Juventus

Juventus

Juventus Football Club (from Latin: iuventūs, "youth"; Italian pronunciation: [juˈvɛntus]), colloquially known as Juve (pronounced [ˈjuːve]),  is an Italian professional association football club based in Turin, Piedmont. Founded in 1897 by a group of Torinese students, the club has worn a black and white striped home kit since 1903 and has played home matches in different grounds around its city, the latest being the 41,507-capacity Juventus Stadium. Nicknamed Vecchia Signora ("the Old Lady"), the club has won 35 official league titles, 13 Coppa Italia titles and eight Supercoppa Italiana titles, being the record holder for all these competitions; two Intercontinental Cups, two European Cups / UEFA Champions Leagues, one European Cup Winners' Cup, a joint national record of three UEFA Cups, two UEFA Super Cups and a joint national record of one UEFA Intertoto Cup.  Consequently, the side leads the historical Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC) ranking whilst on the international stage occupies the 5th position in Europe and the eleventh in the world for most confederation titles won with eleven trophies, having led the UEFA ranking during seven seasons since its inception in 1979, the most for an Italian team and joint second overall.

Founded with the name of Sport-Club Juventus, initially as an athletics club,  it is the second oldest of its kind still active in the country after Genoa's football section (1893) and has competed uninterruptedly in the top flight league (reformulated as Serie A from 1929) since its debut in 1900 after changing its name to Foot-Ball Club Juventus, with the exception of the 2006–07 season, being managed by the industrial Agnelli family almost continuously since 1923.  The relationship between the club and that dynasty is the oldest and longest in national sports, making Juventus one of the first professional sporting clubs ante litteram in the country,  having established itself as a major force in the national stage since the 1930s and at confederation level since the mid-1970s  and becoming one of the first ten wealthiest in world football in terms of value, revenue and profit since the mid-1990s,  being listed on the Borsa italiana since 2001. 

Under the management of Giovanni Trapattoni, the club won 13 trophies in the ten years before 1986, including six league titles and five international titles, and became the first to win all three seasonal competitions organised by the Union of European Football Associations: the 1976–77 UEFA Cup (first Southern European side to do so), the 1983–84 Cup Winners' Cup and the 1984–85 European Cup.  With successive triumphs in the 1984 European Super Cup and 1985 Intercontinental Cup, it became the first and thus far only in the world to complete a clean sweep of all confederation trophies; an achievement that they revalidated with the title won in the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup after another successful era led by Marcello Lippi,  becoming in addition the only professional Italian club to have won every ongoing honour available to the first team and organised by a national or international football association. In December 2000, Juventus was ranked seventh in the FIFA's historic ranking of the best clubs in the world  and nine years later was ranked second best club in Europe during the 20th Century based on a statistical study series by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS), the highest for an Italian club in both. 

The club's fan base is the largest at national level and one of the largest worldwide.  Unlike most European sporting supporters' groups, which are often concentrated around their own club's city of origin,  it is widespread throughout the whole country and the Italian diaspora, making Juventus a symbol of anticampanilismo ("anti-parochialism") and italianità ("Italianness").  Juventus players have won eight Ballon d'Or awards, four of these in consecutive years (1982–1985, an overall record), among these the first player representing Serie A, Omar Sívori, as well as Michel Platini and three of the five recipients with Italian nationality as the former member of the youth sector Paolo Rossi; they have also won four FIFA World Player of the Year awards, with winners as Roberto Baggio and Zinédine Zidane, a national record and third and joint second highest overall, respectively, in the cited prizes. Additionally, players representing the club have won 11 Serie A Footballer of the Year awards including the only goalkeeper to win it, Gianluigi Buffon, and 17 different players were inducted in the Serie A Team of the Year, being both also a record. Finally, the club has also provided the most players to the Italy national team—mostly in official competitions in almost uninterrupted way since 1924—who often formed the group that led the Azzurri squad to international success, most importantly in the 1934, 1982 and 2006 FIFA World Cups.

Juventus were founded as Sport-Club Juventus in late 1897 by pupils from the Massimo D'Azeglio Lyceum school in Turin, among them the brothers Eugenio and Enrico Canfari,  but were renamed as Foot-Ball Club Juventus two years later.  The club joined the Italian Football Championship in 1900. In 1904, the businessman Ajmone-Marsan revived the finances of the football club Juventus, making it also possible to transfer the training field from piazza d'armi to the more appropriate Velodrome Umberto I. During this period, the team wore a pink and black kit. Juventus first won the league championship in 1905 while playing at their Velodrome Umberto I ground. By this time the club colours had changed to black and white stripes, inspired by English side Notts County 

There was a split at the club in 1906, after some of the staff considered moving Juve out of Turin.  President Alfred Dick[c] was unhappy with this and left with some prominent players to found FBC Torino which in turn spawned the Derby della Mole.  Juventus spent much of this period steadily rebuilding after the split, surviving the First World War

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juventus_F.C.

Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj

Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (born December 8, 1982), better known as Nicki Minaj (/mɪˈnɑːʒ/), is a Trinidadian-born rapper, singer, songwriter, actress, and model.[3] Born in Saint James and raised in the Queens borough of New York City, she gained public recognition after releasing the mixtapes Playtime Is Over (2007), Sucka Free (2008), and Beam Me Up Scotty (2009).

After signing with Young Money Entertainment in 2009, Minaj released her first studio album, Pink Friday (2010), which peaked at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200, was ultimately certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).  Her second album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, was released in 2012 and debuted at No. 1 in several countries. Minaj made her film debut in the 2012 animated film Ice Age: Continental Drift. In 2013, she was a judge on the twelfth season of American Idol. Minaj's third studio album, The Pinkprint, was released in 2014. She subsequently played supporting roles in the films The Other Woman (2014) and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016). Her fourth studio album, Queen, was released in 2018.

Early in her career, Minaj was known for her colorful costumes and wigs. Her rapping is distinctive for its fast flow and the use of alter egos and accents, primarily British cockney.  She has accumulated the most entries among women of all genres on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  As a lead artist, she has earned multiple top-five entries on the Hot 100: "Super Bass" in 2011, "Starships" in 2012, and "Bang Bang" and "Anaconda", both in 2014. As a featured artist, Minaj topped the Hot 100 with the remix of Doja Cat's "Say So" in 2020. Minaj was ranked 15th on Billboard's list of the top artists of the 2010s—the highest female rap artist on the list. 

Cited as one of the most influential female rap artists of all time,  Minaj has received numerous accolades, including six American Music Awards, 11 BET Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, and two Billboard Women in Music Awards. She has also been nominated for 10 Grammy Awards. In 2016, Minaj was included on the annual Time list of the 100 most influential people in the world

Onika Tanya Maraj was born in Saint James on December 8, 1982, Her father, Robert Maraj, a financial executive and part-time gospel singer, is of Dougla (Afro-Trinidadian mother and Indo-Trinidadian father) descent.  Her mother, Carol Maraj, is also a gospel singer with Afro-Trinidadian ancestry.  Carol worked in payroll and accounting departments during Minaj's youth.  Minaj's father was addicted to alcohol and other drugs, and had a violent temper, burning down their house in December 1987.  She has an elder brother named Jelani, an older sister named Maya, a younger brother named Micaiah, and a younger sister named Ming. 

As a small child, Minaj and a sibling lived with her grandmother in Saint James.  Her mother, who had moved to The Bronx in New York City to attend Monroe College,  brought the family to Queens when Minaj was five.  By then, the family had a house on 147th Street.  Minaj recalled, "I don't think I had a lot of discipline in my household. My mom motivated me, but it wasn't a strict household. I kind of wanted a strict household."  Minaj successfully auditioned for admission to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, which focuses on visual and performing arts.  After graduation, Minaj wanted to become an actress, and she was cast in the Off-Broadway play In Case You Forget in 2001. 

At the age of 19, as she struggled with her acting career, she worked as a waitress at a Red Lobster in the Bronx, but was fired for discourtesy to customers.  She said she was fired from "at least 15 jobs" for similar reasons

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicki_Minaj

Ray Ciccarelli

Ray Ciccarelli

Ray Ciccarelli (pronounced "siss-a-relli") (born January 20, 1970) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, driving the No. 49 Chevrolet Silverado for CMI Motorsports. He has also competed in what is now the ARCA Menards Series East and the ARCA Menards Series.  Ciccarelli has said he will retire at the end of the 2020 season due to the decisions by NASCAR banning the display of the Confederate flag from their sporting events

Ciccarelli drove part-time in the series in 2014, 2015, and 2016 for teams Carter 2 Motorsports, Kimmel Racing, Hamilton-Hughes Racing, and Hixson Motorsports. He started his own team, Ciccarelli Racing, for 2017. The team's first race came in the season-opener at Daytona where Ciccarelli finished 21st in his No. 38 Ford after a solid seventh-place qualifying run. The team returned at Talladega, although they used owner points from the full-time Hixson Motorsports No. 3 car to have a better shot of qualifying for the race (which they successfully did). Using that number instead of the No. 38 (which had only run Daytona), they picked up a thirteenth-place finish in the race. Ciccarelli had driven for the Hixson team in a few races in 2016.

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Ciccarelli

Jeremy Meeks

Jeremy Meeks

Jeremy Ray Meeks (born February 7, 1984) is an American fashion model. A former member of the Crips and a convicted felon, Meeks first came to prominence after his arrest in 2014 during a gang sweep called Operation Ceasefire in Stockton, California,  after which police posted his mug shot on Facebook. Meeks was convicted of federal charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and grand theft.  Upon his release from Mendota Federal Correctional Institution in March 2016,  Meeks began a modeling career

Meeks was born on February 7, 1984,  and is the son of Katherine Angier and brother of Emery Meeks. 

In 2002, Meeks was charged with robbery and corporal injury to a child. Meeks had violently assaulted a 16-year-old boy when he was 18. After taking a plea deal, he was sentenced to serve two years in a California prison, during which he admitted to claiming the North Side Gangster Crips. His mugshot was popular on social media leading him to modeling contracts after he got out of prison

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Meeks

Knowsley Safari Park

Knowsley Safari Park

Knowsley Safari Park is a safari park and tourist attraction in the Knowsley area of Merseyside, England. Knowsley Safari Park is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA). The safari park contributes to conservation and research through links with conservation projects  and its links with universities in Liverpool,  Chester  and Manchester.

The park was opened in July 1971 by Edward Stanley, 18th Earl of Derby and Jimmy Chipperfield  using the expertise of general manager Laurence Tennant MBE, formerly the Chief Game Warden of Parks in Uganda and Botswana.  Initially the road through the park was 3.5 miles (5.6 km), with visitors driving past lions, cheetahs, monkeys, giraffes, zebra, elephants and various antelope. Due to the popularity of this route, an additional 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of road was added in 1973, and camels, buffalo, white rhino, and tigers were added to the park. Over the years, a few modifications have been made. For instance, tigers are now displayed in enclosures within the reserve, and a bypass around the baboons was built for visitors who are worried about damage to their cars. 

The park was also home to a former RAF airfield which closed at the end of World War II. The RAF airbase situated at the safari park was also known as No 49 SLG or RAF Knowsley Park and was in use between 13 May 1942 – November 1944. 

The park has hosted several sporting events including the Olympic torch relay, watched by 6,000 children and families in June 2012.  The park hosted the finish of Stage Two of the 2012 Tour of Britain cycling event and hosted Stage Three of the 2013 Tour in September of that year. 

Most recently it hosted the final leg of Big Learner Relay 2017 which has raised over £300,000 for the BBC Children in Need appeal since 2014. Louise Walsh the inspiration behind the BLR has been awarded the prime minister's points of light award which recognises outstanding individual volunteers.

In 1995 Mr William Middleton, a warden at the park, was crushed and paralysed due to a faulty elephant enclosure. Mr Middleton died 12 years later due to complications caused by his injuries.

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowsley_Safari_Park

Demon Souls

Demon Souls

Demon's Souls  is an action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware for the PlayStation 3 under the supervision of SCE Japan Studio. It was published in Japan by Sony Computer Entertainment in February 2009, in North America by Atlus USA in October 2009, and in PAL territories by Namco Bandai Games in June 2010. The game is referred to as a spiritual successor to FromSoftware's King's Field series.

Demon's Souls is set in Boletaria, a kingdom consumed by a dark being called the Old One following its release through the use of forbidden Soul Arts. Players take on the role of a hero brought to Boletaria to kill its fallen king Allant and pacify the Old One. Gameplay has players navigating five different worlds from a hub called the Nexus, with a heavy emphasis on challenging combat and mechanics surrounding player death and respawning. Online multiplayer allows both player cooperation and world invasions featuring player versus player combat.

The game's early development was troubled due to a lack of coherent vision. Despite such issues, FromSoftware staff member Hidetaka Miyazaki was able to take over the project and helped to turn the title into what it eventually became. The game's difficulty was intended to both evoke classic video games and provide a sense of challenge and accomplishment for players. This aspect proved demanding for Miyazaki, partly because of his fear that Sony would ask the team to lower the difficulty in order to make the game more accessible. The multiplayer elements were inspired by events in Miyazaki's life.

Announced in 2008, early reactions to Demon's Souls demo were seen as negative, and the game's high difficulty prompted Sony to pass on publishing the title outside of Japan. While the game met with middling reception and sales in Japan, it became a commercial and critical success in the West. The game was praised for its difficult combat and addictive gameplay, subsequently winning several awards. Its success began a series of related games, starting with Dark Souls in 2011. A remake for the PlayStation 5 by Bluepoint Games is under development.

Demon's Souls is an action role-playing game where players take on the role of an adventurer, whose gender and appearance are customized at the beginning of the game, exploring the cursed land of Boletaria. Aspects of the customization impact various statistics (stats) related to gameplay. :5 The player character is granted a starting character class, which further influences their stats, though they can be altered later in the game and effectively change a player's class combined with a different weapon choice. :22–23  The world is divided into six areas; the Nexus hub world and five additional worlds subdivided into four areas which each end in a boss encounter.  Combat is reliant on timing for weapon strikes and blocks, with different weapon types opening up a variety of combat options and altering the player's movement speed. Most actions drain a stamina meter, with its management forming a core part of combat.  By defeating an enemy, the player acquires Souls, which act as both experience points to raise various statistics; and the game's currency for purchasing new weapons, armor and items. As the player invests, the number of souls required increases.  Along with souls, players can retrieve items such as weaponry and ore for upgrading. :6

When a player is killed during a level, they are sent to the beginning of the level with all non-boss enemies re-spawned, while the player returns in soul form with lower maximum health and the loss of all unused souls.  After dying in an area, normal enemies respawn.  If the player manages to reach their bloodstain at the point where they were last killed, they regain their lost souls. However, if they are killed before then, the souls are lost permanently. Upon defeating a boss, the player can choose to re-spawn back to that location, marked in the form of an Archstone. When not exploring a level, players reside in the Nexus, a realm that acts as a hub where players can exchange souls, store items and travel between regions. After completing the initial portion of the first region, players can choose to progress through any other of the newly available regions. 

Demon's Souls make use of asynchronous multiplayer for those connected to the PlayStation Network. The game incorporates multiplayer elements into its single-player campaign. During gameplay, players briefly see the actions of other players as ghosts in the same area that may show hidden passages or switches. When a player dies, a bloodstain can be left in other players' game world that when activated can show a ghost playing out their final moments, indicating how that person died and potentially helping the player avoid the same fate. Players can leave pre-written messages on the floor that can also help others such as forewarning safe or hostile positions, trap locations and tactics against enemies or bosses, among general comments. Co-operative play allows up to three characters to team up in a host world where visiting players appear in soul form that can only be returned to their bodies when a boss is defeated. In competitive play, players can invade another world as a Black Phantom to engage in combat with the host player. If the Black Phantom kills the host, they can be returned to their body in their own game, whereas if killed themselves, the host gains a portion of the Black Phantom's souls as well as the phantom losing an experience level. :19–21  Some multiplayer elements are incorporated directly into gameplay events. 

Several mechanics in the game are covered by World and Character Tendency. Character Tendency impacts the entire game, while World Tendency only affects a particular region. :11 Character Tendency is influenced by a character's behaviour; starting from neutral, the player can shift their Tendency to black or white. Black tendency is triggered by actions such as killing NPCs and being antagonistic towards other players, in addition to dying repeatedly in a world. White tendency is born from helping others and being supportive to other players, and defeating bosses.  World Tendency exists separately from Character Tendency; black tendency raises the difficulty by increasing enemy health while giving more valuable rewards, while white tendency allows more item drops and makes enemies weaker at the cost of rare items. :11  World Tendency is also influenced by the overall Tendency of worlds on servers. At either end of the Tendency spectrum, exclusive events occur and new areas can be unlocked

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon%27s_Souls

Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth and broadcast on BBC2 in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The show was ranked first on a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, and in 2019 it was named the "greatest ever British TV sitcom" by a panel of comedy experts compiled by the Radio Times. 

The series is set in Fawlty Towers, a fictional hotel in the seaside town of Torquay on the "English Riviera". The plots centre on the tense, rude and put-upon owner Basil Fawlty (Cleese), his bossy wife Sybil (Prunella Scales), the sensible chambermaid Polly (Booth) who often is the peacemaker and voice of reason, and the hapless and English-challenged Spanish waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs), showing their attempts to run the hotel amidst farcical situations and an array of demanding and eccentric guests and tradespeople.

The idea of the show came from Cleese after he stayed at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, Devon in 1970 (along with the rest of the Monty Python troupe) where he encountered the eccentric hotel owner Donald Sinclair. Stuffy and snobbish, Sinclair treated guests as though they were a hindrance to his running of the hotel (a waitress who worked for him stated "it was as if he didn't want the guests to be there"). Sinclair was the inspiration for Cleese's character Basil Fawlty.

In 1980, Cleese received the BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance, and in a 2001 poll conducted by Channel 4 Basil Fawlty was ranked second on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters.  The popularity of Fawlty Towers has endured, and it is often re-broadcast.  The BBC profile for the series states, "the British sitcom by which all other British sitcoms must be judged, Fawlty Towers withstands multiple viewings, is eminently quotable ('don't mention the war'), and stands up to this day as a jewel in the BBC's comedy crown.

In May 1970, the Monty Python comedy group stayed at the now demolished Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, Devon while filming on location in Paignton.  John Cleese was fascinated with the behaviour of the owner, Donald Sinclair, later describing him as "the rudest man I've ever come across in my life".  Among such behaviour by Sinclair was his criticism of Terry Gilliam's "too American" table etiquette and tossing Eric Idle's briefcase out of a window "in case it contained a bomb"  Asked why would anyone want to bomb the hotel, Sinclair replied, “We’ve had a lot of staff problems".  Michael Palin states Sinclair "seemed to view us as a colossal inconvenience"  Rosemary Harrison, a waitress at the Gleneagles under Sinclair, described him as "bonkers" and lacking in hospitality, deeming him wholly unsuitable for a hotel proprietor. "It was as if he didn't want the guests to be there."  Cleese and Connie Booth stayed on at the hotel after filming, furthering their research of its owner. 

At the time, Cleese was a writer on the 1970s British TV sitcom Doctor in the House for London Weekend Television. An early prototype of the character that became known as Basil Fawlty was developed in an episode ("No Ill Feeling") of the third Doctor series (titled Doctor at Large). In this edition, the main character checks into a small-town hotel, his very presence seemingly winding up the aggressive and incompetent manager (played by Timothy Bateson) with a domineering wife. The show was broadcast on 30 May 1971. 

Cleese said in 2008 that the first Fawlty Towers script he and Booth wrote was rejected by the BBC. At a 30th anniversary event honouring the show, Cleese said,

Connie and I wrote that first episode and we sent it in to Jimmy Gilbert, [the executive] whose job it was to assess the quality of the writing said, and I can quote [his note to me] fairly accurately, "This is full of clichéd situations and stereotypical characters and I cannot see it as being anything other than a disaster." And Jimmy himself said, "You're going to have to get them out of the hotel, John. You can't do the whole thing in the hotel." Whereas, of course, it's in the hotel that the whole pressure cooker builds up. 

Cleese was paid £6,000 for 43 weeks' work and supplemented his income by appearing in television advertisements.  He states, "I have to thank the advertising industry for making this possible. Connie and I used to spend six weeks writing each episode and we didn't make a lot of money out of it. If it hadn't been for the commercials I wouldn't have been able to afford to spend so much time on the script.

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawlty_Towers