title: David Steel

text: David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, (born 31 March 1938) is a British politician. Elected as Member of Parliament for Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Peebles, followed by Tweeddale, Ettrick, and Lauderdale, he served as the final leader of the Liberal Party, from 1976 to 1988. His tenure spanned the duration of the alliance with the Social Democratic Party, which began in 1981 and concluded with the formation of the Liberal Democrats in 1988.


title: David Steel

text: Steel served as a Member of the UK Parliament for 32 years, from 1965 to 1997, and as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) from 1999 to 2003, during which time he was the parliament's Presiding Officer. He was a member of the House of Lords as a life peer from 1997 to 2020. Steel resigned from the House of Lords after the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse accused him of an "abdication of responsibility" over his failure to investigate allegations of child sex abuse against Liberal MP, Cyril Smith.


title: David Steel

text: Steel was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, the son of a Church of Scotland minister also called David Steel, who would later serve as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He was brought up in Scotland and Kenya, and educated at Dumbarton Academy; James Gillespie's Boys' School, Edinburgh; the Prince of Wales School, Nairobi; and George Watson's College, Edinburgh, followed by the University of Edinburgh, where he first took an active part in Liberal politics, and was elected Senior President of the Students' Representative Council, and graduated in Law. Steel was president of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement campaign from 1966 to 1970.


title: David Steel

text: After university, Steel worked for the Scottish Liberal Party, and then the BBC, before being elected to the House of Commons as the MP for Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Peebles at the 1965 by-election, just before his 27th birthday, becoming the "Baby of the House". He represented this seat until 1983, when he was elected in Tweeddale, Ettrick, and Lauderdale, a new constituency covering much of the same territory. From 1966 to 1970, Steel was president of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement campaign.


title: David Steel

text: As an MP, he was responsible for introducing, as a Private Member's Bill, the Abortion Act 1967, and has argued for greater liberalisation of this legislation in recent years (see Abortion in the United Kingdom). He also became the Liberal Party's spokesman on employment, and, in 1970, its Chief Whip.


title: David Steel

text: In 1976, after the downfall of Jeremy Thorpe, and a short period in which Jo Grimond acted as caretaker leader, he won the Liberal leadership by a wide margin over John Pardoe. At only 38 years old, he was one of the youngest party leaders in British history. In March 1977, he led the Liberals into the "Lib–Lab pact". The Liberals agreed to support the Labour government, whose narrow majority since the general election in October 1974 had been gradually eroded and left them as a minority government, in power, in return for a degree of prior consultation on policy. This pact lasted until August 1978.


title: David Steel

text: Steel was criticised, both then and since, for not driving a harder bargain. However, Steel's defenders contend that the continuing scandal surrounding Thorpe left the party in a very weak state to face an early general election, and Steel was wise to buy himself some time from Prime Minister James Callaghan. At the same time, the growing unpopularity of the Labour government impaired the Liberals' performance, and Steel's first election as leader, the 1979 general election, saw a net two-seat loss for the Liberals.


title: David Steel

text: In 1981, a group of Labour moderates left their party to form the Social Democratic Party. They were joined by the former Labour deputy leader, Chancellor and Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, who had previously had discussions with Steel about joining the Liberals. Under Jenkins' leadership, the SDP joined the Liberals in the SDP–Liberal Alliance. In its early days, the Alliance showed so much promise that for a time, it looked like the Liberals would be part of a government for the first time since 1945. Opinion polls were showing Alliance support as high as 50% by late 1981. Steel was so confident that he felt able to tell delegates at the Liberal Assembly that year: "Go back to your constituencies, and prepare for government!" In the wake of the 1981 Croydon North West by-election, where Liberal candidate Bill Pitt came from third position to easily gain the Alliance's first by-election victory, Steel's reaction to the result was to state that his belief "that we are now unstoppable."


title: David Steel

text: Steel had genuine hopes at that stage that the Alliance would win the next general election and form a coalition government. However, the beginning of the Falklands War the following spring radically shifted the attitude of the electorate, and the Conservatives regained the lead in polls from the Alliance by a wide margin. The Alliance secured more than 25% of the vote at the 1983 general election, almost as many votes as Labour. However, its support was spread out across the country, and was not concentrated in enough areas to translate into seats under the first past the post system. This left the Alliance with only 23 seats — 17 for the Liberals, and six for the SDP. Steel's dreams of a big political breakthrough were left unfulfilled.


title: David Steel

text: Shortly afterwards, the former Labour Foreign Secretary David Owen replaced Jenkins as leader of the SDP, and the troubled leadership of the "Two Davids" was inaugurated. It was never an easy relationship—Steel's political sympathies were well to the left of Owen's. Owen had a marked antipathy towards the Liberals, though he respected Steel's prior loyalty to his own party contrasting it with Jenkins' lack of interest in preserving the SDP's independence. The relationship was also mercilessly satirised by "Spitting Image" which portrayed Steel as a squeaky voiced midget, literally in the pocket of Owen. Steel has often stated that he feels this portrayal seriously damaged his image. This portrayal of Steel as weaker than Owen was also present in other satires, such as "Private Eye"s "Battle for Britain" strip. The relationship finally fell apart during the 1987 general election when the two contradicted each other, both on defence policy and on which party they would do a deal with in the event of a hung parliament.


title: David Steel

text: Steel was convinced the answer to these difficulties was a single party with a single leader, and was the chief proponent of the 1988 merger between the Liberals and the SDP. He emerged victorious in persuading both parties to accept merger in the teeth of opposition from Owen and radical Liberals such as Michael Meadowcroft, but badly mishandled the issuing of a joint policy document. Steel had often been criticised for a lack of interest in policy, and it appeared he had agreed to the document – drawn up by politically naive SDP advisers – without reading it. His colleagues rejected it immediately and demanded a redraft, fatally wounding his authority.


title: David Steel

text: Steel was briefly joint interim leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats (as the new party was at first called) in the run-up to elections in which he did not stand, before becoming the party's foreign affairs spokesman. In 1989, he accepted an invitation from Italian Liberals to stand for the European Parliament in the 1989 election as a Pan-European gesture. Although not elected, he polled very well.


title: David Steel

text: Steel retired from the House of Commons at the 1997 general election and was made a life peer as Baron Steel of Aikwood, of Ettrick Forest in the Scottish Borders, on 6 June 1997. He campaigned for Scottish devolution, and in 1999 was elected to the Scottish Parliament as a Liberal Democrat MSP for Lothians. He became the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the Scottish Parliament on 12 May 1999. In this role, he used the style "Sir David Steel", despite his peerage. He suspended his Lib Dem membership for the duration of his tenure as Presiding Officer; that post, like the Speaker of the UK House of Commons, is strictly nonpartisan. He stepped down as an MSP when the parliament was dissolved for the 2003 election, but remained as Presiding Officer until he had supervised the election of his successor George Reid on 7 May of that year. He was appointed Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in both 2003 and 2004.


title: David Steel

text: On 14 March 2019, Steel was suspended by the Liberal Democrats after an admission that discussions he had conducted in 1979 with the then Liberal MP for Rochdale Cyril Smith, at a time when Steel was leader of the Liberal Party, had led him to conclude that Smith had been a sexual abuser of children in the 1960s and that Steel nonetheless failed to instigate any assessment by the party of whether Smith was an on-going risk to children. Richard Scorer, representing victims at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, called for him to be stripped of his peerage. On 14 May 2019, the Liberal Democrats ruled that there were "no grounds for action" against Steel and reinstated him to party membership.


title: David Steel

text: On 25 February 2020, Steel announced his resignation from the Liberal Democrats and subsequently his position as a member of the House of Lords, after admitting that during his leadership of the Liberal Party he "assumed" that Smith had been a child abuser, and failed to investigate claims made by "Private Eye" against Smith, dating from before Smith was a party member. This came about after the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse accused Steel of an "abdication of responsibility" over allegations against Smith. He retired officially from the House of Lords on 27 March 2020.


title: David Steel

text: Steel was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1990. On 30 November 2004, Queen Elizabeth created Lord Steel a Knight of the Order of the Thistle, the highest honour in Scotland.


title: David Steel

text: He has also received numerous foreign honours, including: Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit (Germany) in 1992;


title: David Steel

text: Chevalier in the Légion d'Honneur (France) in 2003; and Honorary Knight of the Order of St. George (Habsburg-Lorraine) in 2016.


title: David Steel

text: Steel has received a number of Honorary Doctorates from many universities including Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Stirling.


title: David Steel

text: Steel married fellow law graduate Judith Mary MacGregor in October 1962. They resided at Aikwood Tower in the Borders of Scotland for twenty years, but now live in Selkirk. They have two sons and a daughter, and nine grandchildren. In 1995, his elder son Graeme was convicted for growing cannabis at his house, and sent to prison for nine months. One of his granddaughters, Hannah, was elected to Scottish Borders Council (representing the Galashiels area) in the 2022 Scottish local elections.


title: David Steel

text: His recreations are angling and classic car rallying: he won the bronze medallion in 1998 for London to Cape Town. He is a member of the National Liberal and Royal Over-Seas League clubs.


title: World Party

text: World Party were a British musical group, which was essentially the solo project of its sole member, Karl Wallinger. He started the band in 1986 in London after leaving the Waterboys.


title: World Party

text: After a stint as musical director of a West End performance of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", Karl Wallinger joined a funk band called "The Out", before joining Mike Scott's Waterboys in 1984 to record the album "A Pagan Place". After their third album in 1985, "This Is the Sea", Wallinger departed to form World Party.


title: World Party

text: Recorded at Wallinger's home in 1986, his debut album "Private Revolution" yielded two minor hits in the UK, "Private Revolution" and "Ship of Fools". "Ship of Fools", however, did much better outside the UK – it reached No. 4 in Australia, No. 21 in New Zealand, and No. 27 in the US, in the process becoming the act's only major international hit.


title: World Party

text: Between World Party's first and second albums, Wallinger aided Sinéad O'Connor in recording her 1988 debut, "The Lion and the Cobra". O'Connor, then an unknown, had appeared as a guest on World Party's first album. She would go on to appear as a guest on the second LP as well.


title: World Party

text: "Goodbye Jumbo", World Party's second album, contained the minor UK hit singles "Way Down Now" and "Put the Message in the Box". Wallinger collaborated with fellow songwriter Guy Chambers on some of the tracks. "Goodbye Jumbo" was voted "album of the year" by "Q" magazine and was nominated for a Grammy Award for "best alternative music performance" in the US.


title: World Party

text: After the 1991 EP "Thank You World", Wallinger recruited guitarist David Catlin-Birch and ex-Icicle Works drummer Chris Sharrock as fully-fledged members for 1993's album "Bang!". It reached No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart, with the track, "Is It Like Today?" (No. 19 on the UK Singles Chart) also becoming a moderately successful single in Europe. Following the success of "Bang!", World Party appeared at the Glastonbury Festival in 1994, at which they had previously played in 1987 and 1990.


title: World Party

text: In 1994, World Party recorded "When You Come Back to Me" for the "Reality Bites" soundtrack, influenced by David Bowie's 1975 song "Young Americans". Catlin-Birch left shortly afterwards.


title: World Party

text: Their fourth album, "Egyptology" (1997), written following the death of Wallinger's mother, was commercially unsuccessful, although "She's the One" won an Ivor Novello Award and was subsequently recorded by Robbie Williams. Sharrock left the group after the recording of this album, leaving Wallinger on his own. Wallinger took a three-year break from World Party, before the release of "Dumbing Up" in 2000. However, in February 2001 he suffered an aneurysm that left him unable to speak.


title: World Party

text: After a five-year rehabilitation, in 2006 Wallinger re-emerged onto the scene. With his back catalogue reclaimed from EMI, a distribution deal was agreed (via his own Seaview label) with Universal, and he played his first live show in a decade at the South by Southwest festival in Texas, US. He played additional US dates in 2006 including the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee. "Big Blue Ball", a joint project with Peter Gabriel with production work by Stephen Hague was also released.


title: World Party

text: In September 2007, World Party supported Steely Dan in their first tour of Australia. The "Best in Show" compilation was released to celebrate the Australian tour.


title: World Party

text: In 2009, World Party toured the west coast of the US, and appeared at Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival and San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.


title: World Party

text: In 2012, World Party released a new five-CD/70-song collection of new songs, live recordings and cover versions titled "Arkeology" to critical acclaim. The band toured extensively in America in 2012, and toured England for the first time in 12 years, ending with an appearance in November 2012 in London at the Royal Albert Hall.


title: World Party

text: Live dates and tours followed through 2015, and a 2013 UK show was issued as a 2-CD set called "World Party – Live!". World Party has not toured, released new material, or updated their website since the end of their 2015 North American tour.


title: World Party

text: Wallinger cites influences such as the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys, Junior Walker, Neil Young and Prince. He sings and plays most of the instruments himself, using multi-tracking to create the studio sound. Lyrically, many of his songs feature thoughtful and occasionally political sentiments.


title: Peyton Kennedy

text: Peyton Kennedy (born January 4, 2004) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her role as Betty Nelson on the ABC television drama series "Grey’s Anatomy" (2018–2019). She is also known for her film roles in "The Captive" (2014), "American Fable" (2016), and "Lavender" (2016). She played Kate Messner in the Netflix series, "Everything Sucks!" (2018), where she played a 15-year-old girl who is trying to figure out her sexuality. She is also known for her role as Dr. O in "Odd Squad".


title: Peyton Kennedy

text: Kennedy was born on January 4, 2004, in Toronto, Ontario. She attended the Canadian Model and Talent Convention.


title: Peyton Kennedy

text: Kennedy had a recurring role on the PBS Kids television show "Odd Squad" (2014–2017). She has also made appearances on numerous other shows, including, "Copper", "The Ron James Show", "Hannibal", "Between", "Murdoch Mysteries", "Killjoys", and "Taken".


title: Peyton Kennedy

text: Kennedy has appeared in the films "An Officer and a Murderer" (2012), "The Captive" (2014), "Cut Bank" (2014), "Lavender" (2016), "American Fable" (2016), "Odd Squad: The Movie" (2016), and "XX" (2017). She has also starred in the short films, "The Offering" (2012), "To Look Away" (2013), "Dorsal" (2014), and "Sunny Side Up" (2017).


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited was an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company that was incorporated in India in 1961 and remained an entity until 2014. The company went public in 1973. Ownership of Ranbaxy changed twice over the course of its history.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: In 2008, Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo acquired a controlling share in Ranbaxy and in 2014, Sun Pharma acquired 100% of Ranbaxy in an all-stock deal. The Sun Pharma acquisition brought all new management to Ranbaxy, which had been laden with controversy (see Controversies below). Sun is the world's fifth largest specialty generic pharmaceutical company.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: Ranbaxy was started by Ranbir Singh and Gurbax Singh in 1937 as a distributor for Japanese company Shionogi. The name Ranbaxy blends the names of its founders: Ranbir and Gurbax. Bhai Mohan Singh bought the company in 1952 from his cousins Ranbir and Gurbax. After Bhai Mohan Singh's son Parvinder Singh joined the company in 1967, the company saw an increase in scale.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: In the late 1990s, Ranbaxy formed a US company, Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc., in order to support its entry into the pharmaceutical market in United States.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: For the twelve months ending on 31 December 2005, the company's global sales were US$1,178 million, with overseas markets accounting for 75% of global sales (USA: 28%, Europe: 17%, Brazil, Russia, and China: 29%).


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: In December 2005, Ranbaxy's share price was hit by a patent ruling disallowing production of its own version of Pfizer's cholesterol-cutting drug Lipitor, which had annual sales of more than $10 billion.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: In June 2008, Ranbaxy settled the patent dispute with Pfizer, allowing them to sell atorvastatin calcium, the generic version of Lipitor and atorvastatin calcium-amlodipine besylate, the generic version of Pfizer's Caduet, in the US, starting on 30 November 2011.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: On 23 June 2006, the US Food & Drug Administration granted Ranbaxy a 180-day exclusivity period to sell simvastatin (Zocor) in the US as a generic drug at 80 mg strength. Ranbaxy competed with the maker of brand-name Zocor, Merck & Co.; IVAX Corporation (which was acquired by and merged into Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.), which has 180-day exclusivity at strengths other than 80  mg; and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and India, whose authorized generic version (licensed by Merck) is exempt from exclusivity.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: On 1 December 2011, Ranbaxy got approval from the FDA to launch the generic version of Lipitor in the United States after the drug's patent expired.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: In June 2008, Daiichi Sankyo acquired a 34.8% stake in Ranbaxy from the family of CEO and Managing Director Malvinder Mohan Singh for 10,000 crore (US$2.4 billion) at 737 per share.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: In November 2008, Daiichi-Sankyo completed the takeover of the company from the founding Singh family in a deal worth $4.6 billion by acquiring a 63.92% stake in Ranbaxy. Ranbaxy's Malvinder Singh remained as CEO after the transaction.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: The addition of Ranbaxy Laboratories extended Daiichi-Sankyo's operations, with the combined company worth about US$30 billion.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: In 2009, it was reported that former Novartis Senior Vice-President Yugal Sikri would lead the Indian operations of Ranbaxy Laboratories.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: In 2012, 2013, and 2014 Brand Trust Reports, Ranbaxy was ranked 161st, 225th, and 184th respectively among India's most trusted brands.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: On 7 April 2014, India-based Sun Pharmaceutical and Japan-based Daiichi Sankyo jointly announced the sale of the entire 63.4% share of Ranbaxy from Daiichi Sankyo to Sun Pharmaceutical in a $4 billion all-share deal. Under these agreements, shareholders of Ranbaxy were to receive a 0.8 share of Sun Pharmaceutical for each share of Ranbaxy. After this acquisition, the partner Daiichi-Sankyo was to hold a stake of 9% in Sun Pharmaceutical.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: During 2004–2005, Dinesh Thakur and Rajinder Kumar, two Indian employees of Ranbaxy, blew the whistle on Ranbaxy's fabrication of drug test reports. Thakur's office computer was soon found to have been compromised. Ranbaxy then accused Thakur of visiting pornographic sites using his office computer, forcing him to resign in 2005. Thakur left India for the United States and contacted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which started investigating his claims. As a result, on 16 September 2008, the Food and Drug Administration issued two warning letters to Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. and an Import Alert for generic drugs produced by two manufacturing plants in India.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: By 25 February 2009, the FDA said it had halted reviews of all drug applications, including data developed at Ranbaxy's Paonta Sahib plant in India, because of a practice of falsified data and test results in approved and pending drug applications.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: On 8 February 2012, three batches of the proton-pump inhibitor Pantoprazole were recalled in the Netherlands due to the presence of impurities.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: On 9 November 2012, Ranbaxy halted production and recalled 41 lots of atorvastatin due to glass particles being found in some bottles. Also in 2012, an apparent dosage mistake was reported in which 20 mg tablets were found in a bottle of atorvastatin labeled as containing 10 mg tablets; this led in 2014 to the voluntary recall in the United States of some 64,000 bottles.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: In May 2013, Ranbaxy pleaded guilty and paid $500 million in fines, for felony charges relating to the manufacture and distribution of certain adulterated drugs made at two of Ranbaxy's manufacturing facilities in India, and misrepresenting clinical generic drug data. Ranbaxy pleaded guilty to three felony FDCA counts, and four felony counts of knowingly making materially false statements to the FDA. Included in the adulterated products were antiretroviral (ARV) drugs destined for treatment of HIV/AIDS in Africa.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: In September 2013, further problems were reported, including apparent human hair in a tablet, oil spots on other tablets, toilet facilities without running water, and a failure to instruct employees to wash their hands after using the toilet. Ranbaxy was prohibited from manufacturing FDA-regulated drugs at the Mohali facility until it complied with United States drug manufacturing requirements.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: In 2014, The FDA notified Ranbaxy Laboratories, Ltd., that it was prohibited from manufacturing and distributing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from its facility in Toansa, India, for FDA-regulated drug products. The FDA's inspection of the Toansa facility, which concluded on 11 January 2014, identified significant CGMP violations. These included Toansa staff retesting raw materials, intermediate drug products, and finished API after those items failed analytical testing and specifications, in order to produce acceptable findings, and subsequently not reporting or investigating these failures.


title: Ranbaxy Laboratories

text: In 2019 author Katherine Eban published "Bottle of Lies", an in-depth investigation of Ranbaxy. In addition to the incidents described above, Eban describes internal struggles within the FDA as investigators who might have shut down Ranbaxy were overruled due to pressure to increase the supply of cheap generic drugs.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: The Guild is an American comedy web series created and written by Felicia Day, who also stars as Cyd Sherman (AKA Codex). It premiered on YouTube on July 27, 2007, and ran until 2013. The show revolves around the lives of a gamers' online guild, The Knights of Good, who play countless hours of a fantasy MMORPG video game referred to as "The Game". The story focuses on Codex, the guild's Priestess, who attempts to lead a normal life after one of her guild-mates, warlock Zaboo (Sandeep Parikh), shows up on her doorstep.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: The first season premiered on YouTube in 2007. Seasons two through five premiered on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace, Zune Marketplace, and MSN Video. Seasons two through five were later made available on the official "Guild" website, YouTube, and iTunes. According to Day, Microsoft's business model changed after season five; Day wanted to keep ownership, so the episode premieres moved to Day's YouTube channel Geek & Sundry. The series is also available via DVD and streaming on Apple TV. In 2013, after the end of the sixth season, Day confirmed that the web series is complete.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Since its release, "The Guild" has received several accolades, including six Streamy Awards and four IAWTV Awards.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: "The Guild" was written and created by Felicia Day, an avid gamer, in between acting roles in several American television shows and movies. After two years of gaming, Day decided to make something productive from her experiences and wrote the series as a sitcom television pilot. The series was purposely kept generic to avoid copyright problems and to appeal to a wider audience of massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) fans, but Day based it on her experience with a "World of Warcraft" addiction.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Day also hoped to show that the stereotypical man living in his parents' basement is not the only kind of gamer. She decided to produce the series online with Jane Selle Morgan and Kim Evey. Day already knew Sandeep Parikh and Jeff Lewis from Empty Stage Comedy Theatre, a Los Angeles-based comedy theatre, and their roles were written for them. The rest of the cast was filled through auditions.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: After filming the first three episodes in two and a half days, they ran out of money. After donations were solicited through PayPal, the fourth and fifth episodes were almost solely financed by donations.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Each episode opens with Codex (Felicia Day) recapping the previous events in the story in the form of a video blog. Usually, it gives the audience a recap of the previous episode and shares Codex's feelings on the subject. The video blogs appear to be outside the timeline, as she is usually wearing an outfit (typically her pajamas) different from that in the episode itself, though some blogs take place in the time line with other characters or situations interrupting Codex. Each season is divided into 12 episodes (with the exception of season 1, which is divided into 10 episodes).


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Cyd Sherman struggles to limit her time online, where she games as her alter ego Codex, a member of the Knights of Good. After the guild realizes that Zaboo has been offline for 39 hours, he appears on Codex's doorstep. Zaboo misunderstood Codex's in-game chats as flirting, and became a stalker living in the same apartment.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: On the in-game side, trouble also arises when Bladezz is banned from the game for using a macro (to spam homophobic slurs "a few thousand times") in the trade house. Codex uses this as an excuse to have the guild help her with her Zaboo problem. The guild (except Bladezz) reluctantly meets up in person—for the first time—at Cheesybeards, a local restaurant, only to find out that Vork had transferred all of their in-game valuables to Bladezz's account as part of a team building strategy. If they decided to kick out Bladezz, they would lose everything.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Things get worse when Bladezz begins to slander the Knights of Good by showing inappropriate videos of the members' characters, and Codex is no closer to getting Zaboo to go home. Then, Zaboo's home comes to him in the form of his overbearing mother. Zaboo confesses that his mother controls every aspect of his life besides the Internet, which she is beginning to read about. He saw this as his only escape.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Codex comes up with a plan to bring Bladezz down, using Zaboo's stalking skills. Zaboo finds out about Bladezz's modelling career and blackmails him into giving the gold and equipment back to the Guild. The Guild then fights off Zaboo's mom, and Bladezz redeems himself by landing the final blow. Codex soon realizes that she got Zaboo's mother's loot- Zaboo.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Zaboo's mother takes revenge for losing Zaboo by having Codex evicted. Codex and Zaboo move into a new apartment, where Codex meets a new love interest: Wade (Fernando Chien), a stunt man. Codex tries to get Zaboo to move out by telling him that he needs to level up before they can be together. She arranges for him to live with Vork, who will take in-game gold as rent, something Zaboo is really good at: farming. Codex focuses on trying to get Wade interested in her.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: The Guild finds a valuable in-game orb which Clara and Tink fight over. Just as Vork lets it go up for bid, Clara's children unplug her computer from the Internet and, upon re-connecting, Clara finds out Tink wins it. Clara vows revenge on Vork for giving it to Tink and spends an entire weekend betraying Vork by corpse camping him on an alternate account as well as searching for her own orb.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Bladezz believes Tink is romantically interested in him and begins to max out his mother's credit cards to buy her stuff, when, in fact, Tink is using him to get what she wants. Vork is annoyed with Zaboo's lack of logic and his antics in trying to 'man-up' for Codex. Codex finds out that the stunt-man has a "stupid tall hot girlfriend," Riley (Michele Boyd).


title: The Guild (web series)

text: The Game announces that the online play will be shut down for maintenance for four hours, during which Vork plans a strategy lecture for Zaboo and Bladezz, while Codex plans a quiet party with Clara and Tink. Bladezz coerces Vork to abandon the lecture in favor of a poker game (offline), hoping to make up some of what he spent on Tink. Clara advertises Codex's party and it becomes a crowded kegger.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Among Clara's random invitees, Wade and Riley come to the party. After finding out that Riley is Wade's roommate and Wade is single, Tink and Clara try to hook Codex up with him. Zaboo, learning of this, persuades Vork and Bladezz to go to Codex's party to try to stop it. Vork discovers that Clara has been attacking him, and begins to question his quality of leadership. Bladezz confronts Tink about their relationship; upon learning that he has been used, Bladezz steals Tink's laptop and deletes her character. Meanwhile, Zaboo walks in on Wade and Codex kissing and challenges Wade to a fight. Wade is a much better fighter, but Zaboo's seriousness about Codex leads to Wade giving up his interest in her. Codex yells at Zaboo that she doesn't like him, and he leaves dejected. Then Codex sees a drunken Clara kissing with Wade, and decides to chase after Zaboo to apologize, but is hurt when she sees him making out with Riley.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Codex was able to recover from the disastrous party by the announcement of the new expansion pack for the game, "Spires of Dragonor". The Knights of Good are first in line at GameStop until a rival guild, the Axis of Anarchy, cuts in front of them. After the Axis tricks a GameStop worker into sending the Knights to the back of line, Vork, still not over the events of the party, resigns as Guild Leader. Codex is elected as his successor, causing Tink to leave the Knights and join the Axis.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: While Vork goes on a self-discovery journey, Clara's husband George demands that she spend more time with the family after discovering her gaming has severely distanced her from him. As a result, Clara proposes that he take Tink's place after auditions for a sixth member fail. Riley, who becomes increasingly domineering to Zaboo, offers to join, but Codex chooses Clara's husband instead, adding "Mr. Wiggly" to the Guild. Meanwhile, Bladezz begins to be targeted by Tink and the Axis of Anarchy, who expose his modelling alias to his school and plant weapons in his locker; later, Bruiser (J. Teddy Garcia), a member of the Anarchists, seduces his mom. Codex issues a message on the game's public forum to stand up against the Axis for the behavior, and in retaliation the Axis puts a bounty on the Guild. Mr. Wiggly unknowingly gives away information about the Guild to other gamers in exchange for loot, which leads to his expulsion from the Guild. With this, he tells Clara to quit the game, and she does to save her marriage.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: To end the Axis's harassment of Bladezz, Codex and Zaboo track down the Anarchist Valkyrie at his job, where is he playing the game on company time. After they take away some of his character's possessions and threaten to expose him, Valkyrie tells them where and when the next Axis of Anarchy meeting will take place. Vork returns after regaining his confidence to lead and, with Codex, reassembles the Guild to challenge the Axis at the Internet café where they planned to have a group raid. The battle begins, but both sides lose members quickly. Some of the Knights die in-game when their real-life problems manifest: Clara's husband shows up, angry that she is playing the game; Riley destroys Zaboo's computer for not meeting her demands. Clara tells her husband that they are going to have another child and he forgets about their argument and redeems himself in the eyes of the guild by helping Clara kill the Anarchist Kwan in game. Zaboo breaks up with Riley, who then proceeds to make out with Venom.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Finally, only Codex is left to face off Tink and Axis leader Fawkes (Wil Wheaton). After Codex makes Bladezz apologize to Tink, Tink decides that the Axis members are even bigger jerks than she can stand and lets Codex kill her in-game. Codex, in a hallucinatory conversation with her game character, musters the courage to defeat Fawkes. The Knights welcome Tink back into the guild, and Bladezz makes tentative peace with the Axis member who seduced his mother. Fawkes invites Codex for drinks; she initially refuses but, in a twist ending, wakes up in bed with him the next morning.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: An unexpected and unintentional one-night stand with Fawkes (Wil Wheaton) causes Codex to stress over what the guild thinks of her and persuades him to cover for her in a pretend relationship. But after spending more time together, Codex realizes he is a "total tool-bag" and reevaluates her criteria for relationships with men. Her computer breaks and she is forced to get a job at Cheesybeards to pay for repairs but has no idea how to fulfil the expectations of her boss, Ollie (Frank Ashmore).


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Zaboo tries to be a good friend to Codex during her fake relationship with Fawkes instead of trying to win her love. He dives into this new pursuit with his usual smothering intensity. When the truth of the relationship is revealed he realizes that his feelings for Codex have changed and he wants to be her friend.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: An earnings competition for a new guild hall sparks a real-life business for Tink and Clara that strengthens and strains their friendship.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Vork enlists Zaboo's mother, Avinashi (Viji Nathan), for her "brilliant economic mind" in his pursuit of his vision for the guild's hall and he sets up a stock market and loan company that is bankrupting players. However, her smothering tendencies enrage him to the point that he "make[s] a giant gesture that's really inappropriate" and proposes marriage in an attempt to repulse her. To his horror she accepts.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Codex and Bladezz film an online Cheesybeards commercial but the result is so horrible that it spawns a series of prank calls to the establishment. Ollie is furious and fires Codex. The guild helps Codex get her job back by organizing a celebration at Cheesybeards that attracts a large population of gamers. Bladezz attempts to perform a magic trick involving fire, which ends up torching the restaurant (costing Codex and Bladezz their jobs).


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Zaboo begs Codex to intercede in the upcoming nuptials between his mother and Vork. And when Zaboo reveals he has used the money from auctioning a romantic painting of Codex and Fawkes he had commissioned to buy her a new computer she is touched by the gesture and resolves to break up the wedding.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Avinashi and Vork are about to speak their vows to each other, at a virtual wedding ceremony in the newly purchased prison-like Knights of Good guild hall, when all of the guild members object. Codex manages to convince Zaboo's mother that it is wrong to marry "someone [she] can't stand in order to be close to someone who doesn't want to be near [her]". Zaboo helps by suggesting that she visit every few weeks when she gets lonely, causing Codex to realize that he possesses all the qualities on her new litmus test, and consider a relationship with him.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: The season wraps up with an official gamemaster crashing the ceremony to put an end to Vork's "Trogothian Stock Market" scheme. Codex convinces the GM, Kevinator (Simon Helberg), to change the design of the guild hall to the "bitchin' fairy palace" that Tink and Clara wanted. Kevinator is impressed to meet Bladezz, who has become an internet celebrity and invites the whole guild to a gaming convention.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: The Knights of Good travel to MegaGameORama-Con, a three-day gaming convention. Bladezz believes that he is invited by Kevinator as a special guest, but his name is not on the invite list. With all nearby hotels booked, Rachel, a member of the convention staff, manages to secure a room for them. However, it is not offered for free, and Bladezz convinces the rest of the guild that he will clarify the situation to Kevinator. Meanwhile, Codex is more interested in getting close to Zaboo, but he becomes engrossed in attending the events and panels.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: On the first day of the convention, Bladezz and Vork discover that Kevinator had been fired from The Game before the day of the convention and Bladezz was one of his joke invites. To compensate for hotel fees, both of them start up a photo booth for the Cheeseybeard's pirate. Tink attempts to sell the T-shirts she and Clara made but is forced to find a booth to avoid from being caught by the convention staff for selling without a permit. When she and Clara come upon a steampunk-themed booth, Clara is more interested in it than selling the shirts. Zaboo is denied entry to a panel because the seats are full, causing him to form a seat-saving network.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Codex tries out the new demo at The Game's booth, but unknowingly insults the creator, Floyd Petrovski (Ted Michaels). She becomes even more preoccupied when Zaboo spurns her advances and is continuously stalked by a convention-goer in a furry costume. When she follows Floyd to apologize, she discovers that he plans to sell The Game to a mainstream market. Codex becomes concerned about the future of the game, which is the only thing in her life holding her friendships together.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Tink, who continuously changes costumes to hide her identity, reveals to Codex at a party that she is hiding from her adoptive family, who have attended the convention, fearing that they will discover her switching majors from pre-med to fashion design. Codex arranges a dinner with her family to reconcile against Tink's will. Meanwhile, Clara tries to join the steampunk group and is trained as their fourth member to help them win the costume contest, but the members of the group ultimately turn her away. Zaboo has become so preoccupied with his seat-saving network that he briefly goes power-hungry. He is stopped by Clara, who brings back his old personality, ending his involvement with the seat-saving network.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Bladezz and Vork's booth becomes successful, but Vork rejects all of the celebrities who want to spend time with Bladezz. His attention, however, is turned towards Madeline (Erin Gray), an actress who played his favorite character, Charity, on the show "Time Rings". The two are invited to a party that night, but Bladezz realizes that all the celebrities lead normal lives, finding them boring. Still, he rejects Rachel and her friends for the celebrities and openly humiliates them. Vork, on the other hand, ends up offending Madeline after he criticizes her decision to leave her show.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: The next day, Bladezz has lost all support from the celebrities and his fans, so he is unable to continue the Cheeseybeard pirate's photo booth. Zaboo helps Clara build a steampunk-themed blimp to help her win the costume contest. Codex and Tink discover that Codex's stalker is Fawkes, who wants to join their guild after the Axis of Anarchy broke up, but Codex rejects him. The girls later eavesdrop on Floyd's conversation and discover he plans on revealing his decision at the costume contest that night. Both of them convince the rest of the Guild to help them save The Game from going "freemium". The Guild is able to stop the changes with much success: Clara wins the costume contest, Bladezz is able to win back his fans, and Vork reconciles with Madeline. As all of them leave the convention the next morning, Floyd has decided to give Codex a job.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Codex begins her new job working for Floyd Petrovski at the headquarters for "The Game", only to discover that he's a thoughtless tyrant who immediately turns all the other employees against her. Meanwhile, Tink discovers that the men she manipulated for services and gifts have all slandered her on local websites, losing all of her connections. Bladezz gets kicked out of his house by Bruiser and spends time at Clara's, convincing her long-suffering husband that she is devoted to her children by uploading videos of her parenting to the Internet, though he is more interested in monetizing the videos. Vork, who is dating Madeline, becomes disillusioned when Zaboo uncovers photos of her protesting nude, while Zaboo suffers separation anxiety from the members of the Guild going offline, seeking refuge from a collage of his ideal "sweetheart."


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Codex is pressured by her co-workers to convince Floyd to release the underwater expansion pack they have been planning for months but is forced to do menial chores in order to appease him. When the Guild visits her workplace, Tink steals Codex's key to the testing server and initiates a casual relationship with Donovan (Corey Craig), where they agree that he will do chores for her if she spends time with him. Unbeknownst to her, she begins to fall in love with him for real. Zaboo, who enters the server posing as an IT technician, becomes smitten with Sabina (Justine Ezarik), an NPC of The Game and the spitting image of his ideal girl.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Vork, who has gotten through with an argument with Madeline about his personal goals, confronts Floyd about his unanswered complaints about The Game. This gets his character permanently banned, and he retaliates by protesting and gaining support from other gamers. Meanwhile, Bladezz is forced to spend time with Wiggly while Clara continues making videos. When Clara becomes Internet-famous, other parents turn to her for advice, one of them being Bladezz's mother. Clara encourages her to keep dating Bruiser, causing Bladezz to convince Wiggly to quit his job.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: The underwater expansion patch notes are leaked onto the Internet and wildly rouses the protest. Codex is unsuccessful in finding the culprit but convinces Floyd to release the expansion pack anyway. Donovan reveals to Tink that he was the one who caused the leak in order to push Floyd to release the expansion pack, and Tink tells him that Codex and Vork are in the same guild. He uses this information against Floyd to blame the leak on Codex and gets her fired. Vork's protest culminates in a riot, but his acts have renewed Madeline's faith in him and the two reconcile.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: As her final act for Floyd, Codex quells the rioters by questioning their acts and informing that their poor attitudes contributed to the problems at the Game HQ. Floyd unexpectedly steps out and challenges the crowd to insult him to his face instead of typing online insults, but the entire crowd congratulate him on his work and cite their insecurities as part of their bad behaviors. Inspired, Floyd announces a troll-themed add-on for the Game. By the end of the day, Clara is successful in convincing Bruiser to break up with Bladezz's mother and secures a position at a vlogging network, Tink and Donovan begin a relationship, and Zaboo discovers his real-life Sabina. Codex, happy with getting her job back and realizing how much her friends are loyal to her, makes a final vlog and tearily shuts down her computer, bringing the season (and the series) to a close.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: "The Guild" had over 69 million upload views on YouTube as of September 2011. The series won several awards since its launch, including six Streamy Awards and four IAWTV Awards, and in February 2009, "Rolling Stone" named it one of "The Net's Best Serial Shows". A costume from the series has been accessioned by the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Joss Whedon credits "The Guild" as one of the inspirations for "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog", which also starred Day.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: On March 24, 2010, the first issue of the comic book limited series based on the show was released from Dark Horse Comics. It acts as a prequel to the show, and it was written by Felicia Day and illustrated by Jim Rugg. The second issue was released on April 23, 2010, and the third and final issue was released on May 26, 2010. The collected volume was released on November 24, 2010.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: A second five-issue series was released in 2011. Each issue focuses on a single character (Vork, Zaboo, Clara, Tinkerballa, and Bladezz) and is illustrated by a different artist. The collected volume, "The Guild Volume 2", was released on June 27, 2012.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: An additional single character issue, "The Guild: Fawkes", was issued on May 23, 2012, and takes place after season 4 of the web series.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: "The Guild" cast have appeared as their characters in three music videos to promote the series. In "(Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar", the cast appears as their game characters. The song and video were released shortly before the start of Season 3 and were used to promote the show. "Game On" is a Bollywood-themed video about Zaboo trying to convince Codex to play the game. This second video was used in a similar fashion and promoted Season 4. The third song and video titled "I'm the One That's Cool" is a pop rock song "touting the rise of nerd culture and the geek shall inherit the earth credo". It was released to promote the launch of Felicia Day's new YouTube channel Geek & Sundry. "(Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar" and "I'm the One That's Cool" are available on the "Rock Band" Network.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: "The Guild" was originally intended to be a pilot episode for a TV series, but Felicia Day was advised that it would be much more suited for a web series. The show changed its format and script to fit a web series. The first episode "Wake-Up Call" premiered on YouTube on July 27, 2007. After the first three episodes, the group ran out of money; but a link to Day's PayPal brought enough donations to fund "Cheesybeards" and "Rather Be Raiding". The first season ended on May 15, 2008, consisting of 10 episodes and two specials (including the Christmas special, "Christmas Raid Carol").


title: The Guild (web series)

text: "The Guild" season 1 DVD was released on Amazon.com on May 19, 2009. For Canadian audiences, it was bundled with season 2, released on September 29, 2009, also available on Amazon.com.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Filming for season 2 began in August 2008. "Link the Loot" premiered on Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft Zune Marketplace, and MSN Video on November 25, 2008. Season 2 ended with "Fight!" on February 17, 2009, and featured "Love During Wartime" by The Main Drag.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: On November 24, 2008, Microsoft announced an exclusive distribution deal with "Guild" creator Felicia Day. All twelve episodes of season 2 premiered on Xbox 360, Zune, and MSN, with a four-week delay for release on "The Guild"s official website. The Microsoft releases were free, but supported by Sprint advertisements and product placements.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Creator Felicia Day retains the IP rights to the series, with Microsoft paying an "unspecified" license fee upfront. Sometime in late February 2009, when all episodes of season two had been released, Day and her team were free to sign a new nonexclusive distribution deal should they choose to do so.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: "The Guild" season 2 DVD was released on Amazon.com on May 19, 2009, containing commentary tracks, gag reels, audition footage, and a "behind the scenes" documentary. It was also released for the Canadian audience along with season 1 on Amazon.com.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Season 2 was nominated for eleven Streamy Awards and won three: Best Comedy Web Series, Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series, and Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series (Felicia Day).


title: The Guild (web series)

text: On August 17, 2009, a music video – "(Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar" by Felicia Day – was released on Xbox Live to promote season 3, which would premiere on August 25, 2009, on Xbox Live for members with Gold Accounts first. Later it was announced that it would be released for members with Silver Accounts, as well as Zune and MSN Video users, on September 1, 2009. The season premiered with "Expansion Time" on August 25, 2009, and ended on November 24, 2009, with "Hero". The season featured guest star Wil Wheaton as the leader of a rival guild out to destroy the Knights of Good.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: In April 2010, "The Guild's" official website announced the show was renewed by Microsoft for a fourth season. On June 9, 2010, the official recap of season 3—an Auto-Tuned music video by The Gregory Brothers—was posted on Bing; the video included a message that season 4 would begin on July 13, 2010.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: On July 27, 2010, a second music video, called "Game On", was posted to promote season 4. On September 14, 2010, another promotional video was posted of the Cheesybeard's full commercial. Michael Chaves, director of "The Curse of La Llorona", served as a visual effects artist for season 4.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Season 5 takes place at the gaming convention mentioned at the end of season 4. Shooting began on April 21, 2011. The first episode of Season 5 was released on Xbox Live and Zune on July 26, 2011, and was released on MSN on July 28.


title: The Guild (web series)

text: Season 6 was mentioned at Comic-Con by Felicia Day. It was shot during the summer under new director Chris Preksta, creator of "The Mercury Men". It premiered on October 2, 2012, on YouTube channel Geek & Sundry.


title: Common degu

text: The common degu (Octodon degus; ), or, historically, the degu, is a small hystricomorpha rodent endemic to the Chilean matorral ecoregion of central Chile. The name "degu" on its own indicates either the entire genus "Octodon" or, more commonly, just the common degu. Common degus belong to the parvorder Caviomorpha of the infraorder Hystricognathi, along with the chinchilla and guinea pig. The word "degu" comes from the indigenous language of Chile, Mapudungun, and the word "dewü", meaning 'mouse' or 'rat'.


title: Common degu

text: The animal may be kept as a pocket pet, though there are prohibitions on their ownership in some territories. As a pet, the animal is larger than a golden hamster but smaller than a fancy rat.


title: Common degu

text: The common degu is a small animal with a body length of and a weight of . It has yellow-brown fur above and creamy-yellow below, with yellow around the eyes and a paler band around the neck. It has a long, thin tail with a tufted, black tip, dark sparsely furred ears, and pale grey toes. Its fifth toe is small with a nail, rather than a claw, on the fore feet. Its hind feet are bristled. Its cheek teeth are shaped like figures-of-eight, hence the degu's genus name "Octodon".


title: Common degu

text: Common degus are highly social. They live in burrows, and, by digging communally, they are able to construct larger and more elaborate burrows than they could on their own. Degus digging together coordinate their activities, forming digging chains. Females living in the same group have been shown to spontaneously nest communally; they nurse one another's young. They spend a large amount of time on the surface, where they forage for food. When foraging, their ability to detect predators is increased in larger groups, and each animal needs to spend less time in vigilance.


title: Common degu

text: Common degus exhibit a wide array of communication techniques. They have an elaborate vocal repertoire comprising up to 15 different sounds, and the young need to be able to hear their mother's calls if the emotional systems in their brains are to develop properly. They use their urine to scent mark, and experiments have shown that they react to one another's marks, although in males the hormone testosterone may suppress their sense of smell somewhat.


title: Common degu

text: Common degus are seasonal breeders; the breeding season for wild degus begins in the Chilean autumn when day and night are roughly equal, with pups born in early to mid-spring. Female degus are pregnant for approximately ninety days, having a comparatively long gestation period compared to other non-caviomorph rodents. Female pregnant weight varies over the course of gestation and according to litter size; litters contain an average of six pups, but size can range from one or two up to twelve young. Common degu pups are born relatively precocial, fully furred and with eyes open, and their auditory and visual systems are functional at birth. Unlike most other rodents, male common degus also take part in protecting and raising their pups until they are old enough to leave the family.


title: Common degu

text: Unlike some other octodontids, common degus are diurnal (active during the day), and they have good vision. Their retinas include rod cells and two types of cone cells, corresponding to peak sensitivity in the green and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum. Behavioral experiments have shown that degus are able to discriminate ultraviolet light from the wavelengths visible to humans; it is likely that this ultraviolet sensitivity has a social function, since both their ventral (stomach) fur and their urine are highly UV reflective.


title: Common degu

text: Common degus are strictly herbivorous, in the wild feeding on grasses and browsing the leaves of shrubs, though they will also take seeds. Throughout much of the year forage is dried and so common degus are specially adapted to a very high fibre intake, and this varies between food types and environmental conditions. Like some other herbivores such as rabbits, they perform coprophagy (faecal reingestion) so as to extract more nutrition from their diet. This also serves to maintain healthy gut function during times when food is scarce. Although they are active by day, in high summer they do not leave their burrows in the middle of the day and instead emerge to forage in the mornings and evenings.


title: Common degu

text: Perhaps the most remarkable feature of common degu physiology is their intolerance of dietary sugar. Common degus have been found to have a divergent insulin structure (one of the hormones that regulate blood glucose level) and so are highly susceptible to developing diabetes mellitus when fed regularly on a diet containing free sugars. This is thought to be due to evolutionary pressure arising from the lack of availability of free sugars in the degu's natural environment. Because of this, the ingredients of non-degu-specific hard feed formulations given to captive common degus should be checked for sugar-laden ingredients, such as molasses, honey, and glucose syrup.


title: Common degu

text: Common degus entered the research spotlight due to their unique relationship with sugar and diabetes, but are also studied for a wide variety of other reasons.


title: Common degu

text: Neuroscientists at the Riken Institute in Tokyo, Japan, used common degus for research into tool use in animals with good eye-and-paw coordination, in which they spontaneously learned to use a tiny rake to retrieve out-of-reach seeds. Common degus have also been found to spontaneously stack objects in order of decreasing size. In both cases it is the first time these behaviours have been recorded in animals other than apes and birds.


title: Common degu

text: Another interesting area of common degu research is circadian rhythm function, i.e. the ability of the brain to tell what time of day it is. Degus have the ability to show both diurnal and nocturnal rhythms if the environment permits, allowing a unique opportunity for study. Common degus can take cues that do not relate to day length, such as temperature, melatonin levels and even scents from other degus to adjust their rhythms.


title: Common degu

text: Common degus are also invaluable in development and aging studies. Research has shown that separation anxiety caused by separating pups from their mother from an early age for periods of half an hour or more can cause developmental and behavioural changes in later life, similar to ADHD in humans. In elderly common degus, neural markers have been discovered which are remarkably similar to those in humans with Alzheimer's disease, which is the first time this has been seen in a wild-type rodent.


title: Common degu

text: After initial interest into common degus as research subjects, they have become popular as pets, though until recently they were seldom found in pet shops. Their advantages over traditional small pets are their diurnal habits, bubbly personalities, the haired tail (as compared to rats and mice) and their lifespan: they are reported to live up to 13 years under ideal circumstances (though a poor gene pool or genetic background often reduces a pet degu's lifespan significantly). The average lifespan of a common degu in captivity is typically around six to eight years of age.


title: Common degu

text: One disadvantage of the common degu as a pet is their predisposition to chewing, due to their continually growing incisor and molar teeth. For this reason, common degus cannot be housed in plastic-bottomed cages typically found in pet stores. A metal cage with multiple levels made for rats and secured double latches works best. It is important to line the levels with grass mats or a soft fabric so that the common degus do not get bumblefoot.


title: Common degu

text: Untamed common degus, as with some other small animals kept as pets, can be prone to biting, but their intelligence makes them easy to tame. Regular non-predatory handling and food offerings help with this transition. It is important to never try to catch a common degu by the tail because the skin and tuft at the end is easily "shed" (pulled off). This helps common degus in the wild elude capture by predators, but it is painful to the creature and the tail end will not grow back. When tail shedding occurs, common degus will chew off the damaged portion. This can reduce the chances of infection.


title: Common degu

text: Common degus often "groom" their human owners with a gentle nibbling action, and readily bond with any person spending time with them. Common degus need regular sand baths, like Chinchillas need dust baths, to keep their coats healthy and free from grease. Chinchilla sand is ideal for this. They should have access to these baths regularly, preferably two or three times a week for half an hour at a time. However, too frequently, daily sand bathing can make their coats soiled.


title: Common degu

text: Some jurisdictions consider common degus as a potential invasive species and forbid owning them as a pet.


title: Shawn Harrison (actor)

text: Shawn Harrison (born December 28, 1973) is an American actor best known for his role as Waldo Faldo, the dim-witted but lovable chef-in-training on the ABC sitcom "Family Matters" from 1990 to 1996.


title: Shawn Harrison (actor)

text: Before sixth grade, he appeared in seven commercials such as Fruity Pebbles and Burger King. In 1986, Harrison made an appearance in the Kidsongs video "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" in the role of Mike. His mother died when he was 17.


title: Shawn Harrison (actor)

text: Harrison has also made occasional appearances as the hairstylist Peaches on the UPN sitcom "Girlfriends", and made several guest appearances on other series prior to that, including "Moesha".


title: Shawn Harrison (actor)

text: He provided the voice of Timber Wolf on the animated series "Legion of Super Heroes", which premiered in the fall of 2006. He was also in an episode of "Punky Brewster". He also played William K in two episodes "The Ms. Pat Show".


title: Eroto-comatose lucidity

text: Eroto-comatose lucidity is a technique of sex magic known best by its formulation by English author and occultist Aleister Crowley in 1912, but which has several variations and is used in a number of ways by different spiritual communities. A common form of the ritual uses repeated sexual stimulation (but not to physical orgasm) to place the individual in a state between full sleep and full wakefulness as well as exhaustion, allowing the practitioner to commune with their god.


title: Eroto-comatose lucidity

text: Aleister Crowley documented the ritual. However, Crowley may not have been the originator of the rite, and may have learned about it from a female student first.


title: Eroto-comatose lucidity

text: Crowley wrote in his work "De Arte Magica" that eroto-comatose lucidity is also called the "sleep of Siloam" and Newcomb notes that this rite preceded Crowley. He points out that Paschal Beverly Randolph ("arguably the single most important figure in the rise of modern sexual magic") called this ritualistic state the "sleep of Sialam." Randolph first discussed the "sleep of Sialam" in his 1873 work "Ravalette," but described it at the time as a once-in-a-century prophetic trance. In later writings, Randolph used the term as a more general form of clairvoyant sleep used to understand spiritual things.


title: Eroto-comatose lucidity

text: Helena Blavatsky may also have taught the technique, calling it the "Sleep of Siloam." In her 1877 work "Isis Unveiled", Blavatsky wrote that the trance must be induced through drugs rather than sexual exhaustion. Later, Blavatsky altered her understanding of the rite to mean that drug-induced trance-like state in which a new initiate first comprehends spiritual things. This was described in Blavatsky's 1888 work "Secret Doctrine," and she taught that the ritualistic state allowed the individual to either commune with the gods, descend into hell, or perform spiritual acts. Blavatsky taught this was a deep sleep, but Newcomb notes that modern ritualists do not enter sleep but rather a state between sleep and wakefulness.


title: Eroto-comatose lucidity

text: Sexual practices used for spiritual purposes are not new. Eastern traditions within taoism and tantrism also incorporated sexual rituals.


title: Eroto-comatose lucidity

text: Crowley first described the rite in a tract titled "Eroto-Comatose Lucidity." The ritual as described by Crowley involves one "ritualist-seer" and several aides. Donald Michael Kraig advises that the more sexually experienced the aides are, the better the ritual works, and that the aides be members of the opposite sex. Religious scholar Hugh Urban, however, concludes that, for Crowley, aides of the same gender as the ritualist (e.g., homosexual activity) was the highest stage of practice of this ritual.


title: Eroto-comatose lucidity

text: In the first part of the ritual, the aides seek repeatedly both to arouse the ritualist sexually as well as to exhaust him. The ritualist is generally passive in this regard. There is disagreement over whether sexual arousal is enough, or sexual orgasm must be eventually accomplished. Crowley and others argue that orgasm must be avoided. Although later practitioners conclude that orgasm does not need to be avoided, that was how Crowley originally formulated the ritual. Most practitioners agree with Crowley that every means of arousal may be used, such as physical stimulation, genital stimulation, psychological stimulation, devices (such as sex toys), or drugs (an entheogen like hashish, marijuana, or other aphrodisiacs). There should be enough aides so that if one aide tires another may take his or her place. Eventually, the ritualist will tend to sink into sleep due to exhaustion.


title: Eroto-comatose lucidity

text: In the second part of the ritual, the aides seek to come close to awakening the ritualist through sexual stimulation alone. The goal is not to fully awaken her or him, but rather to bring them to the brink of wakefulness. Not all authors agree that the ritualist seer will be in a state between sleep and wakefulness, instead asserting that exhaustion will lead to a trance, or "sleep of lucidity". The ritualist should be neither too tired or too uncomfortable to aid in the trance-like state. Once the ritualist reaches a near-waking state, sexual stimulation must stop. The ritualist-seer is then permitted to sink back toward (but not into) sleep. This step is repeated indefinitely until the ritualist reaches a state between sleep and wakefulness in which communing with a higher power may occur. Some say a goal during this time is to not become "lost" in the trance-like state, but to remain open without directing an outcome. The ritualist may also conduct spiritual work while in this state, or witness mystical events. Exhaustion may not be necessary for the ritualist who is "bodily pure," Crowley writes.


title: Eroto-comatose lucidity

text: The rite may end in one of two ways. The ritualist may simply sink into total sleep, or he or she may achieve orgasm and then sink into a deep and "undisturbable" sleep. Jason Newcomb, however, concludes that sexual exhaustion achieved through repeated orgasm may also lead to the ritualistic state and does not necessarily end the rite. Frater U. D., however, has argued that the orgasmic moment should not be lost and that the individual should strive to use the moment for spiritual or magical purposes.


title: Eroto-comatose lucidity

text: Upon awakening, the ritualist seer could, for example, write down everything he or she has experienced, witnessed, or been told. At least one author concludes that what is desired should be focused on throughout the rite, and that the individual should not be distracted from it or free of desire.


title: Eroto-comatose lucidity

text: Crowley also intended that when men do the ritual, any semen (or "elixir") produced by orgasm must be consumed by the ritualist, possibly in a Crowley inspired "Cake of Light".


title: Eroto-comatose lucidity

text: A similar rite of sexual exhaustion described by Crowley leads not to spiritual communing but a sort of vampirism. In this rite, the aides use only the mouth to sexually exhaust the ritualist, and the intent of the aides must not be to assist the ritualist but rather to transfer the ritualist's own magical strength to themselves. Crowley claimed that when the ritualist is pushed to the point of death from sexual exhaustion in this way, the ritualist's spirit is enslaved by the aides and his or her power transferred to the aides.


title: Eroto-comatose lucidity

text: Michael W. Ford has argued for alternative rites as well. His concept of Luciferianism incorporates Crowley's ideas about sexual exhaustion, but concludes that the ritualist's will is what sends the spirit forth to bond with higher power. Ford argues for two methods of attaining sexual exhaustion and ascension: "Via Lilith" and "Via Cain." In the Lilith ritual, the room should be draped in crimson and black; music which inspires dark emotions, contains chanting, or contains horrific sounds should be played; and images of Lilith, Lilitu, and succubi should hang in the room. In the Cain ritual, both the room and ritualist should be adorned with fetishes of the Horned God and symbols of Cain, and Middle Eastern music should be played.


title: Eroto-comatose lucidity

text: The rite and other sex magic practices have had a limited, marginal influence. Crowley's concepts have been seized on by the bands Killing Joke and Psychic TV.


title: PerkinElmer

text: PerkinElmer, Inc., previously styled Perkin-Elmer, is an American global corporation focused in the business areas of diagnostics, life science research, food, environmental and industrial testing. Its capabilities include detection, imaging, informatics, and service. PerkinElmer produces analytical instruments, genetic testing and diagnostic tools, medical imaging components, software, instruments, and consumables for multiple end markets.


title: PerkinElmer

text: Richard Perkin was attending the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn to study chemical engineering, but left after a year to try his hand on Wall Street. Still interested in the sciences, he gave public lectures on various topics. Charles Elmer ran a firm that supplied court reporters and was nearing retirement when he attended one of Perkin's lectures on astronomy being held at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.


title: PerkinElmer

text: The two struck up a friendship over their shared interest in astronomy, and eventually came up with the idea of starting a firm to produce precision optics. Perkin raised US$15,000 from his relatives, while Elmer added US$5,000, and the firm was initially set up as a partnership on 19 April 1937. Initially, they worked from a small office in Manhattan, but soon opened a production facility in Jersey City. They incorporated the growing firm on 13 December 1939. A further move to Glenbrook in Connecticut in 1941 was quickly followed by another move to Norwalk, Connecticut, where the company remained until 2000. The opening of World War II led to significant expansion as the company produces optics for range finders, bombsights, and reconnaissance systems. This work led to the U.S. Navy awarding them the first "E" for Excellence award in 1942.


title: PerkinElmer

text: Perkin-Elmer retained a strong presence in the military field through the 1960s and at the same time was significantly involved with OAO-3 a 36-inch Ultra Violet Space Telescope, Skylab and their major contribution to the Apollo program was the sensor that saved the astronauts during the Apollo 13 failure. They were a primary supplier of the optical systems used in many reconnaissance platforms, first in aircraft and high-altitude balloons, and then in reconnaissance satellites. A significant advance was 1955's Transverse Panoramic Camera, which took images on wide frames that provided single-frame images from horizon to horizon from an aircraft flying at 40,000 ft altitude. Such systems remained a major part of the company's income, capped by the installation of laser retroreflectors on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission.


title: PerkinElmer

text: Elmer died at age 83 in 1954, and the company began trading shares over the counter. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange on 13 December 1960. Perkin remained as president and CEO until June 1961, when Robert Lewis, previously of Argus Camera and Sylvania Electric Products, took over these roles. Perkin remained the chairman of the board until his death in 1969.


title: PerkinElmer

text: In 1967, the U.S. Air Force asked Perkin-Elmer to produce an all-optical "masking" system for semiconductor fabrication. Previous systems used a pattern, the "mask", which was pressed onto the surface of the silicon wafer as part of the photolithography process. Small bits of dirt or photoresist would stick the mask and ruin the patterning for subsequent chips, and it was not uncommon for the vast majority of the chips from a given wafer to malfunction. The Air Force, which by the late 1960s was highly reliant on integrated circuits, desired a more reliable system.


title: PerkinElmer

text: Perkin-Elmer responded with the Microprojector, which was essentially a large photocopier system. The mask was placed in a holder and never touched the surface of the chip. Instead, the image was projected onto the surface. Making this work required a complex 16-element lens system that focussed a single wave of light onto the mask. The remainder of the light from the 1,000 watt mercury-vapor lamp was filtered out.


title: PerkinElmer

text: Harold Hemstreet was convinced it would be possible to simplify the concept, and Abe Offner began the development of a system using mirrors instead of lenses, which did not suffer from the multispectral focussing problems of lenses. The result of this research was the Projection Scanning Aligner, or Micralign, which made chip making an assembly-line task and improved the number of working chips from perhaps 10% to 70% overnight. Chip prices plummeted as a result, with examples like the MOS 6502 selling for about US$20 while the previous generation of designs like the Motorola 6800 sold for around US$250.


title: PerkinElmer

text: The Micralign was so successful that Perkin-Elmer became the largest single vendor in the chip space in three years. In spite of this success, the company was largely a has-been by the 1980s due to their late response to the introduction of the stepping aligner, which allowed a single small mask to be stepped across the wafer, rather than requiring a single large mask covering the entire wafer. The company never regained their lead, and sold the division to The Silicon Valley Group.


title: PerkinElmer

text: In the early 1990s, partnered with Cetus Corporation (and later Hoffmann-La Roche) to pioneer the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) equipment industry. Analytical-instruments business was also operated from 1954 to 2001 in Germany, by the "Bodenseewerk Perkin-Elmer GmbH" located in Überlingen at Lake Constance, and England (Perkin Elmer Ltd) at Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire.


title: PerkinElmer

text: Perkin-Elmer was involved in computer manufacture for a time. The Perkin-Elmer Computer Systems Division was formed through the purchase of Interdata, Inc., an independent computer manufacturer, in 1973–1974 for some US$63 million. This merger made Perkin-Elmer's annual sales rise to over US$200 million. This was also known as Perkin-Elmer's Data Systems Group. The 32-bit computers were very similar to an IBM System/370, but ran the OS/32MT operating system.


title: PerkinElmer

text: The Wollongong Group provided the commercial version of the Unix port to the Interdata 7/32 hardware, known as Edition 7 Unix. The port was originally done by the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, and was the first UNIX port to hardware other than the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP family. By 1982, the Wollongong Group Edition 7 Unix and Programmer's Workbench (PWB) were available on models such as the Perkin-Elmer 3210 and 3240 minicomputers. In 1985, the computing division of Perkin-Elmer was spun off as Concurrent Computer Corporation.


title: PerkinElmer

text: Modern PerkinElmer traces its history back to a merger between divisions of what had been two S&P 500 companies, EG&G Inc. (formerly ) of Wellesley, Massachusetts and Perkin-Elmer (formerly ) of Norwalk, Connecticut. On May 28, 1999, the non-government side of EG&G Inc. purchased the Analytical Instruments Division of Perkin-Elmer, its traditional business segment, for US$425 million, also assuming the Perkin-Elmer name and forming the new PerkinElmer company, with new officers and a new board of directors. At the time, EG&G made products for diverse industries including automotive, medical, aerospace and photography.


title: PerkinElmer

text: The old Perkin-Elmer Board of Directors and Officers remained at that reorganized company under its new name, PE Corporation. It had been the Life Sciences division of Perkin-Elmer, and its two component tracking stock business groups, Celera Genomics () and PE Biosystems (formerly ), were centrally involved in the highest profile biotechnology events of the decade, the intense race against the Human Genome Project consortium, which then resulted in the genomics segment of the technology bubble. Perkin-Elmer purchased the Boston operations of NEN Life Sciences in 2001.


title: PerkinElmer

text: In 1992, the company merged with Applied Biosystems. In 1997 they merged with PerSeptive Biosystems. On July 14, 1999, the new analytical instruments maker PerkinElmer cut 350 jobs, or 12%, in its cost reduction reorganization. In 2006, PerkinElmer sold off the Fluid Sciences division for approximately US$400 million; the aim of the selloff was to increase the strategic focus on its higher-growth health sciences and photonic markets. Following on from the selloff, a number of small businesses were acquired, including Spectral Genomics, Improvision, Evotec-Technologies, Euroscreen, ViaCell, and Avalon Instruments. The brand "Evotec-Technologies" remains the property of Evotec, the former owner company. PerkinElmer had a license to use the brand until the end of year 2007.


title: PerkinElmer

text: PerkinElmer has continued to expand its interest in medicine with the acquisitions of clinical laboratories, In July 2006, it acquired NTD Labs located on Long Island, New York. The laboratory specializes in prenatal screening during the first trimester of pregnancy. In 2007, it purchased ViaCell, Inc. for US$300 million, which included its offices in Boston and cord blood storage facility in Kentucky near Cincinnati. The company was renamed ViaCord.


title: PerkinElmer

text: In 2003 Perkin Elmer acquired Packard Bioscience Inc from its majority shareholder, Dick McKernen. This acquisition also came with Agincourt Technologies Inc and consolidated Perkin Elmer's position in laboratory robotics, in particular, liquid handling robots which were to prove essential for the high-throughput sequencing needed for the Human Genome Project.


title: PerkinElmer

text: In March 2008, PerkinElmer purchased Pediatrix Screening (formerly Neo Gen Screening), a laboratory located in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania specializing in screening newborns for various inborn errors of metabolism such as phenylketonuria, hypothyroidism, and sickle-cell disease. It renamed the laboratory PerkinElmer Genetics, Inc.


title: PerkinElmer

text: In May 2011, PerkinElmer announced the signature of an agreement to acquire CambridgeSoft, and the successful acquisition of ArtusLabs.


title: PerkinElmer

text: In January 2017, the company announced it would acquire the Indian in vitro diagnostic company, Tulip Diagnostics. In May 2017, the company acquired for approximately US$1.3 billion.


title: PerkinElmer

text: In 2018, the company acquired Australian biotech company, RHS Ltd., Chinese manufacturer of analytical instruments, Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., and France-based company Cisbio Bioassays, which specializes in diagnostics and drug discovery solutions.


title: PerkinElmer

text: In November 2020, PerkinElmer announced it would acquire Horizon Discovery Group for around US$383 million.


title: PerkinElmer

text: In March 2021, PerkinElmer announced that the company has completed its acquisition of Oxford Immunotec Global PLC (Oxford Immunotec). In May of the same year, the business announced it would purchase Nexcelom Bioscience for $260 million and Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings PLC for $155 million. In June the company announced it would acquire SIRION Biotech, a specialist in viral vector gene delivery methods. In July the business announced it would acquire BioLegend for $5.25 billion.


title: PerkinElmer

text: Perkin-Elmer's Danbury Optical System unit was commissioned to build the optical components of the Hubble Space Telescope. The construction of the main mirror began in 1979 and completed in 1981. The polishing process ran over budget and behind schedule, producing significant friction with NASA. Due to a miscalibrated null corrector, the primary mirror was also found to have a significant spherical aberration after reaching orbit on STS-31. Perkin-Elmer's own calculations and measurements revealed the primary mirror's surface discrepancies, but the company chose to withhold that data from NASA. A NASA investigation heavily criticized Perkin-Elmer for management failings, disregarding written quality guidelines, and ignoring test data that revealed the miscalibration. Corrective optics were installed on the telescope during the first Hubble service and repair mission STS-61. The correction, Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, was applied entirely to the secondary mirror and replaced existing instrumentation; the aberration of the primary mirror remained uncorrected.


title: PerkinElmer

text: The company agreed to pay US$15 million, essentially forgoing its fees in polishing the mirror, to avoid a threatened liability lawsuit under the False Claims Act by the Federal government. Hughes Aircraft, which acquired the Danbury Optical System unit one month after the launch of the telescope, paid US$10 million. The Justice Department asserted that the companies should have known about the flawed testing. Trade group Aerospace Industries Association protested when concerns were raised in the aerospace industry that aerospace companies might be held liable for failed equipment.


title: PerkinElmer

text: Perkin-Elmer built the optical systems for the KH-9 Hexagon series of spy satellites at a facility in Danbury, Connecticut.


title: PerkinElmer

text: In the 1970s, an aerial panoramic camera lens was capable of recording the entire state of Pennsylvania in two flyovers, with resolution that enabled one to count the autos on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.


title: Alan Vega

text: Boruch Alan Bermowitz (June 23, 1938 – July 16, 2016), known professionally as Alan Vega, was an American vocalist and visual artist, primarily known for his work with the electronic protopunk duo Suicide.


title: Alan Vega

text: Boruch Alan Bermowitz was raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Until the announcement of the 70th birthday release of his recordings in 2008, Vega was widely thought to have been ten years younger; the 2005 book "Suicide: No Compromise" lists 1948 as his birth year and quotes a 1998 interview in which Vega talks about watching Elvis Presley on "The Ed Sullivan Show" (1956) as a "little kid". A 1983 "Los Angeles Times" article refers to him as a 35-year-old, and several other sources also list 1948 as his birthdate. Two 2009 articles confirmed his 1948 birth date, one in "Le Monde" about the Lyon exhibit and one in the magazine "Rolling Stone".


title: Alan Vega

text: In the mid-1950s, Bermowitz attended Brooklyn College where he studied both physics and fine art under Ad Reinhardt and Kurt Seligmann and graduated in 1960.


title: Alan Vega

text: In the 1960s, he became involved with the Art Workers' Coalition, a radical artists group that harassed museums and once barricaded the Museum of Modern Art. In 1970, he reportedly first met and befriended Martin "Rev" Reverby.


title: Alan Vega

text: In 1969, funding from the New York State Council on the Arts made possible the founding of : A Project of Living Artists—an artist-run 24-hour multimedia gallery at 729 Broadway in Manhattan. Producing visual art under the name, Alan Suicide, Bermowitz graduated from painting to light sculptures, many of which were constructed of electronic debris. He gained a residency at the OK Harris Gallery in SoHo where he continued to exhibit until 1975. Barbara Gladstone continued to show his work well into the 1980s.


title: Alan Vega

text: Seeing The Stooges perform at the New York State Pavilion, in August 1969, was an epiphany for Bermowitz. With Rev, Bermowitz began experimenting with electronic music, and formed a band that would become Suicide, along with guitarist Paul Liebgott. The group played twice at before moving on to the OK Harris Gallery. Writing publicity flyers under the pseudonym, "Nasty Cut", Bermowitz used the terms "Punk Music" and "Punk Music Mass" to describe their music, which he adopted from an article by Lester Bangs. In 1971, the group dropped Paul Liebgott; for a time it included Rev's wife, Mari Reverby, on drums (although she didn't play at their live performances).


title: Alan Vega

text: With Bermowitz finally settling on Alan Vega as a stage name, they began to play music venues. Suicide went on to perform at the Mercer Arts Center, Max's Kansas City, CBGB and ultimately, achieve international recognition.


title: Alan Vega

text: In 1980, Vega released an eponymous first solo record. It defined the frantic rockabilly style that he would use in his solo work for the next several years, with the song "Jukebox Babe" becoming a hit single in France. In 1985, he released the more commercially viable "Just a Million Dreams," but was dropped from his record label after its release. The album originally was set to be produced by Ric Ocasek as a follow-up to the critically acclaimed "Saturn Strip" (1983), but production switched over to Chris Lord-Alge and Vega ran into several difficulties during the recording sessions. The album eschewed many of Vega's experimental traits in favor of power pop songs and he later lamented, "They took all my songs and turned them into God knows what."


title: Alan Vega

text: Vega teamed up with Martin Rev and Ric Ocasek again in the late eighties to produce and release the third Suicide album, "A Way of Life" (1988). Visual artist Stefan Roloff produced a music video for the song "Dominic Christ" which was released by Wax Trax! Records, and Suicide went overseas to promote the album by performing the song "Surrender" in Paris which was aired on French television. Shortly thereafter, Vega met future wife and music partner Elizabeth Lamere while piecing together sound experiments that would evolve into his fifth solo album, "Deuce Avenue" (1990). "Deuce Avenue" marked his return to minimalist electronic music, similar to his work with Suicide, in which he combined drum machines and effects with free-form prose. Over the next several decades he would release six more solo records and perform and release albums with Suicide.


title: Alan Vega

text: In 2002, art dealer Jeffrey Deitch tracked down Vega after a couple of his young gallery employees "gushed" over a Suicide gig at the NYC Knitting Factory. As a result, Vega made a return to visual art, constructing "Collision Drive", an exhibition of sculptures combining light with found objects and crucifixes.


title: Alan Vega

text: Vega's tenth solo album, "Station", was released on Blast First Records in 2007 and was described by his colleagues as "his hardest, heaviest album for quite a while." In 2008, British label Blast First Petite released a limited edition Suicide 6-CD box set and monthly tribute series of 10" Vinyl EP's, to mark the occasion of Alan Vega's 70th birthday Musicians who contributed to the tribute series included The Horrors, Lydia Lunch, Primal Scream, and Miss Kittin.


title: Alan Vega

text: In 2009, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon, France, mounted "Infinite Mercy" – a major retrospective exhibit of Vega's art, curated by Mathieu Copeland. This included the screening of two short documentary films: "Alan Vega" (2000) by Christian Eudeline, and "Autour d’Alan Vega (extraits)" (1998) by Hugues Peyret.


title: Alan Vega

text: In 2012, Vega suffered a stroke. That, and problems with his knees, led him to focus on less physically demanding art, such as painting, however, he continued to perform at selected concerts and work on the music that led to his final studio album 'IT'. He continued to live in downtown New York City.


title: Alan Vega

text: In 2016, Vega contributed vocals to the song "Tangerine" on French pop veteran singer Christophe's album "Les Vestiges du chaos".


title: Alan Vega

text: In 2017, Alan Vega's final album "IT" was released posthumously on July 14 on Fader. The album was produced by Alan Vega, Liz Lamere, Perkin Barnes and Jared Artaud of New York City band The Vacant Lots. The album cover and inner sleeves featured Vega's original artwork. Two posthumous art shows "Dream Baby Dream" at Deitch Gallery and "Keep IT Alive" at Invisible-Exports exhibited Alan Vega's work in New York City.


title: Alan Vega

text: In 2021, Sacred Bones Records releases 'Mutator', the lost Alan Vega album produced and mixed by Liz Lamere and Jared Artaud, the first in a series of unreleased and rare material from the Vega Vault.


title: Alan Vega

text: Vega died in his sleep on July 16, 2016, at the age of 78. His death was announced by musician and radio host Henry Rollins, who shared an official statement from Vega's family on his website.


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: Oh! Calcutta! is an avant-garde, risque theatrical revue created by British drama critic Kenneth Tynan. The show, consisting of sketches on sex-related topics, debuted Off-Broadway in 1969 and then in the West End in 1970. It ran in London for over 3,900 performances, and in New York initially for 1,314. Revivals enjoyed even longer runs, including a Broadway revival that ran for 5,959 performances, making the show the longest-running revue in Broadway history at the time.


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: As of 2018, its revival was still the longest-running revue in Broadway history; the second longest-running revival, after "Chicago"; and the eighth longest-running Broadway show ever.


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: The show sparked considerable controversy at the time due to its extended scenes of total nudity, both male and female. The title is taken from a painting by Clovis Trouille, itself a pun on ""O quel cul t'as!"", French for "Oh, what an arse you have!"


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: Tynan came up with the idea of putting on an erotic revue in early summer of 1966. Tynan had hoped that Harold Pinter would direct the production, in order to give it avant-garde legitimacy, but Pinter declined. Sketches were written by, among others, Samuel Beckett, John Lennon, Sam Shepard, Leonard Melfi, Edna O'Brien, Sherman Yellen, Jules Feiffer and Tynan, and featured the cast nude. Peter Schickele (also known as the creator of PDQ Bach), Robert Dennis and Stanley Walden were the revue's composers, known as The Open Window. Beckett's contribution, "Breath", was used as a Prologue in the original New York staging, but Beckett eventually withdrew permission for its use. Tynan commissioned British Pop artist Pauline Boty to make a series of paintings of erogenous zones on which the revue would be based. Boty died of cancer in July 1966 so only managed to complete one painting, her last: "BUM".


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: The musical opened off-Broadway at the Eden Theatre on June 21, 1969, transferred to the Belasco Theatre on February 17, 1971, and closed on August 12, 1972, after a total of 1,314 performances. It was directed by Jacques Levy (later the songwriting partner of Bob Dylan on his album "Desire") and choreographed by Margo Sappington. The cast included Sappington, as well as future television stars Bill Macy and Alan Rachins, as well as Leon Russom, Nancy Tribush, Philip Gibson and George Welbes, and three "Open Window" composers.


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: The musical premiered in London on July 27, 1970, at The Roundhouse, and transferred to the West End Royalty Theatre on September 30, 1970, running through January 27, 1974. The show then transferred to the Duchess Theatre on January 28, 1974, where it ran until February 1980, for a total of 3,918 performances. The London show was produced by Michael White.


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: A revival opened on Broadway at the Edison Theatre on September 24, 1976 and closed on August 6, 1989 after 5,959 performances, again directed and choreographed by Levy and Sappington. The revival briefly became the longest-running show in Broadway history. It remains Broadway's eighth longest-running show and the longest-running revue in Broadway history.


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: The Spanish-language premiere production opened on October 9, 1977 at Teatro Príncipe in Madrid, Spain, directed by Juan


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: A pay-per-view video production played on closed-circuit television in select cities in 1971, and was released theatrically in 1972; in both cases many cities and municipalities banned its screening. Frank Herold, an editor who worked on the film, provides commentary on this in a brief post he contributed to the Internet Movie Database page.


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: "Note: the revue takes place in the form of sketches. These are taken from the 1971 pay-per-view production with lyrics and music by Robert Dennis, Peter Schickele and Stanley Walden (unless otherwise noted)."


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: A boy and a girl who just met are in their own playland, with the boy constantly trying to find ways to seduce the girl, who is afraid of him because he is a boy. The sketch ends with the girl in a coma after the boy rapes her ("Jack & Jill").


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: A song of five letters written by anonymous authors about their sexual preferences ("Suite for Five Letters"). They were actual letters to the editor from various newspapers from olden times in London and, later in the Suite, contemporary letters from sexual newspapers of the day.


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: An uptight girl gets a lesson in loosening up after her lover is sick of her constantly stiff ways ("Dick & Jane").


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: A young couple starts to rethink getting into the swingers lifestyle after meeting the middle-aged couple who answers their ad ("(Will Answer All) Sincere Replies").


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: A chaste woman is caught by her admirer, who then proceeds to learn that she is not as chaste as he thinks she is ("Delicious Indignities (or The Deflowering of Helen Axminster") was written by Sherman Yellen).


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: A man participates in a sex study and the whole experience ends up turning into one big farce ("Was It Good For You Too? (Green Pants, I Like the Look)"). The scene plays like the Marx Brothers at a sex research facility.


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: A pre-recorded section, where the actors are nude outside doing interpretive dance ("Much Too Soon", music and lyrics by Jacques Levy, Dennis, Schickele and Walden).


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: After a man rambles on about painting the fence and building a rock garden, his son talks about what girls "really" like ("Rock Garden").


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: A newcomer to a masturbation game cannot seem to think of anything to masturbate to ("Four in Hand") (this sketch's first draft was written by John Lennon).


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: Players come out to sing the finale, also doing voiceover as to what the theater patrons are really thinking about the experience. Examples include: "She has pretty eyes" (the joke being that all of the actors are nude at this point), "How come none of the guys have hard-ons?" "That's my boyfriend—that IS a hard-on" and "If they showed this in Washington, Agnew would shit!" ("Coming Together, Going Together").


title: Oh! Calcutta!

text: Clive Barnes, in his 1969 review for "The New York Times", wrote that "the humor is so doggedly sophomoric and soporific", adding "The failure here is almost exclusively a failure of the writers and the producers. The director, Jacques Levy, has done his best with the weak material at hand ... the nude scenes, while derivative, are attractive enough. The best effects—including the rather sweet grope-in immediately after the intermission—have been taken from Robert Joffrey's ballet 'Astarte', and the show uses the same projected media designers ... In sum, "Oh! Calcutta!" is likely to disappoint different people in different ways, but disappointment is the order of the night."