most of his time.


title: CKY (video series)

text: The first video stars the crew as well as The Gill (Ryan Gee), Mike Maldonado, Chris Aspite a.k.a. Hoofbite, and Kerry Getz. Bam's father, Phil Margera, was also featured (uncredited) in the first video. Bam's ex-girlfriend Jenn Rivell and David Decurtis aka Naked Dave starred in the second video, which also features Bam's mother April Margera (uncredited). Chris Raab was called Raab Himself in the third video, which also featured CKY band members Deron Miller and Chad Ginsburg as well as Tony Hawk and Brandon Novak. Bam's uncle Vincent Margera aka "Don Vito" starred in the fourth video. Jenn Rivell's daughter is also seen in some clips.


title: CKY (video series)

text: The "CKY" videos brought Bam and his friends to the attention of Jeff Tremaine who drafted them into the cast of "Jackass" which aired for three seasons on MTV. Most "Jackass" skits featuring the CKY crew were lifted from previously released "CKY" material or were recorded by the crew in West Chester, while the Los Angeles-based faction of the "Jackass" team featuring Johnny Knoxville, Wee Man, Chris Pontius and others recorded in California. A subsequent MTV spin-off entitled "Viva La Bam" followed Bam Margera and his crew as they tortured Bam's family and generally wreaked havoc in West Chester and around the world. Another spin-off, titled "Bam's Unholy Union", featured Bam planning his wedding with some of the CKY crew members.


title: CKY (video series)

text: Landspeed presents: CKY, the first film in the series, was released on March 1, 1999. The name "Landspeed" comes from Landspeed Wheels, the wheel company created by Rob Erickson and distributed by Tod Swank through Tum Yeto Inc. Landspeed made skateboard wheels and clothing from 1998 to 2000. The name "CKY" comes from Jess Margera's band. The video shows a mixed up variety of random, homemade, crazy humor, and mostly focuses on stunts, pranks, and crazy behavior, as well as skateboarding. The music features original songs by the band CKY, including "96 Quite Bitter Beings".


title: CKY (video series)

text: CKY Documentary is a compilation of footage from the first "CKY" video. It is in a double pack on the "CKY Trilogy Round One" DVD and CKY the box set (quadruple pack) DVD and show profiles of each member of the CKY crew, including some older skits from when Bam Margera was in high school and the story of how "CKY" was created. It is entirely in black and white.


title: CKY (video series)

text: CKY2K, the second film in the series, was released on May 22, 2000. The video features a trip to Iceland, the rental car, a baseball game, "Bran's Freestyle", and other random items. The music features early versions of "Flesh into Gear" and "Sporadic Movement" by CKY; as well as many other artists, including an opening scene with Rammstein, Iceland scenes with Björk and Orbital, and a skateboarding scene with Believer "Dies Irae (Day of Wrath)" and Aphex Twin.


title: CKY (video series)

text: Near the end of the video, there is a scene in which a minor exposes his genitalia in front of a public restaurant. The video explained that "this is what happens when you tell Bam you'll do anything to be in CKY." In 2003, the parents of the minor sued. During the hearing, a County Court Judge ruled that images of the plaintiff "must be deleted from future versions" of the video. Subsequently, "CKY2K" was discontinued due (in part) to copyright issues. The first major issue was from Björk.


title: CKY (video series)

text: The video was notable for the documentary of their trip to Iceland. The music features "Hyperballad" by Björk where Bam Margera and the crew hang out on the top of a mountain with gorgeous views from the top.


title: CKY (video series)

text: As they stayed in a hotel somewhere in Iceland (the hotel at the airport), Brandon DiCamillo smeared feces on Ryan Dunn while he was sleeping on the bed. Smeared with feces, Dunn fought back by urinating on DiCamillo sleeping on the floor. Later, they argued in the car about the incident.


title: CKY (video series)

text: The crew does a variety of stunts, including guys riding on furniture on the road as a sled, featuring music by Orbital playing ""Halcyon + On + On"". Later, Bam was outside Björk's house calling her.


title: CKY (video series)

text: Bam drives a Chevrolet Cavalier after paying $9 for extra insurance. With the car, Bam Margera attempts crazy reckless driving maneuvers, knocking over orange cones and skidding turns. The next day, Rake Yohn finished off the already damaged car by setting fire to the radio, which completely burned the entire car. The music features an early version of "Sporadic movement" by the band CKY.


title: CKY (video series)

text: CKY3, the third film in the series, was released in 2001. Soon after its release, Margera and DiCamillo were sued over the fight scene involving Mike Vallely. The issue was settled out of court in 2006. It was also the first of the videos to be taken off the market due to copyright restrictions. Some of the musicians (or their legal representation) were unhappy with Margera using their music without their permission. This would later happen with "CKY2K" and the box set including all three videos and the documentary.


title: CKY (video series)

text: CKY 4, the fourth and final film in the series, was released on November 10, 2002. It has a marked improvement in editing techniques compared to the other films, mostly due to Bam Margera's newly acquired wealth and ability to purchase motion picture film cameras and use advanced post-production facilities. However, it also features a lot of older video material, some unseen, some extended and some off-cuts from previous "CKY" films. Scenes include Don Vito's "50 Shots of Peach Schnapps" (bonus feature) and Ryan Dunn rolling off a roof in a barrel.


title: CKY (video series)

text: "CKY4" is the only "CKY" video to be censored, and one of the few DVDs to have been censored three times.


title: CKY (video series)

text: On November 2, 2014, MTV premiered a special in dedication of the "CKY" videos, featuring new interviews of the crew, as well as unreleased footage documenting the series as a whole. The special was directed by former CKY cinematographer Joe Frantz.


title: CKY (video series)

text: Joe Frantz announced on a 2011 episode of "Radio Bam" that he was set to remaster the "CKY" series in HD. He stated the same will be done with "" and "Minghags". On January 19, 2014, Frantz gave an update on the project via his Facebook page, stating:


title: CKY (video series)

text: On December 2, 2018, Frantz gave an official update on the project, stating that production is now underway. The remasters released from March 14 to April 25 on the now-defunct streaming service DCTV. On May 15, 2021, Frantz announced on his Instagram and Twitter accounts that he will be uploading the HD re-releases for free on YouTube.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is a role-playing video game developed by Level-5 and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2. It was released in Japan in 2004, in North America in 2005 and PAL regions in 2006, making it the first main series installment released in the PAL region. It is the eighth installment of the "Dragon Quest" series and it is the first English version of a "Dragon Quest" game to drop the "Dragon Warrior" title. A version of the game for Android and iOS was released in Japan in December 2013, and worldwide in May 2014.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: "Dragon Quest VIII" uses cel shading for the characters and scenery and is the first game in the series to have fully 3D environments and character models. The game retains most of the series' role-playing game elements, such as turn-based combat and the experience level system. "Dragon Quest VIII" follows the silent protagonist and his party of allies as they journey towards the goal of defeating the wicked Dhoulmagus, who cursed the kingdom of Trodain and its people. "Dragon Quest VIII" was a critical and commercial success, later being released under the Sony Greatest Hits brand.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: In "Dragon Quest VIII", the player controls the Hero in a fully three-dimensional environment. Players are able to pan the camera a full 360 degrees around the character, as well as look in a first-person perspective mode. The visual controls allow players to examine people and objects more closely than the top-down perspective of the game's predecessors. With a new fully integrated world, towns and dungeons are no longer identified by two-dimensional icons found on the world maps. Players can guide the Hero across vast landscapes to reach full-size towns and buildings.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: Battles are randomly occurring and turn-based. When encountering an enemy, the game switches to a battle scene with the enemies facing the party where characters from both sides take turns attacking each other. These battle scenes have visually changed dramatically from earlier games in the series, yet retain a similar text based menu system for battles. In the earlier games, battles were shown from a first-person perspective. For this installment, the battles are shown in a first-person perspective while choosing what to do, but the view then shifts to a third-person perspective with all of the members of the Hero's party shown on the screen along with the enemies. During battle, each character in the party has the ability to attack, use items, or use magic and skills. "Dragon Quest VIII" also introduced the tension system, which allows the player to choose the "Psyche Up" command for a character during battle. This command allows the player to skip a character's turn in order to build "tension", making that character's next attack stronger. By using it multiple times in succession, the character's attack will do more damage. Another new feature, the Alchemy Pot allows players to mix items in order to create new, stronger items. This can be done while walking on the world map. There is also a monster capturing feature, but it is not as fundamental to the gameplay as it was in "Dragon Quest V". The player may find enemies visible on the world map that can be recruited if defeated and used during the Monster Arena mini-game and during battle.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: Through the traditional experience point system, characters advance through experience levels and develop their abilities, similar to previous games in the series. Defeating enemies grants experience points and gold to the party, which allows the player to purchase items and weapons at in-game shops. In addition to this, Level-5 incorporated a secondary skill development system to allow players a chance to customize each character to their liking. After characters gain an experience level past level four, they accrue skill points distributed as the player chooses among five different skills—three different weapon skills (which vary from character to character), "fisticuffs", and a character-specific special attribute. Gaining enough points in a skill can allow the character to gain strength in weapons and learn new abilities and magic spells.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: The game begins with the court jester of the kingdom of Trodain, Dhoulmagus, stealing an ancient scepter and casting a spell on Trodain castle. The spell turns the king, King Trode, into a troll; the princess, Medea, into a horse; and the rest of the castle's inhabitants into plants. The only one left unaffected is the unnamed protagonist, a Trodain guard. The guard, King Trode, and Princess Medea set out on a quest to track down Dhoulmagus and break the spell. They are joined by Yangus, a bandit whose life the hero saves from a collapsing bridge; Jessica, a mage seeking to avenge her brother; and Angelo, a Templar Knight with a penchant for flirting and gambling. Tracking Dhoulmagus' murderous path, the party journeys west, across the ocean. Eventually, the group hunts down Dhoulmagus and kills him, but Dhoulmagus' death fails to break the spell. Jessica claims Dhoulmagus' scepter, and soon after disappears.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: Jessica later returns, possessed by the staff and battles the remaining party members in an attempt to murder a young man. After the party releases Jessica from her possession, Jessica tells them that the scepter contains the spirit of Rhapthorne, the Lord of Darkness, who was imprisoned in the scepter long ago by seven sages. He seeks to escape from his prison by killing the descendants of the sages. She proceeds to speculate that it is Rhapthorne, and not Dhoulmagus, who maintains the curse on Trodain: therefore, Rhapthorne must be defeated if the curse is to be broken. When Jessica explains this, the scepter takes control of a magician's dog, Sir Leopold, and kills the magician's assistant, who was one of the descendants of the sages. The party attempts to seek out and defend the remaining descendants, but Leopold manages to murder another descendant of the sages. Eventually, the scepter comes into the possession of Marcello, Angelo's power hungry half-brother. Marcello kills the last remaining descendant of the sages, but manages to contain Rhapthorne for a time. Eventually, the party engages Marcello and exhaust him to the point of losing control and releasing Rhapthorne. The party, aided by the godbird Empyrea, faces Rhapthorne and defeats him. With Rhapthorne dead, King Trode, Princess Medea, and the people of Trodain are returned to normal. Months later, the protagonist escorts Medea to Savella Cathedral for her arranged marriage to the spoiled Prince Charmles of Argonia, but before the ceremony can take place, the protagonist and Medea escape from Savella Cathedral and live happily together. In an unlockable extended ending, it is discovered that the protagonist is the lost prince of Argonia, and upon this revelation, the King of Argonia decides to allow the protagonist to marry Medea. In the 3DS version, the player can choose to instead begin a romance with Jessica. In the traditional ending the hero goes traveling the world with Jessica while in the unlockable ending the hero can choose to marry Jessica instead of Medea.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: "Dragon Quest VIII" focuses on four main characters, each joining the battle party early in the game. The main protagonist of the game, an eighteen-year-old royal guard of Trodain and the only person present in the castle to escape Dhoulmagus' wrath unscathed, is a silent hero, and named by the player. He is the most balanced party member, able to equip swords, spears, boomerangs and use magic. He is immune to all curses. His special attribute is courage. He is accompanied by Yangus, a former thief and friend of the Hero's who owes the Hero a life debt after the Hero rescues him from the side of a cliff. Yangus is a physically strong character and speaks with a Cockney accent in the English versions, and wields axes, clubs, and scythes. His special attribute is humanity. Jessica Albert, the only woman to join the party, is a sorceress from the town of Alexandria who seeks to avenge her murdered brother, Alistair. She uses magic but can also equip whips and knives, and she can stun enemies with her special attribute Sex Appeal skills. She is also the only character who can change her appearance in battle through various costumes, with the exception of one costume for the Hero. Angelo is a womanizing noble who was raised in a monastery following both his parents' deaths by a plague. He is a member of the Knights Templar and decides to battle against Dhoulmagus when the villain sets fire to his abbey and kills the abbot. In battle, he can use both magic and physical attacks effectively and has the most healing spells. He can wield swords, bows, or staffs. His special attribute is charisma.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: Two non-player characters journey with the protagonists: Trode, the titular cursed king who rules over Trodain but was transformed into a toad-like creature by Dhoulmagus; and Medea, Trode's daughter, who is the same age as the Hero. Medea was transformed into a horse by Dhoulmagus and has a romantic interest in the Hero. Munchie, the Hero's pet mouse, becomes temporarily playable under certain circumstances. Other important non-player characters include Empyrea, a powerful god-like bird; Marcello, Angelo's illegitimate half-brother and the Captain of the Templars; Red, a female bandit and former colleague of Yangus' with whom she shares a rivalry; and Morrie, the proprietor of an underground monster-fighting arena. The antagonist of "Dragon Quest VIII" is Dhoulmagus, a jester who steals an ancient scepter from Trodain Castle and uses its power to curse the inhabitants of the castle, setting the game's events in motion. He proceeds to embark on a murder spree as the protagonists chase him. Dhoulmagus is eventually revealed to be a pawn of Rhapthorne, a demonic lord and the game's true antagonist, who is manipulating the jester in an attempt to free himself from the scepter inside of which he has been imprisoned.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: Like the other games in the series, Yuji Horii was staffed as the scenario director. Critics praised the colorful designs done by art designer Akira Toriyama of "Dragon Ball" fame. Koichi Sugiyama composed the music for the game. "Dragon Quest VIII" was released in Japan on the morning of November 27, 2004 with a celebration at Starbucks in Shibuya, Tokyo, starting at 6:30 am. Horii and Square Enix President Yoichi Wada both made appearances at the event, and several of the first buyers in line received a toy Slime.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: From August through October before the game's US release, the "Simon dTOUR Live" Mall Tour featured playable demos at participating malls across the US. These free events gave away "Dragon Quest" merchandise and also featured live entertainment. A demo disc for "Dragon Quest VIII" was also released during the fall of 2005 through "Shonen Jump" magazine. The game was released in North America on November 15, 2005 and shipped with a playable "Final Fantasy XII" demo disc. Additions and changes to the North American version of "Dragon Quest VIII" included voice acting, new animations, enhanced music and sound effects, additional spells and attacks, and a new menu interface. In a Nintendo Direct in November 2015, it was shown that the game would be releasing for the 3DS in 2016.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: "Dragon Quest VIII" was the first game in the series to bear the "Dragon Quest" name (rather than "Dragon Warrior") in North America. "Dragon Quest"'s North American name had been changed due to a trademark conflict with the pen-and-paper role-playing game "DragonQuest", published by wargame publisher Simulation Publications in the 1980s, until the company's bankruptcy in 1982 and purchase by TSR, Inc., which then published it as an alternate line to "Dungeons & Dragons" until 1987. In 2003, Square Enix registered the "Dragon Quest" trademark in the US, making the "Dragon Warrior" name obsolete. As this installment of the series was the first after 2003 to be released outside Japan, it was the first to receive the "Quest" in its title.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: Unlike the original Japanese version, the North American and European localizations of the game mark a departure from previous "Dragon Quest" titles due to the inclusion of voice acting in certain parts of the adventure pertaining to the advancement of the storyline. The game retains the series' tradition of allowing the player to name the lead character, reconciling the two by having the voice acting script skip incidences of the Hero's name, (e.g. the line "Okay, Hero, my boy..." appears on-screen, while the voice acting says, "Okay, my boy...") and occasionally replacing the name with Yangus' nickname for him, "guv" (as in "governor", pronounced with a Cockney accent). Unlike some earlier games in the series, which were censored during localization for North America, "Dragon Quest VIII" had no such censorship. The English translation is credited to Plus Alpha Translations and AltJapan Co., Ltd. Richard Honeywood, of Square Enix's localization office and famous for his work with "Final Fantasy VIII" and "Chocobo Racing", was the main force behind the game's English localization. The iOS and Android version removed the voice acting, akin to the original Japanese PS2 version due to hardware limitations at the time.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: "Dragon Quest VIII" was released in PAL regions in April 2006 under the title "Dragon Quest: The Journey of the Cursed King", dropping the Roman numeral. This marked the first time a main game in the series had been released in the PAL region. In an interview with Horii, he mentioned that the 2003 merger between Squaresoft and Enix (creating Square Enix) allowed the company to release more games in more localities, with producer Ryutaro Ichimura adding that "European tastes have changed because of the influence of anime and cartoons, so Europeans are more willing to receive this type of artwork."


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: As with most "Dragon Quest" games, Koichi Sugiyama wrote the game's original score. An official soundtrack for "Dragon Quest VIII" was released in December 2005, published by Aniplex. In the Japanese release of the game, the game features sequenced music, whereas the North American and PAL versions contained the symphonic suite orchestral recordings performed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, with Sugiyama serving as the conductor. The 3DS versions swaps the soundtracks with the Japanese version using the symphonic suite orchestral recordings, while the North American and PAL versions use the sequenced music, which was entirely remastered, other than the original sequenced music in the Japanese PS2 version. The iOS and Android version uses the sequenced music from the Japanese PS2 version.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: Released for the PlayStation 2 on November 27, 2004 in Japan, "Dragon Quest VIII" sold 2,167,072 units in two days, in three days, and more than within a week, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation 2 title in Japan. By September 2008, total worldwide shipments of "Dragon Quest VIII" surpassed 4.9 million copies, of which over 430,000 were from the North American release. "Dragon Quest VIII" is the biggest selling game ever for the PlayStation 2 in Japan. It was the first "Dragon Quest" game to receive a score of 39 out of 40 from "Famitsu". It won both "1UP.com"s and GameSpy's "Best RPG of E3 2005" award, ahead of runner-up "Kingdom Hearts II". The iOS version became the 2nd top-seller of Japan AppStore in the debut half day, highlighting the influence of the series. In 2017, the 3DS version was nominated for "Handheld/Mobile Game of the Year" at the Golden Joystick Awards, and for "Best Portable Game" at "Destructoid"s Game of the Year Awards 2017. It was also nominated for "Handheld Game of the Year" at the 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: The US release of "Dragon Quest VIII" received mostly positive reviews, receiving a score of 89 out of 100 on Metacritic. Critics were quick to praise the 3D cel shaded visuals, noting that it was the first game in the series to be fully three-dimensional. A staple of the "Dragon Quest" series is the simplicity of its gameplay, a factor which has been criticized in the past. However, several critics pointed out that the simple gameplay works for "Dragon Quest VIII". Bethany Massimilla of GameSpot wrote that the lack of "dozens of characters of all types" allows the game to remain simple, letting the player become very familiar with the main characters. "Edge" magazine, however, commented that the game's substance seemed out of place for 2005.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: A majority of reviewers cited the English localization of the game as one of its best qualities. Nich Maragos of "1UP.com" praised the game's British tinted localization, saying how the humor is often successful except for "a few puns that will, on occasion, make you want to die." Parkin described the voice acting as "a mash up of Monty Python and "The Princess Bride": fantasy farce driving the cute narrative in the ideal aural vehicle." The game's world map has also been a major topic of praise for critics. The "1UP.com" staff suggested that the player stop playing "to just look around and absorb the scenery" and said that it rivals "" map of San Andreas in size and detail. IGN writer Jeremy Dunham wrote that the "only exception in the game's mass list of progression is the plotline," explaining that it has one of the more basic "Dragon Quest" stories; but he also mentions that the game still manages to take a simple plot and make it entertaining.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: Characters from the game have made appearances in other Square Enix properties. Jessica and Yangus are playable characters in . In the sequel "Dragon Quest Heroes II", Jessica is instead accompanied by Angelo. "", a roguelike "Mysterious Dungeons" game developed by Cavia for the PlayStation 2, follows the storyline of a young Yangus. It was released in Japan in 2006. Jessica, Angelo, and Yangus also appear opposite other "Dragon Quest" characters, as well as "Final Fantasy" and "Mario" characters in titles of the "Itadaki Street" franchise, a cross-over board game spanning multiple platforms. Appearances include "Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable" for the PlayStation Portable, "Itadaki Street DS" for the Nintendo DS and "Itadaki Street Wii/Fortune Street", an enhanced remake of "Itadaki Street DS" for the Wii. "Dragon Quest VIII" characters also make appearances in "": Jessica, Angelo, and King Trode appear as special WI FI guests in the Quester's Rest inn in Stornway, Dhoulmagus and Rhapthorne appear as optional legacy bosses, and the player can acquire a "Trodain Royal Guard" costume to dress as "VIII"'s Hero.


title: Dragon Quest VIII

text: The protagonist also appears as a playable character in the 2018 crossover fighting game "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate". He is one of four "Dragon Quest" protagonists that collectively share a moveset and the moniker of "Hero". To further differentiate him from the other protagonists, he is referred to by the name "Eight". He was specifically included due to "Dragon Quest VIII" being the most popular entry outside of Japan. He was voiced in by Yūki Kaji in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.


title: Alaska Airlines fleet

text: Alaska Airlines operates a mainline fleet consisting primarily of Boeing 737 series aircraft, with some Airbus A320 family aircraft formerly operated by Virgin America. Regional flights are operated with Alaska branded De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 and Embraer 175 planes by the Alaska-owned regional airline Horizon Air and contractor SkyWest Airlines.