title: Kay Francis

text: In the spring of 1925, Francis went to Paris to get a divorce. While there, she was courted by Bill Gaston, a former athlete at Harvard and member of the Boston Bar Association. They were secretly married in October 1925, though this marriage was short-lived. Francis and Gaston saw each other only on occasion, as he was in Boston and she had decided to follow her mother's footsteps and go on the stage in New York.


title: Kay Francis

text: She made her Broadway debut as the Player Queen in a modern-dress version of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" in November 1925. She often "borrowed" wardrobe for fashionable nights out in New York that were reported on by the day's press. Francis claimed she got the part by "lying a lot, to the right people". One of them was producer Stuart Walker, who hired her to join his Portmanteau Theatre Company. She soon found herself commuting between Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Indiana. She played wisecracking secretaries, saucy French floozies, walk-ons, bit parts, and heavies.


title: Kay Francis

text: By February 1927, Francis returned to New York and got a part in the Broadway play "Crime". A teenage Sylvia Sidney had its lead, but later said that Francis stole the show.


title: Kay Francis

text: After Francis' divorce from Gaston in September 1927 she became engaged to a society playboy, Alan Ryan Jr. She promised Ryan's family that she would not return to the stage – a promise that lasted only a few months before she was playing an aviator in a Rachel Crothers play, "Venus".


title: Kay Francis

text: Francis appeared in only one other Broadway production, titled "Elmer the Great" in 1928. Written by Ring Lardner and produced by George M. Cohan and starring Walter Huston, the play nonetheless flopped. Though flat broke at the time, Francis was unwilling to ask friends for help and instead vowed to "crawl out of this mess herself."


title: Kay Francis

text: Huston had been impressed by Francis' performance and encouraged her to take a screen test for his new studio, Paramount Pictures, and the film "Gentlemen of the Press" (1929). Paramount offered her a starting contract of $300 per week for five weeks. Francis made "Press" and the Marx Brothers film "The Cocoanuts" (1929) at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens, New York before moving to Hollywood.


title: Kay Francis

text: Major film studios, which had formerly been based in New York, had become well-established in California, and many Broadway actors were enticed to Hollywood to make sound films, including Ann Harding, Aline MacMahon, Helen Twelvetrees, Spencer Tracy, Paul Muni, Barbara Stanwyck, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Joan Blondell and Leslie Howard.


title: Kay Francis

text: Signed to a featured players contract with Paramount Pictures, Francis also made the move and created an immediate impression. She frequently co-starred with William Powell, first teaming in "Street of Chance" (1930) when David Selznick fought for the pairing after having seen Francis briefly in "Behind the Make-up" (1930), and it worked, as they appeared in as many as six to eight movies per year, making a total of 21 films between 1930 and 1932.


title: Kay Francis

text: Francis's career flourished at Paramount in spite of a slight, but distinctive rhotacism (she pronounced the letter "r" as "w") that gave rise to the nickname "Wavishing Kay Fwancis". She appeared in George Cukor's "thrillingly amoral comedy" "Girls About Town" (1931) and "24 Hours" (1931). On December 16, 1931, Francis and her co-stars opened the newly constructed art deco Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California, with a gala preview screening of "The False Madonna".


title: Kay Francis

text: In 1932, Francis' career at Paramount changed gears when Warner Bros. promised her star status at a better salary of $4,000 a week. Paramount sued Warner Bros. over the loss. Warner Bros. persuaded both Francis and Powell to join the ranks of their stars, along with Ruth Chatterton. After her first three featured roles had been as a villainess, Francis was given roles with a more sympathetic screen persona such as in "The False Madonna", where she plays a jaded society woman who learns the importance of hearth and home when nursing a terminally ill child. After Francis' career skyrocketed at Warner Bros., she was loaned back to Paramount for Ernst Lubitsch's "Trouble in Paradise" (1932).


title: Kay Francis

text: From 1932 through 1936, Francis was the queen of the Warner Bros. lot, and increasingly, her films were developed as star vehicles. By 1935, Francis was one of the highest-paid actors, earning a yearly salary of $115,000, dwarfing the $18,000 Bette Davis – who would one day occupy Francis' dressing room – made. From 1930 to 1937 Francis appeared on the covers of 38 film magazines, second only to child sensation Shirley Temple's 138.


title: Kay Francis

text: Soon after her arrival in Hollywood, she began an affair with actor and producer Kenneth MacKenna, whom she married in January 1931. MacKenna's Hollywood career foundered, having spent more time in New York with the couple's amicable 1933 separation; they divorced in 1934.


title: Kay Francis

text: Francis frequently played long-suffering heroines, in films such as "I Found Stella Parish", "Secrets of an Actress", and "Comet Over Broadway", displaying to good advantage lavish wardrobes that, in some cases, were more memorable than the characters she played—a fact often emphasized by contemporary film reviewers. As Belinda in "Give Me Your Heart" (1936) with co-stars George Brent and Roland Young, her performance had "reticence and pathos" and garnered welcoming reviews from "The New York Times".


title: Kay Francis

text: In October 1937, Francis met aviation businessman Raven Freiherr von Barnekow at a party of Countess Dorothy Dentice di Frasso's in Beverly Hills. In March 1938 Louella Parsons reported on their intended marriage and that Francis would retire from films, but by October the two were traveling separately and Francis was still acting; by December Barnekow had returned to Germany.


title: Kay Francis

text: Francis's clothes horse reputation and statuesque frame often led Warners' producers to concentrate resources on lavish sets and costumes rather than the quality of the storylines, a move designed to appeal to Depression-era female audiences and capitalize on her reputation as the epitome of chic. Eventually, Francis herself became dissatisfied with these vehicles and began openly to feud with Warner Bros., even threatening a lawsuit against them for inferior scripts and treatment. This, in turn, led to her demotion to programmers, such as "Women in the Wind" (1939), and, in the same year, to the termination of her contract.


title: Kay Francis

text: The Independent Theatre Owners Association paid for an advertisement in "The Hollywood Reporter" in May 1938 that included Francis, along with Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Fred Astaire, Mae West, Katharine Hepburn, and others, on a list of stars dubbed "box office poison". After her release from Warner Bros., she was unable to secure another studio contract. Carole Lombard, who had been a supporting player in Francis's 1931 film "Ladies' Man," insisted Francis be cast in her film "In Name Only" (1939). Francis had a supporting role to Lombard and Cary Grant, and it offered her an opportunity to engage in some serious acting. After this, she moved to supporting parts in other films, playing fast-talking, professional women – holding her own against Rosalind Russell in "The Feminine Touch", for example – and mothers opposite rising young stars such as Deanna Durbin.


title: Kay Francis

text: Francis had one lead role at the end of the decade opposite Humphrey Bogart in the gangster film "King of the Underworld," released in 1939. The movie was a remake of Paul Muni's "Dr. Socrates" (1935), with Francis in the role of a doctor who is forced to treat Bogart's injured gangster character, and then gets caught up with the law. Originally titled "Lady Doctor," the film was shelved then retitled "Unlawful" for reshoots to beef up Bogart's role. By the film's release, Warner Bros. had again changed titles to "King of the Underworld" while demoting Francis to second billing.


title: Kay Francis

text: With the start of World War II, Francis joined the war effort doing volunteer work with the Naval Aid Auxiliary, where she was named head of the NAA's Hospital Unit. She also performed extensive war-zone touring, first chronicled in the book "Four Jills in a Jeep", written by fellow volunteer Carole Landis. It became a popular 1944 film of the same name, with a cavalcade of stars and Martha Raye and Mitzi Mayfair joining Landis and Francis to fill out the complement of Jills.


title: Kay Francis

text: At the end of the war, "Four Jills" was given a four-star production by 20th Century Fox, but still needed distribution through Monogram, and the decade found Francis virtually unemployable in Hollywood. She signed a three-film contract with Poverty Row studio Monogram Pictures that gave her production credit as well as star billing. The resulting films "Divorce", "Wife Wanted", and "Allotment Wives" had limited releases in 1945 and 1946.


title: Kay Francis

text: Francis spent the remainder of the 1940s on the stage, appearing with some success in "State of the Union" and touring in various productions of plays, old and new, including "Windy Hill", backed by former Warner Bros. colleague Ruth Chatterton. Declining health, aggravated by an accident in Columbus, Ohio during a tour of "State of the Union" in 1948 when she was badly burned by a radiator, hastened her retirement from show business. This incident was first reported as a fainting spell brought on by an accidental overdose from pills, with a complication of respiratory infection. Her manager and traveling companion had arrived at Francis' hotel room, and in an attempt to revive the unconscious actress with fresh air, burned her legs on the radiator near the window. She recovered in an oxygen tent at the local hospital; soon retiring from acting and then, public life.


title: Kay Francis

text: Francis married three times: James Dwight Francis (1922–1925); William Gaston (1925–1927); Kenneth MacKenna (1931–1934); and it was erroneously reported by Walter Winchell her third marriage was to screenwriter John Meehan around 1929. She had affairs with Maurice Chevalier and Raven Freiherr von Barnekow.


title: Kay Francis

text: Her diaries, which are preserved along with her film-related material in an academic collection at Wesleyan University open to scholars and researchers, paint a picture of a woman whose personal life was often in disarray. She regularly socialized with gay men, one of whom, Anderson Lawler, was reportedly paid $10,000 by Warner Bros. to accompany her to Europe in 1934, to keep her out of mischief.


title: Kay Francis

text: In 1966, Francis was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy, but the cancer had already spread. She died in 1968, aged 63. Her body was immediately cremated; according to her will her ashes were to be disposed of "how the undertaker sees fit." Anxious to be forgotten, she wanted neither services nor grave marker.


title: Kay Francis

text: Having no living immediate family members, Francis left more than $1 million to The Seeing Eye, an organization in New Jersey, which trains guide dogs for the blind.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: Panthera leo leo is a lion subspecies, which is present in West Africa, northern Central Africa and India. In West and Central Africa it is restricted to fragmented and isolated populations with a declining trajectory. It has been referred to as the Northern lion.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: Results of a phylogeographic study indicate that lion populations in West and Central African range countries are genetically close to populations in India, forming a major clade distinct from lion populations in Southern and East Africa. In 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group subsumed lion populations according to the major clades into two subspecies, namely "P. l. leo" and "P. l. melanochaita". Within "P. l. leo" three subclades are clearly distinguishable. One from Asia, which includes the extinct Barbary lions of North Africa, another one from West Africa and a third one from Central Africa, north of the rainforest belt.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: "P. l. leo" is regionally extinct in North Africa, southern Europe, and West Asia. Asia's sole lion population lives in and around Gir National Park, India. The West African lion population is geographically isolated and numbers fewer than 250 mature individuals. It is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: A lion from Constantine, Algeria was the type specimen for the specific name "Felis leo" used by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. In the 19th and 20th centuries, several lion zoological specimens from Africa and Asia were described and proposed as subspecies:


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In 1930, Reginald Innes Pocock subordinated the lion to the genus "Panthera" when he wrote about Asiatic lion specimens in the zoological collection of the British Museum of Natural History.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In the following decades, there has been much debate among zoologists on the validity of proposed subspecies:


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group subsumed lion populations in North, West and Central Africa and Asia to "P. l. leo", based on results of genetic research on lion samples.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: Since the beginning of the 21st century, several phylogenetic studies were conducted to aid clarifying the taxonomic status of lion samples kept in museums and collected in the wild. Scientists analysed between 32 and 480 lion samples from up to 22 countries. They all agree that the lion comprises two evolutionary groups, one in the northern and eastern parts of its historical range, and the other in Southern and East Africa; they are estimated to have genetically diverged between 245,000 and 50,000 years ago. Tropical rainforest and the East African Rift possibly constituted major barriers between the two groups.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: The two lion groups overlap in Ethiopia, as lion samples from Bale Mountains National Park clustered with lion samples from Central Africa, whereas other samples from this country clustered with samples from East Africa. Three clades can be distinguished within "P. l. leo". Lion samples from North Africa and India clustered into a single clade, and the lions in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa also form distinct clades. Analysis of phylogenetic data of 194 lion samples from 22 countries revealed that Central and West African lions diverged about 186,000–128,000 years ago from the "melanochaita" group in East and Southern Africa.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: Samples from West Africa shared alleles with samples from Southern Africa, and samples from Central Africa shared alleles with samples from Asia. This indicates that Central Africa was a melting pot of lion populations after they had become isolated. They possibly migrated through corridors in the Nile Basin during the early Holocene. Genome-wide data of a historical lion sample from Sudan showed that it clustered with "P. l. leo" in mitochondrial DNA-based phylogenies, but with a high affinity with "P. l. melanochaita". The taxonomic position of lions in Central Africa may therefore require revision.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: The lion's fur varies in colour from light buff to dark brown. It has rounded ears and a black tail tuft. Average head-to-body length of male lions is with a weight of . Females are smaller and less heavy.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: Zoological lion specimens range in colour from light to dark tawny. Male skins have short manes, light manes, dark manes or long manes. Taxonomists recognised that neither skin nor mane colour and length of lions can be adduced as distinct subspecific characteristics. Then they turned to measuring and comparing lion skulls and found that skull length of Barbary and Indian lion samples does not differ significantly, ranging from in females and in males.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: A few lion specimens from West Africa obtained by museums were described as having shorter manes than lions from other African regions. In general, the West African lion is similar in general appearance and size as lions in other parts of Africa and Asia.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: Today, "P. l. leo" occurs in West and Central Africa and India. It is regionally extinct in Gambia, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, the Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: Contemporary lion distribution and habitat quality in savannahs of West and Central Africa was assessed in 2005, and Lion Conservation Units (LCU) mapped. Educated guesses for size of populations in these LCUs ranged from 3,274 to 3,909 individuals between 2002 and 2012.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: The last populations of the West African lion clade are surviving in a few protected areas from Senegal in the west to Nigeria in the east. This population has lost 99% of its former range. Between 246 and 466 lions live in the WAP-Complex, a large system of protected areas formed mainly by W, Arli, and Pendjari National Parks in Burkina Faso, Benin, and Niger. It is regionally extinct in Mauritania, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, and Togo, and possibly extinct in Guinea and Ghana.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: The border between the West African and the Central African lion clade is following largely the lower Niger River, which seems to act as a permanent barrier for gene flow.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: The Asiatic lion is the last surviving population of this clade. Once also found in the Middle East, it is nowadays confined in the wild to Gujarat in India. Genetically, the extinct lions from Northern Africa, formally termed as Barbary lions, fall into the same clade as the Asiatic lion. Therefore, the range of this lion clade encompassed historically North Africa, southeastern Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. In these regions, lions occurred in:


title: Panthera leo leo

text: The Asiatic lion population survives in Gir Forest National Park and remnant forest habitats in the two hill systems of Gir and Girnar that comprise Gujarat's largest tracts of dry deciduous forest, thorny forest and savanna. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List because of its small size and area of occupancy.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: Male Asiatic lions are solitary or associate with up to three males forming a loose pride. Pairs of males rest, hunt and feed together, and display marking behaviour at the same sites. Females associate with up to 12 females forming a stronger pride together with their cubs. They share large carcasses among each other, but seldom with males. Female and male lions usually associate only for a few days when mating, but rarely travel and feed together.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In Pendjari National Park, groups of lions range from 1–8 individuals. Outside the National Park, groups are smaller and with a single male.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In Waza National Park, three female and two male lions were radio-collared in 1999 and tracked until 2001. The females moved in home ranges of between and stayed inside the park during most of the survey period. The males used home ranges of between , both inside and outside the park, where they repeatedly killed livestock. One was killed and the other shot at by local people. After the pellets were removed, he recovered and shifted his home range to inside the park, and was not observed killing livestock any more.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In general, lions prefer large prey species within a weight range of . They hunt large ungulates in the range of including gemsbok ("Oryx gazella"), Cape buffalo ("Syncerus caffer"), blue wildebeest ("Connochaetes taurinus"), giraffe ("Giraffa camelopardalis"), common eland ("Tragelaphus oryx"), greater kudu ("T. strepsiceros"), nyala ("T. angasii"), roan antelope ("Hippotragus equinus"), sable antelope ("H. niger"), zebra ("Equus burchellii"), bushpig ("Potamochoerus larvatus"), common warthog ("Phacochoerus africanus"), hartebeest ("Alcephalus buselaphus"), common tsessebe ("Damaliscus lunatus"), Thomson's gazelle ("Eudorcas thomsonii"), waterbuck ("Kobus ellipsiprymnus") and kob ("K. kob").


title: Panthera leo leo

text: Analysis of 119 faecal samples of lions collected in Cameroon's Faro National Park revealed that lions preyed foremost on kob and harnessed bushbuck ("Tragelaphus scriptus"), and to a lesser extent also on waterbuck, crested porcupine ("Hystrix cristata"), bushpig, roan antelope, olive baboon ("Papio anubis") and oribi ("Ourebia ourebi").


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In India's Gir Forest National Park, lions predominantly kill chital ("Axis axis"), Sambar deer ("Rusa unicolor"), nilgai ("Boselaphus tragocamelus"), cattle ("Bos taurus"), domestic buffalo ("Bubalus bubalis") and less frequently also wild boar ("Sus scrofa"). Outside the protected area where wild prey species do not occur, lions prey on buffalo and cattle, rarely also on Arabian camel ("Camelus dromedarius"). They kill most prey less than away from water bodies, charge prey from close range and drag carcasses into dense cover.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: Lions probably prey on livestock when wild prey species occur at lower densities, especially during the wet season. An interview survey among livestock owners in six villages in Waza National Park's vicinity revealed that lions attack cattle mostly during the rainy season when wild prey disperses away from artificial waterholes.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In Africa, lions are killed pre-emptively or in retaliation for preying on livestock. Populations are also threatened by depletion of prey base, loss and conversion of habitat.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: The lion population in West Africa is fragmented and isolated, comprising fewer than 250 mature individuals. It is threatened by poaching and illegal trade of body parts. Lion body parts from Benin are smuggled to Niger, Nigeria, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Guinea, and from Burkina Faso to Benin, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Guinea.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In Nigeria, the isolated lion population in Gashaka Gumti National Park is hunted and poisoned by local people.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: The lion population in Central Africa is threatened by loss of habitat and prey base and trophy hunting. Between seven and 12 lion trophies were exported from Cameroon every year between 1985 and 2010.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In Bénoué National Park, local people were observed at a lion kill cutting off chunks of meat. Local people living in the vicinity of the protected area accounted in interviews that lions frequently attack livestock during the dry season. They use poison on carcasses to kill carnivores. In Waza National Park, two of four radio-collared lions were killed between 2007 and 2008, and probably also an adult female, two other adult males and three cubs. Nomadic herders use bow and arrows poisoned with cobra venom to kill lions in retaliation for attacks on livestock.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In northern parts of Cameroon, increased migration of people from Nigeria following the political insecurity in the region posed a threat to the area's lion population.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: Poaching of lions by paramilitary forces has been reported by local people living in the vicinity of Ethiopia's Gambella National Park. Local people around Chebera Churchura National Park kill lions, leopards ("Panthera pardus") and spotted hyenas ("Crocuta crocuta") using traps to retaliate against attacks on their livestock.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: Surveys in the Central African Republic's Chinko area revealed that the number of lions decreased significantly between 2012 and 2017 after transhumant pastoralists from the border area with Sudan moved into the area. Rangers found multiple lion cadavers and confiscated large amounts of poison in the camps of livestock herders. They were accompanied by armed merchants who also engaged in poaching large herbivores, sale of bushmeat and trading lion skins.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In India, the lion is protected, and included in CITES Appendix I. African lions are included in CITES Appendix II. In 2004, it was proposed in 2004 to list all lion populations in CITES Appendix I to reduce exports of lion trophies and implement a stricter permission process, due to the negative impact of trophy hunting.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In 2006, a Lion Conservation Strategy for West and Central Africa was developed in cooperation between IUCN regional offices and several wildlife conservation organisations. The strategy envisages to maintain sufficient habitat, ensure a sufficient wild prey base, make lion-human coexistence sustainable and reduce factors that lead to further fragmentation of populations.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: Surveys and interviews with herders around protected areas revealed that improved enclosures for livestock significantly decreased depredation by lions, and hence contributed to mitigating human-lion conflict.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: The effect of lion trophy hunting and whether it is a sustainable conservation measure, has been discussed controversially.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In 2016, a group of authors recommended a quota for lion trophy hunting of one lion per in the WAP protected area complex, and to refrain from imposing an import embargo of lion trophies from this region.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: This recommendation was questioned and strongly opposed, with the argument that the estimate for lion population size in the WAP region is not reliable and therefore the suggested quota inappropriate.


title: Panthera leo leo

text: In 2006, 1258 captive lions were registered in the International Species Information System, including 13 individuals originating from Senegal to Cameroon, 115 from India and 970 with uncertain origin. In addition, several lions kept in Ethiopia's Addis Ababa Zoo were thought to be genetically similar to wild lions from Cameroon and Chad. They also differed from lions kept at Sana'a Zoo, which were suspected to be of Ethiopian origin. Genetic research did not corroborate this result, but placed these lions in "P. l. melanochaita".


title: Antitheism

text: Antitheism, also spelled anti-theism, is the philosophical position that theism should be opposed. The term has had a range of applications. In secular contexts, it typically refers to direct opposition to the belief in any deity.


title: Antitheism

text: The word "antitheism" (or hyphenated "anti-theism") has been recorded in English since 1788. The etymological roots of the word are the Greek "anti" and "theos."


title: Antitheism

text: The "Oxford English Dictionary" defines "antitheist" as "One opposed to belief in the existence of a god". The earliest citation given for this meaning dates from 1833. The term was likely coined by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.


title: Antitheism

text: "Antitheism" has been adopted as a label by those who regard theism as dangerous, destructive, or encouraging of harmful behavior. Christopher Hitchens (2001) wrote:


title: Antitheism

text: Other definitions of antitheism include that of the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain (1953), for whom it is "an active struggle against everything that reminds us of God".


title: Antitheism

text: The definition of Robert Flint (1877), Professor of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh was similar. Flint's 1877 Baird Lecture was titled "Anti-Theistic Theories". He used ""antitheism"" as a very general umbrella term for all opposition to his own form of theism, which he defined as


title: Antitheism

text: However, Flint also acknowledged that antitheism is typically understood differently from how he defines it. In particular, he notes that it has been used as a subdivision of atheism, descriptive of the view that theism has been disproven, rather than as the more general term that Flint preferred. He rejected the alternative "non-theistic"


title: Antitheism

text: Opposition to the existence of a god or gods is frequently referred to as "nontheism", or "dystheism", or "misotheism".


title: Antitheism

text: Examples of belief systems founded on the principle of opposition to the existence of a god or gods include some forms of Atheistic Satanism and maltheism.


title: Antitheism

text: Christopher New (1993) proposed an altered definition of the word "antitheism" as part of a thought experiment: He imagines what arguments for the existence of an "evil" god would look like, and writes


title: Ari'el Stachel

text: Ari'el Stachel (born July 29, 1991) is an American actor. He won the 2018 Tony Award for Featured Actor in a Musical for his role in "The Band's Visit".


title: Ari'el Stachel

text: Stachel was born and raised in Berkeley, California. His father, Aaron Yeshayahu, the son of Yemenite Jewish immigrants, was born and raised in Israel; his mother, Laura Stachel, is an Ashkenazi Jew from New York. The two met on a kibbutz.


title: Ari'el Stachel

text: Stachel has said that while growing up, he was uncomfortable with his ethnic heritage. His parents divorced when he was young, and he chose to use his mother's last name in part to avoid being associated with his father's Middle Eastern background. He was in fifth grade when the 9/11 terror attacks occurred, and rather than be identified as part Arab, he told friends he was half Black. As a teenager, he avoided being seen in public with his father, and even excluded him from his high school graduation, as he "didn’t want to be seen with somebody who looked like an Arab." He finally embraced his heritage after being cast in "The Band's Visit".


title: Ari'el Stachel

text: Stachel had his first role in a school musical at age 15, after which he left Berkeley High School to attend the Oakland School for the Arts. He went on to study drama at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts.


title: Ari'el Stachel

text: Following graduation, Stachel landed several stage roles and appeared on the CBS drama "Blue Bloods" and the Netflix series "Jessica Jones" before reading the script for "The Band's Visit". He auditioned seven times over nine months before landing the role, for which he received Lortel Award and Drama Desk Award nominations before winning the Tony Award. In an emotional acceptance speech, Stachel thanked his parents, acknowledging his long struggle to accept his heritage, and expressed his joy at being part of a generation able to represent Middle Easterners in a positive fashion. "I want any kid that's watching to know that your biggest obstacle may turn into your purpose", he said. In 2019, Stachel began starring in the LGBTQ+ fantasy podcast "The Two Princes" as Prince Amir.


title: Ari'el Stachel

text: In 2020, Stachel was set to appear in a starring role alongside David Hyde Pierce in The Public Theater's new musical adaptation of the 2007 film "The Visitor". Stachel, who has Yemeni and Ashkenazi Jewish roots, was cast to play the character of Tarek, an undocumented Syrian refugee. Stachel publicly talked about his frustration over his character’s accent. During an interview with Playbill, Stachel stated his intent to “speak English without any hint that [his character] was not raised in the United States,” unlike in the original film. Due to COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, the show’s Off-Broadway premiere was postponed. A few weeks into lockdowns, The Public Theater released a video of a musical number from the show that featured lead vocals from Stachel. By October 2021, the show was set to return to the stage for its official opening. However, a few days before previews were slated to begin, the show was delayed to address depictions of race and Arab-American representation. A few days later, it was announced that Stachel and The Public Theater's leadership had made a “mutual decision” that Stachel would depart the production. Stachel was replaced by his understudy, Ahmad Maksoud.


title: Ari'el Stachel

text: Stachel is in a relationship with KiKi Layne, whom he met on the set of "Don't Worry Darling" in the fall of 2020.


title: Münchhausen trilemma

text: In epistemology, the Münchhausen trilemma, also commonly known as the Agrippan trilemma, is a thought experiment intended to demonstrate the theoretical impossibility of proving any truth, even in the fields of logic and mathematics, without appealing to accepted assumptions. If it is asked how any given proposition is known to be true, proof may be provided. Yet that same question can be asked of the proof, and any subsequent proof. The Münchhausen trilemma is that there are only three ways of completing a proof:


title: Münchhausen trilemma

text: The name "Münchhausen-Trilemma" was coined by the German philosopher Hans Albert in 1968 in reference to a "trilemma" of "dogmatism versus infinite regress versus psychologism" used by Karl Popper. It is a reference to the problem of "bootstrapping", based on the story of Baron Munchausen (in German, "Münchhausen") pulling himself and the horse on which he was sitting out of a mire by his own hair. Like Munchausen, who cannot make progress because he has no solid ground to stand on, any purported justification of all knowledge must fail, because it must start from a position of no knowledge, and therefore cannot make progress. It must either start with some knowledge, as with dogmatism, not start at all, as with infinite regress, or be a circular argument, justified only by itself and have no solid foundation, much like the absurdity of Münchhausen pulling himself out of the mire without any independent support.


title: Münchhausen trilemma

text: It is also known as Agrippa's trilemma or the Agrippan trilemma after a similar argument reported by Sextus Empiricus, which was attributed to Agrippa the Skeptic by Diogenes Laërtius. Sextus' argument, however, consists of five (not three) "modes". Popper in Logic of Scientific Discovery mentions neither Sextus nor Agrippa, but instead attributes his trilemma to German philosopher Jakob Friedrich Fries, leading some to call it Fries's trilemma as a result.


title: Münchhausen trilemma

text: In contemporary epistemology, advocates of coherentism are supposed to accept the "circular" horn of the trilemma; foundationalists rely on the axiomatic argument. The view that accepts infinite regress is called infinitism.


title: Münchhausen trilemma

text: Karl Popper's suggestion was to accept the trilemma as unsolvable and work with knowledge by way of conjecture and criticism.


title: Münchhausen trilemma

text: The following tropes or "modes" for Pyrrhonism are given by Sextus Empiricus, in his "Outlines of Pyrrhonism". According to Sextus, they are attributed "to the more recent Pyrrhonists" and by Diogenes Laërtius attributed to Agrippa the Skeptic. The tropes are:


title: Münchhausen trilemma

text: With reference to these five tropes, the first and third are a short summary of the ten modes of Aenesidemus which were the basis of earlier Pyrrhonism. The three additional ones show a progress in the Pyrrhonist system, and a transition from the common objections derived from the fallibility of sense and opinion, to more abstract and metaphysical grounds of skepticism.


title: Münchhausen trilemma

text: According to Victor Brochard, "the five tropes can be regarded as the most radical and most precise formulation of skepticism that has ever been given. In a sense, they are still irresistible today."


title: Münchhausen trilemma

text: The first two possibilities are rejected by Fries as unsatisfactory, requiring his adopting the third option. Karl Popper argued that a way to avoid the trilemma was to use an intermediate approach incorporating some dogmatism, some infinite regress, and some perceptual experience.


title: Münchhausen trilemma

text: The argument proposed by Hans Albert runs as follows: All of the only three possible attempts to get a certain justification must fail:


title: Münchhausen trilemma

text: Albert stressed repeatedly that there is no limitation of the Münchhausen trilemma to deductive conclusions. The verdict concerns also inductive, causal, transcendental, and all otherwise structured justifications. They all will be in vain.


title: Münchhausen trilemma

text: Therefore, certain justification is impossible to attain. Once having given up the classical idea of certain knowledge, one can stop the process of justification where one wants to stop, presupposed one is ready to start critical thinking at this point always anew if necessary.


title: Münchhausen trilemma

text: The failure of proving exactly any truth as expressed by the Münchhausen trilemma does not have to lead to dismissal of objectivity, as with relativism. One example of an alternative is the fallibilism of Karl Popper and Hans Albert, accepting that certainty is impossible, but that it is best to get as close as possible to truth, while remembering our uncertainty.


title: Münchhausen trilemma

text: In Albert's view, the impossibility to prove any certain truth is not in itself a certain truth. After all, one needs to assume some basic rules of logical inference to derive his result, and in doing so must either abandon the pursuit of "certain" justification, as above, or attempt to justify these rules, etc. He suggests that it has to be taken as true as long as nobody has come forward with a truth which is scrupulously justified as a certain truth. Several philosophers defied Albert's challenge; his responses to such criticisms can be found in his long addendum to his "Treatise on Critical Reason" and later articles.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Fantasy football is a game in which the participants serve as owners and general managers of virtual professional American football teams. The competitors select their rosters by participating in a draft in which all relevant National Football League (NFL) players are available. Fantasy points are awarded in weekly matchups based on the actual performances of football players in real-world competition. The game typically involves the NFL, but can also involve other leagues, such as the Canadian Football League or NCAA.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Fantasy football is often played in small groups of mutually familiar individuals who may or may not be playing for money. However, online fantasy contests, particularly those run by daily fantasy companies, regularly involve large groups of people who otherwise do not know each other contributing to a shared betting pool. The structure of these games has led some jurisdictions to characterize and regulate online fantasy contents as a form of gambling.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Modern fantasy football can be traced back to Wilfred "Bill" Winkenbach, an Oakland, California businessman and limited partner in the Oakland Raiders. In a New York City hotel room during a 1962 Raiders cross-country trip, Winkenbach, along with Raiders public relations employee Bill Tunnel and "Oakland Tribune" reporter Scotty Stirling, developed the rules that would eventually be the basis of modern fantasy football.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: The inaugural league was called the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League (GOPPPL), and the first draft took place in Winkenbach's home in Oakland in August 1963. The league consisted of eight members, made up of administrative affiliates of the American Football League, pro football journalists, and individuals who had purchased or sold 10 season tickets for the Raiders' 1963 season. Each roster consisted of two quarterbacks, four halfbacks, two fullbacks, four wide receivers or tight ends, two kick/punt returners, two kickers, two defensive backs or linebackers, and two defensive linemen. The scoring system was entirely dependent on real-life scoring. The original system rewarded 25 points for a touchdown pass, rush, or reception, 25 for a field goal, 10 for an extra point, and 200 for a kickoff, punt, or interception that was returned for a touchdown. As of 2015, the GOPPPL was still active and had maintained the original scoring system.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: In 1969, Andy Mousalimas, an original creator of GOPPPL and participant in the inaugural draft, brought the game to his Oakland sports bar, the King's X, where the first public fantasy football league was founded. From this point onward, the idea spread by word of mouth when the patrons of other Bay Area bars visited the King's X for trivia contests.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Fantasy football slowly spread across the country in the following decades. In 1980, a group of six students at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio founded the Indoor Football League (IFL), one of the oldest fantasy football leagues still in operation today. Charter members Tom Spear and Jeff Kornreich came up with the idea of forming a league after reading an article in the September 1980 issue of "Inside Sports" magazine that outlined the basic concept of fantasy football. All of the IFL's original members are still actively involved, and the league's trophy is still engraved by the same company that made it in 1980.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: In 1983, the first East Coast fantasy football league was formed at Marist School in Atlanta by a group of high school students. In the early days of the league, before statistics were readily available on the Internet, league members would call TNT basketball sportscaster and Marist School graduate Ernie Johnson, then working at WSB-TV in Atlanta, to receive statistical updates from Sunday games before the box scores appeared in Monday newspapers. The league remains in continuous operation, with two of the original members continuing to participate into the 2020s.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: In 1985, the Grandstand Sports Services launched the first nationally available fantasy football leagues online through Q-Link (later America Online). In 1987, "Fantasy Football Index", the first national magazine dedicated to fantasy football, was launched by Ian Allan and Bruce Taylor.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: The first national newspaper fantasy football competition was Pigskin Playoff, developed by Robert Barbiere, Lee Marc, and Brad Wendkos. The weekly game was launched in 1990 in a number of newspapers throughout the United States, including the "Arizona Republic", the "Detroit Free Press", the "Los Angeles Times", and the "Miami Herald". Players chose their teams by calling a toll-free phone number and entering four-digit codes for each of their selections. Pigskin Playoff served as an early version of today's daily fantasy football by rewarding each week's highest-scoring participant with a trip to Hawaii.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: In 1997, CBS launched an online fantasy football competition, with other sports networks and websites quickly following suit. Yahoo was the first site to launch a free competition, giving it an advantage over its industry competitors. The NFL launched its own official game on the league's website in 2010. Online growth has fueled both the fantasy football industry and interest in the NFL itself. As of 2017, 59.3 million people played fantasy sports in the United States and Canada, per the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association, and around four out of five fantasy participants played fantasy football.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: On May 27, 2022, Cincinnati Reds player Tommy Pham slapped Joc Pederson of the San Francisco Giants in the face prior to a game; he would later receive a three-game suspension and a $5,000 fine. Pham said that the slap was prompted by his belief that Pederson had broken the rules of a fantasy football league in which they had both participated during the previous football season. Pham said that he did not regret the slap, stating: "It's a matter of principle, man."


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: A fantasy football league may be organized in a variety of ways. The most popular league type is head-to-head, in which each team is matched up against an opponent each week, with the team that scores the most fantasy points earning a win in the standings. A less common form of league is a total points league, in which the league standings are determined by the number of points each team scores over an entire season. In addition to scoring variations, league organization may also differ based on the structure of each team's roster.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Before each season, fantasy football leagues hold a draft in which each team drafts NFL players or, in the case of dynasty leagues, NFL rookies. These players are kept on the roster of the team that drafted them unless they are traded for other players or dropped, whereby they enter a pool of unowned players that any team may claim. The order of draft picks may be determined randomly or by the league standings from the previous year, in which the team with the worst record picks first, followed by the team with the second-worst record, etc. In some cases, owners retain the same draft position in each round. In contrast, in a traditional "serpentine" or "snake" draft, owners draft players in a "snake" method, in which the owner who picks first in the odd rounds picks last in the even rounds, the owner who picks second in the odd rounds picks second to last in the even rounds, etc. in the interest of fairness.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: In an auction draft, each owner has a budget which he or she must use to purchase all of his or her players in an auction format. Owners take turns nominating players for open bid, and the owner who bids the highest on each player receives that player, reducing his or her remaining budget accordingly. One proposed advantage of auction drafts is their ability to offer every owner equal access to every player, whereas in a traditional format, a certain owner's desired player may be selected by another team before his or her turn to pick.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Drafts can be conducted in "live" or "auto" formats. Live drafts involve team owners selecting players in real time, while auto drafts are those in which selections are made automatically by computer based on pre-draft rankings set by each owner. Often, owners who are not present at the chosen time of the draft will "auto-draft" while the rest of the league makes their selections live.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Whether live or auto, the vast majority of fantasy football drafts take place online, but some leagues hold in-person drafts in which selections are made on computers or physical draft boards.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: A variety of strategies may be employed by owners when making their selections. Fantasy football websites routinely release projections for the number of points each player will score during an upcoming season. The concept of value-based drafting entails comparing the projected fantasy point value for a given player and comparing this value to those of other players at his position. A player with a high value and a low average draft position (ADP) is likely to be undervalued by fantasy owners; the concept of value-based drafting is designed to find such players. Some positions are considered more valuable than others, with running backs, wide receivers, and quarterbacks often selected in early rounds and team defenses and kickers almost always selected in late rounds. The type of league may also influence draft strategy. In leagues with points per reception (PPR) scoring, running backs who often catch passes are considered more valuable than they would be in a league with standard scoring.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Each team is allowed a set number of players on each roster, as well as a specified number of starters at each position that can be used in a matchup. Each week, owners determine which players will start and which will be "benched." Just like in real football, players who are usually benched can become starters for various reasons: due to a starting player's injury, poor performance, or if the starter's NFL team has a bye that week. Whether to sit or start a player is also based on strategic considerations, such as the player's past and expected performance, defensive match-ups, and the team he is playing that week.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Each team owner must designate which players from the overall roster will be starters each week. Only players in the starting lineup may earn fantasy points. The following is a standard starting lineup configuration and is used as the default setting on NFL.com, ESPN, and Yahoo except where noted:


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: There are many variants on the traditional roster alignment. The number of bench and injured reserve slots can be adjusted, as well as the ability to play a tight end in the flex position. Some leagues have a superflex position, in which any offensive player, including quarterbacks, may fill the slot. Other leagues have a two-quarterback requirement for a starting lineup. In individual defensive player (IDP) leagues, the defensive portion of rosters is composed of individual players from various teams rather than an entire NFL team's defensive and special teams unit.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: League managers earn fantasy points based on the performance of their starting players' performances in NFL games. Players accumulate points based purely on their statistical output. This means that, for example, each real-life yard gained or touchdown scored correlates to a certain number of fantasy points. On the other hand, yards lost and turnovers result in negative fantasy points as well.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: While rare, it is possible for players to earn points for plays not traditionally associated with their position. For example, a wide receiver who completes a pass would earn the same number of points as a quarterback completing the same pass.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: A key distinction in scoring systems is between standard and points per reception (PPR) scoring. Leagues with standard scoring award no points for receptions, though players still earn points for receiving yards gained. PPR leagues award one point for each reception, while half-PPR leagues award half a point. PPR leagues are higher-scoring and place a greater emphasis on wide receivers, tight ends, and running backs who catch a large number of passes, while half-PPR leagues attempt to provide more balance between rushing and receiving. In a survey conducted by Apex Fantasy Leagues, PPR scoring was found to be the most popular scoring system. Many major fantasy football websites use PPR as their default setting, including ESPN and NFL.com.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: The following is the default scoring system on NFL.com and is identical to the default scoring systems of ESPN and Yahoo except where noted. Negative points are awarded for yards lost at the same rate that positive points are awarded for yards gained.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: A team defense can also gain or lose fantasy points based on the number of real-life points that they allow. The following is the default defensive scoring system on NFL.com and Yahoo.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: A pure-scoring system awards fantasy points based solely on touchdowns, field goals, and extra points scored by a team's players. Many of the original fantasy football leagues were pure-scoring leagues as this provided for easier tracking of team points throughout the season. As the game matured and moved online, tracking yardage became easier and more sophisticated scoring configurations were adopted. In pure-yardage leagues, points may only be scored by accumulating passing, rushing, or receiving yards.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: An alternative method for scoring defense is individual defensive player (IDP) scoring. Rather than awarding points for the on-field actions of entire defensive units, IDP scoring awards points for plays made by individual players. Such plays may include tackles, sacks, interceptions, quarterback hits, safeties, and other defensive statistics.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Most fantasy websites allow leagues to customize their own scoring options. Some leagues award bonus points to players for exceptional performances. For example, NFL.com allows leagues to customize scoring to award bonus points for a player who passes for over 300 yards in a game or scores a touchdown of over 40 yards, among others. NFL.com also allows players to earn points in statistical categories that are not traditionally a part of fantasy scoring, such as pass attempts or yards gained on kickoff and punt returns. In addition to earning or losing fantasy points based on real-life points allowed, team defenses may also earn or lose points based on real-life yards allowed. ESPN even allows custom scoring for punting yards, touchbacks, and punting average.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: According to the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association (FSGA), of the 59.3 million people who played fantasy sports in the US and Canada in 2017, 43.2 million were American adults. In 2019, 45.9 million American adults participated. The FSGA estimated that 19% of American adults played fantasy sports in 2019, compared to 13% in 2014. A 2019 FSGA survey found that 81% of fantasy sports players were male, 50% were between the ages of 18 and 34 (with an average age of 37.7), 67% were employed full-time, and 47% made more than $75,000 per year. A 2015 analysis found that 89.8% were white and 51.5% were unmarried.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Many fantasy leagues require an entry fee that is given to or used to fund prizes for the top player or players in the league. Daily fantasy platforms, such as FanDuel, manage games with thousands of players and collect a percentage of each entry fee before distributing winnings. For example, FanDuel's revenue includes 10% of its entry fee intake.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Fantasy players also contribute to the economy via spending on industry products and services, such as advanced scouting reports and player rankings. In 2012, an estimated $1.67 billion was spent on fantasy sports in the United States and Canada, not including league entry fees. In 2019, the size of the American and Canadian fantasy sports industry was estimated at more than $7 billion by the FSGA.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Advertising is one of the largest sources of fantasy football revenue. Many sports websites that offer free entry into leagues use advertising to support their fantasy offerings. Though difficult to quantify, revenue generated by ads on fantasy football programming is estimated at $2 to $5 billion annually. This form of revenue can be especially lucrative because fantasy team managers are often frequent Internet users. On average, fantasy players generated four times more page views and spent six times as long on NFL.com than non-fantasy players in 2012.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Fantasy football has given rise to a number of complementary and derivative industries. Subscription-based information sites, such as Rotoworld, offer advanced data and player rankings marketed as providing an informational advantage. Fantasy-specific escrow companies, such as LeagueSafe, may hold league entry fees in secure accounts until the end of the season. Other websites offer the ability to have disputes between players solved by a third party via fantasy football arbitration.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: The rise of fantasy football has contributed to a rise in interest in applying high-level mathematics and computer science to the fantasy industry. A small number of fantasy players, usually with advanced degrees in mathematics, statistics, or computer science, apply algorithms and advanced statistics in order to hypothesize the best possible lineup for a given week or season. These advanced players are often far more successful than casual fans; a 2015 study found that 91% of daily fantasy baseball profits over the first half of the season were won by the top 1.3% of players.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Fantasy sports are generally considered to be a form of gambling, though they are far less strictly regulated than other forms of sports betting. In the United States, Montana is the only state with a prohibition against online fantasy sports that is codified in statute. Louisiana and Arizona, states with bans previously not explicitly outlined by law, launched online fantasy offerings in their states in 2021. In contrast, as of January 2022, only 30 US states have operational legalized sports betting. Unlike traditional sports betting, fantasy football is generally viewed as a "game of skill," rather than a "game of chance," thus exempting it from gambling bans and regulations in many jurisdictions.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: As of January 2022, daily fantasy sports operate in 45 US states, as well as in several other countries around the world.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: According to a 2019 study by the FSGA, 19% of American adults participate in sports betting, and the same percentage of American adults participate in fantasy sports.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Fantasy football affects viewership for the NFL, as fantasy owners have rooting interests that go beyond those of traditional fans. While most individuals will follow a specific team, fantasy players follow the entire league due to the nature of the game, in which players on their roster may play for any team in the NFL. Despite leading to some conflict of interests between rooting interests and fantasy success, fantasy football has been shown to have a positive impact on NFL spectatorship.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: NFL executives have recognized the importance of fantasy football's success to the league. A 2019 survey found that people who had played fantasy football were more than twice as likely to follow the NFL "very closely" or "somewhat closely" than those who had not. Nearly a quarter of fantasy players reported that the primary reason that they watched NFL games was to keep up with their fantasy teams. Fantasy participants are also reported to attend 0.22 to 0.57 more NFL games in person per season than non-fantasy players. The NFL entered into a reported five-year, $600 million deal with Sprint in 2006 that was driven at least in part by fantasy sports, allowing subscribers to draft and monitor their teams using their cellphones. In 2011, the NFL directed teams to show fantasy statistics during games on stadium video boards.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: NFL players have displayed mixed reactions on the impact of fantasy football on fans' habits and preferences. In 2006, then-Denver Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer told ESPN, "I think it's ruined the game" due to fan allegiance shifting away from teams and towards individual player performance. Then-New York Giants running back Tiki Barber said that "in a game solely designed around the team concept, it's nice to have some individual recognition every now and then. Fantasy football does that." Fans frequently ask players on their fantasy rosters to score more often; Peyton Manning reported that only autograph requests exceeded fan requests for "more fantasy touchdowns" from him. Several NFL players have stated that they play fantasy football as well.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: A key component of fantasy football team management is tracking player injuries throughout the season. Critics charge that this leads to fantasy players being more concerned with the amount of game time missed by an injured player than the nature or extent of the injury. David Chao said that when he was team doctor for the San Diego Chargers, "The first 10 to 12 years, I would be asked 'Is LT (LaDainian Tomlinson) healthy?' to help our team win this Sunday. The last five years there, the question would be 'Is (Antonio) Gates healthy? He’s on my fantasy team!'"


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: While its precise impact is difficult to quantify, estimates of American workplace productivity lost due to fantasy football range from $6.5 billion to $17 billion annually. As of 2019, an estimated 7.5 million Americans play fantasy football at work. However, according to John Challenger, an executive at a research firm that produces an annual report on the subject, measuring the precise impact of fantasy football on employers is difficult because "there is no way to determine how many people are managing their teams from work or how long they are spending on these activities."


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: Researchers have noted that fantasy football's benefits towards motivation and workplace culture may offset these losses. "It might cost employers a little bit in lost productivity, but we think it makes up for it in spades in terms of building up the culture in an organization," said Andrew Challenger, whose firm estimated in 2019 that fantasy football cost employers $9 billion. "It helps transform jobs that have become more and more transactional into communities."


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: The FX show The League is a prime example of "fantasy football hooliganism," as it is one of the few attempts by the entertainment industry to depict the experience of fantasy football. The show's plot focuses on a group of friends playing in a fantasy football league as they try to win at all costs. The show ran for 7 seasons from 2009 to 2015 and featured cameos from various NFL players including Jason Witten, Marshawn Lynch and Antonio Gates, amongst others.


title: Fantasy football (gridiron)

text: There are also many celebrity fantasy football leagues, some of which are played for charities and other notable causes. One particular example of this is the AGBO Superhero league which was started by The Russo Brothers and features multiple actors known for playing superheroes such as Ryan Reynolds, Chris Hemsworth, and Tom Holland along with many more. Each participant plays for a specific organization with the winner's charity receiving a donation for $100,000. Additionally, the team owners release weekly trash talk videos in which they call out their opponent for the week on social media and on the league website, which is updated weekly with standings and other information.


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: Elvis' Christmas Album (also reissued as It's Christmas Time) is the third studio album and first Christmas album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley on RCA Victor, LOC -1035, a deluxe limited edition, released October 15, 1957, and recorded at Radio Recorders in Hollywood. It has been reissued in numerous different formats since its first release. It spent four weeks at No. 1 on the "Billboard" Top Pop Albums chart, and was the first of two Christmas-themed albums Presley would record, the other being "Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas", released in 1971. The publication "Music Vendor" listed "Elvis' Christmas Album" on their singles charts for two weeks in December 1957 – January 1958, with a peak position of No. 49.


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), "Elvis' Christmas Album" along with its reissues has shipped at least 17 million copies in the United States. It is the first Presley title to attain Diamond certification by the RIAA, and is also the best-selling Christmas album of all time in the United States. With total sales of more 20 million copies worldwide, it remains the world's best-selling Christmas album and one of the best-selling albums of all time.


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: The original 1957 LP consisted of six popular Christmas songs, two traditional Christmas carols and four gospel songs which had been previously released on the EP "Peace in the Valley", catalogue EPA 4054, issued March 1957, peaking at No. 3 on the Pop albums chart and at No. 39 on the singles chart. The two album sides are divided into a program of secular Christmas songs on side one, with two traditional Christmas carols and the gospel numbers on side two. These included two spirituals by innovator Thomas A. Dorsey, "Peace in the Valley" and "Take My Hand, Precious Lord". Coincidentally, "A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra", released the previous month, was also divided into secular and traditional sides.


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: While most of the songs selected were traditional Christmas fare, such as "White Christmas" and "Silent Night", two new songs by regular suppliers of material for Presley were commissioned. One was "Santa Bring My Baby Back (to Me)" and the other (selected by Presley to open the album), was a blues-based rock and roll number, "Santa Claus Is Back in Town", written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. This writer/producer team was responsible for some of 1950s rhythm and blues and rock and roll's most finely-honed satire in their work with the Coasters, as well as penning "Hound Dog" for Willie Mae Thornton and providing Presley with some of his biggest hits, including "Jailhouse Rock" and "Don't".


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: Presley asked the pair to come up with another Christmas song during sessions for the album; within a few minutes, they had the song written and ready for recording. Originally titled "Christmas Blues", this slyly risqué number is given a full-throated treatment by Presley who, aided by the gritty ensemble playing from his band, was determined to ensure that "this" Christmas album would not be easily ignored. Much of the remaining program was performed in a more traditional manner appropriate to the solemnity of Christmas, although Presley's innate sense of occasion shone through on his left-of-center reading of Ernest Tubb's 1949 hit, "Blue Christmas".


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: The Bing Crosby holiday perennial "White Christmas", which appeared every year on the "Billboard" charts from 1942 to 1962, became the center of controversy upon the album's release, with calls by the song's composer Irving Berlin to have the song, and the entire album, banned from radio airplay. After hearing Presley's version of his song, which Berlin saw as a "profane parody of his cherished yuletide standard", he ordered his staff in New York to telephone radio stations across the United States, demanding the song be discontinued from radio play. While most US radio stations ignored Berlin's request, at least one disc jockey was fired for playing a song from the album, and most Canadian stations refused to play the album.


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: The controversy was, ironically, fueled by Presley's performance of the song in a style mirroring the version by Clyde McPhatter's group, The Drifters, which had been a Top 10 hit on the R&B singles chart in 1954 and 1955. Unlike Presley's recording, however, their version attracted virtually no adverse reaction, and certainly no reported opposition from Berlin. Part of the reason that The Drifters' version of "White Christmas" was less controversial was that this version was played only on black radio stations. Presley's version brought greater attention to The Drifters' version which gained prominence with its inclusion in the 1990 movie "Home Alone".


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: Original 1957 copies of "Elvis' Christmas Album" (LOC-1035) were issued with a red booklet-like album cover (as shown above) featuring promotional photos from Presley's third movie "Jailhouse Rock". Even rarer than the cover and record itself is a gold foil price tag-shaped "gift giving" sticker attached to the shrink wrap, reading "TO __________, FROM _____________, ELVIS SINGS", followed by a list of the tracks. Original copies with the gold sticker intact on the shrink wrap have proven to be among the most valuable of Presley's albums. Adding to its already high value are limited red vinyl albums and album covers with gold print down the spine.


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: Record labels for all original 1957 pressings are black with all-silver print, the famous RCA Victor "His Master's Voice" dog logo at the top of the label, and "LONG 33 PLAY" at the bottom.


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: The other new composition on the album, "Santa, Bring My Baby Back to Me" was paired with "Santa Claus Is Back in Town", and issued as the UK single concurrently with the album's release. The single reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart in November 1957.


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: No singles were issued in the US until 1964, when "Blue Christmas" was paired with "Wooden Heart", and reached No. 1 on the "Billboard" Christmas Singles chart; however, a pairing of "Blue Christmas" b/w "White Christmas" became a Top 20 UK hit in late 1964. "Santa Claus Is Back In Town"/"Blue Christmas" was a 1965 single release for the US market, and reached No. 4 on the "Billboard" Christmas Singles chart. "Blue Christmas" would re-enter the Christmas or Holiday Singles chart several times in the years that follow.


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: Two different EPs, "Elvis Sings Christmas Songs", EPA 4108 in December 1957, and "Christmas with Elvis", EPA 4340 in December 1958, divided the eight Christmas numbers between them. The former topped the newly established "Billboard" EP Chart, while the latter failed to chart.


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: "Elvis' Christmas Album" was reissued two years after its first release in October 1959 while Presley was on duty in Germany. The deluxe fold-out cover was replaced with a regular cover with a close-up of Elvis as he posed against an outdoor, snowy backdrop. The album continued to reach the album charts each year until 1962, eventually selling more than three million copies in the U.S.


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: In 1971, Elvis recorded a new Christmas album, "Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas"; The original "Elvis' Christmas Album" went out of print, but continued interest in the album prompted RCA to reissue a revised and truncated version on its budget label RCA Camden in November 1970. This reissue replaced the four gospel tracks from the "Peace in the Valley" EP with the 1966 holiday single "If Every Day Was Like Christmas", along with the 1970 non-seasonal B-side "Mama Liked the Roses", issued as the flip to Elvis's top ten single "The Wonder of You" and originating from Presley's acclaimed 1969 Memphis sessions; neither track had been available on LP format previously. With ten tracks and a shorter running time, it fit the standard for RCA's budget Camden label issues at the time. The religious and secular Christmas songs were also mixed. The initial cover of this revised version echoed that of the 1958 reissue, except a more recent photograph with Elvis wearing a blue racing jacket with two white stripes on the left was used from the set of the 1967 movie "Speedway". The album was also released in the UK with an album cover that featured Elvis's face from the 1970 Camden release in a circle in the middle surrounded in white with the title and the song selections in red. The four "Peace in the Valley" tracks were reissued the next year on the RCA Camden compilation "You'll Never Walk Alone".


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: During the mid-1970s, RCA leased the rights to some of its Camden recordings to the budget reissue label Pickwick Records. Pickwick reissued the 10-track Camden Christmas album in 1975 with yet another cover design, Elvis's photo from the RCA Camden version surrounded by red ribbons with holly underneath and a dark blue background. Before and during the holiday season after Presley's death in August 1977, the Pickwick LP was advertised and sold on television via mail order to enormous sales, later certified by the RIAA as selling in excess of ten million copies. Demand for Presley's recordings increased greatly after his death, and RCA promptly reclaimed the reissue rights to its Camden line from Pickwick. The "Christmas Album" was reissued in the 1980s on LP and compact disc as an RCA Special Products release on the RCA Camden label and on CD in Canada in the RCA Camden Classics series. This reissue, with its Pickwick cover art but carrying RCA logos, was in print throughout the 1990s; the track listing remained unchanged from the original 1970 RCA Camden release.


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: In 1976, the album was reissued on cassette with the title "Blue Christmas"; this reissue also had an alternate track listing. In 1985, the album was reissued again but with a new title, "It's Christmas Time"; shortly after, RCA reissued the original 1957 version of the album with a recreation of its original cover art on CD, and gatefold sleeve on LP. In 1995, RCA/BMG Special Products again reissued the Camden/Pickwick compilation retitled "Elvis Christmas" with new cover art. By the second decade of the 21st Century, "It's Christmas Time" had become the second biggest selling album in the series, earning a 4× Platinum certification on March 8, 2018, prompting the original 1957 version to be available once again in the 2016 60 CD boxed set containing all of Presley's original RCA albums, "Elvis Presley – The RCA Album Collection".


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: In the January 5, 2019 issue of "Billboard", "It's Christmas Time" appeared for the first time inside the top 40 albums of the "Billboard" 200 charts, placing at number 25.


title: Elvis' Christmas Album

text: All of the above tracks are also available on several other RCA compilations of Presley's Christmas recordings, including "Christmas Peace" from 2003 and "Elvis Christmas" (a different, expanded version of the 1995 issue) from 2006. All of the tracks are also available on the 1992 RCA boxed set "". In late 2007, Speaker's Corner Records from Germany reissued the album on a high-quality heavy vinyl pressing; this reissue also featured a reproduction of the original album cover and RCA Victor label from 1957. In addition, in 2010, a DVD was released in a series from Sony Music called "The Yule Log DVD", in which the music from "Elvis' Christmas Album" (but without "I'll Be Home for Christmas") is featured with three different holiday visuals (one of them the yule log of the series' title). The original LP cover is featured on the DVD menu.


title: Aishwarya Arjun

text: Aishwarya Arjun is an Indian actress who has acted in Tamil and Kannada movies. She made her film debut in the Tamil film "Pattathu Yaanai" in 2013.


title: Aishwarya Arjun

text: Aishwarya Arjun was born in Bengaluru , Karnataka and is the daughter of popular film actor and director Arjun Sarja and former actress Niveditha Arjun. She has a younger sister, Anjana. Her paternal and maternal grandparents are Shakti Prasad and Kalatapsvi Rajesh respectively. Her cousins are Late Chiranjeevi Sarja and Dhruva Sarja, both popular actors in Kannada.


title: Aishwarya Arjun

text: Aishwarya Arjun has completed schooling from Sacred Heart Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Church Park, Chennai and Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) from Stella Maris College, Chennai. Aishwarya Arjun has studied Fashion Management/Technology from Birmingham City University, Birmingham, England.


title: Lana Tisdel

text: Lana M. Tisdel (born May 28, 1975) is an American woman whose early life and involvement with the December 1993 murders of Brandon Teena, Lisa Lambert and Phillip DeVine, at the hands of John Lotter and Tom Nissen, is chronicled in the 1998 documentary "The Brandon Teena Story" and the 1999 film "Boys Don't Cry" (which left out DeVine). She was portrayed in the film by Chloë Sevigny, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance.


title: Lana Tisdel

text: In the fall of 1993, Tisdel, aged 18, met Brandon Teena, 20, through their mutual friends. Teena was new to the close-knit area, from Lincoln, Nebraska, and the local crowd was curious about him. Teena and Tisdel began seeing each other, because Tisdel found Teena attractive and believed Brandon was a cisgender man. He was in fact a transgender man: assigned female at birth. Tisdel has made it clear that her relationship with Brandon Teena was brief and did not include sex; only lasting about two months from their first meeting until the murder. However, their two-month relationship is described as very intense. Her mother Linda testified that Tisdel would be with Brandon all day, had trouble sleeping, and their relationship was all she cared about during that time.


title: Lana Tisdel

text: On December 19, 1993, Brandon Teena was arrested for forging checks, and put in jail for several days. Tisdel found out he was transgender after his birth name was printed in the local newspaper in the arrests section. Tisdel paid to get him out of jail, and he told her that he was undergoing sex reassignment surgery. Tisdel has disputed claims that after the truth was revealed to her, they continued a romantic relationship, but instead she told Brandon that they could still be friends. Tisdel defended Teena often, at one point lying to authorities and telling them she had seen him naked and saw his penis, in hopes they would leave him alone.


title: Lana Tisdel

text: Two people that they were friends with during this time were John Lotter and Tom Nissen. Both young men had criminal records, and Teena had been staying with Nissen. Falls City is a small town, and all of these families were well-acquainted; Lana's best friend was Michelle Lotter, John's sister. Initially friendly, Lotter and Nissen soon began to harass Teena and Tisdel and scrutinize their relationship. During a Christmas Eve party, Lotter and Nissen forced Teena to take off his clothes in order to show everyone, including Lana, his genitals.


title: Lana Tisdel

text: The two then kidnapped Teena and took him to a rural area, where they raped and beat him. Afterwards, Teena came to Tisdel's house, and Tisdel and her mother convinced him to speak to the police and go to the hospital. Lotter and Nissen had told Teena that if he told anyone what they did, they would kill him.


title: Lana Tisdel

text: A few days later, on New Year's Eve 1993, Lotter and Nissen came to the Tisdel residence drunk and looking for Brandon, and threatened the Tisdel sisters. They then drove to the house of Lisa Lambert, where Brandon had been hiding out. Also in the house was Phillip DeVine, a friend of theirs who was dating Tisdel's sister Leslie. Lisa Lambert was a single mother from Pawnee City, Nebraska, who often let friends stay with her in exchange for their help and company, because she lived outside of town. Lotter and Nissen then shot Brandon, Lambert, and DeVine dead. Lambert's son Tanner was in the house at the time and was unharmed. Tisdel was not present at the time of the murder, as it took place inside Lambert's home in Humboldt, Nebraska, a 30-minute drive away from Falls City, where Tisdel lived with her mother and sister. The bodies were discovered the next day by Lambert's mother, Anna Mae.


title: Lana Tisdel

text: Lana Tisdel, her sister Leslie, and mother Linda were all involved in the criminal trial and later lawsuits that followed the murder and later, movie development. The Tisdel family appeared on the TV shows "Maury" and "A Current Affair", to discuss Brandon Teena and the trial proceedings. The Tisdel family did not get along well with Teena's mother, Jo Ann Brandon, and his sister, Tammy, who accused Tisdel of being responsible for the murders.


title: Lana Tisdel

text: Tisdel sued the creators of the film "Boys Don't Cry" for using her name and likeness without permission; the suit was settled out of court. Leslie Tisdel was vocal about the film's script changes, and upset that her boyfriend who was murdered, Phillip DeVine, was not included in the film, nor was she, and instead the film focused on Brandon Teena. There has been scrutiny that the lack of information about DeVine, who was from Iowa, is because he was African American, and Leslie stated she believed he has been left out of the story because of racism. When "Boys Don't Cry" was released, she petitioned Nebraska movie theatre owners to not show the film. Lisa Lambert's name was changed to Candace in the movie. Tisdel's mother, Linda Gutierres, who died on December 2, 2003, at age 54, was portrayed in the film by Jeannetta Arnette.


title: Lana Tisdel

text: Tanner Lambert graduated from Humboldt High School in 2011, and was raised by his aunt. John Lotter and Tom Nissen are currently in prison, with Nissen serving life imprisonment and Lotter facing execution.


title: Lana Tisdel

text: Tisdel graduated from Falls City High School in 1993. She married Josh Bachman in 2001 and lives in Kansas with their children.


title: Lana Tisdel

text: In August 2020, Tisdel was injured in a car accident when she struck Glenn D. Aston, 66, head-on. Aston was killed in the crash. Tisdel was taken to Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka, Kansas with serious injuries.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: "Gloria" () is a 1979 love song written and composed in Italian by Umberto Tozzi and Giancarlo Bigazzi, and afterwards translated to English by Jonathan King. A 1982 cover version by American singer Laura Branigan peaked at number two on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: Umberto Tozzi first recorded "Gloria" in 1979. The song stayed four weeks at number one in both Switzerland and—in a translated version—Spain. That same year, Tozzi's "Gloria" reached number four in Austria, number five in Belgium, number eight in West Germany and number 29 in the Netherlands.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: "Gloria" is a love song, as is the first English rendering of the song, recorded by its original English-language lyricist, Jonathan King, in November 1979, reaching number 65 on the UK Singles Chart. Tozzi later recorded and performed King's translated version of "Gloria". He also re-recorded the song with Trevor Veitch's and Laura Branigan's English lyrics; this version appears on his 2002 album "The Best of Umberto Tozzi".


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: In 2011, the song was brought up to date with a set of new house mixes by Alex Gaudino and Jason Rooney. The music video stars Umberto and Natasha Tozzi.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: Tozzi's original version of "Gloria" appeared on the respective soundtracks to the 2013 films "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "Gloria". It was also played during the Parade of Nations in the 2019 Summer Universiade Opening Ceremony as Italy, the host nation of the Universiade at the time, entered the stage.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: In Jonathan King's English lyrics, Tozzi, who takes the role of the song's main character, tells that he is dreaming about an imaginary woman named Gloria. He describes his living days as misery, but when he dreams of Gloria, he says his nights are liberty. The protagonist describes Gloria as his queen imagination that comes from his fascination, not from any kind of fantasy. He further elaborates that he has always set Gloria free from him, just as he has set freedom from reality. He then tells that his friends think he is crazy, but he argues his point that they have never met Gloria (so far, he has no proof of her actual existence); but one day when he finds her, he says his friends will talk about Gloria's beauty and her loyalty. To accomplish the goal of realizing his dreams despite everyone else's protests, the protagonist sets all his life to search for Gloria until he meets her in reality, and then promises to hold her, to touch her, and to keep her because he loves Gloria.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: Atlantic Records' managing director Doug Morris suggested that Laura Branigan work with producer Jack White, who suggested that she record an English version of Tozzi's hit "Gloria". Branigan recalled that on hearing the Tozzi track, "We gave it the American kick and rewrote the lyrics and off she went." Branigan's remake of "Gloria" was produced by White and co-produced by Greg Mathieson, who had been the arranger of, and the keyboardist on Tozzi's original song, while also being the primary keyboardist on the "Branigan" album.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: Branigan told "People" magazine that she and her producers had at first attempted an English version of Tozzi's "Gloria" in the romantic mode of the original, changing the title to "Mario", but that this seemed ineffective. Ultimately, Branigan recorded an English re-invention of "Gloria" as a character study of, in her words, "a girl that's running too fast for her own steps", the cover lyrics of which were written by Trevor Veitch, the contractor for the "Branigan" album, to which he also contributed guitar work; while Branigan also did her part in co-writing of the cover song's lyrics.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: In 2003, Branigan characterized "Gloria" as "Certainly my signature song. And I always get the same reaction wherever I go, and whenever I perform it ... I have to end every show with that song, and people just go crazy."


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: Branigan later released a hi-NRG re-recording of the song just a few months before her death. "Gloria 2004" was released with several remixes on 26 April 2004.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: "Gloria" attained its highest profile via a re-working featured on the 1982 album "Branigan", the first released album by Branigan. Although another selection, "All Night with Me", was chosen as the album's lead single, Branigan also performed the cover song during her promotional television appearances at the time of the album's release, and the track was chosen as the album's second single in June 1982, first becoming a disco favorite, and gradually accruing radio support to enter the pop charts in July. The single reached number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100 on November 27, 1982, behind Lionel Richie's "Truly", and remained there in the following two weeks, through December 11—when Richie had been supplanted by Toni Basil's "Mickey".


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: "Gloria" earned Branigan a nomination for the Best Pop Vocal Performance Female Grammy Award for the year 1982. The song remained in the Top 40 for 22 weeks, and its total Hot 100 residency of 36 weeks established a new record for a single by a solo female act. The song also topped "Cash Box" magazine's Top 100 Singles chart. Certified platinum for sales of one million in the United States alone, "Gloria" was also an international success, most notably in Australia where it held the top position for seven consecutive weeks, from February 7 to March 21, 1983. "Gloria" also reached number one in Canada, number four in Ireland, number six in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and number nine in South Africa.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: Branigan's cover of "Gloria" appeared in the musical drama "Flashdance" in 1983, though it was not included in the film's soundtrack. In a nod to her hit, Branigan's rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" performed on the "Solid Gold" Christmas special featured the background vocalists singing the name "Gloria", evoking both Branigan's signature song and the Latin refrain of the Christmas carol "Angels We Have Heard on High".


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: The cover song was also incorporated into the score of "Flashdance the Musical" in a scene where the character named Gloria performs a pole dance routine; sung by Djalenja Scott and Carryl Thomas in Ruthie Stephens' 2008–09 national tour of the musical, and by Twinnie-Lee Moore and Hannah Levane in the 2010–11's play at West End theatre, where Charlotte Harwood assumed the role of Gloria.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: Chilean screenwriter and director Sebastián Lelio utilized Tozzi's rendition of "Gloria" in the 2013 film "Gloria"; Lelio's 2019 English-language remake "Gloria Bell" features the title character (played by Julianne Moore) dancing to Branigan's take on the song in a sequence hailed as an essential highlight of the film.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: In January 2021 the song was heard playing during Donald Trump's "Save America" rally, as captured in a video shared by Donald Trump Jr. The backstage video went viral after rally participants attacked the United States Capitol. Branigan's legacy manager Kathy Golik responded to the video, calling it "absolutely appalling to hear 'Gloria' being played in the background of a widely-circulating video of Pres. Trump [...] given the tragic, unsettling, & shameful happenings that occurred at the US Capitol."


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: The National Hockey League's (NHL) St. Louis Blues began using Branigan's cover version of "Gloria" as its unofficial victory song when they went on a franchise-record 11-game winning streak during the 2018–19 season. The origins of "Gloria"'s association with the Blues came from when a few Blues players visited a bar in South Philadelphia called Jacks NYB to watch the "Double Doink" NFL Wild Card game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: After a victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, which came after a disappointing season, the Blues played "Gloria" in the locker room to celebrate their victory, with it then becoming a regular locker room ritual. When their stadium's DJ learned of it, he began playing the song in the stadium to rally the team. The song was played at Enterprise Center every time the Blues won a game in the 2018-2019 season, leading to "Play Gloria!" becoming both a meme and victory chant for Blues fans. Local radio station Y98 played the song for 24 hours following the Blues' Game 7 victory over the Dallas Stars in May 2019, and again after beating the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Finals. The bands Phish and Vampire Weekend, who were both holding concerts in St. Louis on the night of Game 7, performed covers of "Gloria" when they learned the Blues had won the Cup.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: Branigan's legacy manager Kathy Golik embraced the trend, with Branigan's verified Twitter page frequently posting support for the Blues, especially during their 2019 playoff run. Branigan's official website was also updated with a new splash page which expressed support for the Blues and proclaimed Branigan as the "Original Play Gloria". Golik stayed in St. Louis and attended every game and watch party during the Blues' 2019 Stanley Cup run while discussing the trend with media outlets. When fans of the Boston Bruins, the Blues' opponent in the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals, started re-purposing the "Play Gloria" meme, it earned a rebuke from Branigan's Twitter page which went viral. Custom-made Blues jerseys with Branigan's name and the number 82 surged in popularity during the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs, with one being displayed on Branigan's Twitter page, along with other Blues merchandise sent by fans. "Gloria" reappeared on the iTunes singles chart thanks to the trend, reaching number three after the Blues won the Stanley Cup. "Gloria" would also re-enter the "Billboard" charts in the wake of the Blues' championship, landing at number 46 on the Digital Song Sales chart for the week of 22 June 2019. Golik noted that streams of "Gloria" surged across all platforms and this had a "trickle down" effect to the rest of Branigan's catalog, with her other singles such as "Self Control", "Solitare", and "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" seeing significant upticks in streams and downloads during the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: The song's resurgence in popularity led to Branigan's management receiving numerous requests for live performances and public appearances, leading them to release a statement reminding the public that Branigan is deceased, as well as adding a note about this to her social media accounts. "Forbes" described "Gloria" as an "unlikely championship anthem" and noted that the Blues' Stanley Cup victory could permanently alter the meaning and legacy of the song, with it becoming forever associated with the St. Louis Blues and ice hockey in general. Golik also stated her belief that Branigan and "Gloria" "will forever be intertwined" with the Blues and the city of St. Louis. When asked how she thought Branigan would have reacted to the "Play Gloria" meme had she lived to see it, Golik said, "She was very sincere, very down to Earth, she would just have been very touched by it all. If she were here, I know she would have participated in a very big way. I know she's there in spirit. To see them win and to hear that song blaring and coming up in the arena and looking around and seeing people singing out as loud as they can, cheering and having a good time, it's indescribable what that's like."


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: English singer-songwriter Jonathan King released his version in 1979 which peaked at No. 65 on the UK Singles Chart.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: A Czech rendition of "Gloria", titled "Dívka Gloria", was a local success for in 1980; as well as for the Estonian rendering of "Gloria" recorded by in the same year. In 1982, Sheila released a French language version with lyrics by Claude Carrère and Jean Schmitt; the single, "Glori, Gloria" rose to number 8 in France on 15 January 1983. Also in 1982, Lena Valaitis had a single release of "Gloria" with new German lyrics written by Michael Kunze, and production by Jack White. In 1983, Carola Häggkvist recorded a Swedish rendering of "Gloria"—with lyrics by Ingela Forsman—for her album "Främling", and recorded a Finnish version of the song for her album "Mikä Fiilis!"


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: "Gloria" has been used internationally in television commercials for products as diverse as beer and flour; while another version of the song, amended into an advertising jingle with lyrics to suit the product, and soundalike vocalist to Branigan, was used in an Australian TV commercial for the 1984 Mitsubishi Cordia.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: Prior to the commercial success of Branigan's version in the United Kingdom, British singer Elkie Brooks recorded her version of "Gloria", which was unreleased prior to inclusion in the 1986 album "The Very Best of Elkie Brooks". Australian singer Julie Anthony also recorded "Gloria" for her 1983 covers album "What a Feeling".


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: Debbie Reynolds sings a snippet of "Gloria" in the "Lows in the Mid-Eighties" episode of the NBC sitcom "Will & Grace" (broadcast on 23 November 2000), performing the song as the character "Bobbi Adler" in a sequence set in 1985. Australian Young Divas included "Gloria" on their self-titled album in 2006.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: David Civera recorded a Spanish rendering of "Gloria" for his album "A ritmo de clasicos" in 2011, the same year that Sergio Dalma recorded another Spanish version of "Gloria" on his album "Via Dalma II"; the album lasted five weeks at number 1 in Spain, and earned quadruple-platinum status. Airing in December 2011, Sergio Dalma also performed the song on an RTVE special called "Via Dalma", where Tozzi was also among the guests. In 2012, Mexican singer Gloria Trevi recorded a version of the song and released it as the first single for her eponymous, Gloria Live album.


title: Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

text: On 12 June 2019, while in St. Louis, Phish covered the song following the St. Louis Blues's win over the Boston Bruins in the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals. The Blues would play the song after every win in 2019. In 2021 Angel Olsen released a cover of the song on her EP "Aisles".


title: Monitoring and evaluation

text: Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is a combined term for the processes set up by organizations such as companies, government agencies, international organisations and NGOs, with the goal of improving their management of outputs, outcomes and impact. Monitoring includes the continuous assessment of programmes based on early detailed information on the progress or delay of the ongoing assessed activities. Evaluation involves the examination of the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and impact of activities in the light of specified objectives.


title: Monitoring and evaluation

text: Monitoring and evaluation processes can be managed by the donors financing the assessed activities, by an independent branch of the implementing organization, by the project managers or implementing team themselves and/or by a private company. The credibility and objectivity of monitoring and evaluation reports depend very much on the independence of the evaluators. Their expertise and independence is of major importance for the process to be successful.


title: Monitoring and evaluation

text: Many international organizations such as the United Nations, USAID, the World Bank group and the Organization of American States have been utilizing this process for many years. The process is also growing in popularity in the developing countries where the governments have created their own national M&E systems to assess the development projects, the resource management and the government activities or administration. The developed countries are using this process to assess their own development and cooperation agencies.


title: Monitoring and evaluation

text: The M&E is separated into two distinguished categories: evaluation and monitoring. An evaluation is a systematic and objective examination concerning the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainabilities of activities in the light of specified objectives. The idea in evaluating projects is to isolate errors in order to avoid repeating them and to underline and promote the successful mechanisms for current and future projects.