title: 1981 NBA draft

text: Isiah Thomas is the only player from this draft who has been inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was also named in the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History list announced at the league's 50th anniversary in 1996. He spent his entire 13-year career with the Detroit Pistons and won two NBA championships. He also one Finals Most Valuable Player Award, five consecutive All-NBA Team selections and twelve consecutive All-Star Game selections. After retiring as a player, Thomas went on to have a coaching career with the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks. Mark Aguirre, the first pick, won two NBA championships with Thomas and the Pistons. His other achievements include three All-Star Game selections. Buck Williams, the third pick, was selected to one All-NBA Team, three All-Star Games and four All-Defensive Teams. Tom Chambers, the eighth pick, was selected to two All-NBA Teams and four All-Star Games. Five other players from this draft, seventh pick Steve Johnson, ninth pick Rolando Blackman, 12th pick Kelly Tripucka, 20th pick Larry Nance and 31st pick Danny Ainge, were also selected to at least one All-Star Game each. Eddie Johnson, the 29th pick, is the only other player from this draft who has won an annual NBA award as a player; he won the Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1989. Aside from Thomas, four other players drafted also went on to have coaching careers in the NBA: Danny Ainge, 11th pick Frank Johnson, 14th pick Herb Williams and 179th pick Jay Triano.


title: 1981 NBA draft

text: In the eighth round, the Golden State Warriors used the 171st pick to selected Yasutaka Okayama, a Japanese basketball player who was measured at and . Okayama, who attended and played junior varsity basketball at the University of Portland for one and a half years in 1976 as an exchange student, declined to try out for the Warriors and never played in the NBA. He is the tallest person ever drafted and would have been the tallest player in the NBA had he played in the league. The San Diego Clippers used their last pick in the draft, the 210th pick, to draft Tony Gwynn, who starred at both baseball and basketball at San Diego State University. Gwynn was also selected in the 1981 MLB draft by the San Diego Padres. He opted to play baseball and ended up playing 20 seasons with the Padres. He received multiple awards and honors during his playing career, is one of only 28 players in MLB history with 3,000 career hits, and was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame at his first opportunity in . Kenny Easley, a college football star from the University of California, Los Angeles, was selected by the Chicago Bulls with the 216th pick in the 10th round. Easley, who was selected fourth in the 1981 National Football League (NFL) Draft by the Seattle Seahawks, played seven seasons with the Seahawks and received several awards and honors before retiring in 1988 due to kidney problems that eventually led to a transplant.


title: James White (running back)

text: James Calvin White (born February 3, 1992) is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons with the New England Patriots. He played college football at Wisconsin and was selected by the Patriots in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Primarily utilized as a receiver, he holds the Super Bowl records for receptions and points scored, which he set in Super Bowl LI. White is also tied with Darren Sproles for the most receptions in a playoff game.


title: James White (running back)

text: White attended the St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While there, he played high school football for the Raiders. He was a part of the 2008 St. Thomas Aquinas National Championship team. At Aquinas, he primarily split time with Giovani Bernard, who is currently a running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He rushed for over 1,000 yards and over 20 touchdowns in his senior year and was chosen to the (Broward) All-County team. White also played and lettered in baseball.


title: James White (running back)

text: White came out of St. Thomas Aquinas as the 70th-ranked running back in his class, and as a three star recruit by "Scout.com". He chose Wisconsin over Clemson, Michigan State, and South Florida, among others. He was given the nickname "Sweet Feet".


title: James White (running back)

text: White attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 2010–2013. He was named the 2010 Big Ten Freshman of the Year. White rushed for 1,052 yards and 14 touchdowns, leading the Badgers to the 2011 Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. In the 2011 season, he had 713 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns to go along with 15 receptions for 150 yards. In the 2012 season, he finished with 806 rushing yards, 12 rushing touchdowns, eight receptions, 132 receiving yards, and one receiving touchdown. On November 16, 2013, White ran for a career-high 205 yards against Indiana. Also, during that game, White set a Wisconsin record for longest run from scrimmage (93 yards). In the 2013 season, he finished with 1,444 rushing yards, 13 rushing touchdowns, 39 receptions, 300 receiving yards, and two receiving touchdowns. White rushed for over 100 yards a game on 17 different occasions during his college career, despite splitting carries with John Clay, Montee Ball, and Melvin Gordon for most of his career.


title: James White (running back)

text: White was drafted by the New England Patriots in the fourth round (130th overall) of the 2014 NFL Draft. He was active for only three games for the Patriots. In Week 4, against the Kansas City Chiefs, he made his NFL debut. In the 41–14 loss, he had three carries for 21 yards and three receptions for 15 yards. He was inactive for the team's 28–24 win over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.


title: James White (running back)

text: White emerged onto the national scene during Week 11 with a two-touchdown performance (one rushing, one receiving) in a 20–13 victory over the Buffalo Bills on "Monday Night Football" after starting running back Dion Lewis was out for the season with a torn ACL. He finished the game with 14 rushing yards and 32 receiving yards. The win pushed the Patriots' record to 10–0 for the season. In Week 13, White caught a career-high 10 passes for 115 yards and a touchdown in the Patriots' 35–28 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Overall, White finished the 2015 season with 40 receptions for 410 receiving yards and four touchdowns to go along with 22 carries for 56 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns.


title: James White (running back)

text: White had a breakout season as the Patriots primary passing back with Lewis starting the season on the PUP list. In Week 5, which was Brady's return from suspension from Deflategate, White caught four passes for 63 yards in a 33–13 victory over the Cleveland Browns. In a 35–17 Week 6 victory against the Cincinnati Bengals, White caught two touchdown passes from Tom Brady, a 15-yard and a six-yard while recording a team-high eight receptions for 47 yards and rushing seven times for 19 yards. In the Week 7 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers White caught his third touchdown pass of the season. In Week 11, against the San Francisco 49ers, White caught six passes for 63 yards and recorded his fourth touchdown of the season. During Week 14 game against the Baltimore Ravens, White caught three passes for 81 yards, including a 61-yard catch and run from Tom Brady. During Week 16 against the New York Jets, White caught three passes for 32 yards and a touchdown, making it his fifth receiving touchdown of the season. With his Week 16 performance, White became one of four running backs to have 500 or more receiving yards in the 2016 season. Overall, he finished the 2016 season with 60 receptions for 551 receiving yards and five receiving touchdowns to go along with 39 carries for 166 rushing yards.


title: James White (running back)

text: During Super Bowl LI against the Atlanta Falcons, White had 139 yards from scrimmage (29 rushing, 110 receiving). He joined Roger Craig as the only running back with more than 100 receiving yards in a Super Bowl and broke Denver Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas's previous record for most receptions in a Super Bowl, which came in a 43–8 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII, with 14. He scored three touchdowns and a two-point conversion, setting a record for points in a Super Bowl, with 20. All of those points came after the Patriots trailed 28–3 midway through the third quarter. Danny Amendola's two-point conversion following White's second touchdown tied the game at 28, sending the Super Bowl to overtime for the first time ever. During overtime, White delivered the game-winning play by rushing two yards into the end zone for a touchdown as the Patriots won 34–28, becoming the first team in 134 tries to win when trailing by more than 17 points after 3 quarters in a postseason game (the Patriots trailed by 19).


title: James White (running back)

text: Brady, who won the Super Bowl MVP award, said that he believed White should have won the award instead. To show his thanks, Brady gave White his MVP prize, a pick up truck, which White accepted. Several commentators, as well as Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell, also believed White should have won the award.


title: James White (running back)

text: While White is the only player to score in overtime in a Super Bowl, he is the second player to score the winning touchdown in overtime in an NFL championship game after Alan Ameche, a fellow Wisconsin Badger, who did so for the Baltimore Colts in 1958.


title: James White (running back)

text: On April 18, 2017, White, who was entering the final year of his rookie contract, signed a three-year, $12 million extension through the 2020 season. The contract included $4.69 million in guarantees and an additional $3 million in incentives. White finished the 2017 season with 43 carries for 171 yards along with 56 receptions for 429 yards and three touchdowns. The Patriots finished the season with 13 wins and earned the #1-seed for the AFC Playoffs. In the against the Tennessee Titans, White recorded a rushing touchdown and receiving touchdown. He finished with 11 rushing yards and 29 receiving yards. In the , White recorded the Patriots' first touchdown of the game and the team would go on to win 24–20 and advance to the Super Bowl. He finished the game with four rushing yards and 22 receiving yards. In Super Bowl LII, White had seven carries for 45 yards and scored the Patriots' first touchdown of the game and also caught two passes for 21 yards, but the Patriots lost 41–33 to the Philadelphia Eagles.


title: James White (running back)

text: In 2018, White was named a team captain for the first time in his career. In the season opener against the Houston Texans, White rushed five times for 18 yards and caught four passes for 38 yards and a touchdown as the Patriots won by a score of 27-20. In Week 4, against the Miami Dolphins, he rushed for 68 yards and a touchdown while also catching eight receptions for 44 yards and a touchdown in the 38–7 victory. In Week 5, he tied his career-high with 10 receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown in a 38–24 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. Two weeks later in a 38–31 road victory against the Chicago Bears, White rushed for 40 yards and caught eight passes for 57 yards and two touchdowns. During Week 9 against the Green Bay Packers, White finished with 31 rushing yards on 12 carries for two touchdowns and caught six passes for 72 yards. After a Week 11 bye, White rushed for a career-high 73 yards in a 27–13 road victory against the New York Jets.


title: James White (running back)

text: White finished the regular season setting career-highs in rushing yards with 425, rushing touchdowns with five, receptions with 87, receiving yards with 751, and receiving touchdowns with seven.


title: James White (running back)

text: In the against the Los Angeles Chargers, White tied the all-time single-game playoff receptions record with 15. He finished the game with 97 receiving yards. In the , the Patriots went on the road to face the Kansas City Chiefs. In that game, White had six carries for 23 yards and four receptions for 49 yards, including a 30-yard reception, his team's longest of the game, as the Patriots defeated the Chiefs 37-31 in overtime to reach Super Bowl LIII. During the Super Bowl, which was played on White's 27th birthday, rookie Sony Michel took over most of the rushing duties, leaving White in a limited role as the Patriots defeated the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 13–3. He finished the Super Bowl with four rushing yards and five receiving yards.


title: James White (running back)

text: White scored his first touchdown of the season on a 10-yard pass as the Patriots defeated the Miami Dolphins on the road by a score of 43–0. During Week 9 against the Baltimore Ravens, he earned his first start of the season and rushed for 38 yards and his first rushing touchdown of the year along with catching two passes for 46 yards in the 37–20 road loss. During Week 13 against the Houston Texans on "Sunday Night Football", White rushed 14 times for 79 yards including a career-long 32-yard rush and caught eight passes for 98 yards and two touchdowns in the 28–22 road loss. Overall, White finished the 2019 season with 263 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown to go along with 72 receptions for 645 receiving yards and five receiving touchdowns.


title: James White (running back)

text: A few hours prior to the Patriots' Week 2 game against the Seattle Seahawks on "Sunday Night Football", White's father was killed in a car crash and his mother was left in critical condition. He was listed as an inactive player for the game. During the game, teammate Devin McCourty ran up to the camera and yelled "28, we love you bro!" after he recorded a pick six. In Week 12, White scored two rushing touchdowns in the 20–17 victory over the Arizona Cardinals. He finished the 2020 season with 35 carries for 121 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns to go along with 49 receptions for 375 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown.


title: James White (running back)

text: On March 25, 2021, White re-signed with the Patriots on a one-year, $2.5 million contract. He suffered a hip injury in Week 3 and was placed on injured reserve on October 1, 2021.


title: James White (running back)

text: On March 15, 2022, White signed a two-year, $5 million contract extension with the Patriots. Despite this, he announced his retirement via Twitter on August 11, 2022.


title: Majorelle Garden

text: The Majorelle Garden (, hadiqat mmajuril, urti majuril) is a botanical garden and artist's landscape garden in Marrakech, Morocco. It was created by the French Orientalist artist Jacques Majorelle over almost forty years, starting in 1923, and features a Cubist villa designed by the French architect, Paul Sinoir in the 1930s. The property was the residence of the artist and his wife from 1923 until their divorce in the 1950s. In the 1980s, the property was purchased by the fashion designers, Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé who worked to restore it. Today, the garden and villa complex is open to the public. The villa houses the Berber Museum and in 2017 the Yves Saint Laurent Museum opened nearby.


title: Majorelle Garden

text: The Majorelle Garden was designed by the French artist, Jacques Majorelle (1886-1962), son of the Art Nouveau "ébéniste" (cabinet-maker) of Nancy, Louis Majorelle. As a young aspiring painter, Jacques Majorelle was sent to Morocco in around 1917 to convalesce from a serious medical condition. After spending a short time in Casablanca, he travelled to Marrakech and like many of his contemporaries, fell in love with the vibrant colours and street life he found there. After travelling around North Africa and the Mediterranean, he eventually decided to settle permanently in Marrakech.


title: Majorelle Garden

text: During his lifetime, Majorelle earned a reputation as a celebrated Orientalist painter. The special shade of bold cobalt blue, inspired by the coloured tiles he had seen around Marrakech and in Berber burn-houses, was used extensively in the garden and its buildings and is named after him, "bleu Majorelle"—Majorelle Blue. Prior to his death, Majorelle patented the colour which carries his name.


title: Majorelle Garden

text: In 1923, just four years after his marriage to Andrée Longueville, Majorelle purchased a four-acre plot, situated on the border of a palm grove in Marrakech and built a house in the Mooroccan style. In 1931, he commissioned the architect, Paul Sinoir, to design a Cubist villa for the property. Gradually, he purchased additional land, extending his holding by some 10 acres. In the grounds around the residence, Majorelle began planting a luxuriant garden which would become known as the "Jardins Majorelle" (Majorelle Garden). The garden became his life's work and he devoted himself to developing it for almost forty years.


title: Majorelle Garden

text: The garden proved costly to run and in 1947, Majorelle opened the garden to the public with an admission fee designed to defray the cost of maintenance. At times, he sold off parcels of land to fund the growing garden. Following his divorce in the 1950s, Majorelle was forced to sell the house and land. After this, the garden was neglected and fell into disrepair. The garden and villa were rediscovered in the 1980s, by fashion designers, Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé who set about restoring it and saving it. The pair owned the villa until 2008. After Yves Saint Laurent died in 2008 his ashes were scattered in the Majorelle Garden.


title: Majorelle Garden

text: Since 2010, the property has been owned by the Foundation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, a French not-for-profit organisation and since 2011 has been managed by the Foundation Jardin Majorelle, a recognized non-profit organization in Marrakech. Pierre Bergé was the director of the Garden's Foundation until his death in September, 2017.


title: Majorelle Garden

text: The gardens and buildings form a complex, where specific buildings are dedicated to various museums and exhibits of interest to visitors. The gardens, which cover two and half acres, are open to the public daily and house an important collection of cacti and sculptures.


title: Majorelle Garden

text: Majorelle's former studio workshop previously housed the Islamic Art Museum of Marrakech, featuring a collection of North African textiles from Saint-Laurent's personal collection as well as ceramics and jewelry. Since 2011, however, the villa is now home to the Berber Museum ("Musée Pierre Bergé des Arts Berbères"), exhibiting objects of Amazigh (Berber) culture. The villa also holds a collection of Majorelle's paintings.


title: Majorelle Garden

text: Development of the garden complex is ongoing. Profits from the gardens are used to fund new projects. In October 2017, the Yves Saint Laurent Museum was opened to the public as a tribute to the designer's legacy and his links with Marrakech. The gardens are a major tourist drawcard in Marrakech, attracting more than 700,000 visitors annually. The garden hosts more than 15 bird species that are endemic to North Africa. It has many fountains, and a notable collection of cacti.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Ancient Iranian religion or Iranian paganism, refers to the ancient beliefs and practices of the Iranian peoples before the rise of Zoroastrianism. The religion closest to it was the Historical Vedic religion (ancient Hinduism) that was practiced in the ancient Indian subcontinent. The major deities worshipped were Varuna and Mithra from Iran to Rome, but Agni was also worshipped, as names of kings and common public showing devotion to these three exist in most cases. But some sects, the precursors of the Magi, also worshipped Ahura Mazda, the chief of the Asuras. With the rise of Zoroaster and his new, reformatory religion; Assura Medha or Ahuramazda became the principle deities and Devas were relegated to the background. A lot of the attributes and commandments of Varuna, called Fahrana in Medean times, were later attributed to Ashura Medha by Zoroaster.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The Iranian peoples emerged as a separate branch of the Indo-Iranians in the 2nd-millennium BC, during which they came to dominate the Eurasian Steppe and the Iranian Plateau. Their religion is derived from Proto-Indo-Iranian religion, and therefore shares many similarities with the Vedic religion (archaic Hinduism) of India. Although the Iranian peoples left little written or material evidence of their religious practices, their religion is possible to reconstruct from scant Iranian, Babylonian and Greek accounts, similarities with Vedic and other Indo-European religions, and material evidence.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Prior to the Achaemenid period, the daivas were also commonly worshipped. The Achaemenid kings made it a state policy to destroy their shrines and vilify them. Old Persian "daiva" occurs twice in Xerxes I's "daiva inscription" (XPh, early 5th century BCE). This trilingual text also includes one reference to a "daivadana" ("house of the "daivas""), generally interpreted to be a reference to a shrine or sanctuary. In his inscription, Xerxes I records that "by the favor of Ahura Mazda I destroyed that establishment of the daivas and I proclaimed, 'The daivas thou shalt not worship!'" This statement has been interpreted either one of two ways. Either the statement is an ideological one and "daivas" were gods that were to be rejected, or the statement was politically motivated and "daivas" were gods that were followed by (potential) enemies of the state.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Under the Achaemenids, Ahura Mazda received state patronage as the chief deity and the emperors became his representatives. Ahura Mazda was thus recognized as the creator of the world. Dualism was strongly emphasized and human nature was considered essentially good. The chief ritual of the ancient Iranians was the yasna, in which the deities were praised and the mind-altering drug hauma was consumed. This ritual was performed by a highly trained priestly class. Politics and religion under the Persian empires were strongly connected.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Beginning in the early 10th century BC, the ancient Iranian religion was gradually displaced by Zoroastrianism, which contains some aspects of its predecessor.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The sources on ancient Iranian religion, though limited, consist of textual and material sources. The textual sources are both Iranian and non-Iranian.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: An important Iranian source is the Avesta, which are Zoroastrian sacred scriptures made in the Avestan language. This is considered the principal source of knowledge on ancient Iranian religions. It is a collection of several texts that seems to have been over a large span of time by a variety of authors. These texts have been subjected to editings and redactions throughout their development. It is now the only extant fragment of what remained in the 9th century AD of the Avesta compiled in the Sasanian Empire by Khosrow I (6th century AD). Summaries of its content reveal that it was a huge collection containing texts not only in Avestan, but also in Pahlavi, which was the language of Zoroastrianism in the Sasanian Empire. Though the existing Avesta is dated quite recently, it contains information that is considerably older. The Gathas ("Songs") of the Prophet Zoroaster and much of the Yashts are considered among the oldest. The Gathas includes expressions of the religious vision of Zoroaster, which in many ways is a reinterpretation of the ancient Iranian religious principles. The Yashts are a collection of verses dedicated to various deities. These verses are mostly related to Zoroastrian terminology and ideas, but have little relation to anything specifically Zoroastrian. The gods invoked are basically the pre-Zoroastrian gods of the Iranian peoples. There is little agreement on when Zoroaster lived, but most scholars agree that he lived somewhere between 1200 and 600 BC. Dating the Yashts is similarly difficult, but it is likely that they were redacted (not necessarily composed) initially in the 5th century BC.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Another Iranian source are royal inscriptions of the Achaemenid Empire made in the Old Persian (with Akkadian, Aramaic and Elamite translations). These inscriptions, in particular those of Darius I and his son Xerxes I, contain many references to religion. The fact that these are fixed in time and place make them particularly useful.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Except from the Achaemenid inscriptions, there is no evidence that the Iranian religious compositions were written until the late Parthian or Sasanian period. This makes ancient Iranian religion the only major religion of the Middle East which has no written texts in the ancient period. The religious information was rather oral both in composition and transmission.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The non-Iranian sources are mainly Greek. The most important Greek source is Herodotus. Some of the Greek information on ancient Iranian religion is however unreliable. This is either because it is based on outright wrong information or based on misunderstandings.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The historical reconstruction of ancient Vedic Sanskrit literature of ancient India is also an important source. The earliest religious texts of the related Indo-Aryan peoples are indispensable for reconstructing the historical development of the ancient Iranian religion. The most important of these texts in this regard is the Rigveda. It is composed of more than 1,000 hymns dedicated to various deities.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Material sources are rather limited and mostly confined to western Iran. The remains of Achaemenid architecture are the most important of these material sources. They provide a mass of evidence of imperial articulation of religious symbols and indicate a significant dependence on Middle Eastern precedents.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: During the second half of the 2nd millennium BC, one group of Indo-Europeans migrated westwards from the Indus Periphery into the Middle Eastand the Iranian plateau. These were Indo-Iranians calling themselves Arya ("nobles"). Those that settled in the Near East and Steppe are known as Indo-Aryan peoples, while those that settled in Greater Iran are known are Iranian peoples. Because of their common origin, Iranian and Indo-Aryan religion is substantially similar. Through a comparative study of both groups one can reconstruct general features of Iranian religion for which there is no direct documentation.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The Iranian peoples were originally seminomadic pastoralists whose main economic base was cattle, chiefly bovines but also goats and sheep. They excelled at breeding horses, which they used for riding and pulling chariots in sport and warfare. Exactly how rigid their society was is difficult to determine. The Iranian peoples were specialists in religious matters. Men who could afford chariots and horses were recognized as leaders and warriors.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: By the creation of the Achaemenid Empire, a more rigid division of society into priests, nobles, farmers and artisans had developed. Society was heavily patriarchal, which was strongly reflected in religion. As the Iranian peoples settled the land they became more engaged in agriculture and sedentary life. During this process they were influenced by the indigenous populations. The religions of these peoples are completely unknown except from the elements they have left Iranian religion which has no parallel with other Indo-European religions.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The ancient Iranians believed in a cosmos which was a three-tiered structure. This structure consisted of the earth, the atmosphere, and the heaven above. Beyond heaven was the realm of Endless Lights while below the earth lay the realm of darkness and chaos. The earth rested on a cosmic sea called the Varu-Karta. In the earth's centre was cosmic mountain Hara. Down the Hara flowed the river Ardvi.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The earth divided into six continents surrounding the central continent. The central continent was Khvaniratha, the locus of Airyanem Vaejah (land of the Aryans).


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Neither the Avesta or Achaemenid inscriptions have much to say about creation as they contain nothing that can be compared to the Babylonian Enûma Eliš or the first chapters of the Book of Genesis. What is rather emphasized is the majesty and power of Ahura Mazda as the creator of heaven and earth. Beside Ahura Mazda is the ancient Indo-Iranian god Thvarshtar ("Artisan"). Thvarstar also appears under the name Spenta Mainyu ("the Beneficient Spirit") in Zoroaster's system of the Beneficent Immortals. In the creative aspect Thvarshtar functions in many ways as Ahura Mazda. In the Younger Avesta Spenta and the Gathas Mainyu is paired with the evil antagonist Angra Mainyu ("the Evil Spirit", Ahriman in Middle Persian). In later sources it is Ohrmazd (Middle Persian for Ahura Mazda) who is paired with Ahriman. The Avesta contains cryptic allusions to the creations of two antagonistic spirits.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: It is Plutarch (De Iside et Osiride 47), who conducts the first discursive exposition of world creation by two spirits. Plutarch describes the Persians as telling mythical tales about Oromazes (i. e., Ahura Mazda), who is born from light, and Areimanios (i. e., Ahriman), who is born from gloom, engaging in a war against each other. This dualistic idea of two primordial spirits, which Zoroaster calls twins, is an early Indo-European concept. Reconstruction indicates that primordial twins that existed before the creation of the world, came into conflict. One was named "Man" (Iranian *Manu', meaning "man"), the other was named "Twin" (Iranian Yama, Avestan Yima). After Man killed Yima he used his dismembered body to fashion the world. He used the flesh for the earth, the bones for the mountains, the skull for the sky, etc. In a different Iranian variant of the myth, Yama is the first mortal and the first ruler. His rule is described as a golden age in which there is no hot or cold, no death or old age, etc. When falsehood enters Yama's speech this golden age comes to an end. The royal Glory (Khvarnah) departs from Yama and seeks refuge in the cosmic sea. Azhi Dahaka ("Dahaka the Snake"), a serpentine tyrant, then overthrows Yama. His rule ushers in a period of chaos, drought and ruin. Azhi is later defeated by the hero Thraitauna. Thraitauna establishes the legendary line of rulers called Kavis.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Since all sources on Persian mythology, both from indigenous texts and classical authors, originated after the emergence of Zoroastrianism, it is difficult to distinguish between myths that are Zoroastrian innovations from that those that are inherited. The fact that Zoroastrianism is heavily inspired by already existing ideas and has adapted from previous Iranian religions makes this discerning particularly hard. Like other ancient religions in general, Iranian religions did not have a main collection of myths. Iranian myths are rather fragments from a diverse variety of myths that exhibit variations in common themes.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: There is a variant of the Noah's Ark myth in Iranian religion. Here Yama appears as the herdsman and leader of mankind. Yama rules the world for a long time, during which the earth is increased threefold due to overcrowding. Ahura Mazda tells Yama that a great winter is on the horizon. He advises Yama to build a large three-story barn-like structure (vara) in order to hold seeds of plants and pairs of animals. It seems that the vara were actually some sort of paradise or blessed island, even though the story at first developed as myth among pastoralists about the culture hero building a first winter cattle station.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Zoroaster appears to have been the first religious figure to develop an eschatological myth about a future saviour to rescue the world from evil. This idea plays an important part in Zoroastrianism. It was probably also influential in introducing the concept of the messiah in exile Judaism.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The Iranian pantheon was similar to that of other Indo-European religions. It contained a large number of deities, primarily male. These deities personified natural phenomena, social norms or institutions. It seems that there were two major groups of deities, the daivas and the ahuras. Daiva, which means "heavenly one", is derived from the common Proto-Indo-European word for "god", which is the meaning it has in the Vedas. Among some Iranians and in Zoroastrianism the daivas were considered demons, but this view was not universal. The ahuras ("lords") were noble sovereign deities. They were contradicted with the bagha ("the one who distributes") and the yazata ("the one who worshipped").


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The chief of the pantheon was Ahura Mazda ("wise lord"). He was particularly connected with the principle of social and cosmic order called asha in Avestan. Closely connected to him was the ahura Mithra. Mithra was the god who presided over the covenants. In Iranian religion there were two gods with martial traits similar to those of Vedic Indra, these were Mithra and Vrthraghna. The most prominent female deities were Spanta Aramati, the deity of the earth, and Ardvi Sura, the deity of the sacred river.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Ahura Mazda ("Wise Lord") was probably the main god in pantheon of the pre-Zoroastrian Iranians. In both the religion of Darius, Xerxes and Zoroaster, he was worshipped as the supreme god to the point that the rest were almost excluded. He is chiefly considered the creator of the universe and the one who maintains cosmic and social order, arta. In his inscriptions, Darius derives his source of authority from Ahura Mazda and makes it clear that political stability and order through law imitates the model set out by the Creator. Through interrogative discourse, an ancient Indo-European poetic device, Zoroaster asks: "Who is the original father of arta? Who established the paths of the sun and the stars? Who is it through whom the moon now waxes now wanes? Who supports the earth below and (keeps) the heavens (above) from falling down? Who yokes the two steeds to the wind and the clouds?... Who fashioned honoured Devotion together with Dominion? Who made... a son respectful of his father?"


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Neither the Avesta nor the Achaemenid inscriptions identify Ahura Mazda with a natural phenomenon. In the hymn of the goddess Rti (Reward), Ahura Mazda is identified as her father and Spenta Ariamati (Earth) as her mother. This implies that he has assumed the role of the Indo-European Father Heaven (*Diēus Pater, Vedic Dyaus Pitar), who is paired with Mother Earth. Herodotus apparently makes this identification when stating that Zeus in Persian mythology "is the whole circle of heavens". Zeus is also equated with Oromazes (Ahura Mazda) in other Greek sources. These Greeks made this comparison because of Ahura Mazda's role as father and chief god of the pantheon. His name implies that he was sought by worshippers for his wisdom. Based on the expressions of Darius and Zoroaster, it is reasonable to assume that he was the object of a personal devotion which seems to have been absent with other deities.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Along with Ahura Mazda, Mithra was the most important deity in the ancient Iranian pantheon. He may have occupied a position almost equal to him. In the Achaemenid inscriptions, Mithra is along with Anahita the only deity specifically mentioned.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: In the ancient Iranian pantheon there was an individual sun god called Hvar Khshaita. In the eastern Iranian traditions laid out in the Avesta, Mithra also appears to have a connection to the sun, especially with the first rays of sunrise as he drives forward in his chariot. In the western Iranian tradition Mithra was thoroughly associated with the sun and his name became the common word for "sun".


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Despite his connection to the sun, Mithra functioned prominently in the ethical sphere. The word Mithra was a common noun meaning "contract, covenant, treaty". Mithra was thus the god of Covenant. In this respect he function as a celestial deity overseeing all solemn agreements made between people. Breaking such agreements was subjected to severe punishment whether the agreement were made between individuals or sociopolitical entities. As a covenant breaker, Mithra is described as sleepless and having 1,000 ears and 10,000 eyes. He is great warrior sporting a mace while driving his chariot into battle. In this capacity he intervenes on behalf of those faithful to treaties by subjecting the treaty breakers (mithra-drug) to panic and defeat.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: As an independent deity, Mithra carried the standing epithet varu-gavyuti, which means "one who (presides over) wide pasture lands". Another of his epithets was payu, "protector". He is considered the one who protects the territories of those who worship him and abide by their promises.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Mithra is the god who gave his name to the religion of Mithraism, which was at one point popular throughout the Roman Empire. There is dispute whether Iranian religion is related to the Roman cult of Mithraism. Mithraism was introduced to Romans by Cilician pirates who were in relations with Mithradates VI. This makes it hard to think the connection between Roman and Iranian Mithra is only in the name.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: One of the longest of the Avestan Yashts is devoted to a goddess whose name is given as Ardvi Sura Anahita, which means "the damp, strong, untainted". The long name apparently combines two separate names which originally belonged to two individual deities, Ardvi Sura and Anahiti. Ardvi Sura is the Iranian name for the heavenly river goddess who in the Rigveda is called Sarasvati. In this capacity she brings water to the earth, streams, rivers, and seas while flowing from Mount Hukarya to Varu-Karta sea. Anahiti on the other hand is a separate goddess of unknown origin whose cult appears to have been popular originally in northeastern Iran. The name probably meant “untaintedness, purity". Here purity was meant both in moral and physical terms. The Greek Anaitis preserves the original Old Iranian form of this name, while the Old Persian and Avestan Anahit(a) is a more recent linguistic form. In post-Achaemenid Iran Anahiti was closely connected with kingship and the shah.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The Yashts describe Anahita in great detail, unlike any other deity. The descriptions about her clothing and ornamentation are so specific that it is likely the source of the description was a dressed cult image. This fact is confirmed in her mentioning by Artaxerses II. Berossus, a Babylonian historian, notes that the king had several images of her made and distributed. Since the Iranians did not originally make images, it is likely that the cult of Anahiti was inspired by Mesopotamian models. The Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar is a likely candidate in this regard, although Anahiti's dress, in particular her beaver coat, shows major differences. There were also major similarities in their roles. Ishtar was the patroness of the palace and goddess of war. Anahiti is described as a patron of Iranian heroes and legendary rulers and her Yasht is strongly devoted to her martial traits. Both goddesses were important for fertility.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Vrthraghna was the mighty deity of war. He had martial traits are similar to Mithra and the Vedic god of war Indra. In the post-Achaemenid period he was equated with Hercules and became a favourite deity of monarchs, many of whom took his name. His name means "the smashing of resistance or obstruction". In his capacity as the god who guaranteed his people to overcome all resistance, his name came to be understood as meaning "Victory".


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: In connection with rulership and granting victory, he held the epithet bara-khvarnah, which means "Bearing the Glory." Like Mithra he is portrayed as the ideal warrior. For the earliest Iranian invaders of the Iranian plateau, he came to personify aspirations to acquire new territory from the native population. For later Iranians he became the divine manifestation for the will to conquer the world.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: In the Iranian pantheon, Vrthraghna was the god who predominantly possessed the ability to undergo transformations, both anthropomorphic and theriomorphic. Though rich mythologies are believed to have existed for these avatars, only 10 forms have been recorded. These are:


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The avatars of Vrthraghna all had a fellow aggressiveness and virility. In some violence is conspicuous. Descriptions of these avatars can be particularly graphic.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Rashnu was an ethical deity, a divine judge who presided over the legal disputes of humans. He was often associated with Mithra. The name of Rashnu is derived from the Indo-European verb, *reg ("to be, make straight, direct, judge"). In particular he seems to have been the god of oaths and ordeals administered in trials. In several ways he was responsible for the same judicial functions as the Vedic god Varuna, who was the ultimate judge presiding over oaths, often inseparable from the Vedic Mitra.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: While it is uncertain whether Ahura Mazda had any judicial responsibilities, Rashnu and Mithra were connected with two separate areas of law. While Mithra was concerned with covenants, Rashnu mainly had jurisdiction of legal matters, in particular those of criminal nature. He was invoked as the god who "best smite(s), who best destroy(s) the thief and the bandit at this trial."


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Astral deities figured more prominently in ancient Iranian religion than Vedic religion. This may be explained with the influence of Babylonian science on the Iranians, in particular the western groups. In the Avesta stars and constellations such as Ursa Major, the Pleiades, Vega, Fomalhaut and the Milky Way are mentioned. The most important astral deities seem to have been Tiri and Tishtrya.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: For reasons that are unknown, Tishtrya is associated with the star Sirius in one Yasht that is entirely devoted to her. Though the heliacal rising of Sirius is assumed to have occurred during the season of drought, his chief myth concerns a battle between him and the demonic star Apausha ("Nonprosperity") over rainfall and water. In a battle taking place along the shores of Varu-Karta, Tishtrya and Apausha battled each other while assuming the forms of a white stallion and an ugly horse. Though Apausha is initially victorious, Tishtrya eventually prevails after receiving worship, driving Apausha "along a path the length of a race course." This combat was reenacted by the Iranians in a yearly equestrian ritual. After assuming victory Tishtrya causes the cosmic sea to boil and surge. Then another star, Satavaisa (Formelhaut), arises with cloud-forming mists. These mists are blown by the wind in the form of "rain and clouds and hail to the dwelling and the settlements (and) to the seven continents."


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Tishtrya was considered to contain the seeds of waters and was thus closely connected with agriculture. He defeated shooting stars identified as witches, in particular one named "Bad Crop" (Duzhyāryā). In Zoroastrianism Tishrya was in late Achaemenid times identified with the western Astral deity Tiri (Mercury in Sassanid astronomy). Little is known about Tiri except from the highly important agricultural festival, the Tiragan. The fourth month, (Tir, Avestan Tishtryaeninis), and the 13th day (Tir) of the Zoroastrian calendar, bears this name.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: In sharp contrast to other people of the Middle East, the Iranians neither made images of their deities or built temples to house them. They preferred to worship their gods in the open. The ancient Iranians practiced a sacrificial ritual yazna. In this ritual fire and the sacred drink hauma played a key part. The chief officiant at this sacrifice was the zautar.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Worship was mainly performed through the central ritual yazna. This ritual corresponds in many regards with the Vedic yajna. Despite changes undergone through the millennia, these rituals are still performed by Zoroastrians and Hindus. It is probably the oldest continuously enacted ritual in the world. As far as yazna can be reconstructed, it was basically a highly elaborate festive meal offered to a guest. In this ritual the sacrificer was the host and the deity the guest. While yazna is a daily ritual in Zoroastrianism, its frequency among the early Iranians is not precisely known. Yazna was held to enter into communion with the divine. This was either for a specific purpose, for example to secure victory in war, to express piety or to secure general welfare. Yazna followed the general rules of hospitality. A guest was sent by invitation. Upon arrival he received a warm greeting and was shown to a comfortable seat. There he was given meat and drink while entertained with songs praising his deeds and virtues. The guest was expected to return the hospitality with a gift.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The seat provided for the gods invited to yazna originally consisted of special grasses spread on the ground in front of the altar. In Vedic terminology this was called the barhish (Avestan barzish, "cushion"). The Avestan word barəsman (Iranian barzman), used in Zoroastrianism, is a cognate of this word. It is used for a bundle of sticks, later thin metal rods, that are manipulated by priests.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Of bigger importance than the offering of meat was the preparation of the divine drink hauma. Like fire, hauma was considered both sacred and as a deity. The most important part of yazna was probably the preparation of hauma. Despite numerous proposals, the plant whose juices were extracted to prepare hauma has not been identified. The word hauma is derived from a verb "to press, extract". It thus literally means the juice which has been pressed out of the whatever plant that has been used. While making hauma the stalks were first soaked in water and then pounded. While Zoroastrians did this with metal mortar and pestle, the early Iranians pounded the stalks between two pressing stones. The juice was filtered and mixed with milk to reduce the bitter taste. It was also possibly mixed with water. Hauma was described as yellow. The drink was then consumed immediately. Though it was not alcoholic it was rather a mind-altering drug. According to the Yasht to Hauma: "All other intoxicants are accompanied by Wrath with the horrible club, but that intoxication which is Hauma’s is accompanied by gladdening Truth (arta)." This minor statement can be extended with more informative descriptions in the Rigveda. In the Rigveda soma was not only offered to gods, but also consumed by poets to increase their power in their search for truth. Hauma was also drunk as a stimulant by warriors before going into battle. Many heroes of Iranian mythology are remembered for having practiced this cult.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: It is probable that yasna from a very early period was carried out by a priest, the zautar (Vedic hotar). The zautar was probably assisted by several other ritual specialists. With the priests acting through the sacrificer, the gods were invoked through fire. When the god arrived he was placed at the barzman, served parts of the slaughtered victim as food, served a drink and entertained with song. In turn the sacrificer would request a gift, usually in the form of heroic songs, good health or victory. In many ways the ritual can be compared with the old Latin dictum do ut des ("I give so that you may give"), in the sense that it was meant to provide a means of inducing the deities to act in favor of humans. In addition it made a communion between the divine and human realms possible. Deities could also be addressed directly through prayer. In this case the supplicant would be standing erect with upraised arms. Prostration was not known.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Fire was of supreme importance in Iranian rituals. In ancient Iran, fire was considered a deity and highly sacred element. As a result, Atar was denoted both "fire god" and "Fire". Every instance of fire was considered a manifestation of a deity. Because burned offerings were not made, Atar's role was mainly that of an intermediary between heaven and earth and between humans and gods. This is similar to his Vedic counterpart Agni. Beyond yazna, fire was carefully treated as a sacred element. Whether in households, or later, in fire temples, fire was maintained with proper fuel, protected from polluting agents, and most importantly never extinguished.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The song of praise to the divine guest was of major importance. Almost all of the Rigveda and much of the poetic portions of the Avesta must be understood in this context. This means that the ancient poetry of the Indo-Iranians was religious in nature and composed specifically for ritual occasions in which gods required songs of praise in order to make them well disposed towards those who worshipped them.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The obscure parts of many Vedic hymns and Zoroaster's Gathas can best be understood through realizing that the intended audience were the gods rather than humans.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The Iranians celebrated various festivals throughout the year. These were mostly related to agricultural and herding cycles. The most important of these was that of New Year, which is still celebrated by Iranian peoples.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Like with other ancient religions, the cosmological dichotomy of chaos and cosmos played an important part of both myth and worldview. The most important and unique aspect of ancient Iranian religion was the development of dualism. This was mainly expressed in opposition between truth (arta) and falsehood (drug, drauga). While originally confined to the conflict between social order and social disorder, this dualistic worldview came to affect all aspects of life. The pantheon became divided between gods and demons. Under the influence of the Magi, who were members of a priestly Median tribe, the animal kingdom became divided into two classes. There were beneficent animals and noxious creatures.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Dualism even permeated the vocabulary: "ahuric" and "daivic" words for developed for such things as body parts. For example, the word zasta and gava became used for the hands of a righteous and evil person, respectively. This was however not a gnostic system like the ones that flourished in the Middle East in the Common Era. This was because there was no myth of evil being created through the corruption of a spiritual being.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: In the Zoroastrian myth of creation, humans are created for the purpose of repulsing the Evil Spirit. Although is uncertain whether this is a pre-Zoroastrian concept, it shows in that in Iranian religion human nature was considered essentially good. This is contrary to the myths about the baseness of human condition found in Babylonian mythology, for example in Enûma Eliš. In Iranian religious thought humans had free will and were able for determine their own destinies through their ethical choices.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: In addition to the body (tanu), an individual was believed to consist of a number of spiritual elements that basically fall under the category of souls. These were:


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: In Zoroastrianism, belief in the Day of Judgement was a central aspect. Zoroastrianism considers the ruvan to be accountable for a person's actions in life. It is therefore the ruvan which receives reward or punishment in the afterlife. At the time of judgement, the ruvan is encountered by the daina. The daina embodies the sums of a persons deeds in life, and is manifested as either a beautiful maiden or an ugly old woman. Depending on how the persons deeds are weighed, the soul is either crossed safely across the Cinvat Bridge to the other world or descends into the abyss.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The fravarti is a deity which functions as a protective spirit for an individual. It is also an ancestor spirit. The fravartis constitute a warrior band, quite similar to the Vedic Maruts.


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: Apart from the legendary kings of eastern Iran, the Kavis, of whom Zoroaster's patron Vishtaspa (Hystapes) was the last, the only historical information about the relationship between religious and political authority come from the Achaemeneid period in western Iran. The ideology of kingship was closely connected to Ahura Mazda, the supreme deity. The kings ruled through his will. Achaemenid kings were compelled to contend with the Median priests, known as magi. The origin of the magi is unclear. According to classical sources they were responsible for presiding over religious ceremonies and chanting "theogonies".


title: Ancient Iranian religion

text: The magi were also deeply involved in politics. This can be seen by the attempt of the magus Gaumata to usurp the throne after the death of Cambyses II. Darius persecuted the magi, but they were able to preserve their power and eventually become the official priesthood of the Achaemenid Empire. The magi were probably responsible with introducing dualist ideology and enforcing zealous preoccupation with ritual purity in Zoroastrianism. They are also famous throughout the ancient world for their ability to perform magic.


title: Checkers and Rally's

text: Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc. is a chain of double drive-thru restaurants in the United States. The company operates Checkers and Rally<nowiki>'</nowiki>s restaurants in 28 states, and the District of Columbia. They specialize in hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, and milkshakes.


title: Checkers and Rally's

text: Originally separate companies serving different geographic areas (with Checkers serving the Southeast and Rally's serving the Midwest), Checkers and Rally's merged in August 1999. Generally speaking, the Checkers name remains used in the Southeast as well as the Northeast while the Rally's name remains used in the Midwest as well as California; the two brands have overlap in several areas.


title: Checkers and Rally's

text: The merged company is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Most locations specialize in carryout service with drive-thru and walk-up windows available, but no indoor seating, though some legacy Rally's locations in the Midwest retain dining rooms, as well as a Checkers location with an indoors dining area in Clearwater, FL..


title: Checkers and Rally's

text: Checkers was founded in 1986 in Mobile, Alabama, by Jim Mattei, and went public in 1991. Rally's was founded in Louisville, Kentucky in 1985 by Jim Patterson. In 1991 and 1992, Rally's absorbed Maxie's of America, Snapps Drive-Thru, and Zipps Drive-Thru.


title: Checkers and Rally's

text: In 1996, Rally's was bought by CKE Restaurants, parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. CKE sold Rally's to Checkers in 1999. Unlike the two CKE chains (which have at various points flip flopped between marketing Carl's Jr. & Hardee's as one chain or separate regional chains that both share Carl's Jr's Happy Star logo and imaging, but have largely separate menus), Checkers promptly merged Rally's into its branding, and the two chains are now only different by name.


title: Checkers and Rally's

text: In June 2006, the company went private through a merger with Taxi Holdings Corp., an affiliate of Wellspring Capital Management, a private equity firm. In 2014, Wellspring sold Checkers to another private equity firm, Sentinel Capital Partners. On March 23, 2017, Checkers announced that it would be sold to Oak Hill Capital Partners for $525 million. The sale was completed a month later.


title: Checkers and Rally's

text: On May 23, 2018, Checkers announced a planned expansion for over two dozen locations in the Pittsburgh area. Despite Rally's having brand recognition in the area the locations were to be branded as Checkers. The company made its official return in the area in 2019 under the Rally's brand with the opening of a location in Penn Hills. The company hasn't opened any more locations in the area since due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Checkers and Rally's

text: In February 2020, Checkers & Rally's named Frances Allen, former CEO of Boston Market, as their new CEO.


title: Checkers and Rally's

text: One of the first advertising campaigns by Checkers and Rally's from 1999 to late 2000 featured the slogan "High Performance Human Fuel". The television advertisements for the campaign were animated in an anime style, featuring a woman named Holly, in pursuit of fast food. The ads were created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky, and illustrated by Peter Chung, who was also responsible for the animation of C.O.P.S and Ring Raiders.


title: Checkers and Rally's

text: In September 2007, ML Rogers, an advertising agency, won the advertising rights for Checkers Restaurants, and completely restructured the advertising campaign. Among the many changes is their new slogan, "little place. BIG TASTE", beginning October 2007. In 2007, the chain used a character called Rap Cat, a stuffed animal cat who performs a rap song about the chain. The ad campaign became popular after it became a viral video on YouTube. The company gave away paper bags patterned like a basketball jersey to be worn by cats, with slots to cut out for the legs and tail, and asked customers to post videos of their cat wearing it to a Rap Cat website. This received criticism from animal rights activists, though Checkers stated that the packaging was "intended only as a creative extension of our television campaign."


title: Checkers and Rally's

text: In September 2014, they started to have a character called Mr. Bag, a talking bag who appears in the new commercials for Checkers and Rally's.


title: Checkers and Rally's

text: In September 2016, rapper and restaurateur Rick Ross stated his plans for a partnership with Checkers and Rally's, including ownership of a few franchises. He opened his first franchise location in Miami in early 2017.


title: Checkers and Rally's

text: On May 29, 2019, Checkers and Rally's disclosed a long-running data breach that affected an unknown number of customers at 103 of its Checkers and Rally's locations, with some being infected with a point-of-sale malware as early as 2015.


title: Disney's River Country

text: Disney's River Country was the first water park at Walt Disney World. River Country was located along the shores of Bay Lake and near Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground, the park was themed as a rustic, old-fashioned swimming hole. It opened on June 20, 1976, and closed indefinitely on November 2, 2001, with The Walt Disney Company later announcing on January 20, 2005, that the park would remain closed permanently. This made the water park the second of only two Disney parks in the company's history to close permanently, with nearby Discovery Island on the lake closing in 1999. A new hotel, Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge, was set to be built at the former site of Disney's River Country starting in 2019 and was planned to open in 2022, but construction was halted during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Disney's River Country

text: Positioned on the shore of Bay Lake, near Discovery Island, the park featured a rustic wilderness theme, complete with rocks and man-made boulders. It was described as an "old-fashioned swimming hole". The original working title was "Pop's Willow Grove".


title: Disney's River Country

text: The park was featured in a musical number from the 1977 Wonderful World of Disney episode "The Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World", which included a song titled "River Country" and featured the then-current Mouseketeer lineup from the late 70s incarnation of "The Mickey Mouse Club" enjoying its attractions.


title: Disney's River Country

text: The park featured a sandy bottom and unique water filtering system using confluent water from adjacent Bay Lake, which was dammed off creating a natural-looking artificial lagoon. The park's water was at a higher level than the lake's, which was an effort to prevent lake water from going into the park.


title: Disney's River Country

text: There were several deaths that took place at River Country. The first was of an 11-year-old boy who contracted an amoebic infection of the brain from the water in 1980. Park officials noted that similar amoebic infections also occurred relatively frequently elsewhere and said it was an inherent problem with freshwater lakes in warm weather and thus could not be blamed on the park's water system. Three other children had died similarly in Florida in the same month. The other two deaths were from drowning, in 1982 and 1989.


title: Disney's River Country

text: In 1989, Disney opened a second water park, Typhoon Lagoon; it had much more parking, many more slides, newer amenities, and was much larger. Six years later in 1995, Disney opened a third water park, Blizzard Beach, which was also much bigger than River Country.


title: Disney's River Country

text: The park closed on November 2, 2001, with the expectation that it would reopen in the spring of 2002. On April 11, 2002, the Orlando Sentinel reported that "Walt Disney World's first water park, River Country, has closed and may not reopen." Disney World spokesman Bill Warren stated that River Country could be reopened if "there's enough guest demand".


title: Disney's River Country

text: In 2005, Disney officially announced that River Country would be closed permanently. River Country then sat abandoned for 17 years, rotting and gradually being reclaimed by nature. The water park was fenced off with signs up reading "Sorry, River Country is closed." The park was a popular site amongst urban explorers who climbed over the green fence, or even walked in through the backstage driveway.


title: Disney's River Country

text: The River Country Closing Theme still plays even in the abandoned park. Lights are also turned on automatically as Disney appears to not have cut off power to the Water Park. The River Country water tower towards the entrance was removed a few years after closing and moved.


title: Disney's River Country

text: On August 25, 2016, Disney announced that it would drain and fill in Upstream Plunge, the 330,000-gallon pool. There were no immediate plans to tear down any other part of the park.


title: Disney's River Country

text: River Country is one of only two Disney parks to permanently close, along with "Discovery Island", which is situated parallel to the water park. There are many similarities between the two closures, in that both closed permanently within two years of each other, and were also both abandoned and never mentioned by Disney.


title: Disney's River Country

text: On March 5, 2018, Disney filed permits for a new mystery development labeled "Project 89" to be built along Bay Lake and over the former River Country site. A week later, it was rumored that "Project 89" will most likely be another themed Hotel Resort or DVC timeshare property.


title: Disney's River Country

text: The resort hotel was confirmed on May 31, 2018, and most remaining structures at the park, including the remnants of the Upstream Plunge pool, were demolished on April 20, 2019, to make way for development of the new hotel. Disney later officially announced that the new deluxe resort would be nature-themed and called "Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge." The new resort is slated to have 900 hotel rooms and was set to open in 2022. The new hotel will also feature several Disney characters for each of the rooms including "Bambi", "Brother Bear", "The Fox and the Hound", and "Pocahontas" among others. A lakeside restaurant featuring the characters from "The Princess and the Frog" was also slated to open along with the new resort in 2022.


title: Disney's River Country

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Walt Disney Parks division has halted all major construction on the Walt Disney World Resort property, including Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge. The 2022 opening date has been delayed or scrapped pending the Walt Disney Company's financial stability going forward. As of mid 2022 construction had completely stopped for now.


title: Straight-five engine

text: The straight-five engine (also referred to as an inline-five engine; abbreviated I5 or L5) is a piston engine with five cylinders mounted in a straight line along the crankshaft.


title: Straight-five engine

text: Although less common than straight-four engines and straight-six engines, straight-five engines have occasionally been used by automobile manufacturers since the late 1930s, particularly the Mercedes Benz's diesel engines from 1974 to 2006 and Audi's petrol engines from 1979 to the present. Straight-five engines are smoother running than straight-four engines and shorter than straight-six engines. However, achieving consistent fuelling across all cylinders was problematic prior to the adoption of fuel injection.


title: Straight-five engine

text: Straight-five engines are typically shorter than straight-six engines, making them easier to fit transversely in an engine bay. They are also smoother than straight-four engines, and are narrower than V engines and flat engines.


title: Straight-five engine

text: Five-cylinder engines have a crankshaft with 72 degree angles. Amongst four-stroke engines, an advantage of engines with five or more cylinders is that the power strokes are overlapping (if the engine has an even firing order).


title: Straight-five engine

text: On the other hand, the odd number of cylinders in a straight-five engine results in imperfect primary and secondary engine balance (unlike a straight-six engine). Counterweights on the crankshaft (also used in straight-four engines) can be used to reduce the vibrations from these imbalances.


title: Straight-five engine

text: Most four-stroke straight-five engines use a firing order of 1-2-4-5-3. This firing order results in the minimal primary (crank speed) rocking couple, and is used by the Volvo Modular engine, VW/Audi straight-five engine, General Motors Atlas engine and Honda G engine. Straight-five engines typically have a 72 degree crankshaft design.


title: Straight-five engine

text: All two stroke straight-five engines are limited in having a single firing order for a given crank configuration; because a complete cycle occurs every 360 degrees, there is no chance to share piston phases without having simultaneous ignitions, so the straight-five is at no disadvantage in this case. Some two-stroke outboard engines, e.g. the "Mercury Marine Force 150" engine use a firing order of 1-5-2-3-4.


title: Straight-five engine

text: The use of straight-five petrol engines in mass production cars only became truly viable with the advent of reliable fuel injection. This is because of the unavoidable problems of a carburettor supplying an odd number of cylinders and the length of the inlet manifold between the carburetor varying greatly between cylinders at the ends of the engine and those nearer the carburetor. Unlike other engine layouts, these problems are not easily solved by using multiple carburettors.


title: Straight-five engine

text: Diesel engines have always used fuel injection, therefore large displacement straight-five diesel engines were commonly seen decades before straight-five petrol engines.


title: Straight-five engine

text: The 1938 Lancia 3Ro trucks introduced a straight-five diesel engine to replace the previous straight-three engine. Built for the Italian and German armed forces during World War II and later for civilian usage, the truck remained in production until 1950.


title: Straight-five engine

text: The first mass-production straight-five passenger car engine was the 1974 Mercedes-Benz OM617, a naturally-aspirated engine introduced in the "Mercedes-Benz 300D (W114/W115)" models. In 1978, a turbocharged version was introduced in the "Mercedes-Benz 300SD Turbo" models. Mercedes-Benz continued to produce straight-five engines for the next 28 years, until the Mercedes-Benz OM647 engine ended production in 2006.


title: Straight-five engine

text: In 1978, the Audi 2.0 R5 D engine was introduced in the "Audi 100" sedan. In 1983, a turbocharged version was introduced, initially for the U.S market Audi 100. Several Volvo cars were produced with Audi straight-five diesel engines, prior to the introduction of the Volvo D5 turbo-diesel engine; this engine was produced from 2001 to 2017 and was used in several diesel hybrid applications (marketed as "twin engine" models).


title: Straight-five engine

text: Other mass-production straight-five diesel engines include the 1999-2001 VM Motori 531 turbo-diesel engine, the 1998-2007 turbo-diesel engine, the 2006-2019 Ford Duratorq 3.2 turbo-diesel engine and the 1998-2009 Fiat JTD 2.4 turbo-diesel engine.


title: Straight-five engine

text: Henry Ford had an inline-five engine developed in the late 1930s to early 1940s for a compact economy car design, which never saw production due to lack of demand for small cars in the United States.


title: Straight-five engine

text: The first production straight-five petrol engine was the Audi 2.1 R5 introduced in the Audi 100 in 1979. Audi has continued use of straight-five petrol engines (in both naturally aspirated and turbocharged versions) to the present day. The Audi TT RS and Audi RS3 currently use straight-five engines. In motorsport, the first car to use a straight-five engine was the Audi Quattro rally car; other racing cars which used straight-five engines include the 1985-1986 Audi Sport Quattro E2 and the 1989 Audi 90 Quattro IMSA GTO. For the year 1987 factory team tested a 1000 hp version of the inline-5 powered Audi S1 Sport Quattro.


title: Straight-five engine

text: Several Volkswagen-branded straight-five engines have been produced, beginning with the Volkswagen WH/WN 1.9 litre 10v engine used in the 1981 Volkswagen Passat. The final Volkswagen straight-five petrol engine was the Volkswagen EA855 2.5 litre 20v engine used in the North American Passat models until 2014.


title: Straight-five engine

text: The Volvo Modular engine was introduced in the 1991 Volvo 850 sedan and was used in various Volvo models, along with the "Ford Focus ST" and "Ford Focus RS" models. All of the straight-five petrol engines used by Volvo and Ford were built at the Volvo Skövde engine plant in Skövde, Sweden, until their discontinuation in 2016.


title: Straight-five engine

text: In recent years the engine has been falling out of favour, with Volvo announcing in 2014 it would discontinue building them, for example.


title: Straight-five engine

text: Very few motorcycles have used five-cylinder engines. However, the 1965 "Honda RC148" and 1966 "Honda RC149" 125 cc four-stroke racing motorcycles used straight-five engines based on the 50 cc straight-twin engine from the Honda RC116 Grand Prix racing motorcycle. These straight-five engines were an unusual design in that they were configured as a straight-six engine with one of the middle cylinders removed.


title: Tyler Johnson (musician)

text: Tyler Johnson is an American record producer and songwriter based in Nashville and Los Angeles. He is a two-time Grammy Award nominee.


title: Tyler Johnson (musician)

text: Johnson started out as an assistant to producer Jeff Bhasker. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for his work as an engineer on Taylor Swift's 2012 album "Red", and was nominated for a second Grammy for his work as a producer and engineer on Ed Sheeran's 2015 album "x". Johnson produced the 2015 album "Untamed" by country artist Cam, co-writing eight tracks including the singles "Burning House", "Mayday", and "My Mistake". He also produced 10 songs on Cam's 2020 album "The Otherside", co-writing 6 of them. He co-wrote and produced Harry Styles' 2017 debut self-titled solo album, and also co-wrote and produced all but two tracks on Styles' 2019 follow-up "Fine Line", including "Watermelon Sugar", which went to number 1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. As a writer, producer, and engineer, Johnson has also worked with artists including Keith Urban, Miley Cyrus, John Legend, Diplo, Pink, OneRepublic, Sam Smith, Meghan Trainor, and Toni Braxton.


title: The Reckoning (2020 film)

text: The Reckoning is a 2020 adventure horror film directed by Neil Marshall, from a screenplay by Marshall, Charlotte Kirk and Edward Evers-Swindell. It stars Kirk, Joe Anderson, Steven Waddington and Sean Pertwee. The film follows a woman accused of being a witch after losing her husband to plague.


title: The Reckoning (2020 film)

text: Filming took place in Budapest, Hungary. Both interior and exterior scenes were filmed at Fot Studios, Hungary on sets built and designed by Ian Bailie.


title: The Reckoning (2020 film)

text: The film had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on 20 August 2020 and was released to limited theaters and digital on 5 February 2021.


title: The Reckoning (2020 film)

text: After losing her husband during the Great Plague, Grace Haverstock (Kirk) is unjustly accused of being a witch and placed in the custody of England's most ruthless witch-hunter, Judge Moorcroft (Pertwee). Forced to endure physical and emotional torture while steadfastly maintaining her innocence, Grace must face her own inner demons as the Devil himself starts to work his way into her mind.


title: The Reckoning (2020 film)

text: While "The Reckoning" is set in Northern England in 1665, the film was shot entirely in Budapest, Hungary in 2019.


title: The Reckoning (2020 film)

text: The film had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on 20 August 2020; its UK premiere at the London FrightFest Film Festival on 23 October 2020; and its US premiere at Beyond Fest in October 2020 as a physical event at a drive-in theatre. The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD in the USA by RLJE Films on 6 April 2021.


title: The Reckoning (2020 film)

text: The film received negative reviews from critics. It currently holds a score of on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus reading, "Thematically and visually unpleasant, "The Reckoning" wallows in the same violent misogyny it purports to condemn." On Metacritic, the film received a score of 31 out of 100 based on 7 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews."


title: Bearbrick

text: Bearbrick (rendered Be@rbrick) is a collectible toy designed and produced by the Japanese company MediCom Toy Incorporated. The name is derived from the fact that the figure is a cartoon-style representation of a bear and that it is a variation of MediCom's Kubrick design. The at sign in the place of the letter "a" is a visual device that is a part of the Bearbrick brand, and as such, a trademark of MediCom Toy.


title: Bearbrick

text: The figure is an anthropomorphized bear with an extremely simplified form and a pot belly. Each plastic figure features nine parts (widely referred to as "tools" in the toy industry): head, torso, hips, arms, hands, and legs; These nine tools allow eight points of articulation: swivel head, swivel waist, ball joint arms, swivel wrists, and ball joint legs.


title: Bearbrick

text: The first figure was released 27 May 2001 as a free gift to visitors of the World Character Convention 12 in Tokyo. Since then Bearbricks have been released in several different sizes using a variety of materials, including wood, felt, and glow-in-the-dark plastic.


title: Bearbrick

text: The standard size is seven centimeters high, and these figures are referred to as 100% Bearbricks. Other Bearbricks are named for their size relative to the standard: 50% are four centimeters high, 70% are five centimeters high, 400% are 28 centimeters high, and 1000% are 70 centimeters high. A 200% size chogokin Bearbrick has also been produced standing 14 centimeters tall. A 150% size "Bearbrick Light" has also been produced in 2012, standing 10.5 centimeters tall with a key chain on its head.


title: Bearbrick

text: For the 100% size, they have four different styles; the basic with nine parts which can all be separated; an 'unbreakable' 100%, launched from Series 14 in 2007; a new kind of 'BB bearbrick', launched for kids in 2008, on which all the parts cannot be separated, but the look is a bit different with four screws on the back of the bearbrick.


title: Bearbrick

text: Bearbricks differ from their predecessor Kubricks, in that each series includes 18 figures in different themes, which are constant from series to series:


title: Bearbrick

text: Bearbricks are most often sold individually in "blind box" assortments, in which figures are packed in small boxes, and the only way to know which particular figure is inside a particular box is to purchase and open the box. The box states the frequency of each figure in percentages: "Basic", 14.58 percent; "Jellybean", 11.45 percent; "Pattern", 11.45 percent; "Flag" 9.37 percent; "Horror", 9.37 percent; "SF", 10.41 percent; "Cute", 13.54 percent; "Animal", 8.33 percent; "Hero", 7.29 percent; first "Artist", 4.16 percent; and second "Artist", 1.04 percent. While many retailers sell Bearbricks in blind boxes, each for the same price, other retailers calculate the frequency of the figures, and sell them at prices that vary accordingly; in this instance, the "Basic" figure would be the least expensive, as it occurs most often in a case, and the second of the two "Artist" figures would be the most expensive, as it occurs least often in a case. The figures most valued by collectors are "chase" figures, which are unannounced and not shown in advertisements or on the box alongside other figures in the series.


title: Bearbrick

text: Many contemporary artists and designers from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America have designed figures. Designing a Bearbrick figure means creating a design scheme, or deco, for the standard mold. Contributors range from visual artists such as H. R. Giger to illustrators such as Pushead, graffiti artists such as Stash, and fashion designers including Karl Lagerfeld, Vivienne Westwood and Ivana Helsinki. As a result of their limited production, and the participation of artists, Bearbricks are generally considered designer toys.


title: Bearbrick

text: MediCom also produces Bearbricks outside the regular release schedule of the basic figures. For example, a Kill Bill Bearbrick was created in 2003 as a promotional piece for customers who purchased pre-sale tickets to see the film "Kill Bill Volume 2" in Japan. Another "Kill Bill" Bearbrick, called "Murder Bride", was included in the packaging for the Japanese DVD release of "Kill Bill Volume 1", released in April 2004. Exclusive pieces such as these are highly sought after and difficult to obtain for collectors outside Japan; they are often purchased on the secondary market, especially online auctions.


title: Bearbrick

text: Casio has also released a 400% Bearbrick collaboration with the accompany watch, the DW-6900MT-7JR, in conjunction with the G-Shock's 30th Anniversary.


title: Bearbrick

text: Sports apparel and footwear company Nike, Inc., has also collaborated with Bearbrick to create multiple colorways for the Nike Lunar Force 1, Nike Air Force 1 (shoe), and Nike SB Dunk.


title: Bearbrick

text: Innovative, sustainable fashion brand PANGAIA, have collaborated with Bearbrick on a collection of Hoodies, Track Pants, T-shirts and Bags.


title: Bearbrick

text: It was revealed that Japanese company Dentsu collaborated with American animation studio DreamWorks Animation to develop a "Bearbrick" television series in the works.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: Atomic Rooster are a British rock band originally formed by members of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, organist Vincent Crane and drummer Carl Palmer. Throughout their history, keyboardist Vincent Crane was the only constant member and wrote the majority of their material. Their history is defined by two periods: the early-mid-1970s and the early 1980s. The band went through radical style changes, but they are best known for the hard, progressive rock sound of their hit singles, "Tomorrow Night" (UK No. 11) and "Devil's Answer" (UK No. 4), both in 1971.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: In 2016 Atomic Rooster reformed with permission from Crane's widow, with the new line-up featuring two members from the various 1970s incarnations of the band.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: In the summer of 1969, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown split in the middle of a second US tour. Keyboardist Vincent Crane and drummer Carl Palmer decided to leave Arthur Brown and return to England — their date of travel being Friday 13 June 1969, which was the year of the rooster in the Chinese calendar — and arranged a meeting with Brian Jones, who had just been let go from the Rolling Stones, to discuss a collaboration. After Jones's death on 3 July 1969, they adopted the name Atomic Rooster (with influence from the US band Rhinoceros) and soon recruited Nick Graham on bass and vocals. They followed with what had been the Crazy World of Arthur Brown arrangement of vocals, organ, bass and drums.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: They soon undertook live dates around London; at their first headlining gig at the London Lyceum on 29 August 1969, the opening act was Deep Purple. They eventually struck a deal with B & C Records and began recording their debut album in December 1969. Their first LP, "Atomic Roooster", was released in February 1970, along with a single, "Friday the 13th".


title: Atomic Rooster

text: By March, Crane felt it was best that they add a guitarist and recruited John Cann from acid/progressive rock band Andromeda. However, just as Cann joined, bassist-vocalist Graham left. Cann (who played guitar and sang for Andromeda) took over vocal duties, while the bass lines were overdubbed on Crane's Hammond organ with a combination of left hand and pedals, and the vocals were replaced with Cann's vocals and some guitar on four tracks.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: Atomic Rooster resumed gigging until the end of June 1970, when Carl Palmer announced his departure to join Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Ric Parnell filled the drum spot until August, when Paul Hammond was recruited from Farm. They then recorded their second album, "Death Walks Behind You", released in September 1970. Originally it was not commercially successful, as with the first album, but by February 1971, the single "Tomorrow Night" reached No. 11 in the UK Singles Chart, with the album reaching No. 12 in the UK Albums Chart. Atomic Rooster made an appearance on the "Top of the Pops", and toured to support the album.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: In June 1971, just before they began configuring their line-up once again, the single "Devil's Answer" hit No. 4 in the UK. Atomic Rooster began recording "In Hearing of Atomic Rooster" (UK No. 18). Crane felt the band needed a singer who could "project" to an audience and asked Leaf Hound vocalist Pete French to audition for the band. Not long after French came into the studio, Cann began to feel increasingly marginalised, having been relieved of vocal duties and especially after hearing how much Crane had mixed out most of his guitar work on the album. He promptly left the band. Paul Hammond followed him to form Bullet, later renamed Hard Stuff. French recorded all the vocals on the album (save for "Black Snake", sung by Crane), and the album was released in August 1971.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: The Atomic Rooster line-up featuring Pete French on vocals, Steve Bolton on guitar, a returning Ric Parnell on drums and Crane on keyboards toured Italy, then across America and Canada. This line-up played at a benefit gig in September 1971 at The Oval cricket ground, appearing in front of some 65,000 people, supporting The Faces and The Who. They continued touring into at least December of 1971, but French then moved on to sign with Atlantic Records and joined the American rock band Cactus and appeared on their 1972 album, "'Ot 'n' Sweaty".


title: Atomic Rooster

text: In February 1972 Crane recruited vocalist Chris Farlowe, at that time with Colosseum, to take the place of French. They went on tour and recorded their first album together in the spring of 1972. They then released the album "Made in England" along with the single "Stand by Me", on Dawn Records. They were more into soul at this point, and the progressive and heavy rock leanings from the other releases had receded. The single did not chart and the album just barely caught any attention, even though touring followed through.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: Guitarist Steve Bolton left at the end of 1972 and was replaced by John Goodsall, appearing under the name Johnny Mandala. They released the album "Nice 'n' Greasy" in 1973, along with the single "Save Me", a re-working of "Friday the 13th". This time, it was in a complete funk style. After nearly two years without any hits, Dawn Records dropped the group and Atomic Rooster began to unravel. After a tour, Farlowe, Mandala and Parnell left. The single "Tell Your Story, Sing Your Song" was released in March 1974 by "Vincent Crane's Atomic Rooster" on Decca. All subsequent gigs were played by Crane along with members of the blues band Sam Apple Pie. A final concert was played in February 1975, a benefit gig for the RSPCA; Crane afterward disbanded Atomic Rooster.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: Vincent Crane went on to put together the music for a number of plays and musicals in England between 1976 and 1977, including two of Peter Green's radio broadcasts. Crane teamed up with Arthur Brown again to play on his album "Chisholm In My Bosom", and in 1979 they released the album "Faster Than the Speed of Light". Crane and Brown would also perform a rendition of "Green Door", dressed in top hat and tails.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: Cann, Hammond and John Gustafson released two albums as Hard Stuff between 1972 and 1973. Hard Stuff ended when Cann and Hammond suffered injuries in a car accident. Afterward, Cann filled in the guitar spot in Thin Lizzy for a tour in Germany during 1974 before going off the road to write music for ads and jingles in England. In 1977 he recorded a solo album ("The World's Not Big Enough") with members of Status Quo and Gillan, before learning his record company was not going to release it. In 1979, having changed his name to John Du Cann, he had a minor hit with his rendition of "Don't Be a Dummy", used in a Lee Cooper jeans ad. Also in 1977, Paul Hammond played drums with T.H.E., a three piece featuring Pete Newnham (Cockney Rebel/Window) on guitar and vocals, and Mike Marchant (Third Ear Band) on bass and vocals. A single called "Rudi" was released that year on B&C Records under the name Pete Newnham, which has become a collector's item. That song and two unreleased tracks, "Johnny the Snark" and "Play with Fire", now appear on "Bored Teenagers No. 5" from Detour Records.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: During 1980, Crane contacted Du Cann and after some discussion, got an Atomic Rooster reformation under way. They recruited session drummer Preston Heyman and recorded an album, along with one 7/12" single, on EMI Records. The album, "Atomic Rooster" (1980), was followed by a tour, but Heyman left in October and Paul Hammond returned to play drums after Ginger Baker filled in for two weeks. They continued touring and released two singles in 1981 and 1982. However, Du Cann was unable to make their last-minute booking at the Reading Festival, so Crane and Hammond used Mick Hawksworth (ex-Andromeda) as a stand-in. John McCoy later stepped in on bass at the insistence of Polydor Records, for whom they would release two further singles, "Play It Again" and "End of the Day", which saw some attention on the heavy metal chart, but did little elsewhere, and Polydor shortly afterwards dropped the band.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: With Du Cann gone, Crane set about a new form of Atomic Rooster. Paul Hammond stayed on and played drums for the following album "Headline News" (1983), recorded in late 1982. Several guitarists played on the album, including David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Bernie Torme of Gillan and John Mizarolli. Crane added vocals to the album along with his wife on backing vocals. A tour of Germany and Italy included Bernie Torme on guitar. Mizarolli played guitar for several UK dates.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: "Headline News" was released in June 1983 and featured a completely different sound from anything they had ever done, including electronics and synthesizers. The album was completely written by Vincent Crane, leading some to perceive it as a Crane solo album.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: Crane disbanded Atomic Rooster once again at the end of 1983. In 1984 he went on to the project Katmandu with Peter Green, Ray Dorset and Jeff Whittaker and they recorded the album "A Case for the Blues".


title: Atomic Rooster

text: In 1985, Crane joined Dexy's Midnight Runners, playing piano for their album "Don't Stand Me Down" and two singles, one becoming the theme song for the television series "Brush Strokes".


title: Atomic Rooster

text: Dexy's Midnight Runners disbanded in 1987 and Crane intended to reform Atomic Rooster with Du Cann once again. A German tour was planned for 1989, but Crane died from an overdose on painkillers on 14 February. Du Cann struck a deal with Angel Air Records and oversaw the release and re-release of much of his and Atomic Rooster's material, including live recordings, compilations, compilations of unreleased material and album reissues with extra material. Paul Hammond died in 1992 and Du Cann in 2011.


title: Atomic Rooster

text: In 2016, a new line-up of Atomic Rooster played together with permission from Crane's widow. The first gig was a low-key warm-up in Clitheroe, Lancashire on 14 July 2016. The line-up was Pete French and Steve Bolton, keyboardist Christian Madden, bass guitarist Shug Millidge and drummer Bo Walsh. In 2017, Madden was replaced by Adrian Gautrey and in September 2019, Atomic Rooster's Facebook Page announced French's departure due to musical differences, but he has since announced that he will continue with the band.


title: Jamie Walters

text: James Leland Walters Jr. (born June 13, 1969) is an American actor and singer, best known for his roles on "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "The Heights" and singing lead vocal on "How Do You Talk to an Angel".


title: Jamie Walters

text: Walters was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts. After graduating from high school, he attended New York University and studied film for two years and studied acting at The Actors Space in New York City.


title: Jamie Walters

text: While attending college, he was discovered at a bank by a casting agent who placed him in three high-profile commercials for Levi's 501 Jeans. He then moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting and musical career. He played a bit role on "Everyday Heroes". His film debut came in 1991 with the movie "Shout", alongside John Travolta, Heather Graham, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Walters performed the song "Rockin' the Pad" on the "Shout" soundtrack album.


title: Jamie Walters

text: In 1992, Aaron Spelling cast Walters as the lead on the Fox series "The Heights", in which he also sang the theme song "How Do You Talk to an Angel?." The single reached number 1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 on November 14, 1992. It was also nominated for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics". (The award went to Liza Minnelli.) The show was canceled by Fox, but it launched his music career when Atlantic Records took an interest in Walters and signed him to a recording contract.


title: Jamie Walters

text: In October 1994, he started playing Ray Pruit on "Beverly Hills, 90210"; he was the musician-boyfriend of Donna (played by Tori Spelling), a role he played for one season.


title: Jamie Walters

text: On September 20, 1994, Walters released his self-titled debut album "Jamie Walters". The first single from the album, "Hold On", peaked at number 16 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and number 76 in Australia. The album sold over 1 million copies and was certified platinum.


title: Jamie Walters

text: In 1997, he released his second album "Ride". It was certified gold. A third album, "Believed", followed in 2002. In 2009, he appeared in the VH1 reality show "Confessions of a Teen Idol", in which former teen idols attempt to resurrect their careers. He became a firefighter and paramedic in 2002.


title: Big Beautiful Woman

text: The terms "Big Beautiful Women" and "BBW" were coined by Carole Shaw in 1979, when she launched "BBW Magazine", a fashion and lifestyle magazine for "plus-size" women. BBW Magazine trademarked the term Big Beautiful Woman, which was later transferred to Dimensions Magazine.


title: Big Beautiful Woman

text: Although "BBW" may have been first used in the context of BBW Magazine, the term's usage spread over the years. It has reached the point that even women who have never heard of the magazine have begun to refer to themselves as "BBWs".


title: Big Beautiful Woman

text: The abbreviation BBW can often be found used in personal ads, online dating services, and pornography denoting an identification with (or preference for) such women, and is also used to denote events specifically targeted to such women, and persons interested in them, such as specific gathering nights in dance clubs, restaurants, and fashion stores and shows.


title: Big Beautiful Woman

text: The term is also commonly used as a positive euphemism by those involved with the fat acceptance movement.


title: Big Beautiful Woman

text: The term has several near-synonyms with varying shades of meaning, such as "full-figured", "voluptuous", "zaftig", and "Rubenesque", the latter term referring to the art of Peter Paul Rubens, best known for portraying full-bodied women.


title: Big Beautiful Woman

text: The acronym BBBW stands for Big Beautiful Black Woman. Another variant is SSBBW: Supersized Big Beautiful Woman. There is no formal definition which explains the exact difference between BBW and SSBBW. Some BBWs or SSBBWs consider themselves to be feedees. Dimensions Magazine considers a woman over to be an SSBBW.


title: Big Beautiful Woman

text: "Big Handsome Man" (BHM), or "Big Hulking Men", or sometimes "Big Beautiful Man" (BBM), refers to a physically or sexually attractive fat man. Women who are attracted to BHMs are called "Female Fat Admirers" (FFA). In the gay community, BHMs are sometimes called "chubs", and men who are attracted to BHMs are known as chubby chasers.


title: Weather radar

text: Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly pulse-Doppler radars, capable of detecting the motion of rain droplets in addition to the intensity of the precipitation. Both types of data can be analyzed to determine the structure of storms and their potential to cause severe weather.


title: Weather radar

text: During World War II, radar operators discovered that weather was causing echoes on their screen, masking potential enemy targets. Techniques were developed to filter them, but scientists began to study the phenomenon. Soon after the war, surplus radars were used to detect precipitation. Since then, weather radar has evolved on its own and is now used by national weather services, research departments in universities, and in television stations' weather departments. Raw images are routinely used and specialized software can take radar data to make short term forecasts of future positions and intensities of rain, snow, hail, and other weather phenomena. Radar output is even incorporated into numerical weather prediction models to improve analyses and forecasts.


title: Weather radar

text: During World War II, military radar operators noticed noise in returned echoes due to rain, snow, and sleet. After the war, military scientists returned to civilian life or continued in the Armed Forces and pursued their work in developing a use for those echoes. In the United States, David Atlas at first working for the Air Force and later for MIT, developed the first operational weather radars. In Canada, J.S. Marshall and R.H. Douglas formed the "Stormy Weather Group" in Montreal. Marshall and his doctoral student Walter Palmer are well known for their work on the drop size distribution in mid-latitude rain that led to understanding of the Z-R relation, which correlates a given radar reflectivity with the rate at which rainwater is falling. In the United Kingdom, research continued to study the radar echo patterns and weather elements such as stratiform rain and convective clouds, and experiments were done to evaluate the potential of different wavelengths from 1 to 10 centimeters. By 1950 the UK company EKCO was demonstrating its airborne 'cloud and collision warning search radar equipment'.


title: Weather radar

text: Between 1950 and 1980, reflectivity radars, which measure position and intensity of precipitation, were incorporated by weather services around the world. The early meteorologists had to watch a cathode ray tube. In 1953 Donald Staggs, an electrical engineer working for the Illinois State Water Survey, made the first recorded radar observation of a "hook echo" associated with a tornadic thunderstorm.