title: General Electric J85

text: The General Electric J85 is a small single-shaft turbojet engine. Military versions produce up to of thrust dry; afterburning variants can reach up to . The engine, depending upon additional equipment and specific model, weighs from . It is one of GE's most successful and longest in service military jet engines, with the civilian versions having logged over 16.5 million hours of operation. The United States Air Force plans to continue using the J85 in aircraft through 2040. Civilian models, known as the CJ610, are similar but supplied without an afterburner and are identical to non-afterburning J85 variants, while the CF700 adds a rear-mounted fan for improved fuel economy.


title: General Electric J85

text: The J85 was originally designed to power a large decoy missile, the McDonnell ADM-20 Quail. The Quail was designed to be released from a B-52 Stratofortress in-flight and fly for long distances in formation with the launch aircraft, multiplying the number of targets facing the SA-2 surface-to-air missile operators on the ground. This mission demanded a small engine that could nevertheless provide enough power to keep up with the jet bomber. Like the similar Armstrong Siddeley Viper being built in England, the engine on a Quail drone had no need to last for extended periods of time, so therefore could be built of low-quality materials.


title: General Electric J85

text: The fit was a success on the Quail, but again like the Viper it was later built with normal grade materials and subsequently used to power small jet aircraft, including the Northrop T-38 Talon, Northrop F-5, Canadair CT-114 Tutor, and Cessna A-37 Dragonfly light attack aircraft. More recently, J85s have powered the Scaled Composites White Knight aircraft, the carrier for the Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne spacecraft, and the Me 262 Project.


title: General Electric J85

text: The basic engine design is quite small, about in diameter, and long. It features an eight-stage axial-flow compressor powered by two turbine stages, and is capable of generating up to of dry thrust, or more with an afterburner. At full throttle at sea level, this engine, without afterburner, consumes approximately of fuel per hour. At cruise altitude and power, it consumes approximately per hour.


title: General Electric J85

text: The most advanced variant in the J85 series is the J85-21 model designed specifically for the F-5E/F during its development process.


title: General Electric J85

text: The J85-21 design replaces AM 355 chromium nickel molybdenum stainless steel alloy, used by previous J85 models for compressor rotors and blades, with a titanium alloy. Its inlet diameter was increased from to , and it included an added stage ahead of the base 8-stage compressor for a total of 9 stages. Its multiple disk rotors were replaced with a single-spool rotor, thus improving dry thrust to and wet thrust to while reducing mechanical complexity along with the weight gain of the J85-21 model.


title: General Electric J85

text: The Iranian Ministry of Defense constructed a new engine based on the General Electric J85-GE-21B named "OWJ" and presented it at a defense exhibition on 22 August 2016.


title: Saeima

text: The Saeima () is the parliament of the Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the popular vote. Elections are scheduled to be held once every four years, normally on the first Saturday of October. The most recent elections were held in October 2022.


title: Saeima

text: The President of Latvia can dismiss the Saeima and request early elections. The procedure for dismissing it involves substantial political risk to the president, including a risk of loss of office. On 28 May 2011 president Valdis Zatlers decided to initiate the dissolution of the Saeima, which was approved in a referendum, and the Saeima was dissolved on 23 July 2011.


title: Saeima

text: The Saeima traces its origins to the Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland, which led to the creation of the Sejm (Seimas) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later to the creation of the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Livonia, a part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, was exposed to the Polish mode of administration and introduced to the Sejm-system. Most of today's Latvia, incorporated into 3 voivodeships: the Dorpat Voivodeship, the Parnawa Voivodeship and the Wenden Voivodeship, in total sent 6 senators to the Sejm of the Poland. However, the rest of Latvia belonged to the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, which as a direct fief of the Commonwealth (therefore not a member of the Union with equal rights) was governed by the Sejm, but could not send its own senators to it.


title: Saeima

text: The word "sejm" derives from the verb "sjąć się" meaning "to get together", with similar words in some other Slavic languages, of proto-Slavic origin *sъjęti < *sъjemti Sejm, then, as a noun meant "a gathering, a meeting, a council.”


title: Saeima

text: In the 19th century, as the concept of nations began to emerge, Juris Alunāns, a member of a Latvian nationalist group called the Young Latvians, claimed ownership to the word "Saeima". Despite exactly the same sound, same semantic structure and clear historical connotations, he claimed that it was a purely Latvian word that he had invented.


title: Saeima

text: As mentioned earlier, the word bears the same meaning: "a gathering, a meeting, a council". Juris Alunāns claimed that he “constructed“ it completely independently of the historical context spanning centuries and independently of the contemporarily functioning sejms in the Duchy of Warsaw, Congress Poland, Grand Duchy of Poznan and Galicia.


title: Saeima

text: He claimed that the word he constructed stemmed from the archaic Latvian word "eima" instead, meaning "to go" (derived from the PIE "*ei" "to go" and also a cognate with the Ancient Greek "eimi", Gaulish "", among others).


title: Saeima

text: He could not explain, however, how the s- prefix got added to the word, and what sense this addition made within the limits of the Latvian language. Nevertheless, according to Juris, the word is purely Latvian and completely independent of the aforementioned historical context. However, the prefix sa- to a verb in modern Latvian language usually stands for a complete action and the word "Saeima" can stand for a meaning "Let's gather together completely".


title: Saeima

text: In the pre-war Latvia, the Saeima was elected for three-year terms. The 1st Saeima met from 7 November 1922 to 2 November 1925, the 2nd from 3 November 1925 to 5 November 1928, the 3rd from 6 November 1928 to 2 November 1931, and the 4th from 3 November 1931 to 15 May 1934 (date of the Latvian coup d'état).


title: Saeima

text: The Saeima is an entirely elected body. All Latvian citizens (including naturalized citizens) over the age of 18 are eligible to vote. Candidates must be qualified to vote, but must also be over 21, must not be former employees of the USSR, Latvian SSR, or affiliated organizations, must not have been convicted of a criminal offence or deemed to be of diminished mental capacity.


title: Saeima

text: The term of the Saeima is four years. An election may be called early, but doing so is more complicated than in other parliamentary democracies. If the President proposes that the Saeima be dissolved, a national referendum must be held to confirm the dissolution. If the dissolution is not approved, the President is removed from office. If one-tenth of the electorate signs a petition demanding a dissolution, a referendum can be held without the involvement of the President.


title: Saeima

text: There are five constituencies, Kurzeme (12 deputies), Latgale (14), Riga (35), Vidzeme (25), and Zemgale (14). Overseas votes are counted for the Riga constituency.


title: Saeima

text: Seats are distributed in each constituency by open list proportional representation among the parties that overcome a 5% national election threshold using an unmodified version of the Webster/Sainte-Laguë method.


title: Saeima

text: Voters cast a vote for a party list, which consists of the candidates that the party has submitted in that constituency. Although a specific ordering is listed for each candidate, which is determined by the party, this has no effect on the actual chances of each candidate. Instead, voters cast "specific votes" for candidates. These votes can be either positive votes or negative votes. The number of votes for each candidate is determined by taking the number of votes for the respective list, and adding it to the candidate's positive votes, before subtracting the number of negative votes for that candidate. The candidates with the highest number of votes fill the party's seats. A positive vote is indicated by drawing a plus sign (+) next to the candidate's name on the ballot paper. A negative vote is indicated by crossing out the candidate's name. Voters may only cast specific votes for the candidates on the list that they voted for.


title: Saeima

text: It is uncommon for any party to achieve more than 30% of the vote in an election. The record is 32.4% for the Latvian Way party in the 1993 election. This means that a coalition has always been necessary.


title: Saeima

text: If a seat falls vacant during a term of the Saeima, it is filled by the next candidate on the appropriate list.


title: Murder of Otávio Jordão da Silva

text: Otávio Jordão da Silva Cantanhede, a 20-year-old Brazilian amateur football referee, was lynched, beheaded and quartered by football spectators after he stabbed a player to death in a match he officiated on 30 June 2013.


title: Murder of Otávio Jordão da Silva

text: On 30 June 2013, da Silva was refereeing an amateur football match in Pio XII, Maranhão. He sent off player Josemir Santos Abreu, 31, who refused to leave the field and began a fight with the referee. Abreu threw a punch, which prompted da Silva to draw a knife from his pocket and repeatedly stab Abreu. Abreu died on the way to the hospital. When fans watching the game, including Abreu's friends and family, found out about his death, they invaded the pitch and stoned the referee, before decapitating him, quartering him, and putting his head on a stake in the pitch. Police chief Valter Costa was quoted as saying "one crime will never justify another".


title: Murder of Otávio Jordão da Silva

text: One suspect was arrested. However, police were searching for two more people, including Abreu's brother.


title: Murder of Otávio Jordão da Silva

text: A graphic video surfaced online shortly following the incident that shows medical personnel reassembling Otávio's dead body.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: The Neo Buddhist movement (also known as the Buddhist movement For Dalits, Ambedkarite Buddhist movement or Modern Buddhist movement) is a religious as well as a socio-political movement among Dalits in India which was started by B. R. Ambedkar. It radically re-interpreted Buddhism and created a new school of Buddhism called Navayana. The movement has sought to be a socially and politically engaged form of Buddhism.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: The movement was launched in 1956 by Dr.Ambedkar when nearly half a million Dalits – formerly untouchables – joined him and converted to Navayana Buddhism. It rejected Hinduism, challenged the caste system in India and promoted the rights of the Dalit community. The movement also rejected the teachings of Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions of Buddhism, however promoted orthodox Theravada values and took an oath to pursue a new form of engaged Buddhism as taught by Dr. Ambedkar.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Buddhism originated in ancient India and grew after Ashoka adopted it. By the 2nd century CE, Buddhism was widespread in India and had expanded outside of India into Central Asia, East Asia and parts of Southeast Asia. During the Middle Ages, Buddhism slowly declined in India, while it vanished from Persia and Central Asia as Islam became the state religion.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: According to Randall Collins, Buddhism was already declining in India by the 12th century, but with the pillage by Muslim invaders it nearly became extinct in India. In the 13th century, states Craig Lockard, Buddhist monks in India fled to Tibet to escape Islamic persecution, while the monks in western India, states Peter Harvey, escaped persecution by moving to south Indian Hindu kingdoms that were able to resist the Muslim power.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Efforts to revive Buddhism in India began in the 19th century, such as with the efforts of Sri Lankan Buddhist leader Anagarika Dharmapala who founded the Maha Bodhi Society. The Maha Bodhi Society, according to Bhagwan Das, was not a Dalit movement however, because it mainly attracted upper-caste Hindus to Buddhism.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: The two Adi Dharma movements – those that rejected Hinduism in favor of Buddhism – were launched by Swami Achhutanand Harihar in Uttar Pradesh and Babu Mangu Ram in Punjab.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Born in an untouchable family, Achhutanand joined the Arya Samaj "suddhi" reform movement and worked there for about eight years (1905–1912). He felt Arya Samaj practiced untouchability in subtle ways, and subsequently left it to launch the socio-political Bharitiya Achhut Mahasabha movement. Achhutanand published the Adi-Hindu magazine, wherein he called on Dalits to return to Adi-Dharma as the "original religion of Indians." Achhutanand formulated his philosophy on the basis of a shared cultural and ethnic identity. He presented it to an audience beyond just Dalits, including tribal societies as well. He opposed Mahatma Gandhi's non-cooperation movement and fasts as well as the Indian National Congress, stating that Brahmins were "as foreign to India as were the British", according to Anand Teltumbde.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Babu Mangu Ram was also born in an untouchable family of Punjab with a flourishing leather trade. Mangu Ram arrived in the United States in 1909 at the age of 23 and worked in California. There, he joined the Ghadar Party and smuggled weapons from California to India in order to oppose British rule. In 1925, he shifted his focus onto Dalit freedom, launching the "Ad Dharm" movement as well as a weekly newspaper titled Adi-Danka to spread his ideas. According to Teltumbde, Mandu Ram's religious movement failed to materialize, and Mangu Ram later joined the Ambedkarite movement.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: In 1914, Prakash was ordained as a Bodhanand Mahastavir in Calcutta, and began preaching Buddhism in Lucknow. He founded the "Bharatiye Buddh Samiti" in 1916, and set up a vihara in 1928.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: In 1898, Pandit Iyothee Thass founded the Sakya Buddhist Society – also known as Indian Buddhist Association – in Tamil Nadu. He presented Buddhism as a religious alternative to Hinduism for Dalits. Thass's efforts led to the creation of a broader movement amongst Tamil Dalits in South India until the 1950s. The first president of the Indian Buddhist Association was Paul Carus. Unlike the Ambedkarite movement, the Indian Buddhist Association adopted the Theravada Buddhism tradition founded in Sri Lanka (where Thass had received his training and initiation in Buddhism).


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Ambedkar was an Indian leader, influential during the colonial era and post-independence period of India. He belonged to a Dalit community, traditionally the most oppressed and marginalized group in Indian society. He was the fourteenth child in an impoverished Maharashtra Dalit family, who studied abroad, returned to India in the 1920s and joined the political movement. His focus was social and political rights of the Dalits.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: During 1931–32, the Mahatma Gandhi led Indian independence movement held discussions with the British government over the Round Table Conferences. They sought constitutional reforms as a preparation to the end of colonial British rule, and begin the self-rule by Indians. The British side sought reforms that would keep the Indian subcontinent as a colony. The British negotiators proposed constitutional reforms on a British Dominion model that established separate electorates based on religious and social divisions. They invited Indian religious leaders, such as Muslims and Sikhs, to press their demands along religious lines, as well as B. R. Ambedkar as the representative leader of the untouchables. Gandhi vehemently opposed a constitution that enshrined rights or representations based on communal divisions, because he feared that it would not bring people together but divide them, perpetuate their status and divert the attention from India's struggle to end the colonial rule.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: After Gandhi returned from Second Round Table conference, he started a new "satyagraha". He was immediately arrested and imprisoned at the Yerwada Jail, Pune. While he was in prison, the British government enacted a new law that granted untouchables a separate electorate. It came to be known as the Communal Award. In protest, Gandhi started fast-unto-death, while he was held in prison. The resulting public outcry forced the government, in consultations with Ambedkar, to replace the Communal Award with a compromise Poona Pact.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Ambedkar accepted the Poona Pact under public pressure, but disagreed with Gandhi and his political methods. He dismissed Gandhi's ideas as loved by "blind Hindu devotees", primitive, influenced by spurious brew of Tolstoy and Ruskin, and "there is always some simpleton to preach them".


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Ambedkar concluded that Dalits must leave Hinduism and convert to another religion, and announced his intent to leave Hinduism in 1935. He considered Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. Ambedkar was approached by various leaders of different denominations and faiths. On 22 May 1936, an "All Religious Conference" was held at Lucknow. It was attended by prominent Dalit leaders including Jagjivan Ram, though Ambedkar could not attend it. At the conference, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, and Buddhist representatives presented the tenets of their respective religions in an effort to win over Dalits. Ambedkar rejected the other religions and chose Buddhism. However, Ambedkar remained a Hindu for next 20 years, studied then re-interpreted Buddhism, and adopted Neo-Buddhism or Navayana few weeks before his death.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: The Italian Buddhist monk Lokanatha visited Ambedkar's residence at Dadar on 10 June 1936. Later in an interview to the press, Lokanatha said that Ambedkar was impressed with Buddhism.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: According to Ambedkar, several of the core beliefs and doctrines of traditional Buddhist traditions such as the Four Noble Truths and Anatta were flawed and pessimistic, and may have been inserted into the Buddhist scriptures by wrong-headed Buddhist monks of a later era. These should not be considered as Buddha's teachings in Ambedkar's view. Other foundational concepts of Buddhism such as Karma and Rebirth were considered by Ambedkar as superstitions.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Navayana as formulated by Ambedkar and at the root of Dalit Buddhist movement abandons mainstream traditional Buddhist practices and precepts such as the institution of monk after renunciation, ideas such as karma, rebirth in afterlife, samsara, meditation, nirvana and Four Noble Truths. Ambedkar's new sect of Buddhism rejected these ideas and re-interpreted the Buddha's religion in terms of class struggle and social equality.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Ambedkar called his version of Buddhism Navayana or Neo-Buddhism. His book, "The Buddha and His Dhamma" is the holy book of Navayana or Dalit Buddhists. According to Junghare, for the followers of Navyana, Ambedkar has become a deity and he is worshipped in its practice.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: After publishing a series of books and articles arguing that Buddhism was the only way for the Untouchables to gain equality, Ambedkar publicly converted on 14 October 1956, at Deekshabhoomi, Nagpur, over 20 years after he declared his intent to convert. Around 3,65,000 of his followers converted to Buddhism at the same ceremony. On this occasion, many upper caste Hindus too accepted Buddhism. After Nagpur, on 16 October 1956, Ambedkar again gave Buddhism to more than 300,000 of his followers at Chandrapur, since the place is also known as Deekshabhoomi. Inspired by this Ambedkar's conversion, 5,000 Tamils of Myanmar had accepted Buddhism in Rangoon under the leadership of Chan Htoon, the justice of the Supreme Court of the Union of Burma on 28 October 1956.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: The conversion ceremony was attended by Medharathi, his main disciple Bhoj Dev Mudit, and Mahastvir Bodhanand's Sri Lankan successor, Bhante Pragyanand. Ambedkar asked Dalits not to get entangled in the existing branches of Buddhism (Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana), and called his version Navayana or 'Neo-Buddhism'. Ambedkar would die less than two months later, just after finishing his definitive work on Buddhism.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Many Dalits employ the term "Ambedkar(ite) Buddhism" to designate the Buddhist movement, which started with Ambedkar's conversion. Many converted people call themselves "-Bauddha" i.e. Buddhists.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: The Buddhist movement was somewhat hindered by Ambedkar's death so shortly after his conversion. It did not receive the immediate mass support from the Untouchable population that Ambedkar had hoped for. Division and lack of direction among the leaders of the Ambedkarite movement have been an additional impediment. According to the 2011 census, there are currently 8.44 million Buddhists in India, at least 6.5 million of whom are Marathi Buddhists in Maharashtra. This makes Buddhism the fifth-largest religion in India and 6% of the population of Maharashtra, but less than 1% of the overall population of India.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: The Buddhist revival remains concentrated in two states: Ambedkar's native Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh – the land of Bodhanand Mahastavir, Acharya Medharthi and their associates.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Acharya Medharthi retired from his Buddhapuri school in 1960, and shifted to an ashram in Haridwar. He turned to the Arya Samaj and conducted Vedic yajnas all over India. After his death, he was cremated according to Arya Samaj rites. His Buddhpuri school became embroiled in property disputes. His follower, Bhoj Dev Mudit, converted to Buddhism in 1968 and set up a school of his own.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Rajendranath Aherwar appeared as an important Dalit leader in Kanpur. He joined the Republican Party of India and converted to Buddhism along with his whole family in 1961. In 1967, he founded the Kanpur branch of "Bharatiya Buddh Mahasabha". He held regular meetings where he preached Buddhism, officiated at Buddhist weddings and life cycle ceremonies, and organised festivals on Ambedkar's Jayanti (birth day), Sambuddhatva jayanthi, Diksha Divas (the day Ambedkar converted), and Ambedkar Paranirvan Divas (the day Ambedkar died).


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: The Dalit Buddhist movement in Kanpur gained impetus with the arrival of Dipankar, a Chamar bhikkhu, in 1980. Dipankar had come to Kanpur on a Buddhist mission and his first public appearance was scheduled at a mass conversion drive in 1981. The event was organised by Rahulan Ambawadekar, an RPI Dalit leader. In April 1981, Ambawadekar founded the Dalit Panthers (U.P. Branch) inspired by the Maharashtrian Dalit Panthers. The event met with severe criticism and opposition from Vishva Hindu Parishad and was banned.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: The number of Buddhists in the Lucknow district increased from 73 in 1951 to 4327 in 2001. According to the 2001 census, almost 70% of the Buddhist population in Uttar Pradesh is from the scheduled castes background.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: In 2002, Kanshi Ram, a popular political leader from a Sikh religious background, announced his intention to convert to Buddhism on 14 October 2006, the fiftieth anniversary of Ambedkar's conversion. He intended for 20,000,000 of his supporters to convert at the same time. Part of the significance of this plan was that Ram's followers include not only Untouchables, but persons from a variety of castes, who could significantly broaden Buddhism's support. But, he died 9 October 2006 after a lengthy illness; he was cremated as per Buddhist tradition.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Another popular Dalit leader, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati, has said that she and her followers will embrace Buddhism after the BSP forms a government at the Centre.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Japanese-born Surai Sasai emerged as an important Buddhist leader in India. Sasai came to India in 1966 and met Nichidatsu Fujii, whom he helped with the Peace Pagoda at Rajgir. He fell out with Fuji, however, and started home, but, by his own account, was stopped by a dream in which a figure resembling Nagarjuna appeared and said, "Go to Nagpur". In Nagpur, he met Wamanrao Godbole, the person who had organised the conversion ceremony for Ambedkar in 1956. Sasai claims that when he saw a photograph of Ambedkar at Godbole's home, he realised that it was Ambedkar who had appeared in his dream. At first, Nagpur folk considered Surai Sasai very strange. Then he began to greet them with "Jai Bhim" (victory to Ambedkar) and to build viharas. In 1987 a court case to deport him on the grounds that he had overstayed his visa was dismissed, and he was granted Indian citizenship. Sasai and Bhante Anand Agra are two of main leaders of the campaign to free the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya from Hindu control.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: A movement originating in Maharashtra but also active in Uttar Pradesh, and spread out over quite a few other pockets where Neo Buddhists live, is Triratna Bauddha Mahāsaṅgha (formerly called TBMSG for Trailokya Bauddha Mahasangha Sahayaka Gana). It is the Indian wing of the UK-based Triratna Buddhist Community founded by Sangharakshita. Its roots lie in the scattered contacts that Sangharakshita had in the 1950s with Ambedkar. Sangharakshita, then still a bhikshu, participated in the conversion movement from 1956 until his departure to the UK in 1963.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: When his new ecumenical movement had gained enough ground in the West, Sangharakshita worked with Ambedkarites in India and the UK to develop Indian Buddhism further. After visits in the late 1970s by Dharmachari Lokamitra from UK, supporters developed a two-pronged approach: social work through the Bahujan Hitaj (also spelled as Bahujan Hitay) trust, mainly sponsored from the general public by the British Buddhist-inspired Karuna Trust (UK), and direct Dharma work. Currently the movement has viharas and groups in at least 20 major areas, a couple of retreat centres, and hundreds of Indian Dharmacharis and Dharmacharinis.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Funding for movement's social and dharma work has come from foreign countries, including the Western countries and Taiwan. Some of the foreign-funded organisations include Trailokya Bauddha Mahasangha Sahayaka Gana and Triratna (Europe and India). Triratna has links with the 'Ambedkarite' Buddhist Romanis in Hungary.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Since Ambedkar's conversion, several thousand people from different castes have converted to Buddhism in ceremonies including the twenty-two vows.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Prerna Singh Bindra argued a mass-conversion of Hindus to Ambedkarite Buddhism under Udit Raj to be a political stunt.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: According to Gail Omvedt, an American-born and naturalised Indian sociologist and human rights activist :


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: According to Omvedt, Ambedkar and his Buddhist movement deny many of the core doctrines of Buddhism. All the elements of religious modernism, state Christopher Queen and Sallie King, may be found in Ambedkar Buddhism where his "The Buddha and His Dhamma" abandons the traditional precepts and practices, then adopts science, activism and social reforms as a form of Engaged Buddhism. Ambedkar's formulation of Buddhism is different from Western modernism, states Skaria, given his synthesis of the ideas of modern Karl Marx into the structure of ideas by the ancient Buddha.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Critics have argued that Neo-Buddhism does not have a strong influence, especially after the death of Ambedkar.


title: Dalit Buddhist movement

text: Some critics also argue that Neo-Buddhism deviates too much from traditional Buddhism. Buddhism emphasizes equality among people.In addition, its emphasis on people's liberation in the religious sense does not deny social distinctions as the norm of organizations in society, as the Buddha himself was the founder of a monastic order. A number of critics also argue that there is no moral foundation for the political practices that are based on Neo-Buddhist notions, since religion is totally voluntary, and Neo-Buddhism may thus violate democratic principles by restricting its followers to abide to certain non-religious rules.


title: Elizabeth Gutiérrez

text: Elizabeth Gutiérrez Nevárez (born April 1, 1978) is an American actress and model of Mexican descent. She is best known for playing the leading roles in the telenovelas "El Rostro de Analía" and "El fantasma de Elena".


title: Elizabeth Gutiérrez

text: While working on "Protagonistas de Novela", she began an on-off relationship with fellow contestant William Levy. Their relationship has been on-again, off-again since at least 2003. She gave birth to their son, Christopher Alexander, in 2006, and to their daughter, Kailey Alexandra, on March 6, 2010.


title: Elizabeth Gutiérrez

text: Gutiérrez had early work as a model on "The Price Is Right". She participated in the second season of the reality show "Protagonistas de Novela".


title: Elizabeth Gutiérrez

text: Gutiérrez began her work in telenovelas in 2005, playing the villain Isabela in Venevision International's "Olvidarte jamás". She left the production 12 episodes before its end due to her first pregnancy. The next year she began playing Paola in "Acorralada" but left to take the lead role in "Amor comprado". In 2007, she played the lead role in "Isla paraíso", a mininovela of 15 two-minute episodes produced by Venevisión and published online.


title: Elizabeth Gutiérrez

text: In 2008, she took another female lead role, this time in the Telemundo telenovela "El Rostro de Analía". The telenovela was broadcast in more than 50 countries; being on one of Telemundo's most popular telenovelas brought Gutiérrez worldwide recognition. In 2009, she turned down the role of Priscila on "Bella calamidades" to play a villain in the fifth remake of "Corazón salvaje". Critics responded favorably to Gutiérrez's performance.


title: Elizabeth Gutiérrez

text: She went on to play the lead in "El fantasma de Elena", her third leading role. This telenovela was not as popular as expected in the United States but was more successful elsewhere. It has been sold in 70 countries. She filmed the pilot episode for "La Mala, La Buena y La Tonta" but left the project in favor of "El fantasma de Elena". She also appeared on the Univision reality show "Mira quién baila" on Univision. In 2012 she accepted the role of Mariana San Lucas, who swung between a father and a son, in "El rostro de la venganza", from which telenovela she left early in its presentation.


title: Bag-of-words model

text: The bag-of-words model is a simplifying representation used in natural language processing and information retrieval (IR). In this model, a text (such as a sentence or a document) is represented as the bag (multiset) of its words, disregarding grammar and even word order but keeping multiplicity. The bag-of-words model has also been used for computer vision.


title: Bag-of-words model

text: The bag-of-words model is commonly used in methods of document classification where the (frequency of) occurrence of each word is used as a feature for training a classifier.


title: Bag-of-words model

text: An early reference to "bag of words" in a linguistic context can be found in Zellig Harris's 1954 article on "Distributional Structure".


title: Bag-of-words model

text: Representing each bag-of-words as a JSON object, and attributing to the respective JavaScript variable:


title: Bag-of-words model

text: Each key is the word, and each value is the number of occurrences of that word in the given text document.


title: Bag-of-words model

text: The order of elements is free, so, for example codice_1 is also equivalent to "BoW1". It is also what we expect from a strict "JSON object" representation.


title: Bag-of-words model

text: BoW3 = {"John":1,"likes":3,"to":2,"watch":2,"movies":2,"Mary":2,"too":1,"also":1,"football":1,"games":1};


title: Bag-of-words model

text: So, as we see in the bag algebra, the "union" of two documents in the bags-of-words representation is, formally, the disjoint union, summing the multiplicities of each element.


title: Bag-of-words model

text: In practice, the Bag-of-words model is mainly used as a tool of feature generation. After transforming the text into a "bag of words", we can calculate various measures to characterize the text. The most common type of characteristics, or features calculated from the Bag-of-words model is term frequency, namely, the number of times a term appears in the text. For the example above, we can construct the following two lists to record the term frequencies of all the distinct words (BoW1 and BoW2 ordered as in BoW3):


title: Bag-of-words model

text: Each entry of the lists refers to the count of the corresponding entry in the list (this is also the histogram representation). For example, in the first list (which represents document 1), the first two entries are "1,2":


title: Bag-of-words model

text: This list (or vector) representation does not preserve the order of the words in the original sentences. This is just the main feature of the Bag-of-words model. This kind of representation has several successful applications, such as email filtering.


title: Bag-of-words model

text: However, term frequencies are not necessarily the best representation for the text. Common words like "the", "a", "to" are almost always the terms with highest frequency in the text. Thus, having a high raw count does not necessarily mean that the corresponding word is more important. To address this problem, one of the most popular ways to "normalize" the term frequencies is to weight a term by the inverse of document frequency, or tf–idf. Additionally, for the specific purpose of classification, supervised alternatives have been developed to account for the class label of a document. Lastly, binary (presence/absence or 1/0) weighting is used in place of frequencies for some problems (e.g., this option is implemented in the WEKA machine learning software system).


title: Bag-of-words model

text: The Bag-of-words model is an orderless document representation — only the counts of words matter. For instance, in the above example "John likes to watch movies. Mary likes movies too", the bag-of-words representation will not reveal that the verb "likes" always follows a person's name in this text. As an alternative, the "n"-gram model can store this spatial information. Applying to the same example above, a bigram model will parse the text into the following units and store the term frequency of each unit as before.


title: Bag-of-words model

text: Conceptually, we can view bag-of-word model as a special case of the n-gram model, with n=1. For n>1 the model is named w-shingling (where "w" is equivalent to "n" denoting the number of grouped words). See language model for a more detailed discussion.


title: Bag-of-words model

text: A common alternative to using dictionaries is the hashing trick, where words are mapped directly to indices with a hashing function. Thus, no memory is required to store a dictionary. Hash collisions are typically dealt via freed-up memory to increase the number of hash buckets. In practice, hashing simplifies the implementation of bag-of-words models and improves scalability.


title: Bag-of-words model

text: In Bayesian spam filtering, an e-mail message is modeled as an unordered collection of words selected from one of two probability distributions: one representing spam and one representing legitimate e-mail ("ham").


title: Bag-of-words model

text: Imagine there are two literal bags full of words. One bag is filled with words found in spam messages, and the other with words found in legitimate e-mail. While any given word is likely to be somewhere in both bags, the "spam" bag will contain spam-related words such as "stock", "Viagra", and "buy" significantly more frequently, while the "ham" bag will contain more words related to the user's friends or workplace.


title: Bag-of-words model

text: To classify an e-mail message, the Bayesian spam filter assumes that the message is a pile of words that has been poured out randomly from one of the two bags, and uses Bayesian probability to determine which bag it is more likely to be in.


title: Tico Torres

text: Hector Juan Samuel "Tico" Torres (born October 7, 1953) is an American musician, artist, and entrepreneur, best known as the drummer, percussionist, and a songwriter for American rock band Bon Jovi. In 2018, Torres was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Bon Jovi.


title: Tico Torres

text: Hector Juan Samuel Torres was born on October 7, 1953, in New York, and brought up in the Colonia section of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. His parents, Emma and Héctor, emigrated from Cuba in 1948. Torres attended John F. Kennedy Memorial High School in Iselin.


title: Tico Torres

text: Torres was a jazz fan as a youth and studied music with Joe Morello. In 1969, he played drums for the psychedelic rock band Six Feet Under. Before joining Bon Jovi in 1983, Torres had already played live with Joe Cerisano's R-Band aka Silver Condor in the New Jersey Rock circuit, and in the studio with Franke and the Knockouts, Pat Benatar, Chuck Berry, Cher, Alice Cooper and Stevie Nicks, recording a total of 26 albums with these artists. Torres was also one of the drummers auditioned by Kiss in 1980 after original drummer Peter Criss left the band.


title: Tico Torres

text: Torres was the original drummer for the glam rock band "T. Roth and Another Pretty Face" and played on their 1980 album "Face Facts".


title: Tico Torres

text: Torres met Alec John Such while playing with a band called Phantom's Opera and it was this friendship which led to him joining Bon Jovi. When Jon Bon Jovi, the lead singer of the band, approached Torres, he was put off by the fact that Jon was 9 years younger than he was. He said it was Jon's charismatic appearance and watching him perform that attracted him to join the band.


title: Tico Torres

text: Torres is primarily a drummer and percussionist, but he sang lead vocals on a song on the box set "100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong", as well as backing vocals on a couple of the early Bon Jovi tracks, notably "Born to Be My Baby" and "Love for Sale".


title: Tico Torres

text: Known as "The Hitman," Torres discovered another talent: painting. He has exhibited his art since 1994. The successful first show was at the Ambassador Galleries in Soho, New York. Torres is a self-taught painter, who paints expressive pictures which show scenes from everyday life and his life with the band.


title: Tico Torres

text: His painting talent was shown in one of the three videos made for the single "Who Says You Can't Go Home."


title: Tico Torres

text: Torres and his first wife divorced soon after the formation of Bon Jovi in 1983. In 1996, Torres married Czech-born model Eva Herzigová in Sea Bright, New Jersey. The ceremony was attended by their closest friends and family including Donald Trump and the members of Bon Jovi. The band serenaded Eva and her husband with the hit single "Always" during the dance. Their marriage ended two years later. Torres married Maria Alejandra in September 2001, his third marriage and divorced in 2008. They have a son, Hector Alexander, born on January 9, 2004.


title: Tico Torres

text: When the Bon Jovi "What About Now" tour reached Mexico on September 10, 2013, Torres experienced severe abdominal pains and was rushed to the hospital with appendicitis. About two weeks later, on September 22, 2013, he was hospitalized a second time for emergency gall bladder surgery. Rich Scanella filled in for him, and Torres returned to the tour in Fresno CA on October 8, 2013.


title: Tico Torres

text: Torres is an avid golfer who frequently participates in the Alfred Dunhill Links Pro-Am in St. Andrews, UK, often playing in a foursome with fellow musician and good friend Huey Lewis.


title: Political satire

text: Political satire is satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where such arguments are expressly forbidden.


title: Political satire

text: Political satire is usually distinguished from political protest or political dissent, as it does not necessarily carry an agenda nor seek to influence the political process. While occasionally it may, it more commonly aims simply to provide entertainment. By its very nature, it rarely offers a constructive view in itself; when it is used as part of protest or dissent, it tends to simply establish the error of matters rather than provide solutions.


title: Political satire

text: Satire can be traced back throughout history; wherever organized government, or social categories, has existed, so has satire.


title: Political satire

text: The oldest example that has survived till today is Aristophanes. In his time satire targeted top politicians, like Cleon, and religion, at the time headed by Zeus. "Satire and derision progressively attacked even the fundamental and most sacred facts of faith," leading to an increased doubt towards religion by the general population. The Roman period, for example, gives us the satirical poems and epigrams of Martial. Cynic philosophers often engaged in political satire.


title: Political satire

text: Due to lack of political freedom of speech in many ancient civilizations, covert satire is more usual than overt satire in ancient literatures of political liberalism. Historically, the public opinion in the Athenian democracy was remarkably influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theatres. Watching or reading satire has since ancient time been considered one of the best ways to understand a culture and a society.


title: Political satire

text: During the 20th and 21st Centuries satire is found in an increasing number of media (in cartoons as political cartoons with heavy caricature and exaggeration, and in political magazines) and the parallel exposure of political scandals to performances (including television shows). Examples include musicians such as Tom Lehrer, live performance groups like the Capitol Steps and the Montana Logging and Ballet Co., and public television and live performer Mark Russell. Additional subgenres include such literary classics as "Gulliver's Travels" and "Animal Farm", and more recently, internet "Ezine" and website sources such as "The Onion".


title: Political satire

text: An early and well-known piece of political satire is a poem by Dante Alighieri called "Divine Comedy" (c. 1308–1320). In this piece, Dante suggests that politicians of that time in Florence should travel to hell. Another well-known form of political satire through theater is William Shakespeare's play "Richard II", which criticized politics and authority figures of the time.


title: Political satire

text: One example is Maurice Joly's 1864 pamphlet entitled "The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu" ("Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu"), which attacks the political ambitions of Napoleon III. It was first published in Brussels in 1864. The piece used the literary device of a dialogue between two diabolical plotters in Hell, the historical characters of Machiavelli and Montesquieu, to cover up a direct, and illegal, attack on Napoleon's rule. The noble baron Montesquieu made the case for liberalism; the Florentine political writer Machiavelli presented the case for cynical despotism. In this manner, Joly communicated the secret ways in which liberalism might spawn a despot like Napoleon III.


title: Political satire

text: The UK has a long tradition of political satire, dating from the early years of English literature. In some readings, a number of William Shakespeare's plays can be seen – or at least performed – as satire, including "Richard III" and "The Merchant of Venice". Later examples such as Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" are more outright in their satirical nature.


title: Political satire

text: Through the 18th and 19th centuries editorial cartoons developed as graphic form of satire, with dedicated satirical magazines of the like of "Punch" appearing in the first half of the 19th century.


title: Political satire

text: In recent decades, political satire in the United Kingdom includes pamphlets and newspaper articles, such as "Private Eye", topical television panel shows such as "Have I Got News for You" and "Mock the Week", and television series such as "Ballot Monkeys", "The Mash Report" and "Spitting Image".


title: Political satire

text: In 2021, political cartoons when successful play a role in the political discourse of a society that provides for freedom of speech and for the press (Thomas Knieper 2007 SOURCE?). Key political cartoonists in the United Kingdom include people such as Peter Brookes who has been a political cartoonist for "The Times" since 1992 and Nicola Jennings who features regularly in "The Guardian".


title: Political satire

text: Street artists like Banksy have used dark political humor and witty political and social commentaries, primarily through graffiti, to comment on various themes such as capitalism, imperialism and war.


title: Political satire

text: Satire became more visible on American television during the 1960s. Some of the early shows that used political satire include the British and American versions of the program "That Was the Week That Was" (airing on the American Broadcasting Company, or ABC, in the U.S.), CBS's "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour", and NBC's "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In". During the months leading up to the 1968 presidential election, Richard Nixon appeared on "Laugh-In" and repeated the program's catch-phrase "Sock it to me." Other forms of satire of the 1960s and early 1970s typically used the sitcom format, such as the show "All in the Family".


title: Political satire

text: When "Saturday Night Live" debuted in 1975, the show began to change the way that comedians would depict the president on television. Chevy Chase opened the fourth episode of the show with his impersonation of a bumbling Gerald Ford. Chase did not change his appearance to look like President Ford, and he portrayed the president by repeatedly falling down on the stage. Some of the other famous presidential impersonations on "Saturday Night Live" include Dan Aykroyd's Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter caricatures, Dana Carvey as George H. W. Bush, Darrell Hammond and Phil Hartman as Bill Clinton, Will Ferrell as George W. Bush, Jay Pharoah and Fred Armisen as Barack Obama. Hartman was the first in a long string of cast members to impersonate Donald Trump, who was most famously impersonated by Darrell Hammond and Alec Baldwin, and currently James Austin Johnson impersonates him. Johnson also impersonates Joe Biden, who was also impersonated by Jason Sudeikis and Jim Carrey.


title: Political satire

text: During the 2008 presidential campaign, "Saturday Night Live" gained wide attention because former cast member Tina Fey returned to the show to satirize Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In addition to Fey's striking physical resemblance to Palin, the impersonation of the vice presidential candidate was also noteworthy because of Fey's humorous use of some of exactly the same words Palin used in media interviews and campaign speeches as a way to perform political satire.


title: Political satire

text: "Saturday Night Live" also uses political satire throughout its "Weekend Update" sketch. "Weekend Update" is a fake news segment on the show that satirizes politics and current events. It has been a part of "SNL" since the first episode of the show on October 11, 1975.


title: Political satire

text: "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" use stylistic formats that are similar to "Weekend Update". On "The Daily Show", host Jon Stewart used footage from news programs to satirize politics and the news media. Stephen Colbert performed in character on "The Colbert Report" as a right-wing news pundit. Both hosts' television programs were broadcast on Comedy Central, while "The Daily Show" continues to run featuring Trevor Noah as a new host. Colbert became the host of "The Late Show", succeeding David Letterman. With their shows, Stewart and Colbert helped increase public and academic discussion of the significance of political satire. "Real Time with Bill Maher" and "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" are also examples of political commentary.


title: Political satire

text: During the 2020 presidential campaign, perennial candidate Vermin Supreme was recruited by members of the Libertarian Party to run a serious presidential campaign (Vermin Supreme 2020 presidential campaign) which utilizes his satirical character to promote libertarianism.


title: Political satire

text: As early as the Ottoman Empire, political satire was used to express political dissent and mobilize public opinion through shadow puppet shows, improvised folk theater and cartoons. The Ottoman Empire's first satirical magazine was called "Karagöz", which translates to "Black eye."


title: Political satire

text: Turkey is home to the political satire magazine known as "LeMan", which published its 1000th issue in 2010. LeMan is known for its political cartoons highlighting corruption, lampooning and shedding light on serious situations using humor.


title: Political satire

text: One of the most-widely read satirists is Egyptian writer Lenin El-Ramly, who is credited with over 30 scripts for films and television series and 12 plays. Another notable Egyptian satirist is Bassem Youssef.


title: Political satire

text: In Syria, in the year 2001 a satirical newspaper known as the "Lamplighter" was first published and resonated with the public as it sold out immediately. It was the first independent paper in the country since 1965 and was created by cartoonist and satirist Ali Farzat.


title: Political satire

text: A 2002 example of censorship resulted in satirist Ali Farzat having to remove two articles and a cartoon about the Prime Minister from a magazine, which was deemed insulting. Farzat's newspaper was subsequently shut down and his printing license was revoked.


title: Political satire

text: According to the findings of the 2004 Pew Survey, both younger and older audiences are turning to late-night comedy shows as not only a source of entertainment, but also for an opportunity to gain political awareness. For this reason, Geoffrey Baym suggests that shows that make use of political satire, such as "The Daily Show", should be considered as a form of alternative journalism. Utilizing satire has shown to be an attractive feature in news programming, drawing in the audiences of less politically engaged demographic cohorts. Moreover, satire news programming can be considered alternative because satire plays an important role in dissecting and critiquing power.


title: Political satire

text: In his article "The Daily Show: Discursive Integration and the Reinvention of Political Journalism", Baym detailed how "The Daily Show", then hosted by Jon Stewart, presented news stories. For the satire news show, presenting information in a comprehensive manner was used to give viewers a greater perspective of a situation. Often, Stewart studded his segments with additional background information, or reminders of relevant and past details. For example, "The Daily Show" displayed the full video of Bush's comments regarding Tenet's resignation in 2004. This was a deliberate choice by the show in attempt to give a more sincere representation of the event. Moreover, it can be seen as a challenge and critique of what more traditional news shows failed to include. In this way, satire news can be seen as more informative than other news sources. Notably, research findings released by National Annenberg Election Survey (NAES) concede that followers of satire news are more knowledgeable and consume more news than the general population.


title: Political satire

text: Meanwhile, Joseph Faina has considered the satire used in news shows as a facilitator in developing a public journalism practice. Faina explains in his article that the nature of satire encourages viewers to become politically engaged, and a civic participant, in which the humor exercised by hosts elicit responses in viewers. However, Faina has acknowledged that this model is somewhat idealistic. Nevertheless, Faina argues that the potential still exists. Not to mention, with the rise in technology and the growing ubiquity of cellular phones, it can be argued that civic participation is all the more easy to accomplish.


title: Political satire

text: Modern studies of the effects of political satire have shown that political satire has an influence on political participation, in fact research has shown that an exposure to satire of a political nature evokes negative emotions which consequently mobilises political participation. It is documented that watching late-night comedy shows increases political participation due to the interpersonal discussions and online interaction that follows as a result of political satire.


title: Political satire

text: On the other hand, some scholars have expressed concern over the influence of political comedy shows, it is argued that rather than increase political participation it has the adverse effect. Rather than mobilise participation it can actually demobilise participation due to the negative analysis of political figures, leading to cynicism towards the government and electoral system.


title: Political satire

text: Though satire in news is celebrated as a vehicle toward a more informed public, such view is not universally shared among scholars. Critics have expressed their hesitancy toward the infiltration of lighthearted practices to cover more dire topics like political affair. Potentially off-color remarks, or vulgar comments made by the likes of Stephen Colbert of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert", or Samantha Bee, host of "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee", can be used as examples of what critics are concerned about. Here, satire is believed to diminish the gravity of a topic.


title: Political satire

text: Baym proposes that as these shows are alternative, they have no obligation to "abide by standard practices". Unlike traditional news sources, which may be required to adhere to certain agendas, like political affiliation or advertising restrictions, hosts of satire news shows are free and zealous to showcase personal contributions through their mentions of disdain, qualms, and excitement. Critics of satire in news shows thus believe that the showcasing of an overly and openly frustrated host will induce or perpetuate "cynicism in viewers".


title: Political satire

text: The Financial Times argues that political satire can contribute to "media led populism", this is argued to be due to the mockery of politicians and public officials that is required to be accountable only to "audience maximisation", it is argued that this form of media led populism is more prevalent in the United States than the United Kingdom, as commentators who are both Liberal and Conservative are being used more often as the "main way" in which young viewers learn about current affairs. This is particularly troublesome when commentators use polemic and sarcasm in their satire as opposed to witty humour or impersonations.


title: Paul Hester

text: Paul Newell Hester (8 January 1959 – 26 March 2005) was an Australian musician and television personality. He was the drummer for the band Split Enz for a short time in 1984, and co-founding member and drummer of the rock group Crowded House.


title: Paul Hester

text: Hester was the older of two children (his younger sister is Carolyn) from Melbourne, Australia born to a bushman father and jazz drummer mother. At an early age he was encouraged by his mother to play drums. His extrovert personality did not impress his teachers, and he left school early and attempted various jobs before starting a musical career. He spent most of his teen years living in the Dandenong Ranges, the family home being on the edge of Sherbrooke Forest at the Sherbrooke/Kallista boundary. Some of the Melbourne bands he played in from 1976 to 1978 included Thunder and Edges. In 1979 he co-founded a Melbourne-based band called Cheks (renamed Deckchairs Overboard when they moved to Sydney in 1982).


title: Paul Hester

text: He lived with Deborah Conway of Do-Ré-Mi during the early 1980s, while playing regularly in Love Party. Hester later worked with Conway in Rose Amongst Thorns (1990–1991) and Ultrasound (1995).


title: Paul Hester

text: At the departure of drummer Mal Green from Split Enz in 1981, their percussionist Noel Crombie took up the role of drummer. After the release of the Enz album "Time and Tide" in 1982, the band took a break to focus on other projects. According to the radio documentary "Enzology", when they reformed in mid-1983, both Finn brothers returned somewhat distracted. Tim Finn had just released the very successful solo album "Escapade", while younger brother Neil Finn had a child on the way.


title: Paul Hester

text: The reunion resulted in "Conflicting Emotions" (November 1983), an album which marked the beginning of the end for the band. Before the tour to support the album it was decided that Crombie would return to percussion (something he says he enjoyed more than drumming), and the band would find a new drummer. Hester was auditioned on the advice of Rob Hirst of Midnight Oil and got the job. In June 1984, founder Tim Finn left Split Enz, and they released "See Ya 'Round" in November which included "This is Massive" which was written by Hester. When Split Enz disbanded in December, Hester and Neil Finn decided to start a new group.


title: Paul Hester

text: Initially, the new band formed by Hester and Neil Finn was named "The Mullanes" and then underwent a few name changes. They recruited Nick Seymour to play bass guitar and Craig Hooper on guitar, Hooper left as they secured a recording contract with Capitol Records in the US. However, Capitol disliked the name and the band changed to Crowded House to record their debut eponymous album, "Crowded House" in 1986. Other records by Crowded House with Hester are: "Temple of Low Men" (1988), "Woodface" (1991), "Together Alone" (1993), and the Best-of collection "Recurring Dream" (1996).


title: Paul Hester

text: By 1993 Hester was frustrated by the demands of his career and suffered a phobia about leaving to go on tour. On his return to Australia that year he started to see a psychiatrist. He remained with Crowded House until 1994, when the pressure of touring and the birth of his first daughter made him want to stay home, rather than remain on the road. Hester left mid-way through a 1994 tour of America, forcing the band to recruit British drummer Peter Jones for the rest of the tour. Hester performed with Crowded House at the band's farewell concert on the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House in 1996. As of 2021, Crowded House have sold well over 20 million albums. In November 2016, the band and all of its original members (including Hester) were inducted into the ARIA Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.


title: Paul Hester

text: Towards the end of his time with Crowded House, Paul produced The Holy Toledos' second album, "Blood", and played drums on its first single. It was on his recommendation the band was picked up by Sony.


title: Paul Hester

text: After leaving Crowded House, Hester appeared on many TV and radio shows in Australia and opened a cafe/restaurant named Beach House Cafe with fellow Melbourne musician Joe Camilleri in Elwood Beach in Melbourne. From 1995 until 1998, Hester appeared regularly on the popular Australian radio show "Martin/Molloy". He collaborated with John Clifforth, a former Deckchairs Overboard bandmate and long time friend, in the early 2000's on "Craven's Pharmacy" where he played drums and instruments on multiple songs. He played drums as a session musician for producer Richard Pleasance. One of his final recordings was Sophie Koh's debut album "All the Pretty Boys".


title: Paul Hester

text: Hester also briefly worked with the popular Australian children's music group The Wiggles in 1998, playing drums on their album Toot Toot! and making a guest appearance on their video Yummy Yummy as Paul the Cook.


title: Paul Hester

text: Hester later became involved in a new band called Largest Living Things (1997–2000), with Kevin Garant on guitar and Barry Stockley on bass, performing with members of rock groups Crowded House, Split Enz, Midnight Oil, and others. Largest Living Things released a few EPs in Australia featuring songs written and sung by Hester; in contrast to his previous work in Crowded House, Hester played guitar as well as drums. The Largest Living Things featured on Mick Molloy's controversial 1999 TV show "The Mick Molloy Show", with Hester as bandleader. Hester formed Tarmac Adam with Crowded House's Nick Seymour and Matt O'Donnell, Sean McVitty and Steve Paix in 2001.


title: Paul Hester

text: In 1998, Hester hosted his own 10-part TV series "Hessie's Shed" on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). This show gave Hester the room to explore his humorous presenter skills, showcase some friends, reunite with friends from Crowded House, and play with the house band, Largest Living Things, with Hester now performing from behind the drums and on the guitar.


title: Paul Hester

text: Hester went on to host the intimate concerts The MAX Sessions. Broadcast on MAX, these intimate concerts, which were mainly recorded at the Sydney Opera House, featured a variety of local and international acts. A highlight of the show's concerts saw Hester reunite with former bandmates Neil Finn and Tim Finn for a few songs, backing them on drums, while they were promoting their album "Everyone Is Here".


title: Paul Hester

text: Hester was in a relationship with Deborah Conway from Do-Re-Mi in the early 1980s. He later formed a relationship with photographer Mardi Sommerfeld and they had two daughters Olive and Sunday. They lived in the suburb of Elwood in Melbourne, Victoria.


title: Paul Hester

text: On 26 March 2005, aged 46, Hester died by suicide, hanging himself in Elsternwick Park near his home. Four years earlier he had split from Mardi Sommerfeld. His two daughters, Olive and Sunday, were aged 5 and 10 at the time of his death. A few years prior to his passing, Hester's mother became ill and died in 2003. It was known to family and close friends that he had been suffering from depression for a few years prior to his passing, and was prone to mood swings.


title: Paul Hester

text: Hester was buried at Blackwood in the Central Highlands region of Victoria. His life was commemorated at the 2005 Aria Awards, with Neil Finn singing the staple Crowded House anthem solo "Better Be Home Soon" along with a mini-biography and footage from his life and achievements.


title: Paul Hester

text: In October 2005, in memory of Hester and to acknowledge his long links with the area, the local Port Phillip Council agreed to name a path alongside the Elwood Canal, the Paul Hester Walk, after him. More recently, Hester Street in Officer was named after him as well in his memory.


title: Paul Hester

text: Hester's girlfriend at the time of his death was New Zealand-based singer Kashan Vincent. In July 2006, Vincent sued his estate, claiming a third of his net worth. Vincent claimed the pair had a relationship for 32 months and, while not cohabiting, were engaged, but had called off their wedding. By May 2007, the lawsuit was resolved out of court, with Vincent receiving a payout, and Hester's two daughters named as the sole beneficiaries of their father's estate.


title: Metronomy

text: Metronomy are an English electronic music group formed in 1999. As of 2021, the band consists of Joseph Mount (vocals, keyboards and guitar), Oscar Cash (keyboards, backing vocals, guitar and saxophone), Anna Prior (drums and vocals), Olugbenga Adelekan (bass guitar and vocals) and Michael Lovett (keyboards and guitars). Their music consists of vocal and instrumental electronic pop music. Mount also releases remixes under the name Metronomy, and has remixed many artists including Gorillaz, Sebastien Tellier, Roots Manuva, Franz Ferdinand, Klaxons, Goldfrapp, Young Knives, Zero 7, Ladytron, Kate Nash, Lady Gaga and Lykke Li.


title: Metronomy

text: Metronomy have released seven albums of original material, "Pip Paine (Pay The £5000 You Owe)", "Nights Out", "The English Riviera", "Love Letters", "Summer 08", "Metronomy Forever", and "Small World".


title: Metronomy

text: As a teenager, Joseph Mount began Metronomy as a bedroom project while he was still living with his parents in Devon. After having an interest in music from an early age, he "drummed in a few bands at school and they all fell apart. Then I got an old computer off my dad and I started messing around when I was about sixteen or seventeen". The name Metronomy was originally chosen by Mount and was said to be influenced by the band names of Autechre and Funkstörung.


title: Metronomy

text: In 2002, Mount moved to Brighton for his studies, while having a number of odd jobs, including one at a local HMV. Upon graduating, he became interested in music production and began "soundtracking animations". During his time in Brighton, Mount began to get involved with electronic music nights and performed as a DJ. At one of these gigs he was approached by "some guy, [who] told me he'd put out a record. It turned out that of the songs I'd recorded, I had an album's worth".


title: Metronomy

text: In the autumn of 2005, Metronomy released a debut album, "Pip Paine (Pay the £5000 You Owe) "preceded by the first single 'You Could Easily Have Me'. After it had received limited attention, Mount began to build up a reputation for live shows. Initially, Metronomy was essentially a laptop/DJ act, although Mount soon asked his cousin Oscar Cash and an old schoolfriend Gabriel Stebbing to join him. Mount explained that "I was doing some shows on my own (...), which was pretty crap, so I thought it would be better to get a band thing going on".


title: Metronomy

text: The trio spent the next three years gaining live-experience while Mount recreated mixes for many other artists; contractual issues with the record company halted any new release. On remixing, Mount has said "(b)asically, I only like remixers that really care about what they're doing. I can honestly say that I have got really involved in all of my remixes. If I've not got anywhere with one I will tell whoever it is that I'm giving up. That doesn't happen that often." Metronomy has "a good strike rate" in terms of remix work released. However, a DFA-inspired remix of U2's "City of Blinding Lights" was dismissed by their marketing manager and was not released.


title: Metronomy

text: Although the band was now a three-piece live, in the studio Mount was "still writing and recording it all on my own" and "influenced by people who’ve written, recorded and produced things all on their own, like Prince". In 2008, the band released the singles "My Heart Rate Rapid", "Holiday", "Heartbreaker" (which feat. a Remix by Kris Menace), "A Thing For Me" and "Radio Ladio" and the full album "Nights Out" in September of that year. Kris Menace's Remix of "Heartbreaker" became Hype Chart Nr.1 in 2008. In May 2009, it was announced through the band's Myspace page that Stebbing would be leaving the band. Joseph wrote "It's all very amicable and he's assured me he doesn't think he's fleeing a sinking ship." Stebbing is currently working with his own band, Your Twenties, which is being produced by Mount. Despite this, Stebbing reappeared to play bass for Metronomy for their appearance at the Far Out stage at Green Man 2010.


title: Metronomy

text: In 2011, the band released three singles 'The Look', 'Everything Goes My Way' and 'The Bay' from their 3rd album "The English Riviera" which came out on 11 April. The album was the first to feature bassist Olugbenga Adelekan and drummer Anna Prior as band members, rounding out the band as a quartet.


title: Metronomy

text: On 23 January 2014, Metronomy's upcoming single "Love Letters" was named Zane Lowe's "Hottest Record in the World". In a telephone interview with the band, it was confirmed that the video would be directed by Michel Gondry. Their fourth studio album, "Love Letters", was released on 10 March 2014, with the band achieving their joint highest ever position on the UK Albums Chart, at number 7.


title: Metronomy

text: In an interview with "Crack Magazine", it was revealed that Metronomy would be releasing a new album in the summer of 2016. The title of the album was later revealed to be "Summer 08", with its release scheduled on 1 July 2016. On 13 September 2019, Metronomy released their sixth studio album, "Metronomy Forever". Their seventh studio album, "Small World," was released on 18 February 2022.


title: Metronomy

text: Before Mount started writing music as Metronomy he, Gabriel and friend Kevin Hawes, who died in 2005, performed and wrote music as part of The Upsides and The Customers.


title: Metronomy

text: The Upsides were a band that Joseph and Gabriel joined when still in their early teens. According to Joseph they "played proper original pop songs – we like to think we were the original Busted". The band came to an end when both guys moved to Brighton to start university.


title: Metronomy

text: The Customers started out in 1996 as a studio project for Will and Gregg who lived in a neighbouring village to Joseph's and Gabriel's home in Devon, but did not enter its present form until all members had moved from Devon to Sussex. Will worked with Gabriel and played out live under the guise of Willis. The name changed to The Customers on Christmas Day 2001. Joseph joined the band as drummer in 2002 and they welcomed Gregg back into the line-up to complete the four piece.


title: Metronomy

text: Metronomy have toured widely throughout the UK and Europe supporting acts such as Coldplay, Bloc Party, CSS, Klaxons, Kate Nash and Justice. They engaged in their first headline UK tour in 2008. Metronomy have also played gigs in America and Canada notably at the 2007 SXSW.


title: Metronomy

text: Up until April 2009, Joseph Mount's performance of keyboards, vocals, and guitar in the live band was accompanied by members Oscar Cash (keyboards, melodica and saxophone), and Gabriel Stebbing (keyboards and bass guitar). Since Stebbing's departure from Metronomy in 2009 their live set has been known as Metronomy 2.0 and has been highly praised by Stebbing.


title: Metronomy

text: Metronomy's new band features former Lightspeed Champion drummer Anna Prior and bassist Olugbenga Adelekan.


title: Metronomy

text: Metronomy's live shows include dance routines and light shows. Most notably they use push lights stuck to their chests. Mount explained: "We did our first gig in Brighton, and a few days before I saw these lights in a pound shop and I thought 'we'll whack these on our t-shirts and do some synchronised light shows!' I'm totally aware that some people hate it but equally I think some people enjoy it just for the fact that it's a bit of fun."


title: Metronomy

text: Metronomy performed at Field Day music festival in Sydney on New Year's Day 2012 and toured the UK in February 2012 with Two Door Cinema Club, Tribes and Azealia Banks on the NME Awards Tour 2012. They also performed at Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona in May 2014, at Rock Werchter in Belgium in June 2014 and at Festival No.6 at Portmeirion, Wales in September 2015.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: John Dies at the End is a 2012 American comedy horror film written and directed by Don Coscarelli and based on David Wong's novel of the same name. It stars Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes, with Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown, Glynn Turman, Daniel Roebuck, and Doug Jones.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: David Wong, a slacker, recalls confronting a zombie skinhead he beheaded one year prior and wonders if an axe that had its handle and head replaced over time is still the same axe. In the present day, he meets with a reporter, Arnie Blondestone, to recount the supernatural events that plagued the small, undisclosed city David lives in.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: Some time ago, David is at a party with his friend John, with acquaintances Fred Chu, Justin White, and Amy Sullivan, who has an amputated hand. David learns that Amy's dog, Bark Lee, has gone missing after biting Robert Marley, a drug dealer who pretends to be Jamaican. The dealer claims to have powers and knows things about David that he shouldn't. As he leaves the party, David sees Bark next to his car.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: John calls Dave, demanding he come over at once. At John's apartment, David, oblivious to a bizarre creature only John can see, finds a syringe containing a black-colored drug, John tells David that the drug, "Soy Sauce", given to him by Marley, grants inhuman knowledge when taken, along with dumping the user in alternate dimensions and timestreams, as demonstrated by a past version of John calling present Dave.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: As they drive off, David accidentally stabs himself with the syringe, propelling him through alternate dimensions. Returning to the present, a strange man, Roger North, appears in the backseat. Roger puts a strange creature down David's shirt and tells him to drive. David uses the cigarette lighter to burn off the creature and use the commotion to stop the car and threaten Roger, who disappears.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: Detective Lawrence Appleton questions the two at a police station about the party. Appleton reveals that John and Justin White were the only survivors of a drug-fueled afterparty thrown by Robert Marley. Everyone else either disappeared, or suffered grisly, bizarre deaths.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: In the present, an incredulous Arnie tries to leave, but Dave convinces him to stay after showing him a strange monster in his car that can't be easily seen.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: During questioning by the cops, John dies for unknown reasons. While one of the interrogators leaves to investigate John's death, John telepathically contacts Dave. John helps Dave realize the other cop in the room is a ghost and helps him escape from the police station. Dave is then guided to Marley's house. Marley's Soy Sauce knocks Dave unconscious. He wakes up to see Appleton preparing to burn down the trailer, who tells him John's body disappeared and that the Soy Sauce is letting in some kind of evil force. Appleton shoots David, who survives by time-traveling and tampering with the round he was shot with. Bark, controlled by John, drives David's car through the wall, allowing him to escape.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: Justin White, possessed, appears in David's apartment and subdues him. Dave tries to kill him but he's infected. Justin kidnaps David, Fred, Amy, Bark, and John and takes them to an abandoned mall, hoping to use a ghostly door inside to travel to another dimension. John manipulates White into going outside, where a waiting Appleton kills him. Appleton then explodes into a swarm of demonic insects who then possess Fred, causing David to kill him. Amy opens the ghost door with her phantom limb, allowing John and Dave passage. There they meet celebrity psychic and exorcist North and Albert Marconi, who say the source of the strange happenings is Korrok, an eldritch biological supercomputer who has turned into a genocidal god that wants to travel to new dimensions and conquer them. Marconi gives David and John an LSD-laced C4 explosive to incapacitate Korrok with.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: The two step through a portal to an alternate Earth. Disciples of Korrok greet them as "chosen ones" and present a brutal totalitarian society, where dissenters are horribly maimed by Korrok's monsters. The duo are brought before Korrok, who plans to devour them, absorb their knowledge of dimensional travel, and conquer their dimension. John tries to activate the bomb but fumbles. Bark Lee, who followed the two, grabs the bomb and flings himself into Korrok, detonating it and destroying the two of them.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: Upon escaping, David and John meet Marconi and learn that Bark was meant to defeat Korrok all along. After biting a Soy Sauce-addled Marley, it linked him to Marconi and Roger North. Amy becomes David's girlfriend. With Marconi's help, David and John become exorcists and demon hunters.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: In the present, Arnie decides to publish the story. Dave realizes he perceives Arnie differently than how he really looks, and the two find the real Arnie decapitated in the trunk of his car, who was killed after first contacting Dave. Dave tells Arnie that Dave's mind projected his current shape. Arnie tries to deny this but soon vanishes into thin air.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: Later, John and Dave play basketball and inadvertently throw their ball into a post-apocalyptic dimension. After going in after it, a paramilitary organization informs them they are chosen ones who will restore the world, but an annoyed John and Dave walk off.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: In 2007, Don Coscarelli optioned the film rights to the comedic horror novel "John Dies at the End". The novel, written by David Wong, was first published online as a webserial beginning in 2001, then as an edited manuscript in 2004, and then as a paperback edition in 2007. Coscarelli stated, "I was greatly impressed by David Wong's crazed originality and impressive imagination. He's like a mash-up of Douglas Adams and Stephen King, both smart and goofy, scary and funny – it really spoke to me. [It] is as addictive as the 'Soy Sauce' street drug that kicks the plot into gear."


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: Executive produced by Daniel Carey and Paul Giamatti, with producers Don Coscarelli, Brad Baruh, Andy Meyers, Roman Perez, Aaron Godfred, and Josh Lewin, M3 Alliance, M3 Creative, and Midnight Alliance "secretly" began principal photography in October 2010. This was confirmed after hints posted by Coscarelli on his Twitter page were verified. Filming took place on locations in Southern California. On January 27, 2011, Coscarelli announced on his Twitter page that principal photography had been completed and that the film has entered post-production, for extensive visual FX work. The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2012. "Variety" reported that the film was produced on a budget of less than seven figures.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: Coscarelli told "Entertainment Weekly", "I had been reading zombie fiction. So I ordered these books and the Amazon robots sent me this email: 'If you like that, you will love "John Dies at the End’". And it listed all these things [about Wong's book]. Literally, when I read the email, I thought, 'This would make a great movie.'"


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: Giamatti called the novel "an embarrassment of riches" and said: "what's going to be tragic is what's going to have to go, because stuff is going to have to go and [...] it will kill me whatever goes, because you want it all to be in there and you've still got to have this stuffed bag of stuff." He also praised the actors and Coscarelli's choices, stating, "Don cast it brilliantly. The actors were so good."


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: In August 2012, Magnet Releasing announced that they had acquired the rights to the film. The film premiered to wider audiences via video on demand services on December 27, 2012; however, it was only available in the US. It opened in theaters on January 25, 2013. It was released on DVD on April 2, 2013.


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports a 60% approval rating, based on 89 reviews with an average score of 5.60/10. The site's consensus states: "Some will find the darkly funny, genre-bending incoherence of "John Dies at the End" charming; some will feel its zany antics and gore lead to an unsatisfying payoff." On Metacritic the film has a score of 53/100 based on 27 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".


title: John Dies at the End (film)

text: A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" called it "a ridiculous, preposterous, sometimes maddening experience, but also kind of a blast." IGN editor Chris Tilly wrote, "The end result is a film that veers all over the place; a dark, hilarious and consistently twisted feature that amuses for long periods, bores in patches, and astounds in others still." "Variety"s Rob Nelson called it "a thoroughly unpredictable horror-comedy—and an immensely entertaining one, too." Steven Rea of the "Philadelphia Inquirer" rated it 4/5 stars and called it "over-the-top, gross, and funny ... deeply amusing, in the sickest possible way." James Berardinelli rated it 2/4 stars and called it an "interesting failure." Writing at NPR, Scott Tobias said that the film tries too hard to attract a cult following and relies on "calculated insanity". In a highly negative review, Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" praised Giamatti's acting as the only good part of the film, raising it from "Worst Movie Ever Made" to "One of the Worst of 2013".


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn is a role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Interplay Entertainment. It is the sequel to "Baldur's Gate" (1998) and was released for Microsoft Windows in September 2000. Like "Baldur's Gate", the game takes place in the Forgotten Realms—a fantasy campaign setting—and is based on the "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" 2nd edition rules. Powered by BioWare's Infinity Engine, "Baldur's Gate II" uses an isometric perspective and pausable real-time gameplay. The player controls a party of up to six characters, one of whom is the player-created protagonist, while the others are certain characters recruited from the game world.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: Set in the fictional Forgotten Realms, much of "Baldur's Gate II" takes place in and around Athkatla, a city in the country of Amn. Opening shortly after the events of "Baldur's Gate", the game continues the story of the protagonist, Gorion's Ward, whose unique heritage has now drawn the attention of Jon Irenicus, a powerful and sinister mage. The storyline revolves around the machinations of Irenicus and the player's encounters with him.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: Development began in January 1999. BioWare set out to improve upon the first "Baldur's Gate" in every way possible. From a list of constructive criticism—compiled from the suggestions of fans, reviews, and internal suggestions—a list of features to be added to the game was distilled: some of these were 800 x 600 resolution, 3D support, and character kits. In "Baldur's Gate", the game's engine and content were being developed at the same time; whereas in "Baldur's Gate II", the engine was running from the start. Having a completed engine meant they could direct their efforts towards producing content, instead of focusing on basic functionality.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: "Shadows of Amn" received critical acclaim, being praised for its gameplay, artwork, and voice acting, and is often regarded as one of the best video games ever made. GameSpy, GameSpot, and IGN awarded it their "Role-Playing Game of the Year" awards for 2000, and the game has sold more than two million units. An expansion pack, "", was released in 2001. Besides adding a large dungeon and enhancements to the game, this well-received expansion concluded the Child of Bhaal saga. "Shadows of Amn" and "Throne of Bhaal" have also been included together in various compilations. In 2013, an enhanced version of "Baldur's Gate II" was released, bearing the title "" and using an updated version of the Infinity Engine. A sequel "Baldur's Gate III" is in development by Larian Studios.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: "Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn" is an "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" 2nd edition computer role-playing game. The central quest of the game consists of about 50 to 60 hours of play, while the full game, including all side quests, is estimated to be between 200 and 300 hours. The player controls a party of up to six characters, one of whom is the protagonist; if the protagonist dies, a saved-game must be loaded, or a new game begun. The game begins with character creation through a series of configuration screens, choosing such things as class, ability scores, appearance, and alignment. Alternatively, an existing character from "Baldur's Gate" or its expansion "" can be imported. Once in the game world, the player may recruit certain non-player characters (NPCs) to travel with him or her, though only five may do so at a time; and, depending on who is present in the group, bickering, romance, and side quests can result. NPCs in the party often converse with the player or with one another, and at times interject into the player's conversations with others.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: The game is played from an isometric perspective, and the screen, which does not need to remain centered on the protagonist, can be scrolled with the mouse or keyboard. Areas are revealed as they are explored by the player's characters. A fog of war effect hides explored areas when the player's characters move away from them. The player can also change the formation in which the party moves. Clicking an area exit, such as a doorway or staircase, causes another area to be loaded. Clicking on the edge of an outside area causes the party to travel there; the game then presents the player with the World Map, from which the player may select a destination.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: The player interacts with characters and objects by clicking on them. Clicking on the ground causes the player's selected characters to move. The gameplay, though in real-time, can be paused, whereupon commands may be issued to controllable characters, who will attempt to execute them when the game is unpaused. The game can also be set to pause automatically at certain times. Dialogue is started by NPCs at certain scripted times, or by the player's clicking on NPCs who are not immediately hostile. When speaking to an NPC, the player must often choose what to say from a list of responses. The dialogue may lead to quests or important information. When the player clicks on a hostile being, the currently selected characters will advance to attack it. Information about characters, creatures, items, and buildings in the game environment is shown on a tool tip, which appears when the mouse pointer is held over game elements.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: When a character in the group gains the necessary experience points, he or she gains a level. Experience points are awarded for certain player actions, such as killing enemies or completing quests. The party also has a reputation, which is affected by the player's moral actions, and which, along with the party leader's charisma attribute, influences how NPCs in the game world react to the player. The characters in the party will also complain if the party's reputation conflicts with their alignment. Resting heals the characters in the party and refreshes those who are fatigued; also, resting allows a character to memorize spells. The game contains over 300 spells available for memorization. With the exception of sorcerers, magic-users must memorize spells before they can be cast. Spell-casting takes time and may be disrupted by attacks or other spells.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: The player can access sub-screens through the interface: area and world maps; the journal, which tracks important information, such as quests and the game's plot; the inventory page, which is used to manage and equip items; the record screen, which is used to view information about, as well as level up, characters in the party; the mage book and priest scroll screens, where spells can be inspected and memorized; and the options screen, where settings may be altered, saved-games loaded, or the game saved or quit.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: During character creation the player chooses a class: fighter, ranger, paladin, thief, bard, mage, cleric, druid, barbarian, monk, or sorcerer (the last three of which are new for the game). Different classes have different special abilities and restrictions; a thief character, for instance, can find and remove traps, but thieves have limitations on which weapons and armor they may use, and cannot be of lawful good alignment. Most classes also have a subset of "kits", or specializations within a class, to choose from. Kits have special advantages and, usually, disadvantages; for example, the cavalier—one of the kits of the paladin class—specializes in fighting monsters such as dragons and demons, but cannot use missile weapons. At some point in the game, the player may join or take over a "stronghold". The type of stronghold is determined by the protagonist's class.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: The game also has a multiplayer mode, in which up to six human players can adventure through the game, controlling player-made characters as well as recruited NPCs. The content of the game is otherwise the same, and one player controls the protagonist.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: The Forgotten Realms, the high fantasy campaign setting in which "Baldur's Gate II" is set, is a fictional world similar to a medieval Earth, but with its own peoples, geography, and history. In the Realms, as its inhabitants call it, fantastic creatures and magic are common.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: "Baldur's Gate II" takes place mainly in Amn, a country on the subcontinent of Faerûn. This country, known commonly as the Merchant Kingdom, lies south of Baldur's Gate; wealth and trade are the chief concerns of the region. The capital city of Athkatla, around which a fair portion of the game revolves, is the most important in Amn and is ruled by the anonymous Council of Six. The local thieves' guild, the Shadow Thieves, also has considerable power. The group, which operates all along the Sword Coast, is based in Athkatla. Another powerful organization in Amn are the Cowled Wizards, who regulate the use of magic in the region. The Shadow Thieves, the Cowled Wizards, and the Harpers, a semi-secret conglomeration of good organizations, all factor prominently into the story and provide side quests.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: Besides Athkatla, other places the player will pass through include: an island, on which stands both the port town of Brynnlaw and the asylum Spellhold; the Underdark; the city of Suldanessellar; and the Astral Plane. There are also other places, which may be explored: the Umar Hills, where people have been disappearing; a temple ruins, fallen under the shadow of the Shade Lord; the de'Arnise Keep, home of the de'Arnises but recently overrun by trolls; the town of Trademeet, under attack by animals; a druid grove connected to Trademeet's woes; the Windspear Hills, where the player becomes entangled in the intrigues of Firkraag, a dragon; the underwater Sahuagin city; and the Planar Prison.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: "Baldur's Gate II" is set in the year 1369 DR (Dale Reckoning), and thus takes place not long after the Time of Troubles (1358 DR), when the Tablets of Fate, powerful magic items which maintain a balance between good and evil, were stolen. Lord Ao, the Overdeity, forced the gods to become mortal until the Tablets were found; some gods died while in this mortal state.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: Bhaal, the God of Murder, was one such god, slain by an adventurer named Cyric, who himself became a god. But Bhaal foresaw his destruction and walked the land before the other gods. He left behind him "a score of mortal progeny," whose later deaths, when they were slain by heroes, would fuel his rebirth. The game's protagonist is one of these offspring; but, through the choices of the player, may be either good or evil. The character grew up in the library fortress of Candlekeep, watched over by the mage Gorion. Imoen, who grew up there as well, became a close friend. The story of the first "Baldur's Gate" followed their adventure along the Sword Coast, where the hero learned of their heritage and defeated their half-brother Sarevok, a fellow child of Bhaal.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: Some notable characters in "Shadows of Amn" include: Gaelan Bayle, who offers the party the help of the Shadow Thieves; Aran Linvail, the leader of the Shadow Thieves; Saemon Havarian, who sails the party to an island; Adalon, a silver dragon whose eggs have been stolen and given to drow; Elhan; and Queen Ellesime, the ruler of Suldanessellar. Jon Irenicus and his sister Bodhi are the chief antagonists, Irenicus being the main villain of the game. Celebrated Forgotten Realms character Drizzt Do'Urden also makes an appearance; and if the player solicits his aid, he and his companions will later help the player.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: In "Baldur's Gate II", several characters from the first game reappear, of which the following can join the player's party: Imoen, who grew up with the protagonist in Candlekeep; Jaheira, who, with her husband Khalid, was a friend of Gorion's; Minsc, a warrior who carries with him a hamster named Boo; Edwin, a Red Wizard of Thay; and Viconia, a dark elf cleric. There are also many new NPCs who may join the party: Aerie, a winged elf who has lost her wings and was sold to the circus by slavers at a young age; Keldorn, an older paladin and a powerful and respected member of the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart; Mazzy, an honorable halfling fighter and "the nearest thing to a paladin that a halfling can aspire to"; Nalia, who is of the upper class, but, though conscious of class distinction, tries to help those less fortunate than herself; Valygar, who is of a family noted for its talented magic-users, but hates the art; Anomen, a member of the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart, and whose wish is to become a full knight; Cernd, a druid; Haer'Dalis, a tiefling bard and one of the actors of an acting troupe; Jan, a gnome, of the Jansen family; Yoshimo, a thief from the land of Kara-Tur; and Korgan, an evil dwarven fighter.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: Shortly after the events of "Baldur's Gate", the hero and companions are overcome and taken captive. When the game opens, the player character awakens in a cage and is then experimented on by a wizard, who is aware of the player character's heritage and speaks of "untapped power". The wizard is distracted as his complex is attacked by Shadow Thieves, and disappears to fight them. Imoen, appearing from a side room, frees the player character. Jaheira and Minsc are also held in cells close by. Minsc reveals that his witch Dynaheir was killed sometime after their capture, while Jaheira's husband Khalid is later found tortured to death, leaving Jaheira emotionally devastated. The characters fight their way through the underground complex, learning more and more of their captor's despicable character and that his name is "Irenicus". At length, escaping the complex, they emerge into the city of Athkatla and witness Irenicus fighting off some of his attackers, whom he destroys. An argument then ensues, during which Imoen angrily attacks Irenicus using magic. The Cowled Wizards appear and, after a fight, arrest both Irenicus and Imoen for the unsanctioned use of magic, and teleport both of them away.


title: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

text: In the slums of Athkatla, a man named Gaelan Bayle offers the party the help of a powerful organization, who can find Imoen or Irenicus for the large sum of 20,000 gold pieces. The party is approached by and offered the help of another rival guild headed by Bodhi; it is the player's choice whom to side with. Meanwhile, Imoen and Irenicus have been removed to an asylum called Spellhold, which is situated on an island. Irenicus soon breaks his bonds and prepares to experiment on Imoen.