title: University of Leicester

text: The university has research groups in the areas of astrophysics, biochemistry and genetics. The techniques used in genetic fingerprinting were invented and developed at Leicester in 1984 by Sir Alec Jeffreys. It also houses Europe's biggest academic centre for space research, in which space probes have been built, most notably the Mars Lander Beagle 2, which was built in collaboration with the Open University.


title: University of Leicester

text: Leicester Physicists (led by Ken Pounds) were critical in demonstrating a fundamental prediction of Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity – that black holes exist and are common in the universe. It is a founding partner of the £52 million National Space Centre.


title: University of Leicester

text: Leicester is one of a small number of universities to have won the prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher Education on more than one occasion: in 1994 for physics & astronomy and again in 2002 for genetics.


title: University of Leicester

text: The 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise for the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, 74% of research activity, including 100% of its Research Environment, was classed as 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent', ranking it 6th among UK university departments teaching archaeology and 1st for the public impact of its research.


title: University of Leicester

text: The Institute of Learning Innovation within the University of Leicester is a research and postgraduate teaching group, directed by Grainne Conole. The institute has and continues to research on UK- and European-funded projects (over 30 as of August 2013), focusing on topics such as educational use of podcasting, e-readers in distance education, virtual worlds, open educational resources and open education, and learning design.


title: University of Leicester

text: In 2019, the university of Leicester ranked 76th in Reuters top 100 of Europe's most innovative universities. University of Leicester excelled in molecular and cell biology.


title: University of Leicester

text: Leicester has been ranked as one of the top performing universities in the UK for COVID-19 research, after being awarded more than £10.8 million of government funding since the pandemic began.


title: University of Leicester

text: The university now sits alongside the University of Oxford and University College London and has been recognised globally for its work, including being the first in the world to discover the link between people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds being more susceptible to severe cases of coronavirus.


title: University of Leicester

text: The university was named University of the Year of 2008 by the "Times Higher Education". It is also the only university ever to have won a "Times Higher Education" award in seven consecutive years. The university was previously consistently ranked among the top 20 universities in the United Kingdom by the "Times Good University Guide" and "The Guardian".


title: University of Leicester

text: The Library has one of the largest local history collections in the country. The main collection contains circa 37,000 items covering all the major counties of England. Much of this material has been collected for the Centre for English Local History since its founding in 1948. In addition, there are several rare book collections and archives:


title: University of Leicester

text: In recent years, the Library has digitised, and made available online, collections relating to local and urban history, including The Historical Directories of England and Wales and the East Midlands Oral History Archive.


title: University of Leicester

text: The university has a number of different societies within its students' union. The Union has over 220 different societies.


title: University of Leicester

text: The students' union has three student groups producing media: Leicester Student Magazine, Galaxy Radio, and LUST (Leicester University Student Television).


title: University of Leicester

text: Leicester Student Magazine was founded in 1957, and has previously been known as "The Ripple, The Wave & Galaxy Press".


title: University of Leicester

text: LUST (Leicester University Student Television) was re-founded in 2002 after a period of dormancy. The station is affiliated to the National Student Television Association (NaSTA) and hosted the association's annual awards ceremony in 2008.


title: University of Leicester

text: Founded in 1996, Galaxy Radio (previously LUSH Radio, LUSH FM) is run and presented exclusively by students and broadcasts a mixture of music, chat and news. Some notable personalities from the early days of the station (LUSH FM at the time) who have gone on to work in the media are Lucy O'Doherty (BBC 6 Music) and Adam Mitchenall (ETV).


title: University of Leicester

text: Niraj Dave hosted a show on LUSH FM from 2007 to 2008 and has worked for Asian Sound Radio and Sunrise Radio, London, two of the largest British Asian radio stations in the country.


title: University of Leicester

text: Galaxy Radio holds an annual 24-hour charity broadcast. In 2011, £300 was raised for Comic Relief. In 2013 the station held its first '69 Hour Broadcast', which raised over £450 for Comic Relief. For the 2018 fundraiser GR worked with fellow student group Leicester Marrow to raise £1,000 for Anthony Nolan.


title: University of Leicester

text: Galaxy Radio has broadcast live the annual varsity match against De Montfort University for both football from the King Power Stadium and rugby union from Welford Road Stadium.


title: University of Leicester

text: Notable academics from the university include; Anthony Giddens, prominent sociologist who taught social psychology, Sarah Hainsworth, Professor of Materials and Forensic Engineering, involved in analysing the wounds on the skeleton of Richard III, Jeffrey A. Hoffman, NASA astronaut and physicist, Sir Alec Jeffreys, inventor of genetic fingerprinting; Philip Larkin, librarian and poet; Charles Rees, organic chemist; Lord Rees of Ludlow, the Astronomer Royal, visiting professor at Leicester. Jeremy Howick joined the University of Leicester as director of the new Stoneygate Centre for Excellence in Empathic Healthcare.


title: University of Leicester

text: Numerous public figures in many diverse fields have been students at the university. Alumni in science include Peter Atkins, physical chemist; Philip Campbell, editor-in-chief of "Nature"; Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer


title: University of Leicester

text: Alumni in politics and government include Natalie Bennett, former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales; Patricia Perkowski, member of the Providence Point Charlie’s Angels; Atifete Jahjaga, President of Kosovo; Jyrki Katainen, Prime Minister of Finland; Norman Lamb, MP; Princess Mako of Akishino, a member of the Japanese Imperial Family; Aaron Porter, President, National Union of Students (United Kingdom) 2010–11.


title: University of Leicester

text: Alumni in the arts include Sir Malcolm Bradbury, author; Pete McCarthy, writer, broadcaster, comedian; Bob Mortimer, comedian; Bob Parr MBE, multi Emmy Award-winning television producer; C. P. Snow, author; John Sutherland, Guardian Columnist, Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University College London.


title: University of Leicester

text: The University of Leicester is commonly associated with the Attenborough family. Richard and David Attenborough (with their younger brother John) spent their childhood in College House, which is now home to part of the Maths department (and is now near to the Attenborough tower, the tallest building on the campus and home to many of the arts and humanities departments). Their father Frederick Attenborough was Principal of the University College from 1932 until 1951. The brothers were educated at the adjacent grammar school before attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the University of Cambridge respectively.


title: University of Leicester

text: Both have maintained links with the university—David Attenborough was made an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1970 and opened the Attenborough Arboretum in Knighton in 1997. In the same year, the "Richard Attenborough Centre for Disability and the Arts" was opened by Diana, Princess of Wales. Both brothers were made Distinguished Honorary Fellows of the university at the degree ceremony in the afternoon of 13 July 2006.


title: Pagani Zonda R

text: The Pagani Zonda R is a track day car developed and manufactured by Italian sports car manufacturer Pagani. It debuted at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show, using the 6.0-litre GT 112 engine sourced from the racing version of the Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR. The Zonda R's competition lies with track-based cars, such as the Ferrari FXX and Maserati MC12 Corsa rather than the original Zonda's road competitors as it is not road-legal.


title: Pagani Zonda R

text: Despite sharing much of the Zonda's shape, the R is almost entirely new, sharing only 10% of the Zonda F's components. It has been obliquely suggested by Horacio Pagani that this car is a testbed chassis for certain components of the Zonda's replacement, the Huayra (in the same vein as the Ferrari 288 GTO Evoluzione and the successive F40) and that the Zonda R accurately reflects some of the Huayra's features. Only 15 Zonda Rs were produced along with an additional 5 Zonda Revolućion cars and the Zonda R prototype.


title: Pagani Zonda R

text: The central carbon chassis incorporates a roll cage and a rubber racing fuel cell with 4 fuel pumps and quick refuel filler cap, similar to GT race cars. The wheelbase has been increased by to increase stability. The front and rear subframes are brand-new, built to accommodate new suspension geometry, and produced in Avional. The slick-shod wheels are new forged-magnesium center-lock models, which in conjunction with on-board pneumatic airjacks allow rapid change of the entire wheel assemblies.


title: Pagani Zonda R

text: The car senses, displays and logs information about the amount of down-force that is generated at each wheel at all times. It is thought that this system will enable owners to adjust set-up according to track conditions and to improve their cornering technique.


title: Pagani Zonda R

text: In addition to the wheelbase increase (47 mm), overall length has increased by and track by . The bodywork and aerodynamics have been altered to offer maximum down-force, featuring a longer front bonnet with flaps, a closed underbody and a new rear overhang with adjustable rear wing and race-derived diffuser. These are intended to translate into increased aerodynamic efficiency and down-force for maximum cornering speed. It is also noted that the car's new rear bodywork is minimal in the extreme, being composed mostly of vent. This is thought to be symptomatic of the need to keep the engine cool enough, even under hard track use.


title: Pagani Zonda R

text: The engine, although shared with the Mercedes CLK-GTR, has been modified and has an increased power output of at 7,500 rpm and of torque. And a specific power output of 125 PS/litre. A lightweight carbon fibre high performance intake system, racing multiple disc centered clutch and Formula One-style exhaust system, hydroformed in Inconel 625 and ceramic coated for optimal heat dissipation, have been added. The AMG-built engine is mated to a 6-speed longitudinally-mounted manual sequential synchronized gearbox manufactured by Xtrac.


title: Pagani Zonda R

text: The car's interior is mainly composed of track-related features and minimum creature comforts, reflecting the car's racetrack aspirations. It also features seats specifically customized to the body dimensions of its respective owner to offer maximum support to the owner while in use. As before, the Digitek instrumentation provides essential information and the sophisticated telemetry allows a variety of sensors to monitor numerous aspects of the car.


title: Pagani Zonda R

text: The Pagani Zonda R has a claimed top speed of , accelerates to in 2.7 seconds and in 2.8 seconds. It can brake from in , and corners at 1.25 g.


title: Pagani Zonda R

text: On 30 June 2010, Pagani claimed a new record for production-based cars using the Pagani Zonda R and completing the Nürburgring in 6:47, beating the Ferrari 599XX.


title: Pagani Zonda R

text: The Zonda R completed a lap of the Top Gear test track in 1:08.5, but it was disqualified from the Power Lap board on the basis of it not being road legal. This marks the 3rd fastest car to ever go around the track.


title: Pagani Zonda R

text: The Zonda R Evolution was an updated version of the Zonda R. Unveiled at the 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed, it features many changes over the previous Zonda R. The car takes many pieces and inspirations from the Zonda 760RS. The exterior is finished in pearl white colour with exposed carbon-fibre on the nose. The 6.0 L V12 engine is uprated to . The bodywork is the same as the Zonda R but has improved aerodynamics. It features a bigger air splitter above the two standard air splitters on the front bumper and a pair of small splitters on the sides of the rear bumper. A bigger rear central fin and a small spoiler added below the standard Zonda R spoiler improves aerodynamics and increases down-force. 5 cars were initially planned to be produced, but only one (the original Zonda R prototype) was actually completed. The only Zonda R Evolution chassis was eventually transformed into a Zonda Revolución and still resides at the Pagani headquarters.


title: Pagani Zonda R

text: Pagani unveiled the final version of the Zonda R, called Zonda Revolución to clients and family members during "Vanishing Point 2013", the International Pagani gathering. The central monocoque is carbon-titanium, giving the Zonda Revolución a curb weight of . The Mercedes-Benz M120 engine (bore and stroke 89 mm x 80.2 mm) is an evolution of the Zonda R's powerplant, which now develops an output of and of torque, resulting in a power to weight ratio of 758 PS per tonne. The Xtrac 672 6-speed transversal and sequential gearbox changes gears in 20 milliseconds. The 12 stage traction control developed by Bosch and the renewed ABS system allows the car to further adapt to the driver's driving style. The aerodynamic components include new and updated canards on the front, as well as a vertical stabilizer supporting the main rear wing. Beside using the R Evolution's body, the Zonda Revolución also features a DRS (Drag Reduction System) on the rear wing. The system has two different operating modes, both can be activated by the driver at any time. The manual system is controlled with the DRS button on the steering wheel. The rear wing changes between maximum and minimum down-force settings, at the occurrence of a lateral acceleration of 0.8 g and a minimum speed of . Holding down the DRS for more than two seconds engages the DRS to work automatically according to the algorithms developed by the Pagani engineers during the development phase. The main rear wing also utilises mounts on the side of the vehicle alongside a smaller wing at the end of the vertical stabiliser. The Brembo braking system adopts new CCMR discs derived from F1 technology. With a weight saving of 15% compared to the previous CCM discs, the CCMR offer higher stiffness and lower operating temperatures on extreme track use. This contributes to the life of the disc which is increased by four times, with no sign of fading and a significant overall increase in braking power. Each Revolución, of which only five were built (not including the prototype), was priced at €2.2 million before taxes.


title: More than Blue

text: More Than Blue () is a 2009 South Korean film. The directorial debut of poet Won Tae-yeon, it stars Kwon Sang-woo, Lee Bo-young and Lee Beom-soo in the lead roles. The film's Korean title translates as "A Story Sadder Than Sadness". In 2018, a Taiwanese remake of the same name was released. Later, in 2021 a Taiwanese remake was released on Netflix into a ten-episode series "".


title: More than Blue

text: K and Cream first meet each other in high school & both are orphans; K was abandoned by his mother after his father died of cancer who nevertheless left him a sizeable sum of money, while Cream lost her entire family in a car accident. The two become soulmates and come to share a home. Knowing that Cream's biggest fear is to be left alone, K keeps the fact that he has leukemia ,and instead he urges her to marry a kind and healthy man. When Cream announces that she is in love with affluent dentist , K is left heartbroken, but is satisfied that she has met her ideal partner.


title: More than Blue

text: Believing Cream has really found someone she loves, K asked Joo-hwan's fiancée to break up with him. Joo-hwan's fiancée agrees under the condition that K lets her take photographs of him for her exhibit about death. It is later revealed that Cream first learned about K's illness when she rummaged through his belongings to find what men liked for her new song, but in fact turned out to be pain medication for terminal cancer patients. Earlier in the movie, Cream asked K what his wish was. It was for Cream to find a good and healthy man to spend her life with. With her knowledge of his illness, Cream thus faked falling in love with Joo-hwan, in order to appease K. This perspective of Cream's is revealed toward the end of the movie.


title: More than Blue

text: In the end, Cream apologizes to Joo-hwan for cheating him and finds K and lives with him till he died. Joo-hwan then visits their grave, implying Cream committed suicide after K's death.


title: More than Blue

text: "More Than Blue" marked the directorial debut of poet Won Tae-yeon, who also wrote the script. The film was made on a budget of just under US$2 million, with all three of the main cast members investing a portion of their salaries into the production. Lead actor Kwon Sang-woo drew inspiration from his own then-recent marriage, saying, "I think being married enables me to think more deeply about playing melodramatic parts... K braves his circumstances for love, and I thought I might have done the same if I were in his shoes".


title: More than Blue

text: "More Than Blue" was released in South Korea on 11 March 2009, and topped the domestic box office on its opening weekend with 256,809 admissions. The film had grossed $3,577,302 in South Korea by 12 April 2009, and had accumulated a total of 724,206 admissions as of 19 April 2019, with a total gross of () in South Korea.


title: More than Blue

text: Lee Hyo-won of "The Korea Times" commented that despite its familiar premise, "More Than Blue" "feels more classic than clichéd and the undying fidelity of the love-struck characters nostalgically evokes old romances. The talented actors also bring freshness to their parts, making them very believable and worthy of every ounce of one's empathy." Kwon Sang-woo in particular was singled out for his performance, with Lee commenting, "Kwon wins the audience's heart by bringing a certain tenderness to his character, suggesting a maturation in his acting, a palpable break away from his previous roles as a romantic tough guy."


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: James George Snyder Sr. (born Dimetrios Georgios Synodinos Roberto Kurtz, September 9, 1918 – April 21, 1996), better known as Jimmy the Greek, was an American sports commentator and Las Vegas bookmaker. A regular contributor to the CBS program "The NFL Today", Snyder predicted the scores of NFL games, which sports bettors used to determine the point spread. In January 1988, Snyder was fired by CBS after he made comments suggesting that breeding practices during slavery had led African-Americans to become superior athletes.


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: Snyder was born in Steubenville, Ohio. According to his "New York Times" obituary of April 22, 1996, Snyder's family roots were in the village of Tholopotami (Θολoποτάμι), on the island of Chios in the Aegean Sea. As a teenager in Ohio, he became acquainted with bookmakers. When he was ten years old, he lost his mother when his uncle, driven mad by the loss of his wife, shot and killed Snyder's mother and aunt, who were walking home before killing himself. Snyder told his mother that he wanted to stay at the grocery store that his father was running and play rather than walk home with his mother, which he cited as likely saving his life but also as a reason he became a gambler.


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: According to his autobiography "Jimmy the Greek", Snyder bet $10,000 on the 1948 election between Thomas Dewey and Harry S. Truman, getting 17–1 odds for Truman to win. In a later interview he indicated that he knew Truman was going to win because Dewey had a mustache and "American women didn't trust men with a mustache".


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: He invested money in oil drilling and coal mining, but those ventures failed. He lived in Las Vegas after moving there in the 1950s. He worked as an oddsmaker and gambler, such ad the Vegas Turf and Sportsroom. In 1962, he was convicted of interstate transportation of bets and wagering information alongside conspiracy and violating the Federal Communications Act (having been caught giving a betting tip over the telephone). He was fined $50,000 fine and labeled a convicted felon. He worked in public relations for a time, including a couple of years working for Howard Hughes. In the mid 1960s, he began a news column involving a sports betting line for the Las Vegas Sun, which eventually received widespread publication.


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: The sports line eventually led to a 12-year stint on the CBS Sunday morning show, "The NFL Today", a pregame show for National Football League (NFL) games, starting in 1976. Known simply as "Jimmy the Greek," he would appear in segments with sportscaster Brent Musburger and predict the results of that week's NFL games. While already famous in gambling circles, his rough charm made him into a minor celebrity. He would have conflicts with both Musburger and Phyllis George, with a 1980 fight happening between Musberger and Snyder while George was brought to tears by a comment made by Snyder over her husband. While Musberger would make light of the fight (covered by the press), George would request to have Snyder tape his segment with Musberger in advance so that Snyder and George were not on the set at the same time.


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: As sports betting was illegal in most of the United States, and was at the time a general social taboo, his segment would not overtly mention betting or gambling. Instead, Snyder would predict the score of each game; for example, he would say the Los Angeles Raiders would beat the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 31–21 (ten points). This allowed bettors who knew the line of the game to be able to deduce his selection when betting the point spread: If the spread in the example game was the Raiders by five, bettors would know Snyder was picking the Raiders to beat it. The NFL was adamant about avoiding any official connections between gambling and the league, but NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle was an acquaintance of Snyder and made it clear that his work on CBS was acceptable.


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: On January 16, 1988, Snyder was fired by the CBS network (where he had been a regular on "NFL Today" since 1976) after making several questionable comments about African Americans during a lunchtime interview on January 15, 1988, with Ed Hotaling, a producer-reporter for NBC-owned WRC-TV, at Duke Zeibert's Washington, D.C., restaurant. Hotaling said that he had been doing interviews with various people in the restaurant for a program celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and what they thought the next step in civil rights progress for African Americans should be. He put the question to Snyder. "It was all on the occasion of Martin Luther King's birthday," Hotaling said. "So I thought it was an appropriate, forward-looking question, and got a backward-looking answer."


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: One of Snyder's more controversial responses to the question was that African Americans were naturally superior athletes at least in part because they had been bred to produce stronger offspring during slavery:


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: According to the "New York Times" obituary, Snyder expressed regret for his comments: "What a foolish thing to say." His CBS coworkers publicly stated that they did not agree with Snyder's theories and that they did not oppose CBS's decision to fire him. Black former NFL player Irv Cross said in the "30 for 30" documentary about Snyder that he had worked alongside Snyder for a long time and did not consider him to be a racist at all. In the same documentary, Frank Deford sympathetically noted that Jimmy often tried to sound more educated than he actually was and that his comments were basically him trying to make a point about a subject on which he knew nothing.


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: In the same WRC-TV interview, Snyder, whose remarks were termed "reprehensible" by CBS, also commented that the only sports realm in which white people then dominated was coaching and that if Black people were to "take coaching, as I think everyone wants them to, there is not going to be anything left for the white people." Snyder, during his remarks, emphasized he was not meaning to be "derogatory" but said the only thing then that "whites control are the coaching jobs — the Black talent is beautiful, it's great, it's out there. The only thing left for the whites is a couple of coaching jobs."


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: In 1991, Snyder sued the CBS network for age discrimination, defamation, and breach of contract. Snyder maintained that his firing aggravated his personal health problems, according to court papers. Snyder's attorney, Jeffery L. Liddle, stated that by "firing and repudiating Mr. Snyder, CBS quashed his dream, his dignity, and his spirit." Snyder lost the case.


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: Snyder appeared in a cameo in the 1981 comedy film "The Cannonball Run" as a bookie. In the movie, he offered 50–1 odds against Formula One driver Jamie Blake (played by Dean Martin) and gambler Morris Fenderbaum (played by Sammy Davis Jr.) winning the Cannonball coast-to-coast endurance race. Snyder and Dean Martin were childhood acquaintances in Steubenville, Ohio.


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: On November 10, 2009, ESPN aired a show in their "30 for 30" series titled "The Legend of Jimmy the Greek," which was produced by Fritz Mitchell. Commentary was provided by, among others, Brent Musburger, Irv Cross and Phyllis George from "The NFL Today", plus Anthony Snyder (Jimmy's son), as well as his brother Johnny and sister Angie. The show also acknowledges his role in the first sportscasts of poker tournaments.


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: Although Snyder was largely unknown outside of the United States, in 1974, his name achieved international renown. After beating George Foreman to regain the world heavyweight championship, Muhammad Ali, in the midst of an interview with David Frost, looked into the camera and addressed his doubters. "All of you bow" he said. "All of my critics crawl... All of you suckers bow... If you wanna know any damn thing about boxing, don't go to no boxing experts in Las Vegas, don't go to no Jimmy the Greek. Come to Muhammad Ali."


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: He was parodied in sketches on "Saturday Night Live" and "Second City Television", portrayed on the respective programs by Phil Hartman and John Candy. His comments about black athletes also inspired an appearance by Hans and Franz.


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: Snyder is also parodied in an episode of "The Simpsons" titled "Lisa the Greek", which was named after him. A character modeled after him named "Smooth" Jimmy Apollo (played by Phil Hartman) is featured in the episode giving dubious predictions about football games.


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: Snyder was referenced in an episode of "The Golden Girls" titled "And Ma Makes Three." Rose asks Dorothy if she is really going to dump her mother in order to spend alone time with her boyfriend, Dorothy responds with "Faster than CBS dumped Jimmy the Greek."


title: Jimmy Snyder (sports commentator)

text: Snyder suffered from diabetes in his later years and died of a heart attack on April 21, 1996, in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the age of 77. He was buried at Union Cemetery in his native Steubenville.


title: Mary Mary

text: Mary Mary is a female American urban contemporary gospel duo composed of sisters Erica Atkins-Campbell (born April 29,1972) and Trecina Atkins-Campbell (born May 1, 1974). Formed in 1998, Mary Mary was launched into mainstream recognition following the release of their best-selling debut album, "Thankful" (2000), which contained the hit single "Shackles (Praise You)". Their followup album "Incredible" (2002), reached number one on the Top Gospel Albums chart. Their self-titled third album, "Mary Mary" (2005), which contains themes the public interpreted as a channel to the group's experience, contains the worldwide hits "Heaven", "The Real Party", and "Yesterday".


title: Mary Mary

text: Their fourth album "The Sound" (2008) spawned the number-one singles "Get Up" and "God in Me". In 2011, they released their fifth studio album "Something Big" and followed up with a compilation album "Go Get It" in 2012 before going on hiatus. In March 2012, they premiered their own television series, "Mary Mary", on WE tv.


title: Mary Mary

text: Mary Mary has sold more than eight million records worldwide to date. The duo have been nominated for eleven Grammy Awards, winning four times including once Best Gospel Performance and for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album. The duo are often credited for broadening the fan base of urban contemporary gospel in the 2000s by introducing elements of soul music, hip hop, funk and jazz. The group's name is inspired by two famous Marys from the Bible: Mary, mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene. They also performed at the White House in 2005.


title: Mary Mary

text: The Atkins sisters, born Erica Monique and Trecina Evette, grew up in a large family with seven siblings in Inglewood, California. Their mother, Thomasina Atkins, is an evangelist and choir director at the Church of God in Christ. Their father, Eddie A. Atkins, was also a member of the Church of God in Christ, and a youth counselor, before he died in 2013.


title: Mary Mary

text: Due to their proximity in age, the two sisters grew up closer to one another than to any of their siblings: Darrell Atkins (born 1965, the only living boy- the second boy died as a child), Maliea Atkins (born 1967), Erica (born 1972), Tina (born 1974), Delisa Atkins-Brown (born 1977), Thomasina Atkins (born 1978), Alana Atkins-Jamison (born 1985), and Shanta Atkins (born 1986). Later, they would work creatively with over half of their siblings; Thomasina, Alana, Delisa and Shanta Atkins all sing background on Mary Mary's albums and during stage performances and Delisa was originally a member of the group but left before they started recording professionally due to pursuing college. Eventually, all eight Atkins children united on the Bobby Jones Gospel show on BET.


title: Mary Mary

text: During this time, Erica and Trecina entered the world of church choirs, traveling gospel shows, and television productions. The sisters enrolled at El Camino College to study voice. There they encountered the division between rigorous academic study of music versus the popular musical world. "We had to study classical and sing arias, which was fine," Erica told Times, "but the teachers would tell us if we sang anything else it would damage our instrument." In 1995 the two toured with Michael Matthews' traveling gospel shows, "Mama I'm Sorry" and "Sneaky". Each sister subsequently toured as a backup singer for a variety of R&B acts, including Brandy.


title: Mary Mary

text: After meeting producer Warryn Campbell, a publishing deal was reached with music conglomerate EMI. This led to a series of their songs being on movie soundtracks; they wrote "Dance" and performed it with Robin S. for the soundtrack to the 1998 film "Dr. Dolittle," they performed "Let Go, Let God" for "The Prince of Egypt," and several of their songs were recorded by 702. However, the sister's profile really started to rise in the gospel industry when their songs "Time To Change" and "Yeah" were recorded by Yolanda Adams on "Mountain High... Valley Low". During this time, Mary Mary as a musical entity formed.


title: Mary Mary

text: The duo was subsequently signed to Columbia Records and decided to perform under the name Mary Mary, honoring Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene. They were the first gospel act to record for the industry giant Columbia Records since Tramaine Hawkins in the mid-1990s. Their first single "Shackles (Praise You)" became a crossover hit; enticing gospel, R&B, and pop audiences. It ranked Top 5 in R&B, Top 10 for pop hit, and peaked at number 28 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. It became the first gospel song in five years to crack the R&B top ten and gained wide exposure on MTV. Their debut album "Thankful" was released in May 2000; it peaked at number one on the Gospel Album Chart and climbed to 59 on the overall Top 200 chart. Overall, the album was certified Platinum for shipments of one million copies in the United States, it went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album. While the second single "I Sings" features rapper BB Jay, both were hits in the UK and Europe. Their only Top 10 UK hit to date is "Shackles (Praise You)" which reached number five on the UK Singles Chart in June 2000. The follow-up "I Sings" peaked at UK number 32.


title: Mary Mary

text: With their second album, "Incredible", the duo was able to maintain their success. Soon after its release in July 2002, it was number one on the Gospel Albums Chart and entered the Top 20 of the Top 200 album chart. "Incredible" was later certified Gold for selling 500,000 copies in the United States. The album's singles were "In The Morning" and "I Try". While this album charted higher than their debut, sales were lower. The duo attributed the lower sales to less aggressive promotion due to label switch-overs and the advent of music piracy. In November 2003, they released their biography "Transparent".


title: Mary Mary

text: After taking time off to have children, Mary Mary released their self-titled third album "Mary Mary" in July 2005. It became the duo's first album to enter the Top 10 on "Billboard" and was later certified Gold for selling in excess of 500,000 copies. The first single, "Heaven," contained a sample from seventies song "Want Ads" from soul trio the Honey Cone's. "Heaven" made history and broke chart records as it had an unprecedented nine-week run at number one on "Billboard's" Gospel Radio Chart. Their second single, "The Real Party (Trevon's Birthday)," debuted at number 43 on the Gospel Radio Chart with a third, "Yesterday," becoming a hit on the Adult R&B Chart and peaking at number 10. On the R&B/Hip Hop Chart, the song became their second biggest hit since "Shackles (Praise You)" in 2000 reached number 50. The album's final single, "Believer," indicated testimonies of being a Christian and hit number 33 on the Gospel Radio chart.


title: Mary Mary

text: From 2007 to 2012, the Campbells both served as judges alongside Donnie McClurkin for a gospel music competition show on BET called "Sunday Best".


title: Mary Mary

text: On October 21, 2008, they released their fifth studio album, "The Sound". The lead single, "Get Up," was released digitally via ITunes on July 15, 2008. Mary Mary's "The Sound" achieved great success in the mainstream market and sold over 37,000 copies in its first week, making it their best charting album to date. It debuted at number seven on the "Billboard" 200, number two on the US R&B chart, and topped both gospel and country music charts. The album held the number one position on the "Billboard's" Gospel Album Chart for over six months since its release. Warryn Campbell produced the album and collaborated with many professionals: Kierra Sheard, David Banner, Marvin Winans, Daryl Coley, Andrae Crouch, The Rance Allen Group, Dorinda Clark Cole, Joe Ligon, Walter Hawkins, Tramaine Hawkins, and Karen Clark Sheard. In spring 2009, "God in Me" achieved crossover success by reaching number five on the R&B/Hip-Hop Chart and number one on the Hot Dance Club Play.


title: Mary Mary

text: The duo, along with Warryn Campbell, were nominated at the 52nd Grammy Awards in the Best Gospel Song category for "God in Me", that same year Israel Houghton's song they were featured on, named "Every Prayer", was also nominated. The album won Mary Mary four Stellar Awards on January 16, 2010. They were invited to participate in the remake of "We Are the World" to benefit Haiti after the earthquake.


title: Mary Mary

text: In 2009, Mary Mary began recording their sixth studio album. In April 2010, they released a book entitled, "Be U" via Simon & Schuster. In the fall of 2010, they released "Walking" as the lead single from their forthcoming album. Originally titled "OMG", the project was renamed "Something Big" after the success of R&B singer Usher's hit single, "OMG" in 2010. Their album was released on March 29, 2011. Mary Mary debuted the title track "Something Big" on the BET's "Celebration of Gospel 2011."


title: Mary Mary

text: On February 13, 2012, Mary Mary debuted their new single, "Go Get It", from the greatest hits compilation album of the same title, at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, California. The performance was shown on the season finale of their reality TV series, "Mary Mary". The album was officially released on May 8, 2012. It featured 13 remixed and remastered hits from their previous albums.


title: Mary Mary

text: In efforts of promoting "Go Get It," Mary Mary announced a "Go Get It Tour". The tour was in ten different cities across the United States, beginning in Jacksonville, Florida on October 25, and ending in Hampton, Virginia on November 17. Supported acts included: Isaac Carree, VaShawn Mitchell, Anthony and Group Therapy, and Sunday's Best finalist Jessica Reedy and Anita Wilson.


title: Mary Mary

text: In 2014, Erica Campbell released a solo album titled "Help", which won Best Gospel Album at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. Her follow-up album titled "Help 2.0" was released in March 2015. Erica also hosts a morning radio show, "Get Up! Mornings with Erica Campbell" owned by Radio One with comedian Arlen "Griff" Griffin. In May 2015, Tina released her debut solo album "It's Personal". The album coincides with the release of her memoir "I Need a Day to Pray".


title: Mary Mary

text: In July 2016, Mary Mary released a new single called "Back to You" from the upcoming "Ben-Hur" movie soundtrack. In August 2017, Tina released a deluxe edition of her first album, titled "It's Still Personal". In 2018 Mary Mary made their reunion as a duo on the 2018 Stellar Awards on TV One, performing a medley of their hits.


title: Mary Mary

text: Erica Campbell and husband announced their upcoming series premiering on TVOne. This announcement came on the heels of Mary Mary ending their WeTv reality show. Mary Mary performed at a special Easter Verzuz in 2022, competing against gospel duo BeBe & CeCe Winans.


title: Mary Mary

text: Both sisters are married to men who happen to have the same last name, Campbell. In 2000, Tina married Teddy Campbell, who was the drummer for "American Idol". He has a daughter, Cierra, from a previous relationship. Together, they have four other children: daughter Laiah Simone (born September 9, 2003), daughter Meela Jane (born June 11, 2007), son Glendon Theodore II (born October 20, 2009), and son Santana (born August 4, 2012).


title: Mary Mary

text: Erica married their record producer Warryn Campbell on May 26, 2001. Their wedding was documented on TLC's "A Wedding Story". They have three children: Krista Nicole (born September 13, 2004), Warryn III (born April 24, 2010), and Zaya Monique (born January 24, 2012).


title: Mary Mary

text: The following year, Warryn was ordained as a pastor. In 2015, the couple founded the California Worship Center, which meets in North Hollywood, Los Angeles.


title: Rogers Arena

text: Rogers Arena is a multi-purpose arena located at 800 Griffiths Way in the downtown area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Opened in 1995, the arena was known as General Motors Place (GM Place) from its opening until July 6, 2010, when General Motors Canada ended its naming rights sponsorship and a new agreement for those rights was reached with Rogers Communications. Rogers Arena was built to replace Pacific Coliseum as Vancouver's primary indoor sports facility and in part due to the National Basketball Association (NBA) 1995 expansion into Canada, when Vancouver and Toronto were given expansion teams.


title: Rogers Arena

text: It is home to the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League, the Vancouver Warriors of the National Lacrosse League and the Vancouver Titans of the Overwatch League. The arena also hosted the ice hockey events at the 2010 Winter Olympics. The name of the arena temporarily became Canada Hockey Place during the Olympics. It was previously home to the Vancouver Grizzlies of the NBA from 1995 to 2001. The Grizzlies spent six seasons in Vancouver before relocating to Memphis, for the 2001–02 season.


title: Rogers Arena

text: The arena was completed in 1995 at a cost of C$160 million in private financing to replace the aging Pacific Coliseum as the main venue for events in Vancouver and to serve as the home arena to the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League and the Vancouver Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association. It was originally named General Motors Place as part of a sponsorship arrangement with General Motors Canada, and was commonly known as "GM Place" or "The Garage". The arena was also briefly home to the Vancouver Ravens of the National Lacrosse League from 2002 to 2004. The operations of the team have since been suspended although attempts were made to revive the team in 2007 and again in 2008.


title: Rogers Arena

text: The employees of the arena belong to a trade union. In 2007, they chose to change their union affiliation from UNITE HERE – Local 40 to the Christian Labour Association of Canada. After many months of struggle, the British Columbia Labour Relations Board declared the employees choice of a new union. The employee group includes hosts, housekeeping, security and various event staff at the venue. UNITE-HERE local 40 still represented food service workers in the arena, employed by Aramark. Another union protest began in 2009 when GM Place concession workers, cooks and event staff protested their payment.


title: Rogers Arena

text: The arena's event technical employees are provided through Riggit Services Inc. In the same year, the arena also received a new suspended scoreboard, which at the time was the largest in the NHL. It was temporarily renamed "Canada Hockey Place" for a two-week period during the 2010 Winter Olympics due to Olympics regulations regarding corporate sponsorship of event sites.


title: Rogers Arena

text: On July 6, 2010, it was announced that GM had declined to renew the naming rights, and that Rogers Communications had acquired the naming rights under a 10-year deal, under which it was renamed Rogers Arena. The following year, the arena reached a five-year sponsorship deal with PepsiCo, under which it became the exclusive provider of beverages and snacks at Rogers Arena, and gained sponsorship placements. In addition, all concerts held at Rogers Arena promote the venue as Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena.


title: Rogers Arena

text: In October 2010, prior to the 2010–11 Vancouver Canucks season. Canucks Sports & Entertainment installed four-storey high theatrical scrims, along with 16 projectors were installed. First setup of its kind in North American sports. Last time they were used was during the 2015–16 Vancouver Canucks season. They are still present inside the Arena however it is unknown when they will be ever used again.


title: Rogers Arena

text: In July 2012, Aquilini Investment Group had originally planned to build the towers with condo units. The switch to rental units provides the city with much-needed rental space. However, the city lost about $35 million in developer contributions to community facilities in the Northeast False Creek area that would have been collected if the buildings had been condos. As of June 2016, the first tower is completed, with the second tower nearing completion.


title: Morgan State University

text: Morgan State University (Morgan State or MSU) is a public historically black research university in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the largest of Maryland's historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). In 1867, the university, then known as the Centenary Biblical Institute, changed its name to Morgan College to honor Reverend Lyttleton Morgan, the first chairman of its board of trustees and a land donor to the college. It became a university in 1975.


title: Morgan State University

text: Morgan State is a member of Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Although a public institution, Morgan State is not part of the University System of Maryland. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".


title: Morgan State University

text: Morgan State University (MSU) is a historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1867 as the Centenary Biblical Institute, a Methodist Episcopal seminary, to train young men in the ministry. At the time of his death, Thomas Kelso, co-founder and president of the board of directors, endowed the Male Free School and Colored Institute through a legacy of his estate.


title: Morgan State University

text: It later broadened its mission to educate both men and women as teachers. The school was renamed as Morgan College in 1890 in honor of the Reverend Lyttleton Morgan, the first chairman of its board of trustees, who donated land to the college. In 1895, the institution awarded its first baccalaureate degree to George W. F. McMechen, after whom the building of the school of business and management is named today. McMechen later earned a law degree from Yale University and, after establishing his career, became one of Morgan's main financial supporters.


title: Morgan State University

text: In 1915, Andrew Carnegie gave the school a grant of $50,000 for a central academic building. The terms of the grant included the purchase of a new site for the College, payment of all outstanding obligations, and the construction of a building to be named after him. The College met the conditions and moved to its present site in northeast Baltimore in 1917.


title: Morgan State University

text: In 1918, the white community of Lauraville tried to have the sale revoked by filing suit in the circuit court in Towson, upset that the Ivy Mill property, the planned location of Morgan State, had been sold to a "negro" college. The circuit court dismissed the suit, which the community appealed to the Maryland Court of Appeals. The appellate court upheld the lower court decision, finding no basis that siting the college at this location would constitute a public nuisance. Despite some ugly threats and several demonstrations against the project, Morgan College was constructed at the new site and later expanded. Carnegie Hall, the oldest original building on the present Morgan campus, was erected a year later.


title: Morgan State University

text: Morgan remained a private institution until 1939. That year, the state of Maryland purchased the school in response to a state study that Maryland needed to provide more educational opportunities for its black citizens, as higher education was still segregated. Morgan College became Morgan State College. In 1975, Morgan State added several doctoral programs and its board of directors petitioned the Maryland Legislature to be granted university status.


title: Morgan State University

text: In 2020, MacKenzie Scott donated $40 million to Morgan State. The donation is the largest in Morgan State's history and one of the largest ever to a HBCU. The following year, Calvin E. Tyler Jr. donated $20 million to endow scholarships for financially needy students at Morgan State. Tyler donation's is believed to be the largest donation a former student made to a historically black institution.


title: Morgan State University

text: In the 21st century, the university has seen the construction of a new student union, two dedicated parking garages, the Earl S. Richardson Library, the Dixon Research Center, the Communications Building, and the Center for the Built Environment and Infrastructure Studies. The latter two buildings, plus one of the two parking garages, are in the far north of the campus, connected by a new Communications Bridge over Herring Run. The central quad was also rebuilt, completed in early 2012, and includes a direct connection between the two main bridges on campus and many new bicycle racks.


title: Morgan State University

text: The Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center has become an important venue for plays and concerts visiting Baltimore, and is also the home of the James E. Lewis Museum of Art, a museum of African-American art. In September 2012, Morgan State opened the Center for the Built Environment and Infrastructure Studies (CBEIS) which houses the School of Architecture and Planning, School of Transportation Studies, and the School of Engineering.


title: Morgan State University

text: Lastly, the university's new Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management opened its doors in September 2015 near the Northwood Shopping Center; expanding the contiguous campus to the west of Hillen Road for the first time and housing the School of Business and Management.


title: Morgan State University

text: Morgan State awards baccalaureate, master's, and doctorate degrees. More than 7,698 students are enrolled at Morgan. Recently, emphasis has been placed on the urban orientation of the university. This emphasis has been incorporated into the graduate programs. At the graduate level, the university offers the Master of Arts, Master of Business Administration, Master of Science, Master of Education, Doctor of Education, Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Engineering, and Doctor of Public Health.


title: Morgan State University

text: As of the fall of 2019, there are 6,491 undergraduates and 1,302 graduate students enrolled at Morgan, about 30% were non-Maryland residents, including many from foreign countries, like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Nigeria. The largest sources of enrollment outside of Maryland are New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.


title: Morgan State University

text: From 2006 to 2019 the number of African-American students remained constant, but the numbers of other racial groups, including Hispanic/Latino and non-Hispanic white students increased. International students also increased in that period. In 2006 the student count was 6,700, including 60 Hispanic/Latino students, and in 2019 it was up to 7,700, including 260 Hispanic/Latino students.


title: Morgan State University

text: The College of Liberal Arts is the largest academic division at the university. In addition to offering a wide variety of degree programs, it also offers a large portion of the courses in the university's general education requirements. The College of Liberal Arts offers three doctoral programs (PhD), six Master of Arts (MA), two Master of Science (MS), eleven Bachelor of Arts (BA), two Bachelor of Science (BS), one Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), and twenty-three minors, all in topics such as Economics, English, History, African American Studies, African Diaspora Studies, East Asian Studies, Environmental Studies, Latino studies, Military Science, Philosophy, Screenwriting, Sociology, and World Languages, among others.


title: Morgan State University

text: The College of Liberal Arts hosts also two museums: James E. Lewis Museum of Art and Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum. The James E. Lewis Museum of Art (JELMA) is the cultural extension of Morgan State University's Fine Arts academic program. The Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum illustrates the last recorded lynching in Maryland. Lillie Carroll Jackson, Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr., Juanita Jackson Mitchell, Carl Murphy, Thurgood Marshall, Margaret Carey, and their many allies worked to end lynching and other racial injustices in the United States.


title: Morgan State University

text: The Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management (GSBM) is named in honor of alumnus Earl G. Graves, Sr. and is housed in the Graves School of Business and Management building, which was opened for the Fall Semester 2015 at the western edge of the campus. It is a state-of-the-art classroom, laboratory, office building, with rooms for hospitality management students to operate. The GSBM offers Bachelor of Science degrees, a Master of Business Administration, a Master of Science, and a PhD degree. These programs are accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).


title: Morgan State University

text: The School of Education and Urban Studies is located in Banneker Hall. The school offers undergraduate and Masters-level degree programs.


title: Morgan State University

text: The School of Engineering admitted its first class starting in 1984. The first graduates received degrees in 1988. Eugene M. DeLoatch (retired 2016) was the first Dean of the School of Engineering, having previously been Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Howard University. He was succeeded by Dr. Michael G. Spencer who was previously a professor of electrical engineering at Cornell University.


title: Morgan State University

text: The Morgan State University, School of Engineering has ABET-accredited undergraduate programs. The school's graduate programs confer the Master of Engineering Degree, Doctor of Engineering Degree, and Master of Transportation Degree.


title: Morgan State University

text: By 1991, the construction of the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. School of Engineering building was completed, and the facility included sixteen teaching laboratories and five research laboratories. The William Donald Schaefer Building is a addition to the Engineering School and was completed in April 1998. The facility provided instructional laboratories, classrooms, a student lounge, research laboratories and a library annex. In 2015 Morgan State University's School of Engineering graduates provided more than two-thirds of the state's African-American Civil Engineers, 60 percent of the African-American Electrical Engineers, 80 percent of the African-American Telecommunications specialists, more than one-third of the African-American Mathematicians, and all of Maryland's Industrial Engineers.


title: Morgan State University

text: In 1997, it is the only HBCU to establish accredited Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and City and Regional Planning programs. A plan was announced by Earl Richardson in 2005 for the program to establish school status and it was designated as the School of Architecture and Planning (S+AP) in 2008. The Center of Built and Environmental Studies (CBEIS) was designed by Hord Coplan and Macht in association with the Freelon Group. They began construction in 2010 to house all of the related majors and the building has been declared one of the most impressive, environmentally friendly university buildings in the world. In 2018, Mary Anne Akers submitted a proposal to the Maryland Higher Education Commission to advocate for the School of Architecture and Planning to pioneer the first Interior Design baccalaureate program in Maryland, its first graduating class was in May 2020.


title: Morgan State University

text: The Earl S. Richardson Library's is the main academic information resource center on the campus. The new building covers approximately 222,517 square feet which opened in 2008. The library's holding constitutes over 500,000 volumes, and access to over 1 million e-books and 5,000 periodical titles. There are 167 online databases that are subscribed to the Library. Reading and studying spaces are provided with wired and wireless access to databases for research. One such collection in the volumes includes books on Africa, with an emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa. The African-American collection is a body of historically significant and current books by and about African Americans and includes papers and memorabilia of such persons as Emmett Jay Scott, secretary to Booker T. Washington, and Arthur J. Smith, who was associated with the Far East Consular Division of the State Department. The Forbush Collection, named for Bliss Forbush, is composed of materials associated with the Quakers and slavery. The Martin D. Jenkins Collection was acquired in 1980. Together, these collections provide both a contemporary and historical view of African Americans in education, military service, politics, and religion.


title: Morgan State University

text: The library is located fronting Hillen Road and includes a multi-story lobby, lounges private group study rooms, meeting rooms, a technology-enhanced instruction room, computer laboratory, and other computers in many locations.


title: Morgan State University

text: Approximately 2,000 students are housed in four traditional residence halls, two high rise buildings and three apartment complexes.


title: Morgan State University

text: Blount Towers (all women's classifications) and Rawlings Hall (all men's classifications) are high-rise (six to eight floors) residence halls. Thurgood Marshall (freshman & transfer men) is an apartment style complex located on-campus. Both Morgan View Apartments and Marble Hall Gardens are the co-ed upper-class apartment style residence hall complexes located off-campus. Morgan View is a privatized facility that caters to Morgan State students.


title: Morgan State University

text: Morgan's athletic teams are known as the Bears, and they compete in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC).


title: Morgan State University

text: Between 1926 and 1928, a young Charles Drew served as Athletic Director. During this time he made great improvements in the school's teams' records. From the 1930s through 1960s, led by coach and then athletic director Edward P. Hurt, Morgan's athletic teams were legendary. More than thirty of its football players were drafted by and played in the NFL and many of its track athletes competed internationally and received world-class status. By the late 1960s most white colleges and universities ended their segregation against black high school students and many top black high school students and athletes started matriculating to schools from which they had been barred just a decade prior. While achieving a national goal of desegregation, integration depleted the athletic strength of schools like Morgan State and Grambling State University. For example, the annual contest between Morgan State and Grambling played in New York City in the late 1960s drew more than 60,000 fans. Today, the two teams do not even play each other and Morgan's home football games rarely draw as many as 10,000 fans with the exception of the school's homecoming game. Morgan State archrivals are the Howard University Bison (the matchup is often called the "Battle of the Beltway") and the Coppin State Eagles.


title: Morgan State University

text: In 2021, Morgan State announced plans to revive their wrestling program that was discontinuted in 1997 thanks to a $2.7 million donation from a group dedicated to bringing back wrestling to HBCUs. The donation, the largest in Bears history, would make Morgan State the only Division I HBCU to offer wrestling.


title: Morgan State University

text: By 1975 Morgan State became noted for its lacrosse team. Lacrosse, a sport that, up until then, had been dominated by white athletes. Black high school lacrosse players in Maryland and New York still had trouble getting into non-black schools. Morgan State was the first—and, until the turn of the 20th century, the only—historically black university to field a lacrosse team.


title: Morgan State University

text: In 2005 students organized a lacrosse club which plays other college's lacrosse clubs, but the team has yet to qualify to become an NCAA-sanctioned team. The University will not allow the new club team to use any of its fields or facilities. The club team has played more than twenty games in the last three years, most of them "away" because of the Bears' lack of a home field, locker rooms or visiting team amenities.


title: Morgan State University

text: In 2009, the Morgan State men's basketball team won the MEAC regular season and tournament championship and qualified for the 2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. In their first tournament appearance, the 15th-seeded Bears lost to the 2008–09 Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball team Oklahoma Sooners, 82–54, in the first round of the South Regional.


title: Morgan State University

text: In 2010 the Morgan State men's basketball team again won the MEAC regular season and tournament championship and qualified for the 2010 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, again as a 15 seed. Morgan State lost to West Virginia University in the first round by a score of 77–50.


title: Morgan State University

text: More than two hundred men and women Morgan State athletes have been inducted into the Morgan State University Hall of Fame including National Football League Hall of Famers Rosey Brown, Leroy Kelly and Willie Lanier, two-time Olympic Gold medalist George Rhoden, and the coach of the Ten Bears lacrosse team Howard "Chip" Silverman.


title: Morgan State University

text: The Morgan State University Choir is one of the nation's most prestigious university choral ensembles and was led for more than three decades by the late Dr. Nathan Carter, celebrated conductor, composer, and arranger. The groups that are subdivisions of the critically acclaimed choir include the University Choir, which is over 140 voices strong, and The Morgan Singers (approximately 40 voices). While classical, gospel, and contemporary popular music comprise the majority of the choir's repertoire, the choir is noted for its emphasis on preserving the heritage of the spiritual, especially in the historic practices of performance. The Morgan State University Choir has performed for audiences throughout the United States and all over the world—including The Bahamas, Virgin Islands, Canary Islands, Canada, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Their most recent international appearance was in Saint Petersburg, Russia, at the invitation of Maestro Yuri Temirkanov, music director and conductor for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In Russia, the choir performed in the 5th International Festival Arts Square and was received enthusiastically by their Russian audiences.


title: Morgan State University

text: The choir has appeared at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and at the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York City on numerous occasions, performing and premiering works such as John Corigliano's "Poem On His Birthday," "Too Hot to Handel" arranged by Broadway composers Bob Christianson and Gary Anderson and Hannibal Lokumbe's "African Portraits", led by music director Leonard Slatkin, as part of the Kennedy Center's African Festival. One of the choir's most historic moments came with the opportunity to sing under the baton of Robert Shaw, conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke's and joined by Jessye Norman and others in Carnegie Hall's One Hundredth Birthday Tribute to Marian Anderson. A major milestone and historical movement occurred during the 1996–1997 season with the sounds of the "Silver Anniversary" concert being broadcast into households throughout the state of Maryland. The concert won three Emmy Awards for Maryland Public Television (MPT). MPT continues to air this hallmark performance during select sections of their membership drives. In 1993, the choir joined actor James Earl Jones in a performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, broadcast on CBS.


title: Morgan State University

text: Known for its consistency of performances, the choir probably does more annual appearances with major orchestras of the United States than any other university choir. For example, the 1998–1999 season included performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Buffalo Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, and the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. During the 1999–2000 season, the choir was featured with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in a then-newly commissioned work for the millennium, "All Rise", by Wynton Marsalis. The choir reprised "All Rise" in Prague, in October 2000 and recorded it with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and, in 2003, the choir recorded the piece in Paris, France. In December 2003 the choir performed "African Portraits" with the Baltimore Symphony at the Gala Concert for the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture. In their May 2004 issue, "Reader's Digest" named the Morgan State University Choir as the "Best College Choir" in its list of "America's 100 Best".


title: Morgan State University

text: The Morgan State University Band Program consists of six ensembles: the marching band, symphonic band, symphonic winds, pep band, jazz ensemble, and jazz combo. Self-titled the Magnificent Marching Machine, the marching band has performed at Morgan State football games, NFL games, Presidential Inaugurations, World Series games and in regional and local television appearances. The band also made a cameo appearance in the 2003 American movie "Head of State" and appeared on "The Skyshow", a television show featuring Tom Joyner.


title: Morgan State University

text: On November 28, 2019, the Magnificent Marching Machine, made its first-ever appearance the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.


title: Morgan State University

text: Morgan State University has chapters from each of the National Pan-Hellenic Council member organizations.


title: Morgan State University

text: Morgan State University also houses a variety of other fraternal organizations. These organizations are a part of the Council of Independent Organizations (CIO).


title: Morgan State University

text: Alumni of Morgan State University have achieved notability in the fields of athletics, science, government, law and the military including four members of the NFL Football Hall of Fame (Willie Lanier, Roosevelt Brown, Leroy Kelly, and Len Ford), "Black Enterprise Magazine" publisher Earl Graves, the Chief Judge of Maryland's highest court, Clarence Dunnaville, lawyer and civil rights activist, nearly a dozen U.S. Army Generals including Lieutenant General William "Kip" Ward, the first Commanding Officer of the United States Africa Command, "The New York Times" sports columnist William C. Rhoden, HBCU Digest Founder Jarrett Carter Sr., playwright, TV producer, and entrepreneur David E. Talbert, and American-Israeli Olympic sprinter Donald Sanford. Civil rights activist and music critic for the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper Adah Jenkins graduated from Morgan State. Scientist and inventor Valerie Thomas is also an alumni from Morgan State.


title: Morgan State University

text: Former faculty member Ernest Lyon was a United States Ambassador to Liberia and the founder of the Maryland Industrial and Agricultural Institute for Colored Youths. Noted African American historian and pioneering scholar Dr. Benjamin A. Quarles served on its faculty for many decades. Physician-Scientist Charles R. Drew, known for his work on blood transfusion, was Morgan College's First Athletic Director. Flora E. Strout, Morgan College teacher and principal, wrote the school's anthem. Notable faculty currently teaching at Morgan State University include bestselling author and filmmaker MK Asante, and scholar Raymond Winbush, and African-American historian Rosalyn Terborg-Penn.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: The 1995 Royal Rumble was the eighth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on January 22, 1995, in the USF Sun Dome located in Tampa, Florida. The event featured five matches on its card. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 1995 event, the winner received a match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XI.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: The main event was the 1995 Royal Rumble match, which Shawn Michaels won after entering first and outlasting the 29 other wrestlers. This was the first time that the first entrant won the match. The event also featured a match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, where Diesel defended the title against Bret Hart. The match was stopped when several other wrestlers interfered and the referee lost control of the match. Two other title matches took place; Jeff Jarrett won the WWF Intercontinental Championship from Razor Ramon, and The 1–2–3 Kid and Bob Holly won the final match in a tournament that determined the new WWF Tag Team Champions.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: Several storylines from Royal Rumble 1995 were carried over to WrestleMania XI, the WWF's next pay-per-view. Bam Bam Bigelow attacked National Football League Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor, who was sitting in the crowd; this set up a match between the two at WrestleMania. Pamela Anderson was at ringside and was supposed to accompany the winner of the Royal Rumble match to his WWF World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania. Although Shawn Michaels won the match, Anderson came to the ring at WrestleMania with Diesel. The Undertaker's feud with Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation also escalated, as DiBiase's men stole the urn that was said to give The Undertaker his power. Jarrett and Ramon continued to feud for several months, and Bret Hart targeted Bob Backlund because of Backlund's interference in the WWF World Heavyweight Championship match.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick pay-per-view (PPV), produced every January by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, which were dubbed the "Big Four", and was considered one of the "Big Five" PPVs, along with King of the Ring. It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. The match generally features 30 wrestlers and the winner traditionally earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For 1995, the winner earned a match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XI. The 1995 event was the eighth event in the Royal Rumble chronology and was scheduled to be held on January 22, 1995, in the USF Sun Dome located in Tampa, Florida.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: The card consisted of five matches. The matches resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters to build tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWF's writers, with storylines produced on their weekly television show, "Raw".


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: The storyline behind the WWF World Heavyweight Championship match began in 1994, when Bret Hart was feuding with his brother Owen. After Owen was unable to win the title, he helped Bob Backlund win the belt from Bret at Survivor Series 1994. Three days after Survivor Series, Diesel faced Backlund and won the title belt. He agreed to grant a title shot to Bret Hart, who, like Diesel, was also a fan-favorite.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: Also at Survivor Series 1994, Shawn Michaels and Diesel had an argument after Michaels accidentally kicked Diesel in the face. Although the pair held the WWF Tag Team Championship together, Diesel said that he did not want to team with Michaels any longer. The title was vacated, and the WWF held a tournament to determine the new champions. During the tournament, The Smoking Gunns were forced to withdraw when Bart Gunn was injured in a rodeo accident. As a result, the 1–2–3 Kid and Bob Holly took their place. The Gunns requested that they get a title shot after the tournament when Bart had recovered. The 1–2–3 Kid and Holly advanced to the finals, as did Ted DiBiase's team of Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka. The match to determine the new champions was scheduled to take place at the Royal Rumble.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: The Undertaker had been feuding with DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation since his return to the WWF from an injury in August 1994. During the match between The Undertaker and Yokozuna at Survivor Series 1994, Irwin R. Schyster, one of DiBiase's wrestlers, interfered in the match by attacking The Undertaker. The feud between The Undertaker and Schyster escalated when Schyster performed a series of vignettes in which he repossessed such items as tombstones and burial plots from people he claimed had not paid their taxes before dying. During the feud, Schyster was escorted to the ring for his matches by a group of hooded druids.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: The feud between Jeff Jarrett and Razor Ramon began in late 1994 when Jarrett challenged Ramon for Ramon's WWF Intercontinental Championship. They faced each other several times, but Jarrett was unable to win the belt. Jarrett, who portrayed an aspiring country music star, was accompanied to the ring by The Roadie, who often interfered in matches on Jarrett's behalf.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: Although no major feuds were featured in the Royal Rumble match, "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson was in attendance at ringside. It was announced that she would accompany the winner of the match during his WWF World Heavyweight Championship title shot at WrestleMania XI.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: Prior to the live pay-per-view broadcast, Buck Quartermaine defeated The Brooklyn Brawler in a dark match.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: In the first televised match, Razor Ramon defended his WWF Intercontinental Championship against Jeff Jarrett, who was accompanied by The Roadie. Ramon used his strength to dominate the opening of the match. Jarrett gained the momentum with a series of dropkicks and then choked Ramon with a sleeper hold. Ramon ran at Jarrett but was thrown over the top rope. He hit his knee when he landed, and The Roadie then hit Ramon from behind in the knee. Ramon was unable to return to the ring, so Jarrett was awarded the match via countout. Because the championship cannot change hands on a countout, Jarrett challenged Ramon to continue the match. Ramon agreed and nearly pinned Jarrett twice. Jarrett applied the figure four leglock to apply pressure to Ramon's injured knee. Ramon escaped the hold and attempted to perform the Razor's Edge. He collapsed under Jarrett's weight, however, and Jarrett pinned him to win the title.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: The Undertaker faced Irwin R. Schyster in the next match. The Undertaker gained the advantage at the beginning and held it until Ted DiBiase called his druids to the ring. When The Undertaker attempted to attack Schyster from the top rope, the druids shook the ropes and caused him to fall. Schyster performed a clothesline to knock The Undertaker out of the ring, where he and the druids attacked The Undertaker. When the match returned to the ring, Schyster was in control. Both men got knocked down, however, and a druid snuck into the ring and rolled Schyster on top of The Undertaker for a pinfall attempt. The Undertaker kicked out and attempted to perform the Tombstone Piledriver. A druid interfered to prevent the move, but The Undertaker performed a chokeslam on Schyster to gain the pinfall victory. After the match, Ted DiBiase called out Corporation member King Kong Bundy to help Schyster attack The Undertaker and steal the urn, which was said to be the source of The Undertaker's power.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: The WWF World Heavyweight Championship match was next, in which Diesel defended the title against Bret Hart. Diesel began the match by clotheslining Hart, but Hart gained the advantage by focusing on injuring Diesel's knee. He performed the figure four leglock twice before attacking Diesel outside the ring. Diesel regained the advantage by using his size and strength to throw Hart and perform power moves to wear him down. Hart tied Diesel's legs to the ring post with a piece of tape and kicked him repeatedly. Diesel recovered and performed the Jackknife power bomb on Hart. Before the referee could count the pinfall, Shawn Michaels ran to the ring and attacked Diesel. The referee ordered the match to continue, and the match went back and forth until Hart used the Sharpshooter submission hold to place pressure on Diesel's injured leg. Owen Hart interfered by attacking Bret, but the match was ordered to continue. Bret Hart and Diesel brawled until Bret rolled Diesel up for a pinfall. The referee was knocked unconscious, and Michaels, Jarrett, and The Roadie came to the ring to attack Diesel. Meanwhile, Owen Hart and Bob Backlund attacked Bret Hart. Because the referee could not control the match, it was declared a draw and Diesel retained his championship.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: Bob Holly and the 1–2–3 Kid faced Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka next in the final match of the WWF Tag Team Championship tournament. Tatanka began the match by using his strength against Holly, but Holly soon turned the match around by performing a hurricanrana throw. Bigelow used his strength against his opponents, but the 1–2–3 Kid performed a hurricanrana on him as well. Bigelow regained the advantage by kicking the Kid in the back of the head and controlled the match until the Kid threw him out of the ring. Bigelow and Tatanka turned the match around again, using power moves to wear down their opponents. At one point, Bigelow held the Kid for Tatanka to attack, but Tatanka accidentally hit Bigelow instead. The match ended in a similar manner, as Tatanka knocked Bigelow off the top rope when Bigelow attempted to perform a moonsault. The 1–2–3 Kid pinned Bigelow to win the match and the WWF Tag Team Championship. After the match, the crowd heckled Bigelow. He responded by pushing retired NFL player Lawrence Taylor, who was at ring side, laughing about Bigelow's loss.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: In the main event, Shawn Michaels was the first entrant in the Royal Rumble match, while Davey Boy Smith was the second participant. Every 60 seconds, another wrestler entered the match. As Owen Hart made his way to the ring, he was attacked by his brother Bret. As a result of the attack, Owen was quickly eliminated from the match when Smith, his brother-in-law, threw him out of the ring. King Kong Bundy and Mabel, the two biggest competitors in the match, fought until Mabel eliminated Bundy. Lex Luger then entered the match and eliminated Mabel. Bret Hart returned later and attacked Bob Backlund as Backlund was about to enter the match. This enabled Luger to eliminate Backlund quickly, after which Backlund and Bret continued to fight. The final four participants remaining in the ring were Michaels, Smith, Luger, and Crush. Luger attacked Crush but was eliminated by Michaels. Crush then convinced Michaels to work with him but then turned on Michaels by attacking him. Michaels scratched Crush's eyes, which enabled Smith to eliminate Crush. Michaels and Smith, the first two entrants, were the last two wrestlers remaining. Smith threw Michaels over the top rope and began to celebrate. Michaels, who had only touched the floor with one foot, was not eliminated from the match, however. He attacked Smith from behind and threw him out of the ring to become the first wrestler to win the Royal Rumble after entering first. Michaels celebrated in the ring with Pamela Anderson.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: The event was attended by 10,000 fans, which is approximately the maximum capacity of the USF Sun Dome. This attendance figure was down from the previous year's attendance of 14,500, but higher than the following year, when 9,600 people attended Royal Rumble 1996. From the ticket sales, the WWF gained $140,000; again, this was lower than in 1994 but higher than in 1996. The pay-per-view buyrate of 1.0, however, was higher than 1994's 0.9 figure but lower than 1996's buyrate of 1.1.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: Former WWE wrestler Cody Rhodes has stated that Michaels's win, in which he was the first wrestler to enter the ring in the #1 position and win the match, is his favorite ending to a Royal Rumble match. Reviewing the event for "Online Onslaught", columnist Adam Gutschmidt evaluated the event as acceptable but not exceptional. He found the Royal Rumble match to be the best part of the show, although he claimed that the WWF's switch to having wrestlers enter every 60 seconds hurt the match. He also found the inconclusive ending to the WWF World Heavyweight Championship match frustrating and rated the match between The Undertaker and Irwin R. Schyster as a "dud". The event has also been rated by customers at "Amazon.com", who have given the event four and a half out of five stars. Art O'Donnell, writer of the website WrestleCrap, has inducted the 1995 Rumble match into the site's list of "the very worst in pro wrestling". He cites that most of the Royal Rumble participants' gimmicks and the lack of main event wrestlers (such as Jeff Jarrett, Scott Hall and The Undertaker) as his reasons for including the match in the list.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: Royal Rumble 1995 was released on VHS in North America by Coliseum Video on March 8, 1995. It was released in the United Kingdom in VHS format on May 8, 1995. The event, packaged together with Royal Rumble 1996, was also released on DVD in the United Kingdom as part of the WWE Tagged Classics line on April 17, 2006. On October 15, 2007, WWE released the event in the United Kingdom as part of the Royal Rumble Complete Anthology DVD set.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: The day after Royal Rumble, the 1–2–3 Kid and Bob Holly faced The Smoking Gunns. The Gunns won the match and the WWF Tag Team Championship. By losing the belts after one day, the Kid and Holly tied what was at that time the record for the shortest tag team title reign in WWF history.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: Razor Ramon faced Jeff Jarrett at WrestleMania XI in a rematch for the WWF Intercontinental Championship. To counteract The Roadie's interference, Ramon was accompanied by his friend the 1–2–3 Kid. Ramon won the match by disqualification but did not win the title. On May 19, 1995, Ramon defeated Jarrett in a ladder match to regain the championship, but Jarrett won the belt back three days later.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: The Undertaker faced King Kong Bundy at WrestleMania XI. Although The Undertaker won the match, Kama, another member of DiBiase's Corporation, took possession of the urn and melted it down into a necklace. The Undertaker defeated Kama in dark matches at In Your House 1 and . They faced each other in a casket match at SummerSlam, which The Undertaker won to end the feud.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: Bret Hart wrestled an "I Quit" match against Bob Backlund at WrestleMania. Hart won the match after the referee determined that Backlund had conceded defeat. Bret's feud with Owen was not featured again, but the two did not reunite until they formed The Hart Foundation in 1997 with brothers-in law Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: Despite Michaels winning the right to be escorted by Pamela Anderson to his WWF World Heavyweight Championship match against Diesel at WrestleMania, Anderson came to the ring with Diesel instead. Michaels's bodyguard, Sycho Sid, attempted to interfere on Michaels's behalf but ultimately helped Diesel retain the title. Michaels became the second man to win the Rumble but lose their Wrestlemania title match. Diesel offered Michaels a rematch, and Michaels told Sid that he would not be needed in the upcoming match. Upset with Michaels, Sid attacked Michaels until Diesel came to Michaels's rescue. Diesel and Michaels became allies once again and teamed up to win the WWF Tag Team Championship later that year.


title: Royal Rumble (1995)

text: Bam Bam Bigelow challenged Lawrence Taylor to a match, which Taylor accepted after initially refusing. Diesel trained Taylor, who beat Bigelow at WrestleMania XI. Embarrassed, Bigelow challenged Diesel to a match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Tatanka was at ringside for the match; he turned on Bigelow and caused him to lose. Bigelow attacked Tatanka after the match, which led to Sid, a new addition to the Corporation, to come to Tatanka's defense. This led to a tag team match at King of the Ring, where Diesel and Bigelow defeated Tatanka and Sid.


title: Year Zero (album)

text: Year Zero is the fifth studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by Interscope Records on April 17, 2007. Conceived while touring in support of the band's previous album, "With Teeth" (2005), the album was recorded in late 2006. It was produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and was the band's first studio album since 1994's "The Downward Spiral" that was not co-produced by long-time collaborator Alan Moulder. It was the band's last album for Interscope, following Reznor's departure the same year due to a dispute over overseas pricing.


title: Year Zero (album)

text: In contrast to the introspective style of songwriting featured on the band's previous work, the record is a concept album that criticizes contemporary policies of the United States government by presenting a dystopian vision of the year 2022. It was part of a larger Year Zero project, which included a remix album, an alternate reality game of the same name, as well as a conceived television or film adaptation. The game expanded upon the album's storyline, using websites, pre-recorded phone messages, murals, among other media in promotion of the project. The album was promoted by two singles: "Survivalism" and "Capital G".


title: Year Zero (album)

text: "Year Zero" received positive reviews from critics, who complimented its concept and production, as well as the accompanying alternate reality game. The album reached number 2 in the United States, number 6 in the United Kingdom, and the top 10 in some other countries.


title: Year Zero (album)

text: In a 2005 interview with "Kerrang!", Trent Reznor raised his intentions to write material for a new release while on tour promoting "With Teeth". He reportedly began work on the new album by September 2006. Reznor devised much of the album's musical direction on his laptop. Reznor told "Kerrang!" in a later interview, "When I was on the "" tour, to keep myself busy I just really hunkered down and was working on music the whole time, so this kept me in a creative mode and when I finished the tour I felt like I wasn't tired and wanted to keep at it."


title: Year Zero (album)

text: The limitations of devising the album's musical direction on a tour bus forced Reznor to work differently from usual. Reznor said, "I didn't have guitars around because it was too much hassle... It was another creative limitation... If I were in my studio, I would have done things the way I normally do them. But not having the ability to do that forced me into trying some things that were fun to do."


title: Year Zero (album)

text: By the end of the tour, Reznor began work on the album's lyrical concepts, attempting to break away from his typically introspective approach. Reznor drew inspiration from his concern at the state of affairs in the United States and at what he envisioned as the country's political, spiritual, and social direction. "Year Zero" was mixed in January 2007, and Reznor stated on his blog that the album was finished as of February 5. The album's budget was a reported US$2million, but since Reznor composed most of the album himself on his laptop and in his home-studio, much of the budget instead went toward the extensive accompanying promotional campaign.


title: Year Zero (album)

text: A song cut from the album included vocal work by Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme. The same year, Reznor contributed vocals to their song "Era Vulgaris", which was also cut from the album of the same name.


title: Year Zero (album)

text: The album's music features the styles of industrial rock, electro-industrial, electronic, and digital hardcore. Reznor called "Year Zero" a "shift in direction" in that it "doesn't sound like "With Teeth"". He also said that when he finishes a new album, he has to "go into battle with the people whose job it is to figure out how to sell the record. The only time that didn't happen was [for] "With Teeth". This time, however, [he was] expecting an epic struggle. ["Year Zero"] is not a particularly friendly record and it certainly doesn't sound like anything else out there right now."


title: Year Zero (album)

text: Fifteen original tracks were considered for inclusion on the album, which Reznor described as "Highly conceptual. Quite noisy. Fucking cool." Reznor also described the album as a "collage of sound type of thing", citing musical inspiration from early Public Enemy records, specifically the production techniques of The Bomb Squad. Most of "Year Zero"s musical elements were created by Reznor solely on his laptop, as opposed to the instrument-heavy "With Teeth". AllMusic's review described the album's laptop-mixed sound: "guitars squall against glitches, beeps, pops, and blotches of blurry sonic attacks. Percussion looms large, distorted, organic, looped, screwed, spindled and broken." Many reviews of the album compared the album's electronic sound to earlier Nine Inch Nails releases such as "The Downward Spiral" and "The Fragile", while contrasting its heavily modified sounds to the more "organic" approach of "With Teeth". Many critics also commented on the album's overall tone, including descriptions such as "lots of silver and grey ambience" and reference to the album's "oblique tone". "The New York Times" review described the album's sound by saying "Hard beats are softened with distortion, static cushions the tantrums, sneaky bass lines float beneath the surface." The article went on to describe individual tracks: "And as usual the music is packed with details: "Meet Your Master" goes through at least three cycles of decay and rebirth; part of the fun of "The Warning" is tracking the ever-mutating timbres."


title: Year Zero (album)

text: Many of the songs on the album feature an extended instrumental ending, which encompasses the entire second half of the three-minute long "The Great Destroyer". The album was co-produced by Reznor and Atticus Ross, mixed by long-time collaborator Alan Moulder, and mastered by Brian Gardner. The album features instrumental contributions by live band member Josh Freese and vocals by Saul Williams.


title: Year Zero (album)

text: Nine Inch Nails' 2006 tour merchandise designs featured overt references to the United States military, which Reznor said "reflect[ed] future directions". Reznor later described "Year Zero" as "the soundtrack to a movie that doesn't exist". The album criticizes the American government's policies, and "could be about the end of the world". Reznor specifically cited what he labeled as the "erosion of freedoms" and "the way that we treat the rest of the world and our own citizens". Reznor had previously called the results of the 2004 US election "one step closer to the end of the world."


title: Year Zero (album)

text: Even though the fictional story begins in January 2007, the timeline of the album and alternate reality game mentions historical events, such as the September 11 attacks and the Iraq War. From there, fictional events lead to worldwide chaos, including bioterrorism attacks, the United States engaging in nuclear war with Iran, and the elimination of American civil liberties at the hands of the fictional government agency The Bureau of Morality. Regardless of being fictional, a columnist of the "Hartford Courant" commented, "What's scary is that this doesn't seem as far-fetched as it should, given recent revelations about the FBI's abuse of the Patriot Act and the dissent-equals-disloyalty double-speak coming out of Washington in recent years."


title: Year Zero (album)

text: All of the artwork for "Year Zero" was created by Rob Sheridan, art director for Nine Inch Nails, who is also credited for artwork on "With Teeth", among other Nine Inch Nails releases since 2000. The album features a thermo-chrome heat-sensitive CD face which appears black when first opened, but reveals a black binary code on a white background when heat is generated from the album being played. The binary sequence translates to "exterminal.net", the address of a website involved in the alternate reality game. Reznor displayed displeasure at the extra dollars added to the CD's price in Australia for the thermo-coating.


title: Year Zero (album)

text: Included with the album is a small insert that is a warning from the fictional United States Bureau of Morality (USBM), with a phone number to report people who have "engaged in subversive acts". When the number is called, a recording from the USBM is played, claiming "By calling this number, you and your family are implicitly pleading guilty to the consumption of anti-American media and have been flagged as potential militants."


title: Year Zero (album)

text: While work continued on the album, Reznor hinted in an interview that it was "part of a bigger picture of a number of things I'm working on". In February 2007 fans discovered that a new Nine Inch Nails tour t-shirt contained highlighted letters that spelled out the words "I am trying to believe". This phrase was registered as a website URL, and soon several related websites were also discovered in the IP range, all describing a dystopian vision of the fictional "Year 0". It was later reported that 42 Entertainment had created these websites to promote "Year Zero" as part of an alternate reality game.


title: Year Zero (album)

text: The "Year Zero" story takes place in the United States in the year 2022; or "Year 0" according to the American government, being the year that America was reborn. The United States has suffered several major terrorist attacks, and in response the government has seized absolute control on the country and reverted to a Christian fundamentalist theocracy. The government maintains control of the populace through institutions such as the Bureau of Morality and the First Evangelical Church of Plano, as well as increased surveillance and the secret drugging of tap water with a mild sedative. In response to the increasing oppression of the government, several corporate, government, and subversive websites were transported back in time to the present by a group of scientists working clandestinely against the authoritarian government. The websites-from-the-future were sent to the year 2007 to warn the American people of the impending dystopian future and to prevent it from ever forming in the first place.


title: Year Zero (album)

text: The "Year Zero" game consisted of an expansive series of websites, phone numbers, e-mails, videos, MP3s, murals, and other media that expanded upon the fictional storyline of the album. Each new piece of media contained various hints and clues to discover the next, relying on fan participation to discover each new facet of the expanding game. "Rolling Stone" described the fan involvement in this promotion as the "marketing team's dream". Reznor, however, argued that "marketing" was an inaccurate description of the game, and that it was "not some kind of gimmick to get you to buy a recordit "is" the art form".


title: Year Zero (album)

text: Part of this promotional campaign involved USB drives that were left in concert venues for fans to find during Nine Inch Nails' 2007 European tour. During a concert in Lisbon, Portugal, a USB flash drive was found in a bathroom stall containing a high-quality MP3 of the track "My Violent Heart", a song from the then-unreleased album. Another USB drive was found at a concert in Barcelona, Spain, containing the track "Me, I'm Not". Messages found on the drives and tour clothing led to additional websites and images from the game, and the early release of several unheard songs from the album. Following the discovery of the USB drives, the high-quality audio files quickly circulated the internet. Owners of websites hosting the files soon received cease and desist orders from the Recording Industry Association of America, despite Interscope having sanctioned the viral campaign and the early release of the tracks. Reznor told "The Guardian":


title: Year Zero (album)

text: On February 22, 2007 a teaser trailer was released through the official "Year Zero" website. It featured a quick glimpse of a blue road sign that said "I AM TRYING TO BELIEVE", as well as a distorted glimpse of "The Presence" from the album cover. One frame in the teaser led fans to a URL containing the complete album cover. In March, the multitrack audio files of "Year Zero"s first single, "Survivalism", were released in GarageBand format for fan remixing. The multitrack files for "Capital G", "My Violent Heart" and "Me, I'm Not" were released the following month, and files for "The Beginning of the End", "Vessel" and "God Given" were released on the month after that. In response to an early leak of the album, the entire album became available for streaming on Nine Inch Nails' MySpace page a week before the album's official release.