title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: Following deliberations at Ta'if between Hussein and his sons in June 1915, during which Faisal counselled caution, Ali argued against rebellion and Abdullah advocated action and encouraged his father to enter into correspondence with Sir Henry McMahon; over the period 14 July 1915 to 10 March 1916, a total of ten letters, five from each side, were exchanged between Sir Henry McMahon and Sherif Hussein. McMahon was in contact with British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey throughout, and Grey was to authorise and be ultimately responsible for the correspondence.


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: The British Secretary of State for War, Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, appealed to him for assistance in the conflict on the side of the Triple Entente. Starting in 1915, as indicated by an exchange of letters with Lieutenant Colonel Sir Henry McMahon, the British High Commissioner in the Sultanate of Egypt, Hussein seized the opportunity and demanded recognition of an Arab nation that included the Hejaz and other adjacent territories as well as approval for the proclamation of an Arab Caliphate of Islam. High Commissioner McMahon accepted and assured him that his assistance would be rewarded by an Arab empire encompassing the entire span between Egypt and Persia, with the exception of British possessions and interests in Kuwait, Aden, and the Syrian coast


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: The US State Department quotes an aide-mémoire dated 24 October 1917 given by the Arab Bureau to the American Diplomatic Agency in Cairo confirming that "...Britain, France and Russia agreed to recognize the Sherif as lawful independent ruler of the Hejaz and to use the title of "King of the Hejaz" when addressing him, and a note to this effect was handed to him on December 10, 1916".


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: When Hussein declared himself King of the Hejaz, he also declared himself King of the Arab lands ("malik bilad-al-Arab"). This only aggravated his conflict with Abdulaziz ibn Saud, which was already present because of their differences in religious beliefs and with whom he had fought before the First World War, siding with fellow anti-Saudis, the Ottomans in 1910.


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: On the 2nd of Muharram 1335 (30 October 1916), Emir Abdullah called a meeting of "majlis" where he read a letter in which "Husayn ibn Ali was recognized as sovereign of the Arab nation. Then all those present arose and proclaimed him "Malik al-Arab", King of the Arabs."


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: In April 1918, as part of his conquest of the Syrian territories in which the Armenian genocide took place, he issued a decree to protect Armenians from persecution and allow them to settle in peace, in which he ordered :


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: "What is requested of you is to protect and to take good care of everyone from the Jacobite Armenian community living in your territories and frontiers and among your tribes; to help them in all of their affairs and defend them as you would defend yourselves, your properties and children, and provide everything they might need whether they are settled or moving from place to place, because they are the Protected People of the Muslims (Ahl Dimmat al-Muslimin) — about whom the Prophet Muhammad (may God grant him His blessings and peace) said: "Whosoever takes from them even a rope, I will be his adversary on the day of Judgment." This is among the most important things we require of you to do and expect you to accomplish, in view of your noble character and determination."


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: The Armenian National Institute considers it to be the oldest declaration by a head of state to recognize the Armenian genocide.


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: In the aftermath of the war, the Arabs found themselves freed from centuries of Ottoman rule. Hussein's son Faisal was made King of Syria, but this kingdom proved short-lived, as the Middle East came under mandate rule of France and the United Kingdom. The British Government subsequently made Faisal and his brother Abdullah kings of Iraq and Transjordan, respectively.


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: In January and February 1918, Hussein received the Hogarth Message and Bassett Letter in response to his requests for an explanation of the Balfour Declaration and Sykes-Picot Agreement respectively.


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: Having received a British subsidy totalling £6.5m between 1916 and April 1919, in May 1919, the subsidy was reduced to £100K monthly (from £200K), dropped to £75K from October, £50K in November, £25K in December until February 1920 after which no more payments were made.


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: In 1919, King Hussein refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. In August 1920, five days after the signing of the Treaty of Sèvres, Curzon asked Cairo to procure Hussein's signature to both treaties and agreed to make a payment of £30,000 conditional on signature. Hussein declined and in 1921, stated that he could not be expected to "affix his name to a document assigning Palestine to the Zionists and Syria to foreigners."


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: However, even after an assurance by McMahon, Hussein did not receive the lands promised by their British allies. McMahon claimed that the proposed lands to be taken in by the new Arab State were not purely Arab. In actuality, McMahon refused to hand over the new lands as the areas in question had already been claimed by the new British ally, France.


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: Two days after the Caliphate was abolished by the Turkish Grand National Assembly on 3 March 1924, Hussein declared himself Caliph at his son Abdullah's winter camp in Shunah, Transjordan. The claim to the title had a mixed reception, and Hussein was soon ousted and driven out of Arabia by the Saudis, a rival clan that had no interest in the Caliphate. Abd-ul-aziz ibn Sa'ud defeated Hussein in 1924, but he continued to use the title of Caliph when living in Transjordan. Although the British had supported Hussein from the start of the Arab Revolt and the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence, they elected not to help him to repel the Saudi attack, which eventually took Mecca, Medina, and Jeddah. After his abdication, another of his sons, Ali, briefly assumed the throne of the Hejaz, but then he too had to flee from the encroachment of the Saudi forces. Another of Hussein's sons, Faisal, was briefly King of Syria and later King of Iraq, while Abdullah was Emir.


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: King Hussein was then forced to flee to Amman, Transjordan, where his son Abdullah was Emir. During this period, King Hussein is described as having taken over control that his son wielded, and therefore was sent to live in Aqaba (which was recently transferred from Hijazi to Transjordanian sovereignty by the British). Britain – responding to Ibn Saud's plea that the Sharif be expelled from Aqaba – exiled him from Aqaba to British-controlled Cyprus, where he lived in Nicosia from 1925, with his son Zaid until he was paralyzed by a stroke at age 79 in 1930, and subsequently was allowed to live in Amman, Transjordan.


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: King Hussein died in Amman in 1931 and was buried in Jerusalem: inside the , a building on the Haram esh-Sharif or "Temple Mount", in a walled enclosure decorated with white marble and carpets.


title: Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz

text: On the window above his tomb is written the following inscription: "هذا قبر أمير المؤمنين الحسين بن علي" which means "Here is the tomb of the Commander of the Faithful, Hussein bin Ali".


title: Rod Roddenberry

text: Eugene Wesley "Rod" Roddenberry Jr. (born February 5, 1974) is an American television producer and the chief executive officer of Roddenberry Entertainment. He is the son of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett and is an executive producer on "", "", "", "" and "".


title: Rod Roddenberry

text: Roddenberry was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Majel Barrett and writer and producer Gene Roddenberry, creator of the American science fiction series "Star Trek". Roddenberry went to the John Thomas Dye School in Bel Air and Harvard-Westlake School in North Hollywood. and then attended Hampshire College in the early 1990s.


title: Rod Roddenberry

text: As a young man, Roddenberry was not closely familiar with "Star Trek", having never even watched it. In 1991, when he was 17 years old, his father died, after which he began to examine "Star Trek" and discover "what made the series special" to its fans. Roddenberry struggled initially with his father's near-legendary stature among "Star Trek" fans, commenting: "A son cannot identify with a mythical figure; my father was put up on this pedestal throughout my life." However, as Roddenberry heard many moving stories about his father's flaws and follies, he observed, "That allowed me, as a son, not just to connect with him, but actually love him."


title: Rod Roddenberry

text: In 2001, Roddenberry became chief executive officer of Roddenberry Entertainment, which builds upon his father's work, and develops multimedia science fiction properties including comics, television and film projects.


title: Rod Roddenberry

text: In mid-2009, the "Los Angeles Times" reported that Roddenberry approved of the 2009 "Star Trek" film by J.J. Abrams. Roddenberry opined that the producers and writers "made "Star Trek" cool again" with the film.


title: Rod Roddenberry

text: In 2010, Roddenberry, an avid scuba diver since 1993, founded the Roddenberry Dive Team, to allow people "to embark on undersea experiences and discover the diversity beneath the ocean." Roddenberry leads the dive team in its exploration of underwater worlds and hopes to inspire stewardship of the world's oceans. Roddenberry, who holds a Divemaster certification, has led or participated in more than 1,000 dives from exotic locations around the world.


title: Rod Roddenberry

text: In October 2011, the Roddenberry Foundation, which was founded by Rod Roddenberry, made its largest gift of $5 million to the J. David Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco to establish the Roddenberry Center for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine. The Roddenberry Foundation believes that "the center's innovative technology that converts adult skin cells into life-changing stem cells will radically advance the fight against Alzheimer's and heart disease."


title: Rod Roddenberry

text: Roddenberry started to become directly involved in the Star Trek franchise in 2016 when he signed on as an executive producer of the TV series "".


title: Ariadna Gutiérrez

text: Ariadna María Gutiérrez Arévalo (born 25 December 1993) is a Colombian model, actress, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Colombia 2014. She represented Colombia in the Miss Universe 2015 competition on December 20, 2015, and placed first runner-up after host Steve Harvey mistakenly announced her as the winner. After pageantry, she appeared in the film "" and tied for third place on "Celebrity Big Brother 1".


title: Ariadna Gutiérrez

text: Gutiérrez was born in Sincelejo, Colombia. When she was seven months old, her parents moved to Barranquilla, where she was raised. She studied at the German School of Barranquilla. She is a cousin of Miss Universe 2014 and Miss Colombia 2013 winner Paulina Vega.


title: Ariadna Gutiérrez

text: Gutiérrez was awarded as Señorita Sucre (Miss Sucre Colombia 2014). She was subsequently crowned as Miss Colombia 2014. Currently, she is working as a professional model.


title: Ariadna Gutiérrez

text: Gutiérrez competed at the Miss Colombia 2014, representing the Sucre Department, where she won the title of Miss Colombia, gaining the department's very first win at the Miss Colombia pageant. The version of the pageant she won was its 80th edition held on November 17, 2014, in Cartagena de Indias.


title: Ariadna Gutiérrez

text: Gutiérrez represented Colombia at the 64th Miss Universe pageant and she was mistakenly crowned the winner from her country. However, after Gutiérrez's crowning, Harvey realized that he had misread the result and should have announced her as the 1st runner-up and Pia Wurtzbach of the Philippines as the winner. This was originally the second time having a back-to-back victory after Venezuela in 2008-2009, since Paulina Vega is also from Colombia.


title: Ariadna Gutiérrez

text: Gutiérrez later called the experience "humiliating" and declared that the television producers handled the mistake poorly. At a Colombian radio station, she remarked that it was a "great injustice and very humiliating for me."


title: Ariadna Gutiérrez

text: After pageantry, Gutiérrez appeared the 2017 film "" with American actor Vin Diesel. Gutiérrez later took part in the first American season of the reality show competition "Celebrity Big Brother". She was evicted on finale night, placing tied 3rd/4th with Mark McGrath.


title: Ariadna Gutiérrez

text: Ariadna Gutiérrez was impersonated by James Leyva, stage name "Valentina," on season 9, episode 6 of "RuPaul's Drag Race".


title: Machiko Soga

text: Machiko was born on March 18, 1938, in Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan. She had a humble upbringing and was raised to be a singer, though her talents were with acting. Her mother died when she was a child; she was raised by her father. She had two brothers and a sister. One of her brothers died during the Second World War; the other is still alive. Her father died of cancer in 1991.


title: Machiko Soga

text: She studied at Tokyo Metropolitan Minamitama High School. During high school, she was best at science and mathematics and made her own lotions. She decided to pursue a career in acting to overcome stage fright after she failed a chemistry presentation at school. She later graduated from Tokyo Announce Academy. In 1973, she went to study in Italy for two years.


title: Machiko Soga

text: She was “discovered” after doing a play in Tokyo Center. From that night on, her life would forever change as she met many important figures in the world of Japanese television.


title: Machiko Soga

text: She made her debut on NHK's children's show "Minna issho" in 1956. After taking jazz dance lessons for a number of years, her first roles were mainly radio and voice character roles. After appearing in NHK's radio drama "Chorinmura to Kurumi no Ki" (1961), she gained fame as the first voice actress to portray the lovable ghost Q-taro in "Obake no Q-tarō" (TBS, 1965–1968).


title: Machiko Soga

text: She appeared in numerous "tokusatsu" films and series and played many villainous roles in the Super Sentai franchise such as Queen Hedrian in "Denziman" and "Sun Vulcan". She also appeared in "Maskman" portraying Tube Empire's field commander, Baraba's mother for one episode, as well as the evil sorceress Bandora in "Zyuranger", better known to audiences in English speaking countries as Rita Repulsa in the American adaptation of "Zyuranger", "Power Rangers". In an odd twist, she soon found herself re-dubbing her own lines as Rita when "Power Rangers" was broadcast in Japan after the show became a surprise hit in America. Her final tokusatsu role was Magiel, Queen of the Sky Saints in "Magiranger", which incidentally was one of her few non-villainous roles. In her memory, the producers of "" used footage of Soga as Magiel to depict a reformed Rita Repulsa in the two-part final episode of "Mystic Force", “Mystic Fate”.


title: Machiko Soga

text: In 1983, she opened an antiques shop in Harajuku, Tokyo, as a side-business alongside her acting career, inspired by her antique art collection hobby.


title: Machiko Soga

text: Her very final role was in the PlayStation 2 game "Space Sheriff Spirits" as the voice and the “face” of Ankoku Ginga Jyoou (Dark Galaxy Queen), last boss and original character of this game inspired to the 80s Metal Hero series. Soga also played the voices of Cyborg 007 in the 1968 "Cyborg 009" anime series and the sidekick Ball Boy in 1984 series "Machineman". Machiko also ran her own shop, selling jewellery, antique clothing, and tapestries among other goods.


title: Machiko Soga

text: In early August 2005, it was revealed that she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about two years earlier. On the morning of May 7, 2006, she was found dead by a friend visiting her home. She was 68 years old. Her interment was in Fuchū, Tokyo's Tama Cemetery.


title: Patrick O'Neal (actor)

text: Patrick Wisdom O'Neal (September 26, 1927 – September 9, 1994) was an American actor and restaurateur.


title: Patrick O'Neal (actor)

text: O'Neal was born in Ocala, Florida, to Martha and Coke Wisdom O'Neal. He attended the Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Georgia, and Ocala High School. Upon graduation, he enrolled at the University of Florida in Gainesville where he majored in drama. During college, O'Neal joined the Florida Players, a theatre troupe. He was also a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and was the editor of the university yearbook. After earning a bachelor's degree, O'Neal enlisted in the United States Air Force and served during the Korean War. During the war, he directed short training films. After 15 months' service, he moved to New York and studied at the Actors Studio and Neighborhood Playhouse.


title: Patrick O'Neal (actor)

text: O'Neal was seen mostly as a guest star on television throughout four decades, beginning in the 1950s. In the early 1960s, he received critical praise for his leading role on Broadway in Tennessee Williams' "The Night of the Iguana", but the starring role for the 1964 film version went to Richard Burton. In 1969, he had a leading role in John Huston's "The Kremlin Letter" and a supporting role in the western "El Condor". He appeared in the 1973 hit "The Way We Were". In 1972, he portrayed a murderous architect in the "Columbo" episode "Blueprint for Murder" and in 1978, on the same show, he played a television network executive in the episode "Make Me a Perfect Murder". In 1990, he played the corrupt Police Commissioner Kevin Quinn in Sidney Lumet's "Q&A".


title: Patrick O'Neal (actor)

text: With his wife and his brother Michael, O'Neal co-owned a number of successful restaurants beginning in 1963, including "The Ginger Man" on West 64th St. (later renamed O'Neal's); "O'Neal's" on West 57th St., briefly the flagship of an O'Neal's chain; "The Landmark Tavern" on 11th Avenue; and “O’Neal’s Saloon” at West 63rd St. and Columbus Ave., soon retitled "O'Neal's Baloon" (because the word “Saloon” had been outlawed during Prohibition but the neon sign for Saloon had already been created). All were located on the West Side of Manhattan.


title: Patrick O'Neal (actor)

text: O'Neal married actress Cynthia Baxter in 1956. They had two sons, Maximilian and Fitzjohn, and remained married until O'Neal's death.


title: Patrick O'Neal (actor)

text: O'Neal died on September 9, 1994, of respiratory failure at Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center in Manhattan, 17 days short of his 67th birthday. At the time of his death, he was also suffering from lung cancer and tuberculosis.


title: CKY crew

text: The Camp Kill Yourself crew (referred to as the CKY crew) was a group of friends and relatives centered around television personality and skateboarder Bam Margera, many of whom are from or located in and around West Chester, Pennsylvania. The crew was active from "Landspeed presents: CKY" (1999) to "" (2009). Some members of the crew were skateboarders, while others were involved either on-camera or behind-the-scenes in Margera's various projects such as the "CKY" videos, "Jackass", "Viva La Bam", "", "Bam's Unholy Union", "", and "Radio Bam".


title: CKY crew

text: The CKY crew was closely linked to the band CKY, which features Bam's brother Jess Margera on drums. Music by the band was often featured in video projects members of the crew were involved with.


title: CKY crew

text: In 2011, a few members of the crew briefly reunited for MTV's tribute to the late Ryan Dunn. Bam Margera, Jess Margera, Rake Yohn, and Chris Raab were all featured in the special.


title: CKY crew

text: On November 2, 2014, MTV aired a special called "CKY: The Greatest Hits". It featured new interviews with Bam Margera, Jess Margera, Rake Yohn, Chris Raab, April Margera, Phil Margera, Dave Battaro and Joe Frantz. With special appearances from Johnny Knoxville, Jeff Tremaine, Kerry Getz and Tim O'Connor. The special also featured unreleased footage documenting the series as a whole. It was directed by longtime CKY crew member and cinematographer Joe Frantz.


title: CKY crew

text: In 2018, Chris Raab featured many of the crew members on his "Bathroom Break" podcast. Guests included: Brandon Novak, Joe Frantz, Bam Margera, Rake Yohn, Deron Miller, April Margera, Phil Margera, Jess Margera, Dave Battaro and Vernon Zaborowski. Brandon DiCamillo reportedly declined to appear.


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: Lisa LaFlamme (born July 25, 1964) is a Canadian television journalist, and formerly the chief anchor and senior editor of "CTV National News". She replaced Lloyd Robertson in this role on September 5, 2011. LaFlamme previously served as the news international affairs correspondent and substitute host for "CTV National News". In August 2022, CTV announced it was ending her contract, due to a "business decision" to take the programme in a "different direction". LaFlamme spoke out publicly regarding her dismissal, and went viral on social media when she claimed she was "blindsided" by the decision.


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: Following her departure from CTV, Rogers Media announced on September 9, 2022 that it had hired LaFlamme as a special correspondent to cover the death and funeral of Elizabeth II for "CityNews".


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: LaFlamme was born in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, to David and Kathleen LaFlamme. She graduated from St. Mary's High School and then from the University of Ottawa.


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: LaFlamme began her career at CTV's Kitchener affiliate CKCO in 1989 as a copy writer and script assistant. She moved on to become an anchor in 1997. Past roles include serving as the co-host on "Canada AM" between 2001 and 2003, as a parliamentary reporter, and on CTV NEWSNET (now CTV News Channel).


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: LaFlamme joined "CTV National News" in 2003 as a foreign correspondent as well as back-up anchor to Lloyd Robertson. She covered many international events and conflicts: the September 11 attacks and the subsequent Iraq War, the War in Afghanistan, the Arab Spring in Cairo, Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005 and the election of Pope Francis in 2013. LaFlamme has also covered every Canadian federal election since 1997, and every Olympic Games since 2006, most recently, the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics and the London 2012 Summer Olympics. Also from London, she covered the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2012, the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, and the royal weddings of both Prince William and Catherine Middleton and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: Laflamme has interviewed many Canadian figures, such as former Prime Ministers Paul Martin, Jean Chrétien, and Brian Mulroney, Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen Harper, plus current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his mother Margaret Trudeau, members of the Canadian royal family, such as Prince Andrew, the Duchess of York, and Prince Harry, the latter for the Toronto's Invictus Games and during the London Olympics, as well as foreign celebrities like Sir Paul McCartney. She has also interviewed: Boris Johnson (mayor of London at the time), Conrad Black (former businessman), Colin Powell, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Benjamin Netanyahu, John Kerry, and Alex Trebek.


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: After Robertson's departure in September 2011, LaFlamme was promoted to sole anchor in his place. In June 2022, LaFlamme was informed her contract would not be renewed by Bell Media, the parent company of CTV, and that she would be replaced as anchor by Omar Sachadena.


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: On August 15, 2022, LaFlamme posted a video on Twitter explaining that her contract had been terminated, saying she was "blindsided" by Bell Media's decision. According to Jesse Brown of Canadaland, LaFlamme was ousted by Michael Melling, a Bell Media Vice President; the two apparently had a disagreement over the budget to cover the Ukrainian-Russian conflict. According to internal sources, while Melling made the decision, it received approval from Karine Moses, senior vice-president of content development and news, Wade Oosterman, president of Bell Media, and Mirko Bibic, president and CEO of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada. Bibic later stated "We are at a crossroads where viewing behaviours have changed dramatically and traditional broadcasting is under severe stress worldwide. In an environment of declining ratings and global online platforms, we can’t keep relying on traditional broadcasting. The days when viewers wait until 11 PM to get their news are gone. While some may resist change, it is necessary and we need to confront this. The CTV national news team needs to work on an integrated and aligned basis, dedicated to a common strategy and Bell Media needs to provide our journalists with the resources they need on all platforms where news is consumed". Among other changes, this realignment would mean that a breaking news story would no longer be covered on CTV National News first, instead it would be published on the CTV News website. In addition LaFlamme was likely a target for those advocating cost-cutting at Bell Canada since she "had a legacy contract that paid way more than the current market rate".


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: Moses said that LaFlamme was given the opportunity to have a "proper on-air sendoff," but "opted not to say goodbye to the public," and noted that LaFlamme "was offered many options to come back and to do many things, which she declined, and I respect that." LaFlamme's announcement of her departure via Twitter was considered "quick, cold, and calculating", and some former CTV colleagues noted that LaFlamme and senior producer Rosa Hwang had created a toxic work environment. In addition, LaFlamme's standing among Bell executives likely declined due to incorrect reporting that caused Patrick Brown to resign as Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Party leader, as Brown filed a libel lawsuit against CTV that was only recently settled.


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: "The Guardian" correspondent Leyland Cecco reported on accusations of misogyny, sexism and ageism and "furore over LaFlamme's termination" in the public debate. Bell Media published a statement that they would be "taking steps to initiate an independent, third-party internal workplace review." Robyn Doolittle of "The Globe and Mail" alleges a "senior CTV official" told her they witnessed a meeting where "Mr. Melling asked who had approved the decision to 'let Lisa’s hair go grey.' The issue of Ms. LaFlamme’s hair colour came up again on set one day, when he noted that it was taking on a purple hue in the studio lighting." Carol Off and Melissa Fung have argued that LaFlamme's firing was an example of sexism. On August 26, Melling went on leave, effective immediately, to "spend time with his family"; BCE Inc.'s chief executive officer, Mirko Bibic, contradicted CTV's explanation, stating that the leave was "pending the outcome of the workplace review that is proceeding." Journalists within the CTV newsroom issued a letter to Bibic, BCE's board of directors, and president "expressing a lack of confidence in Mr. Melling's leadership", "serious concerns" over LaFlamme's dismissal, and "toxic work culture that has developed at CTV over the past eight months." On December 19, 2022, the independent review concluded with Melling being reassigned away from CTV's news division, citing a need for civility, respect, and better working conditions in the newsroom.


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: On August 25, the Canadian branch of the Wendy's restaurant chain changed the hair of their girl mascot from red to gray in support of LaFlamme. Dove Canada did not mention LaFlamme explicitly but urged its followers to turn their pictures to grayscale in support of graying women, and announced a $100,000 donation to Catalyst, an organization for inclusive workplaces. The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Twitter account retweeted the cover of its Maye Musk issue, who also has gray hair, and mentioned its support for the Dove campaign.


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: On September 9, 2022, Rogers Media announced that it had hired LaFlamme as a special correspondent to cover the death of Queen Elizabeth II and her legacy. She will report from London for "CityNews" and its platforms.


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: LaFlamme volunteers with Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) and has travelled with the organization to the Democratic Republic of Congo to mentor and train young journalists. She has championed a program that allows eligible CTV News staff journalists to participate in JHR missions around the world. LaFlamme is also an ambassador of PLAN International, travelling to remote areas to promote child rights, and she volunteers with Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, which works to advance education and educational opportunities for Afghan women and their families.


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: LaFlamme has had five Gemini award nominations in the Best News Anchor category and several RTDNA awards, as well as a 1999 Galaxi Award from the Canadian Cable Television Association.


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: In March 2014, LaFlamme won a Canadian Screen Award for 'Best National Newscast' and 'Best News Anchor' for CTV National News. In 2016, she was made a member of the Order of Ontario. In 2019, Lisa was named an officer of the Order of Canada.


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: In late June 2019, an announcement stated that LaFlamme was one of 83 Canadians named Officer of the Order of Canada (O.C.). A news report stated that this honour "recognizes LaFlamme for her contributions to journalism and news broadcasting, as well as her support and promotion of human rights".


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: Her honorary degrees include: University of Windsor (2018), University of Ottawa (2014), and Wilfrid Laurier University (2006).


title: Lisa LaFlamme

text: In 2022, LaFlamme was named as one of the "50 Most Influential Torontonians" in the annual "Toronto Life" list.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Black Hawk, born Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak (Sauk: Mahkatêwe-meshi-kêhkêhkwa) (1767 – October 3, 1838), was a Sauk leader and warrior who lived in what is now the Midwestern United States. Although he had inherited an important historic sacred bundle from his father, he was not a hereditary civil chief. Black Hawk earned his status as a war chief or captain by his actions: leading raiding and war parties as a young man and then a band of Sauk warriors during the Black Hawk War of 1832.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: During the War of 1812, Black Hawk fought on the side of the British against the US in the hope of pushing white American settlers away from Sauk territory. Later, he led a band of Sauk and Fox warriors, known as the British Band, against white settlers in Illinois and present-day Wisconsin during the 1832 Black Hawk War. After the war, he was captured by US forces and taken to the Eastern US, where he and other war leaders were taken on a tour of several cities.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Shortly before being released from custody, Black Hawk told his story to an interpreter. Aided also by a newspaper reporter, he published "Autobiography of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk, Embracing the Traditions of his Nation..." in 1833. The first Native American autobiography to be published in the US, his book became an immediate bestseller and has gone through several editions. Black Hawk died in 1838, at age 70 or 71, in what is now southeastern Iowa. He has been honored by an enduring legacy: his book, many eponyms, and other tributes.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Black Hawk, or Black Sparrow Hawk (Sauk Ma-kat-tai-me-she-kia-kiak ["Mahkate:wi-meši-ke:hke:hkwa"], "be a large black hawk") was born in 1767 in the village of "Saukenuk" on the Rock River (present-day Rock Island, Illinois). Black Hawk's father "Pyesa" was the tribal medicine man of the Sauk people.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Little is known about Black Hawk's youth. He was said to be a descendant of "Nanamakee" (Thunder), a Sauk chief who, according to tradition, met an early French explorer, possibly Samuel de Champlain. At about age 15, Black Hawk distinguished himself by wounding an enemy and was placed in the ranks of the braves. Shortly after this Black Hawk accompanied his father Pyesa on a raid against the Osage. He won approval by killing and scalping his first enemy. The young Black Hawk tried to establish himself as a war captain by leading other raids. He had limited success until, at about age 19, he led 200 men in a battle against the Osage, in which he personally killed five men and one woman. Soon after, he joined his father in a raid against Cherokee along the Meramec River in Missouri. After Pyesa died from wounds received in the battle, Black Hawk inherited the Sauk sacred bundle which his father had carried, giving him an important role in the tribe.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: After an extended period of mourning for his father, Black Hawk resumed leading raiding parties over the next years, usually targeting the traditional enemy, the Osage. Black Hawk did not belong to a clan that provided the Sauk with hereditary civil leaders, or "chiefs." He achieved status through his exploits as a warrior and by leading successful raiding parties. Men like Black Hawk are sometimes called "war chiefs," but historian Patrick Jung writes, "It is more accurate to call them 'war leaders' since the nature of their office and the power that it wielded was much different from that of a civil chief." Twenty-first-century historians such as John W. Hall have suggested the term "war captain" for this role.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: During the War of 1812, Black Hawk, now 45, served as a war leader of a Sauk band at their village of Saukenuk, which fielded about 200 warriors. He supported the invalidity of Quashquame's Treaty of St. Louis (1804) between the Sauk and Fox nations and then-Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory that ceded territory, including Saukenuk, to the United States. The Sauk and Fox are consensus-based decision makers and those representatives sent to the meeting with the US government did not have the power to cede tribal territory, although Quashquame did. The lack of the consensus aspect by each of the Sauk and Fox councils meant that the treaty could never be considered valid by Black Hawk and other traditionalists. Black Hawk took part in skirmishes against US forces at the newly constructed Fort Madison in the disputed land; this was the first time he fought directly against the U.S. Army.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: During the War of 1812, forces of Great Britain and its colonies in present-day Canada were engaged against those of the U.S., with major battles on the Great Lakes and surrounding remote lands. The British depended upon alliances with the Native American population to wage war in this area since the British were occupied with Napoleon in Europe. Robert Dickson, a Scottish fur trader, amassed a sizable force of Native Americans at Green Bay to assist the British in operations around the Great Lakes. Most were from the Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Kickapoo, and Ottawa tribes. Black Hawk and his band of about 200 Sauk warriors were included in this group of allies.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Dickson commissioned Black Hawk at the rank of brevet Brigadier General, with command over all native allies at Green Bay and presented him with a silk flag, a medal, and a written certificate of good behavior and alliance with the British. The war leader preserved the certificate for 20 years; it was found by US forces after the Battle of Bad Axe, along with a flag similar in description to that Dickson gave to Black Hawk.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: During the war, Black Hawk and Native warriors fought in several engagements alongside Major-General Henry Procter on the borders of Lake Erie. Black Hawk was at the Battle of Frenchtown, Fort Meigs, and the attack on Fort Stephenson. The United States Army was able to inflict a significant defeat on Tecumseh's Confederacy by killing Tecumseh during the war.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Black Hawk despaired over the many lives lost in the fighting; soon after, he quit the war to return home. Back in Saukenuk, he found that his rival "Keokuk" had become the tribe's war chief. Black Hawk rejoined the British effort toward the end of the war, fighting alongside British forces in campaigns along the Mississippi River near the Illinois Territory. At the Battle of Credit Island and by harassing U.S. troops at Fort Johnson, Black Hawk helped the British to push the Americans out of the upper Mississippi River valley.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Black Hawk fought in the Battle of the Sink Hole (May 1815), leading an ambush on a group of Missouri Rangers. Conflicting accounts of the action were given by the Missouri leader John Shaw and by Black Hawk.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: After the end of the War of 1812, Black Hawk signed a peace treaty in May 1816 that re-affirmed the treaty of 1804. Later he said he was not aware of this stipulation.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: As a consequence of the 1804 treaty, the Sauk and Fox tribes had ceded their lands in Illinois and in 1828 were removed west of the Mississippi. Black Hawk and other tribal members disputed the treaty, as noted above, and said leaders had signed it without full tribal authorization. Angered by the loss of his birthplace, between 1830 and 1831 Black Hawk led a number of incursions across the Mississippi River to Illinois. He was persuaded to return west each time without bloodshed.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: In April 1832, encouraged by promises of alliance with other tribes and with Britain, he moved his so-called "British Band" of more than 1500 people, both warriors and non-combatants, into Illinois. Finding no allies, he tried to return to Iowa, but the undisciplined Illinois militia provoked open attack at the Battle of Stillman's Run. A number of other violent engagements followed. The governors of Michigan Territory and Illinois mobilized their militias to hunt down Black Hawk's Band. These actions led to the last Native American War fought on the east side of the Mississippi River. The conflict became known as the Black Hawk War.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: When Black Hawk entered Illinois in April, his British Band was composed of about 500 warriors and 1,000 old men, women, and children. The group included members of the Sauk, Fox and Kickapoo tribes. They crossed the river near the mouth of the Iowa River and followed the Rock River northeast. Along the way, they passed the ruins of Saukenuk and headed for the village of Ho-Chunk prophet White Cloud.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: As the war progressed, factions of other tribes joined, or tried to join Black Hawk. Other Native Americans and settlers carried out acts of violence for personal reasons amidst the chaos of the war. In one example, a band of hostile Ho-Chunk intent on joining Black Hawk's Band attacked and killed the party of Felix St. Vrain in what Americans knew as the St. Vrain massacre. This act was an exception as most Ho-Chunk sided with the U.S. during the Black Hawk War; the warriors who attacked St. Vrain's party had acted independently of the Ho-Chunk nation. From April to August, Potawatomi warriors also joined with Black Hawk's Band.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: The war stretched from April to August 1832, with a number of battles, skirmishes and massacres on both sides. Black Hawk led his men in another conflict, the Battle of Wisconsin Heights. Afterward, the Illinois and Michigan Territory militias caught up with Black Hawk's "British Band" for the final confrontation at Bad Axe. At the mouth of the Bad Axe River, pursuing soldiers, their Indian allies, and a U.S. gunboat killed hundreds of Sauk and Potawatomi men, women and children. On August 27, 1832, Black Hawk and "Wabokieshiek" asked to surrender to the Indian agent Joseph Street but were instead taken to Zachary Taylor. They surrendered to Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, future president of the Confederacy, after hiding on an unnamed island in the Mississippi River.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Following the war, with most of the British Band killed and the rest captured or disbanded, the defeated Black Hawk was held in captivity at Jefferson Barracks near Saint Louis, Missouri together with Neapope, White Cloud, and eight other leaders. After eight months, in April 1833 they were taken east, as ordered by U.S. President Andrew Jackson. The men were taken by steamboat, carriage, and railroad, and met with large crowds wherever they went. Jackson wanted them to be impressed with the power of the United States. Once in Washington, D.C., they met with Jackson and Secretary of War Lewis Cass. Afterward, they were delivered to their final destination, prison at Fortress Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. They were held only a few weeks at the prison, during which they posed for portraits by different artists.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: On June 5, 1833, the men were sent west by steamboat on a circuitous route that took them through many large cities. Again, the men were a spectacle everywhere they went, and were greeted by huge crowds of people in cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. In the west, closer to the battle sites and history of conflict, the reception was much different. For instance, in Detroit, a crowd burned and hanged effigies of the prisoners.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Near the end of his captivity in 1833, Black Hawk told his life story to Antoine LeClaire, a government interpreter. Edited by the local reporter J.B. Patterson, Black Hawk's account was one of the first Native American autobiographies published in the U.S. The book immediately became a best seller and has gone through numerous editions. In its time, it was not without controversy. Thomas Ford, governor of Illinois, disliked Black Hawk, Le Claire, and George Davenport, and believed that Black Hawk had little to do with the writing of his autobiography, dismissing the book as a "catch-penny publication."


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Although not a hereditary chief, Black Hawk filled a leadership void within the Sauk community. When Quashquame ceded much of the Sauk homeland in 1804 to the United States, including the main village Saukenuk, he was viewed as ineffective. Black Hawk wrote in his autobiography:


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Because of his role in the disputed 1804 treaty, the tribe reduced its support of "Quashquame" and made him a minor chief. "Quasquawma, was chief of this tribe once, but being cheated out of the mineral country, as the Indians allege, he was denigrated from his rank and his son-in-law Taimah elected in his stead." Although Quashquame and Black Hawk were at odds, the younger man did not directly challenge the civil chief. They apparently remained on good terms as Black Hawk rose in importance and Quashquame faded. Quashquame avoided confrontation with the U.S., while Black Hawk did not. After Black Hawk led an aborted takeover of Fort Madison in the Spring of 1809, Quashquame worked to restore relations with the US Army the next day.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: During the run up to the War of 1812, the US viewed Quashquame as loyal, or at least neutral. They knew Black Hawk led those Sauk warriors allied with the British. Quashquame led all Sauk non-combatants during the war, and they retreated to Saint Louis. Black Hawk thought this was an ideal arrangement:


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: A rift developed among the Sauk after the war. In 1815 Quashquame was part of a large delegation who signed a treaty confirming a split between the Sauk along the Missouri River and the Sauk who lived along the Rock River at Saukenuk. The Rock River group of Sauk was commonly known as the British Band; their warriors were the core of those Sauk who participated in the Black Hawk War. About 1824, Quashquame sold a large Sauk village in Illinois to a trader Captain James White. White gave Quashquame "a little 'sku-ti-apo' [liquor] and two thousand bushels of corn" for the land, which later was developed as Nauvoo, Illinois. This land sale likely aggravated Black Hawk and other Sauk who wanted to maintain their claim on Illinois.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: As Quashquame was eclipsed by his son-in-law "Taimah" as the Sauk chief favored by the U.S., his compromise position lost standing compared to Black Hawk's resistance. When Caleb Atwater wrote about his visit to Quashquame in 1829, he depicted the leader as feeble, more interested in art and leisure than politics, but still advocating diplomacy over conflict. In the summer of 1830, Black Hawk began his incursions into the disputed territory of Illinois, which eventually leading to the Black Hawk War.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Black Hawk's frequent rival was "Keokuk", a Sauk war chief held in high esteem by the U.S. government. Officials believed that he was calm and reasonable, willing to negotiate, unlike Black Hawk. Black Hawk despised Keokuk, and viewed him as cowardly and self-serving, at one point threatening to kill him for not defending Saukenuk. After the Black Hawk War, US officials designated Keokuk as the main Sauk leader and would only deal with him.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: After his tour of the east, Black Hawk lived with the Sauk along the Iowa River and later the Des Moines River near Iowaville in what is now southeast Iowa. At the end of his life, he tried to reconcile both with American settlers and with his Sauk rivals, including Keokuk. He spent some time in Burlington, Iowa in the home of businessman and legislator Jeremiah Smith, Jr. An attorney with whom he shared a room recalled, "I roomed with Black Hawk for weeks, and observed him carefully and under all circumstances. He was uniformly kind and polite, especially at the table; but often silent, abstracted and melancholy... He presented the noble spectacle of a warrior chief, conquered and disgraced with his tribe by his conquerors; but, resigned to his fate and covered with the scars of many battles, in the spirit of true heroism, breaking bread with and enjoying the hospitality of his destroyers."


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Black Hawk died on October 3, 1838, after two weeks of illness. He was buried on the farm of his friend James Jordan, on the north bank of the Des Moines River in Davis County.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: In July 1839, his remains were stolen by James Turner, who prepared his skeleton for exhibition. Black Hawk's sons Nashashuk and Gamesett went to Governor Robert Lucas of Iowa Territory, who used his influence to bring the bones to security in his offices in Burlington. With the permission of Black Hawk's sons, the remains were held by the Burlington Geological and Historical Society. When the Society's building burned down in 1855, Black Hawk's remains were destroyed.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: An alternative account is that Governor Lucas passed Black Hawk's bones to Enos Lowe, a Burlington physician, who was said to have left them to his partner, Dr. McLaurens. After McLaurens moved to California, workers were reported to have found the bones at his house. They buried the remains in a potter's grave in Aspen Grove Cemetery in Burlington.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: There is a marker for him in the Iowaville Cemetery on the hill over the river, although it is unknown if any of his remains are there.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Though the Sauk practiced plural marriage, Black Hawk had one wife, known as As-she-we-qua (died August 28, 1846), or Singing Bird (her English name was Sarah Baker) with whom he had five children. His oldest son and youngest daughter died in the same year, before 1820, and he mourned their passing following Sauk tradition for two years. According to Sauk tradition, Black Hawk spent these two years of his life mourning the loss of his children by living alone and fasting. His other children were a daughter Namequa (Running Fawn, Ailey Baker was her English name) and his sons Nasheakusk (aka Nashashuk) and Gamesett (aka Nasomsee).


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: Through interpreter Antoine LeClair, Black Hawk dictated an autobiography titled "Life of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak" (or, "Life of Black Hawk"), originally published in 1833.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: A sculpture by Lorado Taft overlooks the Rock River in Oregon, Illinois. Entitled "The Eternal Indian", this statue is commonly known as the Black Hawk Statue. In modern times Black Hawk is considered a tragic hero and numerous commemorations exist. These are mostly in the form of eponyms; many roads, sports teams and schools are named after Black Hawk. Among the numerous wars in United States history, however; the Black Hawk War is one of few named for a person.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: According to a widespread myth, the Olympic gold medal-winning athlete Jim Thorpe was said to be descended from Black Hawk.


title: Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

text: The Wisconsin born African American spiritualist and trance medium Leafy Anderson claimed that Black Hawk was one of her major spirit guides. This spirit's guidance and protection are sought by the members of many churches within the loosely allied Spiritual Church Movement which she founded. Special "Black Hawk services" are held to invoke his assistance, and busts or statues representing him are kept on home and church altars by his devotees.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: Antanas Guoga (born 17 December 1973), more commonly known as Tony G, is a Lithuanian-Australian businessman, poker player, politician and philanthropist. In November 2020, Antanas was elected to the 2020–2024 legislative period of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania in the Labour Party group.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: During 2014–2019 he was a Member of the European Parliament for the Liberal Movement, and from 2016 European Peoples Party. In May 2016, Guoga was the temporary leader of the Liberal Movement following the bribery scandal that prompted Eligijus Masiulis to step down after potentially corrupt activities.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: Guoga spent his childhood in Kaunas and in the Alytus district (Kalesninkai) in Lithuania. When he was 11 years old, he moved to Australia. Guoga lived in Melbourne where he graduated from school, and had various jobs, including repairing sewing machines and washing cars.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: In November 2020 he was elected to the Labour Party Group in the Lithuanian national parliament: the Seimas,


title: Antanas Guoga

text: Activities: Law-making, including consideration of draft legal acts, assessment of legislative proposals and submission of conclusions to the Seimas, drawing of conclusions regarding international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania and other foreign policy matters considered by the Seimas;


title: Antanas Guoga

text: Debates on representation of the Seimas at international organisations, submission of recommendations concerning the activities of the Seimas delegations, co-ordination of activities of the groups for inter-parliamentary relations; parliamentary scrutiny of the ministries and other governmental agencies implementing foreign policy, submission of proposals and recommendations on the improvement of their activities; Cultivation and development of relations, in co-operation with governmental and non-governmental organisations.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: Guoga was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats group in the European Parliament until 4 October 2016. He became a member of the European People's Party which is the biggest party in the Parliament. He worked on a range of digital policies in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO). Guoga was actively involved in a number of Digital Single Market topics. Being an entrepreneur himself, Guoga worked for better conditions for European businesses, especially in the technology sector. These conditions include smarter regulations, less red tape, and policies that encourage innovation and entrepreneurship.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: In 2015 Guoga was chosen as the Lithuanian representative in the POLITICO 28 list. The European affairs weekly newspaper chose one person from each of the European Union's 28 member-states who is "shaping, shaking and stirring Europe."


title: Antanas Guoga

text: Guoga was elected as the vice-chairman of the European Parliament delegation to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, appointed as a member of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, a substitute member of the delegation for relations with Switzerland and Norway in the EU-Iceland Joint Parliamentary Committee and in the European Economic Area (EEA) Joint Parliamentary Committee. He was also a substitute member in the Employment and Social Affairs Committee (EMPL).


title: Antanas Guoga

text: Guoga is Coder Dojo and entrepreneurship education ambassador in Lithuania. In 2016, he launched Coder Dojo movement in Lithuania and was one of the organisers of programming clubs for 7–17 years old youth in the country.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: For four years in a row, 2015, 2016 and 2017 he organized the biggest ICT and entrepreneurship event in the Baltics #SWITCH!


title: Antanas Guoga

text: This event in 4 years has grown by 60% from 6000 participants in 2015 to 15000 in 2018. About 200 speakers from 16 countries already participated in the event. Among them was Vice-President of the European Commission for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip, Vytenis Andriukaits, EC Commissioner and representatives of tech leaders such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Uber, Allegro, Dash, Dell, Oath, Nasdaq, Mastercard, Tele2


title: Antanas Guoga

text: Guoga was nominated as a candidate for the European parliamentary elections at the summer congress of the Liberal Movement in the last week of June 2013.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: Guoga was second in the list of the Lithuanian Liberal Movement in the elections to the European Parliament 2014, and was elected as the MEP with 97,907 votes ending on top of the list.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: After the corruption allegations of Eligijus Masiulis, Guoga became a temporary chairman of the Liberal Movement. After public criticism by the party members, Guoga left the party on 17 May 2016.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: On 9 March 2019 Guoga announced that he would seek re-election to the European Parliament with the Lithuanian Centre Party. The party received 5.13% of the national vote and did not receive any representatives in the European Parliament.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: As a child, Guoga was the Rubik's Cube champion of Lithuania before moving to Melbourne, Australia, at the age of 11. He has played poker since the age of 18, and is known for his outlandish table talk and frequent attempts at intimidation of his opponents. He had a fifth-place finish in the World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris 2003. He finished in the money twice at the 2004 World Series of Poker in Seven-card stud and Pot Limit Texas hold 'em tournaments and three months later earned his then biggest tournament money finish in the WPT Grand Prix de Paris 2004, where his second-place finish to England's Surinder Sunar earned him $414,478. He finished on the bubble later in the same month at the WPT 2004 Mirage Poker Showdown. On 7 August 2005 he won the £5,000 no-limit Texas hold 'em Main Event of the European Poker Championships, earning £260,000 ($456,822). Later in 2005, he made the final table of the World Speed Poker Open.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: In 2006, he won the WPT Bad Boys of Poker II event when his outdrew Mike Matusow's on a board of . He wore a kimono throughout the event to promote poker in Japan. Also in 2006, he finished second to Yosh Nakano while representing Australia in the inaugural Intercontinental Poker Championship, taking down $150,000. True to his reputation, Tony G launched many verbal assaults against his opponents, most notably when he eliminated Russian Ralph Perry in fourth place. Tony G started to provoke Perry when he was deciding how to play his hand before the flop. When Perry called Tony G's all-in with a worse hand, Tony G proceeded to ridicule and lecture him. Tony's comments were so scathing that it prompted commentator Gabe Kaplan to quip "I think Tony G is speaking more like a Lithuanian than an Australian" and "Tony G could singlehandedly reignite the Cold War". Guoga was more respectful of some other players, such as Doyle Brunson, calling Doyle his idol after eliminating him.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: In November 2006, he won the Asian Poker Tour event held in Singapore, walking away with $451,700, half of which he indicated he will give to Asian and Australian charities to be nominated by Betfair. In February 2007, he appeared on the NBC television program "Poker After Dark", coming in third place behind winner Phil Ivey. In November of the same year, he won a tournament in Moscow, earning $205,000. Often telling his opponents that he has a "big heart", Guoga claims that he left all of his prize money with the officials to give to Russian orphanages, having been inspired to do so by Barry Greenstein's habit of donating all his poker tournament winnings to charity. In January 2008, Guoga received the Shining World Leadership Award in Melbourne Australia. As of 2011, his total live tournament winnings exceed $4,000,000. His 15 cashes at the WSOP account for $429,897 of those winnings. Guoga is also the principal owner of a network of high-traffic poker information sites, including Pokernews.com, Pokeraffiliateworld.com and Pokerworks.com.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: Tony G occasionally plays high-stakes cash game poker. In 2018, he took part in the PartyPoker "The Big Game" High Stake PLO cash game alongside poker pros like Isildur1, Sam Trickett and casino owner, Rob Yong.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: Guoga is currently a major sponsor of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation. When the country's national team failed to directly qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey and had to apply for a wild-card entry, he paid a large share of the application fee of €500,000. The team was chosen for the tournament, and won the bronze medal with TONYBET printed on their jerseys. He was the national basketball team's manager from 2010 until 2012 and served as the vice-president of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation. He was also the main sponsor of BC Prienai, a professional basketball club.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: Guoga is director and CEO of Cypherpunk Holdings. On September 30, 2021 Tony Guoga announced that Cypherpunk Holdings has acquired two million shares of Animoca Brands for approximately $2.055 million Canadian dollars.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: In November 2017 an investigation conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism cited his name in the list of politicians named in "Paradise Papers" allegations.


title: Antanas Guoga

text: Since 2014, Guoga has been married to Aistė Šlapokaitė, a former psychology student and a photo model for clothing brands like Armani Jeans, Prada and Max Mara. Guoga and Šlapokaitė met during her 30th birthday celebrations in a Vilnius night club. Together they have two sons (Herkus, born in 2015 in Brussels and Tauras, born in 2016 in Vilnius). Guoga also has a son and three daughters from previous relationships.


title: Estate of Michael Jackson

text: The Estate of Michael Jackson is a legal entity established following the death of American singer Michael Jackson for the purpose of administering the property of Jackson, and overseeing the latter's posthumous income. The last will of Jackson was filed by an attorney John Branca at the Los Angeles County courthouse on July 1, 2009. Signed July 7, 2002, it names Branca and accountant John McClain as executors; they were confirmed as such by a Los Angeles judge on July 6, 2009. All assets are given to the (pre-existing) Michael Jackson Family Trust (amended March 22, 2002), the details of which have not been made public. The Associated Press reports that, in 2007, Jackson had a net worth of $236.6 million: $567.6 million in assets, which included Neverland Ranch and his 50% share of Sony/ATV Music Publishing' catalogue, and debts of $331 million. The guardianship of his three children is given to his mother, Katherine, or if she is unable or unwilling, to singer Diana Ross. Jackson's will allocates 20% of his fortune as well as 20% of money made after death to unspecified charities.


title: Estate of Michael Jackson

text: In 2012, in an attempt to end a family dispute, Jackson's brother Jermaine retracted his signature on a public letter criticizing executors of Jackson's estate and his mother's advisers over the legitimacy of his brother's will. T.J. Jackson, son of Tito Jackson, was given co-guardianship of Michael Jackson's children after false reports of Katherine Jackson going missing. Media reports suggested that the settlement of Jackson's estate could last many years. The value of Sony/ATV Music Publishing is estimated by Ryan Schinman, chief of Platinum Rye, to be US$1.5 billion. Shinman's estimate makes Jackson's share of Sony/ATV worth $750 million, from which Jackson would have had an annual income of $80 million. In September 2016, a deal was finalized for Sony's acquisition of Jackson's share of Sony/ATV from the Jackson estate for $750 million.<ref name="Sony Finalizes Acquisition of Michael Jackson Estate's Stake in Sony/ATV Publishing">Ed Christman. , "Billboard", September 30, 2016.</ref>


title: Estate of Michael Jackson

text: In 2016, Jackson's estate earned $825million, the highest yearly amount for a celebrity ever recorded by "Forbes".


title: Estate of Michael Jackson

text: In 2016, "Forbes" estimated annual gross earnings by the Jackson Estate at $825million, the largest ever recorded for a celebrity, mostly due to the sale of the Sony/ATV catalog. In 2018, the figure was $400million. It was the eighth year since his death that Jackson's annual earnings were reported to be over $100million, thus bringing Jackson's postmortem total to $2.4billion. In 2020, "Forbes" recognized Jackson as the top-earning dead celebrity each year since his death except 2012.


title: Estate of Michael Jackson

text: The estate administrators and the IRS estimated portions of the estate differently. The estate argued that its total value was $5.1 million, while the IRS initially estimated the estate's value at more than $500 million and then reduced it to $481.9 million. The IRS also proposed "an additional $197 million in penalties, including a gross valuation misstatement penalty." A major part of the dispute related to the value of Jackson's likeness; the estate claimed a value of just over $2,000; while the IRS initially valued it at over $434 million. Other disputes centered on the value of Jackson's interest in a trust that owns some songs of his and the Beatles; the value of Jackson's share of the Jackson 5 master recordings rights; and the values of various stocks, bonds, and cars owned by Jackson.


title: Estate of Michael Jackson

text: In 2013, the estate filed a U.S. Tax Court petition claiming that the IRS overestimated the value of the estate's assets. In 2021, the Tax Court issued a ruling in favor of the estate, ruling that the estate's total combined value of the estate was $111.5 million and that the value of Jackson's name and likeness was $4 million (not the $61 million estimated by the IRS's outside expert witness).


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: Brilliant blue FCF (Blue 1) is a synthetic organic compound used primarily as a blue colorant for processed foods, medications, dietary supplements, and cosmetics. It is classified as a triarylmethane dye and is known under various names, such as FD&C Blue No. 1 or acid blue 9. It is denoted by E number E133 and has a color index of 42090. It has the appearance of a blue powder and is soluble in water and glycerol, with a maximum absorption at about 628 nanometers. It is one of the oldest FDA-approved color additives and is generally considered nontoxic and safe.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: Brilliant blue FCF is synthetic dye produced by the condensation of 2-formylbenzenesulfonic acid and the appropriate aniline followed by oxidation. It can be combined with tartrazine (E102) to produce various shades of green.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: It is usually a disodium salt. The diammonium salt has CAS number . Calcium and potassium salts are also permitted. It can also appear as an aluminum lake. The chemical formation is CHNNaOS.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: Related dyes are C.I. acid green 3 (CAS#4680-78-8) and acid green 9 (CAS#4857-81-2). In these dyes, the 2-sulfonic acid group is replaced by H and Cl, respectively.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: Many attempts have been made to find similarly colored natural dyes that are as stable as brilliant blue FCF. Blue pigments must possess many chemical traits, including pi-bond conjugation, aromatic rings, heteroatoms and heteroatom groups, and ionic charges in order to absorb low energy red light. Most natural blue dyes are either unstable, blue only in alkaline conditions, or toxic; good candidates for further research into use as natural dyes include anthocyanin and trichotomine derivatives. No replacement for brilliant blue FCF has been found for use in beverages.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: Like many other color additives, the primary use of Blue No. 1 is to correct or enhance natural coloring or to give colorless compounds a vivid hue.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: In the United States, of the two approved blue dyes (the other being Indigo carmine, or FD&C Blue #2), brilliant blue FCF is the more common of the two. As a blue color, brilliant blue FCF is often found in cotton candy, ice cream, canned processed peas, packet soups, bottled food colorings, icings, ice pops, blueberry flavored products, children's medications, dairy products, sweets soft drinks, and drinks, especially the liqueur Blue Curaçao. It is also used in soaps, shampoos, mouthwash and other hygiene and cosmetics applications.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: Brilliant blue FCF is extensively used as a water tracer agent. Due to its ability to retain color for long periods of time, brilliant blue FCF outperforms other dye tracers. Additionally, brilliant blue FCF has a low toxicity level that is favorable for the environment. However, brilliant blue FCF has different impacts on varying soils. Brilliant blue FCF is attracted to and sorbed in acidic soils due to its large size and ionic charge. Soil composition and flow velocity also affect the level of sorption of brilliant blue FCF.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: Brilliant blue FCF dye within beverages items—such as soda—can be used in the blue bottle experiment. In such foods, both the dye and reducing agents are incorporated in the same solution. When the solution is blue, oxygen is present. On the addition of NaOH, a reaction occurs that removes the oxygen, turning the solution clear. The dye turns back to blue once it is reoxidized by swirling the solution, incorporating oxygen from the air as an oxidizing agent.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: The dye is poorly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and 95% of the ingested dye can be found in the feces.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: When applied to the tongue or shaved skin, brilliant blue FCF can be absorbed directly into the bloodstream.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: Due to its nontoxic properties, brilliant blue FCF has been used as a biological stain. When dissolved in an acidic medium, this dye has been used to stain cell walls, bacteria, and fungal cells. The dye does not inhibit the growth of any of these species.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: For similar reasons, brilliant blue FCF is also being utilized in hemostatic medical devices, most notably the Hemopatch—designed to be placed on bleeding tissues and coagulate the blood. A low concentration of brilliant blue FCF is placed on the backside of the Hemopatch at 1 cm increments, allowing surgeons to cut precisely and indicate the side of the Hemopatch that is an active hemostatic agent for correct placement.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: Brilliant blue FCF is an approved food colorant and pharmacologically inactive substance for drug formulations in the EU and the United States. It is also legal in other countries. It has the capacity for inducing allergic reactions in individuals with pre-existing moderate asthma. In 2003, the U.S. FDA issued a public health advisory to warn health care providers of the potential toxicity of this synthetic dye in enteral feeding solutions.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: The following legal limits apply in the EU (E 133) and other countries: 150–300 mg/kg depending on the type of food. Safety limit for foods and drugs: 0.1 mg/day per kg body weight.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: Brilliant blue FCF and similar dyes such as brilliant blue G are inhibitors to purinergic receptors—receptors that are responsible for inflammatory responses and other cell process.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: Scientists who were conducting "in-vivo" studies of compounds to lessen the severity of inflammation following experimental spinal cord injury had previously tested a compound called OxATP to block a key ATP receptor in spinal neurons. However, OxATP has toxic side effects and must be injected directly into the spinal cord; in searching for alternatives they noted that brilliant blue FCF has a similar structure. This led them to test a related dye, brilliant blue G (also known as Coomassie brilliant blue) in rats, which improved recovery from spinal cord injury while temporarily turning them blue.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: When human washed platelets are evaluated using turbidimetry it was found that brilliant blue FCF affects platelet aggregation by blocking the Panx1 channels. These inhibitory effects on collagen-induced shape change and maximal aggregation were shown by high (1 mM) concentrations of the dye but not by lower concentrations (100 μM). The 1 mM effective concentration is 1.59 times greater than the approximately 0.63 mM maximal allowable brilliant blue FCF concentration according to the European Food Safety Authority.


title: Brilliant blue FCF

text: Scientists are performing studies to better understand the effects of brilliant blue FCF during vein graft explantation. Brilliant blue FCF hinders the purinergic receptors, limiting cell proliferation that may lead to intimal hyperplasia. The effects of brilliant blue FCF were tested on rat aortic cells. It was found that brilliant blue FCF had a positive impact in limiting the development of intimal hyperplasia following a vein graft procedure.


title: Haskalah

text: The Haskalah, often termed Jewish Enlightenment (; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Europe and the Muslim world. It arose as a defined ideological worldview during the 1770s, and its last stage ended around 1881, with the rise of Jewish nationalism.


title: Haskalah

text: The "Haskalah" pursued two complementary aims. It sought to preserve the Jews as a separate, unique collective, and it pursued a set of projects of cultural and moral renewal, including a revival of Hebrew for use in secular life, which resulted in an increase in Hebrew found in print. Concurrently, it strove for an optimal integration in surrounding societies. Practitioners promoted the study of exogenous culture, style, and vernacular, and the adoption of modern values. At the same time, economic production, and the taking up of new occupations was pursued. The "Haskalah" promoted rationalism, liberalism, freedom of thought, and enquiry, and is largely perceived as the Jewish variant of the general Age of Enlightenment. The movement encompassed a wide spectrum ranging from moderates, who hoped for maximal compromise, to radicals, who sought sweeping changes.


title: Haskalah

text: In its various changes, the "Haskalah" fulfilled an important, though limited, part in the modernization of Central and Eastern European Jews. Its activists, the Maskilim, exhorted and implemented communal, educational and cultural reforms in both the public and the private spheres. Owing to its dual policies, it collided both with the traditionalist rabbinic elite, which attempted to preserve old Jewish values and norms in their entirety, and with the radical assimilationists who wished to eliminate or minimize the existence of the Jews as a defined collective.


title: Haskalah

text: The Haskalah was multifaceted, with many loci which rose and dwindled at different times and across vast territories. The name "Haskalah" became a standard self-appellation in 1860, when it was taken as the motto of the Odessa-based newspaper "Ha-Melitz", but derivatives and the title "Maskil" for activists were already common in the first edition of "Ha-Meassef" from 1 October 1783: its publishers described themselves as "Maskilim". While Maskilic centres sometimes had loose institutions around which their members operated, the movement as a whole lacked any such.


title: Haskalah

text: In spite of that diversity, the "Maskilim" shared a sense of common identity and self-consciousness. They were anchored in the existence of a shared literary canon, which began to be formulated in the very first Maskilic locus at Berlin. Its members, like Moses Mendelssohn, Naphtali Hirz Wessely, Isaac Satanow and Isaac Euchel, authored tracts in various genres that were further disseminated and re-read among other Maskilim. Each generation, in turn, elaborated and added its own works to the growing body. The emergence of the Maskilic canon reflected the movement's central and defining enterprise, the revival of Hebrew as a literary language for secular purposes (its restoration as a spoken tongue occurred only much later). The Maskilim researched and standardized grammar, minted countless neologisms and composed poetry, magazines, theatrical works and literature of all sorts in Hebrew. Historians described the movement largely as a Republic of Letters, an intellectual community based on printing houses and reading societies.


title: Haskalah

text: The Maskilim's attitude toward Hebrew, as noted by Moses Pelli, was derived from Enlightenment perceptions of language as reflecting both individual and collective character. To them, a corrupt tongue mirrored the inadequate condition of the Jews which they sought to ameliorate. They turned to Hebrew as their primary creative medium. The Maskilim inherited the Medieval Grammarians' – such as Jonah ibn Janah and Judah ben David Hayyuj – distaste of Mishnaic Hebrew and preference of the Biblical one as pristine and correct. They turned to the Bible as a source and standard, emphatically advocating what they termed "Pure Hebrew Tongue" ("S'fat E'ver tzacha") and lambasting the Rabbinic style of letters, which mixed it with Aramaic as a single "Holy Tongue" and often employed loanwords from other languages. Some activists, however, were not averse to using Mishnaic and Rabbinic forms. They also preferred the Sephardi pronunciation, considered more prestigious, to the Ashkenazi one, which was linked with the Jews of Poland, who were deemed backward. The movement's literary canon is defined by a grandiloquent, archaic register copying the Biblical one and often combining lengthy allusions or direct quotes from verses in the prose.


title: Haskalah

text: During a century of activity, the Maskilim produced a massive contribution, forming the first phase of modern Hebrew literature. In 1755, Moses Mendelssohn began publishing "Qohelet Musar" "The Moralist", regarded as the beginning of modern writing in Hebrew and the very first journal in the language. Between 1789 and his death, Naphtali Hirz Wessely compiled "Shirei Tif'eret" "Poems of Glory", an eighteen-part epic cycle concerning Moses that exerted influence on all neo-Hebraic poets in the following generations. was the Haskalah's pioneering playwright, best known for his 1794 epic drama "Melukhat Sha'ul" "Reign of Saul", which was printed in twelve editions by 1888. Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev was the first modern Hebrew grammarian, and beginning with his 1796 manual of the language, he authored books which explored it and were vital reading material for young Maskilim until the end of the 19th century. Solomon Löwisohn was the first to translate Shakespeare into Hebrew, and an abridged form of the "Are at this hour asleep!" monologue in "Henry IV, Part 2" was included in his 1816 lyrical compilation "Melitzat Yeshurun" (Eloquence of Jeshurun).


title: Haskalah

text: Joseph Perl pioneered satirist writings in his biting, mocking critique of Hasidic Judaism, "Megaleh Tmirin" "Revealer of Secrets" from 1819. Avraham Dov Ber Lebensohn was primarily a leading metricist, with his 1842 "Shirei S'fat haQodesh" "Verses in the Holy Tongue" considered a milestone in Hebrew poetry, and also authored biblical exegesis and educational handbooks. Abraham Mapu authored the first Hebrew full-length novel, "Ahavat Zion" "Love of Zion", which was published in 1853 after twenty-three years of work. Judah Leib Gordon was the most eminent poet of his generation and arguably of the "Haskalah" in its entirety. His most famous work was the 1876 epic "Qotzo shel Yodh" (Tittle of a Jot). Mendele Mocher Sforim was during his youth a Maskilic writer but from his 1886 "B-Sether Ra'am" (Hidden in Thunder), he abandoned its strict conventions in favour of a mixed, facile and common style. His career marked the end of the Maskilic period in Hebrew literature and the beginning of the Era of Renaissance. The writers of the latter period lambasted their Maskilic predecessors for their didactic and florid style, more or less paralleling the Romantics' criticism of Enlightenment literature.


title: Haskalah

text: The central platforms of the Maskilic "Republic of Letters" were its great periodicals, each serving as a locus for contributors and readers during the time it was published. The first was the Königsberg (and later Berlin)-based "Ha-Meassef", launched by Isaac Abraham Euchel in 1783 and printed with growing intervals until 1797. The magazine had several dozen writers and 272 subscribers at its zenith, from Shklow in the east to London in the west, making it the sounding board of the Berlin "Haskalah". The movement lacked an equivalent until the appearance of "Bikurei ha-I'tim" in Vienna between 1820 until 1831, serving the Moravian and Galician "Haskalah". That function was later fulfilled by the Prague-based "Kerem Hemed" from 1834 to 1857, and to a lesser degree by "Kokhvei Yizhak", published in the same city from 1845 to 1870. The Russian "Haskalah" was robust enough to lack any single platform. Its members published several large magazines, including the Vilnius-based "Ha-Karmel" (1860–1880), "Ha-Tsefirah" in Warsaw and more, though the probably most influential of them all was "Ha-Melitz", launched in 1860 at Odessa by Aleksander Zederbaum.


title: Haskalah

text: While the partisans of the "Haskalah" were much immersed in the study of sciences and Hebrew grammar, this was not a profoundly new phenomenon, and their creativity was a continuation of a long, centuries-old trend among educated Jews. What truly marked the movement was the challenge it laid to the monopoly of the rabbinic elite over the intellectual sphere of Jewish life, contesting its role as spiritual leadership. In his 1782 circular "Divrei Shalom v'Emeth" (Words of Peace and Truth), Hartwig Wessely, one of the most traditional and moderate "maskilim", quoted the passage from Leviticus Rabbah stating that a Torah scholar who lacked wisdom was inferior to an animal's carcass. He called upon the Jews to introduce general subjects, like science and vernacular language, into their children's curriculum; this "Teaching of Man" was necessarily linked with the "Teaching ("Torah") of God", and the latter, though superior, could not be pursued and was useless without the former.


title: Haskalah

text: Historian Shmuel Feiner discerned that Wessely insinuated (consciously or not) a direct challenge to the supremacy of sacred teachings, comparing them with general subjects and implying the latter had an intrinsic rather than merely instrumental value. He therefore also contested the authority of the rabbinical establishment, which stemmed from its function as interpreters of the holy teachings and their status as the only truly worthy field of study. Though secular subjects could be and were easily tolerated, their elevation to the same level as sacred ones was a severe threat, and indeed mobilized the rabbis against the nascent "Haskalah". The potential of "Words of Peace and Truth" was fully realized later, by the second generation of the movement in Berlin and other radical "maskilim", who openly and vehemently denounced the traditional authorities. The appropriate intellectual and moral leadership needed by the Jewish public in modern times was, according to the "maskilim", that of their own. Feiner noted that in their usurpation of the title of spiritual elite, unprecedented in Jewish history since the dawn of Rabbinic Judaism (various contestants before the Enlightened were branded as schismatics and cast out), they very much emulated the manner in which secular intellectuals dethroned and replaced the Church from the same status among Christians. Thus the "maskilim" generated an upheaval which – though by no means alone – broke the sway held by the rabbis and the traditional values over Jewish society. Combined with many other factors, they laid the path to all modern Jewish movements and philosophies, either those critical, hostile or supportive to themselves.


title: Haskalah

text: The "maskilim" sought to replace the framework of values held by the Ashkenazim of Central and Eastern Europe with their own philosophy, which embraced the liberal, rationalistic notions of the 18th and 19th centuries and cast them in their own particular mold. This intellectual upheaval was accompanied by the desire to practically change Jewish society. Even the moderate "maskilim" viewed the contemporary state of Jews as deplorable and in dire need of rejuvenation, whether in matters of morals, cultural creativity or economic productivity. They argued that such conditions were rightfully scorned by others and untenable from both practical and idealistic perspectives. It was to be remedied by the shedding of the base and corrupt elements of Jewish existence and retention of only the true, positive ones; indeed, the question what those were, exactly, loomed as the greatest challenge of Jewish modernity.


title: Haskalah

text: The more extreme and ideologically-bent came close to the universalist aspirations of the radical Enlightenment, of a world freed of superstition and backwardness in which all humans will come together under the liberating influence of reason and progress. The reconstituted Jews, these radical "maskilim" believed, would be able to take their place as equals in an enlightened world. But all, including the moderate and disillusioned, stated that adjustment to the changing world was both unavoidable and positive in itself.


title: Haskalah

text: "Haskalah" ideals were converted into practical steps via numerous reform programs initiated locally and independently by its activists, acting in small groups or even alone at every time and area. Members of the movement sought to acquaint their people with European culture, have them adopt the vernacular language of their lands, and integrate them into larger society. They opposed Jewish reclusiveness and self-segregation, called upon Jews to discard traditional dress in favour of the prevalent one, and preached patriotism and loyalty to the new centralized governments. They acted to weaken and limit the jurisdiction of traditional community institutions – the rabbinic courts, empowered to rule on numerous civic matters, and the board of elders, which served as lay leadership. The maskilim perceived those as remnants of medieval discrimination. They criticized various traits of Jewish society, such as child marriage – traumatized memories from unions entered at the age of thirteen or fourteen are a common theme in Haskalah literature – the use of anathema to enforce community will and the concentration on virtually only religious studies.


title: Haskalah

text: Maskilic reforms included educational efforts. In 1778, partisans of the movement were among the founders of the Berlin Jewish Free School, or "Hevrat Hinuch Ne'arim" (Society for the Education of Boys), the first institution in Ashkenazi Jewry that taught general studies in addition to the reformulated and reduced traditional curriculum. This model, with different stresses, was applied elsewhere. Joseph Perl opened the first modern Jewish school in Galicia at Tarnopol in 1813, and Eastern European "maskilim" opened similar institutes in the Pale of Settlement and Congress Poland. They all abandoned the received methods of Ashkenazi education: study of the Pentateuch with the archaic "I'vri-Taitsch" (medieval Yiddish) translation and an exclusive focus on the Talmud as a subject of higher learning, all presided over by old-school tutors, "melamdim", who were particularly reviled in maskilic circles. Those were replaced by teachers trained in modern methods, among others in the spirit of German philanthropinism, who sought to acquaint their pupils with refined Hebrew so they may understand the Pentateuch and prayers and thus better identify with their heritage; ignorance of Hebrew was often lamented by "maskilim" as breeding apathy towards Judaism. Far less Talmud, considered cumbersome and ill-suited for children, was taught; elements considered superstitious, like "midrashim", were also removed. Matters of faith were taught in rationalistic spirit, and in radical circles also in a sanitized manner. On the other hand, the curriculum was augmented by general studies like math, vernacular language, and so forth.


title: Haskalah

text: In the linguistic field, the "maskilim" wished to replace the dualism which characterized the traditional Ashkenazi community, which spoke Judaeo-German and its formal literary language was Hebrew, with another: a refined Hebrew for internal usage and the local vernacular for external ones. They almost universally abhorred Judaeo-German, regarding it as a corrupt dialect and another symptom of Jewish destitution – the movement pioneered the negative attitude to Yiddish which persisted many years later among the educated – though often its activists had to resort to it for lack of better medium to address the masses. Aaron Halle-Wolfssohn, for example, authored the first modern Judaeo-German play, "Leichtsinn und Frömmelei" (Rashness and Sanctimony) in 1796. On the economic front, the "maskilim" preached productivization and abandonment of traditional Jewish occupations in favour of agriculture, trades and liberal professions.


title: Haskalah

text: In matters of faith (which were being cordoned off into a distinct sphere of "religion" by modernization pressures) the movement's partisans, from moderates to radicals, lacked any uniform coherent agenda. The main standard through which they judged Judaism was that of rationalism. Their most important contribution was the revival of Jewish philosophy, rather dormant since the Italian Renaissance, as an alternative to mysticist "Kabbalah" which served as almost the sole system of thought among Ashkenazim and an explanatory system for observance. Rather than complex allegorical exegesis, the "Haskalah" sought a literal understanding of scripture and sacred literature. The rejection of "Kabbalah", often accompanied with attempts to refute the ancientness of the "Zohar", were extremely controversial in traditional society; apart from that, the "maskilim" had little in common. On the right-wing were conservative members of the rabbinic elite who merely wanted a rationalist approach, and on the extreme left some ventured far beyond the pale of orthodoxy towards Deism.


title: Haskalah

text: Another aspect was the movement's attitude to gender relations. Many of the "maskilim" were raised in the rabbinic elite, in which (unlike among the poor Jewish masses or the rich communal wardens) the males were immersed in traditional studies and their wives supported them financially, mostly by running business. Many of the Jewish enlightened were traumatized by their own experiences, either of assertive mothers or early marriage, often conducted at the age of thirteen. Bitter memories from those are a common theme in "maskilic" autobiographies. Having imbibed the image of European bourgeoisie family values, many of them sought to challenge the semi-matriarchal order of rabbinic families – which combined a lack of Jewish education for women with granting them the status of providers – early marriage, and rigid modesty. Instead, they insisted that men become economically productive while confining their wives to the home environment but also granting them proper religious education, a reversal of what was customary among Jews, copying Christian attitudes at the time.


title: Haskalah

text: The "Haskalah" was also mainly a movement of transformation, straddling both the declining traditional Jewish society of autonomous community and cultural seclusion and the beginnings of a modern Jewish public. As noted by Feiner, everything connected with the "Haskalah" was dualistic in nature. The Jewish Enlighteners pursued two parallel agendas: they exhorted the Jews to acculturate and harmonize with the modern state, and demanded that the Jews remain a distinct group with its own culture and identity. Theirs was a middle position between Jewish community and surrounding society, received mores and modernity. Sliding away from this precarious equilibrium, in any direction, signified also one's break with the Jewish Enlightenment.


title: Haskalah

text: Virtually all "maskilim" received old-style, secluded education, and were young Torah scholars before they were first exposed to outside knowledge (from a gender perspective, the movement was almost totally male-dominated; women did not receive sufficient tutoring to master Hebrew). For generations, Mendelssohn's Bible translation to German was employed by such young initiates to bridge the linguistic gap and learn a foreign language, having been raised on Hebrew and Yiddish only. The experience of abandoning one's sheltered community and struggle with tradition was a ubiquitous trait of "maskilic" biographies. The children of these activists almost never followed their parents; they rather went forward in the path of acculturation and assimilation. While their fathers learned the vernaculars late and still consumed much Hebrew literature, the little available material in the language did not attract their offspring, who often lacked a grasp of Hebrew due to not sharing their parents' traditional education. "Haskalah" was, by and large, a unigenerational experience.


title: Haskalah

text: In the linguistic field, this transitory nature was well attested. The traditional Jewish community in Europe inhabited two separate spheres of communication: one internal, where Hebrew served as written high language and Yiddish as vernacular for the masses, and one external, where Latin and the like were used for apologetic and intercessory purposes toward the Christian world. A tiny minority of writers was concerned with the latter. The "Haskalah" sought to introduce a different bilingualism: renovated, refined Hebrew for internal matters, while Yiddish was to be eliminated; and national vernaculars, to be taught to all Jews, for external ones. However, they insisted on the maintenance of both spheres. When acculturation far exceeded the movement's plans, Central European Jews turned almost solely to the vernacular. David Sorkin demonstrated this with the two great journals of German Jewry: the maskilic "Ha-Me'assef" was written in Hebrew and supported the study of German; the post-maskilic "Sulamith" (published since 1806) was written almost entirely in German, befitting its editors' agenda of linguistic assimilation. Likewise, upon the demise of Jewish Enlightenment in Eastern Europe, authors abandoned the "maskilic" paradigm not toward assimilation but in favour of exclusive use of Hebrew and Yiddish.


title: Haskalah

text: The political vision of the "Haskalah" was predicated on a similar approach. It opposed the reclusive community of the past but sought a maintenance of a strong Jewish framework (with themselves as leaders and intercessors with the state authorities); the Enlightened were not even fully agreeable to civic emancipation, and many of them viewed it with reserve, sometimes anxiety. In their writings, they drew a sharp line between themselves and whom they termed "pseudo-"maskilim"" – those who embraced the Enlightenment values and secular knowledge but did not seek to balance these with their Jewishness, but rather strove for full assimilation. Such elements, whether the radical universalists who broke off the late Berlin "Haskalah" or the Russified intelligentsia in Eastern Europe a century later, were castigated and derided no less than the old rabbinic authorities which the movement confronted. It was not uncommon for its partisans to become a conservative element, combating against further dilution of tradition: in Vilnius, Samuel Joseph Fuenn turned from a progressive into an adversary of more radical elements within a generation. In the Maghreb, the few local "maskilim" were more concerned with the rapid assimilation of local Jews into the colonial French culture than with the ills of traditional society.


title: Haskalah

text: Likewise, those who abandoned the optimistic, liberal vision of the Jews (albeit as a cohesive community) integrating into wider society in favour of full-blown Jewish nationalism or radical, revolutionary ideologies which strove to uproot the established order like Socialism, also broke with the "Haskalah". The Jewish national movements of Eastern Europe, founded by disillusioned "maskilim", derisively regarded it – in a manner similar to other romantic-nationalist movements' understanding of the general Enlightenment – as a naive, liberal and assimilationist ideology which induced foreign cultural influences, gnawed at the Jewish national consciousness and promised false hopes of equality in exchange for spiritual enslavement. This hostile view was promulgated by nationalist thinkers and historians, from Peretz Smolenskin, Ahad Ha'am, Simon Dubnow and onwards. It was once common in Israeli historiography.


title: Haskalah

text: A major factor which always characterized the movement was its weakness and its dependence of much more powerful elements. Its partisans were mostly impoverished intellectuals, who eked out a living as private tutors and the like; few had a stable financial base, and they required patrons, whether affluent Jews or the state's institutions. This triplice – the authorities, the Jewish communal elite, and the "maskilim" – was united only in the ambition of thoroughly reforming Jewish society. The government had no interest in the visions of renaissance which the Enlightened so fervently cherished. It demanded the Jews to turn into productive, loyal subjects with rudimentary secular education, and no more. The rich Jews were sometimes open to the movement's agenda, but mostly practical, hoping for a betterment of their people that would result in emancipation and equal rights. Indeed, the great cultural transformation which occurred among the "Parnassim" (affluent communal wardens) class – they were always more open to outside society, and had to tutor their children in secular subjects, thus inviting general Enlightenment influences – was a precondition of "Haskalah". The state and the elite required the "maskilim" as interlocutors and specialists in their efforts for reform, especially as educators, and the latter used this as leverage to benefit their ideology. However, the activists were much more dependent on the former than vice versa; frustration from one's inability to further the "maskilic" agenda and being surrounded by apathetic Jews, either conservative "fanatics" or parvenu "assimilationists", is a common theme in the movement's literature.


title: Haskalah

text: The term "Haskalah" became synonymous, among friends and foes alike and in much of early Jewish historiography, with the sweeping changes that engulfed Jewish society (mostly in Europe) from the late 18th century to the late 19th century. It was depicted by its partisans, adversaries and historians like Heinrich Graetz as a major factor in those; Feiner noted that "every modern Jew was identified as a "maskil" and every change in traditional religious patterns was dubbed "Haskalah"". Later research greatly narrowed the scope of the phenomenon and limited its importance: while "Haskalah" undoubtedly played a part, the contemporary historical consensus portrays it as much humbler. Other transformation agents, from state-imposed schools to new economic opportunities, were demonstrated to have rivaled or overshadowed the movement completely in propelling such processes as acculturation, secularization, religious reform from moderate to extreme, adoption of native patriotism and so forth. In many regions the "Haskalah" had no effect at all.