title: Suzzanne Douglas

text: Douglas was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 12, 1957. She was one of four children born to Lois Mae Thompson and Donald Douglas, Sr. Reared by a single mother, Douglas grew up in the Altgeld Gardens Homes public housing complex on the city's far south side. She became interested in the arts as a child, citing 1965's "The Sound of Music" as her inspiration for acting. Douglas attended Thornton Township High School, graduating in 1975. After high school, she studied at Illinois State University; graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She later earned a Master's degree in music specializing in Jazz Vocals at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music.


title: Suzzanne Douglas

text: Douglas made numerous television guest star appearances on shows such as "Bull", "Bones" and "The Good Wife". She also appeared on "The Parkers", "The Cosby Show", "", "NYPD Blue", and "Touched by an Angel". On stage, Douglas performed the role of Jenny Diver in "The Threepenny Opera" starring Sting and Dr. Bearing in "Wit", where she was the first African American to perform the role. Douglas was a two-time NAACP Image Award winner, and also won the Black Oscar, a Reel Award, and the Mary Martin Award. Douglas appeared in the Rel Dowdell film "Changing the Game" in 2011.


title: Suzzanne Douglas

text: Douglas was a honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority where she served on its national executive board as the Honorary Co-chair of the Arts and Letters Commission for thirteen years. In the community, she was a lifetime member of Girl Scouts of the USA, The National Council of Negro Women, Sigma Alpha Lambda (a national leadership and honors organization), and Jack and Jill of America.


title: Suzzanne Douglas

text: In February 1989, Douglas married neuro-radiologist Roy Jonathan Cobb, to whom she was still married at the time of her death. Together, Douglas and Cobb had one daughter.


title: Suzzanne Douglas

text: Douglas died on July 6, 2021, at age 64, at her home in Martha's Vineyard after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer.


title: Neale Donald Walsch

text: Neale Donald Walsch (born September 10, 1943) is an American author of the series "Conversations with God". He is also an actor, screenwriter, and speaker.


title: Neale Donald Walsch

text: Walsch was brought up as a Catholic by a family who encouraged his quest for spiritual truth. He informally studied comparative theology for many years. He says his books are not channelled, but rather that they are inspired by God and that they can help a person relate to God from a modern perspective. Walsch's vision is an expansion and unification of all present theologies to render them more relevant to our present day and time. He created Humanity's Team as a spiritual movement whose purpose is to communicate and implement his New Spirituality beliefs, particularly that we are all one with God and one with life, in a shared global state of being. This state can be achieved, Walsch argues, by the act of helping other people: "The fastest way to apply anything in your life is to help others to apply it... The fastest way to use any wisdom that resides in your soul is to help someone else... Because we are all one". Walsch has nine children. He has a home in southern Oregon where he lives with his wife, Em Claire, who is a working poet.


title: Neale Donald Walsch

text: Before writing the "Conversations With God" series, Walsch worked variously as a radio station program director, newspaper managing editor, and in marketing and public relations. In the early 1990s he suffered a series of crushing blows—a fire that destroyed all of his belongings, the break-up of his marriage, and a car accident that left him with a broken neck. Once recovered, but alone and unemployed, he was forced to live in a tent in Jackson Hot Springs, just outside Ashland, Oregon, collecting and recycling aluminium cans in order to eat. At the time, he thought his life had come to an end. Despondent, he began his writings after working his way out of homelessness and following a stint as a radio talk show host.


title: Neale Donald Walsch

text: His first book, "Conversations with God," was published in 1995 and became an international bestseller. It remained on the "New York Times" Bestseller List for 135 weeks. Six of his other books have made the "Times" list in the years since. He has published 28 books and his works have been translated into 37 languages.


title: Neale Donald Walsch

text: In 2003, the film "Indigo", written by Walsch and James Twyman and directed by Stephen Simon was released. It chronicled the fictional story of the redemption of a grandfather, played by Walsch, through his granddaughter, who is an indigo child.


title: Neale Donald Walsch

text: "Conversations With God: The Movie" opened in U.S. theaters in 2006 on October 27 and in Canada on November 10. The film was released on DVD in February 2007. Clips of the film can be found on YouTube.


title: Neale Donald Walsch

text: Walsch was accused of plagiarism for a six-paragraph entry in one of the daily postings on his blog during 2008, when he published an item titled "Upside down, or right side up?" on Beliefnet.com. Walsch's entry purported to tell the tale of a miraculous appearance of the words "Christ Was Love" during the rehearsal of his son's school Christmas pageant; but his article was almost identical to an article published 10 years previously by Candy Chand in the spiritual magazine "Clarity" and spread over the internet in places such as the Heartwarmers website, down to the name of the son mentioned in both articles, Nicholas – as both authors have a son named Nicholas. Walsch publicly apologized, saying that he must have erroneously internalized the story as his own over the years, a claim the original author said she does not believe. The article was subsequently pulled from Beliefnet.com and Walsch voluntarily withdrew from the roster of authors. Walsch said that he found the anecdote in old computer files from years earlier, saw his son's name in the copy, and was fully convinced that the history had really happened to him and that he had just forgotten it, but "remembered" when he saw the anecdote in his file. He cited it as a classic case of false memory and said that he had been repeating the anecdote as his own in many speeches over the years, adding that he was "chagrined and astonished that my mind could play such a trick on me".


title: Neale Donald Walsch

text: Walsch has written a number of other books which he describes as "in the CwG cosmology", none of which are dialogues with God, but provide the reader with Walsch's insights:


title: Neale Donald Walsch

text: In addition to the books of the "CwG" series, there are also a number of guidebooks, meditation books, and other books adapted from the "CwG" series and referring to the "CwG" message. Starting in 2008, "The School of the New Spirituality, Inc." (SNS), founded by Walsch, starting publishing new guidebooks for the series.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: The Gurkha Contingent (GC) is a line department of the Singapore Police Force (SPF) consisting primarily of Gurkhas from Nepal, recruited by the British Army with the purview of the Government of Singapore. The contingent's roles are as a special guard force and counter-terrorist force.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: The Gurkha Contingent was formed on 9 April 1949 in the wake of Indian independence from the British Empire, with Captain Darshan Limbu, when the Gurkha regiments of the British Indian Army were divided between the Indian Army and the British Army as per the terms of the Britain–India–Nepal Tripartite Agreement.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: Under the agreement, four Gurkha regiments from Nepal were transferred to the British Army while six joined the Indian army. India now has 39 Gorkha battalions serving in seven Gorkha regiments. Those transferred to the British Army were posted to other British colonies. In Malaya and Singapore, their presence was required in the Malayan Emergency, and they were to replace the Sikh unit in Singapore which reverted to the Indian Army on Indian independence.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: Just a year after their formation, their presence became an asset when racial riots between the Malay and European communities broke out over the disputed custody of Maria Hertogh. The GC troopers were again activated when major rioting erupted all over the country between ethnic Malays and Chinese on the Prophet Mohammed's birthday from 21 July 1964 to September that same year.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: At that time, their presence as a neutral force was important because local police officers were often perceived to be—or were even expected to be—biased towards their own ethnic groups when handling race-related issues, further fueling discontent and violence. Officers who attempted to carry out their duties impartially and in full accordance with the law also faced social backlash from their own ethnic communities, a difficult situation which could even lead to physical harm to individual officers.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: In his autobiography, former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew recounted the use of the Gurkha Contingent as an impartial force at the time when Singapore had just gained independence. He wrote:


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: When I returned to Oxley Road [Lee's residence], Gurkha policemen (recruited by the British from Nepal) were posted as sentries. To have either Chinese policemen shooting Malays or Malay policemen shooting Chinese would have caused widespread repercussions. The Gurkhas, on the other hand, were neutral, besides having a reputation for total discipline and loyalty.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: In April 2012, the GC suffered a scandal when nine of its officers were detained for being involved in a fight.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: Since its formation in 1949 with 142 men, the contingent has grown to over 2,000 in size in 2003. Young men are recruited in Nepal at the British Gurkha camp in Pokhara. About 320 are selected annually in December out of a pool of over 20,000 applications, split between the Gurkha Contingent and the British Army.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: Applicants are expected to possess a minimum education level of SLC 3rd Division, equivalent to the GCE Ordinary Level. Upon registration, they have to go through a battery of physical and mental assessments prior to selection, including oral and written tests in the English language, a mathematics test, a board interview and medical examination. The annual selection process, which normally takes 17 days but is spread over four months due to conditions in Nepal, will then assign recruits to either the GC or the British Army.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: Upon successful selection, GC trainees are flown to Singapore, and housed at the permanent base of the GC at Mount Vernon Camp where they will receive ten months of training before being deployed for duties. The training phase for GC officers is relatively unknown, although they have been known to use the jungles in Pulau Tekong for training. Arrangements with the Royal Brunei Police Force have allowed Gurkha officers to conduct jungle training in Brunei for several years. Training from external agencies has also been received including from the SAF Medical Training Institute for medical courses.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: There are a total of nine Gurkha Guard companies commanded by local and British officers. As a British colonial import, the first contingent commander was a British officer, and up to today, it remains the only military or police unit in Singapore to be headed by a British officer seconded from the British Army.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: The current commander is Assistant Commissioner William Robert Kefford. The contingent also has its own Gurkha Band Contingent, the Gurkha Contingent Pipes and Drums Platoon, which is part of the Singapore Police Force Band.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: The rank structure of the GC has remained largely unchanged over the years, thus retaining several ranks which have since been abolished in the rest of the police force. It is currently the only unit to retain the rank of Chief Inspector, and to recruit new officers as Constables as opposed to regular officers in the rest of the SPF who start from a minimum rank of Sergeant.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: Before the September 11 attacks in 2001, the GC was seldom seen in public besides being stationed at key locations such as The Istana, and the homes of VIPs such as former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and the President of Singapore. Only those who spoke English were assigned to protecting VIP homes. They were also seen stationed at important foreign properties such as the British High Commission and installations which require added security such as the Currency House at Pasir Panjang.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: Changing security concerns since 2001 has led to a more active deployment of GC troopers in recent years, and a review of their existing roles. Previously known for standing guard atop lookout towers at Changi Prison where the country's top criminals are housed, this role has since been outsourced to private auxiliary police forces in the mid-2000s with the liberalization of the private armed security industry.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: Besides guarding key installations, Gurkha troopers are also increasingly deployed during key national events. They are deployed during the annual National Day Parade, and complemented the police's stringent security measures during the 117th IOC Session held in Singapore in July 2005. In addition, they are also deployed to watch over sealed ballot boxes during the country's general elections. Most recently, the GC was involved in the hunt for escaped detainee Mas Selamat bin Kastari and 2013 Little India riots. GCs are now currently involved with many police and security officers at the MRT station passenger service centers for cash top-up services since 1 September 2017. The Contingent was also used to protect the Capella Resort venue which hosted the 2018 summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: On 18 March 2004, three armed fugitives escaped from Johor, Malaysia after committing armed robbery, and fled by a motorized sampan to Pulau Tekong. Over 700 personnel from the police and the SAF were activated, with the first fugitive captured by the Gurkha officers within 34 hours from the commencement of the search operation. The second fugitive was arrested by the Police Coast Guard's Special Task Squadron officers, while the last man was again caught by the GC six hours after the second arrest.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: The GC has also contributed to Singapore's overseas security and humanitarian missions. For example, GC officers were part of a 40-man Singapore Police Contingent to the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor in 2000. They also joined a 30-man team to Iraq to help train about 1,500 local Iraqi trainers and police officers for three months before returning to Singapore on 19 September 2003.


title: Gurkha Contingent

text: During the operation to separate the conjoined twins Ganga and Jamuna at the Singapore General Hospital in November 2001, the Gurkha community helped to raise funds for the medical procedure and daily expenses, accommodated the family at their Mount Vernon home for a period of time, and assisting in making logistical arrangements for the family's transportation and other needs.


title: Fam (TV series)

text: Fam is an American sitcom created by Corinne Kingsbury and that aired on CBS from January 10 to April 11, 2019. It stars Nina Dobrev, Tone Bell, Odessa Adlon, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Gary Cole.


title: Fam (TV series)

text: The series revolves around Clem, a young woman who envisions her life as perfect after getting engaged to fiancé Nick, and loves her future in-laws Walt and Rose. However, her world is turned upside down when her out-of-control teenage half-sister Shannon moves in, and her estranged police detective father Freddy comes back into her life.


title: Fam (TV series)

text: On May 11, 2018 it was announced that CBS had given the production a pilot-to-series order. The series' creator, Corinne Kingsbury, was also expected to executive-produce alongside Bob Kushell, Aaron Kaplan, Wendi Trilling, and Dana Honor. Production companies involved with the series were slated to include Kapital Entertainment and CBS Television Studios. On July 13, 2018, it was reported that the first season would consist of thirteen episodes.


title: Fam (TV series)

text: On November 5, 2018 it was reported that CBS had fired executive producer Bob Kushell for "inappropriate language in the workplace". After Kushnell was fired, it was announced that Joe Port and Joe Wiseman were promoted to executive-produce alongside Kingsbury, Trilling, and Honor. On May 10, 2019, CBS canceled the series after one season.


title: Fam (TV series)

text: Alongside the initial series announcement, it was reported that Nina Dobrev, Tone Bell, Odessa Adlon, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Brian Stokes Mitchell had been cast in series regular roles.


title: Fam (TV series)

text: The series holds an approval rating of 40% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 4.7/10 on Rotten Tomatoes. The website's critical consensus reads, "Despite an appealing cast, "FAM" flounders under the weight of its sitcom stylings, drowning much of its potential in a sea of familiar jokes that don't serve its progressive premise." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 54 out of 100 based on 7 critics.


title: Absolutely Live (The Doors album)

text: Absolutely Live is the first live album by the American rock band the Doors, released on July 20, 1970, by Elektra Records. The double album features songs recorded at concerts held in 1969 and 1970 in several U.S. cities. It includes the first full release of the performance piece "Celebration of the Lizard" and several other tracks that had not previously appeared on any official Doors release. The album peaked at number eight on the "Billboard" 200 in September 1970.


title: Absolutely Live (The Doors album)

text: Many shows were recorded during the band's 1970 Roadhouse Blues Tour to create the "Absolutely Live" album. The Doors' producer and longtime collaborator Paul A. Rothchild claimed to have painstakingly edited the album from many different shows to create one cohesive concert. According to Rothchild, the best part of a song from one performance may have been spliced together with another part of the same song from another performance, in an attempt to create "the ultimate concert". Rothchild said, "I couldn't get complete takes of a lot of songs, so sometimes I'd cut from Detroit to Philadelphia in mid-song. There must be 2,000 edits on that album." However, most of the tracks were taken from the Doors' performances at the Felt Forum in New York City on January 17 and 18, 1970.


title: Absolutely Live (The Doors album)

text: "Absolutely Live" marks the first release of the Doors' performance piece "Celebration of the Lizard" in its entirety, which had originally been attempted in the studio during the "Waiting for the Sun" sessions but was eventually abandoned. The album also included several new songs: "Love Hides", "Build Me a Woman", "Universal Mind", "Dead Rats, Dead Cats" (performed as a preamble to "Break on Through") and cover versions of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love?" and Willie Dixon's "Close to You" (the latter featuring lead vocals by keyboardist Ray Manzarek).


title: Absolutely Live (The Doors album)

text: Reflecting on the live album in an interview, Jim Morrison remarked, "I think ["Absolutely Live" is] a fairly true document of what the band sounds like on fairly good night. It's not the best we can do and it's certainly not the worst. It's a true document of an above average evening." In his autobiography, Manzarek explained the group's intentions with the album: "We wanted to get the Doors experience on tape. Live. One time. For the ages. And in doing so, perhaps we could capture the moment of escape. Live."


title: Absolutely Live (The Doors album)

text: According to the biography "No One Here Gets Out Alive", Morrison hated the album cover for "Absolutely Live". He had changed his appearance dramatically since the band's early days, growing a beard and discarding his onstage leather attire in an attempt to overcome his "rock god" image, but was dismayed to find that his record label opted for an earlier photograph of him for the cover.


title: Absolutely Live (The Doors album)

text: In his book "Krautrocksampler", the British rock musician and writer Julian Cope described the photo of Morrison as one of his "two favorite all-time images of rock 'n' roll singers".


title: Absolutely Live (The Doors album)

text: "Absolutely Live" sold only 225,000 copies, half of what their previous studio album "Morrison Hotel" had sold. Critic Gloria Vanjak of "Rolling Stone" magazine wrote a scathing review of the album, singling out Morrison's performance in particular and referring to "Celebration of the Lizard" as "rancid". Robert Christgau of "The Village Voice" gave a more favorable review, praising its "strong performances and audio," but concluded that "I don't happen to be into reptiles when the music's over, much less while it's on."


title: Absolutely Live (The Doors album)

text: In a retrospective review for AllMusic, William Ruhlmann observed that the album "demonstrated that, in concert, the Doors could be an enervating as well as an elevating experience." However, he bemoaned the fact that Morrison seemed to "treat the whole exercise as a charade" and opined that several tracks "flag considerably in comparison to the sleeker studio versions." Writing for "Classic Rock", critic Max Bell praised the album, noting that it remains the "organic documentary" that the band envisaged.


title: Absolutely Live (The Doors album)

text: In 1991, "Absolutely Live" was issued on compact disc as part of the two-CD set "In Concert", which also included the Doors' live albums "Alive, She Cried" and "Live at the Hollywood Bowl". "Absolutely Live" was later reissued as a single CD by Elektra in 1996, featuring new artwork different from the original LP. In 2010, it was reissued on 180 gram vinyl by Rhino Records in its original double LP format and featuring its original artwork, in both the U.S. and UK.


title: Absolutely Live (The Doors album)

text: Songwriters and LP side total lengths are taken from the original 1970 Elektra Records album (individual song timings are not listed) and may differ from other sources.


title: Monarchy of Liechtenstein

text: The prince regnant of Liechtenstein () is the monarch and head of state of Liechtenstein. The Liechtenstein family, after which the sovereign principality was named in 1719, hails from Liechtenstein Castle in Lower Austria, which the family possessed from at least 1140 to the thirteenth century, and from 1807 onward. It is the only remaining European monarchy that practises strict agnatic primogeniture.


title: Monarchy of Liechtenstein

text: Through the centuries, the dynasty acquired vast swathes of land, predominantly in Moravia, Lower Austria, Silesia, and Styria, though in all cases, these territories were held in fief under other more senior feudal lords, particularly under various lines of the Habsburg family, to whom several Liechtenstein princes served as close advisors.


title: Monarchy of Liechtenstein

text: Without any territory held immediately from the Imperial crown, the Liechtenstein family, although noble, did not qualify for a seat in the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire. By purchase in 1699 and 1712 from the counts of Waldburg-Zeil-Hohenem of, respectively, the small lordship of Schellenberg and the county of Vaduz, the Liechtensteins acquired immediate lands within the Holy Roman Empire which made them eligible for elevation to the Imperial Diet. Thereby, on 23 January 1719, Emperor Charles VI decreed Vaduz and Schellenberg were henceforth united and raised to the status of a "Fürstentum" (principality) under the name "Liechtenstein" for "[his] true servant, Anton Florian of Liechtenstein".


title: Monarchy of Liechtenstein

text: Although the family continued to own larger territories in various parts of central and eastern Europe, it was in right of Liechtenstein's status as an Imperial Estate that the family of wealthy noble Austrian courtiers became a dynasty of imperial princes, continuing to dwell in the imperial capital of Vienna or on their larger estates elsewhere, not taking up permanent residence in their principality for more than 300 years, moving into their Alpine realm only in 1938, after dissolution of both the Holy Roman Empire and Austria-Hungary.


title: Monarchy of Liechtenstein

text: The prince of Liechtenstein has broad powers, which include the appointment of judges, the dismissal of ministers or government, veto power, and the calling of referendums. The 2003 referendum was a proposal put forth by Prince Hans-Adam II to revise parts of the Constitution, on the one hand expanding the monarch's power with the authority to veto legislation, while on the other hand securing for the citizenry the option to abolish the monarchy by vote at any time without being subject to princely veto. The right of the parishes that make up the principality to secede was simultaneously recognised.


title: Monarchy of Liechtenstein

text: Prince Hans-Adam II had warned that he and his family would move to Austria if the referendum were rejected. Despite opposition from Mario Frick, a former Liechtenstein prime minister, the referendum was approved by the electorate in 2003. Opponents accused Hans-Adam of engaging in emotional blackmail to achieve his goal and constitutional experts from the Council of Europe branded the event as a retrograde move. A proposal to revoke the prince's new veto powers was rejected by 76% of voters in a 2012 referendum. On 15 August 2004 Prince Hans-Adam II formally delegated most of his sovereign authority (regency) to his son and heir-apparent, the Hereditary Prince Alois, as a way of transitioning to a new generation. Formally, Hans-Adam remains head of state.


title: Monarchy of Liechtenstein

text: The prince does not receive a salary, but receives an annual allowance of 250,000 Swiss francs, ( Euros or US dollars).


title: Murder mystery game

text: Murder mystery games are a genre of party games where one of the players is secretly playing a murderer, while the other players must determine who among them is the criminal. In some styles of game, the murderer may be aware that they are the killer and in other games, the murderer discovers this along with the other participants. Murder mystery games often involve the actual 'murders' of guests throughout the game, or open with a 'death' and have the rest of the time devoted to investigation.


title: Murder mystery game

text: Murder mystery games also refer to public performances in venues for events, team building, or corporate entertainment, where the suspects are played by actors, and the role of detectives falls to the other guests.


title: Murder mystery game

text: Dinner party murder mystery games are generally played with small groups of individuals, e.g. 6–20. Murder mystery events for larger groups are usually for numbers between 20 and 250 attendees, though events can be run with 400+ in attendance.


title: Murder mystery game

text: The murder mystery fiction genre began in the first half of the nineteenth century. The party game wink murder dates back to at least the early twentieth century, and sees one player secretly selected as a murderer, being able to "kill" other players by winking at them. A killed player must count to five before dying, and the murderer tries to avoid detection.


title: Murder mystery game

text: 1937 saw the release of the first murder mystery game known as "Jury Box". In this game, the players or jurors are given the scenario of the murder, the evidence presented by the prosecutor and defendant, two photographs of the crime scene and ballot papers. After the players have made their decision as to who is guilty, the real solution is read out.


title: Murder mystery game

text: "Cluedo", or "Clue" in North America, was the first murder mystery board game, where players race to identify a killer. It was released some time later in 1948, and has continued to be popular.


title: Murder mystery game

text: The earliest form of role playing murder mystery games in a "How To Host" boxed format is in the 1980s. Back then the scenarios were typically simpler, the acting directions minimal, and the games relied on the guests being comfortable ad-libbing responses to each other's questions.


title: Murder mystery game

text: In 1986, Dimitry Davidoff created the party game "Mafia", where players sit in a room and a number of secret mafia members conspire to "murder" innocent players during eyes-closed night phases. This led to a genre of social deduction games where players attempt to uncover a secret subgroup.


title: Murder mystery game

text: Murder mystery games for dinner parties in their current incarnation are often structured so that each guest is equally involved. Murder Mystery Dinner Party Game Kits can take the form of scripted games or interactive games. Your preference will be driven on how you want your party to progress. Scripted Games are where a small group of people sit around a table and play a planned out Murder Mystery, whereas Interactive games are set up similar to parties, with the players having to find clues to figure out who the murderer is instead of scripts.


title: Murder mystery game

text: In scripted murder mystery games, the participants are told exactly what to say and when. They are often provided with introductory statements, questions to ask, answers to give and occasionally some shared dialogue to break the ice. Character information often comes in booklets which are read from throughout the course of the evening, usually around a table in rounds with the sole purpose being to solve the murder. These were popular in the '90s with the How To Host Box Games. There is no room for ad-libbing in scripted games. You may act out as your character, but interactions are restricted to the information provided in the game.


title: Murder mystery game

text: In interactive murder mystery games the guests are provided with character backgrounds and confidential information. Unlike scripted games, there are many sub-plots and the goal isn't just to solve the murder. A dinner normally takes place during the party, but the guests are not restricted to sitting around a table and can move around, talking to who they want, when they want. They are given a license to interrogate, perform actions or partake in activities with the other guests which will help them solve the case or accomplish their own characters goals. Interactive games do allow for ad-libbing and allow a person to take their character in the direction they want to go. Some games will allow the murderer to know upfront that they are the killer, and others will keep it a secret until the rest of the group is told during a solution round.


title: Murder mystery game

text: The games for 6 to 20+ players usually takes over 2–3 hours and the players use their character booklets and clues (i.e., the game contents) to delve into the background of the murder using the questions, answers, hints, evidence and clues provided. These are all designed to elicit more and more information about the murder, until the players are in a good position to suggest who they believe the guilty party is.


title: Murder mystery game

text: More often than not, hosts invite players to attend the party dressed as, and ready to play the part of, one of the suspects listed in the game scenario. The scripted game is usually played over a 3 course dinner party, whereas an interactive game can be played as a mix and mingle style format with finger foods, buffet or a sit down dinner.


title: Murder mystery game

text: Boxed or downloadable games are designed to be played by groups of friends, family or co-workers, who are seeking to enjoy a fancy dress style party with an additional 'theme'. Interactive games are also used in team building environments. Companies and Church groups have found them to be a good resource for fostering good communication skills and building closer relationships among individuals. The setup of these games can be simple or elaborate. Some games require no setup beyond a way to randomly select the roles; however, some party hosts like to develop an elaborate menu and decorate extensively to match the theme of their chosen game. As well as providing the food and drink for the evening, the party host is required to follow the hosts instructions, prepare for the party in advance, and generally coordinate proceedings during the evening. Organizers of the mystery can assign roles and characters based on their knowledge of the guests.


title: Murder mystery game

text: As not everyone can take a role in a large group game, the suspect roles are usually given to actors, who learn scripts or just ad lib a performance which will gradually reveal who the murderer is to the other guests. The actors are fully "in the know" about all aspects of the case.


title: Murder mystery game

text: The remaining guests will take on the role of detective and it will be their "job" to actively solve the case by examining evidence, finding clues, following and questioning suspects – whatever it takes for them to solve the mystery.


title: Murder mystery game

text: Large group games are often played in a hired venue, a restaurant, a hotel, or at a workplace. They are often used for fundraisers, team building and corporate events.


title: Murder mystery game

text: Live versions of murder mystery shows, in which guests attend commercial venues such as hotels as paying viewers, are sometimes classified as dinner theater or mystery dinners, rather than murder mystery games.


title: Murder mystery game

text: However, there are interactive games that were created for large groups of over 200 guests. Typically, these events are hosted like the other format of interactive games, but some characters in the game are expanded into teams to allow for everyone in the group to have a role.


title: Murder mystery game

text: Murder-mystery games known as "jubensha" () became popular in China in the late 2010s, where players meet around a table and read through a script to deduce who among them is the murderer. Some venues offer "immersive "jubensha"" games where players dress in costume, and venue staff perform the roles of non-player characters. The games draw inspiration from Western murder mystery evenings.


title: Makuria

text: Makuria (Old Nubian: , "Dotawo"; ; ) was a Nubian kingdom located in what is today Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt. Makuria originally covered the area along the Nile River from the Third Cataract to somewhere south of Abu Hamad as well as parts of northern Kordofan. Its capital was Dongola (Old Nubian: ""), and the kingdom is sometimes known by the name of its capital.


title: Makuria

text: By the end of the 6th century, it had converted to Christianity, but in the 7th century, Egypt was conquered by the Islamic armies. In 651 an Arab army invaded, but it was repulsed and a treaty known as the "Baqt" was signed creating a relative peace between the two sides that lasted until the 13th century. Makuria expanded by annexing its northern neighbour Nobatia at some point in the seventh century, while also maintaining close dynastic ties with the kingdom of Alodia to the south. The period from the 9th to 11th century saw the peak of Makuria's cultural development: new monumental buildings were erected, arts like wall paintings and finely crafted and decorated pottery flourished and Nubian grew to become the prevalent written language.


title: Makuria

text: Increased aggression from Egypt, internal discord, Bedouin incursions and possibly the plague and the shift of trade routes led to the state's decline in the 13th and 14th century. Due to a civil war in 1365, the kingdom was reduced to a rump state that lost much of its southern territories, including Dongola. It had disappeared by the 1560s, when the Ottomans occupied Lower Nubia. Nubia was subsequently Islamized, while the Nubians living upstream of Al Dabbah and in Kordofan were also Arabized.


title: Makuria

text: Makuria is much better known than its neighbor Alodia to the south, but there are still many gaps in our knowledge. The most important source for the history of the area is various Arab travelers and historians who passed through Nubia during this period. These accounts are often problematic as many of the Arab writers were biased against their Christian neighbors. These works generally focus on only the military conflicts between Egypt and Nubia. One exception is Ibn Selim el-Aswani, an Egyptian diplomat who traveled to Dongola when Makuria was at the height of its power in the 10th century and left a detailed account.


title: Makuria

text: The Nubians were a literate society, and a fair body of writing survives from the period. These documents were written in the Old Nubian language in an uncial variety of the Greek alphabet extended with some Coptic symbols and some symbols unique to Nubian. Written in a language that is closely related to the modern Nobiin tongue, these documents have long been deciphered. However, the vast majority of them are works dealing with religion or legal records that are of little use to historians. The largest known collection, found at Qasr Ibrim, does contain some valuable governmental records.


title: Makuria

text: The construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1964 threatened to flood what had once been the northern half of Makuria. In 1960, UNESCO launched a massive effort to do as much archaeological work as possible before the flooding occurred. Thousands of experts were brought from around the world over the next few years. Some of the more important Makurian sites looked at were the city of Faras and its cathedral, excavated by a team from Poland; the British work at Qasr Ibrim; and the University of Ghana's work at the town of Debeira West, which gave important information on daily life in medieval Nubia. All of these sites are in what was Nobatia; the only major archaeological site in Makuria itself is the partial exploration of the capital at Old Dongola.


title: Makuria

text: By the early 4th century, if not before, the Kingdom of Kush with its capital Meroe was collapsing. The region which would later constitute Makuria, i.e. the Nile Valley between the third Nile cataract and the great Nile bend of the fourth/fifth cataract, has been proposed to have seceded from Kush already in the 3rd century. Here, a homogenous and relatively isolated culture dubbed as "pre-Makuria" developed. During the 4th and 5th centuries, the region of Napata, located near the fourth cataract and formerly being one of the most important political and sacred places of Kush, served as the center for a new regional elite buried in large tumuli like those at el Zuma or Tanqasi. There was a significant population growth accompanied by social transformations, resulting in the absorption of the Kushites into the Nubians, a people originally from Kordofan that had settled in the Nile Valley in the 4th century. Thus, a new Makurian society and state emerged by the 5th century. In the late 5th century one of the first Makurian kings moved the power base of the still-developing kingdom from Napata to further downstream, where the fortress of Dongola, the new seat of the royal court, was founded and which soon developed a vast urban district. Many more fortresses were built along the banks of the Nile, probably not intended to serve a military purpose, but to foster urbanization.


title: Makuria

text: Already at the time of the foundation of Dongola contacts were maintained with the Byzantine Empire. In the 530s, the Byzantines under Emperor Justinian mounted a policy of expansion. The Nubians were part of his plan to win allies against the Sasanian Persians by converting them to Christianity, the Byzantine state religion. The imperial court, however, was divided in two sects, believing in two different natures of Jesus Christ: Justinian belonged to the Chalcedonians, the official denomination of the empire, while his wife Theodora was a Miaphysite, who were the strongest in Egypt. John of Ephesus described how two competing missions were sent to Nubia, with the Miaphysite arriving first in, and converting, the northern kingdom of Nobatia in 543. While the Nobatian king refused Justinian's mission to travel further south archaeological records might suggest that Makuria converted still in the first half of the 6th century. The chronicler John of Biclar recorded that in around 568 Makuria had “received the faith of Christ”. In 573 a Makurian delegation arrived in Constantinople, offering ivory and a giraffe and declaring its good relationship with the Byzantines. Unlike Nobatia in the north (with which Makuria seemed to have been in enmity) and Alodia in the south Makuria embraced the Chalcedonian doctrine. The early ecclesiastical architecture at Dongola confirms the close relations maintained with the empire, trade between the two states was flourishing.


title: Makuria

text: In the 7th century, Makuria annexed its northern neighbour Nobatia. While there are several contradicting theories, it seems likely that this occurred soon after the Sasanian occupation of Egypt, presumably during the 620s, but before 642. Before the Sasanian invasion, Nobatia used to have strong ties with Egypt and was thus hit hard by its fall. Perhaps it was also invaded by the Sasanians itself: some local churches from that period show traces of destruction and subsequent rebuilding. Thus weakened, Nobatia fell to Makuria, making Makuria extend as far north as Philae near the first cataract. A new bishopric was founded in Faras in around 630 and two new cathedrals styled after the basilica of Dongola were built in Faras and Qasr Ibrim. It is not known what happened to the royal Nobatian family after the unification, but it is recorded that Nobatia remained a separate entity within the unified kingdom governed by an Eparch.


title: Makuria

text: Between 639 and 641 the Muslim Arabs overran Byzantine Egypt. A Byzantine request for help remained unanswered by the Nubians due to conflicts with the Beja. In 641 or 642 the Arabs sent a first expedition into Makuria. While it is not clear how far south it penetrated it was eventually defeated. A second invasion led by Abdallah abi Sarh followed in 651/652, when the attackers pushed as far south as Dongola. Dongola was besieged and bombarded by catapults. While they damaged parts of the town they could not penetrate the walls of the citadel. Muslim sources highlight the skill of the Nubian archers in repelling the invasion. With both sides being unable to decide the battle in their favour, abi Sarh and the Makurian king Qalidurut eventually met and drew up a treaty known as Baqt. Initially it was a ceasefire also containing an annual exchange of goods (Makurian slaves for Egyptian wheat, textiles etc.), an exchange typical for historical North East African states and perhaps being a continuation of terms already existing between the Nubians and Byzantines. Probably in Umayyad times the treaty was expanded by regulating the safety of Nubians in Egypt and Muslims in Makuria. While some modern scholars view the Baqt as a submission of Makuria to the Muslims it is clear that it was not: the exchanged goods were of equal value and Makuria was recognized as an independent state, being one of the few to beat back the Arabs during the early Islamic expansion. The Baqt would remain in force for more than six centuries, although at times interrupted by mutual raids.


title: Makuria

text: The 8th century was a period of consolidation. Under king Merkurios, who lived in the late 7th and early 8th century and whom the Coptic biograph John the Deacon approvingly refers to as “the new Constantine”, the state seems to have been reorganized and Miaphysite Christianity to have become the official creed. He probably also founded the monumental Ghazali monastery (around 5000 m) in Wadi Abu Dom. Zacharias, Merkurios' son and successor, renounced his claim to the throne and went into a monastery, but maintained the right to proclaim a successor. Within a few years there were three different kings and several Muslim raids until before 747, the throne was seized by Kyriakos. In that year, John the Deacon claims, the Umayyad governour of Egypt imprisoned the Coptic Patriarch, resulting in a Makurian invasion and siege of Fustat, the Egyptian capital, after which the Patriarch was released. This episode has been referred to as “Christian Egyptian propaganda”, although it is still likely that Upper Egypt was subject to a Makurian campaign, perhaps a raid. Nubian influence in Upper Egypt would remain strong. Three years later, in 750, the sons of Marwan II, the last Umayyad Caliph, fled to Nubia and asked Kyriakos for asylum, although without success. In around 760 Makuria was probably visited by the Chinese traveller Du Huan.


title: Makuria

text: The kingdom was at its peak between the 9th and 11th centuries. During the reign of king Ioannes in the early 9th century, relations with Egypt were cut and the Baqt ceased to be paid. Upon Ioannes' death in 835 an Abbasid emissary arrived, demanding the Makurian payment of the missing 14 annual payments and threatening with war if the demands are not met. Thus confronted with a demand for more than 5000 slaves, Zakharias III "Augustus", the new king, had his son Georgios I crowned king, probably to increase his prestige, and sent him to the caliph in Baghdad to negotiate. His travel drew much attention at the time. The 12th century Syriac Patriarch Michael described Georgios and his retinue in some detail, writing that Georgios rode a camel, wielded a sceptre and a golden cross in his hands and that a red umbrella was carried over his head. He was accompanied by a bishop, horsemen and slaves, and to his left and right were young men wielding crosses. A few months after he arrived in Baghdad Georgios I, who was described as educated and well-mannered, managed to convince the caliph of remitting the Nubian debts and reducing the Baqt payments to a 3-year rhythm. In 836 or early 837 he had returned to Nubia. After his return a new church was built in Dongola, the Cruciform Church, which had an approximate height of 28m and came to be the largest building in the entire kingdom. A new palace, the so-called Throne Hall of Dongola, was also built, showing strong Byzantine influences.


title: Makuria

text: In 831 a punitive campaign of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mutasim defeated the Beja east of Nubia. As a result, they had to submit to the Caliph, thus expanding nominal Muslim authority over much of the Sudanese Eastern Desert. In 834 al-Mutasim ordered that the Egyptian Arab Bedouins, who had been declining as a military force since the rise of the Abbasids, were not to receive any more payments. Discontented and dispossessed, they pushed southwards. The road into Nubia was, however, blocked by Makuria: while there existed communities of Arab settlers in Lower Nubia the great mass of the Arab nomads was forced to settle among the Beja, driven also by the motivation to exploit the local gold mines. In the mid-9th century the Arab adventurer al-Umari hired a private army and settled at a mine near Abu Hamad in eastern Makuria. After a confrontation between both parties, al-Umari occupied Makurian territories along the Nile. King Georgios I sent an elite force commanded by his son in law, Nyuti, but he failed to defeat the Arabs and rebelled against the crown himself. King Georgios then sent his oldest son, presumably the later Georgios II, but he was abandoned by his army and was forced to flee to Alodia. The Makurian king then sent another son, Zacharias, who worked together with al-Umari to kill Nyuti before eventually defeating al-Umari himself and pushing him into the desert. Afterward, al-Umari attempted to establish himself in Lower Nubia, but was soon pushed out again before finally being murdered during the reign of the Tulunid Sultan Ahmad ibn Tulun (868-884).


title: Makuria

text: During the rule of the Ikhshidid dynasty, relations between Makuria and Egypt worsened: in 951 a Makurian army marched against Egypt's Kharga Oasis, killing and enslaving many people. Five years later the Makurians attacked Aswan, but were subsequently chased as far south as Qasr Ibrim. A new Makurian attack on Aswan followed immediately, which was answered by another Egyptian retaliation, this time capturing Qasr Ibrim. This did not put a hold on Makurian aggression and in 962–964 they again attacked, this time pushing as far north as Akhmim. Parts of Upper Egypt apparently remained occupied by Makuria for several years. Ikhshidid Egypt eventually fell in 969, when it was conquered by the Shiite Fatimids. Immediately afterward they sent the emissary Ibn Selim el-Aswani to the Makurian king Georgios III. Georgios accepted the first request of the emissary, the resumption of the Baqt, but declined the second one, the conversion to Islam, after a lengthy discussion with his bishops and learned men and instead invited the Fatimid governor to embrace Christianity. Afterward, he granted al-Aswani to celebrate Eid al-Adha outside of Dongola with drums and trumpets, though not without the discontent of some of his subjects. Relations between Makuria and Fatmid Egypt were to remain peaceful, as the Fatimids needed the Nubians as allies against their Sunni enemies.


title: Makuria

text: The kingdom of Makuria was, at least temporarily, exercising influence over the Nubian-speaking populations of Kordofan, the region between the Nile Valley and Darfur, as is suggested by an account of the 10th century traveller Ibn Hawqal as well as oral traditions. With the southern Nubian kingdom of Alodia, with which Makuria shared its border somewhere between Abu Hamad and the Nile-Atbara confluence, Makuria seemed to have maintained a dynastic union, as according to the accounts of Arab geographers from the 10th century and Nubian sources from the 12th century. Archaeological evidence shows an increased Makurian influence on Alodian art and architecture from the 8th century. Meanwhile, evidence for contact with Christian Ethiopia is surprisingly scarce. An exceptional case was the mediation of Georgios III between Patriarch Philotheos and some Ethiopian monarch, perhaps the late Aksumite emperor Anbessa Wudem or his successor Dil Ne’ad. Ethiopian monks travelled through Nubia to reach Jerusalem, a graffito from the church of Sonqi Tino testifies its visit by an Ethiopian abuna. Such travellers also transmitted knowledge of Nubian architecture, which influenced several medieval Ethiopian churches.


title: Makuria

text: During the second half of the 11th century, Makuria saw great cultural and religious reforms, referred to as "Nubization". The main initiator has been suggested to have been Georgios, the archbishop of Dongola and hence the head of the Makurian church. He seems to have popularized the Nubian language as written language to counter the growing influence of Arabic in the Coptic Church and introduced the cult of dead rulers and bishops as well as indigenous Nubian saints. A new, unique church was built in Banganarti, probably becoming one of the most important ones in the entire kingdom. In the same period Makuria also began to adopt a new royal dress and regalia and perhaps also Nubian terminology in administration and titles, all suggested to have initially come from Alodia in the south.


title: Makuria

text: In 1171 Saladin overthrew the Fatimid dynasty, which signaled new hostilities between Egypt and Nubia. The following year, a Makurian army pillaged Aswan and advanced even further north. It is not clear if this campaign was intended to aid the Fatimids or was merely a raid exploiting the unstable situation in Egypt, although the latter seems more likely, as the Makurians apparently soon withdrew. To deal with the Nubians, Saladin sent his brother Turan-Shah. The latter conquered Qasr Ibrim in January 1173, reportedly sacking it, taking many prisoners, pillaging the church and converting it into a mosque. Afterward, he sent an emissary to the Makurian king, Moses Georgios, intending to answer a previously requested peace treaty with a pair of arrows. Probably ruling over both Makuria and Alodia, Moses Georgios was a man confident in his ability to resist the Egyptians, stamping with hot iron a cross on the emissary's hand. Turan Shah withdrew from Nubia but left a detachment of Kurdish troops in Qasr Ibrim, which would raid Lower Nubia for the next two years. Archaeological evidence links them with the destruction of the cathedral of Faras, Abdallah Nirqi and Debeira West. In 1175 a Nubian army finally arrived to confront the invaders at Adindan. Before battle, however, the Kurdish commander drowned while crossing the Nile, resulting in the retreat of Saladin's troops out of Nubia. Afterwards there was peace for another 100 years.


title: Makuria

text: There are no records from travelers to Makuria from 1172 to 1268, and the events of this period have long been a mystery, although modern discoveries have shed some light on this era. During this period Makuria seems to have entered a steep decline. The best source on this is Ibn Khaldun, writing in the 14th century, who blamed it on Bedouin invasions similar to what the Mamluks were dealing with. Other factors for the decline of Nubia might have been the change of African trade routes and a severe dry period between 1150 and 1500.


title: Makuria

text: Matters would change with the rise of the Mamluks and Sultan Baybars in 1260. In 1265 a Mamluk army allegedly raided Makuria as far south as Dongola while also expanding southwards along the African Red Sea coast, thus threatening the Nubians. In 1272 king David marched east and attacked the port town of Aidhab, located on an important pilgrimage route to Mecca. The Nubian army destroyed the town, causing “a blow to the very heart of Islam”. A punitive Mamluk expedition was sent in response, but did not pass beyond the second cataract. Three years later the Makurians attacked and destroyed Aswan, but this time Mamluk Sultan Baybars responded with a well-equipped army setting off from Cairo in early 1276, accompanied by a cousin of king David named Mashkouda or Shekanda. The Mamluks defeated the Nubians in three battles at Gebel Adda, Meinarti and finally at the Battle of Dongola. David fled upstream the Nile, eventually entering al-Abwab in the south, which, previously being Alodia's northernmost province, had by this period apparently become a kingdom of its own. The king of al-Abwab, however, handed David over to Baybars, who had him executed.


title: Makuria

text: Thanks to the crusades, western Europe grew increasingly aware of the existence of Christian Nubia during the 12th and 13th centuries until in the early 14th century, there were even proposals to ally with the Nubians for another crusade against the Mamluks. Nubian characters also start to be featured in crusader songs, first displayed as Muslims and later, after the 12th century and with increasing knowledge of Nubia, as Christians. Contacts between crusaders and western pilgrims on the one side and Nubians on the other occurred in Jerusalem, where European accounts from the 12th-14th centuries attest the existence of a Nubian community, and also, if not primarily in Egypt, where many Nubians were living and where European merchants were highly active. Perhaps there also existed a Nubian community in crusader-controlled Famagusta, Cyprus. In the mid-14th century pilgrim Niccolò da Poggibonsi claimed that the Nubians had sympathies for the Latins and hence the Mamluk Sultan did not allow Latins to travel to Nubia as he was afraid that they might ignite the Nubians to war, although in the contemporary "Book of Knowledge of All Kingdoms" it was written that Genoese traders were present in Dongola. In Qasr Ibrim there was found a text apparently mixing Nubian with Italian as well as a Catalan playing card, and in Banganarti there has been noted an inscription written in Provencal dating to the second half of the 13th century/14th century.


title: Makuria

text: Internal difficulties seem to have also hurt the kingdom. King David's cousin Shekanda claimed the throne and traveled to Cairo to seek the support of the Mamluks. They agreed and took over Nubia in 1276, and placed Shekanda on the throne. The Christian Shekanda then signed an agreement making Makuria a vassal of Egypt, and a Mamluk garrison was stationed in Dongola. A few years later, Shamamun, another member of the Makurian royal family, led a rebellion against Shekanda to restore Makurian independence. He eventually defeated the Mamluk garrison and took the throne in 1286 after separating from Egypt and betraying the peace deal. He offered the Egyptians an increase in the annual Baqt payments in return for scrapping the obligations to which Shekanda had agreed. The Mamluk armies were occupied elsewhere, and the Sultan of Egypt agreed to this new arrangement.


title: Makuria

text: After a period of peace, King Karanbas defaulted on these payments, and the Mamluks again occupied the kingdom in 1312. This time, a Muslim member of the Makurian dynasty was placed on the throne. Sayf al-Din Abdullah Barshambu began converting the nation to Islam and in 1317 the throne hall of Dongola was turned into a mosque. This was not accepted by other Makurian leaders and the nation fell into civil war and anarchy that very year. Barshambu was eventually killed and succeeded by Kanz ad-Dawla. While ruling, his tribe, the Banu Khanz, acted a puppet dynasty of the Mamluks. The already mentioned king Keranbes tried to wrestle control from Kanz ad-Dwala in 1323 and eventually seized Dongola, but was ousted just one year later. He retreated to Aswan for another chance to seize the throne, but it never came.


title: Makuria

text: The ascension of the Muslim king Abdallah Barshambu and his transformation of the throne hall into a mosque has often been interpreted as the end of Christian Makuria. This is conclusion is erroneous, since Christianity evidently remained vital in Nubia. While not much is known about the following decades, it seems that there were both Muslim and Christian kings on the Makurian throne. Both the traveller Ibn Battuta and the Egyptian historian Shihab al-Umari claim that the contemporary Makurian kings were Muslims belonging to the Banu Khanz, while the general population remained Christian. Al-Umari also points out that Makuria was still dependent on the Mamluk Sultan. On the other hand, he also remarks that the Makurian throne was seized in turns by Muslims and Christians. Indeed, an Ethiopian monk who travelled through Nubia in around 1330, Gadla Ewostatewos, states that the Nubian king, which he claims to have met in person, was Christian. In the "Book of Knowledge of All Kingdoms", which relies on an anonymous traveller from the mid-14th century, it is claimed that the "Kingdom of Dongola" was inhabited by Christians and that its royal banner was a cross on white background (see flag). Epigraphical evidence reveals the names of three Makurian kings: Siti and Abdallah Kanz ad-Dawla, both ruling during the 1330s, and Paper, who is dated to the mid 14th century. The attestations of Siti's reign, all Nubian in nature, show that he still exercised control/influence over a vast territory from Lower Nubia to Kordofan, suggesting that his kingdom entered the second half of the 14th century centralized, powerful and Christian.


title: Makuria

text: It was also in the mid 14th century, more particular after 1347, when Nubia would have been devastated by the plague. Archaeology confirms a rapid decline of the Christian Nubian civilization since then. Due to the in general rather small population the plague might have cleansed entire landscapes from its Nubian inhabitants.


title: Makuria

text: In 1365, there occurred yet another short, but disastrous civil war. The current king was killed in battle by his rebelling nephew, who had allied himself with the Banu Ja'd tribe. The brother of the murdered king and his retinue fled to a town called "Daw" in the Arabic sources, most likely identical with Gebel Adda in Lower Nubia. The usurper then killed the nobility of the Banu Ja'd, probably because he could not trust them anymore, and destroyed and pillaged Dongola, just to travel to Gebel Adda and ask his uncle for forgiveness afterward. Thus Dongola was left to the Banu Ja'd and Gebel Adda became the new capital.


title: Makuria

text: Both the usurper and the rightful heir, and most likely even the king that was killed during the usurpation, were Christian. Now residing in Gebel Adda, the Makurian kings continued their Christian traditions. They ruled over a reduced rump state with a confirmed north–south extension of around 100 km, albeit it might have been larger in reality. Located in such a strategically irrelevant periphery, the Mamluks left the kingdom alone. In the sources this kingdom appears as "Dotawo". Until recently it was commonly assumed that "Dotawo" was, before the Makurian court shifted its seat to Gebel Adda, just a vasal kingdom of Makuria, but it is now accepted that it was merely the Old Nubian self-designation for Makuria.


title: Makuria

text: The last known king is Joel, who is mentioned in a 1463 document and in an inscription from 1484. Perhaps it was under Joel when the kingdom witnessed a last, brief renaissance. After the death or deposition of king Joel the kingdom might have collapsed. The cathedral of Faras came out of use after the 15th century, just as Qasr Ibrim was abandoned by the late 15th century. The palace of Gebel Adda came out of use after the 15th century as well. In 1518, there is one last mention of a Nubian ruler, albeit it is unknown where he resided and if he was Christian or Muslim. There were no traces of an independent Christian kingdom when the Ottomans occupied Lower Nubia in the 1560s, while the Funj had come into possession of Upper Nubia south of the third cataract.


title: Makuria

text: By the early 15th century, there is mention of a king of Dongola, most likely independent from the influence of the Egyptian sultans. Friday prayers held in Dongola failed to mention them as well. These new kings of Dongola were probably confronted with waves of Arab migrations and thus were too weak to conquer the Makurian splinter state of Lower Nubia.


title: Makuria

text: It is possible that some petty kingdoms that continued the Christian Nubian culture developed in the former Makurian territory, like for example on Mograt island, north of Abu Hamed. Another small kingdom would have been the Kingdom of Kokka, founded perhaps in the 17th century in the no-mans-land between the Ottoman Empire in the north and the Funj in the south. Its organization and rituals bore clear similarities to those of Christian times. Eventually the kings themselves were Christians until the 18th century.


title: Makuria

text: The Nubians upstream of Al Dabbah started to assume an Arabic identity and the Arabic language, eventually becoming the Ja'alin, claimed descendants of Abbas, uncle of Muhammad. The Ja'alin were already mentioned by David Reubeni, who travelled through Nubia in the early 16th century. They are now divided into several sub-tribes, which are, from Al Dabbah to the conjunction of the Blue and White Nile: Shaiqiya, Rubatab, Manasir, Mirafab and the "Ja'alin proper". Among them, Nubian remained a spoken language until the 19th century. North of the Al Dabbah developed three Nubian sub-groups: The Kenzi, who, before the completion of the Aswan Dam, lived between Aswan and Maharraqa, the Mahasi, who settled between Maharraqa and Kerma and the Danagla, the southernmost of the remaining Nile Valley Nubians. Some count the Danagla to the Ja'alin, since the Danagla also claim to belong to that Arab tribe, but they in fact still speak a Nubian language, Dongolawi. North Kordofan, which was still a part of Makuria as late as the 1330s, also underwent a linguistic Arabization similar to the Nile Valley upstream of Al Dabbah. Historical and linguistic evidence confirms that the locals were predominantly Nubian-speaking until the 19th century, with a language closely related to the Nile-Nubian dialects.


title: Makuria

text: Today, the Nubian language is in the process of being replaced by Arabic. Furthermore, the Nubians increasingly start to claim to be Arabs descending from Abbas, thus disregarding their Christian Nubian past.


title: Makuria

text: Christian Nubia was long considered something of a backwater, mainly because its graves were small and lacking the grave goods of previous eras. Modern scholars realize that this was due to cultural reasons, and that the Makurians actually had a rich and vibrant art and culture.


title: Makuria

text: Four languages were used in Makuria: Nubian, Coptic, Greek and Arabic. Nubian was represented by two dialects, with Nobiin being said to have been spoken in the Nobadia province in the north and Dongolawi in the Makurian heartland, although in the Islamic period Nobiin is also attested to have been employed by the Shaigiya tribe in the southeastern Dongola Reach.


title: Makuria

text: The royal court employed Nobiin despite being located in Dongolawi-speaking territory.<!--,even though Dongolawi vocabulary is attested to have gradually infiltrated this written Old Nubian language


title: James Farmer

text: James Leonard Farmer Jr. (January 12, 1920 – July 9, 1999) was an American civil rights activist and leader in the Civil Rights Movement "who pushed for nonviolent protest to dismantle segregation, and served alongside Martin Luther King Jr." He was the initiator and organizer of the first Freedom Ride in 1961, which eventually led to the desegregation of interstate transportation in the United States.


title: James Farmer

text: In 1942, Farmer co-founded the Committee of Racial Equality in Chicago along with George Houser, James R. Robinson, Samuel E. Riley, Bernice Fisher, Homer Jack, and Joe Guinn. It was later called the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and was dedicated to ending racial segregation in the United States through nonviolence. Farmer served as the national chairman from 1942 to 1944.


title: James Farmer

text: By the 1960s, Farmer was known as "one of the Big Four civil rights leaders in the 1960s, together with King, NAACP chief Roy Wilkins and Urban League head Whitney Young."


title: James Farmer

text: James L. Farmer Jr. was born in Marshall, Texas, to James L. Farmer Sr. and Pearl Houston, who were both educators. His father was a professor at Wiley College, a historically black college, and a Methodist minister with a Ph.D. in theology from Boston University. His mother, a homemaker, was a graduate of Florida's Bethune-Cookman Institute and a former teacher.


title: James Farmer

text: When Farmer was a young boy, about three or four, he wanted a Coca-Cola when he was out in town with his mother. His mother had adamantly told him no, that he had to wait until they got home. Farmer wanted a Coke immediately and enviously watched another young boy go inside and buy one. His mother told him the other boy could buy the Coke at that store because he was white, but Farmer was a person of color and not allowed there. This defining, unjust moment was the first, but not the last, experience that Farmer remembered of segregation.


title: James Farmer

text: When Farmer was 10, Farmer's Uncle Fred, Aunt Helen, and cousin Muriel came down to visit from New York. They had no trouble getting a sleeping compartment on the train down but were worried about getting one on the way back. Farmer went to the train station with his dad. While his father convinced the manager to give his uncle a room in the sleeping car on the train, Farmer realized his dad was lying. Farmer was shocked to hear the lies, as his father was a minister. On the way back, his father told him, "I had to tell that lie about your Uncle Fred. That was the only way we could get the reservation. The Lord will forgive me." Still, Farmer was very upset that his father had to lie to get the bedroom on the train. This was when Farmer began to dedicate his life to ending segregation.


title: James Farmer

text: Farmer was a child prodigy; as a freshman in 1934 at the age of 14, he enrolled at Wiley College, a historically black college where his father was teaching in Marshall, Texas. He was selected as part of the debate team. Melvin B. Tolson, a professor of English, became his mentor.


title: James Farmer

text: At the age of 21, Farmer was invited to the White House to talk with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Eleanor Roosevelt signed the invitation. Before the talk with the president, Mrs. Roosevelt talked to the group. Farmer took a liking to her immediately, and the two of them monopolized the conversation. When the group went in to talk to President Roosevelt, Mrs. Roosevelt followed and sat in the back. After the formalities were done, the young people were allowed to ask questions. Farmer said, "On your opening remarks you described Britain and France as champions of freedom. In light of their colonial policies in Africa, which give the lie to the principle, how can they be considered defenders?" The president tactfully avoided the question. She exclaimed, "Just a minute, you did not answer the question!" Although the president still did not answer the question as Farmer phrased it, Farmer was placated knowing that he had gotten the question out there.


title: James Farmer

text: Farmer earned a Bachelor of Science degree at Wiley College in 1938, and a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Howard University School of Religion in 1941. At Wiley, Farmer became anguished over segregation, recalling particular occasions of racism he had witnessed or suffered in his younger days. During the Second World War, Farmer had official status as a conscientious objector.


title: James Farmer

text: Inspired by Howard Thurman, a professor of theology at Howard University, Farmer became interested in Gandhi-style pacifism. Martin Luther King Jr. also studied this later and adopted many of its principles. Farmer started to think about how to stop racist practices in America while working at the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which he joined after college.


title: James Farmer

text: During the 1950s, Farmer served as national secretary of the Student League for Industrial Democracy (SLID), the youth branch of the socialist League for Industrial Democracy. SLID later became Students for a Democratic Society.


title: James Farmer

text: Farmer married Winnie Christie in 1945. Winnie became pregnant soon after they were married. Then she found a note from a girl in one of Farmer's coat pockets, an event that catalyzed the end of their marriage. She miscarried, and the couple divorced not long afterward.


title: James Farmer

text: A few years later, Farmer married Lula A. Peterson. She had been diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, so the two were told not to have children because at that time pregnancy was thought to exacerbate cancer. Years later, they sought a second opinion. At that time, Lula was encouraged to try to have children. She had a miscarriage but then successfully had a daughter, Tami Lynn Farmer, born on February 14, 1959. A second daughter, Abbey Farmer, was born in 1962.


title: James Farmer

text: I talked to A. J. Muste, executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), about an idea to combat racial inequality. Muste found the idea promising but wanted to see it in writing. I spent months writing the memorandum making sure it was perfect. A. J. Muste wrote me back asking me about money to fund it and how they would get members. Finally, I was asked to propose my idea in front of the FOR National Council. In the end, FOR chose not to sponsor the group, but they gave me permission to start the group in Chicago. When Farmer got back to Chicago, the group began setting up the organization. The name they picked was CORE, the Committee of Racial Equality. The name was changed about a year later to the Congress of Racial Equality.


title: James Farmer

text: In an interview with Robert Penn Warren in 1964 for the book "Who Speaks for the Negro?," Farmer described the founding principles of CORE as follows:


title: James Farmer

text: Jack Spratt was a local diner in Chicago that would not serve colored people. CORE decided to do a large-scale sit in where they would occupy all available seats. Twenty-eight persons entered Jack Spratt in groups, with at least one black person in each group. No one who was served would eat until the black people were served, or they gave their plate to the black person nearest them. The other customers, already in the diner, did the same. The manager told them that they would serve the colored customers in the basement, but the group declined. Then it was proposed that all the colored people sit in the back corner and get served there, again the group declined. Finally the establishment called the police. When the police entered, they refused to kick the CORE group out. Having no other options, all patrons were served. Afterward, CORE did tests at Jack Spratt and found that the diner's policy had changed.


title: James Farmer

text: The White City Roller Skating Rink allowed only white patrons. Its staff made excuses to blacks as to why they could not enter. For example, white CORE members were allowed to enter the rink, but black members were refused because of "a private party". Having documented that the rink was lying about the circumstances, CORE decided to sue them. When the case went to trial, a state lawyer conducted the prosecution, rather than the county. The judge ruled in favor of the rink. Although the outcome of the case was a setback for CORE, the group was making a name for itself.


title: James Farmer

text: In 1961, Farmer, who was working for the NAACP, was reelected as the national director of CORE, as the civil rights movement was gaining power. Although the United States Supreme Court in "Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia," 328 U.S. 373 (1946) had ruled that segregated interstate bus travel was unconstitutional, and reiterated that in "Boynton v. Virginia" (1960), interstate buses enforced segregation below the Mason–Dixon line (in southern states). Gordon Carey proposed the idea of a second Journey of Reconciliation and Farmer jumped at the idea. This time the group planned to journey through the Deep South. Farmer coined a new name for the trip: the Freedom Ride.


title: James Farmer

text: They planned for a mixed race and gender group to test segregation on interstate buses. The group would be trained extensively on nonviolent tactics in Washington D.C. and embark on May 4, 1961: half by each of the two major carriers, Greyhound Bus Company and Trailways. They would ride through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and finish in New Orleans on May 17. They planned to challenge segregated seating in bus stations and lunch rooms as well. For overnight stops they planned rallies and support from the black community, and scheduled talks at local churches or colleges.


title: James Farmer

text: On May 4, the participants began. The trip down through Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia went smoothly enough. The states knew about the trip and facilities either took down the "Colored" and "White Only" signs, or didn't enforce the segregation laws. Before the group made it to Alabama, the most dangerous part of the Freedom Ride, Farmer had to return home because his father died. In Alabama, the other riders were severely beaten and abused, narrowly escaping death when their bus was firebombed. With the bus destroyed, they flew to New Orleans instead of finishing the ride.


title: James Farmer

text: Diane Nash and other members of the Nashville Student Movement and SNCC quickly recruited college students to restart the Freedom Ride where the first had left off. Farmer rejoined the group in Montgomery, Alabama. Doris Castle persuaded him to get on the bus at the last minute. The Riders were met with severe violence; in Birmingham the sheriff allowed local KKK members several minutes to attack the Riders, badly injuring a photographer. The violent reactions and events attracted national media attention.


title: James Farmer

text: Their efforts sparked a summer of similar rides by other Civil Rights leaders and thousands of ordinary citizens. In Jackson, Mississippi, Farmer and the other riders were immediately jailed, but law enforcement prevented violence. The riders followed a "jail no bail" philosophy to try to fill the jails with protesters and attract media attention. From county and town jails, the riders were sent to harsher conditions at Parchman State Penitentiary. As the Freedom Rides were attacked by whites, news coverage became widespread, and included photographs, newspaper accounts, and motion pictures. The Congress of Racial Equality and segregation and civil rights became national issues. Farmer became well known as a civil rights leader. The Freedom Rides inspired Erin Gruwell's teaching techniques and the Freedom Writers Foundation.


title: James Farmer

text: The following year, civil rights groups, supplemented by hundreds of college students from the North, worked with local activists in Mississippi on voter registration and education. James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, all of whom Farmer had helped recruit for CORE, disappeared during the Mississippi Freedom Summer. A full-scale FBI investigation aided by other law enforcement, found their murdered corpses buried in an earthen dam. The murders inspired the 1988 feature movie, "Mississippi Burning." Years later, recalling the event, Farmer said, "Anyone who said he wasn't afraid during the civil rights movement was either a liar or without imagination. I think we were all scared. I was scared all the time. My hand didn't shake but inside I was shaking."


title: James Farmer

text: In 1963, Louisiana state troopers hunted him door to door for trying to organize protests. A funeral home director had Farmer play dead in the back of a hearse that carried him along back roads and out of town. He was arrested that August for disturbing the peace.


title: James Farmer

text: As the Director of CORE, Farmer was considered one of the "Big Six" of the Civil Rights Movement who helped organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. (The press also used the term "Big Four", ignoring John Lewis and Dorothy Height.)


title: James Farmer

text: Growing disenchanted with emerging militancy and black nationalist sentiments in CORE, Farmer resigned as director in 1966. By that time, Congress had passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ending legal segregation, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, authorizing federal enforcement of registration and elections.


title: James Farmer

text: Farmer took a teaching position at Lincoln University, a historically black college (HBCU) near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also lectured around the country. In 1968, Farmer ran for U.S. Congress as a Liberal Party candidate backed by the Republican Party, but lost to Shirley Chisholm.


title: James Farmer

text: In 1969, the newly elected Republican President Richard Nixon offered Farmer the position of Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (now Health and Human Services). The next year, frustrated by the Washington bureaucracy, Farmer resigned from the position.


title: James Farmer

text: Farmer retired from politics in 1971 but remained active, lecturing and serving on various boards and committees. He was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto II in 1973. In 1975, he co-founded Fund for an Open Society. Its vision is a nation in which people live in stably integrated communities, where political and civic power is shared by people of different races and ethnicities. He led this organization until 1999.


title: James Farmer

text: He published his autobiography "Lay Bare the Heart" in 1985. In 1984, Farmer began teaching at Mary Washington College (now The University of Mary Washington) in Fredericksburg, Virginia.


title: James Farmer

text: Farmer retired from his teaching position in 1998. He died on July 9, 1999, of complications from diabetes in Fredericksburg, Virginia at the age of 79.


title: James Farmer

text: Several issues of "Fellowship" magazine of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1992 (Spring, Summer and Winter issues) contained discussions by Farmer and George Houser about the founding of CORE. A conference at Bluffton College in Bluffton, Ohio, on October 22, 1992, "Erasing the Color Line in the North", explored CORE and its origins. Both Houser and Farmer attended. Academics and the participants unanimously agreed that the founders of CORE were James Farmer, George Houser and Bernice Fisher. The conference has been preserved on videotape available from Bluffton College.


title: Michael Wright (actor)

text: Michael Wright is an American film and television actor, who is best known for his role as Eddie King Jr. in the 1991 Robert Townsend film "The Five Heartbeats", Carlyle in "Streamers" (1983), and Raynathan in "Sugar Hill" (1994). and known for his television roles such as Elias Taylor in "V (The Series)" (1984-1985), Omar White in "Oz" (2001-2003), and Lazarus Prime in "Black Lightning" (2019).


title: Michael Wright (actor)

text: Wright's body of work in television includes the 1983 NBC science fiction miniseries "V", the 1984 sequel "V: The Final Battle", and "V: The Series" as Elias Taylor. He appeared in the 1987 episode "Duty and Honor" of "Miami Vice" as "The Savage", and on the 1997 HBO series "Oz" as Omar White from 2001-2003. Wright has appeared on "New York Undercover", and as Lazarus Prime on "Black Lightning".


title: Michael Wright (actor)

text: Wright's film roles include the 1987 drama "The Principal" as Victor Duncan, also starring James Belushi, and the 1994 film "Sugar Hill" with Wesley Snipes. He played Clinton, the leader of The Del Bombers gang in the cult film "The Wanderers". His most recent film is 2005's "The Interpreter". Wright was born and raised in New York City. He is a graduate of the New Lincoln School.


title: Mr. 3000

text: Mr. 3000 is a 2004 American sports comedy film directed by Charles Stone III. It stars Bernie Mac and Angela Bassett. The film's plot surrounds a retired Major League Baseball player who makes a comeback at age 47 in order to attain 3,000 hits. "Mr. 3000" received mixed reviews from critics and was a box-office flop, grossing $21 million worldwide against a $30 million budget.


title: Mr. 3000

text: Stan Ross is the franchise player of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team. After recording his 3,000th hit, the selfish, narcissistic Ross immediately retires, leaving the team without one of its star players in the middle of the 1995 playoff race, showing every bit of disregard for his teammates' feelings. During the next nine years, Ross uses his nickname as a business tool, owning several profitable properties under the name "Mr. 3000" that make him increasingly wealthy.


title: Mr. 3000

text: In 2004, the Brewers retire Ross' number to boost attendance for their now-struggling team. Although many fans do come to the ceremony, other players, including teammates and fellow stars Robin Yount, Cecil Cooper, and Paul Molitor, stay away. Only his best friend Anthony (Boca) Carter and a middle relief pitcher from his early days in the majors named Bill (Big Horse) Berelli attend, and the ex-pitcher chastises Ross for his arrogant attitude.


title: Mr. 3000

text: Ross learns that, due to a clerical error, he retired with 2,997 hits instead of 3,000. The error also partially contributes to Ross not being voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and makes his "Mr. 3000" marketing gimmick inaccurate. Ross seeks to return to the game at the age of 47 to get three more hits, secure his place in the record books, and keep his local post-career marketing gimmick intact.


title: Mr. 3000

text: A top Brewers executive, citing the large attendance at Ross' number retirement ceremony and the fact that the Brewers are out of playoff contention, agrees to bring Ross back during the September roster expansion. The team's younger players only know of Ross as a self-centered player, and team superstar Rex "T-Rex" Pennebaker, who is pompous and arrogant like Ross, sees him as unneeded and too old to play. Manager Gus Panas refuses to speak to Ross because of his abrupt retirement, and the sportswriters continually criticize him.


title: Mr. 3000

text: Despite his predictions to the contrary Ross struggles to regain his baseball form. He goes hitless in his first 27 at-bats. His comeback is reported by television sportscaster Maureen "Mo" Simmons, who resumes a former romantic relationship with Ross. He gets two hits, including a home run, to increase his career total to 2,999.


title: Mr. 3000

text: Ross becomes a mentor to the younger players and urges Pennebaker to learn from his own mistakes as a baseball star and to be a team player, so that Pennebaker will not end up like him – all alone. This inspires the Brewers to a late-season comeback and a respectable finish. Ross attempts to become serious with Simmons and make her a permanent part of his life, but she is reluctant to believe he is a changed man, particularly after he skips a team practice to go on national television with Jay Leno and begin boasting again.


title: Mr. 3000

text: In his last at-bat of the season, with a chance to be a hero, Ross has a vision of his earlier years, when he was considered always dependable for the team. It inspires him to sacrifice his last chance with a bunt instead so the team can win a game and finish third in its division. Although Ross never reaches the "3,000" milestone, his newfound generosity and attitude gets him inducted into the Hall of Fame. He renames his businesses "Mr. 2,999", and is last seen driving an ice cream truck with the slogan "2,999 possible combinations!".


title: Mr. 3000

text: Portions of the film were filmed at Marquette University High School, as well as Miller Park, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and at Zephyr Field in New Orleans, Louisiana.


title: Mr. 3000

text: John Travolta was initially offered the chance to play Stan Ross, but Travolta turned it down because he was busy doing promotional work for Qantas.


title: Mr. 3000

text: "Mr. 3000" garnered mixed reviews from critics. It received a approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus says, "Bernie Mac demonstrates he can play the game even if the movie's a few innings short of a complete game." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Mr. 3000

text: Roger Ebert praised Bernie Mac for delivering a "funny and kind of touching performance" that's believable, Bassett for infusing a "convincing emotional spirit" into her character and the film overall for sidestepping its sports comedy formula, saying "to my surprise, it finds a variation." Anita Gates of "The New York Times" gave praise to Stone III for directing a film that mixes "laughter and meaning" thanks to the "bull's eye-casting" of his supporting players and Mac for crafting a multi-layered character, concluding that, "[I]f there was any question about how well [Bernie] Mac's charm, demonstrated in stand-up comedy and on his Fox sitcom, would play on the big screen, the news is good: no problem." Kevin Thomas from the "Los Angeles Times" praised Mac for giving "range and resonance" to his title character and the filmmakers for being able to "reconfigure[d] a sports movie plot to bring to it depth as well as laughter, and, better yet, made it unpredictable." He concluded that, ""Mr. 3000" is good-looking and smooth, with a great soundtrack that communicates just how intoxicating the roar of the crowd can be to an athlete. But it's more than the expected gleaming Hollywood production. The movie's images of Stan grappling with his destiny all alone are at once easy to identify with and hard to shake off." Scott Tobias of "The A.V. Club" said, "Sputtering along on Mac's sleepy improvisations, "Mr. 3000" volleys between the dumb, frat-house wackiness of "Major League" and the "Wonder Bat" schmaltz of "The Natural", chasing the gags with a lame baseball-as-life message about playing for the right reasons." Marrit Ingman of "The Austin Chronicle" said it pales in comparison to Stone III's debut effort "Drumline", in terms of that film's "amiability and no-nonsense moral center", and replacing it with numerous sports montages, "lowbrow gags" and "lazy, shorthanded characterizations."


title: Mr. 3000

text: The film took over $8 million at the box office on its opening weekend. In all, it took $21,811,169 in the US and Canada, and a further $28,190 when it was released in Spain, for a global total of $21,839,377.


title: Auto mechanic

text: An auto mechanic (automotive technician in most of North America, light vehicle technician in British English, and motor mechanic in Australian English) is a mechanic who services and repairs automobiles, sometimes specializing in one or more automobile brands or sometimes working with any brand. In fixing cars, their main role is to diagnose and repair the problem accurately and quickly. They often have to quote prices for their customers before commencing work or after partial disassembly for inspection. Their job may involve the repair of a specific part or the replacement of one or more parts as assemblies. Basic vehicle maintenance is a fundamental part of a mechanic's work in modern industrialized countries, while in others they are only consulted when a vehicle is already showing signs of malfunction.


title: Auto mechanic

text: Automotive repair knowledge can be derived from on-the-job training, an apprenticeship program, vocational school, or university.


title: Auto mechanic

text: It is common for automotive repair companies to assign skill levels to their employed technicians so that each repair can be appropriately matched to a qualified professional. Some use an alphabetical ranking system whereby an upper-level technician is referred to as an "A tech" and a lower-level technician as a "C tech." Diagnosis and driveability concerns tend to be upper-level jobs while maintenance and component replacement are lower-level jobs. A technician's skill level is usually determined by years of experience and certifications:


title: Auto mechanic

text: A mechanic usually works from the workshop in which the (well equipped) mechanic has access to a vehicle lift to access areas that are difficult to reach when the car is on the ground. Beside the workshop bound mechanic, there are mobile mechanics like those of the UK Automobile Association (the AA) which allow the car owner to receive assistance without the car necessarily having to be brought to a garage.


title: Auto mechanic

text: A mechanic may opt to engage in other careers related to his or her field. Teaching of automotive trade courses, for example, is almost entirely carried out by qualified mechanics in many countries.


title: Auto mechanic

text: There are several other trade qualifications for working on motor vehicles, including "panel beater", "spray painter", "body builder" and "motorcycle mechanic". In most developed countries, these are separate trade courses, but a qualified tradesperson from one sphere can change to working as another. This usually requires that they work under another tradesperson in much the same way as an apprentice.


title: Auto mechanic

text: Auto body repair involves less work with oily and greasy parts of vehicles, but involves exposure to particulate dust from sanding bodywork and potentially toxic chemical fumes from paint and related products. Salespeople and dealers often also need to acquire an in-depth knowledge of cars, and some mechanics are successful in these roles because of their knowledge. Auto mechanics also need to stay updated with all the leading car companies as well as newly launched cars. Mechanics have to study continuously on new technology engines and their work systems.


title: Mponeng Gold Mine

text: Mponeng is a gold mine in South Africa's Gauteng province. Previously known as Western Deep Levels #1 Shaft, the underground and surface works were commissioned in 1987. It extends over below the surface, and is considered to be one of the most substantial gold mines in the world. It is also currently the world's deepest mine from ground level, reaching a depth of 4 km (2.5 mi) below ground level. The trip from the surface to the bottom of the mine takes over an hour.


title: Mponeng Gold Mine

text: Over 5400 metric tonnes of rock are excavated from Mponeng each day. At a price of $19.4 per gram of gold, the mine only needs to extract 10 grams of gold per ton excavated to remain profitable. The mine contains at least two gold reefs, with the deepest one metre thick.


title: Mponeng Gold Mine

text: Harmony Gold purchased Mponeng from AngloGold Ashanti in September 2020. Along with AGA's Mine Waste Solutions, Harmony paid approximately $300m.


title: Mponeng Gold Mine

text: The temperature of the rock reaches , and the mine pumps slurry ice underground to cool the tunnel air to below . A mixture of concrete, water, and rock is packed into excavated areas, which further acts as an insulator. Tunnel walls are secured by flexible shotcrete reinforced with steel fibers, which is further held in place by diamond-mesh netting.


title: Mponeng Gold Mine

text: In 2008, researchers looking for extremophile organisms discovered the bacterium "Desulforudis audaxviator" present within groundwater samples from kilometers deep in the mine.


title: Mponeng Gold Mine

text: Millan Ludeña, an Ecuadorian marathon runner, became the first person to run a half-marathon fully underground in the deepest part of Mponeng Gold Mine. A Guinness World Records adjudicator was on hand to document the race and issued the certificate for the deepest half-marathon.


title: Oseberg Ship

text: The Oseberg ship (Norwegian: "Osebergskipet") is a well-preserved Viking ship discovered in a large burial mound at the Oseberg farm near Tønsberg in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. This ship is commonly acknowledged to be among the finer artifacts to have survived from the Viking Era. The ship and some of its contents are displayed at the Viking Ship Museum at Bygdøy on the western side of Oslo, Norway.


title: Oseberg Ship

text: Excavation of the ship from the Oseberg burial mound (Norwegian: "Oseberghaugen ved Slagen" from the Old Norse word "haugr" meaning kurgan mound or barrow) was undertaken by Swedish archaeologist Gabriel Gustafson and Norwegian archaeologist Haakon Shetelig in 1904–1905. The grave also contained two female human skeletons as well as a considerable number of grave goods. Scientific dating of the ship suggests it was buried no earlier than 834, although certain parts of its structure date from as early as 800, while other parts may be even older.


title: Oseberg Ship

text: The ship is a Karve, clinker built, almost entirely of oak. It is in length and broad, with a mast of approximately in height. With a likely sail area of , the ship could have achieved a speed up of up to 10 knots. The ship has 15 pairs of openings for oars, enabling up to 30 people to row it. Other fittings include a broad steering oar, iron anchor, gangplank, and a bailer. The bow and stern of the ship are elaborately decorated with complex woodcarvings in the characteristic "gripping beast" style, also known as the Oseberg style.


title: Oseberg Ship

text: During the debate on whether to move the original ship to a proposed new museum, thorough investigations were made into the feasibility of moving the ship without damaging it. As part of that process, highly detailed photographic and laser scans of both the exterior and interior of the ship were made.


title: Oseberg Ship

text: In 2004, an attempt to build a copy of the Oseberg ship was launched. A collective effort of Norwegian and Danish professional builders, scientists and volunteers engaged in this new attempt with the photo and laser scans made available free of charge to the builders. During this new attempt, it was discovered that during the initial restoration of the ship a breach in one of the beams had been made and that the ship was therefore inadvertently shortened, a fact that had not been appreciated earlier. This may be why several earlier replicas sank; previous attempts at working replicas had failed owing to a lack of this knowledge.


title: Oseberg Ship

text: In 2010, a new reconstruction project called "Saga Oseberg" was started. Using timber from Denmark and Norway and utilizing traditional building methods from the Viking age, this newest Oseberg ship was successfully completed. The new ship was launched from the city of Tønsberg on 20 June 2012. The ship floated very well and in March 2014 it was sailed on the open seas, with Færder as its destination; the ship performed very well, achieving a speed of 10 knots under full sail. The reconstruction was thus a success and demonstrated that the Oseberg ship really could have sailed and was not just a burial chamber on land.