title: Camille Paglia

text: During her stays at a summer Girl Scout camp in Thendara, New York, she took on a variety of new names, including Anastasia (her confirmation name, inspired by the film "Anastasia"), Stacy, and Stanley. A crucially significant event for her was when an outhouse exploded after she poured too much quicklime into the latrine. "That symbolized everything I would do with my life and work. Excess and extravagance and explosiveness. I would be someone who would look into the latrine of culture, into pornography and crime and psychopathology… and I would drop the bomb into it".


title: Camille Paglia

text: For more than a decade, Paglia was the partner of artist Alison Maddex. Paglia legally adopted Maddex's son (who was born in 2002). In 2007, the couple separated but remained "harmonious co-parents," in the words of Paglia, who lived apart. Paglia considers herself transgender, and says that "never once in my life have I felt female".


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia entered Harpur College at Binghamton University in 1964. The same year, Paglia's poem "Atrophy" was published in the local newspaper. She later said that she was trained to read literature by poet Milton Kessler, who "believed in the responsiveness of the body, and of the activation of the senses to literature ... And oh did I believe in that". She graduated from Harpur as class valedictorian in 1968.


title: Camille Paglia

text: According to Paglia, while in college she punched a "marauding drunk," and takes pride in having been put on probation for committing 39 pranks.


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia attended Yale as a graduate student, and she claims to have been the only open lesbian at Yale Graduate School from 1968 to 1972. At Yale, Paglia quarreled with Rita Mae Brown, whom she later characterized as "then darkly nihilist," and argued with the New Haven, Connecticut, Women's Liberation Rock Band when they dismissed the Rolling Stones as sexist. Paglia was mentored by Harold Bloom. "Sexual Personae" was then titled "The Androgynous Dream: the image of the androgyne as it appears in literature and is embodied in the psyche of the artist, with reference to the visual arts and the cinema."


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia read Susan Sontag and aspired to emulate what she called her "celebrity, her positioning in the media world at the border of the high arts and popular culture." Paglia first saw Sontag in person on October 15, 1969 (Vietnam Moratorium Day), when Paglia, then a Yale graduate student, was visiting a friend at Princeton. In 1973, Paglia, a militant feminist and open lesbian, was working at her first academic job at Bennington College. She considered Sontag a radical who had challenged male dominance. The same year, Paglia drove to an appearance by Sontag at Dartmouth, hoping to arrange for her to speak at Bennington, but found it difficult to find the money for Sontag's speaking fee; Paglia relied on help from Richard Tristman, a friend of Sontag's, to persuade her to come. Bennington College agreed to pay Sontag $700 (twice what they usually offered speakers but only half Sontag's usual fee) to give a talk about contemporary issues. Paglia staged a poster campaign urging students to attend Sontag's appearance. Sontag arrived at Bennington Carriage Barn, where she was to speak, more than an hour late, and then began reading what Paglia recalled as a "boring and bleak" short story about "nothing" in the style of a French New Novel.


title: Camille Paglia

text: As a result of Sontag's Bennington College appearance, Paglia began to become disenchanted with her, believing that she had withdrawn from confrontation with the academic world, and that her "mandarin disdain" for popular culture showed an elitism that betrayed her early work, which had suggested that high and low culture both reflected a new sensibility.


title: Camille Paglia

text: In the autumn of 1972, Paglia began teaching at Bennington College, which hired her in part thanks to a recommendation from Harold Bloom. At Bennington, she befriended the philosopher James Fessenden, who first taught there in the same semester.


title: Camille Paglia

text: Through her study of the classics and the scholarly work of Jane Ellen Harrison, James George Frazer, Erich Neumann and others, Paglia developed a theory of sexual history that contradicted a number of ideas fashionable at the time, hence her criticism of Marija Gimbutas, Carolyn Heilbrun, Kate Millett and others. She laid out her ideas on matriarchy, androgyny, homosexuality, sadomasochism and other topics in her Yale PhD thesis "Sexual Personae: The Androgyne in Literature and Art," which she defended in December 1974. In September 1976, she gave a public lecture drawing on that dissertation, in which she discussed Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene", followed by remarks on Diana Ross, Gracie Allen, Yul Brynner, and Stéphane Audran.


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia wrote that she "nearly came to blows with the founding members of the women's studies program at the State University of New York at Albany, when they categorically denied that hormones influence human experience or behavior". Similar fights with feminists and academics culminated in a 1978 incident which led her to resign from Bennington; after a lengthy standoff with the administration, Paglia accepted a settlement from the college and resigned in 1979.


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia finished "Sexual Personae" in the early 1980s, but could not get it published. She supported herself with visiting and part-time teaching jobs at Yale, Wesleyan, and other Connecticut colleges. Her paper, "The Apollonian Androgyne and the Faerie Queene", was published in "English Literary Renaissance", Winter 1979, and her dissertation was cited by J. Hillis Miller in his April 1980 article "Wuthering Heights and the Ellipses of Interpretation", in "Journal of Religion in Literature", but her academic career was otherwise stalled. In a 1995 letter to Boyd Holmes, she recalled: "I earned a little extra money by doing some local features reporting for a New Haven alternative newspaper ("The Advocate") in the early 1980s". She wrote articles on New Haven's historic pizzerias and on an old house that was a stop on the Underground Railroad.


title: Camille Paglia

text: In 1984, she joined the faculty of the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts, which merged in 1987 with the Philadelphia College of Art to become the University of the Arts.


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia is on the editorial board of the classics and humanities journal "Arion". She wrote a regular column for Salon.com from 1995 to 2001, and again from 2007 to 2009. Paglia resumed writing a Salon.com column in 2016.


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia cooperated with Carl Rollyson and Lisa Paddock in their writing of "Susan Sontag: The Making of an Icon", sending them detailed letters from which they quoted with her permission. Rollyson and Paddock note that Sontag "had her lawyer put our publisher on notice" when she realized that they were investigating her life and career.


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia participates in the decennial poll of film professionals conducted by "Sight & Sound" which asks participants to submit a list of what they believe to be the ten greatest films of all time. According to her responses to the poll in 2002 and 2012, the films Paglia holds in highest regard include "Ben-Hur", "Citizen Kane", "La Dolce Vita", "The Godfather", "The Godfather: Part II", "Gone with the Wind", "Lawrence of Arabia", "North by Northwest", "Orphée", "Persona", "", "The Ten Commandments", and "Vertigo".


title: Camille Paglia

text: In 2005, Paglia was named as one of the top 100 public intellectuals by the journals "Foreign Policy" and "Prospect". In 2012, an article in "The New York Times" remarked that who has been following the body count of the culture wars over the past decades knows Paglia". Paglia has said that she is willing to have her entire career judged on the basis of her composition of what she considers to be "probably the most important sentence that she has ever written": "God is man's greatest idea."


title: Camille Paglia

text: Though Paglia admires Simone de Beauvoir and "The Second Sex" ("the supreme work of modern feminism… its deep learning and massive argument are unsurpassed") as well as Germaine Greer, "Time" critic Martha Duffy writes that Paglia "does not hesitate to hurl brazen insults" at several feminists. In an interview, Paglia stated that to be effective, one has to "name names"; criticism should be concrete. Paglia stated that many critics "escape into abstractions", rendering their criticism "intellectualized and tame".


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia accused Greer of becoming "a drone in three years" as a result of her early success; Paglia has also criticized the work of activist Diana Fuss. Elaine Showalter calls Paglia "unique in the hyperbole and virulence of her hostility to virtually all the prominent feminist activists, public figures, writers and scholars of her generation", mentioning Carolyn Heilbrun, Judith Butler, Carol Gilligan, Marilyn French, Zoe Baird, Kimba Wood, Susan Thomases, and Hillary Clinton as targets of her criticism. Paglia has accused Kate Millett of starting "the repressive, Stalinist style in feminist criticism." Paglia has repeatedly criticized Patricia Ireland, former president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), calling her a "sanctimonious", unappealing role model for women whose "smug, arrogant" attitude is accompanied by "painfully limited processes of thought". Paglia contends that under Ireland's leadership, NOW "damaged and marginalized the women's movement".


title: Camille Paglia

text: In 1999, Martha Nussbaum wrote an essay called "The Professor of Parody", in which she criticized Judith Butler for retreating to abstract theory disconnected from real world problems. Paglia reacted to the essay by stating that the criticism was "long overdue", but characterized the criticism as "one PC diva turning against another". She criticized Nussbaum for failing to make her criticisms earlier while accusing her of borrowing Paglia's ideas without acknowledgement. She called Nussbaum's "preparation or instinct for sex analysis… dubious at best", but nevertheless stated that "Nussbaum is a genuine scholar who operates on a vastly higher intellectual level than Butler".


title: Camille Paglia

text: Many feminists have criticized Paglia; Christina Hoff Sommers calls her "Perhaps the most conspicuous target of feminist opprobrium," noting that the "Women's Review of Books" described "Sexual Personae" as patriarchy's "counter-assault on feminism". Sommers relates that when Paglia appeared at a Brown University forum, feminists signed a petition censuring her and demanding an investigation into procedures for inviting speakers to the campus. Some feminist critics have characterized Paglia as an "anti-feminist feminist", critical of central features of much contemporary feminism but holding out "her own special variety of feminist affirmation".


title: Camille Paglia

text: Naomi Wolf traded a series of sometimes personal attacks with Paglia throughout the early 1990s. In "The New Republic", Wolf wrote that Paglia "poses as a sexual renegade but is in fact the most dutiful of patriarchal daughters" and characterized Paglia as intellectually dishonest. In a 1991 speech, Paglia criticized Wolf for blaming anorexia on the media. Gloria Steinem said of Paglia that, "Her calling herself a feminist is sort of like a Nazi saying they're not anti-Semitic." Paglia called Steinem "the Stalin of feminism". Katha Pollitt calls Paglia one of a "seemingly endless parade of social critics [who] have achieved celebrity by portraying not sexism but feminism as the problem". Pollitt writes that Paglia has glorified "male dominance", and has been able to get away with things "that might make even Rush Limbaugh blanch," because she is a woman.


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia's view that rape is sexually motivated has been endorsed by evolutionary psychologists Randy Thornhill and Craig T. Palmer; they comment that "Paglia… urges women to be skeptical toward the feminist 'party line' on the subject, to become better informed about risk factors, and to use the information to lower their risk of rape".


title: Camille Paglia

text: In an essay critiquing the Hollywood/celebrity fad of "Girl Squads", made popular in 2015 by pop-icons like Taylor Swift, Paglia argued that rather than empowering women the cliquish practice actually harms the self-esteem of those who are not rich, famous, or attractive enough to belong to the group, while further defining women only by a very narrow, often sexualized stereotype. She challenged that to be truly empowering, these groups need to mentor, advise, and be more inclusive, for more women to realize their true, individual potential.


title: Camille Paglia

text: Though she has not transitioned, Paglia identifies as transgender. She reports having gender dysphoria since childhood, and says that "never once in my life have I felt female". She says that she was "donning flamboyant male costumes from early childhood on".


title: Camille Paglia

text: Nevertheless, Paglia says that she is "highly skeptical about the current transgender wave" which she thinks has been produced by "far more complicated psychological and sociological factors than current gender discourse allows". She writes that "In a democracy, everyone, no matter how nonconformist or eccentric, should be free from harassment and abuse. But at the same time, no one deserves special rights, protections, or privileges on the basis of their eccentricity."


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia's views led to a petition demanding that the University of the Arts remove her from their faculty, but the university rejected it. Paglia considered it "a publicity stunt" and praised the university's "eloquent statement affirming academic freedom [as] a landmark in contemporary education."


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia has long rejected global warming, which she describes as "the political agenda that has slowly accrued" around the issue of climate change. In a 2017 interview with "The Weekly Standard", Paglia stated, "It is certainly ironic how liberals who posture as defenders of science when it comes to global warming (a sentimental myth unsupported by evidence) flee all reference to biology when it comes to gender."


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia is critical of the influence of many postwar French writers have had on the humanities, claiming that universities are in the "thrall" of French post-structuralists; that in the works of Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault, she never once found a sentence that interested her. François Cusset writes that Paglia, like other major American public intellectuals after World War II, owes her broader recognition mainly to the political repercussions of polemics that first erupted on college campuses, in her case to a polemic against foreign intellectualism. He says she achieved phenomenal success when she called Foucault a "bastard", thereby providing (together with Alan Sokal's "Social Text" parody) the best evidence for Paul de Man's view that theory should be defined negatively, based on the opposition it arouses.


title: Camille Paglia

text: However, Paglia's assessment of French writers is not purely negative. She has called Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex" (1949) "brilliant and imperious" and she traces the lineage of her “dissident feminism,” not from Betty Friedan but from de Beauvoir. Paglia also identified Jean-Paul Sartre's work as part of a high period in literature. She has praised Roland Barthes's "Mythologies" (1957) and Gilles Deleuze's "" (1967), while finding both men's later work flawed. Of Gaston Bachelard, who influenced Paglia, she wrote "[his] dignified yet fluid phenomenological descriptive method seemed to me ideal for art", adding that he was "the last modern French writer I took seriously".


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia characterizes herself as a libertarian. She opposes laws against prostitution, pornography, drugs, and abortion. She is also opposed to affirmative action laws. Some of her views have been characterized as conservative, although when asked in 2017 if she considers herself a cultural conservative she replied: "No, not at all… Conservative would mean I was cleaving to something past which was great, and no longer is… and usually I'm not saying we should return to anything. I do believe we're moving inexorably into the future."


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia criticized Bill Clinton for not resigning after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which she says "paralyzed the government for two years, leading directly to our blindsiding by 9/11". In the 2000 U.S. presidential campaign, she voted for the Green Party candidate Ralph Nader "[because] I detest the arrogant, corrupt superstructure of the Democratic Party, with which I remain stubbornly registered."


title: Camille Paglia

text: In the 2004 U.S. presidential election, Paglia supported John Kerry, and in 2008 she supported Barack Obama. In 2012, she supported Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Paglia was highly critical of 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, calling her a "fraud" and a "liar". Paglia refused to support either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, indicating in a March "Salon" column that if Hillary Clinton won the Democratic Party's nomination, she would either cast a write-in vote for Bernie Sanders or else vote for Green Party candidate Stein, as she did in 2012. Paglia later clarified in a statement that she would vote for Stein.


title: Camille Paglia

text: In 2017, she stated that she is a registered Democrat who voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary and for Jill Stein in the 2016 general election. For the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Paglia criticized the Democratic Party for lacking a coherent message and a strong candidate. She disavowed Sanders as being "way too old and creaky" and retracted her initial support for Kamala Harris for missing "a huge opportunity to play a moderating, statesmanlike role." Citing the "need to project steadiness, substance, and warmth," Paglia expressed interest in Cheri Bustos and Steve Bullock as potential candidates.


title: Camille Paglia

text: In 1993, Paglia signed a manifesto supporting NAMBLA, a pederasty and pedophilia advocacy organization. In 1994, Paglia supported lowering the legal age of consent to 14. She noted in a 1995 interview with pro-pedophile activist Bill Andriette, "I fail to see what is wrong with erotic fondling with any age." In a 1997 "Salon" column, Paglia expressed the view that male pedophilia correlates with the heights of a civilization, stating "I have repeatedly protested the lynch-mob hysteria that dogs the issue of man-boy love. In "Sexual Personae", I argued that male pedophilia is intricately intertwined with the cardinal moments of Western civilization." Paglia noted in several interviews, as well as "Sexual Personae", that she supports the legalization of certain forms of child pornography.


title: Camille Paglia

text: She later changed her views on the matter. In an interview for Radio New Zealand's "Saturday Morning" show, conducted on April 28, 2018, by Kim Hill, Paglia was asked, "Are you a libertarian on the issue of pedophilia?", to which she replied, "In terms of the present day, I think it's absolutely impossible to think we could reproduce the Athenian code of pedophilia, of boy-love, that was central to culture at that time. …We must protect children, and I feel that very very strongly. The age of consent for sexual interactions between a boy and an older man is obviously disputed, at what point that should be. I used to think that fourteen (the way it is in some places in the world) was adequate. I no longer think that. I think young people need greater protection than that. …This is one of those areas that we must confine to the realm of imagination and the history of the arts."


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia's "Sexual Personae" was rejected by at least seven different publishers before it was published by Yale University Press, whereupon it became a best seller, reaching seventh place on the paperback best-seller list, a rare accomplishment for a scholarly book. 'Paglia called it her "prison book", commenting, "I felt like Cervantes, Genet. It took all the resources of being Catholic to cut myself off and sit in my cell." "Sexual Personae" has been called an "energetic, Freud-friendly reading of Western art", one that seemed "heretical and perverse", at the height of political correctness; according to Daniel Nester, its characterization of "William Blake as the British Marquis de Sade or Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson as 'self-ruling hermaphrodites who cannot mate' still pricks up many an English major's ears".


title: Camille Paglia

text: In the book, Paglia argues that human nature has an inherently dangerous Dionysian or chthonic aspect, especially in regard to sexuality. Culture and civilization are created by men and represent an attempt to contain that force. Women are powerful, too, but as natural forces, and both marriage and religion are means to contain chaotic forces. A best seller, it was described by Terry Teachout in a "New York Times" book review as being both "intellectually stimulating" and "exasperating". "Sexual Personae" received critical reviews from numerous feminist scholars. Anthony Burgess described "Sexual Personae" as "a fine disturbing book" that "seeks to attack the reader's emotions as well as his or her prejudices".


title: Camille Paglia

text: "Sex, Art and American Culture: Essays" (1992) is a collection of short pieces, many published previously as editorials or reviews, and some transcripts of interviews. The essays cover such subjects as Madonna, Elizabeth Taylor, rock music, Robert Mapplethorpe, the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination, rape, Marlon Brando, drag, Milton Kessler, and academia. It made "The New York Times" bestseller list for paperbacks.


title: Camille Paglia

text: "Vamps and Tramps: New Essays" (1994) is a collection of 42 short articles and a long essay, "No Law in the Arena: a Pagan Theory of Sexuality". It also contains a collection of cartoons from newspapers about Paglia. Writing for "The New York Times", Wendy Steiner wrote "Comic, camp, outspoken, Ms. Paglia throws an absurdist shoe into the ponderous wheels of academia". Michiko Kakutani, also writing for "The New York Times", wrote: "Her writings on education ... are highly persuasive, just as some of her essays on the perils of regulating pornography and the puritanical excesses of the women's movement radiate a fierce common sense ... Unfortunately, Ms. Paglia has a way of undermining her more interesting arguments with flip, hyperbolic declarations".


title: Camille Paglia

text: In 1998, in commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the release of Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds", the British Film Institute commissioned Paglia to write a book about the film. The book interprets the film as "in the main line of British Romanticism descending from the raw nature-tableaux and sinister femme-fatales of Coleridge". Paglia uses a psychoanalytic framework to interpret the film as portraying "a release of primitive forces of sex and appetite that have been subdued but never fully tamed".


title: Camille Paglia

text: "Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-three of the World's Best Poems" (2005) is a collection of 43 short selections of verse with an accompanying essay by Paglia. The collection is oriented primarily to those unfamiliar with the works. Clive James wrote that Paglia tends to focus on American works as it moves from Shakespeare forward through time, with Yeats, following Coleridge, as the last European discussed, but emphasized her range of sympathy and her ability to juxtapose and unite distinct art forms in her analysis.


title: Camille Paglia

text: "Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars" (2012) is a series of essays about notable works of art from ancient to modern times, published in October 2012. Writer John Adams of "The New York Times Book Review" was skeptical of the book, accusing it of being "so agenda driven and so riddled with polemic asides that its potential to persuade is forever being compromised". Gary Rosen of "The Wall Street Journal", however, praised the book's "impressive range" and accessibility to readers.


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia's "Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, and Feminism" was published by Pantheon in 2017. It is a series of essays from 1990 onward. Dwight Garner in "The New York Times" wrote Paglia's essays address two main targets: modern feminism, which, Paglia writes, "has become a catchall vegetable drawer where bunches of clingy sob sisters can store their moldy neuroses," and modern American universities, of which she asks, "How is it possible that today's academic left has supported rather than protested campus speech codes as well as the grotesque surveillance and overregulation of student life?"


title: Camille Paglia

text: Paglia's fourth essay collection, "Provocations: Collected Essays on Art, Feminism, Politics, Sex, and Education", was published by Pantheon on October 9, 2018.


title: Shiitake

text: The shiitake (alternate form shitake) (; Lentinula edodes) is an edible mushroom native to East Asia, which is now cultivated and consumed around the globe. It is considered a medicinal mushroom in some forms of traditional medicine.


title: Shiitake

text: The fungus was first described scientifically as "Agaricus edodes" by Miles Joseph Berkeley in 1877. It was placed in the genus "Lentinula" by David Pegler in 1976. The fungus has acquired an extensive synonymy in its taxonomic history:


title: Shiitake

text: The mushroom's Japanese name is composed of , for the tree "Castanopsis cuspidata" that provides the dead logs on which it is typically cultivated, and . The specific epithet "" is the Latin word for "edible".


title: Shiitake

text: It is also commonly called "sawtooth oak mushroom", "black forest mushroom", "black mushroom", "golden oak mushroom", or "oakwood mushroom".


title: Shiitake

text: Shiitake grow in groups on the decaying wood of deciduous trees, particularly shii and other chinquapins, chestnut, oak, maple, beech, sweetgum, poplar, hornbeam, ironwood, and mulberry. Its natural distribution includes warm and moist climates in Southeast Asia.


title: Shiitake

text: The earliest written record of shiitake cultivation is seen in the "Records of Longquan County" () compiled by He Zhan () in 1209 during the Song dynasty in China. The 185-word description of shiitake cultivation from that literature was later cross-referenced many times and eventually adapted in a book by a Japanese horticulturist in 1796, the first book on shiitake cultivation in Japan.


title: Shiitake

text: The Japanese cultivated the mushroom by cutting shii trees with axes and placing the logs by trees that were already growing shiitake or contained shiitake spores. Before 1982, the Japan Islands' variety of these mushrooms could only be grown in traditional locations using ancient methods. A 1982 report on the budding and growth of the Japanese variety revealed opportunities for commercial cultivation in the United States.


title: Shiitake

text: Shiitake are now widely cultivated all over the world, and contribute about 25% of total yearly production of mushrooms. Commercially, shiitake mushrooms are typically grown in conditions similar to their natural environment on either artificial substrate or hardwood logs, such as oak.


title: Shiitake

text: In a reference serving, raw shiitake mushrooms provide of food energy and are 90% water, 7% carbohydrates, 2% protein and less than 1% fat. Raw shiitake mushrooms are rich sources (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of B vitamins and contain moderate levels of some dietary minerals.


title: Shiitake

text: Like all mushrooms, shiitakes produce vitamin D2 upon exposure of their internal ergosterol to ultraviolet B (UVB) rays from sunlight or broadband UVB fluorescent tubes.


title: Shiitake

text: In 2015, a study with 52 adults suggested that regular consumption of shiitake can result in improved immunity.


title: Shiitake

text: Fresh and dried shiitake have many uses in East Asian cuisine. In Japan, they are served in miso soup, used as the basis for a kind of vegetarian "dashi", and as an ingredient in many steamed and simmered dishes. In Chinese cuisine, they are often sautéed in vegetarian dishes such as Buddha's delight.


title: Shiitake

text: One type of high-grade shiitake is called in Japanese and ' in Chinese, literally "winter mushroom". Another high-grade of mushroom is called ' () in Chinese, literally "flower mushroom", which has a flower-like cracking pattern on the mushroom's upper surface. Both of these are produced at lower temperatures.


title: Shiitake

text: Rarely, consumption of raw or slightly cooked shiitake mushrooms may cause an allergic reaction called "shiitake dermatitis", including an erythematous, micro-papular, streaky pruriginous rash that occurs all over the body including face and scalp, appearing about 24 hours after consumption, possibly worsening by sun exposure and disappearing after 3 to 21 days. This effect – presumably caused by the polysaccharide, lentinan – is more common in East Asia, but may be growing in occurrence in Europe as shiitake consumption increases. Thorough cooking may eliminate the allergenicity.


title: Shiitake

text: There is research investigating the use of shiitake mushrooms in production of organic fertilizer and compost from hardwood.


title: Wunderwaffe

text: Wunderwaffe () is German word meaning "wonder-weapon" and was a term assigned during World War II by Nazi Germany's propaganda ministry to some revolutionary "superweapons". Most of these weapons however remained prototypes, which either never reached the combat theater, or if they did, were too late or in too insignificant numbers to have a military effect.


title: Wunderwaffe

text: The V-weapons, which were developed earlier and saw considerable deployment, especially against London and Antwerp, trace back to the same pool of highly inventive armament concepts. Therefore, they are also included here.


title: Wunderwaffe

text: As the war situation worsened for Germany from 1942, claims about the development of revolutionary new weapons which could turn the tide became an increasingly prominent part of the propaganda directed at Germans by their government. In reality, the advanced weapons under development generally required lengthy periods of design work and testing, and there was no realistic prospect of the German military being able to field them before the end of the war. When some advanced designs, such as the Panther tank and Type XXI submarine, were rushed into production, their performance proved disappointing to the German military and leadership due to inadequate pre-production testing or poorly planned construction processes. Historian Michael J. Neufeld has noted that "the net result of all these weapons, deployed or otherwise, was that the Reich wasted a lot of money and technical expertise (and killed a lot of forced and slave laborers) in developing and producing exotic devices that yielded little or no tactical and strategic advantage". However, a few weapons proved to be successful and have had a large influence in post-war designs.


title: Wunderwaffe

text: In the German language, the term "Wunderwaffe" generally refers to a universal solution which solves all problems related to a particular issue, mostly used ironically for its illusionary nature.


title: Albert Wesker

text: Introduced in the first game, Wesker has been one of the main antagonists throughout the series, where he usually manipulates story events behind-the-scenes. Wesker seeks to replace humanity through mass extinction and forced evolution, believing humanity to be at an evolutionary dead end. To this end, he is affiliated with the Umbrella Corporation as one of its most promising researchers, and at the same time participates in illicit activities by going undercover as a S.T.A.R.S captain in Raccoon City. Through the course of much betrayal of his allies to further his own plans, Wesker fakes his death, gains superhuman abilities from an experimental variant of the Progenitor virus, and works with both Umbrella's mysterious rival company and their successors in the field of biological weapons development, TRICELL, until his ultimate defeat by Chris Redfield in "Resident Evil 5" (2009).


title: Albert Wesker

text: Wesker appears in several "Resident Evil" games and novelizations. In the film series, Wesker is portrayed by Jason O'Mara in "" (2007) and by Shawn Roberts in the sequels. Tom Hopper plays the character in the 2021 reboot, "". In the live-action Netflix "Resident Evil" (2022) television series, set in its own original universe but using the video game series as its backstory and basis, several clones of Wesker, portrayed by Lance Reddick, are revealed to have been produced before and after his death, with one having two daughters, Jade and Billie Wesker.


title: Albert Wesker

text: Wesker has received mostly positive reviews from video game publications, with critics praising him for being a memorable villain in the franchise.


title: Albert Wesker

text: Wesker made his first appearance as a non-playable character in the original "Resident Evil" game. In that game, he is the commanding officer of Alpha team of the Special Tactics And Rescue Service (STARS), where he initially helps the player by leaving supplies and useful information. Wesker is eventually revealed to be a double agent working for the Umbrella Corporation; ordered by his superiors to lure the STARS into the Spencer mansion to be used as test subjects against the mutated creatures to gather battle data, although he later implies that this was itself a cover for his own agenda regarding stealing Umbrella's research. Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine and the others come to learn of Wesker's true motive, but after releasing the Tyrant monster, Wesker is seemingly killed. The Sega Saturn port of "Resident Evil" features a Battle Mode minigame where the player can fight a zombified version of Wesker.


title: Albert Wesker

text: However, this is part of an even bigger plan. In the special giveaway fictional documentary titled "Wesker's Report" (rewritten in 2003 to include details from "Resident Evil 0" and the "Resident Evil" remake), Wesker reveals that he planned to sell the Tyrant to Umbrella's rival company in the B.O.W. field as a means to buy his way into a high position, and he deployed the elite STARS against it in order to obtain combat data to prove the Tyrant's effectiveness to the company. However, his plan was ruined after the Tyrant was destroyed by his former subordinates, and he survived his apparent death in the first game by injecting himself beforehand with an experimental variant of the T-virus, provided by his former Umbrella colleague William Birkin, that revived and augmented him with superhuman strength, speed and regeneration, but at the expense of his humanity. Wesker returned in "", augmented with superhuman powers and working as an agent for "H.C.F." (Hive/Host Capture Force), a Special Forces unit of the rival company opposed to Umbrella. He orchestrates a raid on Rockfort Island in order to capture Alexia Ashford, creator of the T-Veronica virus who now holds the only remaining sample of the virus within her body. When Chris Redfield knocks his sunglasses off during a brief struggle, Wesker's orange, almost reptilian eyes are seen for the first time. He confronts both Chris and Alexia and he took the corpse of Steve Burnside in order to extract the T-Veronica virus. In the expanded release, "Code: Veronica X", he briefly confronts Chris's younger sister Claire and nearly kills her in order to torment Chris, but is called away by his associates and thus chooses to spare her life.


title: Albert Wesker

text: Wesker then appeared alongside William Birkin in "Resident Evil Zero", a prequel to the original game where it is revealed that he attended the Umbrella Executive Training School as a prospective executive, and later in "Resident Evil 4" as a conspirator manipulating events from behind the scenes, where he would issue orders to Ada Wong. He is also unlockable in "The Mercenaries" scenario. He is also the protagonist of "" and a playable character in several of the game's scenarios, expanding upon events alluded to in early games, as well as his involvement in Umbrella's downfall after the events of "Code: Veronica" and his development in "Resident Evil 4". In the end he kills Sergei Vladimir, a loyal Umbrella executive. Wesker also very briefly appears in "", as he at one point is seen by Jack Krauser. He also gave Javier a sample of the virus within Steve Burnside.


title: Albert Wesker

text: Wesker returns in "Resident Evil 5" conspiring with the pharmaceutical division of the TRICELL conglomerate as a means to create the "Uroboros virus", an enhanced virus derived from the Progenitor virus, with which he ultimately plans to release into the Earth's atmosphere. Before being killed by Wesker, Oswell Spencer reveals that Wesker was the survivor of a Progenitor virus variant administration experiment—the "Wesker Project." (It is stated in the "RE5" downloadable content "Lost in Nightmares" that another Wesker, Alex, survived as well). He would eventually enact a plot to transform the human race into powerful superhumans like himself, and be a god to rule over them in a new age. Chris and Sheva Alomar prevent the worldwide infection and ultimately kill Wesker inside a volcano at the end of the game. Masachika Kawata, the game's producer, confirmed that Wesker perished in the game's finale.


title: Albert Wesker

text: Wesker appears in the spin-off title "" as a playable character along with various other "Resident Evil" characters. His voice is heard on the 15th anniversary special video narrating the events. He has a son named Jake Muller who is introduced in "Resident Evil 6". D. C. Douglas, Wesker's voice actor, had a cameo voice role in "Umbrella Corps", which takes place after the events of "Resident Evil 6". When asked if Wesker's character would return in future "Resident Evil" games, Douglas responded, "We have no idea. And we wouldn't. We're only working on this game."


title: Albert Wesker

text: Wesker is also featured in "" as a playable character in Raid Mode, presented in-universe as a virtual simulator. The primary antagonist of the main game is Alex Wesker, the only other survivor out of the Wesker children. Albert is briefly shown in the main story in a portrait with Alex. He also received an indirect mention in "", where it was revealed that his H.C.F. group was involved in the creation of Eveline during the 2000s.


title: Albert Wesker

text: Wesker's character was adapted for the 2007 live-action film "". Played by Jason O'Mara, this version of Wesker is the head of the Umbrella Corporation, as opposed to Wesker's role in the games as a renegade high-ranking Umbrella researcher. He runs Umbrella's operations from behind the scenes, holding meetings via hologram with his underground board of directors in Tokyo. Originally, Wesker's character was not intended to be in the film, with his role and lines in the script being given by Commander Okamoto.


title: Albert Wesker

text: Shawn Roberts took over the role of Wesker in 2010's "" as a main antagonist of the film, where the character is closer to his "Code Veronica" and especially his "Resident Evil 5" incarnations, complete with superhuman strength, speed, healing and glowing red eyes; he even wears the same outfit as in the latter game. Wesker says some of his lines from the game as well, and the fight between Wesker and Chris and Claire Redfield in the film is an almost shot-for-shot remake of a fight between Wesker and Chris and Sheva in "Resident Evil 5".


title: Albert Wesker

text: He later appears in "" as a defector from Umbrella, who sends Ada Wong to rescue Alice from an underground Russian Umbrella outpost run by the Red Queen who has taken over the rest of Umbrella. Wesker returns in the sixth film, "", having betrayed Alice and killed everyone at the White House. Guided by the Red Queen, Alice returns to the Hive where Umbrella has developed a potent antivirus. In a confrontation in the Hive, Alicia Marcus fires Wesker, enabling the Red Queen to crush his legs with a blast door, trapping Wesker. Before leaving to chase Doctor Alexander Isaacs, Alice primes the detonator for the explosives she planted around the Hive and leaves it in Wesker's hand. Wesker eventually dies of blood loss, causing him to lose his grip on the detonator. Without Wesker holding the detonator, Alice's explosives destroy the Hive, killing everyone within including Alicia Marcus, the Umbrella High Command and thousands of others held in stasis.


title: Albert Wesker

text: In the reboot film "" (2021), Wesker is played by Tom Hopper as a police officer at Raccoon Police Department and secondary antagonist while being considerably more sympathetic. In addition, Wesker is also the Captain of the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team. Before the events of the film, he was approached by a mysterious woman (revealed to be Ada Wong in a post-credits scene) who asks him to do a job behind his fellow teammates' back - find a research lab belonging to Dr. William Birkin of Umbrella. During the raid on the Arkley Mansion, Birkin and Wesker shoot each other over the G-virus resulting in Wesker getting shot and presumably killed by his partner Jill Valentine. A remorseful Wesker pleads to her to get out before Umbrella destroys Raccoon City to cover up it's experiments. During the post-credit scene, Wesker is then reanimated by Ada by a retrovirus.


title: Albert Wesker

text: Lance Reddick plays Dr. Albert Wesker in the live action "Resident Evil" series from Netflix. Set after the events of the "Resident Evil 5" video game, several clones of Wesker (notably "Albert", Bert", and "Alby") are revealed to have been produced before and after his death, with one having two daughters: Jade and Billie Wesker. Due to the cloning process, Wesker clones need to counteract degenerative aging, which Wesker does by injecting himself with Jade and Billie's blood. Set in modern day, Umbrella under Evelyn Marcus invited Al Wesker onto their board to begin further trials into the experimental anti-depressant "Joy", this required the family to move across the Atlantic to "New Raccoon City", a suburban company town in South Africa. Immediately after arriving at Umbrella HQ he was apprised of the company's more serious, confidential problem - an outbreak of T-virus at a plant in Tijuana. During the series, Al realizes Billie is immune after an encounter with a infected dog and wants to apply it to a T Virus vaccine to counteract the traits of the virus in Joy putting him against Marcus. Wesker sacrifices himself to destroy the HQ, but not before sending the twins with Bert to escape.


title: Albert Wesker

text: Albert Wesker appears in the crossover fighting game "" as a playable character and a key character in the game's plot, in which he joins forces with Doctor Doom as the two build an army of supervillains, attempting to merge the two dimensions in the hopes of conquering both. During the final battle, if Wesker is not one of the playable characters, he will also be revealed to be one of Galactus' heralds along with Doom, Marvel villain Dormammu, and fellow Capcom villain Akuma. He also makes a guest appearance as an unlockable character skin in "Lost Planet 2". An action figure of Wesker was released by Palisades Toys in 2002. Two more were released by Hot Toys in 2009. In 2016, D. C. Douglas reprised the role in Jim Sterling's short comedy horror film "JimSAW". Wesker appears as a Spirit in the Nintendo crossover video game "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate". Wesker appears as a playable killer in "Dead by Daylight" as of September 2022.


title: Albert Wesker

text: The character of Albert Wesker has been well received by video game publications. In 2006, IGN ranked Wesker number three on their list of most memorable villains, claiming that "Res Evil fans know that whenever Wesker shows up, trouble isn't far behind," and also ranked him as the 14th-best video game villain in 2010. In 2008, "GamePro" ranked Wesker as the 40th-most diabolical video game villain of all time. An IGN article from March 2010 titled "Big Boss of the Day: Resident Evil's Albert Wesker" discussed his appearances across the franchise, comparing him with other video game villains including Bowser and Sephiroth as well commenting it is strange to have a "Resident Evil" without him. GameSpot featured him in the "All-Time Greatest Game Villains" poll, where Wesker lost to Ganondorf from "The Legend of Zelda". In 2009, GamesRadar listed Wesker as one of the top seven characters who never stay dead, describing him as the "proverbial man behind the curtain" in the "Resident Evil" series. Similarly, 1UP.com also placed him number eight in their article "They is Risen" in response to his apparent resurrection in the "Resident Evil" series. GamesRadar gave praise to Wesker's death in "Resident Evil 5" as it showed the character's strength due to the requirements to defeat him while D. C. Douglas's performance as the character also received positive comments during the self-bloopers from the series. According to PlayStation Universe, "From his perpetual shades, stoic persona and swanky haircut, Wesker has all the makings of an iconic—albeit somewhat stereotypical—videogame villain." The same source also compares Wesker's role in "Resident Evil 4" to that of James Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. In the January 2010 issue, "Nintendo Power" named Wesker the ninth best villain in Nintendo history. GamesRadar also praised Wesker's role as an antagonist, putting him in their 2013 list of the best villains in video game history at number 13. In 2013, GamesRadar staff included him among the 30 best characters in the three decades of Capcom's history and wrote that with his appearance as a playable character in "Marvel vs. Capcom 3", "even after his death in "RE5", Albert Wesker shows no signs of stopping, which is just the way we like it." "GamesRadar" staff described Albert Wesker as the best villain in video games, stating that "Wesker is known for a scarred psyche, superhuman strength and speed, and a sexy pair of sunglasses." "Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition" listed Albert Wesker as 12th in their list of top 50 Villains.


title: Albert Wesker

text: On the other hand, "Play" listed such fight as the third-worst boss fight in the PlayStation 3 games, emphasizing how many times the player had to fight him until he is defeated. 1UP.com also ranked him as the top thing in the series that "Resident Evil 5" "could do without" prior to its release. The "PlayStation Official Magazine" shared this opinion and ranked Wesker as the ninth-worst PlayStation boss fight ever. In 2012, "Complex" ranked him as the "second-douchiest" video game character, stating, "Wesker has a following, yes, but there's something very Agent Smith about him that makes us shake our heads."


title: Shirley Setia

text: Shirley Setia is a New Zealand singer and actress known for her work in the Indian film and music industries. Born in Daman, India in the former union territory of Daman and Diu, she immigrated with her family to Auckland and came to attention as a YouTube musician uploading covers of Bollywood songs while still a student at the University of Auckland. Setia subsequently featured in the "Forbes" magazine, where she was referred to as "Bollywood's Next Big Singing Sensation".


title: Shirley Setia

text: Setia made her acting debut with 2020 Hindi film "Maska" which released on Netflix. She made her big screen debut with "Nikamma" in 2022 and also starred in the Telugu film "Krishna Vrinda Vihari", which released on 23 September 2022.


title: Shirley Setia

text: Setia was born in Daman, India and raised in Auckland, New Zealand. A graduate student from the University of Auckland and marketing and publicity intern at Auckland Council, Setia took part in a contest conducted by T-Series. Her YouTube entry was recorded in her bedroom while she was wearing pyjamas, which earned her the nickname "Pyjama popstar" by the "New Zealand Herald". Setia was eventually declared the winner.


title: Shirley Setia

text: After working in a weekly radio show and taking part in local competitions in Auckland, Setia performed in her first concerts in Mumbai and Hyderabad in India in 2016. "Forbes" magazine's Rob Cain wrote a feature on her and her future goals, in which he stated that "Bollywood's Next Big Singing Sensation Just Might Be This Tiny Kiwi". she was also acknowledged as India's YouTube sensation by the "Hindustan Times" and as one of New Zealand's biggest international artists by TVNZ.


title: Shirley Setia

text: , she has 3.71 million subscribers on YouTube with 308 million views. She was invited by YouTube as a 'YouTube Creator' to perform live in YouTube FanFest held in Mumbai in 2016 and 2017.


title: Shirley Setia

text: Setia made her acting debut with 2020 film "Maska" which released on Netflix. Her next film was "Nikamma" released in June 2022, a remake of 2017 Telugu film "Middle Class Abbayi". She made her Telugu film debut with "Krishna Vrinda Vihari" which released in September 2022.


title: Tinker Bell

text: Tinker Bell is a fictional character from J. M. Barrie's 1904 play "Peter Pan" and its 1911 novelisation "Peter and Wendy". She has appeared in a variety of film and television adaptations of the Peter Pan stories, in particular the 1953 animated Walt Disney picture "Peter Pan". She also appears in the official 2006 sequel "Peter Pan in Scarlet" by Geraldine McCaughrean commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital as well as the "Peter and the Starcatchers" book series by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry.


title: Tinker Bell

text: At first only a supporting character described by her creator as "a common fairy", her animated incarnation was a hit and has since become a widely recognized unofficial mascot of The Walt Disney Company, next to the Walt Disney company's official mascot Mickey Mouse, and the centrepiece of its "Disney Fairies" media franchise including the direct-to-DVD film series "Tinker Bell" and Walt Disney's "Wonderful World of Color".


title: Tinker Bell

text: Barrie described Tinker Bell as a fairy who mended pots and kettles, an actual tinker of the fairy folk. Her speech consists of the sounds of a tinkling bell, which is understandable only to those familiar with the language of the fairies.


title: Tinker Bell

text: Though sometimes ill-tempered, jealous, vindictive and inquisitive, she is also helpful and kind to Peter. The extremes in her personality are explained in the story by the fact that a fairy's size prevents her from holding more than one feeling at a time, so when she is angry she has no counterbalancing compassion. At the end of the novel, when Peter flies back to find an older Wendy, it is mentioned that Tinker Bell died in the year after Wendy and her brothers left Neverland, and Peter no longer remembers her.


title: Tinker Bell

text: In the first draft of the play, she is called Tippy-toe, but became Tinker Bell in the later drafts and final version.


title: Tinker Bell

text: In the original stage productions, Tinker Bell was represented on stage by a darting light "created by a small mirror held in the hand off-stage and reflecting a little circle of light from a powerful lamp" and her voice was "a collar of bells and two special ones that Barrie brought from Switzerland". However, a 'Jane (or Jenny) Wren' was listed among the cast on the programmes as playing Tinker Bell; this was a joke which also helped with the mystique of the fairy character, and fooled H.M. Inspector of Taxes, who sent Jane Wren a tax demand.


title: Tinker Bell

text: Originally, no fairy dust was mentioned in the play but Barrie added to the script the necessity to sprinkle it to enable the children to fly because "so many children tried [to fly] from their beds and needed surgical attention."


title: Tinker Bell

text: In the musical version of the play, she was also represented by a darting light, accompanied by a celesta. Her favourite insult (as in Barrie's play) is "You silly ass!", which the audience learns to recognise because it is always represented by the same motif: four notes (presumably one for each syllable of the phrase), followed by a growl on the bassoon.


title: Tinker Bell

text: Film adaptations provided the first vocal effects for the character, whether through sound, such as musical expressions or the sound of a tinkling bell, or human speech.


title: Tinker Bell

text: In Walt Disney's 1953 film version of "Peter Pan", the character is blonde, wears a green dress and white slippers. She doesn't speak but as in the original play, Peter verbally interprets her communications for the sake of the audience, and bell noises are used when she makes gestures.


title: Tinker Bell

text: Tinker Bell has become one of Disney's most important branding icons for over half a century along with Jiminy Cricket, and Mickey Mouse, and is generally known as "a symbol of 'the magic of Disney'". She has been featured in television commercials and show opening credits sprinkling pixie dust with a wand in order to shower a magical feeling over various other Disney personalities, though the 1953 animated version of Tinker Bell never actually used a wand. In the picture and the official Disney Character Archives, she is referred to as a pixie.


title: Tinker Bell

text: There is a myth that the original animated version of Tinker Bell was modelled after Marilyn Monroe. However, Disney animator Marc Davis's primary reference was actress Margaret Kerry. He illustrated Tinker Bell as an attractive, blonde blue-eyed young white female, with an exaggerated hourglass figure. She is dressed in a bright green strapless dress and wears green slippers with white puffs. A trail of pixie dust follows her when she moves.


title: Tinker Bell

text: Davis' first model for the character was 19-year-old Ginni Mack, who had previously been used as the face of the company's Ink and Paint Department for promotional material, and served as a facial expression model. For the character's body, Davis worked at first with Kathryn Beaumont, who had served as his model for Alice. Looking for someone more "adult" who was "sexy" and shapely they turned to Margaret Kerry, who had been named “World’s Most Beautiful Legs” in Hollywood in 1949, and whose experience as a dancer helped convey the character's emotions.


title: Tinker Bell

text: Since 1954, Tinker Bell has featured as a hostess for much of Disney's live-action television programming and in every Disney film advertisements flying over Disneyland with her magic wand and her fairy dust, beginning with "Disneyland" (which first introduced the theme park to the public while it was still under construction), to "Walt Disney Presents", "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color", and "The Wonderful World of Disney". In 1988, she appeared in the final shot of the ending scene of Disney's film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", along with Porky Pig; sprinkling fairy dust on the screen after Porky's trademark farewell as it goes black prior to the closing credits. She also starred alongside other Disney characters, such as Chip 'n Dale, in many Disney comics, where she was also able to speak. Tinker Bell also appears as a healing summon in the "Kingdom Hearts" series of video games and the card appearance in the video game "Mickey's Memory Challenge" on 1993.


title: Tinker Bell

text: Tinker Bell is a meetable character at all of the Disney Parks and Resorts, and is based in Fantasyland. She is also featured in "Peter Pan's Flight", a suspended dark ride based on the artwork from the animated film. Beginning in 1961, she was featured as a live performer who "flew" suspended from a wire from the top of the Matterhorn Bobsled Ride at the beginning of the nightly fireworks displays. She was played by 70-year-old former circus performer Tiny Kline until her retirement three years later for health reasons. Kline was followed for one summer by Mimi Zerbini, a 19-year-old French circus acrobat, then by Judy Kaye from 1966 to 1977, and by 27-year-old Gina Rock from 1983 to 2005. That was the year the zipline from the Matterhorn became a pulley system that could make the performer go back and forth and up and down.


title: Tinker Bell

text: When the "Disney Princess" franchise was created in the early 2000s Tinker Bell was also part of the original line-up, but she was soon removed along with Esmeralda as it was decided that they didn't suit the brand.


title: Tinker Bell

text: On the 2008 "Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade" special on ABC, Disney announced that a Tinker Bell float would be added to the classic Disney's Electrical Parade at Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort, the first new float to be added in decades.


title: Tinker Bell

text: Tinker Bell was the central character of the new "Disney Fairies" franchise, launched in 2005. In addition to an extensive line of merchandise, 2008's "Tinker Bell" film is the first of six direct-to-DVD features set in Pixie Hollow. In the film, Tinker Bell is a Tinker. Tinker Bell, who speaks in the "Fairies" universe, unlike her original appearances, is voiced by Mae Whitman in these digitally animated DVD features.


title: Tinker Bell

text: At Disneyland, a Pixie Hollow meet-and-greet area opened on October 28, 2008, near the Matterhorn, where guests are able to interact with Tinker Bell and her companions. A similar area called "Tinker Bell's Magical Nook" is in Fantasyland at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida.


title: Tinker Bell

text: In November 2009, Tinker Bell became the smallest waxwork ever to be made at Madame Tussauds, measuring only five and a half inches.


title: Tinker Bell

text: On September 21, 2010, Tinker Bell was presented with the 2,418th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, becoming the thirteenth fictional character and the fifth Disney character to receive this honor. Tinker Bell's star celebrated Hollywood Walk of Fame's 50th anniversary.


title: Tinker Bell

text: Since 2012's "Secret of the Wings", Tinker Bell is the first Disney fairy to have a sibling, a fraternal twin sister named Periwinkle, a frost fairy of the Winter Woods.


title: Tinker Bell

text: In 2015, it was announced that Disney had begun work on "Tink", a live-action film, with Reese Witherspoon playing Tinker Bell and Victoria Strouse writing the script. In 2020, however, the project's status was in question following the casting of Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell in "Peter Pan & Wendy". In 2021, the project re-entered development as a part of Gary Marsh's overall deal with Disney. Witherspoon is still attached to the film as a producer and Maria Melnik ("Escape Room") was hired to rewrite the script.


title: Tinker Bell

text: In the 1991 film "Hook", Tinker Bell is portrayed by Julia Roberts. After taking the now-adult Peter to Neverland to rescue his children, Tinker Bell persuades Captain Hook to give her three days to restore Peter's lost memories (including his abilities to fly, fight, and crow) in order to ensure a fair fight between Peter and Hook. After Peter's memory is restored, Tinker Bell "wishes" herself into a human-size woman to share a kiss with Peter. After Peter returns to London, Tinker Bell appears to him one last time on the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens to tell him that she will always love him.


title: Tinker Bell

text: In this version, Tinker Bell is portrayed as a winged, six-inch-tall tomboyish sprite with a red "pixie cut" hairstyle. She wears a ragged leather tunic with matching shorts and carries a dagger strapped to her leg. Only while flying does she appear as the traditional ball of light. Tinker Bell displays strength beyond all proportion to her size and is capable of picking up and carrying a grown man, as well as wielding a human sword while flying (giving the impression that the sword is hovering in mid-air). This is also the first interpretation in which Tinker Bell has the ability to transform into a human-size version of herself. "Hook" subverts Tinker Bell's canon by having her survive well into the modern era, whereas the original novel states that fairies are naturally short-lived and that Tinker Bell died a year after the Darling children's adventures.


title: Tinker Bell

text: In the 2003 film "Peter Pan", P.J. Hogan originally planned to use a computer-generated version of the character, but instead used Ludivine Sagnier in combination with digital models and effects to take advantage of the actress's expressions.


title: Tinker Bell

text: Tinker Bell returns in the official sequel "Peter Pan in Scarlet". When Wendy and the rest of the group reach Neverland and ask Peter where she is, he replies that he does not know anyone by the name Tinker Bell, which is explained as him not remembering her after she died. She is mentioned by Wendy and the rest of the Lost Boys to Fireflyer, a silly blue fairy, who when he reaches the top of Neverpeak, makes the wish to meet her. When they open Captain Hook's treasure chest, among other things, Tinker Bell is seen inside it to Fireflyer's joy. Initially, Tinker Bell does not like him, but eventually she comes to see that Fireflyer is not as bad as he seems to be. In the end, they get married and start selling dreams to the Roamers, previous Lost Boys that have been outcast by Peter, while having many adventures.


title: Tinker Bell

text: In the Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson "Peter and the Starcatchers" book series, Tinker Bell makes her first appearance at the end of the first novel. Originally, she was a green and yellow coloured bird who was put in a bag of starstuff, turning her into a fairy. Molly's father, the famous starcatcher Lord Leonard Aster, made her Peter's guardian and she follows him on all of his adventures. She doesn't like being called a fairy and would much rather be called "birdwoman" because of her origins. She is very protective of Peter, and hates his paying attention to any other female. She can be very impolite to others (only Peter is able to understand her perfectly, and most of the time he does not reveal what she says about others, because they are mostly insults). She is also able to emit a very bright light, which she uses as an attack against other creatures, especially Lord Ombra, one of the main villains of the series.


title: Tinker Bell

text: In the Andy Weir and Sarah Andersen "Cheshire Crossing" series, Tinker "Tink" Bell firstly appears alongside Peter as they attempt to rescue captured fairies from Captain Hook and the Wicked Witch of the West, with Peter being captured and Tink fleeing to get Wendy's help, alongside that of Dorothy Gale and Alice Liddell, providing the latter two with fairy dust to fly. Later, after Dorothy is captured, Tink frees her and goes to Castle West to warn Jack the Knave of Hearts of the incoming flying pirate ship, preventing the Cheshire Cat from eating her when they attempt to do so. Later, after the Witch defeats Mary Poppins in battle, Tink lends Poppins her power against the Witch as Poppins utters "Say hello to my little friend!", leaving them evenly matched. Later, after the Witch has been defeated, Alice places Peter (now shrunken to Tink's size and having matured due to consuming size-altering berries in Wonderland) next to Tink, having recognized her as being in love with him, and after being complimented by Peter as to her appearance, the pair kiss.


title: Tinker Bell

text: In "World of Winx", Tinker Bell is a powerful fairy from the world of dreams (also called Neverland) and a friend of Peter Pan. When Peter Pan eventually left her for Wendy Darling, she became dark and cold, turning into the evil Queen.


title: Tinker Bell

text: In addition to the illustrations in the original editions of Peter Pan, Tinker Bell has also been depicted by fantasy artists such as Brian Froud and Myrea Pettit. She also appears in the edition of "Peter Pan in Scarlet" illustrated by David Wyatt.


title: Tinker Bell

text: A bronze sculpture of Tinker Bell by London artist Diarmuid Byron O'Connor was commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital, to whom Barrie bequeathed the copyright to the character, to be added to his original four-foot statue of Peter Pan, wresting a thimble from Peter's finger. The figure has a nine-and-a-half-inch wingspan and is seven inches tall, and was unveiled on 29 September 2005 by Sophie, Countess of Wessex.


title: Tinker Bell

text: When translated into other languages, Tinker Bell's name is sometimes rendered more or less phonetically, but is often replaced by a name that evokes her character or one that refers to a bell or represents its sound.


title: Julian Sands

text: Julian Richard Morley Sands (born 4 January 1958) is an English actor based in the United States. He is known for his roles in films such as "The Killing Fields", "A Room with a View", "Warlock", "Arachnophobia", "Boxing Helena" and "Leaving Las Vegas". On television, he is known for playing Vladimir Bierko in "24", Jor-El in "Smallville," and as Yulish Rabitov in "Banshee".


title: Julian Sands

text: Sands was born the third of five boys on 4 January 1958, in Otley, West Yorkshire, to mother Brenda, who raised her boys alone after her divorce. Sands was educated at Lord Wandsworth College, Long Sutton, Hampshire. His youngest brother, Quentin, was selected by "She" magazine as "Britain's Sexiest Man" of 1998.


title: Julian Sands

text: From 1984 to 1987, Sands was married to Sarah Harvey, a British journalist. They have one son. In 1990, he married Evgenia Citkowitz (born 1964), a journalist and the daughter of the Anglo-Irish novelist and socialite Lady Caroline Blackwood and American composer-pianist Israel Citkowitz. Sands and Citkowitz have two daughters.


title: Julian Sands

text: Julian Sands began his film career appearing in supporting roles in films, including "Oxford Blues" (1984) and "The Killing Fields" (1984). He also had a cameo as a Greek soldier in the BBC adaptation of "The Box of Delights" in 1984. He was cast as the romantic lead in the 1985 film "A Room with a View". In 1985, following the success of "A Room with a View" and Ken Russell's "Gothic" (1986) Sands decided to move to Hollywood and pursue a career in American films. He appeared in several of them—both lower-tier and higher-budget.


title: Julian Sands

text: He played the title role in the horror film "Warlock" (1989) and its sequel, "" (1993), the role of Franz Liszt in "Impromptu" (1991), the role of Yves Cloquet in "Naked Lunch" (1991), and prominent roles in "Arachnophobia" (1990), "Boxing Helena" (1993) and "Leaving Las Vegas" (1995). He played "Erik, aka the Phantom" in the 1998 horror-film version of "The Phantom of the Opera". He starred opposite Jackie Chan in the action-comedy film "The Medallion" (2003). And he played Lord Olivier in BBC Four's "In Praise of Hardcore" (2005), a drama about the critic and impresario Kenneth Tynan.


title: Julian Sands

text: In television work, he was the voice of Valmont in the "Jackie Chan Adventures" cartoon (Seasons 1 and 2) (succeeded by the British actors Andrew Ableson and Greg Ellis in the remaining seasons). He played the Doci of the Ori in two episodes of "Stargate SG-1"—in its ninth and tenth seasons (a role he reprised in the film, "Stargate: the Ark of Truth"). He played a college professor in a Season One episode of "The L Word". In 2001, he starred in Stephen King's "Rose Red". Sands portrayed Austrian ambassador Klemens von Metternich in the 2002 miniseries Napoléon. In the 2006 season of "24", he played terrorist Vladimir Bierko.


title: Julian Sands

text: Sands played Jor-El, Superman's biological father on "Smallville", and reprised the role in the series' final (tenth) season. In 2009, he played Reg Hunt in "Bollywood Hero". In 2012, he played Alistair Wesley in the seventh episode of the second season of "Person of Interest".


title: Julian Sands

text: In August 2011, he appeared onstage at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in "A Celebration of Harold Pinter", directed by John Malkovich at the Pleasance Courtyard. His performance in "A Celebration of Harold Pinter" was well-received; one theatre, the Irish Repertory Theatre, added an extra three weeks to the show's run.


title: Julian Sands

text: In 2011, Sands appeared in the mystery thriller film "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", an English-language remake of the original version, as the younger version of Henrik Vanger.


title: Julian Sands

text: In 2012, Sands voiced the character of DeFalco in "". On 26 April 2013, it was announced that Sands would appear as Miles Castner, a wealthy international businessman during the eighth season of "Dexter".


title: Pushkar–Gayathri

text: Pushkar–Gayathri are an Indian filmmaking duo who primarily work in Tamil films. They are the only married couple directors in Asia.


title: 2008 United States men's Olympic basketball team

text: The men's national basketball team of the United States won the gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. They qualified for the Olympics by winning the 2007 FIBA American Championship held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The team was nicknamed the "Redeem Team", a play on an alternative name for the legendary 1992 squad that was called the "Dream Team", and a reference to the fact that the United States came away with disappointing Bronze Medals during the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2006 FIBA World Championship. Former Phoenix Suns chairman and CEO Jerry Colangelo was named Managing Director of the national team program by the USA Basketball Executive Committee in 2005. Kobe Bryant was named the team captain and Mike Krzyzewski was named the head coach of the 2008 team." An ESPN program, "Road to Redemption", followed the team's preparations. Additionally, a Netflix produced documentary titled "The Redeem Team" was released in 2022.


text: The United States defeated Spain 118–107 in the final to win the gold. Dwyane Wade was the leading scorer for team USA averaging 16 points per game. The 2008 team has significance, as it reasserted the United States as the dominant country in terms of international basketball.


text: The withdrawal of all major stars prior to the 2004 Olympics and an embarrassing performance of those young and inexperienced who were called to replace them prompted USA Basketball to change its approach to the formation of a national team. As a result, the organization initiated a long-term project that saw NBA players committing to play for the team long before the start of the 2008 Olympics (instead of hastily accepting invitations merely weeks prior to the start of the tournament). Many 2008 Olympians participated in the 2007 Americas championships, where the US won gold, thus qualifying for the Olympics. The final roster featured eleven NBA All-Stars, a Hall of Fame coach, and two NBA MVPs.


title: Kilo-class submarine

text: The Kilo class, Soviet designation Project 877 "Paltus" (, meaning "halibut"), NATO reporting name Kilo, is a class of diesel-electric attack submarines originally designed in the 1970s and built in the Soviet Union for the Soviet Navy. The initial version of Kilo submarines entered operational service in 1980 and were built until the mid-1990s.


title: Kilo-class submarine

text: Production was switched to the more advanced Project 636 "Varshavyanka" (, meaning "Varsovian (inhabitant of Warsaw; feminine)") variant in the mid-1990s, also known as Improved Kilo class in the West.


title: Kilo-class submarine

text: These attack submarines are mainly intended for anti-shipping and anti-submarine operations in relatively shallow waters. Original Project 877 boats are equipped with Rubikon MGK-400 sonar system (with NATO reporting name Shark Gill), which includes a mine detection and avoidance sonar MG-519 Arfa (with NATO reporting name Mouse Roar).


title: Kilo-class submarine

text: Newer Project 636 boats are equipped with improved MGK-400EM, with MG-519 Arfa also upgraded to MG-519EM. MGK 400E can detect submarines with 0.05 Pa/Hz noisiness in 16 km and surface vessels with 10 Pa/Hz noisiness in 100 km. The improved sonar systems have reduced the number of operators needed by sharing the same console via automation.


title: Kilo-class submarine

text: Anechoic tiles are fitted on casings and fins to absorb the sound waves of active sonar, which results in a reduction and distortion of the return signal. These tiles also help attenuate sounds that are emitted from the submarine, thus reducing the range at which the submarine may be detected by passive sonar.


title: Kilo-class submarine

text: The Kilo class was planned to have been succeeded by the . However, by November 2011 it was apparent that the Lada-class would be delayed because "Sankt Peterburg" (B-585), the lead boat of the class, had shown major deficiencies. On 27 July 2012, the Russian Navy commander-in-chief announced that construction of the Lada-class submarines would resume, having undergone design changes. Series production was reported to be underway in the latter 2010s.


title: Kilo-class submarine

text: Nevertheless, the Russian Navy also moved forward in the late 2010s, with the construction of Project 636.3, an improved version of the Kilo class. By November 2019, six units had been built for the Black Sea Fleet and further boats were planned for the Pacific and Baltic Fleets. In June 2022 an unconfirmed report from within Russia's defence industry suggested that a further tranche of six additional Project 636.3 vessels might be ordered to start construction in around 2024.


title: Kilo-class submarine

text: The first submarine entered service in the Soviet Navy in 1980, and the class remains in use with the Russian Navy today; 14 original Kilo-class vessels believed to still be in active service with the Russian Navy, while eight Improved Kilo-class subs had been delivered as of 2021. About forty vessels have been exported to several countries:


title: Kilo-class submarine

text: There are several variants of the Kilo class. The information below is the smallest and largest number from the available information for all three variants of the ship.


title: Jimin

text: Park Ji-min (; born October 13, 1995), known mononymously as Jimin, is a South Korean singer and dancer. In 2013, he made his debut as a member of the South Korean boy band BTS, under the record label Big Hit Entertainment.


title: Jimin

text: Jimin has released three solo tracks with BTS: "Lie" in 2016, "Serendipity" in 2017, and "Filter" in 2020, all of which have charted on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart. In 2018, he released his first independent song, the digital track "Promise", which he co-wrote and co-composed. He appeared on the soundtrack for the 2022 TvN drama "Our Blues", and sang "With You", a duet with Ha Sung-woon.


title: Jimin

text: Park Ji-min was born on October 13, 1995, in Geumjeong District, Busan, South Korea. His immediate family includes his mother, father, and younger brother. When he was a child, he attended Busan's Hodong Elementary School and Yonsan Middle School. During middle school, he attended Just Dance Academy and learned popping and locking dance. Prior to becoming a trainee, Jimin studied contemporary dance at Busan High School of Arts and was a top student in the modern dance department. After a teacher suggested he audition with an entertainment company, it led him to Big Hit Entertainment. Once he passed the auditions in 2012, he transferred to Korean Arts High School, graduating in 2014.


title: Jimin

text: Jimin graduated from Global Cyber University in August 2020, with a major in Broadcasting and Entertainment. As of 2021, he is enrolled at Hanyang Cyber University, pursuing a Master of Business Administration in Advertising and Media.


title: Jimin

text: Jimin debuted as a member of BTS on June 13, 2013, and holds the position of vocalist and dancer in the group. Under BTS, he has released three solo songs: "Lie", "Serendipity", and "Filter". "Lie" was released in 2016, as part of the group's second Korean studio album, "Wings". It was described as stunning and dramatic, conveying dark undertones and emotions that helped reflect the overall concept of the album. In contrast, "Serendipity", released on the "" (2017) extended play (EP), was soft and sensual, unraveling the joy, conviction, and curiosity of love. "Filter", from the group's 2020 studio album, "", was very different from its predecessor, with a distinct Latin pop-esque flair and lyrics that reflected on the different sides of himself that Jimin shows to the world and those around him.


title: Jimin

text: "Serendipity" and "Lie" both surpassed fifty million streams on Spotify in 2018, followed shortly thereafter by the former's full length version from BTS' "" (2018) compilation album, which achieved the milestone in early 2019. With this, Jimin set a new record as the only Korean artist to have three solo tracks accumulate over 50 million streams each—previously Psy was the only Korean artist to cross the 50 million streams mark with "Gangnam Style" (2012) and "Gentleman" (2013). Both songs were also the only solos by a BTS member included in the Official Chart Companys list of the top 20 most streamed BTS songs in the United Kingdom as of October 2018, ranking at number 17 and 19 respectively. In April 2019, the list was expanded to reflect the top 40, and both tracks were the highest ranked solo songs included that year, at numbers 18 and 20 respectively.


title: Jimin

text: In May 2019, Jimin became the first BTS member to have a solo music video achieve 100 million views on YouTube when "Serendipity" achieved the milestone. He was the only BTS member with multiple solo songs in the January 2020 update of the Official Chart's top 40 list. "Lie" and "Serendipity" were the second and third most-streamed solos, at numbers 24 and 29 respectively, with the full length version of the latter debuting at number 38. In February, "Filter" set a record for the biggest streaming debut among all Korean songs on Spotify with over 2.2 million streams in its first 24 hours of release, and went on to become the fastest Korean solo in the platform's history to surpass 20–60 million streams. It is also the only solo BTS b-side track to receive a Song of The Year nomination at the Gaon Chart Music Awards. In March 2021, it became the 15th BTS song to spend a full year on "Billboard"s World Digital Song Sales chart. It is the longest-charting Korean song released in 2020 on the World ranking, having spent 80 weeks on the chart as of the issue dated October 9, 2021.


title: Jimin

text: Jimin was awarded the fifth-class Hwagwan Order of Cultural Merit in 2018 by the President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, alongside the other members of BTS for their contributions to the promotion of Korean culture. In July 2021, President Moon appointed him Special Presidential Envoy for Future Generations and Culture, along with the other members of BTS, to help "lead the global agenda for future generations, such as sustainable growth" and "expand South Korea's diplomatic efforts and global standing" in the international community.


title: Jimin

text: In 2014, Jimin collaborated with bandmate and fellow vocalist Jungkook on a song called "Christmas Day", a Korean rendition of Justin Bieber's "Mistletoe"—he wrote the Korean lyrics himself. The two collaborated again in 2017, for a cover of American singer Charlie Puths "We Don't Talk Anymore" (2016)—Jimin sang the parts of Selena Gomez who featured on the original with Puth. Jungkook had previously released a solo version of the song earlier that year in February, and the two prepared the duet as a special gift to the band's fandom, releasing it on June 2 during BTS' fourth anniversary celebrations. Commenting on Jimin's appearance on the track, "Teen Vogue" wrote that "adding Jimin's voice to the mix makes the rendition all the more lovely". Canadian outlet "Flare" magazine also praised his rendition saying, "...no shade, Selena—it honestly might be better than the original". "Elite Daily" described the cover as "nothing short of flawless".


title: Jimin

text: Jimin appeared on several variety shows such as "Hello Counselor", "Please Take Care of My Refrigerator", and "God's Workplace" in 2016. He also served as a special MC on domestic television music programs such as "Show! Music Core" and "M Countdown". In December 2016, he participated in a dance duet at the KBS Song Festival with Taemin from Shinee.


title: Jimin

text: On December 30, 2018, Jimin released his first solo song outside of BTS releases, "Promise", for free on BTS' SoundCloud page. On January 3, 2019, the platform announced that "Promise" had surpassed the record set by Drake's "Duppy Freestyle" for the biggest 24-hour debut in history. Described by "Billboard" as a "mellow pop ballad", the song was composed by Jimin and Big Hit producer Slow Rabbit, who also produced the track, and features lyrics written by Jimin and bandmate RM. On December 24, 2020, he released his second solo song "Christmas Love", a song about his childhood memories of the holidays. In 2022, Jimin participated in the soundtrack for the TvN drama "Our Blues", the first television OST of his career. Titled "With You", the single is a duet with Ha Sung-woon and was released on April 24.


title: Jimin

text: Jimin's vocals have been described as delicate and sweet. He is regarded as an exceptional dancer among the members of the group and in K-pop in general. Noelle Devoe of "Elite Daily" wrote that he is often praised for his "smooth and elegant movements" as well as his charm on stage. In the BTS documentary "", Jimin said he thinks of himself as a perfectionist and that even the smallest mistakes on stage make him feel guilty and stressed.


title: Jimin

text: He has cited singer Rain as one of his inspirations and reasons why he wanted to become both a singer and performer.


title: Jimin

text: In 2016, Jimin was ranked as the 14th most popular idol in an annual survey conducted by Gallup Korea. He subsequently ranked seventh in 2017, and then consecutively ranked first in 2018 and 2019, as the only idol to top the survey for two consecutive years. In 2018, Jimin was the ninth most-tweeted about celebrity and the eighth most-tweeted about musician globally. He was picked as the 17th best boyband member in history by "The Guardian". From January to May 2018, Jimin won the monthly "Peeper x Billboard" Award for "Top K-Pop Artist–Individual". "Peeper x Billboard" is a collaboration between the "Peeper" social media app and "Billboard" Korea that collects fan votes for their favorite K-pop artists and announces monthly winners. The prize was a donation to UNICEF in his name.


title: Jimin

text: The Cultural Conservation Society awarded Jimin a plaque of appreciation in 2019, for performing buchaechum, a traditional Korean fan dance, during the 2018 Melon Music Awards and helping spread the dance outside of Korea. In October 2021, he became the first idol to spend 34 consecutive months atop the brand reputation ranking for individual boy group idols, and is the only idol to top the overall ranking for three consecutive years.


title: Jimin

text: Jimin is often cited as an influence or role model by various idols in the K-pop industry, many of whom try to emulate his style of dance, mannerisms, and stage presence. This has earned him the titles "Idol of Idols", "Idol's Bible", and "Rookies' Bible", from news and entertainment media. Some idols who have named him include Arthur of Kingdom, MCND's Bic, BDC's Kim Si-hun, Newkidd's Woochul, Stray Kids' Hyunjin, Wooyoung of Ateez, Victon's Lim Se-jun, Huening Kai and Beomgyu from TXT, and Enhypen's Ni-ki and Jay. Oli London, a British influencer, underwent 18 surgeries costing up to £150,000 to look like him.


title: Jimin

text: From 2016 to 2018, Jimin supported graduates of his alma mater, Busan Hodong Elementary School, by covering uniform expenses. After news of the school's closing was released, he donated summer and winter middle school uniforms to the final graduates and gifted autographed albums to the entire student body. In early 2019, Jimin donated KRW₩100 million (US$88,000) to the Busan Department of Education to help support lower income students. Of the total, ₩30 million ($23,000) went to his alma mater, Busan Arts High School. In July 2020, he donated another ₩100 million, this time to the Jeonnam Future Education Foundation, for the creation of a scholarship fund for talented but financially struggling students from South Jeolla Province.


title: Jimin

text: In July 2021, Jimin donated ₩100 million to Rotary International, to help polio patients. As with previous donations, the benefaction was made privately, but the news became public in September, when the Go-seong Rotary Club displayed a banner thanking him for the donation. On October 12, 2021, he was announced as a member of the Green Noble Club, a group of major donors to the Green Umbrella Children's Foundation who have made donations of ₩100 million or more.


title: Jimin

text: Since 2018, Jimin has lived in Hannam-dong, Seoul, South Korea, with his bandmates. In 2021, he purchased a property in the area, worth US$5.3 million.


title: Jimin

text: In 2017, during BTS' Wings Tour, Jimin was unable to participate in the group's single concert in Macau, China, due to cramping in his neck and shoulders. The following year, while in London for the Love Yourself World Tour, he withdrew from the recording of a scheduled appearance on "The Graham Norton Show" per a Big Hit-released statement that the singer was "suffering from severe muscle pain in his neck and back".


title: Jimin

text: All song credits are adapted from the Korea Music Copyright Association's database, unless otherwise noted.


title: Mase

text: Mason Durell Betha (born August 27, 1975), better known by his mononym Mase (formerly Murda Mase and stylized as Ma$e), is an American rapper and minister. In the late 1990s, he recorded on the Bad Boy Records label alongside its founder Sean "Diddy" Combs to significant mainstream success. In 1997 and 1998, as a lead or featured artist, Mase had a total of five platinum singles, five US Rap No. 1 singles, and six "Billboard" Hot 100 top 10 singles, including "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down", "Mo Money Mo Problems", "Been Around the World", "Feel So Good", What You Want" and "Lookin' at Me". Both "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" and "Mo Money Mo Problems" reached No. 1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Mase

text: Mase's 1997 album "Harlem World" was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA. His other two albums, "Double Up" (1999) and "Welcome Back" (2004), have been certified gold.


title: Mase

text: Mase was born Mason Durell Betha in Jacksonville, Florida, on August 27, 1975, as a fraternal twin born almost two months premature, to P. K. Betha and Mason Betha. He grew up with two brothers and three sisters, including his twin sister, Stason, born a few minutes after him. Their father left the family when Mase was just three years old. In 1980, his mother moved with her children to Harlem, New York, where Mase spent the majority of his childhood. During his early teenage years, Betha began getting into trouble on the streets of Harlem, and when he was 13 his mother sent him back to Jacksonville to live with relatives. It was while living in Jacksonville that Betha first began attending church. After returning to live in Harlem at age 15, Betha began showing promise as a basketball player, becoming the leading point guard for his team at Manhattan Center High School during the 1993 season, where he played alongside Cameron Giles, who went on to be known as the rapper Cam'ron. He had hopes of joining the National Basketball Association (NBA), but was unable to make it into a Division I College due to his poor academic scores. He attended State University of New York at Purchase, where he grew to realize he was unlikely to make the NBA and instead began focusing more on writing music, producing demo tapes, and regularly performing at local nightclubs. Betha eventually dropped out of college and focused on his music career full-time.


title: Mase

text: After Betha returned to Harlem, he and his childhood friend Cam'ron began rapping as a hobby under the names Murda Mase and Killa Cam, briefly forming a group known as the Children of the Corn ("corn" short for "corner") with fellow Harlem rappers Big L, Herb McGruff and Bloodshed. Damon Dash, a fellow Manhattan Center student, was the group's manager for a while. In 1996, Mase's sister Stason introduced him to Cudda Love, a road manager for The Notorious B.I.G. Cudda took then 20-year-old Mase to Atlanta, Georgia, where Jermaine Dupri and Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs were attending a rap convention. Shortly after meeting and rapping for Puff Daddy at the Hard Rock Café, Mase signed a $250,000 deal with Bad Boy Records. Within a week of signing to the label, Betha had his stage name shortened from Murda Mase to simply Mase to make him more marketable and was featured on and in the video for 112's "Only You" with the Notorious B.I.G. He also appeared on numerous hit songs with other Bad Boy artists, including Puff Daddy's “Can't Nobody Hold Me Down” and “Been Around the World” and the Notorious B.I.G.'s “Mo' Money, Mo' Problems”, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.


title: Mase

text: Mase's first studio album, "Harlem World", debuted at No. 1 on the "Billboard" Pop and R&B LP charts, selling over 270,000 copies in the U.S. during its first week of release. It has since achieved 4× Platinum status in the United States. The album spawned hit singles such as "Feel So Good" and "Lookin' at Me", which both reached No. 1 on the Rap Billboard charts, as well as "What You Want", which peaked at No. 3 on both the Rap and R&B Billboard charts. During 1997, Mase also appeared on more songs with Puff Daddy, Mariah Carey's "Honey", Brian McKnight's "You Should Be Mine (Don't Waste Your Time)", and Brandy's "Top of the World".


title: Mase

text: In 1998, Mase formed his own record label, All Out Records. He signed his group Harlem World, which included his twin sister, Stason, to the label while they were also under So So Def Recordings. He and Harlem World member Blinky Blink were featured on Blackstreet & Mýa's song "Take Me There", which appeared on the soundtrack of "The Rugrats Movie".


title: Mase

text: Mase's second album, "Double Up", was released in 1999 on Bad Boy and sold 107,000 copies in its first week, debuting at No. 11 on the US Top 200 chart. In "Double Up" Mase's lyrics became more aggressive.


title: Mase

text: On April 20, 1999, during an interview with Funkmaster Flex on New York radio station Hot 97, Mase announced his retirement from music to pursue a "calling from God". He claimed he was "leading people, friends, kids and others down a path to hell", stating that he left to find God in his heart and follow him. He said it was time for him to serve God in "his" way, saying rap was not real, and that he wanted to deal with reality and had become unhappy with what he did, no matter how much money it had made him. The same year, Mase enrolled as a freshman at Clark Atlanta University, a historically black college, and began taking classes on August 19. Unlike other freshmen, Mase was permitted to live off campus and commute, but he is said to have downplayed his past as a rapper and stayed fairly low-key while on campus.


title: Mase

text: After a five-year hiatus from music, during which he became an ordained minister, Mase made his return to music with "Welcome Back" in summer 2004. "Welcome Back" was accompanied by a single of the same name and was released on August 24, 2004, through Bad Boy Records and distributed by Universal Music Group. It debuted at No. 4 in the US, selling 188,000 copies in its first week of release, and eventually went gold, selling 559,000 copies in the United States. The album portrayed Mase's new Christian lifestyle and "cleaner" image. Mase dubbed himself "a Bad Boy gone clean" on the lead single (which samples the "Welcome Back Kotter" theme song). This new approach had a mixed reception. Although the album was not as big a commercial success as "Harlem World", the singles "Welcome Back" and "Breathe, Stretch, Shake" received moderate radio airplay and video play on BET and MTV, with the latter single reaching No. 28 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. Both singles were also certified gold by the RIAA.


title: Mase

text: In the mid-2000s, Mase spent time touring and recording with New York hip-hop group G-Unit, and became a mainstay of 50 Cent's public image during that time, appearing with him on magazine covers, on stage, and in music videos. He has since said that working with the group was not something he regrets, but that the message he was sending was a mistake. He joined G-Unit to appeal to a different audience so they could see that they could change just as he did, thinking that "in order to get people where I'm at, I have to go back to where I once was". Under G-Unit, he released "Crucified 4 The Hood: 10 Years of Hate", a mixtape from the DJ Whoo Kid series, but an official album was never released.


title: Mase

text: Following the formula that worked for him years earlier, Mase has begun to appear on R&B artists' remixes. In early June 2009, he was featured on the last verse of "Uptown Boy" by Harry O, signed to The Inc. Records, which also features Ron Browz. Weeks later, Mase appeared on a street remix for Drake's "Best I Ever Had". Mase stated that Michael Jackson's death influenced him to make a comeback. He appeared on Power 105.1 to discuss his comeback with "The Prince of New York" DJ Self. Mase used that radio show as his outlet to release new music throughout the rest of the summer, with a new song or feature premiere every Friday on DJ Self's show.


title: Mase

text: The first new track featuring Mase was released on July 10, featuring the first verse on "Get It," which was produced by Big Ran and also featured Cam'ron. Mase released the Ron Browz produced "Thinkin' 'Bout You" on July 17, then followed that up by adding a verse to the street remix of Teairra Marí and Kanye West's "Diamonds", on July 24. Mase used the last Friday in July to "Shut the City Down," which was the title of his second solo release since his comeback began. The song primarily discusses the rapper's legacy and makes reference to the ways in which rap, as a business, has changed since his heyday. He also makes reference to his new Batman-esque logo, and hints at himself as hip-hop's superhero. Mase released the song "Radio" on August 21 as a prelude to his upcoming mixtape "I Bleed Money." On September 11, Mase was one of the featured artists who appeared on the remix to Ron Browz's "Gimme 20 Dollars." This was the third time since his comeback that he worked with Browz and his first collaboration with Jim Jones since their falling out years before.


title: Mase

text: In October 2009, Mase made an impromptu appearance on a live radio interview with Diddy-Dirty Money on V-103. He told the studio staff he brought documentation that would release him from the Bad Boy label and gave the forms to Diddy during the interview. Diddy signed the forms and announced "[Mase] has the freedom to go do whatever he wants to do." It was later revealed the forms did not end Mase's contractual obligations to the record label, but rather allowed him to appear on songs with artists from different labels.


title: Mase

text: In 2010, Diddy offered Mase a one-year release from Bad Boy to settle all their differences, with which Mase decided to retire from rap for good although he was to be re-signed to Bad Boy after the year was up. On April 17, 2012, Spiff TV Films – a production company best known for videos made for Rick Ross's Maybach Music releases – tweeted a photo of Mase, Ross and French Montana, as well as Omarion and Rico Love, together in the studio. The picture sparked speculation that Mase would be making his third return to music since his announced retirement to become a pastor in April 1999 and leaving again in 2007. A week after the photo appeared, DJ Funkmaster Flex debuted a remix of Wale's "Slight Work" on radio show.


title: Mase

text: Speaking during an on-air call following the remix's debut, Mase didn't address rumors about him possibly signing with Warner Bros. imprint Maybach Music, rather revealing that French Montana was the reason Mase was making his third comeback. Mase is served as an A&R representative on Montana's forthcoming Bad Boy debut, "Excuse My French", as well as appearing on the remix of Montana's "Everything's a Go". "I'm not sure what kind of decisions he's going to make," Montana says, "[but] I would love to see him in my camp." In September 2012, Mase appeared on Kanye West's album "Cruel Summer", on the track "Higher" with The-Dream, Pusha T, and Cocaine 80s.


title: Mase

text: In December 2012, Mase announced that he was no longer signed to Bad Boy, saying he would not likely sign with a major label anytime soon. He told MTV the only two labels he would consider signing with were Kanye West's GOOD Music or Drake's OVO Sound. On October 18, 2013, Mase announced his next album would be titled "Now We Even". He also said his wish list for guest appearances would include Jay-Z, Diddy, Beyoncé, Drake, 2 Chainz, Lauryn Hill, Meek Mill, Fabolous, Ariana Grande, Dipset, Eric Bellinger, Seal and CeeLo Green.


title: Mase

text: On November 24, 2017, Mase released "The Oracle", a diss track at friend-turned-rival Cam'ron in response to the lyrical jabs Cam'ron aimed at him on his mixtape "The Program". In 2022 Mase became an artist of newly led Deathrow Records.


title: Mase

text: Mase's melodic rap style has had an enduring influence on hip hop. Many rappers, such as Pusha T, Fabolous and Kanye West, have adopted Mase's lazy, yet melodic flow on several occasions. Jay-Z and Drake among other rappers have borrowed Mase lines in their songs. Kanye West has described Mase as his favorite rapper ever.