title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi favors deep economic structural reforms and a more "interventionist, directional economic policy" to be implemented in Nigeria. He has also called for the diversification of the economy away from oil, and has also criticized financialization for creating a "fake economy" and not having sufficient impact on the real economy. He has also supported the use of state-owned banks and development finance as a catalyst for industrialization. On bank ownerships he is of the view that "The owners and managers of banks, the rich borrowers and their clients in the political establishment are one and the same class of people protecting their interest, and trampling underneath their feet the interest of the poor with impunity".


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: On his introduction of Islamic banking to Nigeria, he elaborated his view that Islamic finance is a resilient alternative; stating "Islamic banking, if well harnessed, would ensure large numbers of people are economically independent", he also noted in the past proponents of interest-free banking included Aristotle, Adam Smith, and Alfred Marshall.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: As central bank governor, he led a radical anti-corruption campaign, dismissing Cecilia Ibru and other powerful bank heads who had mismanaged customer deposits, and (in the case of two senior bankers) imprisoned. According to Sanusi, there was no choice but to attack the powerful and interrelated vested interests who were exploiting the financial system. Sanusi has spoken out against the fuel subsidy – he cites the high level of corruption and the inefficiency of subsidizing consumption instead of production (leading to slower economic growth), and the fact that the government borrows money to finance the subsidy—taxing future generations so present Nigerians can consume more fuel.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi revealed that Nigeria lost a billion dollars a month to diversion of funds under the Jonathan administration. The PBS segment quoted American and British officials that former petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke might have organized a diversion of $6 billion (₦1.2 trillion) from the Nigerian treasury. Alison-Madueke said Sanusi made the allegations due to her refusal to get him appointed as President of the African Development Bank, which Sanusi rejected. In 2015, Alison-Madueke was arrested in London. Sanusi has criticised Buhari's anti-corruption war, arguing that his administration's foreign exchange policy is creating a nouveau riche class and promoting the rentier economy.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi has spoken at a number of international events, including the 2013 World Economic Forum. As Emir of Kano, he travelled extensively including as part of a United Nations delegation to the Svalbard seed vault.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi is the first Dabo prince to become emir in the two centuries rule of the family without his father reigning. His patriline is the line from which he is descended father to son.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Patrilineal descent is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the generations, which means that Sanusi is a member of the Dabo dynasty.


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: The 2022 Open Championship, officially the 150th Open Championship, was a golf tournament played 14–17 July on the Old Course at St Andrews, Scotland. The championship was won by Cameron Smith with a score of 268, 20 under par, one stroke ahead of Cameron Young.


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: Originally scheduled for 15–18 July 2021, the championship was put back one year after the 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring that the sesquicentennial celebration was at the "home of golf".


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: The Open Championship is organised by the R&A, and is included in the PGA Tour, European Tour, and Japan Golf Tour calendars under the major championships category. The tournament is a 72-hole (4 rounds) stroke play competition held over 4 days, with 18 holes played each day. Play is in groups of three for the first two days, and groups of two in the final two days. Groupings for the first two days are decided by the organisers, with each group having one morning, and one afternoon tee time. On the final two days, players tee off in reverse order of aggregate score, with the leaders last. After 36 holes there was a cut, after which the top 70 and ties progress through to compete in the third and fourth rounds. In the event of a tie for the lowest score after four rounds, a four-hole aggregate playoff will be held to determine the winner; this will be followed by sudden-death extra holes if necessary until a winner emerges.


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: The 2022 event was the 30th Open Championship played at the Old Course at St Andrews. The most recent was in 2015, when Zach Johnson won the four-hole playoff for his second major title.


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: The Open Championship field is made up of 156 players, who gained entry through various exemption criteria and qualifying tournaments. The criteria included past Open champions, recent major winners, top ranked players in the world rankings and from the leading world tours, and winners and high finishers from various designated tournaments, including the Open Qualifying Series; the winners of designated amateur events, including The Amateur Championship and U.S. Amateur, also gained exemption provided they remain an amateur. Anyone not qualifying via exemption, and had a handicap of 0.4 or lower, can gain entry through regional and final qualifying events.


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: Each player is classified according to the first category in which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses.


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: 7. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2022 DP World Tour Rankings through the BMW International Open


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: 13. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2021–22 FedEx Cup points list through the Travelers Championship


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: 21. The top player, not already exempt, on the 2022 Japan Golf Tour Official Money List through the Japan Golf Tour Championship


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: The Open Qualifying Series for the 2022 Open Championship consists of 12 events. Places are available to the leading players (not otherwise exempt) who finished in the top "n" and ties. In the event of ties, positions went to players ranked highest according to that week's OWGR.


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: Final Qualifying events were played on 28 June at four locations. Four qualifying places were available at each location, with 72 golfers competing at each.


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: In order to fill additional places or replace exempt players who had withdrawn prior to the start of the Championship, and maintain the full field of 156, additional players were either taken in ranking order from Official World Golf Ranking at the time they were added, or from Final Qualifying.


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: PGA Tour rookie Cameron Young had a two-shot lead after a bogey-free round of 8 under par, two shots ahead of pre-tournament favourite Rory McIlroy. Defending champion Collin Morikawa opened with a level-par 72 while three-time winner Tiger Woods double-bogeyed the first and continued to struggle there on, finishing at 6 over.


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: Cameron Smith took the lead on a score of 131, the lowest 36-hole score in Open Championship history at St. Andrews. Cameron Young fell to second place, two strokes behind, after a second-round 69. Viktor Hovland and Rory McIlroy were a further stroke behind in a tie for third place. 83 players made the cut of level par, including four amateurs. Defending champion Collin Morikawa missed the cut by a stroke.


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: Viktor Hovland and Rory McIlroy each shot rounds of 66 to tie for first after the third round at −16. Cameron Smith, who shot 73, and Cameron Young, who shot 71, dropped back to four strokes behind at −12. McIlroy was trying for his second Open title and first major victory in eight years while Hovland was looking for his first major.


title: 2022 Open Championship

text: Cameron Smith came from four strokes behind to win the Open. He made eight birdies in his round of 64, which was joint low round of the tournament, and was the lowest final round score by a champion at St Andrews. Cameron Young made an eagle on the final hole to finish one stroke back. Rory McIlroy, third round co-leader, managed only two birdies in his round and finished a further stroke behind. Viktor Hovland, the other third round co-leader, shot a two-over-par 74 to finish tied for fourth with Tommy Fleetwood. Smith's total of 20 under par tied the to-par recond in a major, last reached by Dustin Johnson at the 2020 Masters Tournament.


title: Kashk

text: Kashk ( "Kašk", ), qurut (Tuvan and , , , , , , -"chortan", Turkish: "kurut") or aaruul and khuruud (Mongolian: "ааруул" or "хурууд") is a range of dairy products used in cuisines of Iranian, Afghan, Turkish, Kurdish, Mongolian, Central Asian, Transcaucasian and the Levantine people. Kashk is made from drained yogurt (in particular, drained qatiq) or drained sour milk by shaping it and letting it dry. It can be made in a variety of forms, like rolled into balls, sliced into strips, and formed into chunks.


title: Kashk

text: There are three main kinds of food products with this name: foods based on curdled milk products like yogurt or cheese; foods based on barley broth, bread, or flour; and foods based on cereals combined with curdled milk.


title: Kashk

text: The ancient form of "kashk" is a porridge of grains fermented with whey and dried in the sun. The long shelf-life and nutritional value of "kashk" made it a useful item for peasants during the winter months, as well as soldiers and travelers. "Kashk" is the origin of "tarhana" found in the moderns cuisines of Turkey and Greece, where it is called "trachanas" ().


title: Kashk

text: Modern "kashk" is usually a dish of dried buttermilk that can be crumbled and turned into a paste with water. This coarse powder can be used to thicken soups and stews and improve their flavor, or as an ingredient in various meat, rice or vegetable dishes. Drying allows a longer shelf life for the product.


title: Kashk

text: "Kashk" is found in the cuisines of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, the Caucasus, and Turkey. This expansive geographic area contains different language groups, contributing to the complexity of pinpointing the development and usage of this term. In some languages it is called kashk or kishkh, (, , , ), "qurut" in others (, , , , , , , , ). There are many varied names for this class of dishes including "jameed" (), "chortan" () and "aaruul, khuruud" (). "Chortan" is mentioned in the 19th century Armenian epic poem "Daredevils of Sassoun", said to be based on an 8th-century oral tradition.


title: Kashk

text: According to Francoise Aubaile-Sallenave, the first known literary use of the term comes from the Armenian historian Yeghishe. In the 10th-century Persian "Shahnameh" ("Book of Kings") by Firdausi the term is used in the sense of "barley flour", but it's also used for a mixture of cracked wheat and cracked barley. Aubaile-Sallenave argues that the original Persian "kashk" known from early Persian literature was made with barley that contained either a mix of leaven with water or some fermented milk. To answer questions about the modern meaning in Iran for a dried dairy dish, she argued, "Iranian speaking pastorialists, for whom dried sour milk was a staple, and who had no easy access to barley, applied the word "kashk" by analogy to dry sour milk". Charles Perry offers an alternate explanation based on the 13th century Arabic cookbook "Wasf al-Atimah al-Mutadah" which says dried yogurt was a Turkomen-style "kashk".


title: Kashk

text: A 10th century Arabic cookbook describes two types of "kashk", one made of wheat and leaven and another of sour milk. By the Middle Ages the word had two meanings, one referring to barley flour or a mix of barley and cracked wheat, and another to mean a meat or fowl dish cooked overnight ("kashak" or kashba).


title: Kashk

text: To make the dried yogurt "qurut" a traditional or modern method can be used. For the modern method, sour yogurt is blended until smooth, then boiled and strained. It is left to ferment in a warm oven for several days, then the moisture is strained and blended with salt to make the "kashk". The drained liquid can be used to make "qaraqurut" ("dried black whey").


title: Kashk

text: For traditionally prepared "qurut" water is added to full fat yogurt and poured into a goatskin "churn" - a sack hung from a tripod that is swung back and forth until the milk separates into a type of butter and buttermilk. The buttermilk is boiled and drained to obtain curd which is dried in the sun over a period of weeks to make "qurut". While traveling in the Baluchistan English explorer Ernest Ayscoghe Floyer encountered this form of "kashk":


title: Kashk

text: ...from the butter manufacture is left the buttermilk called "dōgh." This is boiled, and the remainder is "luch"; this is pressed and dried, and becomes "shilanch", or in Persian, "kashk," a hard, white biscuit of very sour cheese. This is powdered, and, boiled with savory herbs, is very palatable.


title: Kashk

text: When "kashk" is made with grain in the Armenian, Arab and Turkish cuisines strained yogurt is added to grain and stored until it begins to ferment. After being left to dry in the sun for over a week it is turned into a coarse powder by rubbing and sifting.


title: Kashk

text: "Matzoon" in Armenia and "mats'oni" in Georgia, is a commonly used ingredient in Caucasian cuisine. One of the ways "matzoon" is used is for the production of butter. When "matsun" is churned it separates from the buttermilk. By boiling and churning the buttermilk one obtains ricotta cheese. The product obtained by drying the ricotta clots is called "chortan"; "chor" means "dry" and "tan" means "buttermilk" in the Armenian language.


title: Kashk

text: In Azerbaijan, "qurut" is made in a similar way from strained yogurt. Yogurt ("qatiq") is made from fresh milk and strained to make "suzma qatiq". When the buttermilk "whey" has been separated from the butter using traditional methods the buttermilk curds are formed into small balls and dried in the sun.


title: Kashk

text: In western parts of Azerbaijan boiled flat dough is layered with a "qurut" white sauce and chicken to make Azerbaijani "xəngəl".


title: Kashk

text: Qurut dissolved in water is a primary ingredient of "qurutob", which is thought of by some as the national dish of Tajikistan. One of the main dishes in Afghanistan is "kichree qurut", made with mung beans, rice and qurut dissolved in water. It is sometimes salted, and in Mongolia, aaruul can be flavoured as well as having many different shapes, sizes and textures (soft to rock-hard).


title: Kashk

text: Kashk has been a staple in the Iranian diet for thousands of years. In modern Iran, kashk is a thick whitish liquid similar to whey or sour cream, used in traditional Persian and Kurdish cuisine, like ash reshteh, kashk e badamjan, "kale joush". It is available as a liquid or in a dried form, which needs to be soaked and softened before it can be used in cooking. Kashk was traditionally produced from the leftovers of cheese-making (more specifically, the milk used to make it). The procedure is, subtracting butter from milk, the remainder is doogh which can be used as the base for kashk. The water is subtracted from this whitish beverage and what remains is kashk which can be dried. Iranian kashk has made an appearance in US markets in the past half-century by several Iranian grocers starting with Kashk Hendessi.


title: Kashk

text: In Turkey, kashk is a dried yogurt product also known as "keş peyniri", "kurut", "taş yoğurt", "kuru yoğurt", or "katık keşi". Its contents and production vary by region. In western and northern Turkey, especially in Bolu, the product is categorized as a cheese owing to its shape and white color. In eastern Turkey, especially Erzincan, Erzurum, and Kars, kurut is produced from skimmed yogurt made from the whey left over from production of butter by the "yayık" method, and then crushed or rolled. In parts of southeastern Turkey with a significant Kurdish population, it is called "keşk". All versions of this dairy product are salty. It is used as an ingredient in soups, keşkek, erişte, etc.


title: Kashk

text: There is also a closely related dried food product called tarhana which is based on a fermented mixture of grain and yogurt or fermented milk. It is very similar to "kishk" of the Levantine cuisine described below.


title: Kashk

text: In Lebanon, Jordan, Arabian Peninsula, and Syria, "kishk" is a powdery cereal of burghul (cracked wheat) fermented with milk and laban (yogurt), usually from goat milk. It is easily stored and is valuable to the winter diet of isolated villagers or country people. Kishk is prepared in early autumn following the preparation of burghul. Milk, laban, and burghul are mixed well together and allowed to ferment for nine days. In Lebanon, the mix is salted and traditionally set to ferment in large clay jars for up to three weeks, during which it is regularly kneaded. Each morning the mixture is thoroughly kneaded with the hands. When fermentation is complete the kishk is spread on a clean cloth to dry, notably on the rooftops of rural dwellings. Finally it is rubbed well between the hands until it is reduced to a powder, sieved, and then stored in a dry place.


title: Kashk

text: In Lebanese cuisine, "kishk" is commonly used to this day, mixed with tomato paste, as a topping for "manakish", a sort of flatbread cooked in an open oven and eaten for breakfast or a lunch. Traditionally, it would also be served with eggs, as a "kibbeh" stuffing, or in a soup, possibly with lamb meat fried in its own fat ("awarma").


title: Kashk

text: In Jordan a dried yogurt similar to kashk called jameed is commonly used. Elsewhere in the Levant, similar products are referred to as drained labneh ("labneh malboudeh").


title: Kashk

text: A 10th-century recipe for "kishk" recorded in the "Kitab al-Tabikh" was made by par-boiling dehulled wheat, milling it, and blending it with chickpea flour. Yeast, salt and water were added to make a dough from the flour, which was left in the sun for around 2 weeks, and re-moistened with sour yogurt (or sour grape juice) as needed. After 15 days the dough would be seasoned with mint, purslane, cilantro, rue, parsley, garlic and the leafy tops of leeks, shaped into disks, and allowed to dry in the sun.


title: Cuevana

text: 'Cuevana' is a Argentine File sharing website that offers movies and television content in their original languages, with Spanish subtitles. The site was created in October 2009 and as of 2011 was one of the 20 most visited websites in Argentina with half a million visits daily.


title: Cuevana

text: Cuevana operates as a connecting hub that uses plugins to allow users to stream content. Cuevana claims not to store files itself, but makes it easy to reach content by linking to external online storage. This method of operation has created a strong debate on the matter of the legality of the operation.


title: Cuevana

text: As of 2014, cuevana.tv distributed the software "Cuevana Storm" which, like Popcorn Time, operates as a torrent client that lets downloaders immediately watch a movie while simultaneously uploading it to others.


title: Smartsheet

text: Smartsheet is a software as a service (SaaS) offering for collaboration and work management, developed and marketed by Smartsheet Inc. It is used to assign tasks, track project progress, manage calendars, share documents, and manage other work, using a tabular user interface.


title: Smartsheet

text: Smartsheet is used to collaborate on project timelines, documents, calendars, tasks, and other works. According to IDG, it is "part office productivity, part project management, part document sharing... [it] is trying to be the central hub for how people work." Smartsheet competes with Microsoft Project. It combines some of the functionality of Microsoft Project, Excel, Access and SharePoint.


title: Smartsheet

text: According to "Forbes", Smartsheet has "a relatively simple" user interface. The interface centers on "smartsheets," which are similar to spreadsheets typically found in Microsoft Excel. Each smartsheet can have its rows expanded or collapsed to see individual tasks or large-scale project progress respectively. Tasks can be sorted by deadline, priority or the person assigned to them. If a spreadsheet contains dates, Smartsheet creates a calendar view.


title: Smartsheet

text: Each row in a smartsheet may have files attached to it, emails stored within it, and a discussion board associated with it. When a new smartsheet is created, notifications are pushed out to staff to populate its rows and columns. As information is updated, other smartsheets tracking the same task, project or data-point are updated automatically. The service also has alerts for when a task deadline is coming up, and keeps track of document versions.


title: Smartsheet

text: Smartsheet can import data from Microsoft Office or Google applications. It integrates with Salesforce.com, Dropbox and Amazon Web Services. There is also a Smartsheet mobile app for Android and iOS operating systems. The service is offered on a subscription basis with no free tiers.


title: Smartsheet

text: Smartsheet was developed by Smartsheet Inc, in 2005 and introduced to the public in 2006. According to the company's co-founder, Brent Frei, initial adoption was slow because the offering was too difficult to use. At the end of its first year, it had 10,000 users. The company began making changes to the SmartSheet in 2008, eventually cutting 60 percent of its features for the purpose of making it more user-friendly. Following the 2010 launch of the redesign, the adoption grew to 1 million users at 20,000 organizations by 2012.


title: Smartsheet

text: Integration with Office 365 and Microsoft Azure were added in 2014. In August of that year, version 2.0 of the Smartsheet iOS app was introduced. The spreadsheet-like user interface, which was part of the web service, was introduced to the iOS app in this version; the developers had not been able to build this feature in the mobile version before. In October 2014, the Account Map tool was introduced, which uses an algorithm to visualize the flow of work across groups of employees.


title: Smartsheet

text: In 2015, Smartsheet started introducing closer integrations with Microsoft Office products, following the changes Microsoft had made in their products to work better with third-party software. In January 2015, Smartsheet added support for Azure Active Directory, Microsoft's cloud-based directory service that allowed users to log into products like Excel and Smartsheet with the same login. This allowed users to make changes to smartsheets directly from Microsoft Outlook. In 2016, Smartsheet introduced Sights, a configurable dashboard that shows metrics such as how a team is performing against key performance indicators.


title: Smartsheet

text: In November 2021, McLaren announced a partnership deal with Smartsheet as the team's official technology partner at the 2021 São Paulo Grand Prix.


title: ILY sign

text: The ILY is a sign from American Sign Language which, as a gesture, has moved into the mainstream. Seen primarily in the United States and other Americanized countries, the sign originated among deaf schoolchildren using American Sign Language to create a sign from a combination of the signs for the letters I, L, and Y (I Love You).


title: ILY sign

text: The sign is an informal expression of any of several positive feelings, ranging from general esteem to love, for the recipient of the sign. A similar-looking but unrelated variation (thumb toward the palm rather than thumb extended, although the thumbs extended version is also used in heavy metal.) appears in heavy metal music culture as a "horns" hand-sign and in college football as a sign of support for various teams including the University of Texas. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette's Ragin' Cajuns Athletics uses the ILY sign to symbolize the initials of the university (UL).


title: ILY sign

text: "Deaf Heritage" dates the origin of the ILY to 1905. The sign received significant media exposure with Richard Dawson's use of the ILY in his sign off from each episode of the "Family Feud", which he hosted from 1976 to 1985. Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter reportedly picked it up from a group of deaf supporters in the Midwest and, in 1977, during his Inauguration Day parade, flashed the ILY to a group of deaf people on the sidewalk.


title: ILY sign

text: Popular 80s professional wrestler Jimmy Snuka would frequently flash the ILY sign with both hands during his matches and interviews, including while standing on the top rope before delivering his finishing move "Superfly Splash".


title: ILY sign

text: Gene Simmons of the rock band Kiss has used the symbol in photoshoots, concerts and public appearances since 1974. He has stated in a television interviews that he was a Marvel comics fan, and was inspired by the Doctor Strange use of the symbol to use it himself in photoshoots. He later (by 1976 or earlier) had black gloves made that lacked index and pinky fingers so that even his raised open hand would emulate the ILY sign.


title: ILY sign

text: The ending pose of the popular K-pop song "Boy With Luv" by BTS also incorporates this sign with all the members turning around and raising their right hands in this sign.


title: ILY sign

text: In the anime Love Live!, Nico Yazawa has a catchphrase "nico nico nii", and has her own action with it, which incorporates the symbol.


title: ILY sign

text: The ILY sign is also a part of the choreography for the song "CASE 143" by Stray Kids (with "143" as a code for "I love you"). It's the title song of their new EP "MAXIDENT" in which they are referencing love as a "maximum accident".


title: Signal for Help

text: The Signal for Help (or the Violence at Home Signal for Help) is a single-handed gesture that can be used over a video call or in person by an individual to alert others that they feel threatened and need help. Originally, the signal was created as a tool to combat the rise in domestic violence cases around the world linked to self-isolation measures that were related to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Signal for Help

text: The signal is performed by holding one hand up with the thumb tucked into the palm, then folding the four other fingers down, symbolically trapping the thumb by the rest of the fingers. It was designed intentionally as a single continuous hand movement, rather than a sign held in one position, so it could be made easily visible.


title: Signal for Help

text: The Signal for Help was created by the Canadian Women's Foundation and introduced on April 14, 2020. It soon spread via the TikTok social video platform and was adopted by the international Women's Funding Network (WFN). It received widespread praise from Canadian and international news organizations for helping provide a modern solution to the issue of a rise in domestic violence cases.


title: Signal for Help

text: Addressing concerns that abusers may become aware of such a widespread online initiative, the Canadian Women's Foundation and other organizations clarified that this signal is not "something that's going to save the day", but rather, a tool someone could use to get help.


title: Signal for Help

text: The campaign intends the signal to mean "reach out to me safely", and advises that if someone sees a person using the signal on a video call, they should contact the signaler by another means (such as a text message or email) to ask them what they need. The campaign recommends that contacting emergency services should only be done if signaler explicitly requests this. Asking yes-no questions will reduce risk and make it easier for them to respond.


title: White wedding

text: The term originates from the white colour of the wedding dress, which first became popular with Victorian era elites after Queen Victoria wore a white lace dress at her wedding. The term now also encapsulates the entire Western wedding routine, especially in the Christian religious tradition, which generally includes a church service during which the marriage begins, followed by a reception. The white wedding style was given another significant boost in 1981, when 750 million people watched Charles, Prince of Wales marry Diana Spencer in her elaborate white taffeta dress with an 8 m train. This wedding is generally considered the most influential white wedding of the 1980s.


title: White wedding

text: Though Mary, Queen of Scots, wore a white wedding gown in 1559 when she married her first husband, Francis Dauphin of France, the tradition of a white wedding dress is commonly credited to Queen Victoria's choice to wear a white court dress at her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840. Debutantes had long been required to wear white court dresses and long white gloves for their first presentation at court, at a "Drawing Room" where they were introduced to the queen for the first time.


title: White wedding

text: Royal brides before Victoria did not typically wear white, instead choosing "heavy brocaded gowns embroidered with white and silver thread," with red being a particularly popular colour in Western Europe more generally. During this time, European and American brides wore a plethora of colours, including blue, yellow, and practical colours like black, brown, or gray. As accounts of Victoria's wedding spread across the Atlantic and throughout Europe, fashionable people followed her lead.


title: White wedding

text: Because of the limitations of laundering techniques before the later part of the 20th century, white dresses provided an opportunity for conspicuous consumption. They were favored primarily as a way to show the world that the bride's family was so wealthy and so firmly part of the leisure class that the bride would choose an elaborate dress that could be ruined by any sort of work or spill.


title: White wedding

text: Although women were required to wear veils in many churches through at least the 19th century, the resurgence of the wedding veil as a symbol of the bride, and its use even when not required by the bride's religion, coincided with societal emphasis on women being modest and well-behaved.


title: White wedding

text: Etiquette books then began to turn the practice into a tradition and the white gown soon became a popular symbol of status that also carried "a connotation of innocence and virginal purity." The story put out about the wedding veil was that decorous brides were naturally too timid to show their faces in public until they were married.


title: White wedding

text: By the end of the 19th century the white dress was the garment of choice for elite brides on both sides of the Atlantic. However, middle-class British and American brides did not adopt the trend fully until after World War II. With increased prosperity in the 20th century, the tradition also grew to include the practice of wearing the dress only once. As historian Vicky Howard writes, "[i]f a bride wore white in the nineteenth century, it was acceptable and likely that she wore her gown again". Even Queen Victoria had her famous lace wedding dress re-styled for later use.


title: White wedding

text: The portrayal of weddings in Hollywood movies, particularly immediately after World War II, helped crystallize and homogenize the white wedding into a normative form.


title: White wedding

text: “Color Wheel Pro” describes white in association with light, goodness, innocence, purity and virginity. White is also often considered to be the color of perfection. As for other significant meanings for white on a wedding day, “colormeaning.com” says, “In color psychology, white is the color of new beginnings — wiping the slate clean. The color white is a blank canvas, just waiting to be written on.” White is the color in Western culture most often associated with beginnings. Christ after the Resurrection is traditionally portrayed dressed in white. In Christianity, children are baptized and first take communion wearing white. Baptisms are especially tied to white since the person is making a religious commitment to be pure and clean before God. Religious rites and the clothing associated with them have always been important, and white is often a common color used to express high religious commitment and purity. In 2018, about 83% of brides in the United States wore white dresses on their big day, according to a survey by Brides Magazine. , For weddings in the temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, white clothing is worn by both the bride and the groom during the ceremony.


title: White wedding

text: The traditional white wedding was not necessarily defined by the color of the dress only. The wedding of Queen Victoria's daughter Victoria, to Prince Fredrick William of Prussia in 1858 also introduced choral music to the processional when standard practice had been to have music of any kind only during a party after the wedding ceremony.


title: White wedding

text: After World War I, as full-scale formal weddings began to be desired by the mothers of brides who did not have a permanent social secretary, the position of the wedding planner, who could coordinate the printer, florist, caterer, and seamstress, began to assume importance. The first edition of "Bride's Magazine" was published in 1934 as a newspaper advertising insert called "So You're Going to Get Married!" in a column titled "To the Bride", and its rival "Modern Bride" began publishing in 1949.


title: White wedding

text: The full white wedding experience today typically requires the family to arrange for or purchase printed or engraved wedding invitations, musicians, decorations such as flowers or candles, clothes and flowers for bridesmaids, groomsmen, a flower girl, and a ring bearer. They may also add optional features, such as a guest book or commemorative wedding leaflets. It is common to have a celebration after the wedding ceremony, normally featuring a large white wedding cake.


title: White wedding

text: Traditional weddings require, in addition to the bride and groom, a marriage officiant, which is a minister, priest, rabbi, imam, or civil officer who is authorized to perform marriages.


title: White wedding

text: Typically, these positions are filled by close friends of the bride and groom; being asked to serve in these capacities is seen as an honor, and typically entails some expense.


title: White wedding

text: When the guests arrive for a wedding, the ushers, if any, help the guests take their places. In a typical white wedding ceremony, which is derived primarily from the Christian tradition (inclusive of denominations such as Lutheranism and Anglicanism, for example), the bride and groom will stand side by side at the front of the church before the chancel throughout most or all the ceremony. Consequently, some guests prefer to sit on the side closer to the person they know best. Typically, this means that the bride's family sits on the house left and the groom's family on house right. The front rows are generally reserved for close family members or friends.


title: White wedding

text: Some couples make a ceremony of having their grandparents, step-parents, and parents escorted to their seats immediately before the wedding procession begins. In other cases, these relatives form part of the wedding procession.


title: White wedding

text: Depending on the country, her age and situation, and her personal preferences, the bride may walk alone or be escorted by her father, both of her parents, one or more relatives she wishes to honor, or the groom. In Swedish white weddings, the bride and groom usually go down the aisle together. Similarly, some couples choose to have the groom escorted to the altar by his family.


title: White wedding

text: Whether the bride is the first or the last of the wedding party to enter the church varies by country. In the US, the bride is typically last, being preceded by the rest of the wedding party. In the UK, she leads the procession, followed by any bridesmaids, flower girls and page boys. Sometimes the groom is already present in the church; other times, he and any groomsmen form part of the procession. The music played during this procession is commonly called a "wedding march", no matter what songs are played.


title: White wedding

text: If the wedding is part of a religious service, then technically the service begins after the arrival of the participants, commonly with a prayer, blessing, or ritual greeting. During the ceremony, each partner in the couple makes marriage vows to the other in front of the marriage officiant. The ceremony might include the playing of a prelude, the singing of hymns, and Bible readings, as well as Holy Communion in accordance with the Christian marriage liturgy of the church at which the wedding is held, e.g. Lutheran, Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican, Methodist, etc.


title: White wedding

text: After the wedding ceremony itself ends, the bride, groom, officiant, and two witnesses generally go off to a side room to sign the wedding register in the United Kingdom or the state-issued marriage license in the United States. Without the signing of the register or the marriage license, a marriage has not legally occurred.


title: White wedding

text: Afterward, guests may cheer the departure of the couple from the church by throwing flower petals, confetti, birdseed, or rice over them. Miniature containers of bubbles are often provided to guest to blow at the couple instead of throwing the previously mentioned items.


title: White wedding

text: After this, the celebrations shift to a reception at which the newly married couple, as the guests of honor, and the hosts and perhaps members of the wedding party greet the guests in a receiving line. Although now commonly called a reception no matter the style of party, wedding celebrations range from simple receptions to dinner parties to grand wedding balls.


title: White wedding

text: Food is served, particularly including a wedding cake. Wedding cakes are often multi-tiered layer cakes that are elaborately decorated with white icing. Cutting the wedding cake is often turned into a ritual, complete with sharing a symbolic bite of the cake in a rite that harks back to the pagan confarreatio weddings in ancient Rome.


title: White wedding

text: If there is dancing, the bride and groom, as the guests of honor, are expected to be the first people to begin dancing. This is usually termed the "bridal waltz", even if the couple has arranged for a different style of music. In Denmark, it is still normal to dance the first dance as a couple to waltz. Some families then contrive a series of arranged dances between the newlyweds and their parents, or other members of the wedding party, with guests expected to watch the performances.


title: White wedding

text: At some point, the married couple may become the object of a charivari, a good-natured hazing of the newly married couple. The nature depends upon the circumstances. In India and other South Asian cultures, guests may try to steal the groom's shoes when he removes them for a religious ceremony and later sell them back to him. This game is sometimes called "joota chupai". In Western cultures, guests might tie tin cans or a sign saying "Just Married" to the bumper of the couple's car, if they depart in their own car rather than a hired one.


title: White wedding

text: As the guests of honor, the newly married couple is the first to leave the party. From ancient Rome through the Middle Ages in Europe, wheat kernels were thrown at the bride in a wish for affluence; now it is typical to throw rice, as a symbol of fertility, at the couple as they depart.


title: White wedding

text: Photographs from late 19th century, early 20th century, and early 21st century weddings. The first two images show the bride in a black or dark dress. The photographic styles of capturing weddings continues to evolve from posed somber expressions to candid moments showing emotion and joy.


title: Bidita Bag

text: Bidita Bag (born 30 September 1991) is an Indian actress and model. She is mostly known for her inclination towards socio-political films.


title: Bidita Bag

text: While in college, Bidita pursued a career in modelling. She was spotted by Jeena Mitra Banik and ace make-up artist Late Prabeer Kumar Dey. She came into limelight in Kolkata after working for designers like Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Kiran Uttam Ghosh. After graduation she shifted her base to Mumbai. She has worked for Lakme fashion week, Lakme Elle-18, Vaseline, Nokia, Motorola, Colgate, Reliance etc. Recently she has been face of brands like Fair and Lovely (make-up man ki beti), 7UP, Samsung Corby TV, Wild Stone deodorant, Kwality Walls Cornetto, Manubhai Jewellers, Jade, Bombay Dyeing, Eye-tex Dazzler etc. Bidita made her foray into movies with a Bengali film called Icche, which released in July 2011.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: In statistics, inter-rater reliability (also called by various similar names, such as inter-rater agreement, inter-rater concordance, inter-observer reliability, inter-coder reliability, and so on) is the degree of agreement among independent observers who rate, code, or assess the same phenomenon.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: Assessment tools that rely on ratings must exhibit good inter-rater reliability, otherwise they are not valid tests.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: There are a number of statistics that can be used to determine inter-rater reliability. Different statistics are appropriate for different types of measurement. Some options are joint-probability of agreement, such as Cohen's kappa, Scott's pi and Fleiss' kappa; or inter-rater correlation, concordance correlation coefficient, intra-class correlation, and Krippendorff's alpha.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: There are several operational definitions of "inter-rater reliability," reflecting different viewpoints about what is a reliable agreement between raters. There are three operational definitions of agreement:


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: The joint-probability of agreement is the simplest and the least robust measure. It is estimated as the percentage of the time the raters agree in a nominal or categorical rating system. It does not take into account the fact that agreement may happen solely based on chance. There is some question whether or not there is a need to 'correct' for chance agreement; some suggest that, in any case, any such adjustment should be based on an explicit model of how chance and error affect raters' decisions.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: When the number of categories being used is small (e.g. 2 or 3), the likelihood for 2 raters to agree by pure chance increases dramatically. This is because both raters must confine themselves to the limited number of options available, which impacts the overall agreement rate, and not necessarily their propensity for "intrinsic" agreement (an agreement is considered "intrinsic" if it is not due to chance).


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: Therefore, the joint probability of agreement will remain high even in the absence of any "intrinsic" agreement among raters. A useful inter-rater reliability coefficient is expected (a) to be close to 0 when there is no "intrinsic" agreement and (b) to increase as the "intrinsic" agreement rate improves. Most chance-corrected agreement coefficients achieve the first objective. However, the second objective is not achieved by many known chance-corrected measures.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: Kappa is a way of measuring agreement or reliability, correcting for how often ratings might agree by chance. Cohen's kappa, which works for two raters, and Fleiss' kappa, an adaptation that works for any fixed number of raters, improve upon the joint probability in that they take into account the amount of agreement that could be expected to occur through chance. The original versions had the same problem as the joint-probability in that they treat the data as nominal and assume the ratings have no natural ordering; if the data actually have a rank (ordinal level of measurement), then that information is not fully considered in the measurements.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: Later extensions of the approach included versions that could handle "partial credit" and ordinal scales. These extensions converge with the family of intra-class correlations (ICCs), so there is a conceptually related way of estimating reliability for each level of measurement from nominal (kappa) to ordinal (ordinal kappa or ICC—stretching assumptions) to interval (ICC, or ordinal kappa—treating the interval scale as ordinal), and ratio (ICCs). There also are variants that can look at agreement by raters across a set of items (e.g., do two interviewers agree about the depression scores for all of the items on the same semi-structured interview for one case?) as well as raters x cases (e.g., how well do two or more raters agree about whether 30 cases have a depression diagnosis, yes/no—a nominal variable).


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: Kappa is similar to a correlation coefficient in that it cannot go above +1.0 or below -1.0. Because it is used as a measure of agreement, only positive values would be expected in most situations; negative values would indicate systematic disagreement. Kappa can only achieve very high values when both agreement is good and the rate of the target condition is near 50% (because it includes the base rate in the calculation of joint probabilities). Several authorities have offered "rules of thumb" for interpreting the level of agreement, many of which agree in the gist even though the words are not identical.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: Either Pearson's formula_1, Kendall's τ, or Spearman's formula_2 can be used to measure pairwise correlation among raters using a scale that is ordered. Pearson assumes the rating scale is continuous; Kendall and Spearman statistics assume only that it is ordinal. If more than two raters are observed, an average level of agreement for the group can be calculated as the mean of the formula_1, τ, or formula_2 values from each possible pair of raters.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: Another way of performing reliability testing is to use the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). There are several types of this and one is defined as, "the proportion of variance of an observation due to between-subject variability in the true scores". The range of the ICC may be between 0.0 and 1.0 (an early definition of ICC could be between −1 and +1). The ICC will be high when there is little variation between the scores given to each item by the raters, e.g. if all raters give the same or similar scores to each of the items. The ICC is an improvement over Pearson's formula_1 and Spearman's formula_2, as it takes into account the differences in ratings for individual segments, along with the correlation between raters.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: Another approach to agreement (useful when there are only two raters and the scale is continuous) is to calculate the differences between each pair of the two raters' observations. The mean of these differences is termed "bias" and the reference interval (mean ± 1.96 × standard deviation) is termed "limits of agreement". The "limits of agreement" provide insight into how much random variation may be influencing the ratings.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: If the raters tend to agree, the differences between the raters' observations will be near zero. If one rater is usually higher or lower than the other by a consistent amount, the "bias" will be different from zero. If the raters tend to disagree, but without a consistent pattern of one rating higher than the other, the mean will be near zero. Confidence limits (usually 95%) can be calculated for both the bias and each of the limits of agreement.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: There are several formulae that can be used to calculate limits of agreement. The simple formula, which was given in the previous paragraph and works well for sample size greater than 60, is


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: Bland and Altman have expanded on this idea by graphing the difference of each point, the mean difference, and the limits of agreement on the vertical against the average of the two ratings on the horizontal. The resulting Bland–Altman plot demonstrates not only the overall degree of agreement, but also whether the agreement is related to the underlying value of the item. For instance, two raters might agree closely in estimating the size of small items, but disagree about larger items.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: When comparing two methods of measurement, it is not only of interest to estimate both "bias" and "limits of agreement" between the two methods (inter-rater agreement), but also to assess these characteristics for each method within itself. It might very well be that the agreement between two methods is poor simply because one of the methods has wide "limits of agreement" while the other has narrow. In this case, the method with the narrow "limits of agreement" would be superior from a statistical point of view, while practical or other considerations might change this appreciation. What constitutes narrow or wide "limits of agreement" or large or small "bias" is a matter of a practical assessment in each case.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: Krippendorff's "alpha" is a versatile statistic that assesses the agreement achieved among observers who categorize, evaluate, or measure a given set of objects in terms of the values of a variable. It generalizes several specialized agreement coefficients by accepting any number of observers, being applicable to nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio levels of measurement, being able to handle missing data, and being corrected for small sample sizes.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: "Alpha" emerged in content analysis where textual units are categorized by trained coders and is used in counseling and survey research where experts code open-ended interview data into analyzable terms, in psychometrics where individual attributes are tested by multiple methods, in observational studies where unstructured happenings are recorded for subsequent analysis, and in computational linguistics where texts are annotated for various syntactic and semantic qualities.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: For any task in which multiple raters are useful, raters are expected to disagree about the observed target. By contrast, situations involving unambiguous measurement, such as simple counting tasks (e.g. number of potential customers entering a store), often do not require more than one person performing the measurement.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: Measurement involving ambiguity in characteristics of interest in the rating target are generally improved with multiple trained raters. Such measurement tasks often involve subjective judgment of quality. Examples include ratings of physician 'bedside manner', evaluation of witness credibility by a jury, and presentation skill of a speaker.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: Variation across raters in the measurement procedures and variability in interpretation of measurement results are two examples of sources of error variance in rating measurements. Clearly stated guidelines for rendering ratings are necessary for reliability in ambiguous or challenging measurement scenarios.


title: Inter-rater reliability

text: Without scoring guidelines, ratings are increasingly affected by experimenter's bias, that is, a tendency of rating values to drift towards what is expected by the rater. During processes involving repeated measurements, correction of "rater drift" can be addressed through periodic retraining to ensure that raters understand guidelines and measurement goals.


title: Ford of Britain

text: Ford of Britain (officially Ford Motor Company Limited) is a British wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Technologies Limited (formerly called Blue Oval Holdings), itself a subsidiary of Ford International Capital LLC, which is a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. Its business started in 1909 and has its registered office in Laindon, Essex. It adopted the name of Ford of Britain in 1960.


title: Ford of Britain

text: Ford of Britain operates two major manufacturing sites in the UK, in Dagenham (diesel engine production) and Halewood (transmissions). It also operates a large research and development facility in Dunton, Essex, which employs over 3,000 engineers.


title: Ford of Britain

text: In 2010, Ford had been the UK's biggest-selling car and commercial vehicle brand for 34 and 45 consecutive years respectively.


title: Ford of Britain

text: The first Ford cars, three Model As, were imported into the UK in 1903, and the first dealership opened in Southampton in November 1910. In 1909 the Ford Motor Company (England) Limited was established under the chairmanship of Percival Perry, opening an office at 55 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, in 1909.


title: Ford of Britain

text: An assembly plant in an old tram factory in Trafford Park, Manchester, was opened in 1911, employing 60 people to make the Model T, and the company was re-registered as Henry Ford & Son, Ltd. This was the first Ford factory outside North America. At first, the cars were assembled from imported chassis and mechanical parts, with bodies sourced locally. Six thousand cars were produced in 1913, and the Model T became the country's biggest selling car, with 30% of the market. In 1914, Britain's first moving assembly line for car production started, with 21 cars an hour being built. After the First World War, the Trafford Park plant was extended, and in 1919, 41% of British registered cars were Fords.


title: Ford of Britain

text: In 1917, a plant opened in Cork, Ireland, initially for tractor manufacture, but from 1921 cars were built there as well. This factory was the first to be purpose-built by Ford in Europe. The company of Henry Ford and Son Limited—Fordson—was officially incorporated on 17 April 1917, starting its life on the site of an old Cork racecourse. Its first registered office was at 36 South Mall, Cork.


title: Ford of Britain

text: Although the Manchester plant was served by the Manchester Ship Canal, Ford decided that access to a deep water port was required, and in 1923 a new site was chosen by the River Thames at Dagenham, east of London.


title: Ford of Britain

text: In December 1928 Ford (since 1924 entirely owned by Henry Ford, his wife and their son Edsel) announced in London that it had formed a new company, Ford Motor Company Limited, with three US directors (Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, Charles E. Sorensen) and four British directors (Sir Percy Perry, Roland Kitson, Sir John T Davies and Lord Illingworth), with a capital of £7 million. This company acquired all Ford's European and Middle Eastern business in exchange for 60% of its capital. The balance of 40% of the capital of the new Ford Motor Company Limited, 2.8 million shares of £1 each, was now available for public subscription. These shares were heavily over-subscribed. There was considerable investing interest from America, as US investors had had no previous opportunity of investing in a Henry Ford business.


title: Ford of Britain

text: The new chairman, Sir Percival Perry, had been, and now was again, central to the development of Ford in Europe. Perry's association with Henry Ford dated from 1905, when Perry became a shareholder of Ford's first British agency, but the very first link between them was earlier, in 1903. The two men first met in 1906 in Detroit. From Britain, Perry envisioned Ford making vehicles outside USA and selling them across the British Empire and Europe. He raced the company's cars, organised a chain of exclusive dealers, and superintended the Trafford Park assembly plant. In 1919, Henry Ford chose to run operations from Detroit, but Perry was determined to run all European business himself. Perry resigned in May 1919.


title: Ford of Britain

text: His American managers having failed him, Henry Ford offered Perry the chairmanship of this new Ford Motor Company Limited in 1928.


title: Ford of Britain

text: At the first meeting of shareholders in London on 6 March 1929, Perry reported "during the first three months of our first year we and our associated companies in Europe have delivered upwards of 50,000 Model 'A' vehicles into the hands of satisfied owners. The improved Fordson tractor is not yet in production but it is hoped to deliver the first tractors completely manufactured at our Cork works within the next month."


title: Ford of Britain

text: Construction started at Dagenham in 1929, and, in October 1931, Britain's and Europe's largest car plant opened, producing the Ford Model AA truck and Model A car. This was at the height of the Great Depression, and the Model A was too expensive to tax and run in Britain; very few were sold: only five in the first three months. A smaller car was urgently needed, and this came in 1932 with the 933 cc Model Y, a car much more suited to the market, becoming in 1935 Britain's first £100 car (accounting for inflation £). This was Ford's first car specifically designed for sale outside North America. Between 1932 and 1937, over 157,000 were made at Dagenham and Cork, and at its peak it captured 41% of its market sector.


title: Ford of Britain

text: In 1938, Ford's Cork factory hit an important milestone, producing its 25,000th vehicle since becoming an assembly plant in 1932. In all, 73,000 cars, trucks and tractors had been built at Cork up to that time.


title: Ford of Britain

text: The original 1928 plan was for Canada, having the benefit of Imperial Preference tariffs, to manufacture components for Ford assembly plants in the British Empire. Dagenham was to do, and did, the same for assembly plants in Europe, but in 1932, mired in the financial depression, both France and Germany announced their intention to impose heavy new tariffs on imported components. In France, urgent arrangements were made with Mathis for their plant to be leased by a joint-venture to be known as Matford and devoted to the full manufacture of Ford or Matford products.


title: Ford of Britain

text: More capital was required. There were consequential exchanges in shareholdings between Dagenham and Dearborn and other shareholders.


title: Ford of Britain

text: As an indication of the British and Irish company's sense of independence, in 1938 Henry Ford and Harry Ferguson came to 'a gentlemen's agreement', whereby Ford would manufacture tractors designed by Ferguson, using the "Ferguson System". Production commenced in the USA in June 1939, and the product was outstandingly successful, but Henry Ford was unable to persuade Ford in Britain to manufacture the Ford-Ferguson, though they did sell the US-made tractors. In 1945 Ferguson arranged British production with Standard Motor Company. Harry Ferguson sued US Ford for illegal use of his patents, asking for compensation of £90 million; this was settled out of court in 1952. Charles E. Sorensen's autobiography—he was a director of this company—described Ferguson so unfavourably that his UK publishers were obliged to scrap all copies and pay costs; Sorensen made a public apology.


title: Ford of Britain

text: During the Second World War, the Dagenham plant turned out 360,000 vehicles, and a new factory in Trafford Park, Manchester, made 34,000 Rolls-Royce Merlin engines.


title: Ford of Britain

text: After World War II, civilian production resumed. Dagenham made 115,000 vehicles in 1946, and factories in Walthamstow in Essex (later London) and Langley in Buckinghamshire (later Berkshire) were acquired. The millionth vehicle made since the Dagenham factory started production in October 1931 rolled from the assembly line on 27 August 1946, a cream Ford Prefect 10 hp saloon.


title: Ford of Britain

text: Henry Ford resigned in 1945 in favour of grandson Henry Ford II, and died in April 1947. Perry, founder-chairman of Ford Motor Company Limited and each of the Ford Group's European subsidiaries, retired in 1948. In 1950, Ford's controlling interests in the European businesses were sold to Ford Dearborn. In 1953, following the death of its Detroit founder, Briggs Motor Bodies, whose parent provided bodies to Ford America, was purchased, giving the company more control of its supplies and so acquiring plants at Doncaster, Southampton, Croydon and Romford. By 1953, Ford of Britain directly employed 40,000 people.


title: Ford of Britain

text: Until 1960, Ford Motor Company Limited remained a publicly quoted company, its shares freely listed on British exchanges, with more than 10,000 stockholders. The Ford Motor Company of Dearborn Michigan then held just 54% of its shares. That year, after eighteen months of rumour and denial, the US company offered to buy out the other shareholders. The offer was accepted, and Ford completed payment for the other 46% of Ford Motor Company Limited at the end of January 1961. Ford of Britain, properly Ford Motor Company Limited, then became a wholly-owned Ford subsidiary.


title: Ford of Britain

text: In 1962, Ford opened a factory at Halewood, Liverpool, to make the Anglia. This ceased to be a Ford plant (although remained under Ford ownership) when the last Escort came off the production line in 2000, and was then converted to make the Jaguar X-Type in 2001, and latterly the Land Rover Freelander. Halewood was included in the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors in 2008, although Ford retained ownership of its transmission works.


title: Ford of Britain

text: Another new factory opened at Basildon in 1964 to make tractors, and, in 1965, a further plant was acquired at Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea, to make chassis components and axles.


title: Ford of Britain

text: The Cork factory celebrated the 50-year anniversary in 1967. As part of that landmark event, a £2 million investment programme was announced to rebuild, re-equip and modernise the assembly plant. As a result, the plant was to become the largest and most modern factory of its kind in Ireland. In the same year, Ford of Europe was formed with Henry Ford and Son Limited. It was an important partnership from the start. Another £2 million was spent on assembly facilities and operations, to ensure that Cork production equalled the highest European standards of quality. By 1977, the total area of the plant was well over 450,000 square feet.


title: Ford of Britain

text: The rationalisation plan put in place meant that, in 1972, the Cork plant became a two-car plant that was producing the two best selling cars in Ireland: the Escort and Cortina. Between them, these two models were accounting for 75% of Ford sales in Ireland at the time. The Irish company was also exporting around 4,000 cars (mostly Escorts) to Britain. The Cork plant closed in 1984.


title: Ford of Britain

text: The Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968 was a landmark labour-relations dispute in the United Kingdom. The strike began on 7 June 1968, when women sewing machinists at Dagenham plant walked out and were later followed by the machinists at Halewood Body & Assembly plant. The women were responsible for car seat covers, and their strike eventually led to a complete halt to all car production. The Dagenham sewing machinists walked out when, as part of a regrading exercise, they were informed that their jobs were graded in Category B (less-skilled production jobs), instead of Category C (more-skilled production jobs), and that they would be paid 15% less than the full B rate received by men.


title: Ford of Britain

text: The strike ended three weeks after it began, following the intervention of Barbara Castle, the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity. The deal brokered immediately increased their rate of pay to 8% below that of men, rising to the full category B rate the following year.


title: Ford of Britain

text: Ford produced a range of commercial vehicles, starting with the Model TT in 1917. From 1933 to 1939 these were badged "Fordson"; this changed to "Fordson Thames" until 1957, after which it became plain "Thames". From 1965 they reverted to Ford. After the closure of the Trafford Park factory, most of the larger commercials were built at Langley. The truck operation was sold to the Iveco group of Italy in 1986, and became Iveco Ford (48% owned by Ford). The Langley plant closed in 1997.


title: Ford of Britain

text: At midday on Wednesday, 26 July 2013, Ford ended more than 100 years of vehicle manufacturing in the UK, with end of assembling Transit vans, by moving production of the next generation Transit to the Ford Otosan plant in Turkey. Ford Southampton plant built 28,000 vans, barely a third of its 2007 production.


title: Ford of Britain

text: Ford of Europe was created in 1967 by the merging of the businesses of Ford Motor Company Limited and Ford-Werke GmbH.


title: Ford of Britain

text: The Story of Ford – The fifth largest automaker in the world and manufacturer of some of the best-selling cars of all time


title: Josh Ritter

text: Josh Ritter (born October 21, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and author who performs and records with the Royal City Band. Ritter is known for his distinctive Americana style and narrative lyrics. In 2006, he was named one of the "100 Greatest Living Songwriters" by "Paste" magazine.


title: Josh Ritter

text: Ritter was born on October 21, 1976, in Moscow, Idaho, to Robert and Sue Ritter. His fascination with music began when he first heard Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country" on his parents' copy of "Nashville Skyline", and he purchased his first guitar at a local K-Mart. After graduating from Moscow High School in 1995, Ritter attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. He initially enrolled in Oberlin's neuroscience program, as his parents were both neuroscientists, but he later created the independent major "American History Through Narrative Folk Music." At the age of 21, Ritter recorded his self-titled debut album at a recording studio on campus.


title: Josh Ritter

text: Following his graduation from Oberlin, Ritter moved to Scotland, where he attended the School of Scottish Studies for six months. From there, he moved to Providence, Rhode Island, working odd jobs and playing open mics in Boston. It was at one such open mic that he met Irish musician Glen Hansard, who invited Ritter to Ireland as an opening act for his band, The Frames.


title: Josh Ritter

text: A year and a half after recording "Josh Ritter", Ritter recorded his second album, "Golden Age of Radio," for $1000 and self-released it. The album was recorded in three different studios: Soundgun in Philadelphia, Electric Cave in New Hampshire, and a friend's basement studio. While promoting "Golden Age of Radio", he met Jim Olsen, head of independent record label Signature Sounds, who offered to remaster and re-release the album after hearing Ritter play. The song "Me & Jiggs" was subsequently released as a single in Ireland, where Ritter was quickly becoming a word-of-mouth success, first opening for the Frames, then headlining his own shows. Ritter's third record, "Hello Starling", produced by former Frames guitarist Dave Odlum, debuted at No. 2 on the Irish charts. Ritter claims to have not realized the success of the Irish performances until stopping for a drink between cities and hearing the local band play a set covering his songs, something he was told they did frequently.


title: Josh Ritter

text: In 2003, Ritter shared top billing with the French Kicks at Sepomana, the annual music festival produced by WRMC 91.1 FM. Ritter and Ron Sexsmith headlined the Friday night singer-songwriter event at the Hotel Viking at the 2004 Newport Folk Festival. He also appeared at Oxegen 2005, and has headlined with artists such as Joan Baez, who later released her own version of Ritter's song "Wings" on her album "Dark Chords on a Big Guitar". He was signed by a British label, V2 Records, in 2005 and "Hello Starling" was subsequently re-released. He began performing and touring in a crossover duo with the classical violinist Hilary Hahn in 2005.


title: Josh Ritter

text: In 2006 Ritter released his fourth album "The Animal Years". 2006 also saw the release of Ritter's first full-length live album and DVD "In the Dark – Live at Vicar Street" which was recorded over two nights in May 2006. Ritter released his fifth album, "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter", in 2007. Both "The Animal Years" and "Historical Conquests" received a warm critical reception with Stephen King calling "The Animal Years" the best album of 2006 in his column for "Entertainment Weekly". In support of "Historical Conquests", Ritter appeared as a musical guest on such high-profile television shows as "Late Show with David Letterman" in America and "Later... with Jools Holland" in Britain.


title: Josh Ritter

text: Ritter re-issued his second and third albums, "Golden Age of Radio" and "Hello Starling," on April 7, 2009 and January 17, 2010, respectively. Each re-issued album was packaged as a two-disc deluxe edition. The deluxe editions contain both the original studio album as well as solo acoustic versions of all the original tracks, live and remixed bonus songs, and never-before-seen photos and artwork. The deluxe editions also feature liner notes written by Ritter fans, including Dennis Lehane and Cameron Crowe.


title: Josh Ritter

text: In Autumn 2009 Ritter toured with Love Canon String Band, where he reinterpreted his songs with a band composed of banjo, double bass, mandolin and guitar. This tour included three nights in Whelans Dublin, where he performed his albums "Golden Age of Radio", "Hello Starling", and "The Animal Years" in full. In 2009, Ritter also provided the soundtrack for the documentary film "Typeface", by Kartemquin Films.


title: Josh Ritter

text: Ritter's sixth album, "So Runs the World Away", was released April 23, 2010 in Ireland and May 4, 2010 worldwide. The vinyl version of the album had an earlier release on April 17, 2010 as a part of Record Store Day celebrations. The vinyl record came packaged with a CD version of the album as well. To promote the album before its release, Ritter made one of the songs, "Change of Time", freely available online. The song also appeared in the March 23, 2010 episode of the television series "Parenthood" and the trailer for the 2011 Natalie Portman film "The Other Woman". In support of the new album Ritter toured with his newly named Royal City Band – starting with six dates in Ireland – including a sellout performance at the newly opened, 2100-capacity Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin, and continuing with an extensive tour of the United States. "So Runs the World Away" largely garnered positive reviews.


title: Josh Ritter

text: On February 15, 2011, Ritter reissued "The Animal Years" on vinyl and as a two-disc deluxe edition on CD. The deluxe edition contains both the original studio album as well as a solo acoustic version of the album. The bonus disc includes four b-side recordings, two videos, new artwork, and liner notes by author Tom Ricks.


title: Josh Ritter

text: During his early 2011 tour, Josh Ritter released an EP album of previously unreleased material from the "So Runs the World Away" recording sessions, titled "To the Yet Unknowing World". Ritter began streaming the EP for free on his website as well as made it available for digital purchase on February 8, 2011. "To the Yet Unknowing World" hit Apple's iTunes and record stores February 15, 2011. In February 2011, Ritter and his band continued their extensive tour in support of "So Runs The World Away," touring America and Europe. During his European tour in April 2011 Ritter released his third live album, "Live at The Iveagh Gardens". The limited edition two CD and one DVD set is a live recording of Ritter's performance of 21 songs at the Dublin venue on July 18, 2010.


title: Josh Ritter

text: Ritter’s seventh studio album, "The Beast In Its Tracks", was released on March 5, 2013. The album was preceded by singles "Joy To You Baby" and "Hopeful."


title: Josh Ritter

text: On July 27, 2015, Ritter announced his eighth studio album, "Sermon on the Rocks". The first single "Getting Ready To Get Down" was premiered the same day. Ritter commented that the inspiration behind the album came from his desire to "play messianic oracular honky-tonk." "Sermon on the Rocks" was released later that year on October 16, 2015. In 2017, the album’s second single, "Homecoming", received notable attention after being featured in the season 2 finale of Showtime’s Billions.


title: Josh Ritter

text: Ritter’s ninth studio album, "Gathering", was announced on July 19, 2017. The first single, "Showboat," was released the same day as the album announcement. "["Gathering"] is a record of joy and sadness and laughter and lightning," commented Ritter. Along with the announcement of "Gathering", Ritter also revealed he was going on an international tour with the Royal City Band. "Thunderbolt’s Goodnight" and "When Will I Be Changed" premiered before "Gathering" was officially released on September 22, 2017.


title: Josh Ritter

text: On August 28, 2020, Ritter released "See Here, I Have Built You a Mansion", an eight-track EP of rare and unreleased songs, some of which were meant to appear on "Gathering" but "didn't quite fit the shape of that record." The EP also included a live version of "Lawrence, Kansas," as well as a cover of the Dire Straits song "Brothers in Arms." The first single from that album, "Time is Wasting," debuted on August 19, 2020.


title: Josh Ritter

text: Ritter also has an interest in writing, and has claimed many different writers as influences on both his songwriting and fiction work. Some of his favorite authors are Flannery O'Connor, Philip Roth, and Dennis Lehane (who wrote the intro for the Deluxe Edition of "Hello Starling"). The title of Ritter's sixth album, "So Runs the World Away", comes from a line in the third act of Shakespeare's "Hamlet".


title: Josh Ritter

text: Ritter's own novel, "Bright's Passage", was published by Dial Press on June 28, 2011. He said of the novel, "Besides my songs, "Bright's Passage" is the first [written] work I've wanted anyone to see ... it's about a kind of sweet normal guy from West Virginia. He goes to the first World War and he comes back and he has an angel. And it's about him and this angel escaping this wildfire for five days. It's sort of this short little comedy." Ritter's second novel, "The Great Glorious Goddamn of It All", was published in the U.S. in September 2021.


title: Josh Ritter

text: Ritter married fellow musician Dawn Landes in Branson, Missouri, on May 9, 2009. In a February 2011 interview with the "Boston Herald", Ritter revealed that they had separated. Ritter and his current partner, author Haley Tanner, own a home together in Woodstock, New York. They had their first child, a daughter named Beatrix Wendylove Ritter, on November 11, 2012.


title: Josh Ritter

text: On November 22, 2009 Ritter played at a benefit concert at Moscow Junior High School, his former junior high school in his hometown of Moscow, Idaho. The concert was for Jim LaFortune, one of Ritter's former teachers, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor.


title: Josh Ritter

text: In May 2018 Ritter revealed that he and his wife had adopted a child in January of that year. Their newest daughter Moxie was matched with them through Wide Horizons For Children, an adoption organization Ritter has advocated for. Part of his "Gathering" tour was cancelled to accommodate for this new addition to his family, though Ritter has promised to return to those markets for another show.


title: Josh Ritter

text: In 2010, Ritter's band members – some of whom had been performing with him from the early 2000s – were given the name "The Royal City Band" (a reference to the song "Thin Blue Flame" from "The Animal Years").


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball (stylized as artRAVE: the ARTPOP ball) was the fourth headlining concert tour by American singer Lady Gaga. Supporting her third studio album "Artpop" (2013), the tour ran from May 4, 2014 to November 24, 2014. The tour dates included cities where Gaga had canceled shows of her previous Born This Way Ball tour after suffering a hip injury. The ArtRave tour was preceded by a performance at the South by Southwest music festival, which drew controversy due to a segment where an artist vomited on Gaga, and a seven-day residency at the Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan, New York.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: ArtRave's concept and name are derived from the similarly named release party for "Artpop". The stage resembled a cave and consisted of two sections connected by catwalks made of translucent lucite, allowing the audience to move underneath the catwalks while still being able to watch the show. Gaga's costumes in the show included one with tentacles, one with bejeweled wings, a rave-inspired outfit and a necklace made of marijuana leaves. Costume designers and choreographers aspired to make a single, coherent show. The lighting fixtures used for the concert were from Clay Paky and the main idea was to create an immersive rave experience with the lights. They were also designed to accommodate minor changes in the show sequences.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: The tour was produced by Live Nation, and promoted by Absolut Vodka in the United States and O in the United Kingdom. Tickets for several shows sold out immediately once available, prompting additional dates. Negative reports about the tour's commercial performance were dismissed by Live Nation chairman Arthur Fogel. Gaga repeatedly placed within the top-ten of the "Billboard" Boxscore lists for the 2014 tour grosses. At the end, ArtRave: The Artpop Ball grossed a total of $83 million from 920,088 sold tickets at the 74 reported performances. "Billboard" also listed it as the ninth best concert tour of the year with 76 reported shows. The tour additionally received positive response from reviewers, but some criticized it for being disjointed. On November 24, 2014, the concert was streamed live from Bercy Arena in France.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: While releasing her third studio album "Artpop", Gaga held a private event in New York known as ArtRave, where she performed songs from the album and showcased art pieces. Later, she took the concept of ArtRave and created ArtRave: The Artpop Ball tour. After abruptly cancelling the North American leg of her previous Born This Way Ball (2012–13) tour due to a major hip injury, the tour began with its first leg in the United States on May 4, 2014, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. ArtRave: The Artpop Ball had the singer visiting cities where she canceled tour dates in order to undergo the surgery, as well as playing new cities. Gaga explained to "The Independent": "When I'm onstage with the Artpop Ball, the point of the show is to take what was the mess of my life and make art of it – to raise the spirit of artistic dreams and creativity and take all the things I was feeling in pain about, and rage... I take a much more meditative approach to the performance. I've got wide-open ears. The ArtRave has routines, and there's a performance-art aspect that has been designed." Prior to the beginning of the tour, Gaga headlined six shows (March 28, 30, 31 and April 2, 4, and 6) at the Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan, New York, and these shows were the final performances at the venue. A seventh show was also added for April 7 and officially closed the venue.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: Gaga also held a one-off concert for ArtRave: The Artpop Ball inside a six-storey vending machine at Doritos' annual South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival at Austin, Texas. The city's Music and Entertainment division had initially denied permission to Gaga for playing inside the venue citing that it was for "public safety concerns". Don Pitts from the division said that the venue being in close proximity with a parking lot was the reason they had to cancel Gaga's application. On March 6, 2014, it was announced that Gaga would indeed play at the venue. Tickets were sold to the fans through different competitions and challenges. Randal Lane from "Forbes" reported that the concert would support Gaga's Born This Way Foundation and charity events, but nevertheless opined that "the way they're doling out the tickets is still crass". The concert was criticized when artist Millie Brown vomited a green liquid over Gaga during the performance of "Swine" from "Artpop". The performance received complaints about "glamorizing" eating disorders. In response to the controversy, Brown told MTV News: "I can understand why people would make that association, but my performance is really not a statement about eating disorders themselves." Gaga herself told "Today" "Millie and I know that not everybody's going to love that performance, but we both really believe in artistic expression and strong identities, and I support her and what she does. "Artpop", my new album, is about bringing art and music together in the spirit of creative rebellion, and for us, that performance was art in its purest form."


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: For the tour, Gaga told Capital FM that she wanted something other than the "Monster Pit" arrangement she previously had in the Born This Way Ball tour, since she was always limited to performing on one portion of the arena. Hence Gaga and her team thought of building two stages, one main stage and an accompanying one on the far end of the arena. It would be enhanced by the addition of a catwalk which would wind all around the arena floor, enabling the singer to interact with the audience. In March 2014, Gaga tweeted a picture of the stage which showed a runway extending from the main platform up to the general admission seats and then bifurcating into two additional runways, ending in small stages within the audience. At the end of the first runway, another platform was constructed which descended into the crowd directly. Gaga noted that the long runways would be made of lucite rendering them translucent, so that the crowd can dance underneath it while still being able to watch the show. The main stage was described as a white cave, reminiscent of Atlantica from the 1989 Disney film "The Little Mermaid", and featured a digital backdrop showing stars and the moon.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: The band was placed inside the white dome like structures on the stage, described by John Jurgenson from "The Wall Street Journal" as like the planet Tatooine in the "Star Wars" series. At the end of one of the Lucite runways, a piano was hidden beneath enormous stalagmite-like structures reminiscent of Superman's Fortress of Solitude in the comics. There was also a bar overlooking the piano area, where the audience could order drinks while watching the show. Carl Williot from Idolator website compared the stage with that of ArtRave, and felt that it looked like an "insect" with the extended runway and smaller stages. Following the reveal of the image, the hashtag #LadyGagaTourStage started trending globally in Twitter. According to Stacy Lambe from "Out" magazine, the stage took over 21,000 hours to construct, including the catwalks. There are 15 inflatable trees which are air hosed on the stage to re-create a garden during one of the segments. The whole set up took three hours to dismantle and 21 trucks to carry it from one venue to another. Production manager Jason "JD" Danter explained that the whole set up started from 8:00 am, with lighting and sound checks taking six hours to complete.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: For the production of the show, Gaga enlisted choreographer Richard Jackson and together with him and her creative team, the Haus of Gaga, they came up with ideas regarding how the show should be constructed and what music should be performed. They also had to find a way to co-mingle all the different ideas to make a single, coherent show. For the choreography, which encompassed all the stages present, Jackson had to employ a different approach, so that the audience could see the performance from every angle.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: Gaga did not preview the costumes for the tour until the opening night. There were seven outfits created for the show, all throughout the different segments. The first was a bejeweled leotard which had the Jeff Koons blue gazing ball attached in the middle; the ball was previously used in the album cover art for "Artpop". Gaga accessorized the dress with a pair of feathered wings while wearing a blond bob wig reminiscent of her looks from "The Fame" era. A rave inspired outfit was worn for the last segment and consisted of colorful dreadlocks and legwarmers made of fur. She added a shirt consisting of straps and plastic sleeves with it. One of the complex outfits was made of latex and consisted of a polka dotted leotard and a number of tentacles attached to the dress as well as a headpiece with two tentacles from it.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: The singer also wore a short dress coupled with a platinum bob wig; another version of the dress had a gown attached to it, with Gaga wearing a long wig inspired by Donatella Versace. Before the final performance Gaga wore black latex pants and a top, with a green wig on her head and a necklace made of marijuana leaves. Finally, Gaga also wore a seashell bikini top and voluminous wig; the ensemble had been worn by Gaga in previous live performances for the "Artpop" era. Her dancers wore neon colored outfits with matching head gears and accessories. Gaga also had a number of unique props, including a Gibson Flying V guitar during "Venus", a plastic chair shaped like a claw and a keytar which was shaped like a sea horse.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: BBC News reported that some of the costumes for the tour were designed by Sunderland University fashion graduate Dayne Henderson. He had been chosen by one of Gaga's stylists after seeing his tweet to the singer with a photo of his design which included clothing inspired by fetish fashion. Henderson developed hoods, masks and head pieces for Gaga and her dancers. He had to produce the clothes in latex, and within 12 days had to deliver it to Gaga's management.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: Production and lighting designer Roy Bennett used Clay Paky's A.leda B-Eye K20 LED-based moving lights and Clay Paky Sharpys as lighting attachments. Also around 120 B-Eyes by PKG, were obtained for the tour as well with lighting control from three full-sized grandMA2s and 10 NPUs. According to lighting programmer Jason Baeri, "Bennett's approach to the show was to make it an immersive rave that reflected Gaga's non-stop party aesthetic... That means active, alive, vibrant and high energy—it requires us to be just as active on stage as in the crowd. The audience is every bit as much a set piece as they are a room of spectators, so we had to include them as part of Gaga's same party not just watching the spectacle from afar. Cue wise, that's almost like programming two shows at once: Both had to behave as one cohesive element."


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: Bennett had started designing the lighting from November 2013 and three months later presented it to Gaga. She approved off the audience experience theme that Bennett developed. The B-Eyes, which were previously used in the Roseland shows, were mounted above the video screens in the tour. Sharpy rigging were used throughout, in the front of the stage, rear, side, as well as on the pods over the audience. They were the main lighting accessory for the tour. Baeri explained that they had faced technical challenges, due to high pixel content. The B-Eyes added a total of 4,500 pixel and was varied through all possible configurations. The lighting effects varied along with the tone and the inflections of the song being performed. Clay Paky was distributed by A.C.T Lighting in North America. Solotech were signed as the video contractor, while 8th Day Sound group were the audio contractors throughout the tour.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: The show starts off with a video introduction about the tour, followed by dancers appearing on stage with balloons and blue gazing balls. The video continues to play as Gaga emerges from beneath the stage, wearing a golden leotard with wings. She proceeds to sing "Artpop" and then "G.U.Y.", the latter having choreography from its music video. The song transitions to "Donatella" with the screen showing flashing stars and colorful cloud formations. Gaga then performs "Fashion!" on the piano and goes back for a costume change as the band plays the remaining part of the song.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: The next section starts with "Venus" as large inflatable flowers rise from below on stage. Gaga appears in the seashell bikini ensemble and playing a guitar. After a welcome speech, "MANiCURE" and "Cake Like Lady Gaga" are performed. Gaga disappears inside for another outfit change as the band plays an outro. She emerges back onto stage in the white outfit and wig as a video shows her twirling on screen. "Just Dance" is sung, with Gaga using a seahorse-shaped keytar and her dancers dressed as "sea people". It is followed by a medley of "Poker Face" and "Telephone". The act ends with Gaga exiting for a costume change and "Partynauseous" is played as an interlude.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: The fourth act begins with Gaga wearing the tentacle dress and singing "Paparazzi". She then removes the tentacles and sits on a hand-shaped chair, performing "Do What U Want", followed by Gaga singing "Dope" and "You and I" on piano. Later, Gaga invites a fan onstage and sings a piano version of "Born This Way". She and the fan exit through a trap down as "Jewels n' Drugs" is played as an interlude.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: As dancers move props and cannons around the stage, Gaga changes a black latex dress and green wig. She returns to stage and sings a medley of "The Edge of Glory", "Judas", and "Aura", beginning the fifth act. A red couch is brought out on which "Sexxx Dreams" is sung. Following this, white chairs are brought out onto the stage by the dancers for "Mary Jane Holland", during which a choreography is shown with the chairs. "Alejandro" takes place on the lucite runways. At the end of the song, Gaga descends for a quick change. The fifth act triggers when she arises in a Cher-like outfit, singing "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)". Gaga then performs "Bad Romance" in a rave-inspired costume, followed by "Applause", during which a video backdrop shows the singer in various disguises. Gaga bids the audience goodbye and sings "Swine", during which her dancers fire stuffed animals into the crowd using cannon. During the performance, Gaga removes her wig and dances with shirtless men in pig masks. She leaves the stage for a final costume change, appearing to perform "Gypsy" for the encore. Near the end, she crosses to the main stage and exits with her dancers and band.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: The tickets were first available to members of Gaga's social network website, Littlemonsters.com. They were provided with a unique code for ordering tickets from online, but were limited to four tickets per member. According to Live Nation, the first batch of tickets for the tour went on sale from December 9, 2013, and sell-out shows were reported from Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Los Angeles and Edmonton within hours. This led to two new dates being added to the itinerary: June 26 at Milwaukee's Marcus Amphitheater, and June 28 at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall. On January 29, 2014, Gaga released the dates for the European leg of the tour, which would begin September 23, 2014, from Belgium. The singer partnered with British mobile network O, for a deal which would enable the company's customers to avail tickets for the tour three days prior to the general release. The deal included Gaga being featured in a new advertisement, for promoting the UK leg of the tour and showed her wearing a dress with large, glittering shoulder pads while running towards a concert stage. This was the second time Gaga partnered with O, first in November 2013, for exclusive access to the tracks from "Artpop", ahead of its UK release. Upon release, Ticketmaster reported that the UK venues sold out within five minutes, prompting the singer to add another two dates in London. In April and May 2014, she released more floor tickets for sale, after ensuring larger crowd capacity for all the UK venues and a total of eight new dates.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: For the US dates, Gaga partnered with Absolut Vodka, who transformed the bar adjacent to the stage into a lounge called "Absolut Artpop Lounge", where some of the lucky fans could watch the show, while ordering cocktails of their choice. Two fans would be chosen on the spot to have seats at the bar; tickets could also be won through a contest at the Absolut website. Gaga explained that with the help of Absolut she could "[create] a special experience where fans can actually sit inside the stage and have their own bar. It's going to be a huge rave in the spirit of art and creativity." Other promotions announced at the website included winning an all-expense-paid trip to see Gaga's show on September 30 at Stockholm, Sweden, and Gaga-inspired runway shows at LGBT bars across the nation, from where another set of tickets could be won. Four dates were added in Australia, starting from August 20, 2014, at Perth. She had one concert at Dubai's Meydan Racecourse on September 10, but newspaper "Gulf News" reported that the show would be censored for respecting cultural traditions in the UAE. According to Marco Riois, chairman of AMI Live which organized the show in Dubai, "there will be some edits... It cannot be the full show, because it wouldn't be allowed. So it's a special show for Dubai and for the culture".


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: "Forbes" spoke about the commendable ticket pricing ensued by Live Nation for the tour. Jesse Lawrence from the magazine noticed how the ticket prices were lowered to an average of $68 in Gaga's primary markets and ensuing fast sell-outs, compared to those of her contemporaries, like Miley Cyrus' Bangerz Tour which had an average ticket price at $86. Conversely, the average price was raised to as high as $269 in Gaga's secondary markets, although with fewer tickets available than Cyrus' tour. This again ensued that the revenue was earned with profit. Lawrence concluded by saying that "Lady Gaga's pricing, seems to be taking a longer-term view and is focused on providing access to as many of her fans as possible as opposed to wringing out every last dollar on the current tour." In April 2014, Lawrence reported that following Gaga's performance at Roseland Ballroom, the tour ticket prices in the secondary markets went up by 5.3%, with major increases being visible at Philips Arena in Atlanta. Tickets at Madison Square Garden rose up to $338.81, which was 42.6% higher than the average price. Other locations where ticket prices saw an increase were MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, TD Garden Arena in Boston and United Center in Chicago. A higher price was set for the first of two nights at Staples Center in Los Angeles, resulting in one of the costliest tickets in the show. The pricing was leveled off for the second night and they gradually decreased with the tour's progress. This was evident in the tour date switch up between May 12 and 15 at Washington and Philadelphia, respectively, where the ticket prices fell by 29.5%.


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: Reports arose in the media that the ticket sales for the tour were falling, leading Arthur Fogel, Chairman of Live Nation's Global Touring division, to brand them as "ridiculous". He clarified to "Billboard" that the about 80% of the tickets were sold in North America and Europe, and they were still in the process of releasing future dates for numerous venues. The 29 shows in North America had grossed around US$26 million, with an average of almost $900,000 per show. Fogel also addressed concerns that Live Nation had lost $30 million from Gaga's tour, saying that if a similar situation really happened, then the company would have cancelled the concerts. "I just don't know how this shit gets any traction without people doing their homework... Just a complete fool would say something like that and it could only come from somebody who has an agenda, because it makes absolutely no sense, on any level", Fogel concluded. A total of 800,000 tickets have been sold for the tour, as reported by "Billboard".


title: ArtRave: The Artpop Ball

text: In June 2014, "Billboard" released the first boxscore figures for the tour, up to the June 2 date. Gaga placed at number four on the boxscore list with total gross of $13.9 million, and more than 171,000 tickets sold. The boxscore figure for her Roseland Ballroom performance was also revealed to have grossed $1.5 million with more than 24,000 tickets sold. In October 2014, the second set of boxscore were released, with sales of 509,741 tickets and a gross of $46,933,594, ranking at number two on the boxscore list. Final boxscores were released in December 2014, with the last performance at Paris' Palais Omnisports Bercy grossing $1.2 million and audience of 13,013. In total, ArtRave: The Artpop Ball grossed $83 million from 920,088 sold tickets at the 74 reported performances to "Billboard" Boxscore. On "Pollstar"s Year-end Top 20 Worldwide Tours list, Gaga ranked at number seven with $88.7 million in gross and 947,852 tickets sold for 84 shows, including the seven shows from Roseland Ballroom. "Billboard" listed it as the ninth best concert tour of the year with 76 reported shows.