title: Seek Limited

text: Seek Limited (stylized as SEEK) is an Australian human resource consulting company. It is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and operates in 12 countries: Australia, China, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and South Africa.


title: Seek Limited

text: Seek was founded in November 1997 by Andrew Bassat, Paul Bassat and Matt Rockman as an online version of print employment classifieds, and it launched its website in March 1998. On 18 April 2005, Seek was floated on the Australian Securities Exchange with a market capitalisation of $587 million.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: The IP Multimedia Subsystem or IP Multimedia Core Network Subsystem (IMS) is a standardised architectural framework for delivering IP multimedia services. Historically, mobile phones have provided voice call services over a circuit-switched-style network, rather than strictly over an IP packet-switched network. Alternative methods of delivering voice (VoIP) or other multimedia services have become available on smartphones, but they have not become standardized across the industry. IMS is an architectural framework that provides such standardization.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: IMS was originally designed by the wireless standards body 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), as a part of the vision for evolving mobile networks beyond GSM. Its original formulation (3GPP Rel-5) represented an approach for delivering Internet services over GPRS. This vision was later updated by 3GPP, 3GPP2 and ETSI TISPAN by requiring support of networks other than GPRS, such as Wireless LAN, CDMA2000 and fixed lines.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: IMS uses IETF protocols wherever possible, e.g., the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). According to the 3GPP, IMS is not intended to standardize applications, but rather to aid the access of multimedia and voice applications from wireless and wireline terminals, i.e., to create a form of fixed-mobile convergence (FMC). This is done by having a horizontal control layer that isolates the access network from the service layer. From a logical architecture perspective, services need not have their own control functions, as the control layer is a common horizontal layer. However, in implementation this does not necessarily map into greater reduced cost and complexity.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: Alternative and overlapping technologies for access and provisioning of services across wired and wireless networks include combinations of Generic Access Network, softswitches and "naked" SIP.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: Since it is becoming increasingly easier to access content and contacts using mechanisms outside the control of traditional wireless/fixed operators, the interest of IMS is being challenged.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: Examples of global standards based on IMS are MMTel which is the basis for Voice over LTE (VoLTE), Wi-Fi Calling (VoWIFI), Video over LTE (ViLTE), SMS/MMS over WiFi and LTE, USSD over LTE, and Rich Communication Services (RCS), which is also known as joyn or Advanced Messaging, and now RCS is operator's implementation. RCS also further added Presence/EAB (enhanced address book) functionality.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: In response, a cut-down version of IMS -- enough of IMS to support voice and SMS over the LTE network -- was defined and standardized in 2010 as Voice over LTE (VoLTE).


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: The IP multimedia core network subsystem is a collection of different functions, linked by standardized interfaces, which grouped form one IMS administrative network. A function is not a node (hardware box): An implementer is free to combine two functions in one node, or to split a single function into two or more nodes. Each node can also be present multiple times in a single network, for dimensioning, load balancing or organizational issues.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: The user can connect to IMS in various ways, most of which use the standard IP. IMS terminals (such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and computers) can register directly on IMS, even when they are roaming in another network or country (the visited network). The only requirement is that they can use IP and run SIP user agents. Fixed access (e.g., digital subscriber line (DSL), cable modems, Ethernet, FTTx), mobile access (e.g. 5G NR, LTE, W-CDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, GPRS) and wireless access (e.g., WLAN, WiMAX) are all supported. Other phone systems like plain old telephone service (POTS—the old analogue telephones), H.323 and non IMS-compatible systems, are supported through gateways.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: The "home subscriber server" (HSS), or "user profile server function" (UPSF), is a master user database that supports the IMS network entities that actually handle calls. It contains the subscription-related information (subscriber profiles), performs authentication and authorization of the user, and can provide information about the subscriber's location and IP information. It is similar to the GSM home location register (HLR) and Authentication centre (AuC).


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: Various identities may be associated with IMS: IP multimedia private identity (IMPI), IP multimedia public identity (IMPU), globally routable user agent URI (GRUU), wildcarded public user identity. Both IMPI and IMPU are not phone numbers or other series of digits, but uniform resource identifier (URIs), that can be digits (a Tel URI, such as "tel:+1-555-123-4567") or alphanumeric identifiers (a SIP URI, such as "sip:john.doe@example.com" ).


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: The "IP Multimedia Private Identity" (IMPI) is a unique permanently allocated global identity assigned by the home network operator, it has the form of an Network Access Identifier(NAI) i.e. user.name@domain, and is used, for example, for Registration, Authorization, Administration, and Accounting purposes. Every IMS user shall have one IMPI.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: The "IP Multimedia Public Identity" (IMPU) is used by any user for requesting communications to other users (e.g. this might be included on a business card). Also known as Address of Record (AOR). There can be multiple IMPU per IMPI. The IMPU can also be shared with another phone, so that both can be reached with the same identity (for example, a single phone-number for an entire family).


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: "Globally Routable User Agent URI" (GRUU) is an identity that identifies a unique combination of IMPU and UE instance.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: The HSS subscriber database contains the IMPU, IMPI, IMSI, MSISDN, subscriber service profiles, service triggers, and other information.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: Several roles of SIP servers or proxies, collectively called Call Session Control Function (CSCF), are used to process SIP signaling packets in the IMS.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: SIP Application servers (AS) host and execute services, and interface with the S-CSCF using SIP. An example of an application server that is being developed in 3GPP is the Voice call continuity Function (VCC Server). Depending on the actual service, the AS can operate in SIP proxy mode, SIP UA (user agent) mode or SIP B2BUA mode. An AS can be located in the home network or in an external third-party network. If located in the home network, it can query the HSS with the Diameter Sh or Si interfaces (for a SIP-AS).


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: The AS-ILCM (Application Server - Incoming Leg Control Model) and AS-OLCM (Application Server - Outgoing Leg Control Model) store transaction state, and may optionally store session state depending on the specific service being executed.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: The AS-ILCM interfaces to the S-CSCF (ILCM) for an incoming leg and the AS-OLCM interfaces to the S-CSCF (OLCM) for an outgoing leg.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: Public Service Identities (PSI) are identities that identify services, which are hosted by application servers. As user identities, PSI takes the form of either a SIP or Tel URI. PSIs are stored in the HSS either as a distinct PSI or as a wildcarded PSI:


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: The "Media Resource Function" (MRF) provides media related functions such as media manipulation (e.g. voice stream mixing) and playing of tones and announcements.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: Each MRF is further divided into a "media resource function controller" (MRFC) and a "media resource function processor" (MRFP).


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: The "Media Resource Broker" (MRB) is a functional entity that is responsible for both collection of appropriate published MRF information and supplying of appropriate MRF information to consuming entities such as the AS. MRB can be used in two modes:


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: A "Breakout Gateway Control Function" (BGCF) is a SIP proxy which processes requests for routing from an S-CSCF when the S-CSCF has determined that the session cannot be routed using DNS or ENUM/DNS. It includes routing functionality based on telephone numbers.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: A PSTN/CS gateway interfaces with PSTN circuit switched (CS) networks. For signalling, CS networks use ISDN User Part (ISUP) (or BICC) over Message Transfer Part (MTP), while IMS uses SIP over IP. For media, CS networks use Pulse-code modulation (PCM), while IMS uses Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP).


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: Media Resources are those components that operate on the media plane and are under the control of IMS core functions. Specifically, "Media Server" (MS) and "Media gateway" (MGW)


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: An NGN interconnection mode can be direct or indirect. Direct interconnection refers to the interconnection between two network domains without any intermediate network domain. Indirect interconnection at one layer refers to the interconnection between two network domains with one or more intermediate network domain(s) acting as transit networks. The intermediate network domain(s) provide(s) transit functionality to the two other network domains. Different interconnection modes may be used for carrying service layer signalling and media traffic.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: Offline charging is applied to users who pay for their services periodically (e.g., at the end of the month). Online charging, also known as credit-based charging, is used for prepaid services, or real-time credit control of postpaid services. Both may be applied to the same session.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: "Charging function addresses" are addresses distributed to each IMS entities and provide a common location for each entity to send charging information. "charging data function" (CDF) addresses are used for offline billing and "Online Charging Function" (OCF) for online billing.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: IMS-based PES (PSTN Emulation System) provides IP networks services to analog devices. IMS-based PES allows non-IMS devices to appear to IMS as normal SIP users. Analog terminal using standard analog interfaces can connect to IMS-based PES in two ways:


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: Both A-MGW and VGW are unaware of the services. They only relay call control signalling to and from the PSTN terminal. Session control and handling is done by IMS components.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: One of the most important features of IMS, that of allowing for a SIP application to be dynamically and differentially (based on the user's profile) triggered, is implemented as a filter-and-redirect signalling mechanism in the S-CSCF.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: The S-CSCF might apply filter criteria to determine the need to forward SIP requests to AS. It is important to note that services for the originating party will be applied in the originating network, while the services for the terminating party will be applied in the terminating network, all in the respective S-CSCFs.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: An initial filter criteria (iFC) is an XML-based format used for describing control logic. iFCs represent a provisioned subscription of a user to an application. They are stored in the HSS as part of the IMS Subscription Profile and are downloaded to the S-CSCF upon user registration (for registered users) or on processing demand (for services, acting as unregistered users). iFCs are valid throughout the registration lifetime or until the User Profile is changed.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: It is envisaged that security defined in TS 33.203 may not be available for a while especially because of the lack of USIM/ISIM interfaces and prevalence of devices that support IPv4. For this situation, to provide some protection against the most significant threats, 3GPP defines some security mechanisms, which are informally known as "early IMS security," in TR33.978. This mechanism relies on the authentication performed during the network attachment procedures, which binds between the user's profile and its IP address. This mechanism is also weak because the signaling is not protected on the user–network interface.


title: IP Multimedia Subsystem

text: CableLabs in PacketCable 2.0, which adopted also the IMS architecture but has no USIM/ISIM capabilities in their terminals, published deltas to the 3GPP specifications where the Digest-MD5 is a valid authentication option. Later on, TISPAN also did a similar effort given their fixed networks scopes, although the procedures are different. To compensate for the lack of IPsec capabilities, TLS has been added as an option for securing the Gm interface. Later 3GPP Releases have included the Digest-MD5 method, towards a Common-IMS platform, yet in its own and again different approach. Although all 3 variants of Digest-MD5 authentication have the same functionality and are the same from the IMS terminal's perspective, the implementations on the Cx interface between the S-CSCF and the HSS are different.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Junius Richard Jayewardene (, ; 17 September 1906 – 1 November 1996), commonly abbreviated in Sri Lanka as J.R., was the leader of Sri Lanka from 1977 to 1989, serving as Prime Minister from 1977 to 1978 and as the second President of Sri Lanka from 1978 to 1989. He was a leader of the nationalist movement in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) who served in a variety of cabinet positions in the decades following independence. A longtime member of the United National Party, he led it to a landslide victory in 1977 and served as Prime Minister for half a year before becoming the country's first executive president under an amended constitution.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: A controversial figure in the history of Sri Lanka, while the open economic system he introduced in 1978 brought the country out of the economic turmoil Sri Lanka was facing as the result of the preceding closed economic policies, Jayawardene's actions, including his response to the Black July riots of 1983, have been accused of contributing to the beginnings of the Sri Lankan Civil War.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Born in Colombo to a prominent Ceylonese family with a strong association with the legal profession, Jayewardene was the eldest of twelve children, of Hon. Justice Eugene Wilfred Jayewardene KC, a prominent lawyer and Agnes Helen Don Philip Wijewardena daughter of Muhandiram Tudugalage Don Philip Wijewardena a wealthy timber merchant. He was known as Dickie within his family. His younger brothers included Hector Wilfred Jayewardene, QC and Rolly Jayewardene, FRCP. His uncles were the Colonel Theodore Jayewardene, Justice Valentine Jayewardene and the Press Baron D. R. Wijewardena. Raised by an English nanny, he received his primary education at Bishop's College, Colombo.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Jayewardene gained admission to Royal College, Colombo for his secondary education. There he excelled in sports, played for the college cricket team, debuting in the Royal-Thomian series in 1925; captained the rugby team in 1924 at the annual "Royal-Trinity Encounter" (which later became known as the Bradby Shield Encounter); he was the vice captain of the football team in 1924; and was a member of the boxing team winning sports colours. He was a Senior Cadet; Captain, Debating Team; Editor, College Magazine; first Secretary in Royal College Social Services League in 1921 and he became the head prefect in 1925. In later life, he served as president, Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka; President, Sinhalese Sports Club; and Secretary, Royal College Union.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Following the family tradition, Jayewardene entered the University College, Colombo in 1926 pursuing the Advocate's course, reading English, Latin, Logic and Economics for two years, after which he entered Ceylon Law College in 1928. He formed the College Union based on that of the Oxford Union with assistance of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike who had recently return to Ceylon. At the Ceylon Law College he won the Hector Jayewardene Gold Medal and the Walter Pereira Prize in 1929. During this time he worked as his father's Private Secretary, while latter served as a Puisne Justice of Supreme Court of Ceylon and in July 1929, he joined three others in forming a dining club they called "The Honorable Society of Pushcannons", which was later renamed as the "Priya Sangamaya". In 1931, he passed his advocates exams, starting his legal practice in the unofficial bar.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: On 28 February 1935, Jayewardene married the heiress Miss Elina Bandara Rupasinghe, only daughter of Nancy Margaret Suriyabandara and Gilbert Leonard Rupasinghe, a notary public turned successful businessmen. Their only child Ravindra "Ravi" Vimal Jayewardene was born the year after. Having originally settled at Jayewardene's parents house Vaijantha, the Jayewardene's moved to their own house Braemar in 1938, where they remained the rest of their lives, when not holidaying at their holiday home in Mirissa.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Jayewardene was attracted to national politics in his student years and developed strong nationalist views. He converted from Anglicanism to Buddhism and adopted the national dress as his formal attire.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Jayewardene did not practice law for long. In 1943 he gave up his full time legal practice to become an activist in the Ceylon National Congress (CNC), which provided the organizational platform for Ceylon's nationalist movement (the island was officially renamed Sri Lanka in 1972). He became its Joint Secretary with Dudley Senanayake in 1939 and in 1940 he was elected to the Colombo Municipal Council from the New Bazaar Ward.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: He was elected to the colonial legislature, the State Council in 1943 by winning the Kelaniya by-election following the resignation of incumbent D. B. Jayatilaka. His victory is credited to his use of an anti-Christian campaign against his opponent the nationalist E. W. Perera. During World War II, Jayewardene, along with other nationalists, contacted the Japanese and discussed a rebellion to drive the British from the island. In 1944, Jayewardene moved a motion in the State Council that Sinhala alone should replace English as the official language.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: After joining the United National Party on its formation in 1946 as a founder member, he was reelected from the Kelaniya electorate in the 1st parliamentary election and was appointed by D. S. Senanayake as the Minister of Finance in the island's first Cabinet in 1947. Initiating post-independence reforms, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Central Bank of Ceylon under the guidance of the American economist John Exter. In 1951 Jayewardene was a member of the committee to select a National Anthem for Sri Lanka headed by Sir Edwin Wijeyeratne. The following year he was elected as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in Ceylon. He played a major role in re-admitting Japan to the world community at the San Francisco Conference. Jayewardene struggled to balance the budget, faced with mounting government expenditures, particularly for rice subsidies. He was re-elected in 1952 parliamentary election and remained as finance minister.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: His 1953 proposal to cut the subsidies on which many poor people depended on for survival provoked fierce opposition and the 1953 Hartal campaign, and had to be called off. Following the resignation of Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake after the 1953 Hartal, the new Prime Minister Sir John Kotelawala appointed Jayewardene as Minister of Agriculture and Food and Leader of the House.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Prime Minister Sir John Kotelawala called for early elections in 1956 with confidence that the United National Party would win the election. The 1956 parliamentary election saw the United National Party suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of the socialist and nationalist coalition led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party headed by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike. Jayewardene himself lost his parliamentary seat in Kelaniya to R. G. Senanayake, who had contested both his own constituency Dambadeniya and Jayewardene's constituency of Kelaniya with the objective of defeating the latter after he had forced Senanayake out of the party.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Having lost his seat in parliament, Jayewardene pushed the party to accommodate nationalism and endorse the Sinhala Only Act, which was bitterly opposed by the island's minorities. When Bandaranaike came to an agreement with S.J.V. Chelvanayagam in 1957, to solve the outstanding problems of the minorities, Jayawardene led a "March on Kandy" against it, but was stopped at Imbulgoda S. D. Bandaranayake. The U.N.P.'s official organ the "Siyarata" subsequently ran several anti-Tamil articles, including a poem,containing an exhortation to kill Tamils in almost every line.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Throughout the 1960s Jayewardene clashed over this issue with party leader Dudley Senanayake. Jayewardene felt the UNP should be willing to play the ethnic card, even if it meant losing the support of ethnic minorities.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Jayewardene became the Vice President and Chief Organizer of the United National Party, which achieved a narrow win in the March 1960 parliamentary election, forming a government under Dudley Senanayake. Jayewardene having been elected to parliament once again from the Kelaniya electorate was appointed once again as Minister of Finance. The government lasted only three months and lost the July 1960 parliamentary election to the a new coalition lead by Bandaranayake's widow. Jayewardene remained in parliament in the opposition having been elected from the Colombo South electorate.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: The United National Party won the next election in 1965 and formed a national government with the Sri Lanka Freedom Socialist Party led by C. P. de Silva. Jayewardene was reelected from the Colombo South electorate uncontested and was appointed Chief Government Whip. Senanayake appointed Jayewardene to his cabinet as Minister of State and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Defence and External Affairs thereby becoming the "de-facto" deputy prime minister. No government had given serious thought to the development of the tourism industry as an economically viable venture until the United National Party came to power in 1965 and the subject came under the purview of J. R. Jayewardene. Jayewardene saw tourism as a great industry capable of earning foreign exchange, providing avenues of mass employment, and creating a workforce which commanded high employment potential globally. He was determined to place this industry on a solid foundation, providing it a 'conceptional base and institutional support.' This was necessary to bring dynamism and cohesiveness into an industry, shunned by leaders in the past, ignored by investors who were inhibited by the lack of incentive to invest in projects which were uncertain of a satisfactory return. Jayewardene considered it essential for the government to give that assurance and with this objective in view he tabled the Ceylon Tourist Board Act No 10 of 1966 followed by Ceylon Hotels Corporation Act No 14 of 1966. At present the tourism industry in Sri Lanka is major foreign exchange earner with tourist resorts in almost all cities and an annual turnover of over 500,000 tourists are enjoying the tropical climes and beautiful beaches.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: In the general election of 1970 the UNP suffered a major defeat, when the SLFP and its newly formed coalition of leftist parties won almost 2/3 of the parliamentary seats. Once again elected to parliament J. R. Jayewardene took over as opposition leader and de facto leader of the UNP due to the ill health of Dudley Senanayake. After Senanayake's death in 1973, Jayewardene succeeded him as UNP leader. He gave the SLFP government his fullest support during the 1971 JVP Insurrection (even though his son was arrested by the police without charges) and in 1972 when the new constitution was enacted proclaiming Ceylon a republic. However he opposed the government in many moves, which he saw as short sighted and damaging for the country's economy in the long run. These included the adaptation of the closed economy and nationalization of many private business and lands. In 1976 he resigned from his seat in parliament in protest, when the government used its large majority in parliament to extend the duration of the government by two more years at the end of its six-year term without holding a general election or a referendum requesting public approval.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Tapping into growing anger with the SLFP government, Jayewardene led the UNP to a crushing victory in the 1977 election. The UNP won a staggering five-sixths of the seats in parliament—a total that was magnified by the first-past-the-post system, and one of the most lopsided victories ever recorded for a democratic election. Having been elected to parliament from the Colombo West Electoral District, Jayewardene became Prime Minister and formed a new government.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Shortly thereafter, he amended the constitution of 1972 to make the presidency an executive post. The provisions of the amendment automatically made the incumbent prime minister—himself—president, and he was sworn in as president on 4 February 1978. He passed a new constitution on 31 August 1978 which came into operation on 7 September of the same year, which granted the president sweeping—and according to some critics, almost dictatorial—powers. He moved the legislative capital from Colombo to Sri Jayawardanapura Kotte. He had likely SLFP presidential nominee Sirimavo Bandaranaike stripped of her civic rights and barred from running for office for six years, based her decision in 1976 to extend the term of parliament. This ensured that the SLFP would be unable to field a strong candidate against him in the 1982 election, leaving his path to victory clear. This election was held under the 3rd amendment to the constitution which empowered the president to hold a Presidential Election anytime after the expiration of four years of his first term. He held a referendum to cancel the 1983 parliamentary elections, and allow the 1977 parliament to continue until 1989. He also passed a constitutional amendment barring from Parliament any MP who supported separatism; this effectively eliminated the main opposition party, the Tamil United Liberation Front.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: There was a complete turnaround in economic policy under him as the previous policies had led to economic stagnation. He opened the heavily state-controlled economy to market forces, which many credit with subsequent economic growth. He opened up the economy and introduced more liberal economic policies emphasizing private sector led development. Policies were changed to create an environment conducive to foreign and local investment, with the objective of promoting export led growth shifting from previous policies of import substitution. To facilitate export oriented enterprises and to administer Export Processing Zones the Greater Colombo Economic Commission was established. Food subsidies were curtailed and targeted through a Food Stamps Scheme extended to the poor. The system of rice rationing was abolished. The Floor Price Scheme and the Fertilizer Subsidy Scheme were withdrawn. New welfare schemes, such as free school books and the Mahapola Scholarship Programme, were introduced. The rural credit programme expanded with the introduction of the New Comprehensive Rural Credit Scheme and several other medium and long-term credit schemes aimed at small farmers and the self-employed.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: He also launched large scale infrastructure development projects. He launched an extensive housing development program to meet housing shortages in urban and rural areas. The Accelerated Mahaweli Programme built new reservoirs and large hydropower projects such as the Kotmale, Victoria, Randenigala, Rantembe and Ulhitiya. Several Trans Basin Canals were also built to divert water to the Dry Zone.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: His administration launched several wildlife conservation initiatives. This included stopping commercial logging in rain forests such as Sinharaja Forest Reserve which was designated a World Biosphere Reserve in 1978 and a World Heritage Site in 1988.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Jayewardene moved to crack down on the growing activity of Tamil militant groups active since the mid-1970s. He passed the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1979, giving police sweeping powers to arrest and detain. This only escalated the ethnic tensions. Jayewardene claimed he needed overwhelming power to deal with the militants. After the 1977 riots, the government made one concession to the Tamils; it lifted the policy of standardization for university admission that had driven many Tamil youths into militancy. The concession was regarded by the militants as too little and too late, and violent attacks continued, culminating in the ambush of Four Four Bravo which led to the Black July riots. Black July riots transformed the militancy into a civil war, with the swelling of ranks of the militant groups. By 1987, the LTTE had emerged as the dominant of the Tamil militant groups and had a free hand over the Jaffna Peninsula, limiting government activities in that region. Jayewardene's administration responded with a massive military operation codenamed Operation Liberation to eliminate the LTTE leadership. Jayewardene had to halt the offensive after pressure from India pushed for a negotiated solution to the conflict after executing Operation Poomalai. Jayewardene and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi finally concluded the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, which provided for devolution of powers to Tamil dominated regions, an Indian peacekeeping force in the north, and the demobilization of the LTTE.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: The LTTE rejected the accord, as it fell short of even an autonomous state. The provincial councils suggested by India did not have powers to control revenue, policing, or government-sponsored Sinhala settlements in Tamil provinces. Sinhala nationalists were outraged by both the devolution and the presence of foreign troops on Sri Lankan soil. An attempt was made on Jayewardene's life in 1987 as a result of his signing of the accord. Young, deprived Sinhalese soon rose in a revolt, organized by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) which was eventually put down by the government by 1989.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: In contrast with his predecessor, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Jayewardena's foreign policy was aligned with American policies (earning him the nickname 'Yankie Dickie') much to the chagrin of India. Before Jayewardena's ascendency into the presidency, Sri Lanka had doors widely open to neighboring India. Jayewardena's tenure in the office restricted the doors to India a number of times; once an American company tender was granted over an Indian company tender.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Jayewardene retired from politics in 1989 after his second term as president at the age of 82; his successor Ranasinghe Premadasa was formally inaugurated on 2 January 1989. He did not re-enter politics during his retirement even after the assassination of Premadasa in 1993.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Jayewardene died of colon cancer, on 1 November 1996, aged 90, at a hospital in Colombo. He was survived by his wife, Elina, and his son, Ravi.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: On the economic front, Jayewardene's legacy is decisively a positive one. His economic policies are often credited with saving the Sri Lankan economy from ruin. For thirty years after independence, Sri Lanka had struggled in vain with slow growth and high unemployment. By opening up the country for extensive foreign investments, lifting price controls and promoting private enterprise (which had taken a heavy hit because of the policies of the preceding administration), Jayewardene ensured that the island maintained healthy growth despite the civil war. William K. Steven of The New York Times observes, <nowiki>"President Jayawardene's economic policies were credited with transforming the economy from one of scarcity to one of abundance."</nowiki>


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: On the ethnic question, Jayewardene's legacy is bitterly divisive. When he took office, ethnic tensions were present in the country but were not overtly volatile. But relations between the two ethnicities heavily deteriorated during his administration and his response to these tensions and the signs of conflict has been heavily criticized. President Jayewardene saw these differences between the Sinhalese and Tamils as being <nowiki>"an unbridgeable gap"</nowiki>. Jayewardene said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, 11 July 1983, "Really, if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy" in reference to the widespread anti-Tamil sentiments among the Sinhalese at that time.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: Highly respected in Japan for his call for peace and reconciliation with post-war Japan at the Peace Conference in San Francisco in 1951, a statue of Jayewardene was erected at the Kamakura Temple in the Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan in his honor.


title: J. R. Jayewardene

text: In 1988, the J.R. Jayewardene Centre was established by the J.R. Jayewardene Centre Act No. 77 of 1988 by Parliament at the childhood home of J. R. Jayewardene Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo. It serves as archive for J.R. Jayewardene's personal library and papers as well as papers, records from the Presidential Secretariat and gifts he received in his tenure as president.


title: Isaiah Jackson (basketball)

text: Isaiah Ju'mar Jackson (born January 10, 2002) is an American basketball player for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats.


title: Isaiah Jackson (basketball)

text: As a freshman, Jackson played basketball for Lutheran Northwest High School in Rochester Hills, Michigan. He moved to Old Redford Academy in Detroit for his sophomore season. As a junior, Jackson competed for SPIRE Academy in Geneva, Ohio alongside LaMelo Ball and his Old Redford teammate Rocket Watts. He averaged 14.9 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. For his senior season, he transferred to Waterford Mott High School in Waterford, Michigan. Jackson averaged 19.1 points, 13 rebounds and 7.7 blocks per game as a senior. He was named to the Jordan Brand Classic roster.


title: Isaiah Jackson (basketball)

text: Considered a five-star recruit by Rivals, Jackson committed to playing college basketball for Kentucky over offers from Alabama and Syracuse.


title: Isaiah Jackson (basketball)

text: On December 1, 2020, Jackson recorded seven points, 12 rebounds and a career-high eight blocks in a 65–62 loss to seventh-ranked Kansas at the Champions Classic. He had the most single-game blocks by a Kentucky player since Willie Cauley-Stein in 2013. As a freshman, Jackson averaged 8.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and an SEC-high 2.6 blocks per game, earning SEC All-Defensive and All-Freshman Team honors. On March 17, 2021, he declared for the 2021 NBA draft while maintaining his college eligibility. He later signed with an agent, forgoing his remaining eligibility.


title: Isaiah Jackson (basketball)

text: Jackson was selected with the 22nd pick of the 2021 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers and then traded to the Indiana Pacers.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: The Authority was a villainous professional wrestling stable in WWE, which originated due to Triple H helping Randy Orton win the WWE Championship from Daniel Bryan at the 2013 SummerSlam pay-per-view immediately after cashing in the Money in the Bank contract. The name of "The Authority" was introduced in October 2013 and initially referred to only Triple H and Stephanie McMahon as a power couple. The Authority shares similarities with The Corporation and The McMahon-Helmsley Faction, and also had ties to Triple H's previous stables D-Generation X and Evolution, the latter of which existed alongside The Authority for a brief period in 2014.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: The stable was led by company executives Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. Many other wrestlers were a part of the group, most prominently including Randy Orton as The Authority's hand-picked champion and "Face of the WWE" until November 2014, Seth Rollins as "The Man" until suffering a knee injury in November 2015, and Kane as the "Director of Operations" until October 2015. The Shield formerly acted as The Authority's main henchmen to offer protection or carry out attacks until March 2014.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: The stable became inactive following WrestleMania 32, when Triple H was dethroned as WWE World Heavyweight Champion by Roman Reigns and Shane McMahon received authority to run "Raw". Triple H and Stephanie reunited against Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 33, where Rollins defeated Triple H, but the two were not referred to as The Authority again until February 2018, where Triple H and Stephanie McMahon were defeated by Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 34 in a mixed tag team match.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: From June 2013, members of the McMahon family began to dispute various elements of the control of WWE, such as the fates of Daniel Bryan, as well as Raw and SmackDown General Managers Brad Maddox and Vickie Guerrero, respectively. On the July 15 episode of "Raw", John Cena chose Bryan as his opponent for his WWE Championship defense at SummerSlam. In the following weeks, Mr. McMahon repeatedly offered Bryan a corporate makeover, which Bryan constantly refused. Triple H subsequently announced himself as the special guest referee for the match.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: At SummerSlam, Bryan defeated Cena to win the WWE Championship. After the match, Triple H gave Bryan a "Pedigree", allowing Randy Orton to cash in his Money in the Bank contract. The next night on "Raw", Orton had a championship coronation along with Mr. McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, with Triple H inviting Bryan to the ring to clear the air from the night before. This was a ruse, as Orton attacked Bryan and cemented the formation of the group. That same night, The Shield began to work for Triple H as his enforcers. Kane also joined The Authority as the "Director of Operations".


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: During this time, The Authority were also feuding with Big Show, who as well as Bryan, was voicing his displeasure of Triple H's regime. As punishment for this, Big Show was placed in a 3-on-1 tornado handicap match against The Shield, which Big Show lost. He was then forced to sit at ringside during his friends' matches and watch them being attacked by members of The Authority at the risk of being fired. The Authority later claimed that Big Show was broke (kayfabe) and forced him to knock out the likes of Bryan and The Miz, again at the risk of being "fired". At Battleground, Big Show interfered in the WWE Championship match between Bryan and Orton and knocked out both of them, sending a message to The Authority and causing the match to end in a no contest. The following night on "Raw", Big Show was "fired" by The Authority after he announced he was ordered to only knock out Bryan the night before. Following this, Big Show knocked out Triple H before being escorted by officials out of the arena. After Stephanie McMahon took possession of Big Show's house and Triple H banned him from WWE for life (kayfabe), Big Show began to run-in and attack various superstars over the next several weeks until the November 4 episode of "Raw", when The Authority was forced by the Board of Directors to give Big Show whatever he wanted in return for not suing the company. Big Show asked for his job back and a WWE Championship match against Orton at Survivor Series, which he received. At Survivor Series, Orton successfully retained his title.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: The Authority were also involved in a short feud with Cody Rhodes, after Rhodes also spoke out against Triple H's authoritarian rule. Rhodes was forced in a match against Orton on the September 2 episode of "Raw", with his job on the line, which he lost and was fired after the match. Over the next few weeks, his brother Goldust tried to win his job back, losing to Orton on an episode of "Raw", while his father Dusty Rhodes, after confronting Stephanie McMahon, was knocked out unwillingly by Big Show while pleading for his sons to get their jobs back. At Battleground, Rhodes won his job back after teaming up with Goldust by defeating Shield members Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns in a non-title match. On the October 14 episode of "Raw", The Rhodes Brothers defeated Rollins and Reigns again in a no disqualification match for the WWE Tag Team Championship after an attack by Big Show.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: Orton continued to feud with Bryan over the WWE Championship. At Night of Champions, Bryan defeated Orton to win the title. However, the following night on "Raw", Triple H stripped Bryan of the title due to a fast 3-count by referee Scott Armstrong. Orton and Bryan competed for the vacated WWE Championship at Hell in a Cell, where Orton won back the title after special guest referee Shawn Michaels superkicked Bryan, allying himself with The Authority.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: On the November 25 episode of "Raw", Orton's long time rival, then World Heavyweight Champion John Cena, suggested that there should only be "one champion" in WWE. Triple H announced a unification match at , where Orton defeated Cena in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match to unify his WWE Championship with Cena's World Heavyweight Championship, which ultimately created the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: Orton defeated Cena again in a rematch at Royal Rumble after interference by The Wyatt Family. At Elimination Chamber, Orton retained his title in the Elimination Chamber match by defeating Cena, Sheamus, Bryan, Christian and Cesaro.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: Bryan's feud with The Authority intensified due to Authority members getting involved in Bryan's matches. This led to Bryan challenging Triple H to a match at WrestleMania XXX, with Triple H initially refusing. Triple H finally accepting the challenge on the March 10 episode of "Raw", after Bryan rallied dozens of his fans to occupy the ring. Triple H later added a stipulation where the winner of their match would be placed in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship later that night, making it a triple threat match. At WrestleMania XXX, Bryan defeated Triple H, and later that night, he defeated Orton and Batista to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: The next night on "Raw", Triple H challenged Bryan for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, but after Bryan was attacked by Orton, Batista, and Kane before the match, The Shield interfered and attacked The Authority. As punishment, the following week on "Raw", The Shield competed in an 11-on-3 handicap match, and after they were assaulted by all eleven superstars, the match was declared a no contest. Following the match, Orton, Batista, and Triple H reunited as Evolution and attacked The Shield. Meanwhile, Stephanie McMahon and Kane continued to feud with Bryan, with Kane returning to his masked self and attacking Bryan on the April 21 episode of "Raw". At Extreme Rules, The Shield defeated Evolution and Bryan defeated Kane to retain his title.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: The following night on "Raw", Triple H forced Dean Ambrose to defend his United States Championship in a 20-man battle royal, with Ambrose being eliminated last by Sheamus, losing his title. The Authority began pressuring Bryan to give up the WWE World Heavyweight Championship as he suffered a legit neck injury and was not physically cleared to compete, but Bryan refused. At Payback, after threatening to "fire" Bryan's wife Brie Bella after Stephanie McMahon viewed Brie shoving her as "assault", Brie instead "quit" before slapping Stephanie. That same night, Evolution were once again defeated by The Shield in a No Holds Barred elimination six-man tag team match.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: The following night on "Raw," Batista, frustrated with not receiving a proper one-on-one match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, "quit" WWE in the process for a second time. Later in the night, before a match between Roman Reigns and Randy Orton, Rollins was revealed as Triple's H "Plan B" when he attacked both Ambrose and Reigns with steel chairs, thus turning on The Shield and joining The Authority. On the June 9 episode of "Raw", Bryan's doctor stated Bryan was not clear to compete yet; therefore, The Authority stripped Bryan of the title. That same night, The Authority created a six-man ladder match for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Money in the Bank, with them adding Orton to the match. On the June 23 episode of "Raw", The Authority also added Kane to the match. Meanwhile, Seth Rollins began to feud with former Shield teammate Dean Ambrose, and on the June 17 episode of "Main Event", acting on behalf of The Authority, Rollins announced a traditional Money in the Bank ladder match, also naming himself as the first entrant. At the pay-per-view, Rollins won the Money in the Bank contract by defeating Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston, Rob Van Dam and Jack Swagger; however, both Orton and Kane were unsuccessful in winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, which was won by Cena. At Battleground, Rollins defeated Ambrose by forfeit after Ambrose was ejected from the arena by Triple H and both Orton and Kane were once again unsuccessful in winning the title from Cena in a fatal four-way match, also involving Roman Reigns. On the August 11 episode of "Raw", Kane resumed his role as Director of Operations after relinquishing his mask the previous week.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: Bryan took time off from the WWE to recover from his injury, so Stephanie McMahon began feuding with The Bella Twins by constantly putting Nikki in handicap matches. Brie returned to WWE on the July 21 episode of "Raw", appearing in the crowd as a fan, with Stephanie being arrested for battery after slapping Brie and for resisting arrest (kayfabe). That same night, Triple H chose Cena's opponent for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam; after seemingly choosing Orton, Orton was attacked by Reigns. Brock Lesnar then made his return to WWE to align with The Authority and Triple H chose Lesnar to face Cena instead. At SummerSlam, Orton was defeated by Reigns; however, Rollins defeated Ambrose in a lumberjack match, Stephanie defeated Brie after Nikki turned on her sister and aligned herself with Stephanie, and Lesnar defeated Cena to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: The following night on "Raw", Rollins kayfabe injured Ambrose after being placed in a Falls Count Anywhere match following interference by Kane. This led to Rollins feuding with Reigns; however, Reigns legitimately suffered a hernia injury requiring surgery. At Night of Champions, Rollins declared himself winner by forfeit due to Reigns' injury, leading to Ambrose returning attempting to attack Rollins, though he would be escorted from the arena by security. Later on in the night, Rollins interfered in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match between Lesnar and Cena, attempting to cash in his Money in the Bank contract, but was stopped by Cena before the bell rang and Lesnar remained the champion. In September, Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble were seen taking orders from Triple H and used in segments throughout the show. They were later confirmed to be working for The Authority, mainly being placed as personal security for Rollins known as J&J Security. Over the next few weeks, tension appeared between Orton and Rollins, with Rollins attacking Orton following one of his matches. At Hell in a Cell, Orton was defeated by Cena in a Hell in a Cell match; however, Rollins defeated Ambrose in another Hell in a Cell match following interference by Bray Wyatt.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: The following night on the October 27 episode of "Raw", Orton attacked Rollins to get revenge for Rollins attacking him before. Orton performed an "RKO" on Rollins, before defying The Authority. Later that night, The Authority tried to get Cena to join them, only for Cena to refuse. This led to Triple H challenging Cena to a traditional Survivor Series tag team elimination match at Survivor Series where if Team Authority lost the match, they would be out of power. At Survivor Series, Team Authority (Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Rusev and Luke Harper) faced team Cena (Cena, Big Show, Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan and Ryback), where Team Authority lost after Sting made his WWE debut and interfered on Team Cena's behalf, giving them the victory and ending The Authority.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: At , Big Show defeated Erick Rowan in the first ever Steel Stairs match, but Kane was defeated by Ryback in a Chairs match and Rollins lost to Cena in a Tables match to determine the #1 contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship after interference from the returning Roman Reigns.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: On the December 29 episode of "Raw", Rollins attacked guest hosts Christian and Edge, with the help of Show and J&J Security, and held Edge hostage. When Cena attempted a rescue, Rollins threatened to break Edge's neck unless Cena brought back The Authority. After Cena relented and aquieced to Rollins' demand, Rollins, Big Show and J&J Security attacked Cena as Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, accompanied by Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman, emerged onto the entrance ramp to celebrate their return.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: On the January 5 episode of "Raw", The Authority punished each member of Team Cena; Ziggler was defeated by Bad News Barrett for the Intercontinental Championship in a two out of three falls match; Rowan was defeated by Harper, with J&J Security as special guest referees; and Ryback was defeated by Rollins and Kane in a handicap match. Later that night, The Authority, during what they called "John Cena Appreciation Night", invited Ziggler, Rowan and Ryback into the ring with Cena, only to (kayfabe) fire all three men. Cena then attempted to win their jobs back and was defeated by Rollins in a lumberjack match. On the January 19 episode of "Raw", Cena defeated Rollins, Kane and Big Show in a 3-on-1 handicap match, once again with the help of Sting, thereby reinstating Ziggler, Rowan and Ryback's jobs.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: At the Royal Rumble, Rollins was unsuccessful in winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Lesnar in a triple threat match also involving Cena. In the Royal Rumble match, both Big Show and Kane were unsuccessful after Roman Reigns eliminated both men at the same time. At Fastlane, Rollins, Kane and Big Show defeated Ziggler, Rowan and Ryback in a six-man tag team match. Following the match, Randy Orton made his return, attacking J&J Security and Kane. Later that night, Triple H had a face to face confrontation with Sting, which ended in a brawl. Sting issued a challenge to Triple H for a match at WrestleMania 31, which Triple H accepted. The following night on "Raw", The Authority attempted to persuade a returning Orton to rejoin them following his attack of Authority personnel, though Orton did not give a direct answer until the group met up backstage. Orton agreed to rejoin the stable, and he and Rollins were subsequently booked in a tag team match for later that night against Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns. The loss Orton and Rollins suffered in the match further exacerbated tension between the two. The tension finally reached a head a few weeks later when Orton refused a tag from Rollins and left the ring during a match with Reigns, revealing that he only rejoined The Authority to get revenge on Rollins for his curb stomp. Orton then put Rollins through an announce table with an "RKO".


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: At WrestleMania 31, The Authority scored several victories; Triple H defeated Sting in Sting's WWE debut match, and Big Show won the 30-man André the Giant Memorial battle royal. After losing his singles match against Orton earlier in the night, Rollins cashed his Money in the Bank contract during the main event between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, making it a triple threat match, becoming a world champion for the first time and bringing the title back to The Authority. Big Show took a brief hiatus from WWE afterwards, quietly leaving The Authority in the process. Rollins would defend the title at Extreme Rules against Orton in a steel cage match and at Payback against Orton, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. Then, Rollins began a feud with Ambrose, retaining the title at Elimination Chamber when Ambrose won the match by disqualification at Money in the Bank in a ladder match, On the June 15 episode of "Raw", The Authority reinstated Brock Lesnar, who faced Rollins for the title at Battleground, where he retained the championship when The Undertaker interfered and attacked Lesnar, causing a disqualification in Lesnar's favor. At SummerSlam, Rollins faced John Cena in a "Winner Takes All" match where Cena's United States Championship was also on the line. Rollins was successful when Jon Stewart, the host of SummerSlam interfered on Rollins' behalf, thus making Rollins a double champion. At Night of Champions, Rollins lost the US title back to Cena and retained the WWE Championship against Sting, who suffered a legitimate neck injury in the match that would force him to retire early the following year. At the end of the night, Rollins was attacked by Kane. Upon returning to the Authority, Kane began playing mind games with Rollins and the Authority members, acting completely ignorant as to his actions at Night of Champions. He then ambushed and attacked Rollins on several occasions as Demon Kane, causing the Authority to grant Kane a World Heavyweight Championship title match at Hell in a Cell, in which both Rollins' title and Kane's job as Director of Operations were at stake. Rollins retained the title and Kane was removed permanently from the Authority.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: On November 4 at a live event in Dublin, Ireland, during a match with Kane, Rollins suffered legitimate tears in his right ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus, and underwent surgery and would be out for 6–9 months. As a result, he was forced to vacate the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on November 5. On the following episode of "Raw", Triple H started a feud with Roman Reigns when he offered the title and a spot in the stable as "Face of the Authority", but he declined the offer. At Survivor Series, after Reigns won the WWE Championship during a tournament, Sheamus cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and defeated him. On the November 30 episode of "Raw", Sheamus announced that he had formed his own stable called The League of Nations along with King Barrett (England), Alberto Del Rio (Mexico), and Rusev (Bulgaria). This new stable – with the theme of all members having been born and becoming stars overseas – remained associates of The Authority, while becoming its own entity.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: At , Sheamus retained the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Roman Reigns in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match. After the match, Reigns "snapped" following his loss and attacked Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio and Rusev. Triple H came to the ring to calm Reigns down and tend to Sheamus, but as he did so Reigns attacks him as well that left him injured and out of action in the storyline. Following Reigns's attack on Triple H, Mr. McMahon took temporary leadership of The Authority in Triple H's absence and gave Reigns a title match on Sheamus's request on the December 14 episode of "Raw", but gave the stipulation that should Reigns fail to win the title, he would be fired (kayfabe). Despite McMahon and The League of Nations interfering on Sheamus's behalf, Reigns knocked out McMahon and pinned Sheamus to win back the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: The Authority's 2016 last-ditch effort campaign began by forcing Roman Reigns to defend the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Sheamus on the January 4, 2016 episode of "Raw" with Mr. McMahon serving as the special guest referee to ensure that Reigns would lose the championship. Despite McMahon's attempts to "screw" him during the match, Reigns retained after knocking out McMahon and corrupt referee Scott Armstrong. In retaliation, McMahon announced after the match that Reigns would defend his title against 29 other men in the Royal Rumble match at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. At the event, Triple H made his return, got his revenge on Reigns by eliminating him, and won the Royal Rumble match and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship by lastly eliminating Dean Ambrose. On the February 22 episode of "Raw", Mr. McMahon presented the "Vincent J. McMahon Legacy of Excellence" award to Stephanie. Before she could start her acceptance speech, Shane McMahon returned for the first time since 2009 and demanded to gain control of "Raw", claiming The Authority was running the company to the ground. Mr. McMahon accepted the offer, only if he won one more match. Shane accepted, and Mr. McMahon announced he would wrestle at WrestleMania 32 against The Undertaker inside Hell in a Cell. Later that night, in the main event match between Reigns and Sheamus, Triple H came out and he and Reigns would start brawling outside the ring. Triple H proceeded to smash Reigns' face onto the announce table, (kayfabe) breaking Reigns' nose, and ending the attack with a "Pedigree" onto the steel steps. On March 12 at Roadblock, Triple H successfully defended the title against Ambrose, securing his place in the main event of WrestleMania 32 against Reigns, to whom he lost the title on April 3. On the post-WrestleMania episode of "Raw" on April 4, Mr. McMahon opened the show to announce that his returning son, Shane McMahon, would run "Raw" for one night only. However, Shane continued to run "Raw" due to "overwhelming fan support" until the April 25 episode of "Raw", when Stephanie McMahon returned to announce that Mr. McMahon would decide who'd permanently control "Raw" at Payback. Mr. McMahon announced that both Stephanie and Shane would run "Raw" together on a permanent basis, and The Authority became inactive. Triple H and Stephanie reunited against Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 33 in 2017 where Rollins defeated Triple H in a non-sanctioned match, but the two were not referred to as The Authority during this time.


title: The Authority (professional wrestling)

text: Following the inaugural women's Royal Rumble match at the 2018 Royal Rumble, former UFC star Ronda Rousey made an appearance, confirming she had signed full-time with WWE, and would sign her Raw contract at Elimination Chamber. At the event, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle, Stephanie, and Triple H introduced Rousey. Triple H confirmed that there were no special stipulations in Rousey's contract, but Rousey would have her debut match at WrestleMania 34. Angle, who Stephanie previously threatened to fire and who Triple H had turned on back at Survivor Series, then brought up the incident between The Authority and Rousey from WrestleMania 31 where Rousey had embarrassed them and Angle said that Triple H and Stephanie wanted to manipulate Rousey as revenge. This eventually lead to Rousey putting Triple H through a table, which caused Stephanie to slap Rousey, but ran before Rousey could attack her and Rousey signed her contract. This would be a silent reuniting of The Authority, setting up Triple H and Stephanie against Angle and Rousey in a mixed tag team match at WrestleMania 34, in which Angle and Rousey were victorious.


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: Teresa Lisbon is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama "The Mentalist", portrayed by Robin Tunney. Lisbon is a former senior agent and leader of the "Serious Crimes Unit" for the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI). After leaving the CBI, she served as a sheriff for a small town in Washington state, but left that position to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: In the episode "Red Badge", it is revealed, whilst talking with her psychiatrist, that Lisbon's mother was killed by a drunk driver when she was twelve, and later in the same episode it is mentioned that Lisbon was formerly an inspector (detective) for the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), and at the time worked for then-SFPD Lieutenant Sam Bosco. She also accidentally admits that after her mother's death, her father was sometimes abusive towards her and her three younger brothers, and that he would suffer blackouts from his alcoholism. Her father eventually committed suicide. In the episode "Red Tide", it was implied that the young Teresa had to take over the maternal role and care for the family after her mother's death.


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: In the episode "Code Red", it is revealed one of Lisbon's brothers is named Tommy, and in the episode "Red Hot", it is revealed that another brother is named James. In the same episode, her mother is said to have been a nurse and her father a fireman. In the episode "Ring Around the Rosie", she states she was raised in Chicago.


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: In the episode "Where in the World Is Carmine O'Brien" her brother Tommy is introduced, who apparently has gone through a succession of unsuccessful jobs and has become a bounty hunter, allowing his daughter Annabeth ("Annie") to tag along. The sibling relationship seems loving but strained, with Lisbon acting as almost a surrogate mother figure.


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: In the episode "So Long, and Thanks for All the Red Snapper" Lisbon is briefly reacquainted with a former fiancé.


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: In episode “Little Yellow House” (season 7) it is revealed that Lisbon’s 3rd brother is named Stanley and Lisbon is the oldest. It is also revealed while Lisbon and Jane are looking for her brother James, that Stanley was renovating the old family home in Chicago so he could move in with his family.


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: Lisbon and the CBI's consultant Patrick Jane have a very intense working relationship which has, over the course of the show's seasons, developed into a personal relationship as well. Lisbon also had a close and platonic relationship with the late Samuel Bosco, who was eventually revealed to have unrequited feelings of love for her. In season 2, the millionaire Walter Mashburn persistently makes passes at Lisbon, though he is rebuffed. Later, in season 3, Mashburn reappears, and at the end of the episode it is revealed that Lisbon liked Mashburn. Mashburn, who then leaves for Europe, has not reappeared in the series altogether. In the season 6 finale of "The Mentalist" ("Blue Bird"), Jane openly admits his love towards Lisbon and at the end of the episode, they finally kiss.


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: Lisbon is well-liked by the rest of her team: Grace Van Pelt, Wayne Rigsby, and Kimball Cho, portrayed by Amanda Righetti, Owain Yeoman and Tim Kang respectively. Her old boss Virgil Minelli also had an amiable relationship with her, and appeared to tolerate her occasional inability to rein in Jane's unorthodox behavior. In the season 2 episode "The Red Box", Madeleine Hightower joins the CBI, replacing Minelli as Chief of the CBI. Lisbon's relationship with Hightower is much more adversarial than with Minelli. Hightower makes Lisbon responsible for Jane's behavior, threatening to sanction Lisbon for Jane's missteps. The threat that Hightower made becomes reality for Lisbon in the episode "Blood Money" when Hightower suspends Lisbon for five days for not controlling Jane and his behavior, despite Jane's effort to stop this.


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: Lisbon tolerates Jane's misbehavior, although she is often antagonized by his actions and has to apologize for him to both her CBI superiors and others with whom Jane is allowed to interact in his capacity as a consultant to the CBI. She sometimes places high stakes on her career by supporting Jane. The two often engage in light flirting and teasing of one another, with Lisbon sometimes being visibly affected by Jane's charm. She and Jane have shared several personal and deep moments throughout the series, however, which can be interpreted either as romantic interest, or just in the context of being best friends. She is shown giving Jane multiple chances and is often seen, even when she is unhappy with his behavior, to be supportive of him and help him. Jane certainly respects Lisbon more than others, often making sure she is not held responsible for his antics.


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: Some people see that as a very sort of intense but cryptic romantic relationship. Other people see it purely as brother and sister. And I think we leave it to time and the audience to play that out and the chemistry of the actors.


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: In the season 6 finale, Blue Bird, Jane hops over a fence at the airport and storms onto Lisbon's DC-bound plane to confess his love for her. Later, Jane and Lisbon confess their love for each other as Jane is being held at airport security for his plane stunt. Patrick Jane leans in to kiss Lisbon when asked to "Say it again". The episode ends with the two of them kissing passionately as the screen fades to black.


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: In the season 7 premiere, Nothing But Blue Skies, Jane starts a romantic relationship with Lisbon. However, at the request of Lisbon, their love affair is kept secret from their team. It is assumed that the two weeks each had off from the FBI after the events of Blue Bird were spent together, in what Heller described as a 'honeymoon' phase.


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: In the series finale, White Orchids, Jane surprises Lisbon by proposing to her. Lisbon accepts his proposal. In front of their family, friends, and co-workers, the two get married on the property Jane bought to build their home. Lisbon reveals that she is pregnant at the end of the episode.


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: Lisbon is smart, witty, sarcastic, no-nonsense, sometimes impatient, and occasionally playful and mischievous, particularly if Jane is involved. She is also courageous, willing to put herself in danger, and is willing to keep an open mind, but can often be abrasive. She finds herself bending rules, often for the sake of Jane, and, although their relationship is mostly professional, Jane and Lisbon connect in a strange way. She is shown to be a devout Catholic in the first part of "Strawberries and Cream", reciting the Hail Mary while wearing a bomb vest. Also, during the episode "The Crimson Hat", she goes to a Catholic church to pray. She has been shown to be driven, highlighted by her pursuit of Tommy Volker.


title: Teresa Lisbon

text: Heller has said of Lisbon's character: "[She] is often underestimated [but] essential to balance the series. She embodies the normality, she is down-to-earth. She is nice, while having her flaws. She is torn between her role of boss, who has to straighten out Jane's behavior, and her admiration, her affection, even her love for him."


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: The extension of civil marriage, union, and domestic partnership rights to same-sex couples in various jurisdictions can raise legal issues upon dissolution of these unions that are not experienced by opposite-sex couples, especially if law of their residence or nationality does not have same-sex marriage or partnerships.


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: In jurisdictions where same-sex unions are not possible, also divorce or annulment is often not possible, while general conflict of law rules sometimes exclude divorce in the jurisdiction where the marriage was celebrated.


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: Marriages and divorces in the U.S. are governed by state law, not federal law. That means that states are free to set their own rules for who is eligible for marriage (e.g., the minimum age for marrying) and establish their own rules and processes for divorce. Nonetheless, every state had a general residency requirement for divorce cases, requiring at least one of the people seeking the divorce to reside in that state. Before the federal government recognized same-sex marriages in 2013, through the Supreme Court's decision in "United States v. Windsor", same-sex couples who legally married in one state could find themselves unable to divorce after relocating to another state that did not recognize their marriage as valid. That could result in the need for a costly civil lawsuit to attempt to resolve issues of property rights, and property settlements that were negotiated outside of court could potentially trigger federal gift tax requirements.


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: Before the Supreme Court's 2015 decision in "Obergefell v. Hodges", couples in same-sex marriages could generally only obtain a divorce in jurisdictions that recognized same-sex marriages. When Delaware and Minnesota legalized same-sex marriage in May 2013, they passed legislation allowing non-resident couples who had legally married within the state, but who were not able to divorce in the jurisdiction where they were residing, to obtain a divorce through their courts. Florida legalized divorce for same sex couples as the result of a court decision that followed lawsuits by couples who had legally married in other states but had not been allowed to divorce after relocating to Florida.


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: After the Supreme Court's decision in "Obergefell", same-sex couples could legally divorce in any U.S. state.


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: Between 2004 and 2009, the average annual divorce rate for all homosexual marriages was almost 2% (the total rate of divorce over those 5 years was 11%) Also between 2004 and 2009, lesbian divorce rates were nearly double of those of gay men.


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: As of 1997, the same-sex partnership divorce rate was significantly lower than that of heterosexual couples in Denmark. The vast majority of gay marriages in Denmark are male-male. Fourteen (14) percent of these end in divorce, compared to 23 percent of female marriages. The higher rate for lesbians (almost double), is consistent with data showing that women initiate most of the heterosexual divorces in Denmark.


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: In the Netherlands, slightly more marriages between women are recorded than between men: between 2006-2011 on average 690 and 610 per year respectively.


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: The lesbian divorce rate is much higher than the divorce rate between men: in the same period on average 100 women and 45 men divorced per year (i.e., Lesbian divorce rate = 14%, Gay Male divorce rate = 7%).


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: A study tracking married couples over a 10 year span found lesbian marriages were most likely to end in divorce. Of the 580 lesbian couples who were married in 2005, 30% were divorced ten years later compared to 18% for heterosexual couples and 15% for gay male couples.


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: A study on short-term same-sex registered partnerships in Norway and Sweden found that divorce rates were higher for same-sex couples than opposite-sex marriages, and that unions of lesbians are considerably less stable than unions of gay men.


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: A study of marriage dissolution rates in Sweden spanning the years 1995-2012 found that 30% of both male same-sex marriages and heterosexual marriages ended in divorce, whereas the separation rate for female same-sex marriages was 40% (their Figure 7a).


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: The divorce rate of same-sex couples within 29 months of the introduction of legally binding civil partnerships was slightly less than one percent in the United Kingdom.


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: As of 2013, lesbian couples were twice as likely to initiate actions to end legally recognized partnerships as compared to gay men. In 2016, married female couples were approximately 2.5 times more likely to divorce than male couples.


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: According to Office for National Statistics, divorce rate of heterosexual couples is at its lowest since 1971 in England and Wales. The divorce rate for same-sex couples increased in 2016 and 2017, which the Office for National Statistics explained as a likely result of the fact that same-sex marriages have only been legal since 2014.


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: Massachusetts, the first U.S. state to allow same-sex marriage, does not track how many of the divorces in the state are between same-sex couples. A 2011 study for states with available data initially reported that the dissolution rates for same-sex couples were slightly lower on average (on average, 1.1% of all same-sex couples were said to divorce each year, ranging from 0% to 1.8% in various jurisdictions) than divorce rates of different-sex couples (2% of whom divorce annually). "The Washington Post" retracted a headline about this report because the study had incorrectly calculated the percentage due to an error in capturing when the same-sex marriages began. As a result, the corrected findings show a 2% divorce rate for same-sex couples—the same as opposite-sex couples. A 2019 study using three large samples from the United States and Canada found the divorce rate of same-sex couples to be larger than that of heterosexual couples. They found a larger difference among the subset of couples with children. Same-sex couples in this category divorced at a rate of 43% over the study period, as opposed to 8% for heterosexual couples with children.


title: Divorce of same-sex couples

text: Some studies have shown that lesbian committed relationships do not last as long as gay male committed relationships.


title: Universal language

text: Universal language may refer to a hypothetical or historical language spoken and understood by all or most of the world's people. In some contexts, it refers to a means of communication said to be understood by all humans. It may be the idea of an international auxiliary language for communication between groups speaking different primary languages. In other conceptions, it may be the primary language of all speakers, or the only existing language. Some religious and mythological traditions state that there was once a single universal language among all people, or shared by humans and supernatural beings.


title: Universal language

text: In other traditions, there is less interest in or a general deflection of the question. The written Classical Chinese language


title: Universal language

text: is still read widely but pronounced differently by readers in China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan; for centuries it was a "de facto" universal "literary" language for a broad-based culture. In something of the same way Sanskrit in India and Nepal, and Pali in Sri Lanka and in Theravada countries of South-East Asia (Burma, Thailand, Cambodia) and Old Tamil in South India and Sri Lanka, were literary languages for many for whom they were not their mother tongue.


title: Universal language

text: Comparably, the Latin language ("qua" Medieval Latin) was in effect a universal language of literati in the Middle Ages, and the language of the Vulgate Bible in the area of Catholicism, which covered most of Western Europe and parts of Northern and Central Europe also.


title: Universal language

text: In a more practical fashion, trade languages, such as ancient Koine Greek, may be seen as a kind of "real" universal language, that was used for commerce.


title: Universal language

text: In historical linguistics, monogenesis refers to the idea that all spoken human languages are descended from a single ancestral language spoken many thousands of years ago.


title: Universal language

text: It could be said plausibly that mathematics is the universal language of the world that all are capable of understanding.


title: Universal language

text: Various religious texts, myths, and legends describe a state of humanity in which originally only one language was spoken.


title: Universal language

text: In Jewish and Christian beliefs, the story of the Tower of Babel tells of a consequent "confusion of tongues" (the splintering of numerous languages from an original Adamic language) as a punishment from God.


title: Universal language

text: Myths exist in other cultures describing the creation of multiple languages as an act of a god as well, such as the destruction of a 'knowledge tree' by Brahma in Indic tradition, or as a gift from the God Hermes in Greek myth. Other myths describe the creation of different languages as concurrent with the creation of different tribes of people, or due to supernatural events.


title: Universal language

text: Recognizable strands in the contemporary ideas on universal languages took form only in Early Modern Europe. In the early 17th century some believed that a universal language would facilitate greater unity among mankind largely due to the subsequent spread of religion, specifically Christianity, as espoused in the works of Comenius. But there were ideas of a universal language apart from religion as well. A "lingua franca" or trade language was nothing very new; but an international auxiliary language was a natural wish in light of the gradual decline of Latin. Literature in vernacular languages became more prominent with the Renaissance. Over the course of the 18th century, learned works largely ceased to be written in Latin. According to Colton Booth ("Origin and Authority in Seventeenth-Century England" (1994) p. 174) "The Renaissance had no single view of Adamic language and its relation to human understanding." The question was more exactly posed in the work of Francis Bacon.


title: Universal language

text: In the vast writings of Gottfried Leibniz can be found many elements relating to a possible universal language, specifically a constructed language, a concept that gradually came to replace that of a rationalized Latin as the natural basis for a projected universal language. Leibniz conceived of a "characteristica universalis" (also see "mathesis universalis"), an "algebra" capable of expressing all conceptual thought. This algebra would include rules for symbolic manipulation, what he called a "calculus ratiocinator". His goal was to put reasoning on a firmer basis by reducing much of it to a matter of calculation that many could grasp. The "characteristica" would build on an alphabet of human thought.


title: Universal language

text: Leibniz's work is bracketed by some earlier mathematical ideas of René Descartes, and the satirical attack of Voltaire on Panglossianism. Descartes's ambitions were far more modest than Leibniz's, and also far more successful, as shown by his wedding of algebra and geometry to yield what we now know as analytic geometry. Decades of research on symbolic artificial intelligence have not brought Leibniz's dream of a "characteristica" any closer to fruition.


title: Universal language

text: Other 17th-century proposals for a 'philosophical' (i.e. universal) language include those by Francis Lodwick, Thomas Urquhart (possibly parodic), George Dalgarno ("Ars signorum", 1661), and John Wilkins ("An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language", 1668). The classification scheme in Roget's Thesaurus ultimately derives from Wilkins's "Essay".


title: Universal language

text: "Candide", a satire written by Voltaire, took aim at Leibniz as Dr. Pangloss, with the choice of name clearly putting universal language in his sights, but satirizing mainly the optimism of the projector as much as the project. The argument takes the universal language itself no more seriously than the ideas of the speculative scientists and "virtuosi" of Jonathan Swift's Laputa. For the like-minded of Voltaire's generation, universal language was tarred as fool's gold with the same brush as philology with little intellectual rigour, and universal mythography, as futile and arid directions.


title: Universal language

text: In the 18th century, some rationalist natural philosophers sought to recover a supposed Edenic language. It was assumed that education inevitably took people away from an innate state of goodness they possessed, and therefore there was an attempt to see what language a human child brought up in utter silence would speak. This was assumed to be the Edenic tongue, or at least the lapsarian tongue.


title: Universal language

text: Others attempted to find a common linguistic ancestor to all tongues; there were, therefore, multiple attempts to relate esoteric languages to Hebrew (e.g. Basque and Irish), as well as the beginnings of comparative linguistics.


title: Universal language

text: At the end of the 19th century, there was a large profusion of constructed languages intended as genuine, spoken language. There were created languages which do not belong to any country and can be learned by everyone. Among these are Esperanto, Ido, and Interlingua. At that time, those ideas were readily accepted. With the advent of World Wars and the Cold War, these successes were buried.


title: Universal language

text: The constructed language movement produced such languages as Latino sine flexione (1903), Ido (1907), Interlingue (1922), and Interlingua (1951).


title: Universal language

text: English remains the dominant language of international business and global communication through the influence of global media and the former British Empire that had established the use of English in regions around the world such as North America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. However, English is not the only language used in major international organizations, because many countries do not recognize English as a universal language. For instance, the United Nations use six languages — Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.


title: Universal language

text: The early ideas of a universal language with complete conceptual classification by categories is still debated on various levels. Michel Foucault believed such classifications to be subjective, citing Borges' fictional Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge's Taxonomy as an illustrative example.


title: Kiviak

text: Kiviak or kiviaq is a traditional wintertime Inuit food from Greenland that is made of little auks ("Alle alle"), a type of seabird, fermented in a seal skin.


title: Kiviak

text: Up to 500 whole auks are packed into the seal skin, beaks and feathers included. As much air as possible is removed from the seal skin before it is sewn up and sealed with seal fat, which repels flies. It is then hidden in a heap of stones, with a large rock placed on top to keep the air out. Over the course of three months, the birds ferment, and are then eaten during the Arctic winter, particularly on birthdays and weddings.


title: Kiviak

text: Knud Rasmussen's death is attributed to food poisoning by kiviaq. In August 2013 several people died in Siorapaluk from eating kiviak that was made from eider rather than auk. Eider does not ferment as well as auk, and those who ate it contracted botulism.


title: Conference of the parties

text: A conference of the parties (COP; , CP) is the supreme governing body of an international convention (treaty, written agreement between actors in international law). It is composed of representatives of the member states of the convention and accredited observers. Scope of the COP is to review the "implementation of the Convention and any other legal instruments that the COP adopts and take decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of the Convention".


title: Spectrum of the Seas

text: Spectrum of the Seas is a currently operated by Royal Caribbean International and the first ship of the "Quantum Ultra" class, a modification from the company's "Quantum" class of ships. The ship was constructed at Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germany and was delivered in April 2019. At , she became the fifth largest ship in the fleet by gross tonnage upon delivery. She currently operates primarily in East Asia.


title: Spectrum of the Seas

text: On 7 May 2015, Royal Caribbean released an announcement regarding an agreement entered with Meyer Werft about ordering the fourth "Quantum"-class ship, with a scheduled entry into service of 2019. The name of Royal Caribbean's first "Quantum Ultra" cruise ship was announced as "Spectrum of the Seas" on 16 August 2017. On the same day, Michael Bayley, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean, confirmed an announcement made earlier in April 2017 that the ship would be based in the Chinese market and would feature accommodations and offerings specifically designed for the Asia-Pacific region.


title: Spectrum of the Seas

text: Construction began with the steel cutting ceremony on 16 August 2017. The keel was laid on 8 November 2017. A coin ceremony was also dedicated on the same day, featuring a coin placed under the first block out of the 74 total blocks comprising the vessel. "Spectrum of the Seas" floated out from Meyer Werft's shipyard in Papenburg on 25 February 2019, ready to have her funnel cladding installed at the shipyard's outfitting pier. The ship's conveyance up the River Ems for her sea trials in the North Sea began on 20 March 2019 and finished the next day as she arrived in Eemshaven.


title: Spectrum of the Seas

text: "Spectrum of the Seas" was officially delivered to Royal Caribbean on 11 April 2019 in a ceremony in Bremerhaven. On 3 June 2019, Huang Xiaoming and Angelababy christened the vessel in a ceremony celebrating the ship's arrival in China.


title: Spectrum of the Seas

text: On 18 April 2019, "Spectrum of the Seas" departed on her maiden voyage from Barcelona to Singapore, with two short sailings thereafter before arriving in Shanghai. On the evening of 3 June 2019, following her christening, the ship set sail on her inaugural sailing after her Chinese debut for a three-day cruise around Shanghai. Beginning in June 2019, "Spectrum of the Seas" has been homeported in Shanghai and cruises between Shanghai and various ports in East Asia.


title: Spectrum of the Seas

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic affecting China, "Spectrum of the Seas" carrying 1,551 crew members and was temporarily redeployed from Shanghai to Sydney on 14 February 2020 for a series of complimentary cruises for first responders of the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season. This resulted in the cancellation of all cruises scheduled on the ship from Shanghai during the redeployment. The ship was provisioned in Sydney on 3 April and left port without passengers on 4 April in compliance with "Operation Nemesis" of the New South Wales police in response to the pandemic.


title: Arid

text: A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most arid climates straddle the Equator; these regions include parts of Africa, Asia, South America, North America, and Australia.


title: Arid

text: The distribution of aridity at any time is largely the result of the general circulation of the atmosphere. The latter does change significantly over time through climate change. For example, temperature increase by 1.5–2.1 percent across the Nile Basin over the next 30–40 years could change the region from semi-arid to arid, significantly reducing the land usable for agriculture. In addition, changes in land use can increase demands on soil water and thereby increase aridity.


title: Brotha Lynch Hung

text: Kevin Danell Mann (born January 10, 1970), better known by his stage name Brotha Lynch Hung, is an American rapper, songwriter and record producer from Sacramento, California who has been described as "the creator of horrorcore rap." He is also a former 24th Street Garden Blocc Crip gang member which is a Crip affiliated street gang based in Meadowview, Sacramento.


title: Brotha Lynch Hung

text: Mann grew up in Sacramento. He became a fan of east coast rappers such as Rakim and Slick Rick. He started rapping at the age of 13. He became a member of the 24 Street Garden Blocc Crips by age 16 during the 1980s. He was once shot in the side after trying to break up a confrontation between a Crip and a Blood at a house party; the bullet was never removed.


title: Brotha Lynch Hung

text: The Garden Blocc Crips are said to consist of three subsets: 21st street, 24th street and 29th street. They are said to historically have a rivalry with the Meadowview Bloods which apparently escalated in the early 1990s resulting in several homicides and in 1992, a 31-year prison conviction for fellow Meadowview rapper, 24th Street gang member and friend of Mann; X-Raided.


title: Brotha Lynch Hung

text: Although often credited as being a major pioneer and even the main creator of the horrorcore rap genre, Mann himself has claimed that his style is less literally “horrorcore” and instead falls more directly under his own distinct category or sub-category of rap called “Ripgut” which specifically emphasizes (usually graphic) violence.


title: Brotha Lynch Hung

text: The Ripgut genre itself reportedly stemmed from his love of meat but this lyrical style is also sometimes considered to be either associated with or connected to the common thoughts and feelings occasionally experienced during manic and/or violent states of mind brought on by the use of certain illicit drugs such as phencyclidine (PCP).


title: Brotha Lynch Hung

text: In 1993 Black Market Records released Mann's first EP, "24 Deep". followed by an album every year or two: "Season of da Siccness" in 1995, "Loaded" in 1997, "EBK4" and the soundtrack to the horror comedy film "Now Eat" in 2000, "The Virus" in 2001, and three compilations, "", "Remains: Book II", and "Book III", in 2002.


title: Brotha Lynch Hung

text: Brother Lynch Hung appeared on No Limit Records's May 1997 release, "I'm Bout It". Brother Lynch Hung wrote, produced, and performed on the song "Situations On Dirty".


title: Brotha Lynch Hung

text: "24 Deep" reached No. 91 on "Billboard"'s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and "Season of da Siccness" reached No. 26.


title: Brotha Lynch Hung

text: Lynch had three releases on different record labels during this time period. He released "" in June 2003 under Siccmade Music. It was the first album since "EBK4" to make it to the Billboard 200 and his first solo album not released on Black Market Records. He then released "The Ripgut Collection" compilation on Madesicc in 2007 and "Snuff Tapes" "mix tape" in 2008 which is available on the website Siccness.net. Both releases enter the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums peaking at 55 and 78 respectively.


title: Brotha Lynch Hung

text: In May 2009, Mann signed a contract with Strange Music. He released three albums own the label, "Dinner and a Movie" (2010), "Coathanga Strangla" (2011), and "Mannibalector" (2013). The label offered to extend his contract after the third album was released but decided to stay independent on his own label Madesicc Musicc.


title: Brotha Lynch Hung

text: In September 1996, Joseph Edward "Bubba" Gallegos, an 18-year-old man from Bayfield, Colorado, killed his friends after listening repeatedly to Brotha Lynch Hung's song "Locc 2 da Brain". He was in turn killed by police. His minister suggested that the music played a role in the killings.


title: Edward England

text: Edward England ( –1721) was an Irish pirate. The ships he sailed on included the "Pearl" (which he renamed "The Royal James") and later the "Fancy", for which England exchanged the "Pearl" in 1720. His flag was the classic Jolly Roger — almost exactly as the one "Black Sam" Bellamy used — with a human skull above two crossed bones on a black background. Like Bellamy, England was known for his kindness and compassion as a leader, unlike many other pirates of the time.


title: Edward England

text: England was born Edward Seegar in Ireland around 1685. He took part in Henry Jennings' expedition for the sunken 1715 Treasure Fleet off the coast of Florida, and then began sailing with Charles Vane in 1718. Upon Vane and other prominent pirates accepting the King's Pardon, England and some of his men sailed for Africa. Along his way he spawned the career of Bartholomew Roberts, among others. In 1720, near the African island of Comoros, England and his men got into a violent conflict with James Macrae. After 10 days of hiding on an island, England and Macrae agreed to a peace deal, upsetting England's crew; he was subsequently voted out as captain and marooned on the island of Mauritius. After four months, England and the loyal crewman that had been stranded with him managed to build a boat and sail to a pirate safe haven in Madagascar. He died sometime in the winter of 1720–21, possibly from tropical disease.


title: Edward England

text: Born in Ireland as Edward Seegar sometime around 1685, he was probably raised a Catholic, and was said to be an educated man. Seegar changed his surname to England when he turned pirate. Some sources claim "Seegar" was not England's name at all, but was instead a separate pirate (Jasper Seagar) who sailed under England. England made his way to Jamaica and during the War of the Spanish Succession he served as a privateer. He was captured by the pirate captain Christopher Winter and forced to join the crew. Winter took England to the pirate base on Nassau, Bahamas. England took part in Henry Jennings' assault on the Spanish salvage camp at Palma de Ayz, Florida, stealing £87,000 in gold and silver. England is next reported as Charles Vane's quartermaster, in March 1718. Vane's sloop, the "Lark" was captured by the Royal Navy, but England and the rest of the crew were released to induce the other pirates of Nassau to accept the King's pardon.


title: Edward England

text: England was granted captaincy of his own ship in mid-1718. England decided not to accept the pardon along with Vane and a few others, and after the arrival of Woodes Rogers, they set sail for the coast of Africa.


title: Edward England

text: Along the way, he and the crew took several ships. One of the ships was the "Cadogan" from Bristol, captained by a man named Skinner. Some of England's crew knew Skinner and recognized him instantly because he never paid them for their work previously. According to Charles Johnson, the crew member said:


title: Edward England

text: A group of pirates next grabbed the captain, tied him to the windlass and threw empty bottles at him. Next because he had been a good master to his men they gave him a quick death by simply shooting him in the head with a flintlock pistol. Given the crew of the "Cadogan" was without a captain, England offered them a choice to join his crew. Aboard the crew was Howell Davis who refused to sign the articles of the pirates. Howell said he would rather die than become a pirate, however, England refused to kill him and instead gave command of the captured ship to Davis. This began the start of Davis' pirate career. Davis would go on to spawn the career of Bartholomew Roberts as well, and the careers of many other pirates.


title: Edward England

text: After some time, England and his crew captured a larger brig or frigate named the "Pearl". Taking the ship as their own, they renamed it the "Royal James" (after James Stuart, alluding to the Jacobitism of England or his crew) and in the spring of 1719 went off in search of plunder in Africa. Between the Gambia River and the Cape Coast, the pirates seized and looted ten ships. Two of these they kept as prizes, granting them to Captains Robert Lane and Richard Sample, who left England to sail for the Caribbean. After looting the ten ships, England made John Taylor the captain of his next prize, the "Victory". After looting two additional ships, England and the crew decided to make port in a small African town. However, the pirates grew increasingly belligerent and conflicts arose with the locals over the treatment of women. Soon a fight broke out, resulting in the pirates burning the entire town and departing.