title: Gary Allan

text: Overall, Allan's ten studio and greatest hits albums have produced 26 singles on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, including the number one hits "Man to Man", "Tough Little Boys" (both 2003), "Nothing On but the Radio" (2004), and "Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)" (2013). Seven more of his singles have reached the Top 10 on this chart as well: his debut single "Her Man", "It Would Be You" (both at #7), "Right Where I Need to Be" (at #5), "The One" (at #3), "Best I Ever Had" (a cover of a Vertical Horizon song) (at #7), "Life Ain't Always Beautiful" (at #4), and "Watching Airplanes" (#2).


title: Gary Allan

text: Gary Allan Herzberg was born and raised in La Mirada, California, to Harley and Mary Herzberg. He was raised Mormon. To ensure that the family would focus on music, Allan's mother insisted that the family's guitars would always remain visible in the home. At age 13, Allan began playing in honky tonks with his father. Two years later, he was offered his first recording contract, from A&M Records, but rejected the deal. His parents wanted him to finish his education and his father felt that Allan had yet to develop his own distinctive style. Despite his commitment to finishing school, Allan reflects that he was rarely alert in class. "I played the bars at night, I was half asleep when I got to school. I thought sleep was what you did when you go to school."


title: Gary Allan

text: After graduating from La Serna High School in Whittier, California, Allan continued to play in the bars with his band, the Honky Tonk Wranglers. Many of the venues they played were packed, and promoters often tried to move them to larger clubs. The moves would have required him to stop playing some of the older country music, such as covers of George Jones songs, so Allan refused.


title: Gary Allan

text: In 1987, Gary married his first wife, Tracy Taylor. They have since divorced.He married model Danette Day on November 28, 1998, in South Carolina and they divorced in June 1999. His third wife, Angela (whom he wed on June 5, 2001), died by suicide on October 25, 2004. In December 2021, Allan became engaged for the fourth time to Molly Martin.


title: Gary Allan

text: Allan was introduced to songwriter/producer Byron Hill on August 28, 1993, by a mutual friend and talent-scout Jim Seal, at a bar called the Lion D'or in Downey, California, where Allan was already regularly performing. Seal and Hill had asked Allan if they could showcase an unsigned act that they were developing there. Hill had arranged to bring the head of A&R from a major label to the show to see this other act perform. Allan kindly let them use his stage for the event, giving the new act the opening performance slot that night. Hill promised Gary that they would make sure the A&R person remained there to see his portion of the show. Everyone was knocked out with Allan's performance, and very impressed with his voice. From that point on, Byron Hill began sending Gary songs. Without any serious funding at the time, Hill arranged for Allan to go into Seal's small studio in California to try his vocals on some of existing demo tracks that Byron had sent to Gary from Nashville, Tennessee. Meanwhile, Hill became head of A&R at BNA Entertainment on October 29 of that same year and immediately wanted to sign Allan to BNA, but the then current roster conditions and other circumstances related to the planned restructuring of RCA/BNA Nashville stood in the way.


title: Gary Allan

text: In the meantime, Allan took a job selling cars. He left a demo tape in the glove box of a truck purchased by a wealthy couple. When the couple discovered that he was the singer, they wrote him a check for $12,000. This independent funding allowed Allan to go to Nashville to record some of the songs that were on that early demo tape with Byron Hill as producer. On September 11, 1995, they worked at Javelina Studios for a couple of days on the four songs that Hill immediately showed to labels. Allan's recordings brought serious responses from several labels including Mercury, RCA, and Decca. A meeting was then held at a Nashville hotel among Hill, Allan, and friend of Allan's, who was a program director for a radio station in California.


title: Gary Allan

text: The meeting was to arrange two showcases in Los Angeles, California, to put Allan on stage at two of the radio station's regular nights at a local club. Byron arranged for staffers at the Nashville office of Decca Records to attend the first showcase held on November 1, 1995. Decca immediately wanted to sign Allan, and knowing that Byron was lining up other labels to see Gary, Decca asked them to cancel the second showcase. A rep from RCA was already booked to see the second showcase the following week, but the "bird-in-hand" deal offer was too tempting for both Byron and Gary, so they committed to the Decca offer. Decca staffer Mark Wright and Byron Hill co-produced Gary's first three albums for Decca beginning sessions on March 11, 1996, for "Used Heart for Sale", then "It Would Be You", both of which yielded top five singles, and later "Smoke Rings in the Dark" (which also included Tony Brown as a co-producer). It was during the recording of the first album that they recorded "It Must Have Been Ol' Santa Claus", as an added track to be packaged on various MCA/Decca Christmas compilations. Then Byron and Gary got a personal call from Harry Connick, Jr., the writer of the song, thanking them for the recording, during which he added a few of his New Orleans Jazz style "very cool man!" compliments. The Christmas recording has been since released on at least four compilations. The merger of PolyGram, Decca, and MCA Records marked the closing of Decca and Gary was moved to MCA Records.


title: Gary Allan

text: His first deal, with Decca Records Nashville, produced his debut studio album "Used Heart for Sale" in 1996. The album was named "Best of the Month" by "Stereo Review". It advanced to the Top 20 of the charts. Its first single, "Her Man" (previously recorded by Waylon Jennings) gave Allan his first Top 10 country hit on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart. Other tracks from this album, however, proved less successful.


title: Gary Allan

text: Allan's second studio album, "It Would Be You", was released in 1998. Although he has been writing songs since his teen years, the singer has not really hesitated to bump his work from his albums in favor of those written by other songwriters that he respects. For this album, Allan replaced one of his songs with "No Judgement Day", written by Allen Shamblin. Even though that song was a hidden acoustic track, radio stations started giving it some heavy airplay. "No Judgement Day" tells the story of a restaurant owner from a small town in Texas, where ex co-workers killed him in search of money, for drugs and alcohol. The album's title track became Allan's second hit to reach the Top 10 on the U.S. country charts, remaining there after 21 weeks of radio play, "way beyond the tenure of most disposable radio hits." In early-1999, Decca Records folded, and when Allan moved to the parent label, MCA Nashville, the "It Would Be You" album was left in limbo.


title: Gary Allan

text: Allan was named as "Country Music's Sexy Star" by "People Magazine". He also delved into the acting world in the TV mini-series "Shake, Rattle, & Roll", in which he would play the lead role of Eddie Cochran. He followed that role with a part in the CBS TV series "Pensacola: Wings of Gold", but describes his acting experience as "tedious."


title: Gary Allan

text: In 1999, Allan released his third studio album "Smoke Rings in the Dark". This was an album that he recorded while in the midst of divorcing from his second wife, Versace model Danette Day, after only seven months of marriage. Unlike his first two albums, "Smoke Rings in the Dark" made fuller use of background singers and stringed instruments, "resulting in a lusher, fuller sound." The new album avoided the "devil-may-care brashness" of the first two, instead presenting a tone balanced between youthful optimism and "the knowledge that some of life's experiences exact a high toll." "Smoke Rings in the Dark" was certified platinum, and it included two successful singles, including its title track.


title: Gary Allan

text: The singer's fourth studio album "Alright Guy" was released in 2001. It contained the singles "The One," "Man of Me," and "Man to Man," the latter of which became his first number one hit on the U.S. "Billboard" country charts. That same year, Allan married for the third time, to Angela, a flight attendant who he met on an airplane.


title: Gary Allan

text: Despite his previous success and eight years in the music business, Allan was nominated for the Country Music Association's Horizon Award, typically given to newcomers, in 2003. The same year, he released his fifth studio album "See If I Care." Allan had to be controversial to keep the album's title. Also, he thought that title had epitomized his attitude towards the music business, and that he would continue to make the music that he wanted to make regardless of whether the record label chose to back him or people chose to buy the album. "See If I Care" included Allan's second and third number one singles with "Tough Little Boys", and "Nothing On but the Radio." "Songs About Rain" was a Top 15 hit.


title: Gary Allan

text: In 2003, Allan and his wife, Angela Herzberg, moved to Tennessee from California. On October 25, 2004, Angela committed suicide after suffering from depression and migraines. Allan initially put his career on hold, but soon returned to music to deal with the loss of his wife. This resulted in 2005's "heart-wrenchingly personal album," "Tough All Over". He included several songs which he wrote or cowrote, including "Puttin' Memories Away" and "I Just Got Back from Hell," which dealt directly with his grief. Several years later, Gary discussed his wife's suicide on "The Oprah Winfrey Show".


title: Gary Allan

text: "Tough All Over" sold over 99,000 copies in its first week, debuting at No. 3 on the "Billboard" 200 chart and at No. 1 on Top Country Albums. It was subsequently certified gold by the RIAA as of December 20, 2006, and contained the Top 10 singles "Best I Ever Had" (written by Vertical Horizon's Matt Scannell) and "Life Ain't Always Beautiful," co-written by country singer Cyndi Thomson (under the name Cyndi Goodman).


title: Gary Allan

text: Allan's first "Greatest Hits" collection was released on March 6, 2007. A Number One album on the "Billboard" Top Country Albums charts, the album reprised the greatest hits from his first six albums, as well as two new songs. One of these, titled "A Feelin' Like That", was co-written by David Lee Murphy and Ira Dean (the latter a former member of Trick Pony); the single peaked at No. 12 on the country singles charts.


title: Gary Allan

text: The album "Living Hard" was released on October 23, 2007. Serving as its lead-off single was the song "Watching Airplanes," which spent more than thirty weeks on the country charts, where it reached a peak of No. 2 and went No. 1 on the Mediabase Chart. The song's music video was filmed during live concerts, including one at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado. Second single "Learning How to Bend" – co-written by Allan – quickly became another hit song, peaking at No. 13. The video was filmed during a live performance at the House of Blues in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Following this song is third single "She's So California," which Allan co-wrote with Jaime Hanna (of Hanna-McEuen) and Jon Randall, and it peaked at No. 24, becoming his first single to miss the top 20 since "Lovin' You Against My Will" in 2000.


title: Gary Allan

text: A new single, entitled "Today", was released on June 12, 2009. It served as the lead-off single to the album "Get Off on the Pain", which was released on March 9, 2010.


title: Gary Allan

text: The title track was the album's second single. The song debuted at No. 42 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, the highest-debuting single of his career.


title: Gary Allan

text: "Kiss Me When I'm Down" was released as the album's third single. That song debuted at No. 52 on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart.


title: Gary Allan

text: Allan's ninth studio album, "Set You Free", was released on January 22, 2013. Its first single, "Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)", was released to country radio on September 17, 2012, and reached Number One on the Country Airplay chart on February 9, 2013, giving Allan his fourth Number One country hit and his first since "Nothing On but the Radio" in December 2004. In an interview with Broadway's Electric Barnyard, Allan spoke about co-writing with women for the new release. It was the first time in his career he had done so, and he described it as an interesting experience. The album's second single, "Pieces", was released to country radio on February 25, 2013. The third single, "It Ain't the Whiskey", was released on September 23, 2013.


title: Gary Allan

text: In March 2015, Allan released a new single entitled "Hangover Tonight". This song was slated to serve as the lead single to his upcoming tenth studio album, entitled "Hard Way". Two more singles, "Do You Wish It Was Me?" and "Mess Me Up", followed in 2016 and 2017. The commercial failure of these singles caused delays in the release of an album.


title: Gary Allan

text: On July 31, 2020, Allan released another new single called "Waste of a Whiskey Drink" through EMI Nashville. His tenth album, "Ruthless", was released on June 25, 2021.


title: Gary Allan

text: In 2003, Allan told "CMT" that he believed Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger would be the best governor because he is not driven by money. In 2021, he told "People" that he was "very much not a Republican."


title: Gary Allan

text: Allan's voice is described as "raspy and unpolished." The "New York Times" describes his music as "elegant, often deadpan songs [that] tend toward manly understatement." His sound is influenced by the Bakersfield scene, especially Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. He prefers this sound to that of the more pop country that is prevalent on country radio, because "the songs have got to have soul, have real meaning...Country music is...what happens during the week. Rock 'n roll is about what happens at the weekend." Because his sound is different from many of the current crop of country singers, as their sound is considerably more pop or rock, Allan has, at times had difficulty getting radio to play his singles. He says he has to "walk a real fine line" to "make sure that I get traditional stuff on the radio."


title: Hiro Matsuda

text: Kojima played an active role as an ace pitcher at baseball in Nittai Ebara High School Baseball Club in Japan, and after graduating, he joined Japan Pro Wrestling in 1957, but left in 1960. Then Matsuda went to Peru. This travel is repelled by unwritten rules such as the upper and lower relations that Rikidozan brought from the customs of sumo room, and Japan's original mental theory (injuries can be cured by nature, and those who rest due to injury are considered to be lacking) .


title: Hiro Matsuda

text: In Peru, he worked in the name of Ernesto Kojima. Later, after moving to Mexico through the United States, the ring name was changed to Kojima Saito, Great Matsuda, and Hiro Matsuda. The name “Matsuda” was a ring name given to two Japanese wrestlers active in the mainland of America, “Sorakichi Matsuda” in the 1880s and Manjiro "Matty" Matsuda in the 1920s.


title: Hiro Matsuda

text: During the Ernesto Kojima period, he was fighting with El Santo in Mexico. In the United States, he studied with Karl Gotch to learn full-fledged wrestling techniques and was taught catch-as-catch-can and submission wrestling. The German suplex hold, his biggest finishing technique, is said to have been taught under Gotch's guidance during this period.。Kojima adopted his Hiro Matsuda identity while competing in the southern United States, inspired by earlier wrestlers Sorakichi Matsuda and Matty Matsuda. He initially debuted under his real name at Rikidōzan's Japanese Wrestling Association, but then left Japan to pursue wrestling in the Americas. Once in a while he would return to Japan, where he formed a tag team with Antonio Inoki that was only the outward reflection of the long-time friendship between the two men.


title: Hiro Matsuda

text: Matsuda was the first Japanese wrestler to win a National Wrestling Alliance world singles title when he won its Junior Heavyweight Championship on July 11, 1964, in Tampa, Florida by defeating Danny Hodge. Then dropped the title to Angelo Savoldi on November 13. He would win a second title in 1975 defeating Ken Mantell and lose it to Hodge. Matsuda's challenge to NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz on December 10, 1964 in Jacksonville, Florida, ended without a winner as a result of a time limit draw. He had previously made a challenge to Thesz a few times.


title: Hiro Matsuda

text: Matsuda settled in Florida in 1962, and later trained neophytes at the old Sportatorium in Tampa, home of the Championship Wrestling from Florida television program. As a trainer, Matsuda was famous for being very stiff with his trainees to toughen them up. His most famous student was Hulk Hogan who he started training in 1976. For many years Hogan and other wrestlers told a story that Matsuda broke Hogan's leg on his first day of training, to teach him to respect professional wrestling, and see if he really wanted to be part of the business. In reality on his first day of training, Hogan sprained an ankle. He came back the next day and tried to train on it. Matsuda saw it was all black and blue and told him he'd better sit it out for a week. After a week, he was back. Hogan later embellished that Matsuda broke his leg to not only make himself look tough for continuing to train under Matsuda, but also to show the seriousness of professional wrestling. Matsuda wouldn't let wrestlers train with him unless they did 1,000 pushups and 1,000 squats.


title: Hiro Matsuda

text: He came to work in Jim Crockett Promotions in 1987 as a heel to participate in a feud between his disciple Lex Luger and Dusty Rhodes, plus wrestled a few matches on TV with Four Horsemen manager James J Dillon acting as his manager. Matsuda was in Luger's corner. During the feud, he was billed as "The Master of the Japanese Sleeper," a sleeper hold. He famously locked Johnny Weaver, who was in Rhodes' corner, in the hold. The prolonged application of the hold caused Weaver to bleed profusely from the mouth. Later on he worked briefly for World Championship Wrestling acting as the manager in early 1989 for the Yamasaki Corporation (a renamed Four Horsemen) and then being involved in Terry Funk's stable, The J-Tex Corporation as their business agent from Japan. As was the case with Tojo Yamamoto, he was frequently made the manager or spokesman of Japanese wrestlers on excursion in the United States. In this role, he "introduced" The Great Muta (managed by Gary Hart) on a "World Championship Wrestling" episode. His last match was against Osamu Kido at the age of 53 on December 26, 1990 in Hamamatsu, Japan . Lou Thesz and Nick Bockwinkel had wrestled the same day and Thesz had wrestled his last match as well.


title: Hiro Matsuda

text: Kojima died on November 27, 1999 in Tampa, Florida of colon cancer and liver cancer; he was 62 years old.


title: Coffy

text: Coffy is a 1973 American blaxploitation film written and directed by Jack Hill. The story is about a black female vigilante played by Pam Grier who seeks violent revenge against a heroin dealer responsible for her sister's addiction.


title: Coffy

text: This was the third Jack Hill film to star Grier after "The Big Doll House" and "The Big Bird Cage". Grier would go on to boost her career as the leading "femme fatale" of blaxploitation for the rest of the 1970s.


title: Coffy

text: An Emergency Room nurse, named Flower Child Coffin, but usually referred to as 'Coffy', seeks revenge against the people responsible for her younger sister Lubelle's cocaine addiction and the widespread violence in her city. Under the guise of a prostitute willing to do anything for a drug fix, she lures a drug pusher and a mob boss to their residences, killing them. After the murders, Coffy returns to her job at a local Los Angeles hospital.


title: Coffy

text: After her shift, Coffy's police friend Carter offers to drive her home. Carter is a straight-shooting officer who is not willing to bend the law for the mob or the thugs who have been bribing officers at his precinct. Coffy doesn't believe his strong moral resolve until two hooded men break into Carter's house while she's visiting him and beat Carter, crippling him. This enrages Coffy, giving her further provocation to continue her work as a vigilante, killing those responsible for harming Carter and her sister.


title: Coffy

text: Coffy's boyfriend, Howard Brunswick, is a city councilman. Coffy admires Brunswick for his contributions to the community. Brunswick announces his plan to run for Congress and his purchase of a night club. Coffy's next targets are a pimp named King George, one of the largest suppliers of prostitutes and illegal drugs in the city, and Mafia don Arturo Vitroni, a criminal associate of George's.


title: Coffy

text: Coffy questions a former patient, a known drug user, to gain insight into the type of woman King George likes and where he keeps his stash of drugs. Coffy shows no sympathy for the drug-addled woman and abuses her as she looks for answers. With the information she gets from the woman, Coffy tracks down George and poses as a Jamaican woman looking to trick for him.


title: Coffy

text: George, immediately interested in her exotic nature, hires her. One of the prostitutes becomes jealous. Later that day, Coffy and the other prostitutes get into a massive brawl. Coffy wins, which attracts mob boss Vitroni, who demands to have her that night. Coffy plans to murder Vitroni, but before she can shoot him, his men overtake her. She lies and tells Vitroni that King George ordered her to kill him, which makes Vitroni order George to be murdered. Vitroni's men kill George by lynching him by the neck from his car, which they drive through an open field.


title: Coffy

text: Coffy then discovers Brunswick, her clean-cut boyfriend, is corrupt when she's shown to him at a meeting of the mob and several police officials. He denies knowing her other than as a prostitute, and Coffy is sent to her death. Coffy seduces her would-be killers. They try injecting her with drugs to sedate her, but she had replaced the illicit drugs with a sugar solution earlier. Faking a high, she kills her unsuspecting hitman with a pointed metal wire she fashioned herself and hid in her hair, by stabbing him in the jugular vein.


title: Coffy

text: Running to avoid capture, Coffy carjacks a vehicle to escape. Coffy drives to Vitroni's house, murders him, and then goes to Brunswick's to do the same. He pleads for forgiveness and just as she is about to accept, a naked white woman comes out of his bedroom. Coffy shoots Brunswick in the groin with a shotgun, emasculating and killing him.


title: Coffy

text: According to writer/director Hill, the project began when American International Pictures' head of production, Larry Gordon, lost the rights to the film "Cleopatra Jones" after making a handshake deal with the producers. Gordon subsequently approached Hill to quickly make a movie about an African-American woman's revenge and beat "Cleopatra Jones" to market. Hill wanted to work with Pam Grier, whom he had worked with on "The Big Doll House" (1971). The film ended up earning more money than "Cleopatra Jones" and established Grier as an icon of the genre.


title: Coffy

text: "Coffy" is notable in its depiction of a strong black female lead, something rare in the genre at the time, and also in its then-unfashionable anti-drug message.


title: Coffy

text: The movie received a mixed reception at the time of its release. Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, praising the film for its believable female lead and noting that Grier was an actress of "beautiful face and astonishing form" and that she possessed a kind of "physical life" missing from many other attractive actresses. Gene Siskel gave the film zero stars out of four and called it "a stupid movie" with a "wooden performance" from Grier. Fredric Milstein of the "Los Angeles Times" called it "very well-made, very filthy and obscenely violent," adding that director Hill "elicits convincing, interesting performances from everybody except Miss Grier, who reads her lines rather stiffly and childishly and who shouldn't be able to fool anyone — especially not the Prince of Pushers — with that phony Jamaican accent she uses when she goes undercover." "Variety" wrote, "Jack Hill, who wrote and directs with an action-atuned hand, inserts plenty of realism in footage in which Pam Grier in title role ably acquits herself."


title: Coffy

text: Over time, the film has garnered acclaim and is considered groundbreaking for its portrayal of a Black female protagonist. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, "Coffy" has a score of 78% based on 23 critics' reviews. The consensus states, "Pam Grier brings spunk and vinegar to "Coffy", supported by director Jack Hill's combustible mixture of authentic grit and salacious thrills." Researcher Karen Ross wrote that it "let black audiences enjoy the sight of heroes kicking the white system and winning even while condemning the violence and recognized the implausibility. It allowed blacks the ultimate escape to cheer on the heroine that fought corruption and crime and then leave the theatre to be blighted by the racism in society."


title: Coffy

text: Grier subsequently played similar characters in the AIP films "Foxy Brown" (1974), "Friday Foster", and "Sheba, Baby" (both 1975).


title: Coffy

text: The film is a favourite of Quentin Tarantino, and he ranks it high among his top 20 best films. He later hired Grier for "Jackie Brown" in 1997, a film with clear inspiration from films like "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown". Tarantino said of the film poster: "Not only is it a great image of Pam Grier, it's got great type — it's the epitome of a great exploitation poster...and every version of it in foreign countries rocked."


title: Coffy

text: The film opened at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago and grossed $85,000 in its opening week. In its 14th week of release, it reached number one at the US box office. By 1976, "Variety" estimated the film had earned $4 million in rentals.


title: Coffy

text: Due to sequels performing poorly at the box-office at the time, the sequel to "Coffy" (which had the title "Burn Coffy Burn") was scrapped and replaced with "Foxy Brown".


title: Coffy

text: In 2003 "Coffy" was released on DVD, and rereleased on DVD on December 6, 2005, as part of the "Vibe" Fox In A Box collection. Both DVD editions contained an audio commentary by director Jack Hill.


title: Coffy

text: In 2010 it was digitized in High Definition (1080i) and broadcast on MGM HD. In June 2015, a bare-bones Blu-ray with no extras was issued from Olive Films in the United States (Region 1/A only).


title: Coffy

text: In April 2015, an extras-filled Blu-ray was issued from Arrow Video in the UK (Region 2/B only). Arrow's edition contained new interviews with Pam Grier and Jack Hill, "Blaxploitation!", a video essay by author Mikel J. Koven on the history and development of the genre, a booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Cullen Gallagher, and a profile of Pam Grier by Yvonne D. Sims, author of "Women in Blaxploitation", illustrated with archive stills and posters.


title: PetroChina

text: PetroChina Company Limited () is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. The company is currently Asia's largest oil and gas producer and was China's second biggest oil producer in 2006. Traded in Hong Kong and New York, the mainland enterprise announced its plans to issue stock in Shanghai in November 2007, and subsequently entered the constituent of SSE 50 Index. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, PetroChina was ranked as the 32nd-largest public company in the world.


title: PetroChina

text: PetroChina was established as a joint stock company with limited liabilities under the Company Law of the People's Republic of China (the PRC) on 5 November 1999, as part of the restructuring of CNPC. In the restructuring, CNPC injected into PetroChina most of the assets and liabilities of CNPC relating to its exploration and production, refining and marketing, chemicals and natural gas businesses.


title: PetroChina

text: Because of Sinopec's link to Sudan through parent company China Petrochemical Corporation, several institutional investors such as Harvard and Yale decided, in 2005, to divest from Sinopec. Sudan divestment efforts have continued to be concentrated on PetroChina since then. Fidelity Investments, after pressure from activist groups, also announced in a filing in the US that it had sold 91 per cent of its American Depositary Receipts in PetroChina in the first quarter of 2007.


title: PetroChina

text: At the beginning of May 2007, the company announced it had made China's largest oil find in a decade off the country's northeast coast, in an oilfield named Jidong Nanpu oil field in Bohai Bay. In May 2008 these expectations were lowered.


title: PetroChina

text: On 7 November 2007, Hang Seng Indexes Company announced that PetroChina would be a Hang Seng Index Constituent Stock, effective 10 December 2007. PetroChina also came under scrutiny from international organizations for its part in trading with the Sudanese government as it undertook the war in Darfur.


title: PetroChina

text: On 19 August 2009, PetroChina signed an A$50 billion deal with ExxonMobil to purchase liquefied natural gas from the Gorgon field in Western Australia, considered the largest contract ever signed between China and Australia, which ensures China a steady supply of LNG fuel for 20 years, and also forms as China's largest supply of relatively "clean energy". This deal has been formally secured, despite relations between Australia and China being at their lowest point in years, following the Rio Tinto espionage case and the granting of visas to Rebiya Kadeer to visit Australia.


title: PetroChina

text: PetroChina's Dushanzi District refinery became fully operational on 24 September 2009. The refinery is China's largest refinery with annual capacity of 10 million tons of oil and 1 million tons of ethylene. The refinery is an integral part of China's ambitions to import oil from Kazakhstan.


title: PetroChina

text: In February 2011, PetroChina agreed to pay $5.4 billion for a 49% stake in Canada's Duvernay shale assets owned by Encana. It was China's biggest investment in shale gas to date. PetroChina's subsidiary in Canada is named PetroChina Canada and has an office in Calgary. It operates under the direction of Li Zhiming.


title: PetroChina

text: China signed a deal in 2016 with the Nepal Oil Corporation to sell 30% of the total Nepalese petroleum consumption. China plans to build a pipeline to Nepal's Panchkhal along with a storage depot.


title: PetroChina

text: In February 2019, as part of the Arrow Energy joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell, the company was granted leases for $10 billion (AUS) towards the Surat project in Queensland, Australia. Liaoyang Petrochemical Corp, a unit of PetroChina, in May 2019 exported to Europe for the first time. PetroChina posted a US$4 billion profit for 2019.


title: PetroChina

text: PetroChina Pipelines is a subsidiary (72.26%) of PetroChina that managed the first three pipelines of the project.


title: PetroChina

text: The construction of the West–East Gas Pipeline started in 2002. The pipeline was put into trial operation on 1 October 2004, and the full commercial supply of natural gas commenced on 1 January 2005. The pipeline is owned and operated by PetroChina West–East Gas Pipeline Company, a subsidiary of PetroChina. Originally, it was agreed that PetroChina would have owned 50% of the pipeline, while Royal Dutch Shell, Gazprom, and ExxonMobil had been slated to hold 15% each, and Sinopec 5%. However, in August 2004, the Board of Directors of PetroChina announced that following good faith discussions with all parties to the Joint Venture Framework Agreement, the parties had not been able to reach an agreement, and the joint venture framework agreement was terminated.


title: PetroChina

text: The long pipeline runs from Lunnan in Xinjiang to Shanghai. The pipeline passes through 66 cities in the 10 provinces in China. Natural gas transported by the pipeline is used for electricity production in the Yangtze River Delta area.


title: PetroChina

text: The capacity of the pipeline is of natural gas annually. The cost of the pipeline was US$5.7 billion. By the end of 2007, the capacity was planned to be upgraded to . For this purpose, ten new gas compressor stations will be built and eight existing stations are to be upgraded.


title: PetroChina

text: The West–East Gas Pipeline is connected to the Shaan-Jing pipeline by three branch pipelines. The long Ji-Ning branch between the Qingshan Distributing Station and the Anping Distributing Station became operational on 30 December 2005.


title: PetroChina

text: The pipeline is supplied from the Tarim Basin oil and gas fields in Xinjiang province. The Changqing gas area in Shaanxi province is a secondary gas source. In the future, the planned Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline will be connected to the West–East Gas Pipeline.


title: PetroChina

text: Starting from 15 September 2009, the pipeline is also supplied with coalbed methane from the Qinshui Basin in Shanxi.


title: PetroChina

text: Construction of the second West–East Gas Pipeline started on 22 February 2008. The pipeline with a total length of , including of the main line and eight sub-lines, will run from Khorgas in northwestern Xinjiang to Guangzhou in Guangdong. Up to Gansu, it will be parallel and interconnected with the first west–east pipeline. The western part of the pipeline is expected to be commissioned by 2009, and the eastern part by June 2011.


title: PetroChina

text: The capacity of the second pipeline is of natural gas per year. It is mainly supplied by the Central Asia-China gas pipeline. The pipeline is expected to cost US$20 billion. The project is developed by China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corp. (CNODC), a joint venture of China National Petroleum Corporation and PetroChina.


title: PetroChina

text: Construction of the third pipeline started in October 2012 and it is to be completed by 2015. The third pipeline will run from Horgos in western Xinjiang to Fuzhou in Fujian. It will cross Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong provinces.


title: PetroChina

text: The total length of the third pipeline is , including trunkline and eight branches. In addition, the project includes three gas storages and a LNG plant. It will have a capacity of of natural gas per year with operating pressure of . The pipeline will be supplied from Central Asia–China gas pipeline's Line C supplemented by supplies from the Tarim basin and coalbed methane in Xinjiang. Compressors for the pipeline are supplied by Rolls-Royce.


title: PetroChina

text: In November 2005, one of PetroChina's chemical plants exploded in Jilin, China, resulting in 100 tons of benzene, which is a carcinogen and toxic, pouring into the Songhua River. There was a slick of chemicals that spanned 80 kilometres. Harbin, which is another city along the Songhua River, had to cut the water supply from almost 4 million people, for 5 days. More than 60 people were injured, five died, and one person was missing due to the incident. The spill reached as far as Khabarovsk, Russia, where residents stocked up on bottled water. The Russian city tried filtering its water of toxic substances, but couldn't guarantee the water was safe. China's environmental agency fined the company one million yuan (approximately $125,000, £64,000) for its pollution, which was the maximum fine that can be handed out in China for breaking an environmental law. The Chinese government said that cleaning up the aftermath would require one billion US dollars. Li Zhaoxing, Chinese Foreign Minister at the time, issued a public apology to Russia due to the incident. The Chinese press responded harshly to the authorities' response to the disaster.


title: PetroChina

text: In 2014, Petrochina's subsidiary Lanzhou Petrochemical was responsible for ethylene and ammonia leaks, benzene contamination of water supplies, and air pollution in Lanzhou. City officials criticized the company and demanded an apology.


title: PetroChina

text: PetroChina's development of gas reserves in Tarim Basin, Xinjiang has been the subject of controversy, as such a project could pose a threat to the environment.


title: PetroChina

text: In 2008, PetroChina began constructing a $5.5 billion petrochemical plant, expected to produce 800,000 tons of ethylene and refine 10 million tons of crude oil a year, in Chengdu, China. Although PetroChina claimed that $565 million of the total investment would be dedicated to environmental protection, residents of Chengdu believed it might bring pollution to the local area and took to the streets on 3 and 4 May 2008, to protest the petrochemical plant. The whole demonstration was peaceful, with little Chinese government intervention.


title: PetroChina

text: On January 19, 2022, Chinese authorities punished PetroChina's subsidiary "PetroChina Fuel Oil Co Ltd" for alleged oil trade inconsistencies that "severely disrupted oil products market order... facilitated blind development of outdated production capacity at independent refineries...caused losses in government tax revenue indirectly," said the National Development and Reform Commission.


title: PetroChina

text: In 2011, Earthrights International accused PetroChina of complicity in serious human rights abuses in Burma, a country known for militarily furthering its economic interests through the use of forced labor.


title: PetroChina

text: In September 2013, Jiang Jiemin, a former chairman of PetroChina, was abruptly removed from his role as director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council and investigated for corruption and abuse of power, along with four other senior oil executives. Jiang was considered an ally of corrupt former security chief Zhou Yongkang, and part of a group of officials that had political ties with Zhou. On October 12, 2015, the court found Jiang guilty on all counts, including accepting bribes, possessing dark assets, and abusing his power. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.


title: PetroChina

text: In January 2017, former vice chairman Liao Yongyuan was sentenced to 15 years in prison for abuse of power and accepting nearly $2 million worth of bribes.


title: PetroChina

text: In October 2021, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that it was investigating former vice president Ling Xiao, for “serious disciplinary violations.”


title: PetroChina

text: In January 2014, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published research based on leaked financial records from the British Virgin Islands, implicating CNPC, PetroChina, Sinopec, and CNOOC in offshore tax evasion.


title: PetroChina

text: PetroChina was ranked 30th in 2018 "Forbes Global 2000", a list of top listed companies of the world. In 2019, PetroChina was ranked 22nd in "Forbes Global 2000."


title: PetroChina

text: PetroChina, on 24 October 2008 issued a series of medium-term corporate bonds worth 80 billion yuan ($11.7 billion), which was the biggest ever domestic issue by a listed company.


title: PetroChina

text: The logo of PetroChina has represented the company in plenary capacity since 2004. The logo's basic, abecedarian design consists of a rising sun, projected onto a petal-based graphic. The colors utilized in the graphic are red and yellow, auspicious in Chinese culture. Beneath the English-language version of the design is positioned the company's name in an emboldened, black typeset, "PetroChina" ().


title: PetroChina

text: PetroChina's current logo was adopted 26 December 2004. The contour of the logo is defined as a "petal graphic equally divided by ten in red and yellow colors", which, according to description, "are the basic colors of the national flag of the People's Republic of China, and which embody the characteristics of the oil and gas industry." The essentially spherical design of the logo, meant to exemplify PetroChina's global development stratagem. The ten equanimous petals are indicative of PetroChina's ten consolidated core businesses. The red substratum is intended to highlight "an angle of a square shape, not only demonstrating PetroChina's strong fundamentals, but also implicating the company's huge power of cohesion and creativity." The general floral connotations of the logo are designed to capture PetroChina's "social responsibility of creating harmony between energy and environment." Finally, the sun ascending over the horizon in the center of the logo epitomizes the prosperous future hoped to lie within the future of PetroChina.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Snake handling, also called serpent handling, is a religious rite observed in a small number of isolated churches, mostly in the United States, usually characterized as rural and part of the Holiness movement. The practice began in the early 20th century in Appalachia and plays only a small part in the church service. Participants are Holiness, Pentecostals, Charismatics, or other evangelicals. The beliefs and practices of the movement have been documented in several films and have been the impetus for a number of state laws related to the handling of venomous animals.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: In the 2nd century the Ophites reportedly handled snakes during their services, and also worshipped the serpent.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: The practice of snake handling first appeared in American Christianity around 1910 and was associated with the ministry of George Went Hensley of Grasshopper Valley in southeastern Tennessee. Hensley's role in initiating the practice has been disputed by academic studies. Kimbrough notes that claims of Hensley being the originator of snake handling are usually found to be unsubstantiated by research, and the origins of the observance are unclear. Hood and Williamson similarly argue that the beginnings of Pentecostal snake-handling rituals cannot be ascribed to a single person, and that the observance arose independently on multiple occasions.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: However, historians agree that Hensley's advocacy, leadership, and particularly his personal charisma, were important factors in advancing the Pentecostal snake handling and spreading it throughout the southeast United States. Coverage of Hensley's ministry was influential in prompting various churches to include the practice in their services. The media has focused on popular snake handlers such as Hensley, and the deaths of ministers due to snakebite have received particular attention.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Hensley was a minister of the Church of God, now known as the Church of God (Cleveland), founded by Richard Spurling and A. J. Tomlinson. In 1922, Hensley resigned from the Church of God, citing "trouble in the home"; his resignation marked the zenith of the practice of snake handling in the denomination, with the Church of God disavowing the practice of snake handling during the 1920s.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: In the 1930s, he traveled the Southeast resuming his ministry and promoting the practice. If believers truly had the Holy Spirit within them, Hensley argued, they should be able to handle rattlesnakes and any number of other venomous serpents. They should also be able to drink poison and suffer no harm whatsoever. Snake handling as a test or demonstration of faith became popular wherever Hensley traveled and preached in the small towns of Tennessee, Kentucky, the Carolinas, Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana. Sister-churches later sprang up throughout the Appalachian region. In 1943, Hensley and Ramond Hayes, a young adherent of Hensley's teachings, started a church together in 1945, which they named the "Dolly Pond Church of God with Signs Following". Snake-handling churches influenced by Hensley's ministry are broadly known as the Church of God with Signs Following. In July 1955, Hensley died following a snakebite received during a service he was conducting in Altha, Florida.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Serpent-handling in north Alabama and north Georgia originated with James Miller in Sand Mountain, Alabama, at about the same time. Miller apparently developed his belief independently of any knowledge of Hensley's ministry. Whereas Hensley's ministry was trinitarian, the snake-handling churches influenced by Miller's ministry are non-trinitarian, and are broadly known as the Church of Lord Jesus with Signs Following. This version dominates snake-handling churches north of the Appalachians.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Each church body is independent and autonomous, and the denominational name is not consistent in all areas, however they are typically some variation of the name "Church of God" (Trinitarian) or "Church of (Lord) Jesus" (Oneness).


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: The exact membership is unknown, and has recently been estimated as low as 1,000 and as high as 5,000 with possibly fifty to a hundred congregations. According to the "Encyclopedia of American Religions", churches "can be found from central Florida to West Virginia and as far west as Columbus, Ohio." The snake-handling sect of beliefs and practices go as far as to cross the border into Western Canada in 2004 to Lethbridge and Edmonton, Alberta.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Most religious snake handlers are still found in the Appalachian Mountains and other parts of the southeastern United States, especially in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Carolina. In 2001, about 40 small churches practiced snake handling, most of them considered to be Holiness, Pentecostals, or Charismatics. In 2004, there were four snake-handling congregations in the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, Canada.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Ralph Hood, professor of social psychology and the psychology of religion at the University of Tennessee, who has studied the snake handling movement, indicated in 2003 that the practice is "currently at a fairly low ebb of popularity". A 2013 article by National Public Radio gave a figure of "about 125" churches where snakes are handled, but also indicated that "snake handlers are notoriously private".


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Practitioners believe serpent handling dates to antiquity and quote the Gospel of Mark (chapter 16) and the Gospel of Luke to support the practice:


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Churches that practice snake handling and drinking poison as a demonstration of the strength of their faith during worship services frequently describe themselves with the phrase "with sign following"; this is based on a literal interpretation of the following biblical passage which they cite for biblical validation:


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: These passages are part of the longer ending of Mark which many biblical scholars regard as a later addition to the manuscript tradition and it noted as such in many modern translations of the Bible, such as the New International Version, however, the longer ending is part of the received text and the canonical status of these passages is rarely disputed.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Another passage from the New Testament used to support snake handlers' beliefs is , which relates that Paul was bitten by a venomous viper and suffered no harm:


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Only snake-handling churches interpret these passages as a call to handle serpents, while others dispute these interpretations.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: As in the early days, worshipers are still encouraged to lay hands on the sick, speak in tongues, provide testimony of miracles, and occasionally consume poisons such as strychnine. Worship services usually include singing, praying, speaking in tongues, and preaching. The front of the church, behind the pulpit, is the designated area for handling snakes. Rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, and copperheads (venomous snakes native to North America) are the most common, but even cobras have been used. During the service, believers may approach the front and pick up the snakes, usually raising them into the air and sometimes allowing the snakes to crawl on their bodies. Handling the snakes is not compulsory for those attending services. Some believers will also engage in drinking poison (most commonly strychnine) at this time.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Although individual incidents may actually be understood in a variety of ways, those who die from snakebites are never criticized for lack of adequate faith; it is believed that it was simply the deceased's time to die. Bitten believers usually do not seek medical help, but look to God for their healing. They fully believe that adherents need to handle the snakes as a demonstration of their having the Holy Spirit within. Darlene Summerford, when asked how it felt to handle venomous serpents, replied, "It's just knowing you got power over them snakes".


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: And, if they get bitten by the snake, then they lack the true Spirit. Moreover, if they are bitten, then the congregation prays over them. If they die, then God intended for that to happen.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: All Appalachian states except West Virginia outlawed the snake-handling ritual when it first emerged. The states of Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee have passed laws against the use of venomous snakes or other reptiles that endangers the lives of others without a permit.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: The Kentucky law specifically mentions religious services; in Kentucky snake handling is a misdemeanor and punishable by a $50 to $100 fine.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Snake handling is legal in the state of West Virginia, as the current state constitution does not allow any law to impede upon nor promote a religious practice.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Snake handling was made a felony punishable by death under Georgia law in 1941, following the death of a seven-year-old from a rattlesnake bite. However, the punishment was so severe that juries would refuse to convict, and the law was repealed in 1968.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: The American Civil Liberties Union has defended the religious freedom of snake handlers against various attempts to have the practice banned.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: In 1992, Glen Summerford, a serpent-handling preacher, was convicted of attempted murder of his wife with a rattlesnake, by forcing her to be bitten on two occasions, at their home. During the trial, some members of the congregation sided with Glen Summerford, and others with his wife, Darlene. Each Summerford accused the other of infidelity, and "backsliding" from their faith by drinking alcohol. Dennis Covington, a journalist who covered the Summerford trial discusses his first-hand, investigative experiences at a snake-handling church in Appalachia, in his book, "Salvation on Sand Mountain".


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: In July 2008, ten people were arrested and 125 venomous snakes were confiscated as part of an undercover sting operation titled "Twice Shy". Pastor Gregory James Coots of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus' Name (FGTJN) in Middlesboro, Kentucky, was arrested and 74 snakes seized from his home as part of the sting.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Jamie Coots (son of Gregory Coots) was cited in 2013 for illegal possession and transportation of venomous snakes when three rattlesnakes and two copperheads were discovered in his vehicle during a vehicle check in Knoxville, Tennessee. Later in 2013, Coots published an op-ed in "The Wall Street Journal" making an argument for U.S. Constitutional protection regarding religious freedom, especially freedom to practice the unique variety of religion found in snake-handling churches. Coots died on 15 February 2014 from a snakebite.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Andrew Hamblin, who appeared alongside Jamie Coots in "Snake Salvation", was cited for having dangerous wildlife in 2014, but a grand jury declined to indict him.


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: The handling of venomous snakes has significant risks. Ralph Hood observes, "If you go to any serpent-handling church, you'll see people with atrophied hands, and missing fingers. All the serpent-handling families have suffered such things". Jamie Coots, a pastor who subsequently died from a snakebite, said, "Handlers get bitten all the time, and every few years someone dies".


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Various figures for the total number of deaths from snakebite during religious services have been proposed:


title: Snake handling in Christianity

text: Hood also notes that the practice does not present a danger to observers. There is no documented case of a non-handling member being bitten by a serpent handled by another believer.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: The Chrysler Turbine Car is an experimental two-door hardtop coupe powered by a turbine engine and manufactured by Chrysler from 1963–1964. The bodywork was constructed by Italian design studio Carrozzeria Ghia and Chrysler completed the final assembly in Detroit. A total of 55 cars were manufactured: five prototypes and a limited run of 50 cars for a public user program. All have a signature metallic paint named "turbine bronze", roughly the color of root beer. The car was styled by Elwood Engel and the Chrysler studios and featured power brakes, power steering, and a TorqueFlite transmission.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: The Chrysler turbine engine program that produced the Turbine Car began during the late 1930s and created prototypes that completed long-distance trips in the 1950s and early 1960s. The A-831 engines that powered the Ghia-designed Turbine Car could operate on many fuels, required less maintenance, and lasted longer than conventional piston engines, although they were much more expensive to produce.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: After testing, Chrysler conducted a user program from October 1963 to January 1966 that involved 203 drivers in 133 cities in the United States cumulatively driving more than one million miles (1.6 million km). The program helped the company determine problems with the cars, notably with their complicated starting procedure, relatively unimpressive acceleration, and sub-par fuel economy and noise. The experience also revealed advantages of the turbine engines, including their remarkable durability, smooth operation, and relatively modest maintenance requirements.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: After the user program ended in 1966, Chrysler reclaimed the cars and destroyed all but nine; Chrysler kept two cars, six are displayed at museums in the United States, and one is in a private collection. Chrysler's turbine engine program ended in 1979, largely due to the failure of the engines to meet government emissions regulations, relatively poor fuel economy, and as a condition of receiving a government loan in 1979.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: Chrysler began researching turbine engines for aviation applications during the late 1930s, led primarily by executive engineer George Huebner. After World War II, Huebner was part of a group of engineers who began exploring the idea of powering a car with a turbine. Other members of the secretive Chrysler research team which worked on automotive turbines included fellow engineers Bud Mann and Sam B. Williams. The concept intrigued them, largely because turbine engines have fewer moving parts than their piston-powered counterparts and can run on a variety of fuels. According to historian Charles K. Hyde, by the mid-1950s Chrysler "led the way in terms of gas turbine research" (although General Motors and Rover also built operational turbine cars after World War II).


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: After improving their turbine design, most notably by engineering a regenerator to resolve an issue with heat exchange, the Chrysler team's efforts reached early maturity when they mated a turbine to an otherwise-stock 1954 Plymouth Belvedere. Heating and cooling and emissions and exhaust were among the principal engineering challenges which faced the turbine engine. Chrysler tested the Belvedere, claiming that its turbine engine contained 20% fewer parts and weighed less than comparable, conventional piston engines. On June 16, 1954, the company publicly unveiled the turbine-powered Belvedere at its Chelsea Proving Grounds in Chelsea, Michigan, in front of over 500 reporters.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: Chrysler unveiled its next turbine car, a 1956 Plymouth, on March 23, 1956; Huebner drove it on a four-day trip from New York City to Los Angeles. Although the car was shadowed by a 14-person convoy of mechanics with fuel and spare parts, it only required two minor repairs on the trip (neither of which were engine-related). The coast-to-coast journey's success led Chrysler to double the size of its turbine program and move it from the Highland Park Chrysler Plant, to a larger facility on Greenfield Road in Detroit.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: The program began generating several patent applications in 1957, due largely to the contributions of metallurgist Amedee Roy and engineer Giovanni Savonuzzi. The next iteration of the Chrysler turbine engine (the second-generation engine) was placed into a 1959 Plymouth, which averaged on a trip from Detroit to Woodbridge, New Jersey. This mileage was substantially higher than the achieved with the first-generation turbine on the 1956 New York-to-Los Angeles journey.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: After Chrysler named former accountant Lynn Townsend its new president in 1961, the company unveiled its next, third-generation turbine engine on February 28; the CR2A was the first Chrysler turbine engine to be officially named. Unlike its more experimental predecessors, the CR2A was designed with an eye on costs and production methods. While the engine was under development in May 1960, Huebner said that it would serve as its own torque converter, generate , have an acceleration lag of 1.5 seconds (compared with nine seconds for its predecessor), and weighed less than a comparably sized piston engine.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: Third-generation turbines were mated to a variety of vehicles, including a 2.5-ton 1960 Dodge truck and the Chrysler Turboflite concept car. Refined CR2A turbines were installed into a 1962 Dodge Dart and Plymouth Fury; the Dart was driven from New York City to Los Angeles in December 1961, and the Fury completed a journey from Los Angeles to San Francisco in January 1962. After Huebner arrived in Los Angeles with the Dart, he spent two hours giving journalists rides in the turbine-powered car.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: Chrysler had barnstormed its fleet of turbine cars to dealers across North America, Europe, and Mexico by February 1962, visiting 90 cities, giving rides to almost 14,000 people, and being seen by millions more. The third-generation turbine program ended at the 1962 Chicago Auto Show that month, where the company displayed its turbine-powered fleet. Shortly before the show, Chrysler announced an upcoming fourth-generation turbine engine it planned to install in a limited run of 50–75 cars which would be loaned to the public at no cost in late 1963, a decision largely due to enthusiastic public response to the barnstorming tour.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: The Chrysler Turbine Car is powered by the A-831, Chrysler's fourth-generation turbine engine. The most notable difference from its predecessor, the CR2A, was its use of twin regenerators (one mounted on either side of the gasifier) instead of a single top cover-mounted heat exchanger. This design helped the A-831 trim from the CR2A's weight, reducing it to a relatively light . Huebner described the turbine as similar to a jet engine, noting that it had only one spark plug and about 80% fewer parts than a typical automotive piston engine. Due to their construction, the engines did not require antifreeze, a cooling system, a radiator, connecting rods, or crankshafts.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: The A-831 could operate on diesel fuel, unleaded gasoline, kerosene, and JP-4 jet fuel; leaded gasoline damaged it. According to Chrysler, it could burn a variety of unusual fuels ranging from furnace oil and perfume to peanut and soybean oils. Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos ran one of the cars on tequila after Chrysler engineers confirmed that it would do so.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: The engine produced at 36,000 revolutions per minute (rpm), of torque, and idled between 18,000 and 22,000 rpm. At idle, its exhaust did not exceed . When driven at , the turbine ran at its maximum of 60,000 rpm. The A-831's compressor had a pressure ratio of 4:1 and an efficiency of 80%; its combustor operated at 95% efficiency.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: Compared to conventional piston engines, turbine engines generally require less maintenance, last longer, and start more easily in cold conditions; the A-831 started properly at temperatures as low as . The first car to receive an A-831 was a Plymouth Fury. In this Ghia-built turbine car, the engine had a 0-to- time of about 12 seconds. Due to the exotic materials and strict tolerances needed to build the engines and the investment casting method with which they were made, the A-831s were very expensive to produce; Chrysler never disclosed their actual cost.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: The Turbine Car was styled in the Chrysler studios under the direction of Elwood Engel, who had worked for the Ford Motor Company before moving to Chrysler. Due to its resemblance to the Engel-designed Ford Thunderbird, the car is occasionally called the "Englebird". According to Huebner, the design was intended to compete with the Chevrolet Corvette in addition to the Thunderbird.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: The car's bodies were handmade by Italian design studio Ghia, which had built several concept cars for Chrysler (including the Imperial limousines and the Norseman). The mostly completed Turbine Car bodies, which were assembled, painted, trimmed, and upholstered by Ghia in Italy, were shipped to Chrysler's Greenfield Road turbine facility in Detroit for final assembly; this consisted of installing the turbine engines, TorqueFlite transmissions, electrical wiring, and components such as radios and heaters. Building an individual car may have cost as much as $55,000 (); Virgil Exner, Jr., estimates that the bodies themselves cost about $20,000 (), although Chrysler never revealed the cost of each turbine engine.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: The first five cars were completed in early 1962 as prototypes used for troubleshooting; each was slightly different from the others, varying in exterior color, interior upholstery, and roof material. Early problems discovered from the prototypes included sluggish acceleration (attributed in part to the relatively heavy hand-built bodies) and vibration, ultimately determined to be caused by the tire treads and noticeable due to the unusual smoothness of the turbine engine.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: A total of 50 identical Turbine Cars were built between October 1963 and October 1964. They were all two-door hardtop coupes, with air-over-oil power brakes and power steering. The cars had independent front suspension with a coil spring at each front wheel, eschewing Chrysler's contemporary-standard independent front longitudinal torsion bar system (although their rear suspension utilized off-the-shelf leaf springs). All four wheels were equipped with power-assisted drum brakes.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: The car body is finished in a metallic, root beer-colored paint known as "turbine bronze". Its headlights, deeply-recessed taillights, turn signals, and pod-shaped backup lights are mounted in chrome bezels. The turbine-inspired style carries through to the center console design of the interior, which has bronze-colored leather upholstery, deep-pile bronze carpet, and brushed aluminum accents. The cars have black vinyl covered hardtop roofs, leather-upholstered bucket seats for front and rear passengers, and whitewall tires.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: The Turbine Car's dashboard is dominated by three large gauges: a speedometer, a tachometer, and pyrometer, the latter monitoring the temperature of the turbine inlet (the engine's hottest component). Its appearance is mostly stock, although the tachometer and pyrometer display abnormally high readings compared to piston-engine cars: 46,000 rpm and , respectively. All 55 turbine cars had identical ignition keys.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: Two of the cars gave rides to visitors at the 1964 New York World's Fair, and another went on a worldwide tour; 50 were lent to the general public as part of a user program. The cars were given to drivers for a three-month period at no charge, aside from fuel costs; participants also gave Chrysler in-depth interviews within two weeks of returning their cars. During the user program, which ran from October 1963 to January 1966, the cars' operational downtime was reduced from four percent early on to one percent by its conclusion.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: The user program helped identify a variety of problems with the cars, including starter malfunction at high altitudes, difficulty in mastering the unusual eight-step starting procedure (which, for some users, resulted in engine damage), and the cars' relatively unimpressive acceleration. Nonetheless, the turbine engines were remarkably durable in comparison to contemporary piston engines. The most-cited advantages of the turbine engine, according to the participants' interviews, were its smooth and vibration-free operation, reduced maintenance requirements, and ease of starting in different conditions; the most-common complaints concerned its slow acceleration, sub-par fuel economy, and relatively high noise level. Investigating the latter complaint, Chrysler found that the distinctive sound of the car's turbine (reminiscent of a jet engine) was positively received by about 60% of those involved in the user program and disliked by about 20% of their fellow users.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: The cars had conspicuous warning labels cautioning drivers to avoid using leaded gasoline; although the turbine engine could run using leaded fuel, it left debilitating deposits in the engine. This left Chrysler recommending against the very fuel that was most common and easily obtained at the time of the program. Fuels commonly used by those participating in the user program included diesel and home heating oil.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: More than 1 million miles (1.6 million km) were accumulated in testing by the 50 cars given to the public, which were driven by 203 users before the program ended in January 1966. The users lived in 133 cities in the 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C.; 180 were male and 23 were female, their ages ranged from 21 to 70, and 60% were Chrysler owners.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: In April 1966, product planning and development vice president Harry E. Chesebrough noted that the 50 test cars would be taken off the road regardless of whether the Chrysler Turbine Car went into production. Chrysler destroyed 46 of the cars after it finished the user program and other public displays. Forty-five of the cars were burned and crushed at a scrapyard south of Detroit, and the other was destroyed at Chrysler's Chelsea Proving Grounds. A widely circulated explanation was that the cars were destroyed to avoid a substantial tariff on the imported Ghia bodies, although author Steve Lehto claims that this idea has been "largely discredited". The destruction of the cars was in line with the automobile industry's practice of not selling non-production or prototype cars to the public. According to Lehto, the decision was influenced by Chrysler's public relations concerns: the potential difficulty of keeping the cars running and fears that owners would replace the turbine powerplants with piston engines. A Chrysler executive was quoted in "Look": "Our main objective is research, and we did not want turbines turning up on used-car lots." A similar practice was later used by General Motors with its EV1 when it terminated the program and destroyed most of the cars in 2003.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: Chrysler's development of turbine engines continued from the late 1960s into the 1970s, resulting in the creation of fifth- and sixth-generation engines. The turbines ultimately failed to meet government emissions regulations and had relatively poor fuel economy, despite promising early results and a $6.4 million contract from the Environmental Protection Agency. According to Charles K. Hyde, the company's effort to enlarge and diversify its turbine program was unsuccessful and spread its "already-thin executive talent pool even thinner". An October 1967 Department of Commerce report concluded that the turbine engine was "unsuited to automobiles". Development continued on automotive turbines, in part because turbine exhaust contains fewer unburned hydrocarbons and lower concentrations of other pollutants. In March 1971, the Williams Research Corporation continued developing a turbine engine with funding from the National Air Pollution Control Administration. Chrysler's turbine engine development continued through the mid-1970s, with later compact versions of the engines installed in the Dodge Aspen. However, the program and the seventh-generation engine were discontinued in 1979 as a requirement of the "Chrysler Corporation Loan Guarantee Act of 1979", as well as due to its inability to attain fuel economy goals. One Chrysler Turbine Car appeared in the 1964 film "The Lively Set", painted white with blue racing stripes; it was the only Turbine Car not painted bronze.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: Nine Chrysler Turbine Cars have survived. Three were initially retained by Chrysler, two of which it still owns; six are on display at museums around the United States; and one is owned by a private collector. Chrysler has displayed one of its cars at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Five of the six cars currently on museum display were donated to the Detroit Historical Museum; the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan; the National Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood, Missouri; the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles; and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. In 2005, the Detroit Historical Museum lent its car, which had been in warehouse storage, to the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan. All the cars donated to museums had their fan assemblies removed to render their engines inoperable, although the car owned by the National Museum of Transportation was restored and returned to operating condition in the 1980s, allowing it to appear at car shows.


title: Chrysler Turbine Car

text: The sixth Chrysler Turbine Car on museum display is owned by Stahls Automotive Collection in Chesterfield, Michigan, since being acquired at auction in March 2021. This car was originally donated to the former Harrah Collection in Reno, Nevada, later purchased by Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, and then sold to Frank Kleptz of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The only other Turbine Car ever to be privately owned is currently in the collection of comedian and television host Jay Leno, who purchased one of the three cars originally retained by Chrysler in 2009. Leno's car was featured in the BBC television show "James May's Cars of the People". Both his car and the car now owned by Stahls Automotive Collection are operational.


title: Sprinkles

text: Sprinkles are very small pieces of confectionery used as an often colourful decoration or to add texture to desserts such as brownies, cupcakes, doughnuts or ice cream. The tiny candies are produced in a variety of colors and are generally used as a topping or a decorative element. The "Dictionary of American Regional English" defines them as "tiny balls or rod-shaped bits of candy used as a topping for ice-cream, cakes and other."


title: Sprinkles

text: In the UK and other Anglophonic commonwealth countries sprinkles are denoted by different signifiers. For example, hundreds and thousands is the most popular denotation used in Britain as well as Australia and New Zealand to refer to sprinkles and nonpareils. Another UK variant of the term is vermicelli, especially when said of chocolate sprinkles. This name can be seen borrowed into spoken Egyptian Arabic as "faːrmasil".


title: Sprinkles

text: Jimmies is the most popular term for chocolate sprinkles in the Philadelphia, Boston and New England regions.


title: Sprinkles

text: The origin of the name "jimmies" is uncertain, but it was first documented in 1930, as a topping for cake. The Just Born Candy Company of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, claims to have invented jimmies and named them after an employee.


title: Sprinkles

text: Another unlikely claim on the name "jimmies" originates from Dr. Sidney Farber and Edward Brigham. Dr. Farber co-founded the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, as well as a charity, The Jimmy Fund, named after one of his child patients. Brigham opened an ice cream restaurant called Brigham's and charged an extra penny for chocolate sprinkles on a cone, which benefited The Jimmy Fund. The fund however was started in 1948, well after the first historical reference.


title: Sprinkles

text: In Connecticut and other places in the U.S., as indicated by including the sense in the official Merriam-Webster, shots is a specific term for sprinkles.


title: Sprinkles

text: Nonpareils date back at least to the late 18th century, if not earlier. They were used as decoration for pièces montées and desserts.


title: Sprinkles

text: Dutch "hagelslag" (chocolate sprinkles) were invented in 1913 by Erven H. de Jong from Wormerveer. Venz, another Dutch company, made "hagelslag" popular. "Hagelslag" is used on bread and other things made of bread. Most of the time butter is spread out so the "hagelslag" does not fall off. After much research and venture, de Vries and Venz created the first machine to produce the tiny cylindrical treats. They were named "hagelslag" after their resemblance to a weather phenomenon prominent in the Netherlands: hail. (This reference is also transferred to the Finnish word for sprinkles, "Koristerakeet" which literally means "decorative hail"). Only "hagelslag" with a cacao percentage of more than 32% can bear the name "chocoladehagelslag" (chocolate sprinkles). If it is lower than 32%, it is to be referred to as "cacaofantasie" or "cacaofantasie hagelslag" (cacao fantasy sprinkles).


title: Sprinkles

text: The American candy company Just Born cites its founder, Sam Born, as inventing the "chocolate" sprinkles called "jimmies" (which may never have contained any chocolate) in Brooklyn, New York. However, advertisements for chocolate sprinkles as a confection exist in the United States as far back as 1921, predating Just Born by two years.


title: Sprinkles

text: A related product, sanding sugar has been commercially available in a small range of colors for decades. Now it comes in a wide variety, including black and metallic-like "glitter".


title: Sprinkles

text: Popular terminology for this confection tends to overlap, while manufacturers are more precise with their labeling. What consumers often call "sprinkles" covers several types of candy decorations that are "sprinkled" randomly over a surface, as opposed to decorations that are placed in specific spots. Nonpareils, confetti, silver, gold, and pearl dragées – not to be confused with pearl sugar (which is also sprinkled on baked goods) – and "hundreds-and-thousands" are all used this way, along with a newer product called "sugar shapes" or "sequins". These latter come in a variety of shapes, often flavored, for holidays or themes, such as Halloween witches and pumpkins, or flowers and dinosaurs. Candy cane shapes may taste like peppermint, and gingerbread men like gingerbread cookies.


title: Sprinkles

text: "Sanding sugar" is a transparent crystal sugar of larger size than general-use refined white sugar. "Crystal sugar" tends to be clear and of much larger crystals than sanding sugar. "Pearl sugar" is relatively large, opaque white spheroids of sugar. Both crystal and pearl sugars are typically used for sprinkling on sweet breads, pastries, and cookies in many countries.


title: Sprinkles

text: Some American manufacturers deem the elongated opaque sprinkles the official sprinkles. In British English, these are "sugar strands" or "hundreds-and-thousands" (the latter term alludes to their supposed uncountability). In the Northeastern United States, sprinkles are often referred to as jimmies. "Jimmies", in this sense, are usually considered to be used as an ice cream topping, while sprinkles are for decorating baked goods, but the term can be used for both.


title: Sprinkles

text: The sprinkles known as "nonpareils" in French are tiny opaque spheres that were traditionally white, but that now come in many colors. The sprinkle-type of "dragée" is like a large nonpareil with a metallic coating of silver, gold, copper, or bronze. The food-sprinkle dragée is now also made in a form resembling pearls.


title: Sprinkles

text: Toppings that are more similar in consistency to another type of candy, even if used similarly to sprinkles, are usually known by a variation of that candy's name—for example, mini-chocolate chips or praline.


title: Sprinkles

text: Sprinkles generally require frosting, ice cream, or some other sort of sticky material in order to stick to the desired food surface. They can be most commonly found on smaller confections such as cupcakes or frosted sugar cookies, as these generally have more frosting and smaller diameter than do cakes.


title: Sprinkles

text: In the Netherlands, "chocoladehagelslag" (chocolate sprinkles) is used as a sandwich topping (similar to muisjes and vlokken); this is also common in Belgium and the former colonies of the Netherlands, Suriname and Indonesia. These countries also use "vruchtenhagel" and "anijshagel" (made of sugar and fruit/anise-flavour respectively) on sandwiches (mainly at breakfast). In Indonesia, it is commonly known as "meses" or "meises", presumably derived from the Dutch "muisjes", which are also similar. In Belgium it is often called "muizenstrontjes" (mouse droppings), due to the resemblance.


title: Sprinkles

text: Fairy bread is the name given to the children's treat of sprinkles or nonpareils on buttered white bread. Fairy bread is commonly served at children's parties in Australia and New Zealand.


title: Sprinkles

text: A dessert called confetti cake has sprinkles mixed with the batter, where they slowly dissolve and form little colored spots, giving the appearance of confetti. Confetti cakes are popular for children's birthdays in the United States. The Pillsbury Company sells its own variation known as "Funfetti" cake, incorporating a sprinkle-like substance into the mix.


title: Vijay Amritraj

text: Vijay Amritraj (born 14 December 1953) is an Indian sports commentator, actor and retired professional tennis player from Madras. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's 4th highest civilian honour, in 1983.In 2022, he was honored for his contributions to tennis in London by the International Tennis Hall of Fame and International Tennis Federation.


title: Vijay Amritraj

text: Vijay was born in Madras, India to Maggie Dhairyam and Robert Amritraj. He has two brothers, Anand Amritraj and Ashok Amritraj, who were also international tennis players.


title: Vijay Amritraj

text: After playing his first Grand Prix event in 1970, Amritraj achieved his first success in singles in 1973 when he reached the quarterfinals at two Grand Slam events. At Wimbledon, he lost in five sets to the eventual champion Jan Kodeš and later that summer at the US Open, lost to Ken Rosewall after having beaten Rod Laver two rounds earlier.


title: Vijay Amritraj

text: Amritraj beat Björn Borg in the second round in the US Open in 1974 before losing to Rosewall in quarterfinals. In 1979, he lost in the second round of Wimbledon to defending champion Borg after being up two sets to one and leading 4–1 in the fourth set. He reached his career-high ranking in singles of world No. 16 in July 1980. In 1981, he reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon before losing in five sets to Jimmy Connors after being up 2–0. He beat John McEnroe in the first round of Cincinnati Masters in 1984. Overall, he had five career wins over Jimmy Connors in their eleven matches.


title: Vijay Amritraj

text: Amritraj was part of the India Davis Cup team that reached the finals in 1974 and 1987. Amritraj had a career singles win–loss record 384–296, winning 16 singles and 13 doubles titles.


title: Vijay Amritraj

text: Amritraj has also pursued an acting career. His best known role is probably as the MI6 intelligence operative Vijay in the 1983 James Bond film "Octopussy". He also appeared briefly in "" (1986) as an unnamed starship captain.


title: Vijay Amritraj

text: He was also a regular character in the NBC TV series "The Last Precinct" and the Yakov Smirnoff comedy "What a Country", as well as a guest star on various television shows such as "Hart to Hart". He has since gone on to become a sports commentator, has been a judge at the Miss Universe pageant and has developed a multimedia business. Amritraj also hosts a talk show named "Dimensions with Vijay Amritraj" broadcast on CNN-IBN.


title: Vijay Amritraj

text: On 9 February 2001, Vijay was appointed a United Nations ambassador for peace. He has been raising awareness on the issues of drugs and HIV/AIDS and has raised funds to fight the spread of AIDS worldwide. Vijay Amritraj founded "The Vijay Amritraj Foundation" in 2006.


title: Prince Johnson

text: Prince Yormie Johnson (born 6 July 1952) is a Liberian politician and the current Senior Senator from Nimba County. A former rebel leader, Johnson played a prominent role in the First Liberian Civil War. Serving as leader of the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia, he captured, tortured and executed President Samuel Doe, who had himself overthrown and murdered the previous president William R. Tolbert Jr.


title: Prince Johnson

text: Johnson was born in Tapeta, Nimba County, in the east-central interior of the country, and was brought up by an uncle in the capital city of Monrovia. In 1971, while living in Monrovia, he joined the Liberian National Guard (LNG), which was transformed into the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) in the aftermath of Samuel Doe's 1980 overthrow of President William R. Tolbert.


title: Prince Johnson

text: He rose to the rank of Lieutenant, receiving military training in both Liberia and the United States, where he was instructed in military police duties in South Carolina. A stern, often draconian, disciplinarian, he served as aide-de-camp to Gen. Thomas Quiwonkpa, the Commanding General of the Armed Forces of Liberia, and accompanied him into exile in 1983, after Quiwonkpa was accused of plotting a coup against Doe.


title: Prince Johnson

text: Johnson later allied with Charles Taylor as part of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), serving as the NPFL's Chief Training Officer. Taylor's fighters crossed the border from Ivory Coast and began operations in Liberia on Christmas Eve, 1989.


title: Prince Johnson

text: An internal power struggle resulted in Johnson breaking off from the Taylor-led NPFL and forming the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL). Despite intervention in the civil war by the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), INPFL forces captured most of Monrovia in the late summer of 1990.


title: Prince Johnson

text: During the civil war, Johnson was notorious for killing anyone who opposed or criticised his actions. When Hare Krishna devotees, who were distributing food to starving people in Monrovia in the midst of the chaos of the civil war, sent him a letter begging him to stop killing people, he personally orchestrated the murder of Hladini devi dasi—born Linda Jury—and five of her students on the bank of the Saint Paul River on the night of Thursday, 13 September 1990.


title: Prince Johnson

text: On September 9, 1990, Johnson's supporters abducted President Samuel Doe from ECOMOG headquarters in the Monrovia port district. Doe was tortured and executed in Johnson's custody on 9 September, with the spectacle videotaped and broadcast around the world. The video showed Johnson sipping a Budweiser beer and being fanned by an assistant as his men cut off Doe's ear.


title: Prince Johnson

text: Johnson later denied killing Doe. Ahmadou Kourouma (who depicted Doe's assassination in his novel "Allah Is Not Obliged") also accused Johnson of war crimes in the form of the abduction and torture of several Firestone executives.


title: Prince Johnson

text: After Doe's death Johnson briefly claimed the presidency of Liberia. Johnson's claim to power ended following the consolidation of rebel power under Charles Taylor. In an attempt by the weak national government to reconstruct Liberian politics, the INPFL was recognised at a conference held in Guinea, where Amos Sawyer was elected president.


title: Prince Johnson

text: Johnson was forced to flee to Nigeria to avoid capture by rebel forces supporting Taylor and was not involved in the Second Liberian Civil War.


title: Prince Johnson

text: While in Nigeria, Johnson became a Christian and reconciled with the Doe family through the intervention of Nigerian pastor T. B. Joshua.


title: Prince Johnson

text: Johnson returned to Liberia in March 2004, following the resignation of Taylor as president and the installation of a transitional government. He stated his intention to return to politics, though he briefly left Liberia again on 7 April due to death threats he had received from the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel group. In the 2005 general elections, Johnson contested and won a Senate seat representing Nimba County. For a period he served as the chair of the Senate's defence committee.


title: Prince Johnson

text: In the June 2009 final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was established as part of the 2003 peace deal, the TRC recommended Johnson's inclusion on a list of 50 people who should be "specifically barred from holding public offices; elected or appointed for a period of thirty (30) years" for "being associated with former warring factions." Johnson labelled the recommendation a "joke," noting the absence of several other combatants from the list, and vowed to resist any charges brought as a result of the report.


title: Prince Johnson

text: In January 2011, the Supreme Court ruled in "Williams v. Tah", a case brought by another person recommended for disqualification in the TRC report, that the TRC's recommendation was an unconstitutional violation of the listed individuals' right to procedural due process, and that it would be unconstitutional for the government to implement the proposed bans.


title: Prince Johnson

text: Johnson ran in Liberia's 2011 presidential election as the candidate of the newly formed National Union for Democratic Progress party. He placed third, with 11.6% of the vote; the election was won by the country's previous president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.


title: Azie Faison

text: Azie Faison Jr. (born November 10, 1964), sometimes known by the nickname AZ, is an American former drug dealer and businessman from Harlem, New York City. He attained notoriety during the War on Drugs era as an individual drug dealer during the 1980s. His five-year reign as crime boss ended in 1989.


title: Azie Faison

text: Born in New York City, Faison turned from selling drugs to advising youth in impoverished neighborhoods to avoid the lures of drug trafficking. Faison formed the hip-hop group MobStyle, where he released an album as a member in the 1990s, as well as a solo release. He has also been subject to various dramatic portrayals, with his legacy serving as inspiration for rap songs, documentaries, books, and movies, notably the 2002 film "Paid in Full".


title: Azie Faison

text: Faison was born one of seven children in New York City on November 10, 1964 to Margaret Rogers and Azie Faison Sr. He lived with his single mother and six siblings in the Bronx neighborhood until 1970, where, at age six, a fire destroyed their tenement. After staying in a shelter for six months, Faison's family were then forced to relocate to the Sugar Hill neighborhood in Harlem. Faison, who struggled academically, dropped out of high school following ninth grade and worked at several odd jobs around Harlem, including a two-year stint at a local dry cleaners.


title: Azie Faison

text: After attending a screening of the 1983 film "Scarface", Faison was influenced to enter the drug trade, and later that year, established a working relationship with a local Dominican supplier, who would frequently go to the dry cleaners. By the time he turned 21, Faison would transition into becoming the cocaine wholesaler in Harlem, reportedly earning $40,000 a week or more. He would eventually expand operations until 1990, and became one of the most notable distributors during the War on Drugs era in the United States. During this, he would become re-introduced to Rich Porter, a childhood friend who lived in the neighborhood prior to serving a sentence in prison. After his release, Porter would introduce Alpo Martinez to Faison, and the trio worked to expand operations in order to rise and become the largest distributors of cocaine in the state of New York.


title: Azie Faison

text: However, Faison's downfall began in 1987. In the early morning hours of August 21, 1987, Faison was the victim of attempted murder after a robbery went awry at his aunt's house (which served as one of his stash houses) in the Morrisania section of the Bronx which left three people dead and three others seriously injured. Faison was shot a total of nine times in the robbery attempt, and caused the drug network to falter as he aimed to recover from his injuries. This caused severe strains in the relationship between Faison, Porter, and Martinez, with the latter eventually murdering Porter in 1990, and while later being arrested and convicted for a plethora of charges in 1991.


title: Azie Faison

text: After Porter's death, Faison effectively retired from drug dealing, and adopted a mission to steer youth away from the lure of drugs. In 1989, he formed a rap group called MobStyle, which then transitioned into a conscious hip-hop group. They released an album in 1991, while Faison also released a solo album. Faison also aimed to extend his outreach through television and media, eventually working on an autobiographical movie. The movie, titled "Paid in Full", was released in 2002, with Faison being portrayed by Wood Harris.


title: Azie Faison

text: Faison also collaborated with street documentarian Troy Reed, in order to produce documentary about his life called "Game Over", while also working with Agyei Tyehimba in order to write "Game Over: The Rise and Transformation of a Harlem Hustler". The documentary and book were both released in 2007, and the latter was discussed at the Harlem Book Fair later that year, on a panel which featured co-author Tyehimba, and Congressman Charles Rangel. The discussion was broadcast live by C-SPAN's Book TV.


title: Huang Jingyu

text: Huang Jingyu (; born November 30, 1992), also known as Johnny Huang, is a Chinese actor and model. He is known for his roles in "Addicted" (2016), "Operation Red Sea" (2018), "Moonshine and Valentine" (2018), and "The Thunder" (2019).


title: Huang Jingyu

text: Huang entered college in the Eastern Liaoning University to study as flight attendant. He had worked several part-time jobs, before he was introduced by his friends to work as a model.


title: Huang Jingyu

text: Huang has practiced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and participated in many competitions. He has also won championships held in Shanghai Brazilian Jiu Jitsu College.


title: Huang Jingyu

text: In 2016, Huang made his acting debut in the 2016 romantic coming-of-age web drama "Addicted", which follows love stories of four high school boys. The web drama was a success and garnered 10 million views the day after its initial release, and propelled Huang to fame. However, it was banned by SAPPRFT due to its homosexuality content. He then featured in the fantasy web drama "Demon Girl 2".


title: Huang Jingyu

text: The same year, he was cast in China's first zombie-themed black humor film "Guns and Kidneys", which marks his big-screen debut.


title: Huang Jingyu

text: In 2018, Huang starred in the patriotic action film "Operation Red Sea" directed by Dante Lam which premiered in February. The film has grossed US$579 million, making it the highest-grossing Chinese film in 2018. Huang won the Best Newcomer Award at the Asian Film Awards for his performance in "Operation Sea". The same year, Huang starred in the fantasy romance drama "Moonshine and Valentine" alongside Victoria Song.


title: Huang Jingyu

text: The series received positive reviews for its high quality production, tight plot and fresh characterizations; and Huang was also praised for his performance and use of original voice. He also featured in a spin-off of the romance drama "My Story for You". "Forbes China" listed Huang under their 30 Under 30 Asia 2017 list which consisted of 30 influential people under 30 years old who have had a substantial effect in their fields.


title: Huang Jingyu

text: In 2019, Huang starred in the comedy film "Pegasus" directed by Han Han, which premiered in February. The same year, he starred in the police drama "The Thunder", which aired in May. He ranked 28th on "Forbes" China Celebrity 100 list.


title: Huang Jingyu

text: In 2020, Huang starred in the workplace romance drama "Love Advanced Customization", portraying a boss of an e-commerce company. He is set to star in youth drama film "Wild Grass", and romance comedy film "Oversize Love." He ranked 36th on "Forbes" China Celebrity 100 list.


title: Huang Jingyu

text: In 2016, Huang became the first celebrity to be featured on the China Merchants Bank's bank card. In June, he was invited to the Dolce & Gabbana Spring/Summer 2017 fashion show during Milan Fashion Week as one of the "Millennials"; front-row guests chosen for their online presence on Instagram and Weibo.


title: Huang Jingyu

text: In 2018, he was appointed as the China's spokesperson and ambassador of the two perfume brands, Dior Fragrance and Elizabeth Arden. In August, he became the new ambassador of "Sebastian Professional" and Johnnie Walker. Later, he was honored as the first Chinese Brand Ambassador of Abercrombie & Fitch. In October, he was appointed as the global spokesperson of the two skincare brands "SNP (Shining Nature Purity)" and "Sesderma".


title: Huang Jingyu

text: In 2021, to mark its 170th year of founding, the swiss company Bally appointed Chinese actor Johnny Huang as its new global brand ambassador. Bally revealed Huang as the face of the fall 2021 ad campaign and confirmed he will also appear in the spring 2022 promotional image. Huang’s appointment marks the first time a Chinese figure has served as a global ambassador for the brand.


title: Huang Jingyu

text: In 2017, Huang attended the "15th Strait Youth Forum" and was awarded the title of "The Messenger of Youth Cultural Exchange between Fujian and Taiwan".


title: Huang Jingyu

text: The same year, he was invited to the forum "Deciphering New Opportunities in Chinese Film" sponsored by Shanghai International Film Festival and NetEase Entertainment, and accepted the letter of appointment to become NetEase "Star Editor".


title: Super Sonico

text: Super Sonico is a fictional character created by Tsuji Santa of Nitroplus. Her debut appearance was on October 14, 2006 as the mascot for Nitroplus' annual live music festival event "Nitro Super Sonico", which took place at Shiba Park in Minato-KU. Nitroplus was initially focused on computer games based on visual novels, but every year since 2000 they have also held a music festival.


title: Super Sonico

text: Sonico appears in the various media as an eighteen-year-old college student. She is depicted as an attractive young adult woman with light peach skin, large red eyes, and straight light pink hair. She keeps her hair long in back and in the front it covers her forehead, around her eyes, down to the bridge of her nose. She is always shown wearing her signature headphones on her head. Her depictions show much variation in her facial features and body proportions between the different artists, while always keeping her trademark traits; headphones, pink hair color and large bust. She also appears as a popular gravure idol as well as the vocalist and guitarist of the fictional band . Sonico also studies marine biology at Musasaka University and lives in Mushashino-shi, Tokyo. She is prone to sleep in a lot, often requiring help to wake up, and her favorite foods are macarons, and her bandmates refer to her as "Nico".


title: Super Sonico

text: Sonico plays a heritage cherry red Gibson SG electric guitar with a batwing pickguard and black pickup covers named "Daydream." An older piece of official art incorrectly shows the guitar with a Gretsch logo on the headstock.