title: Alvin Ailey

text: Though AAADT was formed to celebrate African American culture and to provide performances for black dancers, who were frequently denied opportunities due to racist mores of the time, Ailey proudly employed artists based solely on artistic talent and integrity, regardless of their background. In addition to his work as artistic director and choreographer with AADT, Ailey also choreographed ballets for other companies including American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, and The Metropolitan Opera. For American Ballet Theater, he created "The River" (1970), one of several choreographies he set to the jazz music of Duke Ellington.


title: Alvin Ailey

text: In 1969, Ailey founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center with the famed Martha Graham Dance Company principal and choreographer Pearl Lang as his co-director of the school. Their aim was to provide access to arts and dance to under-resourced communities. They started off in Brooklyn with 125 students. A year later the school relocated to Manhattan behind the Lincoln Center complex. In 1984, Denise Jefferson assumed directorship. Under her leadership, the school developed a Bachelor of Fine Arts Program in partnership with Fordham University in 1998.


title: Alvin Ailey

text: The school was renamed The Ailey School in 1999. Several years later, the school moved into The Joan Weill Center for Dance. Following Jefferson's death in 2010, Tracy Inman and Melanie Person assumed stewardship of the school as co-directors of the school. In 2012, after leading Ailey 2 for 38 years, Sylvia Waters retired. The second company's resident choreographer and associate director Troy Powell took over her role as artistic director. With the addition of the Elaine Wynn and Family Education Wing, the Ailey school is still growing and is now the largest place in New York City committed to training dancers.


title: Alvin Ailey

text: From her joining in 1965, the dancer Judith Jamison served as Ailey's muse. In 1971 she premiered "Cry", which he dedicated to his mother and black women everywhere. She took over as artistic director following his death in 1989.


title: Alvin Ailey

text: Other important figures in the company include Sylvia Waters, who in 1974, after performing with the company for six year was asked by Ailey to lead The Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble — a junior company, known today as Ailey 2, that prepares leading students for professional dance careers - and Masazumi Chaya, who danced with the company for 15 years then became rehearsal director, and was appointed associate artistic director in 1991.


title: Alvin Ailey

text: Ailey loathed the label "Black choreographer" and preferred being known simply as a choreographer. He was notoriously private about his life. Though gay, he kept his romantic affairs in the closet. Following the death of his friend Joyce Trisler, a failed relationship, and bouts of heavy drinking and cocaine use, Ailey suffered a mental breakdown in 1980. He was diagnosed as manic depressive, known today as bipolar disorder. During his rehabilitation, Judith Jamison served as co-director of AAADT.


title: Alvin Ailey

text: Ailey died from an AIDS-related illness on December 1, 1989, at the age of 58. He asked his doctor to announce that his death was caused by terminal blood dyscrasia in order to shield his mother from the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.


title: Alvin Ailey

text: After his death, Ailey’s personal papers were housed at the Black Archives of Mid-America in Kansas City, Missouri.


title: Alvin Ailey

text: In 2021, the documentary "Ailey" by director Jamila Wignot was released in the United States. Wignot first discovered the work of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater by attending a performance while she was a student at Wellesley College; in her documentary more than twenty years later, Alexandra Villarreal of "The Guardian" writes, "What emerges is a towering figure who won worldwide acclaim with art steeped in personal experience, yet was too afraid to openly share his full identity even in death."


title: Alvin Ailey

text: Though Ailey's work has been met with popular and critical acclaim, there have been detractors of his theatrical style. Marcia Siegel accused the company of "selling soul," and of amplifying and transforming the emotivity characteristic of Martha Graham and his modern dance teachers into "metaphors of the American black experience" while creating a positive stereotype of "supremely physical, supremely sensitive beings" at the expense of genuineness."


title: Alvin Ailey

text: Ailey responded to such criticism by stating, "The black pieces we do that come from blues, spirituals and gospels are part of what I am. They are as honest and truthful as we can make them. I'm interested in putting something on stage that will have a very wide appeal without being condescending; that will reach an audience and make it part of the dance; that will get everybody into the theater. If it's art and entertainment — thank God, that's what I want to be."


title: Alvin Ailey

text: In 1960, James Truitte joined the dance company, and later became an authority on Lester Horton's technique.


title: Atomic Monster Productions

text: Atomic Monster is an American film and television production company, founded in 2014 by James Wan. The company is known for producing films in "The Conjuring" Universe, "Lights Out", "Mortal Kombat", "Malignant" and "M3GAN".


title: Atomic Monster Productions

text: On October 21, 2014, James Wan launched Atomic Monster, which oversees the development and production of budget films. It was also announced that the company has made a first-look producing deal with New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures. The first films produced by the company include "Annabelle", "The Conjuring 2", "Lights Out", "" and "The Nun".


title: Atomic Monster Productions

text: On August 12, 2016, the company reached a development deal with Chinese company Starlight Culture Entertainment Group to help finance Wan's films with budgets up to $100 million.


title: Atomic Monster Productions

text: On October 5, 2018, Halloween-themed event "Horror Made Here: A Festival of Frights" at Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood featured a maze based on "The Conjuring" Universe.


title: Atomic Monster Productions

text: On November 16, 2022, it was announced that the company was in talks to merge with Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions with the company having a shared first-look deal with Universal Pictures, thus ending their deal with Warner Bros. Pictures. The companies would continue to operate as separate labels, with each maintaining its own creative autonomy and brand identity. The company is utilizing the existing Blumhouse infrastructure to further scale their activities in film, television and new content areas, such as horror-related games, live entertainment and audio.


title: Dirty John

text: Dirty John is a true crime podcast based on the life of John Michael Meehan. The podcast is hosted by Christopher Goffard and was created by "Wondery" and the "Los Angeles Times". The first two chapters were launched on October 2, 2017; the following four chapters were released over the following days. The podcast was downloaded over 10 million times within six weeks of release.


title: Dirty John

text: The title "Dirty John" is one of the nicknames John Meehan's classmates gave him during his time at the University of Dayton. Other nicknames from this time included "Filthy John" and "Filthy". The exact origin of these nicknames is never divulged during the podcast.


title: Dirty John

text: "Dirty John" is a true crime story focusing on the life and exploits of John Meehan. "Los Angeles Times" journalist Christopher Goffard first heard of Meehan when he learned that the police were investigating a possible murder in Newport Beach. Upon investigating, Goffard discovered a bizarre web of deceit and abuse.


title: Dirty John

text: The main focus of the story is Meehan's relationship with businesswoman Debra Newell, whom he met via an Internet dating site and married within months, as well as her immediate and extended family. The podcast deals with themes of abuse and manipulation, as well as the behaviors of those being abused.


title: Dirty John

text: Meehan was killed by Newell's younger daughter, Terra, who acted in self-defense when he tried to abduct her on the rooftop parking lot of her apartment building on August 20, 2016. He was hospitalized and died on August 24. The story was covered by "Dateline NBC" on January 12, 2018 and included interviews with Goffard.


title: Dirty John

text: "Dirty John" proved to be very popular with audiences, and spent over three weeks at the top of the US iTunes podcast charts, whilst also topping the charts in Australia, Canada, and the UK and was downloaded over five million times in three weeks. It was downloaded over 10 million times within six weeks of release, and as of November 23, 2017, is the sixth most downloaded podcasts on iTunes America.


title: Dirty John

text: Critical reception was also positive, with the "NME" calling it "the best true crime podcast since "Serial"", while "The Guardian" listed "Dirty John" as their podcast pick of the week. "Dirty John" also received positive reviews from Mashable, "The New Yorker", "Rolling Stone" and "The Daily Telegraph" amongst others.


title: Dirty John

text: Vulture.com, meanwhile, praised the story as "stunning" but questioned the necessity of using a podcast as a way to share the story.


title: Dirty John

text: A limited series based on the podcast debuted on Bravo on November 25, 2018. It was created, produced, and written by Alexandra Cunningham, and stars Connie Britton and Eric Bana.


title: Bhikkhu

text: A bhikkhu (Pali: भिक्खु, Sanskrit: भिक्षु, bhikṣu) is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male and female monastics ("nun", "bhikkhunī", Sanskrit "bhikṣuṇī") are members of the Sangha (Buddhist community).


title: Bhikkhu

text: The lives of all Buddhist monastics are governed by a set of rules called the prātimokṣa or pātimokkha. Their lifestyles are shaped to support their spiritual practice: to live a simple and meditative life and attain nirvana.


title: Bhikkhu

text: A person under the age of 20 cannot be ordained as a bhikkhu or bhikkhuni but can be ordained as a śrāmaṇera or śrāmaṇērī.


title: Bhikkhu

text: "Bhikkhu" literally means "beggar" or "one who lives by alms". The historical Buddha, Prince Siddhartha, having abandoned a life of pleasure and status, lived as an alms mendicant as part of his śramaṇa lifestyle. Those of his more serious students who renounced their lives as householders and came to study full-time under his supervision also adopted this lifestyle. These full-time student members of the sangha became the community of ordained monastics who wandered from town to city throughout the year, living off alms and stopping in one place only for the Vassa, the rainy months of the monsoon season.


title: Bhikkhu

text: In the "Dhammapada" commentary of Buddhaghoṣa, a bhikkhu is defined as "the person who sees danger (in samsara or cycle of rebirth)" (Pāli: "ikkhatīti: bhikkhu"). He therefore seeks ordination to obtain release from it. The "Dhammapada" states:


title: Bhikkhu

text: Buddha accepted female bhikkhunis after his step-mother Mahapajapati Gotami organized a women's march to Vesāli. and Buddha requested her to accept the Eight Garudhammas. So, Gotami agreed to accept the Eight Garudhammas and was accorded the status of the first bhikkhuni. Subsequent women had to undergo full ordination to become nuns.


title: Bhikkhu

text: In English literature before the mid-20th century, Buddhist monks were often referred to by the term "bonze", particularly when describing monks from East Asia and French Indochina. This term is derived from Portuguese and French . It is rare in modern literature.


title: Bhikkhu

text: The talapoin is a monkey named after Buddhist monks just as the capuchin monkey is named after the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (who also are the origin of the word cappuccino).


title: Bhikkhu

text: Theravada monasticism is organized around the guidelines found within a division of the Pāli Canon called the "Vinaya Pitaka". Laypeople undergo ordination as a novitiate (śrāmaṇera or sāmanera) in a rite known as the "going forth" (Pali: "pabbajja"). Sāmaneras are subject to the Ten Precepts. From there full ordination (Pali: "upasampada") may take place. Bhikkhus are subject to a much longer set of rules known as the Pātimokkha (Theravada) or Prātimokṣa (Mahayana and Vajrayana).


title: Bhikkhu

text: In the Mahayana monasticism is part of the system of "vows of individual liberation". These vows are taken by monks and nuns from the ordinary sangha, in order to develop personal ethical discipline. In Mahayana and Vajrayana, the term "sangha" is, in principle, often understood to refer particularly to the "aryasangha" (), the "community of the noble ones who have reached the first bhūmi". These, however, need not be monks and nuns.


title: Bhikkhu

text: The vows of individual liberation are taken in four steps. A lay person may take the five upāsaka and upāsikā vows (, "approaching virtue"). The next step is to enter the pabbajja or monastic way of life (Skt: "pravrajyā", ), which includes wearing monk's or nun's robes. After that, one can become a samanera or samaneri "novice" (Skt. "śrāmaṇera", "śrāmaṇeri", ). The last and final step is to take all the vows of a bhikkhu or bhukkhuni "fully ordained monastic" (Sanskrit: "bhikṣu, bhikṣuṇī", ).


title: Bhikkhu

text: Monastics take their vows for life but can renounce them and return to non-monastic life and even take the vows again later. A person can take them up to three times or seven times in one life, depending on the particular practices of each school of discipline; after that, the sangha should not accept them again. In this way, Buddhism keeps the vows "clean". It is possible to keep them or to leave this lifestyle, but it is considered extremely negative to break these vows.


title: Bhikkhu

text: In Tibet, the upāsaka, pravrajyā and bhikṣu ordinations are usually taken at ages six, fourteen and twenty-one or older, respectively.


title: Bhikkhu

text: In 9th century Japan, the monk Saichō believed the 250 precepts were for the Śrāvakayāna and that ordination should use the Mahayana precepts of the "Brahmajala Sutra". He stipulated that monastics remain on Mount Hiei for twelve years of isolated training and follow the major themes of the 250 precepts: celibacy, non-harming, no intoxicants, vegetarian eating and reducing labor for gain. After twelve years, monastics would then use the Vinaya precepts as a provisional or supplemental, guideline to conduct themselves by when serving in non-monastic communities. Tendai monastics followed this practice.


title: Bhikkhu

text: During Japan's Meiji Restoration during the 1870s, the government abolished celibacy and vegetarianism for Buddhist monastics in an effort to secularise them and promote the newly created State Shinto. Japanese Buddhists won the right to proselytize inside cities, ending a five-hundred year ban on clergy members entering cities. Currently, priests (lay religious leaders) in Japan choose to observe vows as appropriate to their family situation. Celibacy and other forms of abstaining are generally "at will" for varying periods of time.


title: Bhikkhu

text: After the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, when Japan annexed Korea, Korean Buddhism underwent many changes. Jōdo Shinshū and Nichiren schools began sending missionaries to Korea under Japanese rule and new sects formed there such as Won Buddhism. The Temple Ordinance of 1911 () changed the traditional system whereby temples were run as a collective enterprise by the Sangha, replacing this system with Japanese-style management practices in which temple abbots appointed by the Governor-General of Korea were given private ownership of temple property and given the rights of inheritance to such property. More importantly, monks from pro-Japanese factions began to adopt Japanese practices, by marrying and having children.


title: Bhikkhu

text: In Korea, the practice of celibacy varies. The two sects of Korean Seon divided in 1970 over this issue; the Jogye Order is fully celibate while the Taego Order has both celibate monastics and non-celibate Japanese-style priests.


title: Bhikkhu

text: The special dress of ordained people, referred to in English as robes, comes from the idea of wearing a simple durable form of protection for the body from weather and climate. In each tradition, there is uniformity in the color and style of dress. Color is often chosen due to the wider availability of certain pigments in a given geographical region. In Tibet and the Himalayan regions (Kashmir, Nepal and Bhutan), red is the preferred pigment used in the dyeing of robes. In Myanmar, reddish brown; In India, Sri Lanka and South-East Asia, various shades of yellow, ochre and orange prevail. In China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam, gray or black is common. Monks often make their own robes from cloth that is donated to them.


title: Bhikkhu

text: The robes of Tibetan novices and monks differ in various aspects, especially in the application of "holes" in the dress of monks. Some monks tear their robes into pieces and then mend these pieces together again. Upāsakas cannot wear the "chö-göö", a yellow tissue worn during teachings by both novices and full monks.


title: Bhikkhu

text: In observance of the Kathina Puja, a special Kathina robe is made in 24 hours from donations by lay supporters of a temple. The robe is donated to the temple or monastery and the resident monks then select from their own number a single monk to receive this special robe.


title: Bhikkhu

text: In Mahayana traditions, a Bhikṣu may take additional vows not related to ordination, including the Bodhisattva vows, samaya vows and others, which are also open to laypersons in most instances.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: The Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is easily recognisable by its blue and yellow plumage and small size.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: Eurasian blue tits, usually resident and non-migratory birds, are widespread and a common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and the western Palearctic in deciduous or mixed woodlands with a high proportion of oak. They usually nest in tree holes, although they easily adapt to nest boxes where necessary. Their main rival for nests and in the search for food is the larger and more common great tit.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: The Eurasian blue tit prefers insects and spiders for its diet. Outside the breeding season, they also eat seeds and other vegetable-based foods. The birds are famed for their acrobatic skills, as they can hold on to the outermost branches of trees and shrubs and hang upside down when looking for food.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: The Eurasian blue tit was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his "Systema Naturae" under the binomial name "Parus caeruleus". "Parus" is the classical Latin for a tit and "caeruleus" is the Latin for dark blue or cerulean. Two centuries earlier, before the introduction of the binomial nomenclature, the same Latin name had been used by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner when he described and illustrated the blue tit in his "Historiae animalium" of 1555.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: In 2005, analysis of the mtDNA cytochrome "b" sequences of the Paridae indicated that "Cyanistes" was an early offshoot from the lineage of other tits, and more accurately regarded as a genus rather than a subgenus of "Parus". The current genus name, "Cyanistes", is from the Ancient Greek , "dark blue". The African blue tit ("Cyanistes teneriffae") was formerly considered conspecific.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: Pleske's tit ("Cyanistes × pleskei") is a common interspecific hybrid between this species and the azure tit ("Cyanistes cyanus"), in western Russia. The cap is usually darker than the azure tit, and the tail is paler than the Eurasian blue tit.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: A typical Eurasian blue tit has an azure-blue crown and dark blue line passing through the eye, and encircling the white cheeks to the chin, giving the bird a very distinctive appearance. The forehead and a bar on the wing are white. The nape, wings and tail are blue and the back is yellowish green. The underparts is mostly sulphur-yellow with a dark line down the abdomen—the yellowness is indicative of the number of yellowy-green caterpillars eaten, due to high levels of carotene pigments in the diet. The bill is black, the legs bluish grey, and the irides dark brown. The sexes are similar and often indistinguishable to human eyes, but under ultraviolet light, males have a brighter blue crown. Young blue tits are noticeably more yellow.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East. These areas include Ireland, the United Kingdom and most of the European Union and EFTA (except Malta, where they are considered vagrant, and Iceland, where they are absent), plus: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: Eurasian blue and great tits form mixed winter flocks, and the former are perhaps the better gymnasts in the slender twigs. A Eurasian blue tit will often ascend a trunk in short jerky hops, reminiscent of a treecreeper. As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box. They are very agile and can hang from almost anywhere.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: This is a common and popular European garden bird, due to its perky acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or suet. It swings beneath the holder, calling "tee, tee, tee" or a scolding "churr".


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: The Eurasian blue tit will nest in any suitable hole in a tree, wall, or stump, or an artificial nest box, often competing with house sparrows or great tits for the site. Few birds more readily accept the shelter of a nesting box; the same hole is returned to year after year, and when one pair dies another takes possession. It is estimated by the RSPB that there are 3,535,000 breeding pairs in the UK.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: During the incubation period, female blue tits perform all of the incubation, however the male feeds the female during this time. During the nestling period both female nest attendance and male feeding rate are higher in the morning, declining throughout the day.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: Eggs are long and wide. Egg size appears to depend mostly on the size of individual females and secondarily on habitat, with smaller eggs found at higher altitudes. The clutch's total weight can be 1.5 times as heavy as the female bird.A study found that the timing of breeding in blue tits is related to the expression of nestling carotenoid‐based coloration, which could play a role in offspring–parent communication.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: The bird is a close sitter, hissing and biting at an intruding finger. In the South West of England such behaviour has earned the Eurasian blue tit the colloquial nickname "Little Billy Biter" or "Billy Biter", originating from the UK. When protecting its eggs it raises its crest, but this is a sign of excitement rather than anger, for it is also elevated during nuptial display. The nesting material is usually moss, wool, hair and feathers, and the eggs are laid in April or May. The number in the clutch is often very large, but seven or eight are normal, clutch size varies with latitude and other geographic parameters. Some bigger clutches may be laid by two or even more hens in some locations but single hen clutches of 14 have been verified in the UK. It is not unusual for a single bird to feed the chicks in the nest at a rate of one feed every 90 seconds during the height of the breeding season. In winter they form flocks with other tit species.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: In an analysis carried out using ring-recovery data in Britain, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 38%, while the adult annual survival rate was 53%. From these figures the typical lifespan is only three years. Within Britain, the maximum recorded age is 10 years and 3 months for a bird that was ringed in Bedfordshire. The maximum recorded age overall is 11 years and 7 months for a bird in the Czech Republic.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: The Eurasian blue tit feeds on many insects, though it is fond of young buds of various trees, especially when insect prey is scarce, and may pull them to bits in the hope of finding insects. It is a well-known predator of many Lepidoptera species including the Wood Tiger moth. No species, however, destroys more coccids and aphids, the worst foes of many plants. It takes leaf miner grubs and green tortrix moths (Tortricidae). In common with all members of the family, seeds are also eaten.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: Eurasian blue tits use songs and calls throughout the year. Songs are mostly used in late winter and spring to defend the territory or to attract mates. Calls are used for multiple reasons. Communication with other Eurasian blue tits is the most important motivation for the use of calls. They inform one another on their location in trees by means of contact-calls. They use alarm-calls to warn others (including birds of other species such as the great tit, the European robin or the treecreeper) about the presence of predators in the neighbourhood. Scolding, for example, is used when a ground predator (e.g. fox, cat or dog), a low flying predator or a perched owl are noticed. Sometimes this is followed by mobbing behaviour in which birds gather together in flocks to counter a predator. The alarm-whistle warns other birds about the proximity of a Eurasian sparrowhawk, a northern goshawk, a common buzzard or other flying predators that form a potential danger in the air. A series of high-pitched " notes are given by both partners before and during copulation. The begging-call is used by juveniles to beg for food from parents.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: An interesting example of culturally transmitted learning in birds was the phenomenon dating from the 1920s of blue tits teaching one another how to open traditional British milk bottles with foil tops, to get at the cream underneath Such behaviour has been suppressed recently by the gradual change of human dietary habits (low-fat or skimmed milk instead of full-fat), and the way of getting them (from a supermarket in plastic containers with hard plastic lids, instead of the milkman). In addition, the instinct to strip bark from trees in search of insects has developed into a tendency to peel building materials such as thatch, wallpaper, stucco and window putty.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: The small size of the Eurasian blue tit makes it vulnerable to prey by larger birds such as jays who catch the vulnerable fledglings when they leave the nest. The most important predator is probably the sparrowhawk, closely followed by the domestic cat. Nests may be robbed by mammals such as weasels and red squirrels, as well as introduced grey squirrels in the UK.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: The successful breeding of chicks is dependent on sufficient supply of green caterpillars as well as satisfactory weather. Breeding seasons may be affected badly if the weather is cold and wet between May and July, particularly if this coincides with the emergence of the caterpillars on which the nestlings are fed.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: Eurasian blue tits are known to be host to feather mites, and rarely lice and flat flies. In Europe, the only feather mite species known to live on the blue tit host is "Proctophyllodes stylifer". However, this mite seems to be of no concern to the bird as, until now, it is only known to feed on dead feather tissue. "P. stylifer" lives all its developmental stages, i.e. egg, larva, protonymph, tritonymph and adult, within the plumage of the same host. The usual sites where "P. stylifer" is encountered are the remiges and the rectrices of the bird where they can be found tandemly positioned between the barbs of the rachis.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: The Eurasian blue tit is classified as a least concern species on the IUCN Red List (version 3.1), and as a Green Status species, since 1996, by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom.


title: Eurasian blue tit

text: The Eurasian blue tit has appeared on many stamps and ornaments. Its most recent appearance on a British stamp was the 2010 "Birds of Britain" series.


title: Deaths in February 2022

text: Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: Ophiocordyceps sinensis (formerly known as Cordyceps sinensis), known colloquially as caterpillar fungus, is an entomopathogenic fungus (a fungus that grows on insects) in the family Ophiocordycipitaceae. It is mainly found in the meadows above on the Tibetan Plateau in Southwest China and the Himalayan regions of Bhutan and Nepal. It parasitizes larvae of ghost moths and produces a fruiting body which used to be valued as a herbal remedy and in traditional Chinese medicine. Caterpillar fungus contains the compound cordycepin, an adenosine derivative. However, the fruiting bodies harvested in nature usually contain high amounts of arsenic and other heavy metals so they are potentially toxic and sales have been strictly regulated by the CFDA (China Food and Drug Administration) since 2016.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: "O. sinensis" parasitizes the larvae of moths within the family Hepialidae, specifically genera found on the Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalayas, between elevations of . The fungus germinates in the living larva, kills and mummifies it, and then a dark brown stalk-like fruiting body which is a few centimeters long emerges from the corpse and stands upright.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: "O. sinensis" is classified as a medicinal mushroom, and its use has a long history in traditional Chinese medicine as well as traditional Tibetan medicine. The hand-collected, intact fungus-caterpillar body is valued by herbalists as medicine, and because of its cost, its use is also a status symbol.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: The fruiting bodies of the fungus are not yet cultivated commercially, but the mycelium form can be cultivated in vitro. Overharvesting and overexploitation have led to the classification of "O. sinensis" as an endangered species in China. Additional research needs to be carried out in order to understand its morphology and growth habits for conservation and optimum utilization.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: "Ophiocordyceps sinensis" consists of two parts, a fungal endosclerotium (within the caterpillar) and stroma. The stroma is the upper fungal part and is dark brown or black, but can be a yellow color when fresh, and longer than the caterpillar itself, usually 4–10 cm. It grows singly from the larval head, and is clavate, sublanceolate or fusiform, and distinct from the stipe (stalk). The stipe is slender, glabrous, and longitudinally furrowed or ridged.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: The fertile part of the stroma is the head. The head is granular because of the ostioles of the embedded perithecia. The perithecia are ordinally arranged and ovoid. The asci are cylindrical or slightly tapering at both ends, and may be straight or curved, with a capitate and hemispheroid apex, and may be two to four spored. Similarly, ascospores are hyaline, filiform, multiseptate at a length of 5–12 μm and subattenuated on both sides. Perithecial, ascus and ascospore characters in the fruiting bodies are the key identification characteristics of "O. sinensis".


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: "Ophiocordyceps" (Petch) Kobayasi species produce whole ascospores and do not separate into part spores. This is different from other "Cordyceps" species, which produce either immersed or superficial perithecia perpendicular to stromal surface, and the ascospores at maturity are disarticulated into part spores. Generally "Cordyceps" species possess brightly colored and fleshy stromata, but "O. sinensis" has dark pigments and tough to pliant stromata, a typical characteristic feature of most of the "Ophiocordyceps" species.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: The species was first described scientifically by Miles Berkeley in 1843 as "Sphaeria sinensis"; Pier Andrea Saccardo transferred the species to the genus "Cordyceps" in 1878. The fungus was known as "Cordyceps sinensis" until 2007, when molecular analysis was used to amend the classification of the Cordycipitaceae and the Clavicipitaceae, resulting in the naming of a new family Ophiocordycipitaceae and the transfer of several "Cordyceps" species including "C. sinensis" to the genus "Ophiocordyceps".


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: In Tibet it is known as yartsa gunbu, (, "summer grass winter worm"). The name was first recorded in the 15th century by the Tibetan doctor Zurkhar Namnyi Dorje. In colloquial Tibetan yartsa gunbu is often shortened to simply "bu" or "yartsa". The Tibetan name is transliterated in Nepali as यार्चागुन्बू, yarshagumba, yarchagumba or yarsagumba. The transliteration in Bhutan is .


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: It is known in Chinese as ' (冬蟲夏草), meaning "winter worm, summer grass", which is a literal translation of the original Tibetan name. In traditional Chinese medicine, its name is often abbreviated as chong cao (蟲草 "insect plant"), a name that also applies to other "Cordyceps" species, such as "C. militaris". In Japanese, it is known by the Japanese reading of the characters for the Chinese name, . Strangely, sometimes in Chinese English-language texts "Cordyceps sinensis" is referred to as aweto""', which is the Māori name for "Ophiocordyceps robertsii", a species from New Zealand.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: The English term "vegetable caterpillar" is a misnomer, as no plant is involved. "Caterpillar fungus" is a preferred term.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: Since the 1980s, 22 species in 13 genera have been attributed to the anamorph (asexually reproducing mold-like form) of "O. sinensis". Of the 22 species, "Cephalosporium acreomonium" is the zygomycetous species of "Umbelopsis", "Chrysosporium sinense" has very low similarity in RAPD polymorphism, hence it is not the anamorph. Likewise, "Cephalosporium dongchongxiacae", "C. sp." "sensu", "Hirsutella sinensis" and "H. hepiali" and "Synnematium sinnense" are synonymous and only "H. sinensis" is only validly published in articles. "Cephalosporium sinensis" possibly might be synonymous to "H. sinensis" but there is lack of valid information. "Isaria farinosa" is combined to "Paecilomyces farinosus" and is not the anamorph. Several isolates of "Isaria sp., Verticella sp., Scydalium sp." and "Stachybotrys sp." were identified only up to generic level, and it is dubious that they are anamorph. "Mortierella hepiali" is discarded as anamorph as it belongs to Zygomycota. "Paecilomyces sinensis" and "Sporothrix insectorum" are discarded based on the molecular evidence. "P. lingi" appeared only in one article and thus is discarded because of incomplete information. "Tolypocladium sinense, P. hepiali", and "Scydalium hepiali", have no valid information and thus are not considered as anamorph to "Ophiocordyceps sinensis. V. sinensis" is not considered anamorph as there is no valid published information. Similarly, "Metarhizium anisopliae" is not considered anamorph as it has widely distributed host range, and is not restricted only in high altitude.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: Thus "Hirsutella sinensis" is considered the validly published anamorph of "O. sinensis, Cordyceps nepalensis" and "C. multiaxialis" which had similar morphological characteristics to "O. sinensis", also had almost identical or identical ITS sequences and its presumed anamorph, "H. sinensis". This also confirms "H. sinensis" to be anamorph of "O. sinensis" and suggests "C. nepalensis" and "C. multiaxialis" are synonyms. Evidence based on microcyclic conidiation from ascospores and molecular studies support "H. sinensis" as the anamorph of the caterpillar fungus, "O. sinensis".


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: The caterpillars prone to infection by "O. sinensis" generally live underground in alpine grass and shrub-lands on the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas at an altitude between . The fungus is reported from the northern range of Nepal, Bhutan, and also from the northern states of India, apart from northern Yunnan, eastern Qinghai, eastern Tibet, western Sichuan, southwestern Gansu provinces. Fifty-seven taxa from several genera (37 "Thitarodes", 1 "Bipectilus", 1 "Endoclita", 1 "Gazoryctra", 3 "Pharmacis", and 14 others not correctly identified to genus) are recognized as potential hosts of "O. sinensis".


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: The stalk-like dark brown to black fruiting body (or mushroom) grows out of the head of the dead caterpillar and emerges from the soil in alpine meadows by early spring. During late summer, the fruiting body disperses spores. The caterpillars, which live underground feeding on roots, are most vulnerable to the fungus after shedding their skin, during late summer. In late autumn, chemicals on the skin of the caterpillar interact with the fungal spores and release the fungal mycelia, which then infects the caterpillar.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: The infected larvae tend to remain underground vertical to the soil surface with their heads up. After invading a host larva, the fungus ramifies throughout the host and eventually kills it. Gradually the host larvae become rigid because of the production of fungal sclerotia. Fungal sclerotia are multihyphal structures that can remain dormant and then germinate to produce spores. After overwintering, the fungus ruptures the host body, forming the fruiting body, a sexual sporulating structure (a perithecial stroma) from the larval head that is connected to the sclerotia (dead larva) below ground and grows upward to emerge from the soil to complete the cycle.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: The slow growing "O. sinensis" grows at a comparatively low temperature, i.e., below 21 °C. Temperature requirements and growth rates are crucial factors that distinguish "O. sinensis" from other similar fungi. Climate change is suspected to be negatively affecting the mountain organism.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: The use of caterpillar fungus as folk medicine apparently originated in Tibet and Nepal. So far the oldest known text documenting its use was written in the late 15th century by the Tibetan doctor Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorje (Wylie: ) [1439–1475]) in his text: ("Instructions on a Myriad of Medicines"), where he describes its use as an aphrodisiac.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: The first mention of "Ophiocordyceps sinensis" in traditional Chinese medicine was in Wang Ang’s 1694 compendium of materia medica, "Ben Cao Bei Yao". In the 18th century it was listed in Wu Yiluo's "Ben cao cong xin" ("New compilation of materia medica"). The ethno-mycological knowledge on caterpillar fungus among the Nepalese people is documented. The entire fungus-caterpillar combination is hand-collected for medicinal use.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: In traditional Chinese medicine, it is regarded as having an excellent balance of yin and yang as it is considered to be composed of both an animal and a vegetable. They are now cultivated on an industrial scale for their use in traditional Chinese medicine. However, no one has succeeded so far in rearing the fungus by infecting cultivated caterpillars; all products derived from cultured "Ophiocordyceps" are derived from mycelia grown on grains or in liquids.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: The compound cordycepin, a derivative of the nucleoside adenosine, is found in caterpillar fungus as well as other "Cordyceps" species. Cordycepin has several potential medicinal and therapeutic applications, it has also displayed cytotoxicity against some leukemic cells "in vitro". At least one clinical trial of cordycepin as a leukemia treatment is in progress.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: In rural Tibet, "yartsa gunbu" has become the most important source of cash income. The fungi contributed 40% of the annual cash income to local households and 8.5% to the GDP in 2004. Prices have increased continuously, especially since the late 1990s. In 2008, one kilogram traded for US$3,000 (lowest quality) to over US$18,000 (best quality, largest larvae). The annual production on the Tibetan Plateau was estimated in 2009 at 80–175 tons. The Himalayan "Ophiocordyceps" production might not exceed a few tons.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: In 2004 the value of a kilogram of caterpillars was estimated at 30,000 to 60,000 Nepali rupees in Nepal, and about Rs 100,000 in India. In 2011 the value of a kilogram of caterpillars was estimated at 350,000 to 450,000 Nepali rupees in Nepal. A 2012 BBC article indicated that in north Indian villages a single fungus was worth Rs 150 (about £2 or $3), which is more than the daily wage of a manual labourer. In 2012, a pound of top-quality yartsa had reached retail prices of $50,000.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: The price of "Ophiocordyceps sinensis" is reported to have increased dramatically on the Tibetan Plateau, about 900% between 1998 and 2008, an annual average of over 20% (after inflation). However, the value of large caterpillar fungus has increased more dramatically than small "Cordyceps", regarded as lower quality.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: Because of its high value, inter-village conflicts over access to its grassland habitats has become a headache for the local governing bodies and in several cases people were killed. In November 2011, a court in Nepal convicted 19 villagers over the murder of a group of farmers during a fight over the prized aphrodisiac fungus. Seven farmers were killed in the remote northern district of Manang in June 2009 after going to forage for Yarchagumba.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: Its value gave it a role in the Nepalese Civil War, as the Nepalese Maoists and government forces fought for control of the lucrative export trade during the June–July harvest season. Collecting "yarchagumba" in Nepal had only been legalised in 2001, and now demand is highest in countries such as China, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea and Japan. By 2002, the 'herb' was valued at R 105,000 ($1,435) per kilogram, allowing the government to charge a royalty of R 20,000 ($280) per kilogram.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: The search for "Ophiocordyceps sinensis" is often perceived to threaten the environment of the Tibetan Plateau where it grows. While it has been collected for centuries and is still common in such areas, current collection rates are much higher than in historical times.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: In the Kingdom of Bhutan "Ophiocordyceps sinensis" is recently also being harvested. The quality of the Bhutanese variety has been shown to be equal to the Tibetan one.


title: Ophiocordyceps sinensis

text: Cultivated "O. sinensis" mycelium is an alternative to wild-harvested "O. sinensis", and producers claim it may offer improved consistency. Artificial culture of "O. sinensis" is typically by growth of pure mycelia in liquid culture (in China) or on grains (in the West).


title: Larry Nance Jr.

text: Larry Donnell Nance Jr. (born January 1, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Wyoming Cowboys, where he was considered one of the best big men in the Mountain West Conference after leading the 2014–15 team to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002. Nance was drafted 27th overall in the 2015 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. He became part of the team's roster rebuild focusing around younger players, including fellow draftee D'Angelo Russell. Nance has also played with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Portland Trail Blazers.


title: Larry Nance Jr.

text: Nance attended Revere High School near Akron, Ohio, growing to 6’7” by his senior year after playing point guard for the freshman team standing at . He averaged 18.2 points, 9.5 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game as a senior for the Minutemen.


title: Larry Nance Jr.

text: In his four-year college career at Wyoming, Nance averaged 11.3 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.1 blocks in 123 games.


title: Larry Nance Jr.

text: On June 25, 2015, Nance was selected with the 27th overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. Shortly after the draft selection was announced, an old tweet from 2012 by Nance resurfaced, in which he referenced then-teammate Kobe Bryant's infamous 2003 rape incident. Nance deleted the tweet shortly after, and Bryant spoke on the tweet, calling the controversy surrounding it "water under the bridge". On July 10, Nance signed his rookie scale contract with the Lakers. He made his NBA debut on November 6 against the Brooklyn Nets, recording six points and five rebounds in a 104–98 win. On December 7, he made his first start for the Lakers after replacing Julius Randle at the starting power forward spot against the Toronto Raptors. On December 27, he recorded his first career double-double with a season-high 17 points and 11 rebounds in a 112–96 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. On January 1, 2016, Nance logged a season-high 14 rebounds, along with eight points, in a 93–84 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. He matched this total during his next game, which was two days later on January 3, along with fifteen points and a steal in a 97–77 loss to the Phoenix Suns. On January 14, Nance grabbed a season-high six steals in a 116–98 loss to the Golden State Warriors.


title: Larry Nance Jr.

text: On October 26, 2016, Nance made his season debut for the Lakers, recording five points, five rebounds and two assists in a 120–114 win over the Houston Rockets. On November 1, he recorded a season-high six steals in a 108–115 loss to the Indiana Pacers. On November 20, he scored a career-high 18 points in a 118–110 loss to the Chicago Bulls. On December 14, during a 97–107 loss to the Brooklyn Nets, Nance poster dunked on Brook Lopez. Multiple news publications called it one of the best dunks of the year. On December 25, Nance was ruled out for four weeks after suffering an injury to his left knee. He returned to action on January 22, 2017, where he logged four points and a rebound in a 73–122 blowout loss to the Dallas Mavericks. Nance matched his career-high of 18 points on February 3, where he also grabbed 11 rebounds and four assists in a 107–113 loss to the Boston Celtics. On April 2, he recorded a season-high 14 rebounds, along with 12 points and three steals, in a 108–103 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. On April 9, Nance logged a season-high six assists, along with ten points and ten rebounds, in a 110–109 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.


title: Larry Nance Jr.

text: On October 19, 2017, Nance made his season debut for the Lakers, where he recorded a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds in a 92–108 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. On November 3, he was ruled out for four to six weeks after fracturing the second metacarpal on his left hand the previous night against the Portland Trail Blazers. He missed 11 games as a result. Nance returned to action on November 27, where he logged nine points, eight rebounds and four steals in a 115–120 loss to the Clippers. On November 29, he also grabbed a season-high five assists in a 123–127 loss to the Golden State Warriors. On December 18, in a 114–116 loss to the Warriors, he poster dunked on Kevin Durant, which many publications called one of the best dunks of the year. On February 6, 2018, two days before he was traded, Nance played his last game as a Laker, where he recorded six points, ten rebounds and a steal in a 112–93 win over the Phoenix Suns.


title: Larry Nance Jr.

text: On February 8, 2018, Nance was traded, along with Jordan Clarkson, to his hometown team the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye and a 2018 first-round draft pick. After playing his first two games as a Cavalier with No. 24, he switched to No. 22 permanently on February 22 after the NBA allowed him to wear his father's retired No. 22 jersey. On March 5, 2018, he posted career highs with 22 points and 15 rebounds in his first start for Cleveland, as the Cavaliers defeated the Detroit Pistons 112–90. On March 13, 2018, in a 129–107 win over the Phoenix Suns, Nance had only four points, ending his career-best string of seven consecutive double-digit scoring games. Nance helped the Cavaliers reach the NBA Finals in 2018, where they lost 4–0 to the Golden State Warriors.


title: Larry Nance Jr.

text: On October 15, 2018, Nance signed a four-year, $44.8 million contract extension with the Cavaliers. On December 18, 2018, he had 15 points, a career-high 16 rebounds, six assists and the first game-winning shot of his pro career to give the Cavaliers a 92–91 win over the Indiana Pacers. On January 8, 2019, against the Pacers, he suffered a right knee MCL sprain. He subsequently missed eight games. On February 8, he recorded a career-high 19 rebounds in a 119–106 loss to the Washington Wizards.


title: Larry Nance Jr.

text: On August 28, 2021, Nance was acquired by the Portland Trail Blazers in a three-team sign-and-trade also involving the Chicago Bulls, which sent Lauri Markkanen from Chicago to Cleveland and Derrick Jones Jr. from Portland to Chicago.


title: Larry Nance Jr.

text: On February 8, 2022, Portland traded Nance, CJ McCollum, and Tony Snell to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for Josh Hart, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Tomáš Satoranský, Didi Louzada, a protected 2022 first-round draft pick, the better of New Orleans' and Portland's 2026 second-round draft picks and New Orleans' 2027 second-round draft pick. Three days later, Nance underwent arthroscopic right knee surgery.


title: Larry Nance Jr.

text: Nance is the son of Larry Nance, a former professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Phoenix Suns. Nance Sr. was a three-time NBA All-Star and won the league's first Slam Dunk Contest. Nance Jr. was a participant in the 2018 Slam Dunk Contest, coming in second. One of the younger Nance's dunks was a tribute to his father, as he wore a retro 1984 Phoenix Suns uniform and performed a cradle dunk as his father had done that year to win the inaugural dunk contest. Larry Sr. and Jr. later teamed up for an alley-oop dunk, with the elder Nance throwing the ball up to his son, who slammed it through the hoop.


title: Larry Nance Jr.

text: Nance Jr.'s older sister, Casey, played basketball at Revere High School and for the NCAA Division I Dayton Flyers for four years. Nance Jr.'s brother, Pete also played basketball at Revere High School, and spent his college playing basketball at Northwestern. In June 2022, Pete Nance decided to transfer to the North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball program with his extra year of Covid eligibility.


title: Shin Sung-rok

text: Shin Sung-rok (born November 23, 1982) is a South Korean actor. He frequently appears in films and television series, but is better known an active in musical theatre.


title: Shin Sung-rok

text: Shin had initially aspired to become a basketball player together with his brother Je-rok, who is two years younger. Both brothers attended Whimoon High School, known as one of Seoul's top high school basketball programs. An injury prompted Shin to reconsider another career and he transferred to Anyang Arts High School. He majored in Theater and Film at the University of Suwon but subsequently dropped out after being cast in a play.


title: Shin Sung-rok

text: Shin made his acting debut in 2003, but found it difficult to find acting jobs since directors were reluctant to cast the 189 centimeter-tall aspiring actor in supporting or minor roles. Thinking he would have a better chance if he gained more acting experience and honed his craft on the stage, Shin switched gears and joined the theater company Hakchon.


title: Shin Sung-rok

text: When Shin performed in his first musical "Moskito", there were only 20-25 audience members in the 500-seat hall. Despite feeling depressed and frustrated, he said the experience made him strong and helped him become an actor with plenty of guts.


title: Shin Sung-rok

text: While doing the musical "Dracula", Shin was cast in his first substantial onscreen role, in the risqué cable drama "Hyena" (2006). Supporting roles in dramas and films followed, notably in "Thank You" (2007) and "My Life's Golden Years" (also known as "All About My Family", 2008). He also appeared on season 1 of the MBC dating reality show "We Got Married" as a "fake couple" with female comedian Kim Shin-young.


title: Shin Sung-rok

text: Mainstream breakthrough still eluded Shin, but in theater his star was rising. In 2007, Shin was picked from 400 auditionees for the lead role Solomon in "Dancing Shadows", a musical adaptation of the realist play "Forest Fire" by celebrated Korean playwright Cha Beom-seok. He later received a Best New Actor nomination from the Korea Musical Awards.


title: Shin Sung-rok

text: As Shin starred in one hit musical after another, he continued to impress critics with his acting performances, his strong and powerful baritone vocals and his delicate and clear alto notes. He is now considered a top musical star, even drawing fans from outside Korea to his shows.


title: Shin Sung-rok

text: "Definitely Neighbors" (2010) further boosted his TV profile; for his role as a difficult chef who falls in love with an older divorcee, Shin won Best Supporting Actor in a Weekend/Daily Drama at the 2010 SBS Drama Awards. His most popular drama yet was the romantic comedy "My Love from the Star" (2013), in which he appeared as a villainous businessman. This was followed by supporting roles in the 2014 series "Trot Lovers" (as a talent agency CEO), "Liar Game" (as the host of a reality show), and "The King's Face" (as a face reader).


title: Shin Sung-rok

text: Despite branching out to film and television, Shin has maintained that his heart will always belong to the stage, and has stated, "I feel more affection toward the stage [rather than TV]. I think it is the stage where actors learn life and understand the meaning of acting. It is where I learned how to act and where I gained confidence. I think the core of my life will remain on the stage" ("The Korea Herald", 2007). "The musical is like my old home and it made me what I am now, so I can't stop performing the musicals however busy I get" ("The Korea Times", 2009)


title: Shin Sung-rok

text: In September 2021, Shin decided not to renew his contract with HB Entertainment. Later on September 27, 2021, Shin signed a contract with Screening ENT.


title: Shin Sung-rok

text: Shin has a younger brother. Shin Jae-rok is a former professional basketball player who had short stints with Anyang KT&G Kites and Changwon LG Sakers before retiring. He became a chef and has since opened his own restaurant. Both of them appeared on July 30, 2015 KBS talk show "Happy Together".


title: Shin Sung-rok

text: Shin began dating ballerina Kim Joo-won in 2011; Kim was a principal dancer with the Korea National Ballet for 15 years from 1988 to 2003, and currently teaches at Sungshin Women's University. The pair broke up after four years of dating in August 2015.


title: Shin Sung-rok

text: In June 2016 Shin married a non-celebrity office worker in Hawaii. In November the same year, Shin became a father to a daughter.


title: Sigrid Valdis

text: Patricia Annette Olson (September 21, 1935 – October 14, 2007), known by her stage name Sigrid Valdis, was an American actress. She was best known for playing "Hilda" in the American television series "Hogan's Heroes".


title: Sigrid Valdis

text: Valdis began acting in the late 1950s. She appeared in bit parts in films and guest starred in several television shows including "The Wild Wild West" and "Kraft Television Theatre". She appeared in one episode of "Hogan's Heroes" as a different character before landing the role of Hilda, Colonel Klink's secretary, replacing Cynthia Lynn ("Helga") who played the role in the first season.


title: Sigrid Valdis

text: Valdis was married twice. Her first marriage was to fashion businessman George Gilbert Ateyeh, with whom she had a daughter, Melissa. Ateyeh died in 1967.


title: Sigrid Valdis

text: Valdis' second marriage was to "Hogan's Heroes" star Bob Crane on the set of the series on October 16, 1970. Co-star Richard Dawson served as Crane's best man. Following the birth of their son Robert Scott Crane in 1971, Valdis retired from acting. In 1978, she moved from the Los Angeles area after Crane was murdered.


title: Sigrid Valdis

text: In 1980, she moved to Seattle, where in 1998 she joined the cast of her son's syndicated weekly sketch comedy radio show, "Shaken, Not Stirred". In 2004, she moved back to her childhood home in Westwood. Though no longer using her stage name, she later oversaw a tribute website to her husband, with a blog where she answered questions from fans of her husband and "Hogan's Heroes".


title: Sigrid Valdis

text: Twice widowed, Valdis died on October 14, 2007, from lung cancer in Anaheim, California, aged 72. She had two daughters, Melissa Smith and Ana Sarmiento, and a son, Scott. She had three stepchildren from Crane's earlier marriage to Anne Terzian: Karen, Deborah, and Robert David Crane.


title: Kelly Kapoor

text: Kelly Rajanigandha Kapoor is a fictional character from the American television series "The Office", portrayed by Mindy Kaling. She is the customer service representative at the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin from seasons 1 to 8. Following Kaling's departure from the show, Kelly leaves the Scranton branch at the beginning of the ninth season to get married and move to Ohio.


title: Kelly Kapoor

text: Kelly is first featured in the episode "Diversity Day", where Michael conducts a diversity training seminar. Michael creates a game where everyone in the room has to put a card with a specific race on their forehead (with the race being unknown to themselves), and then must treat everyone as if they were the race on their card. Frustrated that no one is playing properly, Michael attempts to demonstrate how to play by speaking to Kelly, who has just entered the room, in a stereotypical Indian accent. Offended, Kelly angrily slaps Michael and leaves the conference room.


title: Kelly Kapoor

text: In the second season, Kelly gets involved in a wildly uneven relationship with Ryan Howard, the office temp. Following their first date, Ryan expresses his regret, as their first date occurred the day before Valentine's Day. In the episode "Take Your Daughter To Work Day", Kelly shows a manipulative side upon witnessing Stanley's teenage daughter, Melissa, shadowing Ryan. Jealous, Kelly tells Stanley that Ryan had flirted with Melissa, after which Stanley berates Ryan. In the season finale "Casino Night", Ryan wearily admits to Jim that he is still dating Kelly.


title: Kelly Kapoor

text: Kelly and Ryan's relationship continues throughout the third season, though at the Hindu Diwali festival, Kelly's parents criticize her choice in Ryan for not making enough money and not being committed to marriage and family; they suggest that she go for a particular, more successful Indian man. In "Business School", Michael moves Ryan's desk next to Kelly's. Kelly is excited by the move, though she and Ryan bicker and passionately make up frequently. In "Product Recall", Kelly is seen in a rare professional capacity, training Oscar, Angela, and Kevin for taking customer service phone calls after an obscene watermark is printed on Dunder Mifflin paper, prompting too many complaint calls for Kelly alone to answer.


title: Kelly Kapoor

text: In "The Job", Ryan abruptly ends his relationship with Kelly after receiving a promotion to the corporate headquarters. In "Dunder Mifflin Infinity", Kelly attempts to win Ryan back by telling him she is pregnant with his child. Kelly is overjoyed when Ryan agrees to have dinner with her, but the plan backfires when he learns that she is not actually pregnant; Kelly does not understand why the lie would upset him and is surprised and upset when he refuses to date her again. Ryan later asks Corporate to have Kelly's job outsourced to India.


title: Kelly Kapoor

text: Getting over her breakup with Ryan, Kelly begins a new relationship with warehouse foreman Darryl Philbin. However, Darryl seems less than enthusiastic about the relationship, evoking Ryan's previous attitude toward Kelly. Darryl also complains that Kelly seems to still have feelings for Ryan. In "Goodbye, Toby", Ryan gets arrested on charges of fraud, amusing Kelly.


title: Kelly Kapoor

text: Kelly continues to date Darryl, though Ryan seems to have a renewed interest in her. However, she is still dating Darryl. In "Business Trip", Ryan moves back to the annex with Kelly; though Kelly strongly states she has no intention of getting back together with Ryan given the way he treated her, the two are later seen passionately kissing. Kelly breaks up with Darryl and rekindles a relationship with Ryan; however, they break up again when Ryan takes a trip to Thailand.


title: Kelly Kapoor

text: Towards the end of the fifth season, Kelly shows interest in her new boss, Charles Miner, and quickly befriends the new receptionist, Erin. When Ryan returns to the Scranton office, he and Kelly begin dating again.


title: Kelly Kapoor

text: In "The Search", Ryan and Kelly announce to the staff they are getting a divorce, having married over a week earlier on the spur of the moment. They claim the break-up was mutual, but after getting little reaction to their news, Ryan declared that the split was not amicable. Following the divorce, Ryan and Kelly continue to date.


title: Kelly Kapoor

text: In Season 8, wanting to get Kelly away from Ryan, Pam sets her up with Cece's pediatrician, Ravi. Ryan makes several attempts to get back with Kelly, even writing a poem that Kelly refuses to read. When Ryan pressures her to choose between Ravi and him, Kelly ultimately rejects Ryan and chooses Ravi, though she expresses hope that she and Ryan can stay friends.


title: Kelly Kapoor

text: At the beginning of Season 9, Kelly reveals she and Ravi got engaged and moved to Oxford, Ohio. Kelly happily quit her job at Dunder-Mifflin, mistakenly believing she was moving to Miami with Ravi. Upon discovering Kelly's move, Ryan then also moves to Ohio, though he claims it's for unrelated reasons. In the series finale, Kelly and Ravi are still engaged, while Ryan is a single parent, raising a baby named Drake. At Dwight and Angela's wedding reception, Ryan induces a mild allergic reaction in his baby so that Ravi will have to examine him, using that as an excuse to get Kelly alone and tell her that he wants her back. Ecstatic, Kelly runs away with Ryan, abandoning Drake at the wedding reception; Nellie then offers to adopt Drake.


title: Kelly Kapoor

text: Kelly's character was conceived after the pilot episode; she first appears in the episode "Diversity Day", in which she angrily slaps Michael Scott (played by Steve Carell) after he speaks in a stereotypical Indian accent during a conference meeting. Kelly's portrayer Mindy Kaling, who served as a writer on the show for the first eight seasons, revealed that the conception of her character was a last-minute decision by co-creator Greg Daniels, commenting "[In the script], they needed a minority to slap [Michael], and [Greg] picked me", further adding, "Greg wanted a kind of shy character that you didn't know much about, except that she was ethnic, to kind of wander in, really pissed off."


title: Kelly Kapoor

text: Initially introduced in the first season as a quiet and mild-mannered employee, Kelly was rewritten and expanded in the second season, with the character being portrayed as loquacious and adolescent. In a 2007 interview with The A.V. Club, Kaling spoke about the character change, stating, "[The] first season seems so different than how she is now—the way she dresses, and everything else." She credited the season 2 episode "Valentine's Day" as helping her understand Kelly's personality: "She goes on for a page and a half of dialogue about what happened to her the day before, [and] I really felt like I had an idea of what Kelly was about." The character's new personality received positive reviews from critics; Dhalia Lithwick, a senior editor at "Slate" magazine called the character one of the reasons to look forward to the return of the show in the fall of 2007.


title: Kelly Kapoor

text: Kaling departed from the cast and crew after the eighth season to work on The Mindy Project, which Kaling created and starred as the lead character. As a result, Kelly was written out of the ninth season; she has a guest appearance in the ninth season premiere and the series finale.


title: Arial

text: Arial (also called Arial MT) is a sans-serif typeface and set of computer fonts in the neo-grotesque style. Fonts from the Arial family are included with all versions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 3.1 on, some other Microsoft software applications, Apple's macOS and many PostScript 3 computer printers. The typeface was designed in 1982, by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders, for Monotype Typography. Each of its characters has the same width as that character in the popular typeface Helvetica; the purpose of this design is to allow a document designed in Helvetica to be displayed and printed with the intended line-breaks and page-breaks without a Helvetica license. Because of their almost identical appearances, both Arial and Helvetica have commonly been mistaken for each other.


title: Arial

text: The Arial typeface comprises many styles: Regular, Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Black, Black Italic, Extra Bold, Extra Bold Italic, Light, Light Italic, Narrow, Narrow Italic, Narrow Bold, Narrow Bold Italic, Condensed, Light Condensed, Bold Condensed, and Extra Bold Condensed. The extended Arial type family includes more styles: Rounded (Light, Regular, Bold, Extra Bold); Monospaced (Regular, Oblique, Bold, Bold Oblique). Many of these have been issued in multiple font configurations with different degrees of language support. The most widely used and bundled Arial fonts are Arial Regular, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic; the same styles of Arial Narrow; and Arial Black. More recently, Arial Rounded has also been widely bundled.


title: Arial

text: In Office 2007, Arial was replaced by Calibri as the default typeface in PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook.


title: Arial

text: Embedded in version 3.0 of the OpenType version of Arial is the following description of the typeface:


title: Arial

text: Arial is a neo-grotesque typeface: a design based on nineteenth-century sans-serifs, but regularized to be more suited to continuous body text and to form a cohesive font family.


title: Arial

text: Apart from the need to match the character widths and approximate/general appearance of Helvetica, the letter shapes of Arial are also strongly influenced by Monotype's own Monotype Grotesque designs, released in or by the 1920s, with additional influence from "New Grotesque", an abortive redesign from 1956. The designs of the "R", "G" and "r" also resemble Gill Sans. The changes cause the typeface to nearly match Linotype Helvetica in both proportion and weight (see figure), and perfectly match in width. Monotype executive Allan Haley observed, "Arial was drawn more rounded than Helvetica, the curves softer and fuller and the counters more open. The ends of the strokes on letters such as c, e, g and s, rather than being cut off on the horizontal, are terminated at the more natural angle in relation to the stroke direction." Matthew Carter, a consultant for IBM during its design process, described it as "a Helvetica clone, based ostensibly on their Grots 215 and 216".


title: Arial

text: The styling of Arabic glyphs comes from Times New Roman, which have more varied stroke widths than the Latin, Greek, Cyrillic glyphs found in the font. Arial Unicode MS uses monotone stroke widths on Arabic glyphs, similar to Tahoma.


title: Arial

text: The Cyrillic, Greek and Coptic Spacing Modifier Letters glyphs initially introduced in Arial Unicode MS, but later debuted in Arial version 5.00, have different appearances.


title: Arial

text: IBM debuted two printers for the in-office publishing market in 1982: the 240-DPI 3800-3 laserxerographic printer, and the 600-DPI 4250 electro-erosion laminate typesetter. Monotype was under contract to supply bitmap fonts for both printers. The fonts for the 4250, delivered to IBM in 1983, included Helvetica, which Monotype sub-licensed from Linotype. For the 3800-3, Monotype replaced Helvetica with Arial. The hand-drawn Arial artwork was completed in 1982 at Monotype by a 10-person team led by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders


title: Arial

text: IBM named the font Sonoran Sans Serif due to licensing restrictions and the manufacturing facility's location (Tucson, Arizona, in the Sonoran Desert), and announced in early 1984 that the Sonoran Sans Serif family, "a functional equivalent of Monotype Arial", would be available for licensed use in the 3800-3 by the fourth quarter of 1984. There were initially 14 point sizes, ranging from 6 to 36, and four style/weight combinations (Roman medium, Roman bold, italic medium, and italic bold), for a total of 56 fonts in the family. Each contained 238 graphic characters, providing support for eleven national languages: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Monotype and IBM later expanded the family to include 300-DPI bitmaps and characters for additional languages.


title: Arial

text: In 1989, Monotype produced PostScript Type 1 outline versions of several Monotype fonts, but an official PostScript version of Arial was not available until 1991. In the meantime, a company called Birmy marketed a version of Arial in a Type 1-compatible format.


title: Arial

text: In 1990, Robin Nicholas, Patricia Saunders and Steve Matteson developed a TrueType outline version of Arial which was licensed to Microsoft.


title: Arial

text: In 1992, Microsoft chose Arial to be one of the four core TrueType fonts in Windows 3.1, announcing the font as an "alternative to Helvetica". Matthew Carter has noted that the deal was complex and included a bailout of Monotype, which was in financial difficulties, by Microsoft. Microsoft would later extensively fund the development of Arial as a font that supported many languages and scripts. Monotype employee Rod MacDonald noted:


title: Arial

text: Arial ultimately became one of several clones of PostScript standard fonts created by Monotype in collaboration with or sold to Microsoft around this time, including Century Gothic (a clone of ITC Avant Garde), Book Antiqua (Palatino) and Bookman Old Style (ITC Bookman).


title: Arial

text: TrueType editions of Arial have shipped as part of Microsoft Windows since the introduction of Windows 3.1 in 1992; Arial was the default font.


title: Arial

text: From 1999 until 2016, Microsoft Office shipped with Arial Unicode MS, a version of Arial that includes many international characters from the Unicode standard. This version of the typeface was for a time the most widely distributed pan-Unicode font. The font was dropped from Microsoft Office 2016 and has been deprecated; continuing growth of the number of characters in Unicode and limitations on the number of characters in a font meant that Arial Unicode could no longer perform the job it was originally created for.


title: Arial

text: Arial MT, a PostScript version of the Arial font family, was distributed with Acrobat Reader 4 and 5.


title: Arial

text: PostScript does not require support for a specific set of fonts, but Arial and Helvetica are among the 40 or so typeface families that PostScript Level 3 devices typically support.


title: Arial

text: Mac OS X (now known as macOS) was the first Mac OS version to include Arial; it was not included in classic Mac OS. The operating system ships with Arial, Arial Black, Arial Narrow, and Arial Rounded MT. However, the default macOS font for sans-serif/Swiss generic font family is Helvetica. The bundling of Arial with Windows and macOS has contributed to it being one of the most widely distributed and used typefaces in the world.


title: Arial

text: In 1996, Microsoft launched the Core fonts for the Web project to make a standard pack of fonts for the Internet. Arial in TrueType format was included in this project. The project allowed anyone to download and install these fonts for their own use (on end user's computers) without any fee. The project was terminated by Microsoft in August 2002, allegedly due to frequent EULA violations. For MS Windows, the core fonts for the web were provided as self-extracting executables (.exe); each included an embedded cabinet file, which can be extracted with appropriate software. For the Macintosh, the files were provided as BinHexed StuffIt archives (.sit.hqx). The latest font version that was available from "Core fonts for the Web" was 2.82, published in 2000. Later versions (such as version 3 or version 5 which include many new characters) were not available from this project. A Microsoft spokesman declared in 2002 that members of the open-source community "will have to find different sources for updated fonts. ... Although the EULA did not restrict the fonts to just Windows and Mac OS, they were only ever available as Windows .exe's and Mac archive files." The chief technical officer of Opera Software cited the cancellation of the project as an example of Microsoft resisting interoperability.


title: Arial

text: Arial Alternative Regular and Arial Alternative Symbol are standard fonts in Windows ME, and can also be found on Windows 95 and Windows XP installation discs, and on Microsoft's site. Both fonts are Symbol-encoded. These fonts emulate the monospaced font used in Minitel/Prestel teletext systems, but vectorized with Arial styling. These fonts are used by HyperTerminal.


title: Arial

text: Arial Alternative Regular contains only ASCII characters, while Arial Alternative Symbol contains only 2 × 3 semigraphics characters.


title: Arial

text: Arial Baltic, Arial CE, Arial Cyr, Arial Greek, Arial Tur are aliases created in the FontSubstitutes section of WIN.INI by Windows. These entries all point to the master font. When an alias font is specified, the font's character map contains different character set from the master font and the other alias fonts.


title: Arial

text: In addition, Monotype also sells Arial in reduced character sets, such as Arial CE, Arial WGL, Arial Cyrillic, Arial Greek, Arial Hebrew, Arial Thai.


title: Arial

text: Arial Nova's design is based on the 1982's Sonora Sans bitmapped fonts, which were in fact Arial renamed to avoid licensing issues. It was bundled with Windows 10, and is offered free of charge on Microsoft Store. It contains Regular, Bold and Light weights, corresponding italics and corresponding Condensed widths.


title: Arial

text: The TrueType core Arial fonts (Arial, Arial Bold, Arial Italic, Arial Bold Italic) support the same character sets as the version 2.76 fonts found in Internet Explorer 5/6, Windows 98/ME.


title: Arial

text: Version sold by Linotype includes Arial Rounded, Arial Monospaced, Arial Condensed, Arial Central European, Arial Central European Narrow, Arial Cyrillic, Arial Cyrillic Narrow, Arial Dual Greek, Arial Dual Greek Narrow, Arial SF, Arial Turkish, Arial Turkish Narrow.


title: Arial

text: In addition, Monotype also sells Arial in reduced character sets, such as Arial CE, Arial WGL, Arial Cyrillic, Arial Greek, Arial Hebrew, Arial Thai, Arial SF.


title: Arial

text: It is a version that covers only the Windows Glyph List 4 (WGL4) characters. They are only sold in TrueType format.


title: Arial

text: The family includes Arial (regular, bold, italics), Arial Black, Arial Narrow (regular, bold, italics), Arial Rounded (regular, bold).


title: Arial

text: Arial glyphs are also used in fonts developed for non-Latin environments, including Arabic Transparent, BrowalliaUPC, Cordia New, CordiaUPC, Miriam, Miriam Transparent, Monotype Hei, Simplified Arabic.


title: Arial

text: Arial is a proprietary typeface to which Monotype Imaging owns all rights, including software copyright and trademark rights (under U.S. copyright law, Monotype cannot legally copyright the shapes of the actual glyphs themselves). Its licensing terms prohibit derivative works and free redistribution.


title: Arial

text: There are some free software metric-compatible fonts used as free Arial alternatives or used for Arial font substitution:


title: Miguel Sandoval

text: Sandoval was born in Washington, D.C. He began working as a professional actor in 1975 when he joined a mime school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He later joined the troupe full-time and continued his study of mime. He began his film career in the early 1980s. He had small roles in such acclaimed films "Do the Right Thing", "Jungle Fever", and "Jurassic Park". After appearing in "Clear and Present Danger" in 1994, he began to take on larger roles, and appeared in "Get Shorty", "Up Close & Personal", and "Blow".


title: Miguel Sandoval

text: Having appeared briefly in "Repo Man" and "Sid and Nancy", Sandoval has also played the major roles of Treviranus (in "Death and the Compass"), Bennie Reyes (in "Three Businessmen") and Arizona Gray (in the microfeature "Repo Chick") for director Alex Cox. In addition to film, Sandoval has acted in numerous television shows, often in recurring roles. Though shows such as "The Court" and "Kingpin" failed, he found success with "Medium" in 2005, where he played D.A. Manuel Devalos until the series ended in 2011. Sandoval's other guest starring roles include appearances in popular series such as "Frasier", "ER", "The X-Files", "Seinfeld"," Law & Order" and "". He was prominently featured in the first season of the ABC drama "Murder One".


title: Miguel Sandoval

text: Sandoval has also directed, taking the helm for the third season "Medium" episode "Whatever Possessed You" which aired in March 2007. He directed one episode in each of seasons four through to seven.


title: Miguel Sandoval

text: Sandoval co-starred as Judge Hernandez in "Bad Judge", an American legal comedy television series co-created by Chad Kultgen and Anne Heche. It premiered on NBC on October 2, 2014. After that, he had roles in "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency", "Sharp Objects", and "Station 19".


title: Miguel Sandoval

text: Sandoval resides in Los Angeles, California. He and his wife Linda have a grown daughter, Olivia, an actress who portrayed his character's daughter on "Medium".


title: Villa

text: A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity, sometimes transferred to the Church for reuse as a monastery. Then they gradually re-evolved through the Middle Ages into elegant upper-class country homes. In the Early Modern period, any comfortable detached house with a garden near a city or town was likely to be described as a villa; most survivals have now been engulfed by suburbia. In modern parlance, "villa" can refer to various types and sizes of residences, ranging from the suburban semi-detached double villa to, in some countries, especially around the Mediterranean, residences of above average size in the countryside.


title: Villa

text: In terms of design, there was often little difference in the main residence between these types at any particular level of size, but the presence or absence of farm outbuildings reflected the size and function of the estate.


title: Villa

text: Not included as "villae" were the "domus", city houses for the élite and privileged classes, and the "insulae", blocks of apartment buildings for the rest of the population. In "Satyricon" (1st century CE), Petronius described the wide range of Roman dwellings. Another type of villae is the "villa maritima", a seaside villa, located on the coast.


title: Villa

text: A concentration of Imperial villas existed on the Gulf of Naples, on the Isle of Capri, at Monte Circeo and at Antium. Examples include the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum; and the Villa of the Mysteries and Villa of the Vettii in Pompeii.


title: Villa

text: There was an important villa maritima in Barcola near Trieste. This villa was located directly on the coast and was divided into terraces in a representation area in which luxury and power was displayed, a separate living area, a garden, some facilities open to the sea and a thermal bath. Not far from this noble place, which was already popular with the Romans because of its favorable microclimate, one of the most important Villa Maritima of its time, the Miramare Castle, was built in the 19th century.


title: Villa

text: Wealthy Romans also escaped the summer heat in the hills round Rome, especially around Tibur (Tivoli and Frascati), such as at Hadrian's Villa. Cicero allegedly possessed no fewer than seven villas, the oldest of which was near Arpinum, which he inherited. Pliny the Younger had three or four, of which the example near Laurentium is the best known from his descriptions.


title: Villa

text: Roman writers refer with satisfaction to the self-sufficiency of their "latifundium" villas, where they drank their own wine and pressed their own oil. This was an affectation of urban aristocrats playing at being old-fashioned virtuous Roman farmers, it has been said that the economic independence of later rural villas was a symptom of the increasing economic fragmentation of the Roman Empire.


title: Villa

text: Archaeologists have meticulously examined numerous Roman villas in England. Like their Italian counterparts, they were complete working agrarian societies of fields and vineyards, perhaps even tileworks or quarries, ranged round a high-status power centre with its baths and gardens. The grand villa at Woodchester preserved its mosaic floors when the Anglo-Saxon parish church was built (not by chance) upon its site. Grave-diggers preparing for burials in the churchyard as late as the 18th century had to punch through the intact mosaic floors. The even more palatial "villa rustica" at Fishbourne near Winchester was built (uncharacteristically) as a large open rectangle, with porticos enclosing gardens entered through a portico. Towards the end of the 3rd century, Roman towns in Britain ceased to expand: like patricians near the centre of the empire, Roman Britons withdrew from the cities to their villas, which entered on a palatial building phase, a "golden age" of villa life. "Villae rusticae" are essential in the Empire's economy.


title: Villa

text: Two kinds of villa-plan in Roman Britain may be characteristic of Roman villas in general. The more usual plan extended wings of rooms all opening onto a linking portico, which might be extended at right angles, even to enclose a courtyard. The other kind featured an aisled central hall like a basilica, suggesting the villa owner's magisterial role. The villa buildings were often independent structures linked by their enclosed courtyards. Timber-framed construction, carefully fitted with mortises and tenons and dowelled together, set on stone footings, were the rule, replaced by stone buildings for the important ceremonial rooms. Traces of window glass have been found, as well as ironwork window grilles.


title: Villa

text: With the decline and collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries, the villas were more and more isolated and came to be protected by walls. In England the villas were abandoned, looted, and burned by Anglo-Saxon invaders in the fifth century, but the concept of an isolated, self-sufficient agrarian working community, housed close together, survived into Anglo-Saxon culture as the "vill", with its inhabitants – if formally bound to the land – as "villeins".


title: Villa

text: In regions on the Continent, aristocrats and territorial magnates donated large working villas and overgrown abandoned ones to individual monks; these might become the nuclei of monasteries. In this way, the Italian villa system of late Antiquity survived into the early Medieval period in the form of monasteries that withstood the disruptions of the Gothic War (535–554) and the Lombards. About 529 Benedict of Nursia established his influential monastery of Monte Cassino in the ruins of a villa at Subiaco that had belonged to Nero.


title: Villa

text: From the sixth to the eighth century, Gallo-Roman villas in the Merovingian royal fisc were repeatedly donated as sites for monasteries under royal patronage in Gaul – Saint-Maur-des-Fossés and Fleury Abbey provide examples. In Germany a famous example is Echternach; as late as 698, Willibrord established an abbey at a Roman villa of Echternach near Trier, presented to him by Irmina, daughter of Dagobert II, king of the Franks. Kintzheim was "Villa Regis", the "villa of the king". Around 590, Saint Eligius was born in a highly placed Gallo-Roman family at the 'villa' of Chaptelat near Limoges, in Aquitaine (now France). The abbey at Stavelot was founded ca 650 on the domain of a former villa near Liège and the abbey of Vézelay had a similar founding.


title: Villa

text: In post-Roman times a "villa" referred to a self-sufficient, usually fortified Italian or Gallo-Roman farmstead. It was economically as self-sufficient as a "village" and its inhabitants, who might be legally tied to it as serfs were "villeins". The Merovingian Franks inherited the concept, followed by the Carolingian French but the later French term was "basti" or "bastide."


title: Villa

text: "Villa"/"Vila" (or its cognates) is part of many Spanish and Portuguese placenames, like Vila Real and Villadiego: a "villa"/"vila" is a town with a charter ("fuero" or "foral") of lesser importance than a "ciudad"/"cidade" ("city"). When it is associated with a personal name, "villa" was probably used in the original sense of a country estate rather than a chartered town. Later evolution has made the Hispanic distinction between "villas" and "ciudades" a purely honorific one. Madrid is the "Villa y Corte", the villa considered to be separate from the formerly mobile royal court, but the much smaller Ciudad Real was declared "ciudad" by the Spanish crown.


title: Villa

text: In 14th and 15th century Italy, a "villa" once more connoted a country house, like the first Medici villas, the Villa del Trebbio and that at Cafaggiolo, both strong fortified houses built in the 14th century in the Mugello region near Florence. In 1450, Giovanni de' Medici commenced on a hillside the Villa Medici in Fiesole, Tuscany, probably the first villa created under the instructions of Leon Battista Alberti, who theorized the features of the new idea of villa in his "De re aedificatoria".


title: Villa

text: These first examples of Renaissance villa predate the age of Lorenzo de' Medici, who added the Villa di Poggio a Caiano by Giuliano da Sangallo, begun in 1470, in Poggio a Caiano, Province of Prato, Tuscany.


title: Villa

text: The Quattrocento villa gardens were treated as a fundamental and aesthetic link between a residential building and the outdoors, with views over a humanized agricultural landscape, at that time the only desirable aspect of nature. Later villas and gardens include the Palazzo Pitti and Boboli Gardens in Florence, and the Villa di Pratolino in Vaglia.


title: Villa

text: Rome had more than its share of villas with easy reach of the small sixteenth-century city: the progenitor, the first "villa suburbana" built since Antiquity, was the Belvedere or "palazzetto", designed by Antonio del Pollaiuolo and built on the slope above the Vatican Palace.


title: Villa

text: The Villa Madama, the design of which, attributed to Raphael and carried out by Giulio Romano in 1520, was one of the most influential private houses ever built; elements derived from Villa Madama appeared in villas through the 19th century. Villa Albani was built near the Porta Salaria. Other are the Villa Borghese; the Villa Doria Pamphili (1650); the Villa Giulia of Pope Julius III (1550), designed by Vignola. The Roman villas Villa Ludovisi and Villa Montalto, were destroyed during the late nineteenth century in the wake of the real estate bubble that took place in Rome after the seat of government of a united Italy was established at Rome.


title: Villa

text: The cool hills of Frascati gained the Villa Aldobrandini (1592); the Villa Falconieri and the Villa Mondragone. The Villa d'Este near Tivoli is famous for the water play in its terraced gardens. The Villa Medici was on the edge of Rome, on the Pincian Hill, when it was built in 1540. Besides these designed for seasonal pleasure, usually located within easy distance of a city, other Italian villas were remade from a "rocca" or castello, as the family seat of power, such as Villa Caprarola for the Farnese.


title: Villa

text: Near Siena in Tuscany, the Villa Cetinale was built by Cardinal Flavio Chigi. He employed Carlo Fontana, pupil of Gian Lorenzo Bernini to transform the villa and dramatic gardens in a Roman Baroque style by 1680. The Villa Lante garden is one of the most sublime creations of the Italian villa in the landscape, completed in the 17th century.


title: Villa

text: In the later 16th century in the northeastern Italian Peninsula the Palladian villas of the Veneto, designed by Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), were built in Vicenza in the Republic of Venice. Palladio always designed his villas with reference to their setting. He often unified all the farm buildings into the architecture of his extended villas.


title: Villa

text: Examples are the Villa Emo, the Villa Godi, the Villa Forni Cerato, the Villa Capra "La Rotonda", and Villa Foscari.


title: Villa

text: The Villas are grouped into an association (Associazione Ville Venete) and offer touristic itineraries and accommodation possibilities.


title: Villa

text: Soon after in Greenwich England, following his 1613–1615 Grand Tour, Inigo Jones designed and built the Queen's House between 1615 and 1617 in an early Palladian architecture style adaptation in another country. The Palladian villa style renewed its influence in different countries and eras and remained influential for over four hundred years, with the Neo-Palladian a part of the late 17th century and on Renaissance Revival architecture period.


title: Villa

text: In the early 18th century the English took up the term, and applied it to compact houses in the country, especially those accessible from London: Chiswick House is an example of such a "party villa". Thanks to the revival of interest in Palladio and Inigo Jones, soon Neo-Palladian villas dotted the valley of the River Thames and English countryside. Marble Hill House in England was conceived originally as a "villa" in the 18th-century sense.


title: Villa

text: In many ways the late 18th century Monticello, by Thomas Jefferson in Virginia, United States is a Palladian Revival villa. Other examples of the period and style are Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis, Maryland; and many pre-American Civil War or antebellum plantations, such as Westover Plantation and many other James River plantations as well dozens of Antebellum era plantations in the rest of the Old South functioned as the Roman Latifundium villas had. A later revival, in the Gilded Age and early 20th century, produced The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island, Filoli in Woodside, California, and Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.; by architects-landscape architects such as Richard Morris Hunt, Willis Polk, and Beatrix Farrand.


title: Villa

text: In the nineteenth century, the term "villa" was extended to describe any large suburban house that was free-standing in a landscaped plot of ground. By the time 'semi-detached villas' were being erected at the turn of the twentieth century, the term collapsed under its extension and overuse.


title: Villa

text: The second half of the nineteenth century saw the creation of large "Villenkolonien" in the German speaking countries, wealthy residential areas that were completely made up of large mansion houses and often built to an artfully created masterplan. Also many large mansions for the wealthy German industrialists were built, such as Villa Hügel in Essen. The Villenkolonie of Lichterfelde West in Berlin was conceived after an extended trip by the architect through the South of England.


title: Villa

text: Representative historicist mansions in Germany include the Heiligendamm and other resort architecture mansions at the Baltic Sea, Rose Island and King's House on Schachen in the Bavarian Alps, Villa Dessauer in Bamberg, Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth, Drachenburg near Bonn, Hammerschmidt Villa in Bonn, the Liebermann Villa and Britz House in Berlin, Albrechtsberg, Eckberg, Villa Stockhausen and in Dresden, in Feldafing, in Frankfurt, Jenisch House and Budge-Palais in Hamburg, and in Königstein, Villa Stuck and in Munich, Schloss Klink at Lake Müritz, Villa Ludwigshöhe in Rhineland-Palatinate, Villa Haux in Stuttgart and Weinberg House in Waren.


title: Villa

text: In France the Château de Ferrières is an example of the Italian Neo-Renaissance style villa – and in Britain the Mentmore Towers by John Ruskin. A representative building of this style in Germany is Villa Haas (designed by Ludwig Hofmann) in Hesse.


title: Villa

text: Villa Hakasalmi in Helsinki (built in 1834–46) represents Empire-era villa architecture. It was the home of Aurora Karamzin (1808–1902) at the end of the 19th century and is now the city museum of Helsinki, Finland.


title: Villa

text: During the 19th and 20th century, the term "villa" became widespread for detached mansions in Europe. Special forms are for instance spa villas ("Kurvillen" in German) and seaside villas ("Bädervillen" in German), that became especially popular at the end of the 19th century. The tradition established back then continued throughout the 20th century and even until today.


title: Villa

text: Another trend was the erection of rather minimalist mansions in the Bauhaus style since the 1920s, that also continues until today.


title: Villa

text: In Denmark, Norway and Sweden "villa" denotes most forms of single-family detached homes, regardless of size and standard.


title: Villa

text: The villa concept lived and lives on in the haciendas of Latin America and the estancias of Brazil and Argentina. The oldest are original Portuguese and Spanish Colonial architecture; followed after independences in the Americas from Spain and Portugal, by the Spanish Colonial Revival style with regional variations. In the 20th century International Style villas were designed by Roberto Burle Marx, Oscar Niemeyer, Luis Barragán, and other architects developing a unique Euro-Latin synthesized aesthetic.


title: Villa

text: Villas are particularly well represented in California and the West Coast of the United States, where they were originally commissioned by well travelled "upper-class" patrons moving on from the Queen Anne style Victorian architecture and Beaux-Arts architecture. Communities such as Montecito, Pasadena, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, and San Marino in Southern California, and Atherton and Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area are a few examples of villa density.


title: Villa

text: The popularity of Mediterranean Revival architecture in its various iterations over the last century has been consistently used in that region and in Florida. Just a few of the notable early architects were Wallace Neff, Addison Mizner, Stanford White, and George Washington Smith. A few examples are the Harold Lloyd Estate in Beverly Hills, California, Medici scale Hearst Castle on the Central Coast of California, and Villa Montalvo in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Saratoga, California, Villa Vizcaya in Coconut Grove, Miami, American Craftsman versions are the Gamble House and the villas by Greene and Greene in Pasadena, California


title: Villa

text: Today, the term "villa" is often applied to vacation rental properties. In the United Kingdom the term is used for high quality detached homes in warm destinations, particularly Florida and the Mediterranean. The term is also used in Pakistan, and in some of the Caribbean islands such as Jamaica, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Guadeloupe, British Virgin Islands, and others. It is similar for the coastal resort areas of Baja California Sur and mainland Mexico, and for hospitality industry destination resort "luxury bungalows" in various locations worldwide.


title: Villa

text: In Indonesia, the term "villa" is applied to Dutch colonial country houses ("landhuis"). Nowadays, the term is more popularly applied to vacation rental usually located in countryside area.


title: Villa

text: In Australia, "villas" or "villa units" are terms used to describe a type of townhouse complex which contains, possibly smaller attached or detached houses of up to 3–4 bedrooms that were built since the early 1980s.


title: Villa

text: In New Zealand, "villa" refers almost exclusively to Victorian and Edwardian wooden weatherboard houses mainly built between 1880 and 1914, characterised by high ceilings (often ), sash windows, and a long entrance hall.