Venom is a 2018 American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character of the same name, produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Entertainment, Tencent Pictures, Arad Productions, Matt Tolmach Productions, and Pascal Pictures, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The first film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU), it was directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay by Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg and Kelly Marcel. It stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and Venom alongside Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, and Reid Scott. In the film, struggling journalist Eddie gains superpowers after becoming the host of an alien symbiote, Venom, whose species plans to invade Earth.

After Venom's appearance in Spider-Man 3 (2007), Sony attempted to develop a spin-off film based on the character but it did not move forward due to issues with Sony's ongoing Spider-Man franchise. In March 2016, work began on a new version that would start a new shared universe featuring the non-Spider-Man Marvel characters that the studio possessed film rights to. Sony also intended for Venom to share the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), but ultimately distanced the film from Spider-Man. In March 2017, Rosenberg and Pinkner were set to write, with Fleischer and Hardy added in May. Filming took place from October 2017 to January 2018 in Atlanta, New York City, and San Francisco. The film was primarily inspired by the comic book miniseries Venom: Lethal Protector (1993) and the story arc "Planet of the Symbiotes" (1995). Ludwig Göransson was hired to compose the film's score, marking his second Marvel film after Black Panther (2018).

Venom premiered at the Regency Village Theater on October 1, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 5. Despite being negatively received by critics, the film became the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2018 with over $856 million worldwide and set several box office records for an October release. A sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, was released on October 1, 2021, and a third Venom film is scheduled for release on July 12, 2024.

Plot

While exploring space for new habitable worlds, a probe belonging to the bio-engineering corporation Life Foundation discovers a comet covered in symbiotic lifeforms. The probe returns to Earth with four samples, but one escapes and causes the ship to crash in Malaysia. The Life Foundation recovers the other three and transports them to their research facility in San Francisco, where they discover that the symbiotes cannot survive without oxygen-breathing hosts, which often fatally reject the symbiosis. Investigative journalist Eddie Brock reads about these human trials in a classified document in the possession of his fiancée Anne Weying, an attorney preparing a lawsuit defense for the Life Foundation. Eddie confronts Life Foundation CEO Carlton Drake about the trials, leading to Eddie and Anne losing their jobs. Consequently, Anne ends their relationship.

Six months later, Drake's symbiosis trials are closer to success, though one of his symbiotes dies due to carelessness. Eddie is approached by Dora Skirth, one of Drake's scientists, who disagrees with his methods and wants to expose him. She helps Eddie break into the research facility to search for evidence, and he learns that an acquaintance of his, a homeless woman named Maria, is one of the test subjects. Eddie attempts to rescue Maria, but the symbiote possessing her transfers to his body without him realizing, leaving her dead. Eddie escapes and soon begins displaying strange symptoms. He reaches out to Anne for help, and her new boyfriend, Dr. Dan Lewis, discovers the symbiote on examining Eddie. Drake exposes Skirth to the remaining captive symbiote, killing both. This leaves the symbiote inside Eddie as the only known surviving specimen.

Drake sends mercenaries to retrieve the symbiote from Eddie, but it manifests around his body as a monstrous creature that fights off the attackers. It later introduces itself to Eddie as Venom and explains that the comet is searching for planets where the symbiotes can possess and devour the inhabitants. Venom offers to spare Eddie if he helps the symbiotes achieve their goal, and Eddie uses the superhuman attributes that the symbiote imbues him with. Eddie breaks into his old workplace to turn in evidence of Drake's crimes but is surrounded by SWAT officers. Anne sees him transform to escape and takes Eddie to Lewis's office, where they explain that the symbiote is rotting Eddie's internal organs. Eddie notes that the symbiote has two weaknesses: high-pitched noises and fire. Although Venom claims the organ damage can be reversed, Anne uses an MRI machine to separate him from Eddie, whom Drake's men then capture.

Meanwhile, the fourth symbiote, Riot, makes its way from Malaysia to San Francisco by hopping from body to body. It bonds with Drake, who agrees to take Riot in a Life Foundation space probe to collect the rest of the symbiotes and bring them to Earth. Anne reluctantly bonds with Venom via a dog so they can free Eddie. When Eddie and Venom are bonded again, the latter promises that it has been convinced to help protect the Earth from his kind through its interactions with Eddie, and the pair attempt to stop Riot and Drake with Anne's help. Venom damages the probe as it takes off, causing it to explode and kill both Riot and Drake. After the incident, Eddie returns to journalism, while Anne believes Eddie is no longer bonded to Venom after this, and that Venom also died in the explosion. However, the pair remain secretly bonded and set out to protect San Francisco by killing criminals.

In a mid-credits scene, Eddie is invited to interview incarcerated serial killer Cletus Kasady, who promises "carnage" when he escapes.

Cast

 Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock / Venom:An investigative journalist who becomes the host of Venom, an alien symbiote that imbues him with super-human abilities. Director Ruben Fleischer said that unlike a werewolf or Jekyll and Hyde, the relationship between Eddie and the symbiote is a "hybrid", with the two characters sharing a body and working together. Hardy was drawn to this duality, and compared the pair to the animated characters Ren and Stimpy. Hardy gave Eddie an "aw-shucks American accent" while using a "James Brown lounge lizard"-like voice for Venom, that was later "modulated to sound more sinister". Hardy called Eddie an antihero who would "do whatever he has to" to accomplish a goal. Brad Venable provided additional voiceover for Venom's pain and grunting sounds, and his voice was combined with Hardy's for some dialogue, such as "We are Venom".
 Michelle Williams as Anne Weying:An attorney and Eddie's ex-fiancée. Williams was excited at the prospect of her character becoming She-Venom in the future as she does in the comics, and Fleischer felt that it would be fun to give fans an Easter egg of this by briefly showing the character host the symbiote during a scene in the film. This was kept a secret until the release of the film, and Fleischer hoped that the positive response to the appearance would lead to more She-Venom in future Venom films or even a standalone She-Venom film. Anne's line "I love you, but I love myself more" was added by Williams as a reference to the MeToo movement.
 Riz Ahmed as Carlton Drake / Riot:A genius inventor and leader of the Life Foundation experimenting on the symbiotes. Ahmed explained that Drake is trying to save the future of humanity when he discovers the symbiote, with Fleischer adding that Drake has a positive goal but a "moral ambiguity" that leads to him testing his science on other people. Drake is eventually bonded to another symbiote known as Riot, which Fleischer described as a "body-hopper".
 Scott Haze as Roland Treece: Drake's head of security.
 Reid Scott as Dan Lewis: Anne's new boyfriend, a doctor who tries to help Eddie.

Additionally, Jenny Slate portrays Life Foundation scientist Dora Skirth, Melora Walters plays Maria, a homeless woman who briefly hosts Venom, and Chris O'Hara appears as John Jameson, an astronaut who briefly hosts Riot. Also appearing are Sam Medina as a thug that Venom confronts, Peggy Lu as convenience store owner Mrs. Chen, Michelle Lee as a Malaysian EMT who briefly hosts Riot, Sope Aluko and Wayne Péré as Life Foundation scientists, Scott Deckert as Eddie's obnoxious neighbor, Emilio Rivera as a security guard Eddie is friends with, and Ron Cephas Jones, uncredited, as Eddie's boss. Woody Harrelson plays Cletus Kasady in the mid-credits scene, while Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance as a dog-walker who talks to Eddie. A clip from the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), featuring Shameik Moore as Miles Morales and Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker, is included after the credits.

Production

Development

Early attempts and cancellation
By 1997, David S. Goyer had written a script for a film featuring the Marvel Comics character Venom, which was to be produced by New Line Cinema. Dolph Lundgren was in talks to star in the film, which would feature the character Carnage as the main antagonist. The project did not move forward, and the rights to the character moved to Sony Pictures along with those for the character Spider-Man, of whom Venom is an antagonist in the comics. Eddie Brock, the alter-ego of Venom, would appear in Sony's Spider-Man 3 (2007), with Topher Grace in the role. Grace was intended to only briefly appear as Eddie, but became a major villain as both Eddie and Venom because producer Avi Arad felt the series had relied too much on director Sam Raimi's personal favorite Spider-Man villains, and not characters that modern fans were actually interested in. Raimi had been hesitant to explore the character due to his "lack of humanity". Arad revealed plans for a spin-off film focused on Venom in July 2007.

Sony was actively developing Venom alongside direct sequels to Spider-Man 3 by July 2008, hoping the character could "add longevity" to the franchise in a similar fashion to Wolverine in 20th Century Fox's X-Men films. Jacob Estes had written a script for the film, but the studio chose to seek out new writers for a different approach from that draft. Sony was also not yet convinced that Grace could serve as the lead actor in the film. That September, Sony hired Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese to write a new script, while industry insiders suggested that Grace should return for the spin-off "because the likeable actor could be a sympathetic evildoer", in response to Venom co-creator Todd McFarlane suggesting that a Venom film could not do well with a villain as the central character. Wernick and Reese had pitched an original story idea for the film to Sony, which Reese described as a "realistic, grounded, a little more dark take on the character". The pair then worked on an outline with Sony and Marvel, who "had specific rules about the villain and the backstory and stuff like that". They had completed a draft by April 2009, which included a role written specifically for Stan Lee, and featured a sequence where the Venom symbiote jumps "from body to body [through a city], and each person that it inhabits ends up becoming really violent and striking someone else and then it jumps to [them]".

Wernick and Reese had turned in a second draft by September 2009, and Reese said that Sony was "pushing forward in whatever ways they push forward". A month later, Gary Ross, who was rewriting the script for Spider-Man 4 at the time, was hired to also rewrite the Venom script, as well as direct, and produce alongside Arad. Grace was "not considered likely" to return to the role then, with the film starting "from the drawing board" and looking to make the villain "an antihero who becomes a defender of the innocent". In January 2010, Sony announced that the Spider-Man franchise would be rebooted after Raimi decided to no longer pursue direct sequels to Spider-Man 3. By March 2012, Sony was still interested in a Venom film and wanted to use it to capitalize on the release of the first reboot film, The Amazing Spider-Man. The studio was in negotiations with Josh Trank to direct after Ross had left the project to direct The Hunger Games (2012). Trank was brought on following the release of Chronicle (2012), his directorial debut. He and Big Fan (2009) director Robert Siegel pitched an R-rated Venom film in the vein of The Mask (1994), but producer Matt Tolmach disliked their treatment. In June, Arad and Tolmach discussed Venom connecting to The Amazing Spider-Man, similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films crossing over in The Avengers (2012). Arad called it "an Eddie Brock story" only, but Tolmach added, "Hopefully all these worlds will live together in peace someday."

In December 2013, Sony revealed plans to use The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) to establish their own expanded universe based on the Marvel properties the studio had the film rights to, including Venom. Arad and Tolmach would produce the films as part of a franchise brain trust, with Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Ed Solomon set to write the screenplay for Venom, and Kurtzman set to direct. In April 2014, Arad and Tolmach said Venom would be released after The Amazing Spider-Man 3—which was set for release on May 27, 2016—but before The Amazing Spider-Man 4. However, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 underperformed, and, with Sony "under tremendous pressure to perform [that had them taking] a hard look at their most important franchise", the direction of the shared universe was rethought. The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was pushed back to 2018, and the Venom film, now known as Venom Carnage, was moved up to 2017. Kurtzman was still attached to direct, and write alongside Solomon. In February 2015, Sony and Marvel Studios announced a new partnership that would see Marvel Studios produce the next Spider-Man film for Sony, and integrate the character into their MCU. Sony still planned to produce the spin-off films on their own, but by November they were believed to have been canceled so Sony could focus on its new reboot with Marvel Studios.

Revival

Venom was revived by Sony in March 2016, with Arad and Tolmach producing, and Dante Harper writing a new screenplay. The project was envisioned as a standalone film launching its own franchise, unrelated to Sony and Marvel Studios' new Spider-Man films. A year later, Sony gave the film an October 5, 2018, release date, and explained that Kurtzman was not involved with the new project. No new director had been signed, and Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner were now writing the screenplay. Venom was expected to begin a new shared universe independent of the MCU, and was initially aiming for an R-rating on a smaller budget, inspired by 20th Century Fox's success doing so with the X-Men films Deadpool (2016) and Logan (2017). Sony's director shortlist for the film was believed to include Adi Shankar, known for his dark, R-rated takes "on the properties he grew up on", and Adam Wingard. In May, Sony announced that Tom Hardy would star as Eddie Brock and Venom in Venom, to be directed by Ruben Fleischer and officially begin a new shared universe, later titled "Sony's Spider-Man Universe". Fleischer was chosen after a long search by Sony, and as a longtime fan of the character expressed excitement at the visual possibilities of portraying Venom on film and the potential thematic ideas associated with the character such as duality. David F. Sandberg met with Sony beforehand to discuss the possibility of directing the film, reading its script and meeting with them, but Sandberg had already been approached by Warner Bros. to make Shazam! (2019), preferring to direct Shazam! over Venom due to that film's crew consisting of people Sandberg had worked with at New Line Cinema. The casting of Hardy, whose son was a big fan of Venom, happened quickly after he left director J. C. Chandor's Triple Frontier in April and Sony "saw an opportunity to court an in-demand talent". Hardy was paid $7 million for his involvement.

Pre-production
Riz Ahmed was in talks to join the film in August 2017, with Matt Smith, Pedro Pascal, and Matthias Schoenaerts all having been considered for the same role. In September, Michelle Williams entered talks to join the film as a district attorney and Eddie's love interest. By October, Jenny Slate, Reid Scott, and Scott Haze were in negotiations to join as well, with Slate up for a role as a scientist. Also at that time, Kelly Marcel was writing the latest draft of the film's script. The final budget that Sony allocated for the film's production was $100 million, though Deadline Hollywood revealed in September 2018 that a deal between Sony and Chinese production company Tencent Pictures meant the latter had ultimately covered a third of these production costs for the studio.

Writing and Spider-Man connection
In June 2017, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed that Venom was solely a Sony project and Marvel Studios had no plans to connect it with the MCU. However, producer Amy Pascal soon clarified that Sony intended to have their films take place in "the same world" as the new MCU film Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), describing them as "adjunct" to that world. She said that Venom would connect to the next planned film in their shared universe, Silver & Black, and that there was potential for Tom Holland's Spider-Man to appear in either. Carnage was also expected to appear in Venom at that point. In July, Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch explained that Sony was not interested in producing "conventional comic-book movies" and was looking to give each film in the series a distinct style. Venom was considered "a spin on a horror film", inspired by the works of John Carpenter and David Cronenberg, but with "more pop and fun". Fleischer said he has "always been drawn to the more antihero superheroes. There's a dark element to [Venom] and a wit that has always appealed to me." He said the film would explore Venom's origins and the "Jekyll and Hyde" relationship that Eddie has with the symbiote.

The film is primarily based on the Venom: Lethal Protector miniseries (1993) and the "Planet of the Symbiotes" story arc (1995), borrowing the San Francisco setting of the former. Spider-Man ultimately could not be included in the film because of Sony's deal loaning the character to Marvel Studios, challenging the writers to "make a movie with a character that's defined by Spider-Man without Spider-Man". For this reason, they looked to the Ultimate Marvel version of Venom—whose origin is not tied to Spider-Man—for inspiration. Pinkner and Rosenberg were told that Spider-Man could not be in Venom before they made their initial pitch for the film, and took the approach of trying to stay faithful to the spirit of the comics even if certain elements had to be changed, such as having Eddie cross a moral line in his journalism which the character does in his comic book origin story. Fleischer noted that Lethal Protector aided in this goal since it, as the first solo Venom comic book series, had "broke [the character] free from Spider-Man". It also gave the writers a "solid foundation" to explore the more heroic side of Venom, rather than his more traditional villainous side from the Spider-Man comics, though Fleischer later described the film as having "no heroes". One of Venom's lines in the film, "Eyes, lungs, pancreas ... so many snacks, so little time", was lifted unaltered from The Amazing Spider-Man #374 (February 1993).

Fleischer stated that they were planning a "huge world" with many characters while developing the film, including other symbiotes such as the villain Riot. Fleischer wanted Venom to stand out compared to other comic book-based films, and felt that tonally it would not remind viewers of the lighter MCU or the somber DC Extended Universe. It was important for him to honor the violence of Venom from the comics, where "he bites people's heads off and eats brains. It would be weird to make a movie with Venom if he wasn't doing that." Sony executives were reluctant to push this element so far that the film would earn an R-rating, which they believed would cause problems for potential crossovers with the family-friendly Spider-Man, as well as other MCU characters, in future films. Venom was eventually rated PG-13, with the violence toned down.

Filming
Principal photography began on October 23, 2017, with filming taking place in Atlanta and New York City. Matthew Libatique served as director of photography, while Oliver Scholl served as production designer after also doing so for Spider-Man: Homecoming. Williams was confirmed to have joined the film in November, with Sony organizing her filming schedule to ensure her availability for concurrent, unexpected reshoots on All the Money in the World (2017). By December, Woody Harrelson was in talks to appear in the film, and Williams was revealed to be portraying Anne Weying. According to several reports, Tom Holland spent several days during Venoms production filming a cameo appearance as Peter Parker / Spider-Man for the film, but Marvel Studios asked Sony to exclude the scene from the final film.

Hardy recorded his lines for the symbiote at the beginning of each day, and these were played back to him through an earpiece on set during scenes where Eddie and the symbiote talk to each other. Hardy had previously used this process when he played twins in Legend (2015). Fleischer allowed Hardy to improvise on set, and take the scenes where he felt they needed to go. For instance, Hardy noticed that a restaurant set for one scene had a lobster tank in it and decided that his character would get into the tank in the scene; the production design team had to work overnight to reinforce the tank and fill it with fake lobsters so Hardy could get in it the next day. Hardy also worked with Marcel to rewrite some of his dialogue for both Eddie and Venom throughout the filming process. Additional filming took place in San Francisco from January 16 to 26, 2018. Locations included Russian Hill, North Beach, Chinatown, and the Financial District. Hardy wrapped filming on January 27.

Post-production

Ahmed and Scott were confirmed to appear in the film in February 2018, and Will Beall was revealed to have done additional writing on the script. In the following months, Sope Aluko and Scott Deckert were revealed to be cast in the film, Haze and Harrelson were also confirmed to appear, and Ahmed was revealed to be playing Carlton Drake. Harrelson, who previously worked with Fleischer on Zombieland (2009), signed on to the film for a small role—he described himself as being "in a little fraction of this movie"—knowing that he would have a bigger part in a potential sequel. The role was revealed to be that of Cletus Kasady, the alter-ego of Carnage.

The film underwent reshoots in Los Angeles in June 2018, which were reportedly overseen by Hardy. Venom was one of the first films to take advantage of the new post-production facilities at Sony Pictures' Stage 6 building in Culver City, California, with two new theaters equipped for sound design using Dolby Atmos technology, two new stages for sound mixing with Avid Technology's Pro Tools workstations, and a theater set-up for remote visual effects and color grading review. Maryann Brandon and Alan Baumgarten served as editors for the film. Fleischer's focus during the editing process was to "cultivate" the relationship between Eddie and Venom, which he felt was the core of the film. The opening of the film went through several iterations, but Fleischer always wanted it to "start with a bang", which led to a spaceship crash in the opening scene. The Venom symbiote is shown shortly after as an introduction of the film's "hero", before the villain's plot begins and becomes the focus of the scene.

Visual effects and design
DNEG provided the visual effects for the film, with Paul Franklin serving as visual effects supervisor on the project, and Paolo Giandoso drawing concept art for the DNEG design team. Giandoso helped design Venom and Riot, and provided a sequence of 158 drawings for the film's final battle between the two characters.

The visual effects team's first step was to define the look of the different symbiotes in the film, which do not have a defined body shape. Franklin explained that they wanted the creatures to be "predatory and threatening", and looked at slime molds, jellyfish, and time-lapse photography of amoeba for inspiration. The final models were blobs that could move and change shape, with soft tissue simulated on top to give the creatures an "interesting abstract quality". The symbiote is combined with Eddie by adding "tentacles" to Hardy, which was done through a hybrid of practical and visual effects. The tentacles were inspired by the movement of sea creatures and scientific demonstrations of non-Newtonian fluid. Additional cameras on set accurately captured Hardy's movements so the tentacles could be integrated with his performance. A detailed digital double of Hardy was also used for the integration. Other partial Venom forms include the "freak-out" form for when he is being vibrated out of Eddie, for which a "ghostly" effect was created by adding an animated version of the character on top of Hardy's performance with a vibration effect; and the "wraith" Venom, where Venom's head emerges from Eddie's body to talk to him—this form was closer to the raw symbiote than the final Venom design, with added tendrils and veins to an overall snake-like shape, and an emaciated take on Venom's face.

The humanoid Venom character was created with a digital model that included rigs and simulation for the face and muscles. Venom is portrayed as being  tall and weighing , with a "smooth, oily, black" appearance. Due to the differences in the character's facial design comic-to-comic, and even panel-to-panel, the designers "distilled the essential elements" into a design that could be photorealistic. These included the character's eyes, which Franklin compared to those of a killer whale and explained had to be animated in a more exaggerated way to indicate where the character was looking since he does not have pupils. The character's long tongue is also adapted from the comics, with another complex rig required so the tongue could be specifically animated, and then retract to allow the character to talk without having to speak around it, which Franklin said was "too comical". When he does speak, Venom often talks through clenched teeth. This was inspired by actors Jack Palance and Clint Eastwood. Since Venom's origin is not tied to Spider-Man in the film, it did not make sense for the filmmakers to add a version of Spider-Man's symbol to Venom's chest as he has in the comics. However, an all-black character would have been difficult to see in night scenes, so Venom has a subtle 'V' symbol on his chest instead which is formed from the white veins of the symbiote. To further help the audience see the character, the visual effects team lit him like they would a car in a commercial, using reflections to help define his body. The character model was flexible, allowing animators to scale Venom's head, adjust the length of his teeth, or even unhinge his jaw "like a trap door", depending on the pose required. Hardy initially planned to use performance capture to portray Venom on-set in addition to Eddie, but this idea was abandoned due to the difference between his face and the character's. A  stand-in wearing a helmet for added height was sometimes used on-set as a reference for Venom.

Because Riot is a minor character from the comics, the designers had more freedom to develop his film appearance. He is a foot taller than Venom, and almost twice as heavy, with a "brutal metallic look" that Franklin described as "almost reptilian". The character model for Riot was similar to the one for Venom, but had less effects layers due to Riot not having the same "rippling goo" texture. The villain also had a custom set of effects for the different weapons that he can manifest, including blades and a large wrecking ball with spikes. The final fight between the two characters was constantly changing, with Franklin, DNEG, and the previsualization team at The Third Floor working with Fleischer to develop the fight. One element that was suggested by the visual effects teams was to take advantage of the characters' liquid-like designs by having the two appear to merge and create "a swirling mass of symbiotic flesh, with the two humans revealed through the whirlpool". This was inspired by the early tests made while developing the basic symbiote look. When designing the launch pad where the fight is set, Franklin said that it needed to be "broad, colorful and exciting" to represent the more comedic and comic book-like style of the film, which he contrasted to his work on Interstellar (2014) and the concurrent work being done for First Man (2018). Additional environment work that DNEG completed included the removal of Coca-Cola signs and CNN logos from the Atlanta-shot sequences, since San Francisco does not have those. For Anne's brief time as She-Venom, Franklin said that the various depictions of the character in the comics ranged from "demonic creatures with elongated teeth through to the extreme hypertrophied female form", with the film's version trying to balance being disgusting and "a little bit sexy", particular for when she kisses Eddie. In total, DNEG completed around 1,100 visual effects shots for the film.

Music

Ludwig Göransson signed on to compose the score for Venom in March 2018, reuniting with Fleischer after the pair worked together on 30 Minutes or Less (2011). In August, rapper Eminem teased that he had contributed a new song to the soundtrack for Venom. His album Kamikaze was released at the end of that month, and features a bonus song called "Venom (Music from the Motion Picture)" that references the film. The song was released by Aftermath Records as a digital single for the film on September 23. An album featuring Göransson's score was released digitally by Sony Classical Records on October 5, with a physical release later that month.

Marketing
For the Sony Pictures panel at Comic Con Experience 2017, Fleischer and Hardy appeared in a video from the film's set to promote it. A teaser for the film was released in February 2018. Dani Di Placido of Forbes called it "comically underwhelming". He felt this was a major misstep by Sony given the teaser was meant to win over uninterested Spider-Man fans, particularly after the character's portrayal in Spider-Man 3. The fact that the teaser did not include the title character was a common criticism by commentators. Sony chairman Tom Rothman later acknowledged this, explaining that the intention had been to "heighten anticipation" for the film. In August, Fleischer revealed the trailer did not showcase Venom because the visual effects for the character were incomplete at the time.

Rothman presented new footage of the film at CinemaCon 2018, and acknowledged that it revealed the film's version of Venom by saying, "See, we didn't forget to put Venom in the movie!" Di Placido was more positive of this trailer, praising the appearance of and visuals for Venom, but being concerned about the dialogue. During the trailer, actress Jenny Slate pronounces the word symbiote as SIM-bye-oht rather than SIM-bee-oht, as many commentators believed it should be pronounced. This led to widespread criticism and a 35,700 percent increase in searches for "symbiote pronunciation", according to Merriam-Webster, which noted both pronunciations are technically considered acceptable. Slate uses the expected SIM-bee-oht pronunciation in the final film, which commentators assumed was achieved through reshoots or overdubbing, but Fleischer explained that the pronunciation had been corrected on set and the marketing team had simply used a take for the trailer from before the correction was made. Hannah Shaw-Williams of Screen Rant noted that the trailer reused music from a major, recently released trailer for the Marvel Studios film Avengers: Infinity War (2018), questioning whether this was a coincidence or if Sony was "deliberately trying to tie Venom to the MCU in the minds of audiences. Whatever the reason, Venom will need more than just a familiar piece of trailer music in order to win over audiences". According to Fizziology, an analytics company that takes different social media platforms into account, the second trailer was watched 64.3 million times within 24 hours, a 72 percent increase over the first trailer. Fizziology said it was rare for a second trailer to get more views than the first and noted that general positive responses were up 46 percent. The majority of positive responses were directed towards the appearance and design of Venom.

Fleischer, Hardy, and Ahmed promoted the film at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con, where the audience was given Venom masks and chanted "We are Venom". New footage from the film was debuted at the panel, including the reveal of the villainous symbiote Riot. A third trailer was subsequently released online. It was criticized by Scott Mendelson (also of Forbes), who said the film was looking comparable to Catwoman (2004)—"the shining example of how not to do this kind of movie". He also felt that Fleischer's decision to make a sequel to his successful film Zombieland before Venoms release was an indication that the film was not going to be good. Richard Newby, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, felt the film was being marketed as if it was in an "earlier era", saying it "looks pre-Iron Man cool" and more like a cross between An American Werewolf in London (1981) and Blade (1998) than a modern superhero film. He noted that despite early fears, the latest trailer showed that Venom would be featured throughout the film, and believed that the film's lack of shared universe connections and distinct tone could help Sony prove it has "a handle on these characters after all". A tie-in comic book, serving as both a prequel and a teaser for the film and simply titled Venom, was released digitally by Marvel Comics on September 14, with a physical version available to those who purchased tickets for the film from AMC Theatres. Written by Sean Ryan and illustrated by Szymon Kudranski, the comic establishes the film's backstory for the symbiote. SKAN provided the cover art for the comic.

Release

Theatrical
Venom had its world premiere at the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles on October 1, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States and Canada on October 5 in 4,250 theaters. This followed a release in several other countries on October 3, where it was playing on 20,800 screens internationally in its opening weekend, along with 726 IMAX theaters in 60 markets.

The film was released in China on November 9, a date that was approved by the country's film board following an unexpected drop in box office sales there earlier in 2018. China granted the film a rare extended theatrical release in December, with the film's box office success and Tencent's large investment in the film considered contributing factors in the decision. The extension added 30 days to the film's initial 30-day run.

Home media
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released a digital version of the film on December 11, 2018, with Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD versions released on December 18 in the United States. The physical releases featured deleted and extended scenes, making-of featurettes, and a way of watching the film called "Venom Mode" in which informative pop-ups appear on screen. For these home media releases, the film was framed as a romantic comedy by Sony with a focus on the relationship between Eddie and Venom.

In April 2021, Sony signed a deal with Disney giving them access to their legacy content, including Marvel content in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, to stream on Disney+ and Hulu and appear on Disney's linear television networks. Disney's access to Sony's titles would come following their availability on Netflix.

The film was released on Disney+ on May 12, 2023 in the United States and later on in Canada on September 8, 2023.

Reception

Box office
Venom grossed $213.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $642.5 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $856.1 million. With a production budget between $100–116 million, Deadline Hollywood reported that the film needed to gross around $450 million to break even, and later calculated the net profit to be $246.9 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues, making it the sixth-most-profitable release of 2018.

In the United States and Canada, Venom was initially projected to gross $60–70 million in its opening weekend. It made $10 million from Thursday night previews, the highest ever for an October release (beating Paranormal Activity 3s $8 million in 2011). After making $32.7 million on its first day, weekend estimates were raised to $80 million. It went on to gross $80.3 million, marking the best October opening weekend of all time (beating Gravitys $55.8 million in 2013), as well as the seventh-best opening for a Sony film. The film made $9.6 million on Columbus Day to set the record for the best Monday gross in October, again topping Gravity. The film remained in first the following weekend, dropping 55% to $35.7 million. It finished in third place in its third and fourth weekends behind Halloween and A Star Is Born. With the release of more films in its fifth and sixth weekends, Venom fell to, respectively, sixth and eighth place, with the latter carrying the film over $200 million total.

Worldwide, the film was expected to debut to $160–175 million, including $100–110 million from 58 territories outside of the U.S. and Canada. It over-performed with $125.2 million from foreign territories for a global opening weekend of $205.5 million, the highest ever in October. It finished first in all countries but one, including South Korea ($16.4 million over its five-day debut), Russia ($13.6 million), the United Kingdom ($10.5 million) and Mexico ($10.2 million, the best start for a Sony film in the country). The opening included $15.4 million from IMAX, the largest opening for October and Sony in the format; of that, $7 million was from overseas IMAX screens, the largest overseas IMAX debut. Venom remained the top film worldwide for its second and third weekends. In its second, the film opened at number one in France ($6.7 million), Vietnam ($3 million), and Thailand ($2.2 million), and remained number one in 51 others, including Brazil which dropped only 6% from the first weekend. The film was number one in 30 markets for the third weekend. It opened in Japan at number one with $5.2 million during its fifth weekend, taking the worldwide total to $541.6 million. The film's top overseas markets then, ahead of its release in China, were Russia ($31.6 million), South Korea ($30.1 million), the UK ($25.5 million), Mexico ($23.8 million), and France/Brazil (tied at $18.3 million).

The film passed $600 million and became number one worldwide again after opening in China with $111 million. It was Sony's biggest opening in China, the second-largest for a superhero film behind Avengers: Infinity War, and the fifth-largest for any imported film to the country. $34.9 million came on the Friday, which was the biggest opening day for a solo Marvel film. The 553 IMAX screens in the country made $10 million, the largest November opening for the format in China, and the eight-largest for any month. The film held off new release Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald in its second weekend, which became number one overall, to remain top in China with the best second weekend for a superhero film in the country at $51.2 million. Following this "phenomenal" performance in China, the film crossed $800 million the next weekend with another $21.3 million from 63 markets, reaching $822.5 million to become the second-biggest superhero origin film ever behind Black Panther. At the start of December and following the film receiving an extension for its China release, Mendelson wrote that the film had made an "insane" $262 million in China, and felt that it had outperformed other films such as Crazy Rich Asians in the market due to being more "quirky/weird" with some "camp classic 'so bad it's good' stylings" that those other films did not have.

Critical response
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 30% based on 364 reviews and an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "Venoms first standalone movie turns out to be like the comics character in all the wrong ways—chaotic, noisy, and in desperate need of a stronger attachment to Spider-Man." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 35 out of 100, based on 46 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Critics generally criticized the film for its dullness, finding its plot messy and tone incoherent. Hardy's performance as Eddie received mixed reviews, though the character's relationship with Venom was praised.

Reviewing the film for Variety, Owen Gleiberman called it "a textbook case of a comic-book film that's unexciting in its ho-hum competence, and even its visual-effects bravura". He criticized Hardy's performance as acting like "a stumblebum Method goof", and felt the film spent too long on Venom's origin story when it should have been what a sequel likely will be. He added that the film may not be as bad a start to a new shared universe as The Mummy (2017), but it "could turn out to be a similar case of a franchise kickoff that doesn't fully attain franchise liftoff". Ty Burr of The Boston Globe scored the film one-and-a-half stars and said it "saps the life force of almost everyone in it" including Hardy, Williams, and Ahmed, all of whose performances he criticized. He also criticized Fleischer's direction as "unfocused" and Libatique's cinematography as some of the "dingiest" of 2018, but did feel that the scenes where Hardy and Venom talk while sharing a body were "reasonably amusing". Mark Daniell at the Toronto Sun criticized the film's tone, effects, and characters, compared it to a rejected superhero film treatment from the 1990s, and said it was the worst Marvel film released since Elektra (2005).

Like Burr, Soren Anderson of The Seattle Times also gave the film one-and-a-half stars, calling it "perhaps the worst Marvel-derived origin story ever", and criticizing the "close to an hour of tedium" before Venom appears in the film. Anderson also said that Hardy was "usually excellent (but not this time)", and called the action sequences "generic". At the Toronto Star, Peter Howell gave Venom two out of four stars and said that Hardy's performance prevented it from being "an unwatchable disaster", but he still thought the film was a mess with an inconsistent tone, "bog-level computer effects and washed-out colours resembling those of a 1998 sci-fi movie on a VHS tape that's been left out in the sun". Jake Coyle for the Associated Press found the film to be "kind of a hoot" despite it being "an incoherent mess of tones, acting styles and visual effects". He was particularly positive about the film's differences from other Marvel films, and of how Hardy pushed it to be more comedic seemingly against Fleischer's intentions. On Hardy's performance, Coyle was not sure whether it "adds up to anything in Venom. But it's something to behold. Train wrecks like these aren't supposed to be this entertaining."

David Edelstein at Vulture said Hardy was the only reason to watch the film, and felt having Eddie and Venom share a body was "a good gimmick" that was executed better by Steve Martin in All of Me (1984). He also thought that Williams and Slate were wasted in their respective roles in the film, and that Fleischer's direction was "competent and unmemorable". Writing for Salon, Matthew Rozsa said that he actually liked the film, and might have loved it if not for the "sloppy and formulaic script". He felt the depiction of Venom was more worthy to be seen in a film than the version in Spider-Man 3, and praised Hardy's performance as "wicked fun". Rozsa especially liked that the film did not take itself too seriously and did not attempt to set-up an entire shared universe on its own, positively comparing it to the sort of superhero film that would have been made before the release of the MCU's Iron Man. Times Stephanie Zacharek described the film as "neither the most super-awesome Marvel movie nor the worst", criticizing the action and small roles of Williams and Slate, but praising the design of the symbiotes as "kind of neat to look at" and Hardy's performance as "fun to watch".

Audience response
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, and those at PostTrak gave it an 80% positive score, while the social media monitor RelishMix noted online responses to the film were "mixed [...] leaning positive". During the film's opening week, most audience members surveyed by Fandango wanted to see the film because it featured a Marvel antihero, because it had the potential to crossover with Spider-Man, or because they were fans of Hardy.

"SymBrock" shipping
After seeing the film, Kate Gardner of The Mary Sue wondered whether it had been "queer coded", a term referring to characters appearing queer without their sexuality being a part of the story. Gardner soon noticed fan art depicting Eddie and Venom as a couple appearing across social media sites. She acknowledged that there were several moments throughout the film that implied such a relationship, including Venom deciding to turn against his species because of his time spent with Eddie and Venom deciding to French kiss Eddie when it is transferring from Anne's body to Eddie's. Gardner felt that these elements made it more logical for fans to "ship" the two characters than some similar pairings that had become popular on the internet. Many of the fans posting the art and discussing the characters' relationship online began using the name "SymBrock" to refer to them.

Tumblr's Fandometrics analysis team, led by Senior Content Insights Manager Amanda Brennan, looked at "original posts, likes, reblogs, and comments" across the website's 440 million blogs, and reported that SymBrock was the most used ship name during the week ending October 15. It was also the eighth most popular topic overall, while Venom itself was the most popular topic. Brennan said that fans of SymBrock existed before the film due to the nature of the comics, but the increase in popularity was undoubtedly due to the film's portrayal of the characters which she said made Venom's dialogue more "casual ... compared to how he speaks in comics, which kind of makes it more approachable and easier to turn the symbiote into something cute". Brennan added that dialogue such as "I am Venom and you are mine" was deemed to be particularly romantic by these fans, as was the idea that Venom be seen not as a parasite but as someone who "chose Eddie Brock and has a connection to Eddie Brock". According to Fandometrics, SymBrock remained the most popular shipping name on Tumblr for the weeks ending October 22, October 29, November 5, and November 12, before falling to third place during the week ending November 19. In its list of the top 100 shipping names of 2018, released on November 28, Fandometrics listed SymBrock in fourteenth place.

When Sony began advertising the home media release of the film by presenting it as a romantic comedy focused on Eddie and Venom's relationship, io9's Charles Pulliam-Moore said it was the treatment that the film deserved, and attributed the change in strategy from the studio to the audience's response to the relationship. He added that it was rare for a film studio to "get on top of a so-so ad campaign" by adjusting towards "the public's reaction to a movie", and that he believed it to have been successful. Michael Walsh at Nerdist concurred with Pulliam-Moore, describing the move as "fully embrac[ing] 'SymBrock'" and calling it "brilliant". Walsh said that though the advertisement was clearly a parody, it also "feels like a far more accurate portrayal of what the movie was really like than the initial [marketing] hinted at", and further highlighted the kissing scene.

Accolades

Sequels

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

In January 2019, Sony announced development on a sequel with Marcel hired as writer. Hardy, Harrelson, and Williams were confirmed to return, though a director was not set due to Fleischer's Zombieland: Double Tap (2019) commitments. Andy Serkis was hired to direct in August 2019. That October, Fleischer said he was happy to let Serkis take over following the negative critical reaction that Venom received. Fleischer believed reviewers had been unfair to the "crowdpleasing movie", potentially due to biases against Sony and towards Marvel Studios' rival superhero films. Venom: Let There Be Carnage was released on October 1, 2021.

Untitled third film

In December 2021, Pascal said they were in the "planning stages" of Venom 3. Sony confirmed the film was in development at CinemaCon in April 2022. In June, Hardy revealed that Marcel was writing the script after previously working on the prior Venom films, and that he was co-writing the story with her. That October, Marcel was set to make her directorial debut with the film and to also produce it. The third film is scheduled to be released on July 12, 2024.

References

External links

2010s American films
2010s English-language films
2010s monster movies
2010s superhero films
2018 science fiction action films
4DX films
American monster movies
American science fiction action films
American superhero films
Columbia Pictures films
Drone films
Films about extraterrestrial life
Films about journalists
Films based on works by Todd McFarlane
Films directed by Ruben Fleischer
Films produced by Amy Pascal
Films produced by Avi Arad
Films produced by Matt Tolmach
Films scored by Ludwig Göransson
Films set in 2018
Films set in Malaysia
Films set in San Francisco
Films shot in Atlanta
Films shot in New York City
Films shot in San Francisco
Films using motion capture
Films with screenplays by Kelly Marcel
Films with screenplays by Scott Rosenberg
Human experimentation in fiction
IMAX films
Sony's Spider-Man Universe films
Tencent Pictures films
Venom (film series)

Venom (2018 film)


Oscar Lorenzo Fernández (4 November 1897 – 27 August 1948) was a Brazilian composer of Spanish descent.  He was born and died in Rio de Janeiro.

Life
Fernández studied at the Instituto Nacional de Música with Francisco Braga, Frederico Nascimento, and Henrique Oswald. In 1923, Nascimento was taken seriously ill, and Fernández was designated his temporary substitute in the chair of upper-level harmony, an appointment which became permanent two years later. In 1936 he founded the Conservatório Brasileiro de Música in Rio de Janeiro, which he directed until his death. From 1939 onward, he also served as Professor of Choral Singing at the Conservatório Nacional de Canto Orfeônico.

In 1930 Fernández composed the three-movement suite Reisado do Pastoreio, the last movement of which, "Batuque" (an Afro-Brazilian folk dance), became very popular. He composed a three-act opera, Malazarte (1931–33), to a libretto by José Pereira Graça Aranha, who adapted it from his own play of the same title. For the premiere at the Teatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro, 1941), the libretto was translated into Italian. Malazarte is a nationalist work in both its subject matter and its musical content, and is considered the first successful Brazilian opera of this type. He also composed one ballet, two symphonies, five symphonic poems, two orchestral suites, one concerto each for piano and for violin, chamber music, about 80 compositions for piano, choral music, and 36 songs.

References
 Baumann, Simpson de Brito Melo. 1998. "O nacionalismo musical nas três suítes brasileiras de Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez". In Anais do I Simpósio Latino-Americano de Musicologia, edited by Elisabeth Seraphim Prosser and Paulo Castagna. Curitiba: Fundação Cultural.
 Béhague, Gerard. 1979. Music in Latin America: An Introduction. Prentice-Hall History of Music Series. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.  (cloth)  (pbk.)

1897 births
1948 deaths
20th-century classical composers
20th-century Brazilian musicians
20th-century male musicians
Brazilian classical composers
Brazilian male composers
Brazilian opera composers
Brazilian people of Spanish descent
Ballet composers
Male classical composers
Musicians from Rio de Janeiro (city)

Oscar Lorenzo Fernández


Taxi Taxie is a 1977 Bollywood film directed by Irshad.

In 1976, Martin Scorsese came up with Taxi Driver, a movie that went on to be viewed as one of the best films ever. Starring Robert De Niro, the movie garnered tremendous critical acclaim and emerged as a cult classic. Over the years many directors have been inspired by its style and the way it went about constructing a psychological study of a man leading a life shrouded by disturbing elements, or rather deconstructing the psychological state of disturbed man finding it difficult to come to terms with his environs.

In India, a man called Irshaad made a movie titled Taxi Taxie, casting Amol Palekar in the lead as a taxi driver operating in the metropolis of Mumbai. This movie that came out in 1977 seems to be clearly inspired by the English classic that released a year before. The director/writer has been influenced by the idea of his famous contemporary from the west, and has created a completely different movie and completely different narrative of his own, which is quite unique.

Amol Palekar, quite fondly given the moniker "Hero" by his fellow Mumbai Taxiwallahs, is an honest and diligent worker who spends most of his time on the streets of Mumbai, helping various people move around the city. However, he himself finds it difficult to navigate through certain cobwebs in his mind, which keep pushing him back to his past. His choice of being a taxi driver, despite being well qualified academically, comes as an enigma to his old college friend who he runs into one day. He justifies it by voicing the joys of being constantly with various passengers, who he treats like fellow companions in the journey of life. The profession, thus, is his way of parrying off any chances of falling prey to loneliness. There is also a more romantic reason of him wanting to search for an old flame who he hopes would run into him, if luck is on his side. Thus, all the time his eyes keep searching for that familiar face while he drives through the good and bad wonders of the city.

As a part of his routine, Hero chances into a hapless (and kind) prostitute more than once, and forges a friendly relationship with her. He also meets a struggling playback singer who somehow reminds him of his flame who he wants to reconnect with quite badly. There is also a kind Christian landlady with whom he shares a lovely bond. It is through these relationships that Hero's thoughts and conflicts are brought to the fore.

The city of Mumbai plays a crucial role in binding the narrative. The recent Aamir Khan film Dhobi Ghat shares some other similarities with this thirty-five-year-old forgotten work. People who have been to Mumbai will find it interesting to see all their favourite places from the town being given prominence in the film (without pushing the main context to the background). The film appears technically sound in spite of the apparent low budget.

Cast
Amol Palekar	... 	Dev / Hero
Zaheera	... 	Jyoti Sharma
Reena Roy	... 	Neelam
Rama Vij	... 	Prostitute
Jalal Agha	... 	RV
Anjali Paigankar
Asha Bhosle	... 	Singer
Aruna Irani	... 	Zarina
Mehmood Jr.
Lalita Pawar	... 	Mrs. D'Sa
Tun Tun	... 	Mother of 9 children (as Tuntun)
Dinesh Hingoo	... 	passenger in taxi

Banner : Radha Mohan Arts
Produced By Mrs. Pari A. V. Mohan
Directed by Irshad

Soundtrack
Music By Hemant Bhosle
Lyrics By Majrooh Sultanpuri

1. "JEEVAN MEIN HUM SAFAR" - Kishore Kumar & Rama Vij

2. "HUMEIN TO AAJ ISI BAAT PAR" - Asha Bhosle

3. "LAYI KAHAN HAI ZINDAGI" - Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle & Chorus

4. "BHAWRON KI GUN GUN" - Asha Bhosle

5. Title Song (Instrumental)

External links

1977 films
Films scored by Hemant Bhosle
1970s Hindi-language films

Taxi-Taxie


Bernard Ato V (died 1163) was the Viscount of Nîmes of the Trencavel family from 1129 to his death. He was then succeeded by his son and successor Bernard Ato VI.

In 1138, Bernard Ato swore an oath of fidelity to Alfonso Jordan, Count of Toulouse, along with his brothers Roger of Carcassonne and Raymond of Béziers. Nevertheless, because his father Bernard Ato IV had supported William IX of Aquitaine in his attempt to take Toulouse and because his lands controlled the roads between Alfonso's Languedocian and Provençal lands, Bernard Ato and Alfonso were fundamentally at odds. Alfonso even seized some castles in the vicinity of Nîmes itself.

Sources
Cheyette, Fredric L. Ermengard of Narbonne and the World of the Troubadours. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001.

1163 deaths
Occitan nobility
Trencavel
Year of birth unknown

Bernard Ato V


Ayub Khan is a compound masculine name; Ayub is the Arabic version of the name of the Biblical figure Job, while Khan or Khaan is  taken from the title used first by the Mongol rulers and then, in particular, their Islamic and Persian-influenced successors in South Asia, where the name is usually found, although Khan was being used before outside South Asia.

Given name
 Ayub Khan (Kipchak leader) (died 1117), ruler of the Kipchak tribal confederation.
 Ayub Khan (actor) (born 1969), Indian film and television actor best known for his role in the television series Uttaran.
 Ayub Khan (Emir of Afghanistan) (1857–1914), Emir of Afghanistan who fought against the British Empire in the  Second Anglo-Afghan War.
 Master Ayub, a Pakistani teacher who runs an open air, free of cost, school in Islamabad since 1986.
Ayub Khan Din (born 1961), British writer and actor.
Ayub Khan Ommaya (1930-2008), American neurosurgeon.

Surname
 Gohar Ayub Khan (born 1937), Pakistani military officer, businessman, and politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (1997–1998) and Speaker of the National Assembly (1990–1993); son of the President of Pakistan.
 Muhammad Ayub Khan (1907–1974), Pakistani military officer who served as President of Pakistan from 1958 to 1969 following his staging a coup d'état. Previously served as Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army (1951–1958) and Minister of Defence (1954–1955).
Omar Ayub Khan (born 1970), Pakistani politician,  a member of the National Assembly, son of Gohar Ayub Khan.

See also
Ayub (name)
Eyüp (name), Turkish variant

Pakistani masculine given names
Masculine given names

Ayub Khan


The Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, started in 1999, is an annual survey of public opinion in Scotland, funded by the public purse.

Conducted by the Scottish branch of NatCen Social Research, in conjunction with the Unit for the Study of Government in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh, it is largely funded by the Scottish Government and its agencies.

The 1999 survey also functioned as the Scottish Parliament Election Study.

2010 Survey
The 2010 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey core finding was that just 28% of respondents supported Scottish independence,  a lower level than in two recent social attitude studies. A majority support "devo max" (maximum devolution) with 60% of respondents wanting the Scottish Parliament to control Scotland's £18 billion welfare bill (including power over public pensions and benefits), and a majority (59%) also supported taxation levels being decided in Edinburgh rather than London.  This goes further than the conclusions of the Calman Report.

The survey found that most Scots only supported powers over defence, foreign affairs and monetary policy remaining with the UK Government.

References

Society of Scotland
Opinion polling in Scotland
1999 establishments in Scotland
Government research
Household surveys
Annual events in Scotland
Recurring events established in 1999

Scottish Social Attitudes Survey


The Border Rivers are a group of Australian rivers and the associated region near part of the state border between New South Wales and Queensland.

The rivers rise in the New England Tablelands bioregion and drain the western side of the Great Dividing Range as they collectively form part of the headwaters of the Darling River within the Murray-Darling basin.  The eastern boundary of the Border Rivers catchment area extends along the Great Dividing Range divide from  in the north, to  and , in the south. The western boundary of the region converges near the New South Wales town of . Collectively, the Border Rivers comprise a catchment area of .

The Border Rivers flows through lands previously occupied by the Kamilaroi and Bigambul and other indigenous people. The Morella Watercourse, Boobera Lagoon, and Pungbougal Lagoon located on the Macintyre River floodplain is considered one of the most important Aboriginal places in eastern Australia. As one of the few permanent waterbodies in the northern Murray-Darling basin the complex provides refuge for wildlife during periods of drought. Sundown National Park also has ecological significance, hosting eleven rare and threatened animals, five rare or vulnerable plant species and permanent waterholes supporting a diverse range of waterbirds and aquatic biota.

 the catchment supported a population of around 50,000 people. The main agricultural use of land is for grazing and dryland cropping, and this covers around ninety per cent of the catchment. Irrigation for the production of cotton occurs on the western plains between  and Mungindi.

Branches
For approximately , the Border Rivers form the border between New South Wales and Queensland, located in New South Wales between  at its most eastern point, to Mungindi at its most western point. Unhelpfully, several rivers have been given the same name to separate watercourses located in each state.

Queensland
Generally speaking the following rivers are considered to comprise part of the river group and region within Queensland:
Severn River (Queensland), draining the Stanthorpe district, and flowing into New South Wales
Pike Creek, including Glenlyon Dam, and flowing into New South Wales
Macintyre Brook, draining the  district, and flowing into New South Wales, near Yelarbon
Weir River, draining the Southern Downs district, and flowing into New South Wales, near Mungindi

New South Wales
The following rivers either mark the New South Wales boundary with Queensland, or are fully located within the state and are considered to comprise part of the river group and region:
Mole River, draining the  district
Dumaresq River, receiving flows from the Severn River (Queensland), Pike Creek, and the Mole River
Severn River (New South Wales), draining the  district, including the Pindari Dam
Macintyre River, receiving flows from the Severn River (New South Wales), and forming through the confluence of the Dumaresq River and Macintyre Brook. The Macintyre River variously flows in both New South Wales and Queensland

Within New South Wales, both the Macintyre and Weir rivers drain to become the Barwon River, a major tributary of the Darling River within the Murray-Darling basin.

The Dumaresq River forms the border between Queensland and New South Wales, generally south-east of Bonshaw and . The Macintyre River forms the border west of Boggabilla to Mungindi.

Towns
The main activities in the Border Rivers region is agriculture.  Crops are grown in areas with suitable conditions and the rest of the area is used for grazing.  Because the rivers are quite small and erratic in flow, there is only small-scale irrigation.

The largest town in the western part of the Border Rivers region is Goondiwindi where the Newell Highway crosses the Macintyre River at the state border. The towns of Stanthorpe, in Queensland and Tenterfield, Glen Innes in New South Wales lie along the New England Highway on the eastern edges of the Border Rivers Basin. Inverell lies to the west on the western edge of the New England Tablelands. The central part of the Border Rivers region is rather underpopulated with no large towns, major transport routes, or significant industries other than agriculture.  Small towns in the region include , Inglewood, , , Bonshaw, .

See also

 List of rivers of New South Wales
 Rivers of Queensland

References

Attribution
 Required attribution: © Commonwealth of Australia.

External links

 Gywdir & Border Rivers catchment management agency -  NSW Government website

Rivers of New South Wales
Rivers of Queensland
Regions of New South Wales
Regions of Queensland
Borders of New South Wales
Borders of Queensland
Murray-Darling basin
Southern Downs Region
Moree Plains Shire
Armidale Regional Council
Uralla Shire
Tenterfield Shire

Border Rivers


The family name Whelan  is an anglicisation of the Irish surname Ó Faoláin. The surname originates from the Middle Irish  (plural Uí Faeláin) the name of the 10th to 11th century ruling dynasty of the Déisi, a population group inhabiting the area of the modern county of Waterford and County Kilkenny in the early medieval period.

The word  is derived from the Old Irish word faelán meaning a young (small) wolf; -án being of the diminutive suffix in Irish. Ó (anglicised as O') derives from the Old Irish úa, meaning "grandson", or more figuratively "patrilineal descendant". The patronym that follows is always in the genitive case, in accordance with Irish grammatical rules, and is normally marked by an "i" following the final vowel. Therefore, the name Faelán, becomes Úa Faeláin as a patronym in Middle Irish, from which is derived Ó Faoláin in Modern Irish, of which in turn Whelan, Phelan, O'Phelan etc. are anglicisations.

According to the legendary history of Ireland, about 300 A.D., the Déisi settled on the site of Dungarvan, County Waterford. In the 12th and 13th centuries, during the early Anglo-Norman period, records of a political nature relating to the Déisi and the descendants of the Uí Faeláin dynastic group decline.

The Faelán referred to is Faelán mac Cormac, who is recorded in the Annals of Inishfallen as having succeeded his father as king of the Déisi in 966. The first person referred to as úa Faeláin is his grandson Mothla mac Domnall, or Mothla úa Faeláin, who was king of the Déisi until his death at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, and whose head is recorded in the Annals of Ulster as having been interred with Brian Ború in Armagh. During this period however, Irish patronyms had not yet petrified into surnames proper.

According to the Annals of the Four Masters:

The Age of Christ, 1170.

M1170.11

Robert Fitz Stephen and Richard, son of Gilbert, i.e. Earl Strongbow, came from England into Ireland with a numerous force, and many knights and archers, in the army of Mac Murchadha [Dermot MacMurrough], to contest Leinster for him, and to disturb the Irish of Ireland in general; and Mac Murchadha gave his daughter to the Earl Strongbow for coming into his army. They took Loch Garman [Wexford town; a stone walled Norse settlement], and entered Port-Lairge [Waterford town; a Norse settlement] by force; and they took Gillemaire, the officer of the fortress, and Ua Faelain, lord of the Deisi, and his son, and they killed seven hundred persons there.

By the beginning of the thirteenth century, most of the territory of the Déisi was absorbed into the Anglo-Norman colony. The surname Whelan remains common in County Waterford and in the adjoining part of Co. Kilkenny, particularly in the barony of Iverk.

The earliest anglicised forms of the Ó Faoláin name were Felan, Faelan, Hyland, with many other similar variants, including Whelan and Phelan in Cos Waterford and Kilkenny. Whelan and Whalen are the most prevalent forms in modern times, and combined are placed seventy-ninth in the list of the hundred most common surnames in Ireland. With Phelan added, the name takes forty-fourth place. Another meaning for Whelan was originated from the earliest version of Irish, the meaning was "clan of the wolf".

Whelans
 Aileen Whelan – English footballer
 Anto Whelan – Irish footballer
 Arleen Whelan – American actress
 Bill Whelan – composer of Riverdance
 Brian Whelan – painter, author and filmmaker; paintings in public/private collections worldwide; 3 books published and one film in the UK National Gallery of Art
 Charles Wheelan – American author
 Charlie Whelan – served as a special advisor in Her Majesty's Treasury under Gordon Brown
 Chris Whelan – Middlesex cricketer
 Christine Whelan – American author, journalist and commentator
 Ciara Whelan - Irish television presenter
 Ciarán Whelan – Irish Gaelic footballer
 Dave Whelan – Former professional footballer with Blackburn Rovers and the current owner of Wigan Athletic
 David Whelan – English golf instructor and former golfer
 Dutee A. Whelan, American politician
 Edward Whelan – Canadian politician
 Edward Whelan – A member of the O'Shea and Whelan family
 Elizabeth Whelan – American author, epidemiologist, and consumer advocate
 Emily Whelan – Irish footballer
 Eugene Whelan – Canadian politician
 Fern Whelan – English footballer
 Gary Whelan – actor (played Brendan Kearney in Ballykissangel amongst other things)
 Gavan Whelan – drummer for the band James
 Gemma Whelan – English actress and comedian
 George J. Whelan – former mayor of San Francisco
 Glenn Whelan – Republic of Ireland international footballer
 Gloria Whelan – American author, winner of the National Book Award for Children's Literature (2000)
 Hannah Whelan – British gymnast, competed at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics
 Heather Whelan - Irish cricketer
 James R. Whelan - journalist and educator
 Jill Whelan – American actress
 Jim Whelan (1948–2017) - American politician
 John W. Whelan- American politician
 Jordan Whelan – American musician
 Julia Whelan – American actress
 Leo Whelan (1892–1956) - Irish painter
 Liam Whelan – former Manchester United footballer who died in the Munich Air Disaster. Also known as Billy Whelan
 Máire Whelan – Attorney General of Ireland
 Marcus Whelan – Australian Rules footballer
 Marty Whelan- Irish radio personality
 Matthew Whelan – Indigenous Australian Rules footballer
 Michael Whelan – American artist
 Nicky Whelan – Australian actress from Neighbours
 Noel Whelan – Former Premiership footballer
 Nuala O'Faolain – Irish journalist
 Patrick J. Whelan – Visionary pioneer of financial electronic platforms
 Patrick J. Whelan – tailor who was hanged for assassinating D'Arcy McGee
 Patrick Whelan - Irish volunteer killed in the Easter Rising of 1916
 Paul Whelan (politician) (1943–2019), New South Wales state politician
 Paul F. Whelan, Irish academic
 Paul Whelan (security director), US citizen and corporate security director arrested in Russia in late 2018 on accusations of being a spy
 Peter Whelan - academic lawyer
 Ronnie Whelan – played for Liverpool Football Club and is the son of Ronnie Whelan, Sr. who was also a footballer
 Seán Ó Faoláin – born John Francis Whelan, writer
 Thomas Whelan – Irish IRA Volunteer, one of The Forgotten Ten
 Thomas J. Whelan – Irish-American mayor
 Thomas J. Whelan – American judge
 Tom Whelan – American football player
 Tommy Whelan – American football player
 Tony Whelan – former Manchester United footballer
 Wendy Whelan – American ballet dancer and associate artistic director of New York City Ballet
 Donan Whelan- Actor and restaurant manager

Characters
 Abby Whelan - fictional character on Scandal

See also
 Wheelan (surname)

References

 Annals of the Four Masters

Surnames
Irish families
Surnames of Irish origin
English-language surnames
Anglicised Irish-language surnames

Whelan


The Old Stone House is a house located in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The Old Stone House is situated within the J. J. Byrne Playground, at Washington Park, on Third Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues. Gowanus Creek once ran nearby, but today the southeastern branch of the Gowanus Canal ends  west of the house.

The current structure is a 1933 reconstruction, using some original materials, of the Vechte–Cortelyou House, which was destroyed in 1897. The original house was an important part of the 1776 Battle of Long Island during the American Revolutionary War.

At one time, the Old Stone House was the clubhouse of the Brooklyn Superbas, who later became the Brooklyn Dodgers.  The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

First house

The current Old Stone House is a replica, using some unearthed original materials, of a Dutch stone farmhouse originally built adjacent to the current site by the Dutch immigrant Claes Arentson Vechte, or his son Hendrick, in 1699. It is also known as the Vechte–Cortelyou House.  The Vechte family farmed the lands around the house, harvested oysters in Gowanus Creek and ferried their produce down the creek to Gowanus Bay and then to lower Manhattan. The house was rented in 1766 by Isaac Cortelyou, but later returned to Vechte. It was then inherited in 1779 by Nicholas Cowenhoven, who sold it in 1790 to Jacques Cortelyou. Cortelyou's son, Peter, later received it as a wedding gift from his father.

Battle of Long Island

On August 27, 1776, the house was an important location in the Battle of Long Island during the American Revolutionary War - the first major engagement of the Continental Army after the Declaration of Independence, and the largest battle of the entire war.

On that day at 9:00 am, George Washington arrived from Manhattan. having been informed that the British were close to a breakthrough of American lines. Washington realized that he had been completely fooled by a deceptive feint by the British on Long Island and he ordered more troops to Brooklyn from Manhattan. On the American right, to the west, Colonial General Stirling still held the line against Grant. Stirling held on for four hours, still unaware of the British flanking maneuver to his east, and some of his own troops thought they were winning the day because the British had been unable to take their position. This was intentional by the British. At 11:00 am, however, British General Grant, reinforced by 2,000 Royal marines, hit Stirling's center and Stirling was attacked on his left by the Hessians. Stirling pulled back but British troops were, at this point, coming at him in his rear south down the Gowanus Road. The only escape route left was across a Brouwer' Millpond on the Gowanus Creek which was 80 yards wide, on the other side of which was Brooklyn Heights.

Maryland 400
Stirling ordered all of his troops, except a contingent of Maryland troops under the command of Major Mordecai Gist, to cross the creek. This group of Maryland troops became known to history as the Maryland 400, although they numbered about 260–270 men. Stirling and Gist led the troops in a rear-guard action against the overwhelming numbers of British troops which surpassed 2,000 troops supported by two cannon. Stirling and Gist led the Marylanders in two attacks against the British, who were in fixed positions in and in front of the Vechte–Cortelyou House (known today as Old Stone House). After the last assault the remaining troops retreated across the Gowanus Creek. Some of the men who tried to cross the marsh were bogged down in the mud under musket fire and others who could not swim were captured. Stirling was surrounded and, unwilling to surrender to the British, broke through the British lines to von Heister's Hessians and surrendered to them.  256 Maryland troops were killed in the assaults in front of the Old Stone House and fewer than a dozen made it back to the American lines. Washington, watching from a redoubt on nearby Cobble Hill, at the intersection of today's Court Street and Atlantic Avenue, was reported to have said, "Good God, what brave fellows I must this day lose!".

The 256 dead troops of the Maryland 400 were buried by the British in a mass grave on a hillock on farmer Adrian Van Brunt's land on the outskirts of the marsh. It was from this battle that Maryland gained its nickname "The Old Line State". This mass grave is believed to be around the southwest corner of what is today 3rd Ave. between 7th and 8th Streets. After its capture, the house was used as an artillery position by an estimated 2,000 British and hired Hessian soldiers who fired on the Americans, who had already suffered disastrous losses and were fleeing from the east to the American forts across the Gowanus Creek to the west. Some four hundred soldiers of the Maryland Brigade under Colonel William Smallwood regained the house twice that day, but were finally repulsed by the British, with very heavy casualties.

Nicholas Vechte, grandson of Claes, lived in the Old Stone House during the American Revolutionary War under the British occupation. Upon his death in 1779, the farm he willed to his grandson, Nicholas R. Cowenhoven.  In 1797, Cowenhoven sold the house to Jacques Cortelyou, who purchased it for the use of his newly married son, Peter. Peter's son Jacques inherited the house in 1815. His family was the last to live in the Old Stone House.

After the death of his wife, Jacques Cortelyou sold the property to Edwin Litchfield, a railroad developer, in 1852. Litchfield lived in Litchfield Villa, now the Brooklyn headquarters of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Litchfield was the major landowner of the farmland in the area at that time and sold much of his land to the city for the creation of Prospect Park.

Baseball clubhouse
After the Litchfield purchase The Old Stone House remained standing another forty years and was occupied by a caretaker during that period.  It also served as a club house for a winter skating team, and then for the professional baseball team called the Brooklyn Superbas, which would later be known as the Brooklyn Dodgers before their move to Ebbets Field. The Old Stone House sits on the site of the original Washington Park, and across Fourth Avenue from the second Washington Park, two of the oldest professional baseball stadiums in New York. The left-center field wall from the second Washington Park is still visible on Third Avenue between First and Third Streets.

Current house and museum
The land that the house was on was purchased by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation in 1923 and the house, which had been razed and burned in 1897, was excavated in 1933. Half of the house was below street level when the level of Fourth Avenue had been graded up at the end of the nineteenth century. The house was reconstructed in 1934 for use as a rest room, using many of the original stones, though it was moved slightly from its original location. It underwent additional restoration in the 1970s and 1990s and was established as a memorial to the Battle of Long Island due to the efforts of members of the First Battle Revival Alliance.  To honor the memory of the Maryland Continentals, the flag of Maryland flies from the house.

Today, the Old Stone House Historic Interpretive Center is operated by the Old Stone House of Brooklyn (OSH), a not-for-profit corporation, under license from the Parks Department. In addition to an exhibit on the battle, OSH offers a full program of school visits on subjects related to the history of the house and the battle and an extensive schedules of concerts, readings, lectures and other events. It is also used for a variety of events including a summer camp, Piper Theatre, and one-off events such as a sing-a-long to the musical Hamilton.

See also
 Battle Hill
 Battle Pass
 Revolutionary War Heritage Trail

References
Notes

Bibliography
Lengel, Edward G. General George Washington: A Military Life New York: Random House, 2005.
McCullough, David. 1776. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.

External links

Old Stone House at New York City Department of Parks and Recreation website
Old Stone House at Historic House Trust website

American Revolutionary War museums in New York (state)
Dutch-American culture in New York City
History of Brooklyn
Historic house museums in New York City
New York (state) in the American Revolution
Museums in Brooklyn
Park Slope
Stone houses in New York (state)
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Brooklyn
Houses completed in 1935
Colonial Revival architecture in New York City
American Revolution on the National Register of Historic Places
Replica buildings

Old Stone House (Brooklyn)


Bat Yam ( ) is a ceety locatit on Israel's Mediterranean Sea coast, on the central coastal strip, juist sooth o Tel Aviv.  Pairt o the Gush Dan metropolitan aurie, in the Tel Aviv Destrict, the ceety haed a population o  in .

History

Early history
Bat Yam wis establisht in 1926 as Bayit VaGan (; Hoose an Garden), an wis geared toward Orthodox Jews. Durin the 1929 Palestine riots, Bayit VaGan came unner attacks bi Arab gangs frae neighbourin Jaffa an wis evacuatit bi Breetish Authorities afore bein reestablisht in 1930. In 1936 the toun wis gien the status o local cooncil, an in 1938, the name o the toun wis chyngit tae Bat Yam. Bi 1945 the population haed grown tae 2000 Jews.

Israeli Unthirldom
Follaein the Unitit Naitions vote in favour o a pairtition plan on 29 November 1947 an the subsequent ootbreak o violence, Bat Yam came unner hivy attack frae Jaffa, till Jaffa surrendered on 13 Mey 1948.

In the years follaein Israel's unthirldom, Bat Yam grew dramatically due tae mass immigration, gainin the status o a ceety in 1958. A sma Hasidic enclave o Bobover Hasidim, kent as Kiryat Bobov, wis established in 1959. Efter this pynt, housomeivver, Bat Yam began tae suffer frae an Israeli version o "white flicht". As mair an mair immigrants moved tae the ceety, socio-economic problems began tae appear. Relatively law real estate prices an a biggin boom durin the 1970s an 1980s, saw even mair migrants frae lawer socio-economic strata, mainly seicont- an third generation descendants o Jewish immigrants frae Arab kintras muive intae the ceety. As a result, middle-class veteran indwallers o Bat Yam stairtit tae muive oot, primarily tae the newer suburbs o Rishon LeZion, a boomtoun sooth o Bat Yam.

The ceety gained a sizeable community o Jews frae Turkey (est. 23% o the population) an haes therefore hostit visits frae the Turkish preses, Süleyman Demirel, an prime meenister, Tansu Çiller.

Recent history

Bat Yam ance again experienced a period o rapid growthe early 1990s wi the mass-immigration frae the umwhile Soviet Union leadin tae mony choosin Bat Yam as thair new hame due tae its proximity tae the industrial centres o the kintra, an relatively law real estate prices. The influx o Roushies an Georgians, housomeivver, did nothin tae help the ceety's socio-economic crisis, an bi the early 2000s, follaein financial scandals resultin frae the declinin local leadership led bi Yehoshua Saguy, the ceety wis placed at the brink o bankruptcy.

In 2003 a new mayor, Shlomo Lahiani, wis electit an the ceety began tae rejuvenate, wi some auries haein awready been transformed. While some pairts o the ceety which still suffer frae the issues which plagued the whole o this ceety juist a few years ago, Bat Yam oweraw haes stairtit tae lose its image o the "poor suburb", thanks tae lairge investments in eddication, cultur an the appearance o the ceety. In 2008 the Bat-Yam Internaitional Biennale o Landscape Urbanism, which is devotit tae re-examinin urban spaces throu airt an airchitectur, wis held for the first time. In 2010 the seicont Biennale, "Timing" teuk place, which featurt site-specific installations frae designers an architects frae aroond the warld.

Notable Sites

Hotels
 4* "Mercure Hotel"
 3* "Armon Yam Hotel"
 "Colony Beach" apairtments hotel
 2 anither motels

Shoppin Malls
 "Kanyon Bat Yam" - 3 story shoppin mall. Ane o the first malls in Israel which wis opened in 1993. It includes 150 shops on size o 23,000 square meters. In the mall ye can an aa fynd a cinema, restaurants zone, banks, pairkin lot an fitness club.
 "Kanyon Bat Yamon" - 4 story, includes pairkin lot.

Ither notable places
 "Gan Ha'Ir" - The lairgest pairk in the ceety.
 "Sportek" sports center.
 Bat Yam cultural centre wi 570 seats concert hall.
 Kintra Club.
 3 Libraries
 3 Museums
 Bat Yam Auditorium

Tourism
The location o Bat Yam on the Mediterranean maks it popular wi beach-goers. Bat Yam haes 3.2 kilometers lang promenade alang the ocean wi a lot o pubs an restaurants an sax beaches, ane o which is protectit bi a 300 meter diameter breakwater. Thare are an aa 3 big hotels an anither ane is unner construction. Furthermore the ceety haes several museums, includin the MOBY, the Museum o Bat Yam, which haulds contemporary, cuttin-edge airt installations, the Bat Yam City Museum "Ben Ari", the Museum "Ryback" wi a collection o paintins o the painter, Issachar Ber Ryback. Thare is an' a' a museum in the memory o the Yiddish writer Sholem Asch who lived his last years in Bat Yam, an a smaw Holocaust museum.

Bus service
Bat Yam is served bi bus anerlie.

Bein an integral pairt o the Gush Dan metropolitan aurie, Bat Yam haes nae bus lines leemitit tae the ceety borders. Aw bus lines in Bat Yam hae at least ane terminus in Tel Aviv, Rishon LeZion or Holon.

Dan is the biggest bus company in the aurie. It operates frequent service tae various neighborhuids o Tel Aviv, an an' a' connects Bat Yam tae Holon, Rishon LeZion, Ramat Gan, Giv'atayim, Bnei Brak, Tel HaShomer an Bar Ilan University.

Egged connects Bat Yam tae various neighborhuids o Holon an Rishon LeZion, an an' a' operates service tae Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ramla, Ben Gurion Internaitional Airport (pairt-time service) an intermediate communities.

In the sooth o the ceety thare is a big bus terminal o "Dan" company. Thare are an aa several Taxi stations aroond the ceety.

Rail transport
The Bat Yam-Yoseftal Railway Station wis opened in 2011 as pairt o the new Tel Aviv – Rishon LeZion Wast line. Bat Yam will an aa be the terminus for the reid line o the Tel Aviv Licht Rail.

Politics an govrenment

Sport

The ceety's major fitbaa club, Maccabi Ironi Bat Yam, currently play in Liga Leumit, the third level o Israeli fitbaa. The club wis formed bi a 2004 merger o Hapoel Bat Yam (which haed spent several saisons in the seicont diveesion in the 1990s) an Maccabi Bat Yam.

Bat Yam´s Al Gal beach is regardit tae be ane o the best surfin spots in the region, haein fairly consistent surf conditions, especially durin the simmer months.

Internaitional relations

Twin touns - Sister ceeties

Bat Yam is twinned wi:
 Kragujevac, Serbie
 Livorno, Italy
 Antalya, Turkey
 Kutno, Poland
 Villeurbanne, Fraunce
 Valparaíso, Chile
 Aurich, Germany
 Neukölln, Berlin, Germany
 Salinas, Ecuador

References

Freemit airtins

Offeecial wabsteid
Surfing in Bat-Yam

Populatit places established in 1926
Jewish veelages in Mandatory Palestine

Populatit coastal places in Israel
Ceeties in Tel Aviv Destrict
1926 establishments in Mandatory Palestine
1929 Palestine riots

Bat Yam


The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is a professional human resources membership association headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. SHRM promotes the role of HR as a profession and provides education, certification, and networking to its members, while lobbying Congress on issues pertinent to labor management.

History
Founded in 1948 as the American Society for Personnel Administration (ASPA), the organization operated on a volunteer basis until 1964, when it established headquarters in Berea, Ohio, and began hiring staff members. In 1984, the headquarters was moved to Alexandria, Virginia, and in 1989, the organization changed its name to the Society for Human Resource Management.

The association has more than 575 chapters worldwide, and more than 400 staff members. In 2022, SHRM acquired Linkage Inc. and CEO Academy, now serving nearly 325,000 members in 165 countries. The president and chief executive officer is Johnny C. Taylor Jr.

Research
The organization's Survey Research Center researches workplace issues and their implications for the HR professional and business leaders. Among its products are the annual Employee Benefits Survey and Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Survey and the monthly Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) report.  SHRM conducts research for organizations.

In 2019, SHRM released its report, "The High Cost of a Toxic Workplace Culture". The company polled American employees in order to determine the impact of culture on workers' well-being and business' financial health. According to the report, 20% of employees left their jobs between 2014 and 2019 because of toxic workplace cultures. Partly to combat these issues, SHRM designed its People Manager Qualification learning and development program.

On February 16, 2022, SHRM presented the report ''State of the Workplace Study'', which includes a look back at U.S. workplaces and gauges what went well and where organizations struggled throughout 2021, and it also includes a look at future trends in U.S. workplaces.

Conferences
SHRM holds annual conferences and regional student conferences. The individual state conferences are organized by SHRM's State Councils.

Lobbying activity
SHRM lobbies governmental bodies regarding workplace law and industry practice. For example, in April 2008, SHRM announced in a press release that its representatives had appeared before the US Senate to petition for changes in the administration of the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The organization announced in the November 2003 issue of its HR Magazine that it had submitted a position paper to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suggesting factors the agency should consider when determining how to amend the definition of the term "job applicant" for the purposes of record keeping required by companies in order to comply with affirmative action and anti-discrimination laws.

In 2003, SHRM conducted an e-mail survey of its members to gauge the effectiveness of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)  It presented the results of this survey to the EEOC at a meeting on September 8, 2003.

In November 2006, the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) of the U.S. Department of Labor established an alliance with SHRM to encourage and promote the employment of people with disabilities.

In 2015 and 2016, SHRM worked to oppose the United States Department of Labor's Fair Labor Standards Overtime regulation. The rule greatly increases the salary under which employees are eligible for overtime and the number of the employees who qualify for it.

COVID-19 pandemic

In May 2020, SHRM joined with branded content studio Heve to produce a commercial targeted at SHRM employees and the American workforce at large. SHRM president and CEO, Johnny C. Taylor Jr., was featured in the video. The commercial was entirely self-shot from actors' homes. Its focus was on reassuring everyone that SHRM would continue supporting employees and companies.

Products and services
SHRM offers two membership options: SHRM Professional Membership and SHRM Global Online Membership. This first is available to U.S.-based and global professionals, the second only to professionals outside the U.S. Members have access to HR news, document samples and templates, compliance resources, community chats, and advisors.

The society also offers two main certifications: the SHRM Certified Professional Certification and the SHRM Senior Certified Professional Certification.

See also
 List of human resource management associations

References

External links

1948 establishments in the United States
Professional associations based in the United States
Organizations established in 1948
Human resource management associations
Lobbying firms
Organizations based in Alexandria, Virginia
Human resource management
Professional networks

Society for Human Resource Management


Razmak is one of the three sub-divisions of North Waziristan Agency, the other two being Miranshah and Mirali. Inhabitants are Uthmanzai Wazirs. Razmak is further sub-divided in three Tehsils. Tehsil being the lowest administrative unit in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan. The three tehsils of Razmak are Razmak, Datta Khel and Garhyom. Datta Khel and Garyom are low lying areas with a permanent population and a hot and dry climate. Tehsil Razmak is hilly and colder. It is pleasant in summers, but snow clad in the winters.

Tehsils of North Waziristan District

Razmak Tehsil


NGC 3603-B (HD 97950B) is a Wolf-Rayet star located at the centre of the HD 97950 cluster in the NGC 3603 star-forming region. It is about 20,000 light years from Earth. It has the spectral type of WN6h and is among the most luminous and massive stars known. WN6 indicates that there are ionized nitrogen lines that are strong in comparison to the ionized carbon lines. NGC 3603 is 132 times the mass of the Sun. It has a luminousity of 2,900,000. Although the star is very young, 1.5 million years old, it has lost a considerable fraction of it's initial masses.

Stars

NGC 3603-B


Ben-Zion Witler (1907–1961), also Ben-Tsion Vitler, BenZion Wittler, was a Jewish singer, actor, coupletist, comedian and composer.

Early life
At the age of six Witler moved with his family from Belz, Galisia, to Vienna, where he received a strict Chasidic religious upbringing.

Career
In 1919, at the age of 12, he joined the Freie jüdische Volksbühne theater in Vienna (1919–1922; no connection to the New York Folksbiene), secretly and under an alias, fearing his family's reaction. He worked briefly as a journalist at the German Zionist weekly Wiener Morgenzeitung (Vienna Morning Times), but in 1926 returned to the Vienna theater scene, performing in comedies and operettas, studying opera repertoire with Yulianovsky and Fuchs, touring (Paris, London, South Africa, France and Vienna).

Witler spent three years in Poland in the mid-1930s, becoming a "public darling." In 1937 he appeared in Riga in A Khasene in Shtetl and The Galitzian Wedding by William Siegel. Some of his many other starring roles were in Yanko the Gypsy, A Millionaire's Caprice, The American Litvak, The Brave Officer, The Bandit Gentleman, The Strength of Love, The Bride with Three Brothers, The Golden Bridegroom, The Threshold of Joy, It's Hard to be a Jew by Sholom Aleichem, Ansky's The Dybbuk, Jacob Mikhailovich Gordin's God, Man and Devil, and David Pinski's Yankel the Smith.

Starting in 1940 he toured the U.S., playing at NYC's Hopkinson Theater in Siegel's Forgotten Women and Chicago's Douglas Theater in Siegel's A Golden Dream. In 1946 he toured Argentina, at Buenos Aires Mitre Theater in Kalmanovitsh's "Home Sweet Home." He performed with Argentinian-born actress Shifra Lerer, his wife, through North and South America, Israel, and South Africa through the 1950s.

Recorded songs
He recorded hundreds of songs; his hits included:
 Gelibte (Beloved)
 Dzhankoye
 Varshe (Warsaw)
 Akhtsik er, zibetsik zi (He's 80, She's 70)
 Byalostok
 Mayn alte heym
 Oyfn veg shteyt a boym
 Leb un Lakh
 Krokhmalne Gas
 Zing, Brider, Zing!
 Belz
Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen (Raisens and Almonds)

References

Further reading
Dr. Khariton Berman, Yiddish Forward April 14, 1995, "Der Groyser Yiddisher Aktior, Ben Tsion Witler; Tsu Zayn Nintsikstn Geboyrn Yor".

External links
Guide to the Papers of Shifra Lerer and Ben-Zion Witler, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, NY

A couple of his albums on YouTube

1907 births
1961 deaths
20th-century Polish Jews
Jewish cabaret performers
Polish cabaret performers
Polish Zionists
Jewish composers
Jewish songwriters
Yiddish-language singers
Yiddish theatre performers
20th-century Polish poets
20th-century Polish  male singers
20th-century comedians
Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United States

Ben-Zion Witler