what was i thinking dierks bentley release date

"What Was I Thinkin'" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Dierks Bentley. It was released in April 2003 as the first single from his self-titled debut album. The song became his first number one hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts in September 2003.

What Was I Thinkin'

Bentley co-wrote "What Was I Thinkin'" with his record producer, Brett Beavers, and Deric Ruttan.[2] The song is an up-tempo in which he recalls escaping one night with a "beauty from south Alabama," named Becky while the narrator spends the song constantly questioning "what was I thinkin'", being mesmerized by Becky into committing all manner of foolish activities.[3] The night begins with Becky and the narrator sneaking out of her father's house but her father catches them leaving the property and shoots the tailgate of the truck on their way out with his shotgun. Shortly after they are caught in a police chase where the narrator drives his truck through a cornfield to escape, much to Becky's delight. Later into the night he encounters a large man with a "Born to Kill" tattoo whom he starts a fight with after the man tries to get between him and Becky and has to frantically run away from once he "[knocks] out his front tooth." He returns Becky to her home "at a half-past two" (2:30 AM) but her father is already waiting "in a lawn chair" in the driveway for the pair. The narrator shuts off his truck and waits as the father advances towards them but Becky, being the rowdy girl she is, grins and then sends them speeding off into the night once again.

Rick Cohoon of Allmusic gave the single a mixed review, comparing its sound and theme to David Lee Murphy's "Dust on the Bottle" and calling the song "catchy enough, yet overdone."[4] Deborah Evans Price of Billboard wrote that the song had an "infectious" melody and "lots of energy."[3]

Because of the line "I was thinkin' 'bout a little white tank top / Sittin' right there in the middle by me," Bentley told Billboard magazine that he began seeing female fans wearing white tank-tops to concerts.[2]

The music video was directed by Peter Zavadil and premiered in mid-2003. It tells the story of the song's events in retrospect as the narrator looks over the damage he incurred from his wild night with Becky (such as pulling a corn leaf from the undercarriage of his El Camino or looking at the scar he picked up from his fight with the "mountain of a man with a 'Born to Kill' tattoo", which apparently is Becky's ex-boyfriend) while wondering if it was really worth it.

The video features Lauren Elaine as "Becky", the white tank-top wearing "beauty from South Alabama". Elaine also appears in "How Am I Doin'" and "Lot of Leavin' Left to Do", as the same character. The video was shot in Kingsbury, Texas in May 2003. The video opens the night of the date when Bentley takes Becky back home. She asks if he would want to do it again, and though he is unsure, he reluctantly agrees. Throughout he is seen performing with his band.

"What Was I Thinkin'" reached its peak position of number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts dated for the week ending September 27, 2003. The song succeeded Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett's duet "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" at this peak.[5]


who told umbridge about dumbledore's army in the book

When Cho's friend Marietta Edgecombe betrays the group to Umbridge (Cho herself while under the influence of the truth potion Veritaserum in the film), Marietta is cursed with pimples on her face as a result of Hermione's casting a spell on the D.A. membership list. Later on, to prevent Harry's expulsion and the incrimination of other members, Dumbledore claims responsibility for organising the group, then escapes when Ministry officials attempt to arrest him. Though the D.A. stops meeting following these events, three members — Ginny, Neville and Luna — join Harry, Ron and Hermione in the battle in the Department of Mysteries towards the end of the fifth book. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Neville and Luna are distraught due to the fact that the D.A. no longer exists. When Hogwarts is invaded by Death Eaters, they are among the members who join the Order of the Phoenix in the ensuing battle.

Dumbledore's Army

Dumbledore's Army (or D.A. for short) is a fictional student organisation in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series that is founded by the main characters, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, to stand up against the regime of Hogwarts High Inquisitor Dolores Umbridge, as well as to learn practical Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was founded in the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Dolores Umbridge, chooses to teach only the basic theoretical principles of the subject in her classes instead of practical applications, due to Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge's erroneous fear that Albus Dumbledore is preparing to assemble a student army to overthrow him. This theory-only approach is widely unpopular among the students, especially those characters like Harry, who are in their fifth year and have to take their O.W.L. exams on the subject later in the year. Harry also believes that lack of practical experience makes them more vulnerable to Lord Voldemort's forces, though the Ministry staunchly refuses to accept that Lord Voldemort has returned. This prompts Hermione to suggest founding a student group where Harry would teach practical Defence Against the Dark Arts.

After Dolores Umbridge learns about the project, she bans all unapproved student organisations, so meetings are secretly held in the Room of Requirement and announced to members through the use of enchanted fake Galleons created by Hermione. Cho Chang suggests the "Defence Association", shortened to "D.A.", as the official name for the group, but Ginny Weasley's suggestion of "Dumbledore's Army", to mock the Ministry's paranoia and to show the group's loyalty to Dumbledore, is chosen.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with Harry, Ron and Hermione absent from Hogwarts, Neville, Ginny and Luna begin a covert rebellion against new headmaster Severus Snape by reactivating the D.A. However, Luna is abducted at Christmas and Ginny leaves during Easter, leaving Neville for a few weeks as the D.A.'s leader. Neville tells Harry that most of the D.A.'s activity ceased shortly after Michael Corner was tortured by Death Eater siblings Alecto and Amycus Carrow for trying to rescue a first-year boy from imprisonment. The group thereafter hide from the Death Eaters in the Room of Requirement, using a secret passage to the Hog's Head to find food. The D.A. believed that if Harry returned he'd lead them in a revolution against Snape and the Carrows and are disappointed when he initially refuses to let them help. Harry does lead an impromptu revolt, but only himself, Luna and Professors McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick and Slughorn take part in it, with Harry and Luna taking out the Carrows, and the professors (rallied by McGonagall and Harry) driving off Snape. In the book's climax, the D.A. (alongside the Order of the Phoenix) plays an important role in the Battle of Hogwarts, giving Harry enough time to find the remaining Horcruxes.

In the alternate timeline appearing in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - in which Voldemort wins the Battle of Hogwarts, kills Harry Potter and institutes a terrible reign of terror - the fugitive Ron and Hermione maintain the last remnants of the D.A. Twenty years later, they still wage hopeless resistance against the all-powerful Voldemort, clandestinely helped by Snape - in this reality still alive and still teaching at Hogwarts. Eventually, these remnants of the D.A. sacrifice themselves to cover the escape of Scorpius Malfoy and let him restore the timeline where Harry wins.

Lavender Brown is a Gryffindor student in Harry's year. She is a close friend of housemate Parvati Patil, and the two also seem to have a reasonably close relationship with Professor Trelawney, comforting and supporting her in her various crises. In Order of the Phoenix, she initially believes the Ministry's smear campaign against Harry, but is among the original members of Dumbledore's Army. In Half-Blood Prince, Lavender becomes Ron's first girlfriend for several months; he relishes the opportunity to make Hermione jealous and prove that he can "snog" (kiss) people whenever he wants. It becomes increasingly evident that Ron is not particularly enamoured with Lavender and actually finds her irritating. Lavender becomes jealous of Ron's friendship with Hermione, and finally splits up with him when she sees them leaving Harry's dormitory together, as she is under the impression that they had been alone together, not realising Harry was there under his invisibility cloak. In Deathly Hallows, during the Battle of Hogwarts, Lavender is attacked by Fenrir Greyback; she dies in the film, whereas in the book she is saved by a crystal ball hurled by Professor Trelawney.

Kathleen Cauley portrayed Lavender in a non-speaking cameo of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Jennifer Smith portrayed Lavender in a brief, non-speaking role in Prisoner of Azkaban. Jessie Cave played the character in a larger role from Half-Blood Prince onwards.

Cho Chang is a Ravenclaw student one year above Harry, and plays Seeker for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. She is best known for being Harry's first love interest, is described as being "very pretty" with long dark hair and is frequently accompanied by a group of giggling Ravenclaw girls. In Goblet of Fire, Harry's crush on Cho intensifies and he works up the courage to ask her out to the Yule Ball, but Cho apologises and replies that she had previously accepted Cedric Diggory's offer. Nonetheless, Cho is still kind to Harry, much to his relief, and she refuses to wear one of Malfoy's "Potter Stinks" badges. She and Cedric maintain their relationship until his murder by Peter Pettigrew.

Cho is one of the first students to believe Harry's declaration of Voldemort's return in Order of the Phoenix, and when invited by Hermione to join the D.A., she joins because she is determined to fight against Voldemort and avenge Cedric's murder. Cho initiates a kiss with Harry after the last D.A. session before the Christmas holidays; much to Ron's amusement, Harry describes the kiss as "wet," but then explains that Cho was crying. Harry and Cho go out on a date on Valentine's Day, but her sustained grief over Cedric's death, her jealousy over Harry's friendship with Hermione, and Harry's lack of knowledge about girls all make for a miserable experience. Their relationship ends when the D.A. is exposed following Marietta Edgecombe's betrayal of the group to Umbridge. Cho defends her friend's actions by saying that Marietta simply made a mistake. On the train back to King's Cross, Ginny reveals that Cho was now seeing Michael Corner.

In the series finale, Cho demonstrates her loyalty to Hogwarts when she returns to join other D.A. members in hiding in the Room of Requirement prior to engaging in the Battle of Hogwarts; Harry and Cho, united by a common cause, appear on amicable and friendly terms. She shares with Harry the little information known about Ravenclaw's diadem (one of Voldemort's Horcruxes). Rowling said during an October 2007 book signing that Cho marries a Muggle.[3]

Cho was played by Scottish actress Katie Leung in the film series starting from when the character made its debut in the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In Order of the Phoenix, she exposes Dumbledore's Army to Umbridge while under the influence of the Veritaserum potion, as opposed to her friend Marietta in the novel.

Colin and Dennis Creevey are two Muggle-born brothers sorted into Gryffindor; Colin is one year younger than Harry, and Dennis is two years younger than Colin. Both are delighted at the discovery that they are wizards, and are star-struck by Harry. Colin takes photographs of memorable people, objects and events to send home to his family. Ironically, Colin's camera later proves to be a lifesaver when he attempts to take a picture of the basilisk, and the camera lens shields him from the creature's direct and fatal eye contact, and Colin is only Petrified. Despite being too young to take part in the Battle of Hogwarts, Colin sneaks back into the castle to participate, and dies in combat.

Hugh Mitchell played Colin in the film version of Chamber of Secrets, and voiced the character in the Order of the Phoenix video game. Dennis never appeared in any of the films. In the Order of the Phoenix and subsequent films, the roles of Colin and Dennis were morphed into a second-year character named Nigel Wolpert, portrayed by William Melling.

Seamus Finnigan is an Irish Gryffindor student in Harry's year who is described as having sandy hair. His mother is a witch and his father a Muggle, who only found out his wife's secret after their marriage. He best friend is Dean Thomas, who he is housemates with. In Order of the Phoenix, Seamus is initially influenced by the Ministry's smear campaign against Harry, and his mother nearly prevents him from returning to Hogwarts. However, he later realises his mistake, offers his apologies to Harry, and becomes a late addition to the D.A. In Half-Blood Prince, Seamus refuses to allow his mother to take him home before Dumbledore's funeral. In Deathly Hallows, it is stated that Seamus is taking shelter in the Room of Requirement along with several D.A. members; his face is bruised so badly after being punished by the Carrows that Harry initially fails to recognise him until he speaks. During the battle, he, Luna, and Ernie help Harry fight the Dementors by conjuring their respective Patronuses; Seamus' takes the form of a fox. He is last seen entering the Great Hall to take part in the final stage of the battle, when Harry shields him and Hannah Abbott from one of Voldemort's curses.

Devon Murray played Seamus in the Harry Potter film series and voiced the character on the eighth game. He has appeared in all eight films, one of the few characters to do so.

Neville Longbottom is a pure-blood Gryffindor student in Harry's year, described as round-faced and "short and plump and blond".[4] His parents, Frank and Alice Longbottom, were prominent Aurors and Order of the Phoenix members until they were tortured into insanity, through the use of the cruciatus curse, by a group of Death Eaters led by Bellatrix Lestrange. Neville was subsequently raised by his paternal grandmother, Augusta. Throughout the series, he is often portrayed as a bumbling, disorganised character and a rather mediocre student, though he is highly gifted at Herbology. Neville plays a minor role in the first four books, but Rowling wanted him to perform an act of bravery in Philosopher's Stone, in which Neville "finds true moral courage in standing up to his closest friends — the people who are on his side" towards the climax.[5]

According to Rowling, Order of the Phoenix "was a real turning point for Neville" due to the central role he played in the book.[6] His magical abilities improve dramatically during D.A. meetings. Neville participates in the battle in the Department of Mysteries, in which he accidentally breaks the prophecy about Harry and Voldemort.[7] Dumbledore, to whom it was originally made, explains that it concerned "the Chosen One", a wizard who would have the power to vanquish Voldemort and who would be born "as the seventh month dies" to "parents who have defied the Dark Lord thrice"; thus could refer to either Neville, who was born on 30 July 1980, or Harry, who was born a day later.[8] This means that Neville could easily have had Harry's fate, had Voldemort chosen to target him instead of Harry. Neville is also one of the few D.A. members to participate in the battle of the Astronomy Tower in the climax of Half-Blood Prince.

In Deathly Hallows, with Hogwarts at the mercy of new headmaster Severus Snape and Death Eater siblings Alecto and Amycus Carrow, Neville reforms the D.A. with Ginny and Luna, and spends much of his seventh year as the resistance's leader, helping students who are tormented under the new regime. He is punished for his actions by the Carrows and is forced to go into hiding in the Room of Requirement to avoid Azkaban or death. In the Battle of Hogwarts Neville openly defies Voldemort, so the Dark Lord immobilises him, places the Sorting Hat on his head and sets it on fire. Neville later breaks free of the curse, pulls Godric Gryffindor's sword from the Sorting Hat, and uses it to decapitate Nagini (on Harry's orders), thus destroying the final Horcrux. In the ensuing conflict, he assists Ron in defeating werewolf Fenrir Greyback. In the epilogue of Deathly Hallows, Neville is Herbology professor at Hogwarts and still good friends with the Potter and Weasley families. Post-Deathly Hallows, Rowling revealed that Neville married Hannah Abbott, now the landlady of The Leaky Cauldron, and his students think it is particularly cool that he lives above the pub.[9][10][11]

In the alternate timeline created in The Cursed Child, Neville is killed by Cedric Diggory, who was saved from death by Albus Severus Potter and Scorpio Malfoy with the Time-Turner by having him lose the Tri-Wizard Tournament, although the embarrassment caused him to become a Death Eater, just as Neville attempted to kill Nagini, therefore Voldemort was able to overpower and kill Harry Potter and gain complete power over the Wizarding World, although these events were later undone by Scorpio by allowing history to continue as it originally did.

Neville was played by Yorkshire-born actor Matthew Lewis in the Harry Potter film series. He has appeared in all eight films.

IGN listed Neville as their sixth top Harry Potter character, calling him the "quintessential dimwit-turned-hero".[12] In NextMovie.com's Harry Potter Mega Poll, Neville was voted as the top character that should get a spin-off movie or book.[13] Empire listed Neville as their 8th favourite Harry Potter character.[14]

Luna Lovegood is a Ravenclaw student one year younger than Harry. She is described as having straggly waist-length dirty blond hair, grey eyes and a "permanently surprised look". Rowling has often said that Luna is the "anti-Hermione", as Hermione is "inflexible and logical," as opposed to Luna, who would "believe 10 impossible things before breakfast."[15] Her father, Xenophilius Lovegood, is the editor-in-chief of The Quibbler, a strange magazine claiming supposedly untrue things Luna and her father believe. When Luna was 9 years old, her mother Pandora died while performing spell experiments. Luna witnessed the accident, which enabled her to see Thestrals. Luna is at first socially isolated at school, gaining the nickname "Loony" Lovegood for her bizarre ways, but she appears to have the rare quality of caring little about what others think of her, although she sometimes gets incensed when her outlandish beliefs are challenged.

In Order of the Phoenix, Luna and her father are among the few who believe Harry and Dumbledore when they claim that Voldemort has returned, and she also becomes a member of Dumbledore's Army. Later in the book, she joins Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville in the conflict with Death Eaters at the Department of Mysteries. In Half-Blood Prince, Luna remains close friends with Harry and the others. Harry later invites Luna to Slughorn's Christmas party. She also does the Quidditch commentary for Gryffindor's game against Hufflepuff, a scene that Rowling particularly enjoyed writing, calling it "blinding inspiration".[16] Later, when Death Eaters attack Hogwarts, Luna, Ginny, and Neville are the sole D.A. members who answer the call to protect Hogwarts.

In Deathly Hallows, Luna and her father attend Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's wedding at the Burrow. She returns to school for her sixth year, where she and Ginny help Neville secretly revive the D.A. to oppose Snape's regime as Hogwarts headmaster. Later in the book, Harry, Ron and Hermione learn that Luna has been kidnapped by Death Eaters in an effort to prevent her father from publishing information in support of Harry. However, she is later rescued, along with the recently captured Harry, Ron, and Hermione, by Dobby, who takes them to safety at Shell Cottage. When Harry returns to Hogwarts in search of Ravenclaw's diadem, Luna helps him enter the Ravenclaw common room to view a replica of it, and participates actively in the Battle of Hogwarts. Rowling revealed that, after Hogwarts, Luna pursues a career that is "the wizarding equivalent" of a naturalist.[17] She marries a fellow naturalist named Rolf, the grandson of Newt Scamander, and has twin boys, Lorcan and Lysander.[18][19] After Harry and Ginny are married, they name their daughter Lily Luna.

Irish actress Evanna Lynch portrayed Luna in the last four Harry Potter films, and reprised the role for StarKid productions' A Very Potter Senior Year.[20]

IGN listed Luna as its 12th top Harry Potter character, saying that her looniness made her a "delight".[12] Empire listed Luna as its 10th favourite Harry Potter character in "The 25 Greatest Harry Potter Characters".[21]

Parvati Patil is a Gryffindor student in Harry's year and the twin sister of Ravenclaw student Padma Patil. Her best friend is Lavender Brown; they are particularly fond of Trelawney's Divination class, and share many common interests. In Goblet of Fire, when Harry needs a date to the Yule Ball, he asks Parvati and she accepts. However, her evening is a disappointment as Harry spends the evening jealously preoccupied with Cho Chang's date with Cedric Diggory and disdains dancing with Parvati; she eventually abandons him to dance with a Beauxbatons boy whom she then later meets in Hogsmeade. In her fifth year, Parvati joins Dumbledore's Army along with her sister. In Half-Blood Prince, the twins are almost removed from Hogwarts by their parents, and ultimately do return home after Dumbledore's death. However, the Patil twins return to their seventh year at Hogwarts, and participate in the Battle of Hogwarts.

The Patils' names and appearance in the films imply that they are of Indian descent. Patil is a common Marathi surname in the state of Maharashtra, India. Rowling originally intended the twins' first names to begin with "Ma", and on her classlist from Harry Potter and Me, their last name was spelled as Patel. Parvati means 'daughter of the mountains', an alternate name for the Hindu goddess Durga, the goddess of strength, while Padma is the Sanskrit word for lotus, an alternate name for the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity. Together, they form a part of the trinity of the Hindu goddesses.

Parvati was portrayed by Sitara Shah in Prisoner of Azkaban. Shefali Chowdhury took over the part for Goblet of Fire, along with the film and game versions of Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince.

Dean Thomas is a Gryffindor student in Harry's year, and is Seamus Finnigan's best friend. He is a Half-blood: his mother is a Muggle and his father was a pure blood wizard who kept his blood status a secret. Dean's father left his family when Dean was very young in an attempt to protect them against the Death Eaters, and was slain when he refused to join them. Dean originally prefers soccer over Quidditch, and has a poster of the West Ham soccer team in his and Harry's dormitory. Dean was subsequently raised by his mother and stepfather, and has several half-brothers and sisters.[22] Dean was named "Gary" in the original drafts of Philosopher's Stone.[23] Rowling omitted his physical description ("a black boy taller than Ron") from the British version of the book at her editor's request, but it was included in the American edition. His backstory was originally expanded in Chamber of Secrets, but she ultimately cut it due to her inability to work it into the storyline.[24]

In Order of the Phoenix, Dean joins the D.A. and also believes Harry and Dumbledore when they insist that Voldemort has returned; but, when Harry and Seamus engage in a heated row over the Daily Prophet's allegations that Harry had merely fabricated the story, Dean refuses to take sides. At the end of the term, he begins seeing Ginny Weasley. The two of them are still dating in Half-Blood Prince, but Ginny thinks that Dean is being pushy and overprotective, which leads to the fight that ends their relationship. Dean temporarily fills in for Katie Bell on the Gryffindor Quidditch team after she is hospitalised. Dean's role is expanded in Deathly Hallows. Unable to prove that he is actually a Half-blood, he does not return to Hogwarts and goes on the run from the Ministry, who are rounding up Muggle-borns upon Voldemort's orders. Harry, Ron, and Hermione first come across him during their mission as they eavesdrop on his conversation with fellow runaways Ted Tonks, Dirk Cresswell, and the goblins Griphook and Gornuk. Snatchers soon viciously attack the group; Dean and Griphook are the lone survivors but are captured along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione and taken to Malfoy Manor. They are all rescued by Dobby, who transports them to Bill and Fleur's Shell Cottage for protection. Dean returns to Hogwarts towards the end of the book and fights in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Alfred Enoch played Dean in the Harry Potter film series and voiced the character in the Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hallows: Part 1 video game.

Fred Weasley and George Weasley are the fun-loving, troublemaking twins of the Weasley family. Born on April Fools' Day, the two work together making pranks and are addressed as a single unit as opposed to two individual people. They are so similar that even their parents often have a difficult time telling the two apart. They first appear in Philosopher's Stone as third years and are the school clowns. Despite their poor results in their O.W.L. exams, the twins are intelligent and proficient wizards capable of sophisticated magic. In addition, they serve as Beaters for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

The pair often come to Harry's assistance throughout the series; in Chamber of Secrets, they and Ron help him escape his house arrest from Privet Drive in a flying Muggle car, and give Harry the Marauder's Map during his third year. In Goblet of Fire, they begin selling novelties under the name "Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes". Though their mother wants them to work for the Ministry of Magic, the twins aspire to own a joke shop, and Harry provides their start-up capital by donating his winnings from the Triwizard Tournament. In Order of the Phoenix, the twins, like Harry, are permanently banned from Quidditch after a postmatch brawl with Malfoy. They join the D.A. and lead a student uprising against Umbridge towards the end of the book, leaving the Hogwarts before the term ends. In Half-Blood Prince, Fred and George continue to run their joke shop despite the unrest in Diagon Alley.

In Deathly Hallows, the twins serve as two of Harry's six decoys when he escapes Privet Drive. George's ear is permanently severed by a stray Sectumsempra curse from Severus Snape, who was actually aiming at a Death Eater. Meanwhile, the twins are forced to abandon their shop due to the Death Eater-controlled Ministry of Magic's surveillance of the Weasley family, and instead operate another owl-order business out of their Great-Aunt Muriel's house. During this time, one of the twins, speculated to be Fred,[25] shows up in the pirate radio station Potterwatch as "Rapier".[26] The twins return to participate in the Battle of Hogwarts, during which Fred is killed in an explosion. Rowling said in an MSNBC interview that she always knew Fred would be the twin who would die, though she could not specify a particular reason.[27] She stated in a web chat after the release of Deathly Hallows that George never fully gets over Fred's death, but succeeds in turning Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes into a "money spinner" with Ron, who eventually quits to become an Auror.[28][29] Rowling also revealed that, by the time of the epilogue of Deathly Hallows, George is married to Angelina Johnson and has two children, Fred and Roxanne.[30]

Identical twin actors James and Oliver Phelps played Fred and George respectively in the Harry Potter film series.

Fred and George were listed by IGN as eleventh top Harry Potter characters, saying that "taking umbrage at Umbridge and leaving Hogwarts with a bang in Order of the Phoenix showed us that these two weren't just goofy side splitters; they were brave and valiant freedom fighters".[12]

The goal of Dumbledore's Army inspired actor/comedian Andrew Slack, a Harry Potter fan, to create a group called Harry Potter Alliance to highlight the crisis in Sudan and social inequalities.[31] In an interview, Slack compared Harry and the D.A. to Darfur, claiming, "With both the Ministry of Magic and the Daily Prophet (the Wizarding World's mainstream news source) in denial that Voldemort has returned and evil is afoot, Harry and his underground rebel group, 'Dumbledore's Army,' work with the adult group, 'The Order of the Phoenix,' to awake the world."[32]


what is the purpose of the american bar association

The American Bar Association (ABA), founded August 21, 1878,[2] is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation of model ethical codes related to the legal profession. The ABA has 410,000 members. Its national headquarters are in Chicago, Illinois; it also maintains a significant branch office in Washington, D.C.

American Bar Association

The ABA was founded on August 21, 1878, in Saratoga Springs, New York, by 75 lawyers from 20 states and the District of Columbia. According to the ABA website,

The purpose of the original organization, as set forth in its first constitution, was "the advancement of the science of jurisprudence, the promotion of the administration of justice and a uniformity of legislation throughout the country...."[3]

In 1918 the first women were admitted to the ABA â€“ Judge Mary Belle Grossman of Cleveland and Mary Florence Lathrop of Denver.[4]

The ABA did not allow African-Americans to join until 1943.[5]

Roberta Cooper Ramo was the first female President of the ABA from 1995â€“1996.[6]

In 2016 ABA introduced a new ethics rule prohibiting attorneys from using sexist, racist and condescending terms.[7]

The ABA is professional guild. Its stated goals and objectives are:

The ABA adopts "policy" (organizational positions) on certain legislative and national issues, as voted on by its elected, 589-member House of Delegates. Its Board of Governors, with 44 members, has the authority to act for the ABA, consistent with previous action of the House of Delegates, when the House is not in session.

The ABA president, elected to a one-year term, is chief executive officer of the association, while the appointed, longer-serving executive director works as chief operating officer. The conclusion of the ABA Annual Meeting, in August, is when a new president takes office, as well as when the main sessions of the House of Delegates take place. The Annual Meeting also gives the general membership the opportunity to participate in educational programs and hear speakers address many issues.[8]

In 2010, Jack L. Rives, formerly TJAG (The Judge Advocate General of the Air Force), was appointed Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer.[9][10]

One function of the ABA is its creation and maintenance of a code of ethical standards for lawyers. The Model Code of Professional Responsibility (1969) and/or the newer Model Rules of Professional Conduct (1983) have been adopted in 49 states, the District of Columbia and the United States Virgin Islands. The exception is the State Bar of California; however, a few sections of the California Rules of Professional Conduct were drawn from the ABA models.

According to the ABA, it "provides law school accreditation, continuing legal education, information about the law, programs to assist lawyers and judges in their work, and initiatives to improve the legal system for the public. The Mission of the American Bar Association is to be the national representative of the legal profession, serving the public and the profession by promoting justice, professional excellence and respect for the law."[11] Since 1923, law schools which meet ABA standards are listed as "approved".[12]

ABA accreditation is important not only because it affects the recognition of the law schools involved, but it also affects a graduate's ability to practice law in a particular state. Specifically, in most U.S. jurisdictions, graduation from an ABA-accredited law school is prerequisite towards being allowed to sit for that state's bar exam, and even for existing lawyers to be admitted to the bar of another state upon motion.[13] Even states which recognize unaccredited schools within their borders will generally not recognize such schools from other jurisdictions for purposes of bar admission.[14]

For law students attending ABA-accredited schools, memberships are available for free.[15] Students attending non-ABA accredited law schools are permitted to join the ABA as associate members.[16]

In June 2009, the ABA Journal reported that the ABA had been working "for months" to change its accreditation standard, where accreditation will be the result of what kind of lawyer an ABA law school produces as opposed to "input" measures such as faculty size, budget and physical plant.[17]

In 2012 a non-profit organization called Law School Transparency called upon the ABA to provide meaningful statistics regarding the employment prospects and salary information of graduates of ABA accredited institutions.[18][19][20] On October 17, 2011, the ABA announced it was considering penalties, including loss of accreditation for schools that misreported their graduates employment data.[21] Starting with the Class of 2011, ABA-accredited law schools were required to file Standard 509 Information Reports that included a host of data, ranging from LSAT scores of law students to bar passage rates of graduates. Employment information was filed separately to the Section. On December 12, 2011, despite the ongoing controversy surrounding law school accreditation standards and inability of law school graduates to effectively service their educational debt, the ABA approved another law school.[22]

In 1995 the United States Department of Justice accused the ABA of violating Section 1 of the Sherman Act in its law school accreditation proceedings. The case was resolved with a consent decree.[23][24] In 2006, the ABA acknowledged that it violated the consent decree and paid DOJ a $185,000 fine.[25]

The American Bar Association Center for Continuing Legal Education (ABA-CLE) serves as the central CLE resource for the ABA. It is overseen by the ABA Standing Committee on Continuing Legal Education and works closely with experts from the ABA Sections and the profession at large. In addition to its own distribution, the ABA-CLE is also delivered via private, non-profit CLE organizations, such as Practising Law Institute and for-profit organizations, such as West LegalEdCenter.

The Association publishes a monthly general magazine circulated to all members, the ABA Journal (since 1984, formerly American Bar Association Journal, 1915â€“1983), now also online.

Sections, divisions and forums

ABA members may also join practice setting or subject-specific "sections," "divisions", or "forums," and each entity publishes a variety of newsletters and magazines for its members (such as Law Practice Magazine published by the Law Practice Division and GPSolo Magazine published by the Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division). Some of these magazines, such as the Business Law Section's "Business Law Today," are available on-line to non-members. The first such journal was the Annual Bulletin of the Comparative Law Bureau, the first comparative law journal in the U.S. (1908â€“1914). The entities also hold their own meetings, such as the annual Solo Day.[26]

Each entity typically has a publication program that includes (1) books, usually oriented toward practitioners; (2) scholarly journals, such as Administrative Law Review (published by the ABA Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice and The American University Washington College of Law) and The International Lawyer (published by the ABA Section of International Law and SMU Dedman School of Law); (3) newsletters, such as The International Law News (published by the ABA Section of International Law); (4) e-publications, such as a monthly message from the section chair, or updates on substantive law developments; and (5) committee publications, such as a committee newsletter published by one of the substantive law committees.

The ABA’s Commission on the Mentally Disabled was established in 1973 to respond to the advocacy needs of persons with mental disabilities. After the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the ABA broadened the Commission’s mission to serve all persons with disabilities and changed its name to the Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law (CMPDL); it was most recently renamed the Commission on Disability Rights (CDR) (in 2011). The Commission carries out an array of projects and activities addressing disability-related public policy, disability law, and the professional needs of lawyers and law students with disabilities. Its mission is "to promote the ABA's commitment to justice and the rule of law for persons with mental, physical, and sensory disabilities and to promote their full and equal participation in the legal profession." The Commission consists of 15 members appointed by the ABA President-elect on an annual basis. It meets three times a year and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.[27]

In 1991, the Commission on Homelessness & Poverty was established by the Board of Governors of the ABA.[28] The Commission is charged with:

These tasks are carried out by thirteen volunteer members appointed by the ABA President and a staff attorney.

The ABA's Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity was established in 2007.[29] According to its website, the Commission is "leading the ABAâ€™s commitment to diversity, inclusion and full and equal participation by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons in the Association, the legal profession and society." [30]

The ABA's Commission on Women in the Profession was established in 1987.[31] Hillary Clinton was its first chair.[31] According to its website, the Commission "forges a new and better profession that ensures that women have equal opportunities for professional growth and advancement commensurate with their male counterparts." [32] In 2017, the Commission released “A Current Glance at Women in the Law,” providing research about the status of women in the American legal profession.[33] Some key points of the ABA's 2017 study:

In 2011, the ABA's House of Delegates passed an anti-bullying resolution that included sexual orientation and gender identity among characteristics that should be protected, along with race, religion, national origin, sex, and disability.[29][35]

At the 2013 annual meeting, the ABA's House of Delegates passed a resolution that made it harder for criminal defense lawyers to use the LGBT panic defense, which argues that a crime victimâ€™s sexual orientation should mitigate the defendant's guilt.[29]

At the 2014 annual meeting, the ABA passed Resolution 114B, which stated that "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people have a human right to be free from discrimination, threats, and violence based on their LGBT status," and called on the governments of countries where such discriminatory laws exist to repeal them.[29]

In 1989 the ABA's House of Delegates adopted a resolution stating that "the American Bar Association and each of its entities should use gender-neutral language in all documents establishing policy and procedure." [36]

A hearing in 2009 heard testimony from the ABA which stated that "Sentencing by mandatory minimums is the antithesis of rational sentencing policy".[37] In 2004 the association called for the repeal of mandatory minimum sentences, stating that "there is no need for mandatory minimum sentences in a guided sentencing system."[38]

In July 2006, an ABA task force under then President Michael S. Greco released a report that concluded that George W. Bush's use of "signing statements" violates the Constitution.[39] These are documents attached by the President when signing bills, in which the President states that he or she will enforce the new law only to the extent that he or she feels the law conforms to the proper interpretation of the Constitution.[40]

At the 2010 annual meeting, the ABA passed Resolution 111 urging every state, territorial, and tribal government to eliminate legal barriers to civil marriage between two persons of the same sex who are otherwise eligible to marry.[41][42]

For decades, the ABA has participated in the federal judicial nomination process by vetting nominees and giving them a rating ranging from "not qualified" to "well qualified". According to a compendium of those ratings, the ABA's Committee on the Federal Judiciary began rating Supreme Court nominees in 1956, but: "At various points in its history, the committee altered its ratings categories, making comparisons across time difficult."[43]

The committee consists of two members from the ninth judicial circuit, one member from each of the other federal judicial circuits and the chair of the committee. The ABA's Board of Governors, House of Delegates and officers are not involved with the work of the committee, and it is completely insulated from the rest of the ABA's activities, including its policies. Although the committee rates prospective nominees, it does not propose, recommend or endorse candidates for nomination to the federal judiciary, as that would compromise its independent evaluative function.

The committee focuses solely on integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament; does not consider a prospective nominee's philosophy, political affiliation or ideology; and works in strictly enforced confidentiality, typically evaluating around 60 nominees per year. Nominees are rated as "well qualified", "qualified" or "not qualified". If the president selects a prospective nominee, the committee chair notifies the White House, the Department of Justice, the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the nominee of the committee's rating.

There are several procedural differences between the committee's investigations of Supreme Court nominees and those of lower courts, notably that investigations of Supreme Court nominees are conducted after the president has submitted a nomination. Also, there is added scrutiny with Supreme Court nominees, such as teams of law professors examining the legal writings of the prospective justice.[44]

The process has been alleged by some (including the Federalist Society) to have a liberal bias.[45][46][47] For example, the ABA gave Ronald Reagan's judicial nominees Richard Posner and Frank H. Easterbrook low "qualified/not qualified" ratings; later, the ABA gave Bill Clinton judicial nominees with similar resumes "well qualified" ratings.[48] Meanwhile, Judges Posner and Easterbrook have gone on to become the two most highly cited judges in the federal appellate judiciary.[49]

In 2001, the George W. Bush administration announced that it would cease cooperating with the ABA in advance of judicial nominations. The ABA continues to rate nominees. In 2005, the ABA gave John Roberts, George W. Bush's nomination for Chief Justice of the United States, a unanimous "well-qualified" rating. It also gave a unanimous "well qualified" rating to appellate court nominee Miguel Estrada, who never took his seat because his nomination was filibustered. However, it gave only a "qualified/not-qualified" rating to nominee Janice Rogers Brown.[50] In 2006, the ABA gave a unanimous "well-qualified" rating to Judge Samuel Alito, Bush's appointee for Sandra Day O'Connor's Associate Justice position.

However, conservative Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., conservative Justice Samuel Alito, liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, liberal Justice Elena Kagan, and conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch all received the same "well qualified" rating.[51][52]

The ABA has been criticized for racism.[53] In 1925, African-American lawyers formed the National Bar Association at a time when ABA would not allow them to be members.

Since the 1960s, the ABA has increased the diversity of its membership and leadership.[citation needed] Dennis Archer, who served as ABA president from 2003 to 2004, was the first African-American to hold the position, while Paulette Brown, 2015–2016, was the association’s first president who is a woman of color. Steve Zack, whose term was in 2010 and 2011, was the first Cuban American to hold the American Bar Association’s presidency.

In 2016, for the first time, the ABA has an all-female roster of officers, including two African-Americans and one Native American: Linda A. Klein (president), Hilarie Bass (president-elect), Deborah Enix-Ross (chair of the House of Delegates), Mary L. Smith (secretary), Michelle A. Behnke (treasurer) and Paulette Brown (immediate past president).

In recent years, the ABA has also drawn some criticism, mainly from the conservative side of the political spectrum, for taking positions on controversial public policy topics such as abortion, gun control, and same-sex marriage.[54] The ABA's official position in favor of abortion rights led to the formation of a (much smaller) alternative organization for lawyers, the National Lawyers Association. The Federalist Society sponsors a twice-a-year publication called "ABA Watch" that reports on the political activities of the ABA (although as of September 2017 the Federalist Society's website does not show issues of "ABA Watch" more recent than 2014[55]).

There are heated debates over requirements placed on law schools by the ABA. Many states and practitioners believe ABA requirements to be unnecessary, costly, outdated and lacking innovation.[56] Some legal professionals and academics feel these requirements promote the rising cost of tuition.

The more recent collision of attorney layoffs in 2009,[57][58] the glut of fresh non top-tier law graduates without work,[59] and the continued expansion of law schools[60] have raised questions on whether the ABA has been too lenient in its accreditation process.

Since 2014, the ABA has required law schools to disclose more information about their applicants and graduates. Required information now includes such information as admissions data, tuition and fees, living costs, conditional scholarships, enrollment data, numbers of full‐time and part‐time faculty, class sizes for first‐year and upper‐class courses, employment outcomes and bar passage data. The 205 ABA-approved law schools reported that, 10 months after graduation, 28,029 graduates of the class of 2015, or 70 percent, were employed in long-term, full-time positions where bar passage is required or a J.D. is preferred.

Each year in August, the ABA holds an annual meeting in different cities that consists of speeches, CLE classes, gatherings, and the ABA EXPO.[66] At the meeting, the recipient of the association's highest honor, the American Bar Association Medal, is announced.


when did the lead singer of inxs die

Michael Kelland John Hutchence (22 January 1960 – 22 November 1997) was an Australian musician and actor. He was a founding member, lead singer and lyricist of rock band INXS from 1977 until his death in November 1997. He was a member of short-lived pop rock group Max Q and recorded solo material which was released posthumously. He acted in feature films, including Dogs in Space (1986), Frankenstein Unbound (1990) and Limp (1997). According to rock-music historian Ian McFarlane, "Hutchence was the archetypal rock showman. He exuded an overtly sexual, macho cool with his flowing locks, and lithe and exuberant stage movements."[2] Hutchence won the 'Best International Artist' at the 1991 BRIT Awards with INXS winning the related group award.

Michael Hutchence

His private life was often reported in the Australian and international press, with a string of love affairs with prominent actresses, models and singers. Hutchence's relationship with UK television presenter Paula Yates began while she was married to musician and Live Aid organiser Bob Geldof. Geldof and Yates divorced in 1996. During July of the same year, Hutchence and Yates had a daughter, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily.

On the morning of 22 November 1997, Hutchence was found dead in his hotel room in Sydney. His death was reported by the New South Wales Coroner to be the result of suicide. In 2000, Yates died of a heroin overdose. The couple's daughter was placed in Geldof's custody with her half-sisters.

Michael Kelland John Hutchence was born on 22 January 1960, the son of Sydney businessman Kelland ("Kell") Hutchence, and make-up artist, Patricia (nÃ©e Kennedy). Hutchence was of Irish ancestry from his mother's side,[3] Patricia's father was from County Cork in Ireland. Following Kell's business interests, the Hutchence family moved to Brisbane where younger brother Rhett was born, and subsequently relocated to Hong Kong as a result of their father taking a job at an Australian trading company. During the early years in Hong Kong, both boys attended Beacon Hill School in Kowloon Tong. While in Hong Kong, Michael showed a lot of promise in a possible swimming career before breaking his arm badly. He then began to show interest in poetry and performed his first song in a local toy store commercial, before attending King George V School during his early teens.[4]

The family returned to Sydney in 1972, buying a house in Belrose near the Northern Beaches when Michael was 12 years old. Michael attended Davidson High School, where he met Andrew Farriss and they became good friends. Around this time, Hutchence and Farriss spent a lot of time jamming in the garage with Andrew's brothers. Farriss then convinced Hutchence to join his band, Doctor Dolphin, alongside two classmates, Kent Kerny and Neil Sanders. From nearby Forest High School, bass guitarist Garry Beers and Geoff Kennelly on drums filled out the line-up.[5] The boys transferred to Davidson High School where they became serious about the idea of starting a proper band. Hutchence's parents separated when he was 15; in 1976 for a short time, he lived with his mother and half-sister Tina in California.[4][6] Hutchence later returned to Sydney with his mother.[4]

In 1977, a new band, The Farriss Brothers, was formed with Tim Farriss on lead guitar, his younger brother Andrew as keyboardist, and youngest brother Jon on drums. Andrew brought Hutchence on board as lead vocalist and Beers on bass guitar, and Tim brought his former bandmate Kirk Pengilly on guitar and saxophone.[2][7] The band made their debut on 16 August 1977 at Whale Beach, 40 km (25 mi) north of Sydney.[8]

In 1978, the parents of the Farriss boys moved to Perth, Western Australia, taking Jon, who was still at high school. After Hutchence and Andrew finished their secondary schooling, the rest of the group followed.

Hutchence, the Farriss brothers, Kerny, Sanders, Beers and Kennelly briefly performed as The Vegetables, singing "We Are the Vegetables".[8] Ten months later, they returned to Sydney, where they recorded a set of demos.[5] The Farriss Brothers regularly supported hard rockers Midnight Oil on the pub rock circuit, and were renamed as INXS in 1979.[8] Their first performance under the new name was on 1 September at the Oceanview Hotel in Toukley.[5] In May 1980, the group released their first single, "Simple Simon"/"We Are the Vegetables" which was followed by the debut album, INXS, in October.[2] Their first TopÂ 40 Australian hit on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart, "Just Keep Walking", was released in September.[9] During the 1980s, Hutchence resided at the apartment block at the end of Kirketon Road, Darlinghurst, Sydney.

Hutchence became the main spokesperson for the band and, according to rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, "He was the archetypal rock showman. He exuded an overtly sexual, macho cool with his flowing locks, and lithe and exuberant stage movements".[2] Close friends and family, however, maintain he was more introverted than his on-stage persona. He co-wrote almost all of INXS's songs with Andrew Farriss,[6] who has attributed his own success as a songwriter to Hutchence's "genius".

According to Hutchence, "Most of the songs on Underneath the Colours were written in a relatively short space of time. Most bands shudder at the prospect of having 20 years to write their first album and four days to write their second. For us, though, it was good. It left less room for us to go off on all sorts of tangents".[5] Soon after recording sessions for Underneath the Colours – produced by Richard Clapton – had finished, band members started work on outside projects. Hutchence recorded "Speed Kills", written by Don Walker of hard rockers Cold Chisel, for the Freedom (1982) film soundtrack, directed by Scott Hicks. It was Hutchence's first solo single and was released by WEA in early 1982.[5]

In March 1985, after Hutchence and INXS recorded their album The Swing (1984), WEA released the Australian version of Dekadance, as a limited edition cassette only EP of six tracks including remixes from the album. The cassette also included a cover version of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's hit "Jackson", which Hutchence sang as a duet with Jenny Morris, a backing singer for The Swing sessions.[2] The EP reached NoÂ 2 on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart.[9] Hutchence provided vocals for new wave band Beargarden's 1985 single release.[10]

On 19 May, INXS won seven awards at the 1984 Countdown Music and Video Awards ceremony, including 'Best Songwriter' for Hutchence and Andrew, and 'Most Popular Male' for Hutchence.[2][11] They performed "Burn for You", dressed in Akubras (a brand of hats) and Drizabones (a brand of outdoor coats/oilskin jackets) followed by Hutchence and Morris singing "Jackson" to close.[11] INXS performed five songs for the July Oz for Africa concert, in conjunction with the Live Aid benefit organised by Irish musician, Bob Geldof.[12] Two of their songs, "What You Need" and "Don't Change", were also in the BBC broadcast and are contained on Live Aid's four DVD boxed set released in 2004.[13]

In 1986, Hutchence acted as Sam the lead male role, in the Australian film Dogs in Space, directed by long-time INXS music video collaborator Richard Lowenstein. Sam's girlfriend, Anna, was portrayed by Saskia Post as a "fragile peroxide blonde in op-shop clothes".[14] Some events are based on Lowenstein's life when sharing a home in a Melbourne inner suburb with friend Sam Sejavka (Beargarden) when Sam was in the band The Ears,[15] in the late 1970s. Hutchence provided four songs on the film's soundtrack. A cover version of "Rooms for the Memory", a song by Whirlywirld (a post punk band that included Ollie Olsen),[2] was released as a solo single. It peaked at No.Â 11 in February 1987.[2][9] Back in 1979, both INXS and Whirlywirld had played at the Crystal Ballroom, in Fitzroy Street, St Kilda, which featured in the film.[14] According to music journalist and author, James Cockington, "St Kilda was about drugs. Fitzroy Street was the smack capital of Melbourne, with heroin being openly traded on the footpath."[14]

Late in 1986, before commencing work on a new INXS album and while supposedly taking an eight-month break, their management decided to stage the Australian Made tour as a series of major outdoor concerts across the country. The roster featured INXS, Jimmy Barnes (Cold Chisel), Models, Divinyls, Mental as Anything, The Triffids and I'm Talking.[8] To promote the tour, Hutchence and Barnes shared vocals on: The Easybeats cover "Good Times" and "Laying Down the Law" which Barnes cowrote with Beers, Andrew Farriss, Jon Farriss, Hutchence and Pengilly.[16] "Good Times" was used as the theme for the concert series of 1986–1987.[8] It peaked at No. 2 on the Australian charts,[9] and months later was featured in the Joel Schumacher film The Lost Boys and its soundtrack,[17] allowing it to peak at No. 47 in the U.S. on 1 August 1987.[18] Divinyls' lead singer, Chrissie Amphlett enjoyed the tour and reconnected with Hutchence, "[he] was a sweet man, who said in one interview that he wanted me to have his baby."[8]

In 1987, Hutchence provided vocals for Richard Clapton's album Glory Road which was produced by Jon Farriss.[10] INXS released Kick in October, which provided the band with worldwide popularity, it peaked at No. 1 in Australia,[9] No. 3 on the US Billboard 200,[19] No. 9 in UK,[20] and No. 15 in Austria.[21] It was an upbeat, confident album that yielded four Top 10 U.S. singles, "New Sensation", "Never Tear Us Apart", "Devil Inside" and No. 1 "Need You Tonight".[18] "Need You Tonight" peaked No. 2 on the UK charts,[20] No. 3 in Australia,[9] and No. 10 in France.[22] The song is not lyrically complex, it is Hutchence's performance where "he sings in kittenish whisper, gently drawing back with the incredible lust of a tiger hunting in the night ... Hutchence knows the prey will eventually come to him" that makes the song "as sexy and funky as any white rock group has ever been".[23] They toured heavily behind the album throughout 1987 and 1988. The video, directed by Lowenstein, for the 1987 INXS track "Mediate" (which played after the video for "Need You Tonight") replicated the format of Bob Dylan's video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues", even in its use of apparently deliberate errors. In September 1988 the band swept the MTV Video Music Awards with the video for "Need You Tonight/Mediate" winning in five categories.[24]

In 1989, Hutchence collaborated further with Olsen for the Max Q project, they were joined by members of Olsen's previous groups including Whirlywirld, No and Orchestra of Skin and Bone. They released a self-titled album and three singles, "Way of the World", "Sometimes" and "Monday Night by Satellite". Max Q disbanded in 1990.[25] Max Q showed Hutchence explore the darker side of his music and, with Olsen, they created "one of the most innovative dance music albums of the decade". Hutchence wrote most of the music and provided "an extraordinary performanceÂ ... it was one of the most significant statements Hutchence was to make".[23] Hutchence, from the late-1980s lived outside Australia, mostly in the United Kingdom.[6] In 1990, Hutchence portrayed nineteenth-century Romantic poet, Percy Shelley, in Roger Corman's film version of Frankenstein Unbound based on a science fiction time travel story of the same name written by Brian Aldiss.[26]

In 1990, INXS released X, which spawned more international hits such as "Suicide Blonde" and "Disappear" (both Top 10 in the US).[18] "Suicide Blonde" peaked at No. 2 in Australia and No. 11 in the UK.[20] Hutchence and Kylie Minogue attended the premiere of her 1989 film, The Delinquents, which depicts her in a platinum blonde wig. Hutchence, with Andrew Farriss, wrote the song after Minogue used the phrase, suicide blonde, to describe her look during filming.[27] Hutchence won the 'Best International Artist' at the 1991 BRIT Awards with INXS winning the related group award.[2] Hutchence provided vocals for pub rockers Noiseworks' album, Love Versus Money (1991).[10]

Welcome to Wherever You Are was released in August 1992 but INXS did not tour to support the album. It received good critical reviews and went to No. 1 in the UK[20] and in Sweden; No. 2 in Australia and Switzerland, and No. 3 in Norway;[28] but had less chart success in the U.S. peaking at No. 16.[19] Also in August 1992, Helena Christensen and Hutchence were walking after drinking heavily when he refused to move for a taxi.[29] The taxi driver then assaulted him, causing him to fall backwards and hit his head on the roadway. Hutchence suffered a fractured skull in the altercation.[30] Hutchence did not immediately seek medical assistance for the injury, instead waiting several days before seeing a doctor. As a result, Hutchence's fractured skull left him with an almost complete loss of the sense of smell and significant loss of taste.[31] This led to periods of depression and increased levels of aggression; he had not fully recovered after two weeks in a Copenhagen hospital. According to INXS bandmate Beers, Hutchence pulled a knife and threatened to kill him during the 1993 recording of Full Moon, Dirty Hearts on the isle of Capri. "Over those six weeks, Michael threatened or physically confronted nearly every member of the band. Suicide blonde, right?"[32]

Spud Entertainment made an independent film in the United States/Vancouver called "Limp" that had a cameo appearance by Michael Hutchence. It is his last known work. He played a jaded A&R representative in the music industry named Clive. The movie was filmed while the band was recording tracks such as "Elegantly Wasted" up in Canada.

Hutchence and INXS faced reduced commercial success with Full Moon, Dirty Hearts, especially in the U.S. The band took time off to rest and be with their families, while Hutchence remained in the public eye through his romances.[2][33] He commenced work on a self-titled solo album in the mid-1990s.[2] During this time, his relationship with Christensen ended when he renewed his friendship with UK television presenter Paula Yates.[34] He had met Yates in 1985, during an interview for her program, The Tube; her marriage with The Boomtown Rats' lead singer and Live Aid organiser, Geldof, was already in crisis. Yates interviewed Hutchence again in 1994 for her Big Breakfast show, and their affair was soon uncovered by the British press.[33] By that time, Geldof and Yates had three daughters, Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches Honeyblossom and Little Pixie and had married in 1986.[35] Media scrutiny was intense and Hutchence assaulted a photographer who had followed the couple. Yates' separation from Geldof in February 1995 sparked a public and at times bitter custody battle over their daughters. They divorced in May 1996.[36] On 22 July, Yates gave birth to Hutchence's only child, their daughter Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence,[37] who Yates claimed was delivered in their bathroom. Like her half-sisters, she was christened with an unusual name. Pixie chose Heavenly, Hutchence picked Hiraani, and Yates provided Tiger Lily; she was called Tiger and Hutchence described her as "just what we ordered".

After a period of inactivity and releases that received lukewarm reviews, INXS recorded the band's 10th official album, Elegantly Wasted, in 1996, produced by Bruce Fairbairn and Andrew Farriss.

Hutchence and INXS went on a world tour to support the April 1997 release of Elegantly Wasted, both the album and its related singles having had less chart success than their prior releases.[2] During the tour, Yates planned to visit Hutchence with his daughter and Yates's three children, but Geldof was seeking legal action to prevent the visit.[38] The final leg of their 20th anniversary tour was to be in Australia in November and December. However, on the morning of 22 November 1997, Hutchence, aged 37, was found dead in Room 524 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Double Bay, Sydney.[2][39]

On 6 February 1998, after an autopsy and coronial inquest, New South Wales State Coroner, Derrick Hand, presented his report which ruled that Hutchence's death was a suicide while depressed and under the influence of alcohol and other drugs.[39]

Former girlfriend Kym Wilson and her then-boyfriend, Andrew Reyment, were the last people to see Hutchence alive when they left him at 4:50 am; he was still awaiting a phone call from Yates in London concerning whether she would bring their daughter Tiger to Australia. Hutchence's second last outgoing phone call was to his personal manager, Martha Troup's voice-mail, "Marth, Michael here. I've fucking had enough." When Troup returned the call there was no answer. At 9:54 am he talked to his former longtime girlfriend, Michèle Bennett, who stated that he was crying, sounded upset and said he needed to see her. Bennett arrived at his door at about 10:40 am, but there was no response. Hutchence's body was discovered by a hotel maid at 11:50 am. Police reported that, "He was in a kneeling position facing the door. He had used his snake skin belt to tie a knot on the automatic door closure at the top of the door, and had strained his head forward into the loop so hard that the buckle had broken."[39]

After Hutchence's death, Geldof and Yates each gave police statements on the phone calls they exchanged with Hutchence that morning but did not volunteer their phone records. Yates's statement on 26 November included "He was frightened and couldn't stand a minute more without his babyÂ ... [he] was terribly upset and he said, 'I don't know how I'll live without seeing Tiger'". Yates contended that Geldof had repeatedly said, "Don't forget, I am above the law", referring to his influence since Live Aid. Her statement said that she had informed Hutchence of the custody hearing being adjourned until 17 December, and that consequently she would not be bringing their daughter out to Australia as previously intended. Yates indicated that Hutchence said he was going to phone Geldof, "to let Tiger come to Australia".[39][40]

Geldof's police statements and evidence to the coroner indicated that he patiently listened to Hutchence who was "hectoring and abusive and threatening". A friend of Yates and Geldof confirmed the substance of this call and added that Geldof had said, "I know what time the call ended, it was 20 to 7, I was going to log it as a threatening call". The occupant in the room next to Room 524 heard a loud male voice and swearing at about 5Â am; the coroner was satisfied that this was Hutchence arguing with Geldof.[39][40]

On 27 November, Hutchence's coffin was carried out of St. Andrew's Cathedral by members of the band and his younger brother Rhett. "Never Tear Us Apart" was played in the background. Nick Cave, a friend of Hutchence, performed his 1997 song "Into My Arms" during the funeral and requested that television cameras be switched off. Rhett claimed in his 2004 book, Total XS, that on the previous day at the funeral parlour, Yates had put a gram of heroin into Hutchence's pocket.[41] He was cremated at Northern Suburbs Crematorium, Sydney.[42] His ashes were scattered on Sydney Harbour in Rose Bay on 22 January 1998.

In 1999 in an interview on 60 Minutes and in a documentary film on Channel 4, Yates claimed that Hutchence's death may have resulted from autoerotic asphyxiation which contradicted her previous statements to police investigators and the coroner.[43] In producing his coroner's report, Hand had specifically considered the suggestions of accidental death (coupled with the fact that Hutchence left no suicide note) but had discounted it based on substantial evidence presented to the contrary.[39][40][44] Despite the official coroner's report, fans and relatives considered his death accidental.[38][45] In 2000, Patricia Glassop (Hutchence's mother, who had remarried) and Tina Schorr (his sister), gave an interview on This Morning, asserting that Yates had on more than one occasion made threats of harming herself or the baby if Hutchence did not marry her, and that they believed she said this again on the morning of his death, directly precipitating his suicide.[45][46]

Bono of the Irish rock band U2, a good friend of Hutchence, wrote "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of", which is interpreted as an intervention with him. In a 2005 interview, Bono regretted that he had not spent more time with Hutchence. Bono's wife, Alison Hewson, had seen Hutchence prior to the Australian trip and noted "he looked a bit shaky to [her]."[47]

INXS decided to continue without Hutchence and, on 14 November 1998, they performed at Mushroom Records' 25th anniversary concert – recorded as Mushroom 25 Live – with Jimmy Barnes handling vocals. In June 1999 U.S. singer Terence Trent D'Arby provided vocals for INXS at the opening of facilities for 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.[2] From May 2000 they performed with former Noiseworks front man, Jon Stevens, who officially joined in 2002 to start recording a new INXS album but the sessions only provided one track and Stevens left in 2003.[48] In 2005, INXS took their search for a lead singer to Rock Star: INXS, a reality TV show on CBS. The winner was Canadian singer J.D. Fortune – they subsequently released Switch on 29 November and Original Sin in October 2010.[48]

Hutchence's solo album, Michael Hutchence, was finally released in October 1999.[2] He had started on the album in 1995, recording songs in between INXS sessions and had last worked on it three days prior to his death. The last song he recorded was "Possibilities".[2] The album was co-written and co-produced by Hutchence and various collaborators – Andy Gill (Gang of Four), Bernard Fowler (The Rolling Stones backing singer), Tim Simenon (Bomb the Bass), and Danny Saber (Black Grape). It has a duet with U2's Bono, "Slide Away", with Bono's vocals recorded after Hutchence's death. The movie, Limp (1999) includes a cameo by Hutchence, playing a record company A&R man – he had filmed his scene in 1996 on a day off working on INXS's Elegantly Wasted.

On 18 June 2000, his mother Patricia and half-sister Tina released their book, Just a Man: The Real Michael Hutchence, which is described as "an odd biography ... [that] combines the basic facts of Hutchence's early life ... with an almost too-intimate view of the authors' feelings".[49] Yates died on 17 September of an accidental heroin overdose; she was discovered by four-year-old Tiger.[33] Geldof filed for custody of Tiger the next day. Although they were not directly related, he wanted her to be raised with her half-sisters. Hutchence's family members were not given Geldof's permission to join the custody hearings – Patricia and Tina initiated legal proceedings to pursue custody.[45] On 12 December 2002, Hutchence's father, Kelland, died of cancer in Sydney. Kelland had helped create and maintain a memorial website for his son from 1999.[50]

On 20 August 2005, Melbourne's The Age reported on the disposition of Hutchence's estate and assets, estimated at between $10 to $20Â million but containing virtually nothing. The remainder of his estate had been sold off and swallowed in legal fees. Millions of dollars in property and other assets, including ongoing royalties from INXS, were held in 'The Vocals Trust', a complex arrangement of international companies and trusts, of which Hutchence was not a beneficiary. Gordon Fisher, who set up the arrangement, stated that Hutchence used this structure to keep his wealth from his "thieving relatives" and "girlfriends". Others linked with this scheme are Andrew Young, Tony Alford, Andrew Paul and Colin Diamond, some of whom have had their financial and personal credibility questioned.[51]

On 22 November 2007, the 10th anniversary of Hutchence's death, the original members of INXS created a tribute page on their official website. Rhett revealed to Woman's Day magazine that he was going to the Supreme Court to try to overturn the verdict of suicide, as he does not want Tiger growing up thinking her father intentionally left her.

The dispute between Geldof and Hutchence family members over Tiger continued. Geldof legally adopted Tiger, against the wishes of Patricia and Tina, who disagreed with Geldof changing her surname to Hutchence-Geldof. In July 2009, Patricia protested that Geldof had prevented access to her granddaughter for three years, "It's totally cruel and unnecessary. I've lost my husband and now I have a granddaughter who doesn't even know her beloved Grandpa Ross [Glassop] has died. We have been completely cut out of her life by Bob Geldof."[52] Patricia requested a visit with Tiger from Geldof for what would have been Hutchence's 50th birthday (22 January 2010) and indicated that she accepted her son's death as being a suicide.[53] Patricia died on 21 September 2010; Tiger was not in attendance at her grandmother's funeral due to Geldof's fear of the attention that would be generated. Her uncle Rhett indicated that Geldof had sent condolences, that he had spoken to Tiger and agreed it was advisable to keep the 14-year-old out of the media.[54]


when was disney's coronado springs resort built

Disney's Coronado Springs Resort is a resort hotel at the Walt Disney World Resort that opened on August 1, 1997. The resort is located in the Animal Kingdom Resort Area. Its theme is American colonial Spanish and southwestern American. This hotel is categorized as a'moderate' resort. This was Walt Disney World's first attempt at a'moderate' resort with a convention center. It is the only moderate level Disney resort with suites, a cafeteria-style restaurant, a formal dinner restaurant (Maya Grill), a gift shop, an arcade, one large pool, three quiet pools, a salon, fitness center, and a dance club. The resort is owned and operated by Walt Disney Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products.
In February 2017, a large expansion was announced, with the centerpiece being a 15 story tower located near the entrance and convention center. Other things added are "floating gardens and a oasis which connects to the rest of the resort via a series of bridges".

Disney's Coronado Springs Resort

There are 1,951 rooms at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort located in three sections across the property.  The Casitas are made up of 5 buildings that have 3-5 floors and are close to the Convention Center, with Building 1 connecting directly to the Convention Center and buildings 2 & 3 connecting directly to building 1.  The Ranchos are made of up 4 pueblo-style buildings that have 2-4 floors.  The Cabanas are made up of 4 buildings that have 2 floors that are somewhat near El Centro. Most rooms were renovated in 2009 and now feature two queen beds or one king bed, a flat screen TV, and other new furnishings.[citation needed]

The Coronado Springs Resort Convention Center is the largest convention center on Walt Disney World property featuring 220,000-square-foot (20,000 m2) of meeting space. The Convention Center includes the  60,214-square-foot (5,594.1 m2) Coronado Ballroom which is the largest ballroom in the southeastern United States, the 21,160-square-foot (1,966 m2) Fiesta Ballroom, as well as the 86,000-square-foot (8,000 m2) Veracruz Exhibition Hall with 1,500-square-foot (140 m2) of pre-function space in addition to 45 breakout rooms. It has been designated as being the premier single-level hotel convention facility on the east-coast[citation needed] and is one of the largest single-level hotel convention centers in the Southeast. There is a business center located on site.


where is the local shop filmed in league of gentlemen

Filming of the television series took place in the Derbyshire village of Hadfield, located in a Pennines valley.[3] The "Local Shop" is a purpose-built building on nearby Marsden Moor.[3]

Royston Vasey

Royston Vasey is a fictional town in the BBC television comedy series The League of Gentlemen.[1] It was filmed in Hadfield, Derbyshire in England and is based on Alston, Cumbria.[2]

The preceding radio series On the Town with the League of Gentlemen was set in the equally fictional and almost identical town of Spent.

Royston Vasey draws on the upbringing of all the League's members - Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson - all of whom were raised in the north of England.[3] Royston Vasey is often said to be the real name of British stand-up comedian Roy 'Chubby' Brown.[3] Brown played the part of the town's mayor in a cameo appearance.

The League considered a number of filming locations before settling on Hadfield.[3] Another town to feature prominently in the series was Bacup in Rossendale, and the West Yorkshire town of Todmorden was used for some later scenes.

The town as it appears in the TV show has a sign which ominously declares "Welcome to Royston Vasey.  You'll never leave!" The first building many visitors come across is the "Local Shop". The Local Shop is located some distance from the town itself on a lonely hilltop moor.

In the first television series of The League of Gentlemen a construction company called PQ Construction threatens the isolation of Royston Vasey by building a "New Road" near the Local Shop.[4]  The project is first delayed when a monster (later revealed to be parts of a goat, a pig and a chimp crudely stitched together by Edward Tattsyrup) is unearthed on the construction site and comes to an end in the final episode when the owner of PQ Construction, David Tattsyrup, is revealed to be the son of Edward and Tubbs who convince him to "live locally."

In the second series Royston Vasey receives visits from both a travelling circus and a group of German exchange students. The town becomes gradually overrun by a deadly nosebleed epidemic which causes a high percentage of the town's residents to experience incessant bleeding and death, usually within 24 hours.[5]  Eventually the epidemic devastates the town, with the Ministry of Health running riot in a desperate attempt to staunch the plague. The cause of the nosebleeds can be traced to a substance known only as the "Special Stuff", a highly addictive and mysterious foodstuff served by demonic butcher Hilary Briss, which becomes deadly when cut with sandwich paste. However, the surviving local residents mistakenly accuse Edward and Tubbs of spreading the disease and burn the Local Shop to the ground.

In the third and final series, several of the residents of Royston Vasey are involved in a traffic collision which leaves Lance Longthorne and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen dead while Geoff Tipps is facially disfigured. The travelling circus also returns.

In the film The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, the town is on the verge of destruction when the League of Gentlemen - Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, and Reece Shearsmith - agree to stop writing for Royston Vasey. This causes meteorites to rain from the sky until the entire town is razed to the ground. The destruction of Royston Vasey can only be prevented when all four of the writers are killed, but it transpires that the entire ordeal was conceived by Dyson while unconscious in a hospital.

The League of Gentlemen book, A Local Book for Local People, released between the second and third series, describes Royston Vasey's history in a brochure, from its beginnings, as mentioned in an appendix to the Domesday Book as "an hutte with a pigge outside" (presumably the Local Shop) to the construction of the town hall in the late 1930s, as designed by Albert Speer. The endpapers of the book show real maps of northern England turned upside down and with fictional place names, Royston Vasey corresponding to the real town of Settle, North Yorkshire (close by to Panties / Giggleswick).

The town's most prominent landmarks include the Local Shop, an angelic war memorial, H.Briss & Son Butchers, the St Mary Of Bethlehem hospital, the Windermere B&B, and the local Job Centre.


where does the blackstone river start and end

The river is formed in Worcester, Massachusetts by the confluence of the Middle River and Mill Brook. From there, it follows a rough southeast course through Millbury, Sutton, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge, Millville, and Blackstone. It then continues into Rhode Island, where it flows through Woonsocket, Cumberland, Lincoln, Central Falls, and Pawtucket, where the river then reaches Pawtucket Falls. After that, the river becomes tidal, and flows into the Seekonk River just north of Providence. Other tributaries join the Blackstone along the way, such as the West and Mumford River, at Uxbridge, and The Branch River in North Smithfield.

Blackstone River

The Blackstone River is a river in the U.S. states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It flows approximately 48 mi (80 km) and drains a watershed of approximately 540 sq. mi (1,400 km²). Its long history of industrial use has left a legacy of pollution, and was characterized by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 1990 as "the most polluted river in the country with respect to toxic sediments."[1]

The river is named after William Blackstone (original spelling William Blaxton) who arrived in Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1623, and became the first European settler of present-day Boston in 1625. He relocated again, to Rhode Island in 1635 and built his home on the river, in what would become Cumberland. With the Providence River, the Blackstone was the northeastern border of Dutch claims for New Netherland from Adriaen Block's charting of Narragansett Bay in 1614 through the Hartford Treaty of 1650.

The original Native American name for the river was the "Kittacuck", which meant "the great tidal river". The "Kittacuck", or Blackstone, was plentiful with salmon and lamprey in pre-colonial and colonial times.[2]

In 1790, Samuel Slater opened the first successful water powered cotton mill in America, Slater Mill, at Pawtucket Falls. This mill was powered by the waters of the Blackstone River. Many other mills appeared along the Blackstone River over time making it an important part of American industry. The industrialization also led to the river being identified by the end of the 20th century as the primary source of Narragansett Bay pollution.[3]

In August 1955, severe flooding on the Blackstone caused extensive damage to Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Where the river is usually 70 feet (21 m) wide it swelled to over 1 mile (1.6 km) wide.[citation needed] The flooding of the Blackstone was the result of a succession of dam breaks and was caused by rainfall from Hurricane Connie followed a week later by Hurricane Diane, which together deposited over 20 inches (510 mm) of rain in parts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.[4] The Blackstone river reached a stage of 21.8 feet (6.6 m) in Woonsocket, which remains the flood of record; flood stage is 9.0 feet (2.7 m).[5]

The river, together with the Woonasquatucket River to the south, was designated an American Heritage River in 1998.

The Blackstone River has a long association with industry, and a legacy of pollution as a result. By 1900 the river was already considered polluted and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said in a report, "The Department finds that the condition of the Blackstone River is offensive throughout its course, from Worcester to the state line at Blackstone. The condition of the stream is likely to grow worse until effective measures are completed for removing from the river much of the pollution which it now receives."[6] Little was actually done to abate this pollution for the next 72 years, until the passage of the Clean Water Act began to spur some action on the part of States and the Federal Government to clean up polluted rivers and streams. Progress was slow, and as recently as 1990, the United States Environmental Protection Agency called the Blackstone, "The most polluted river in the country with respect to toxic sediments."[1]

Early industries discharged a variety of pollutants into the river including dyes from textile mills and heavy metals and solvents from metal and woodworking industries.[6] Much of this early pollution lies trapped in sediments behind historic dams on the river and continues to affect the ecosystem today. Much recent pollution can be traced to the Upper Blackstone Water Pollution Abatement District (UBWPAD), the wastewater treatment plant for Worcester, Massachusetts and surrounding communities, which discharges into the Blackstone. A 2005 report written by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management said, "... [the] UBWPAD, North Attleboro, and Attleboro WWTFs play a significant role in the ability to improve water quality in the Providence and Seekonk River system [into which the Blackstone discharges], and efforts to reduce their nitrogen inputs should be initiated as soon as possible."[7] In September 2010, the Conservation Law Foundation, citing this report, filed a lawsuit claiming that the discharge permit issued to the UBWPAD by the Environmental Protection Agency is not "sufficient to meet state water quality standards."[8]

River cleanup is still underway, and today the Blackstone is considered a Class C river (suitable only for "secondary contact" activities like boating) for much of its length.[9]

Below is a list of all crossings over the Blackstone River. The list starts at the headwaters and goes downstream.

In addition to many unnamed tributaries, the following brooks and rivers feed the Blackstone:


supreme court cases dealing with the 19th amendment

Leser v. Garnett, 258 U.S. 130 (1922),[1] was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution had been constitutionally established.

Leser v. Garnett

On August 26, 1920, the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was certified by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby. The amendment reads as follows:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The Supreme Court granted certiorari to decide "Whether the Nineteenth Amendment has become part of the federal Constitution." The plaintiffs disputed the constitutionality of the amendment through three claims:

In a unanimous decision, the court addressed each objection in turn.

In response to the first objection, the court declared that since the Fifteenth Amendment had been accepted as valid for more than fifty years, and dealt with a similar matter (in this case, that voting rights could not be denied on account of race), it could not be argued that the new amendment was invalid due to its subject matter.

In response to the second objection, the court decided that when the state legislatures ratified the amendment, they were operating in a federal capacity as laid down in the Constitution, a role which "transcends any limitations sought to be imposed by the people of a state."

As far as the ratifications of Tennessee and West Virginia were concerned, the court remarked that the additional ratifications of Connecticut and Vermont after the proclamation of the amendment rendered the point moot, but the court also addressed the substance of the objection. The court found that as the Secretary of State had accepted the ratifications by the legislatures of the two states as valid, they were valid, effectively ruling the matter as non-justiciable.


dialup is the slowest type of the internet connection

Dial-up connections usually have latency as high as 150 ms or even more; this is longer than for many forms of broadband, such as cable or DSL, but typically less than satellite connections. Longer latency can make video conferencing and online gaming difficult, if not impossible. An increasing amount of Internet content such as streaming media will not work at dial-up speeds.

Dial-up Internet access

Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telephone line. The user's computer or router uses an attached modem to encode and decode information into and from audio frequency signals, respectively.

In 1979, Tom Truscott and Steve Bellovin, graduate students for Duke University, would create an early predecessor to dial-up Internet access â€“ called the USENET. The USENET was a UNIX based system that used a dial-up connection to transfer data through telephone modems.[1] Dial-up Internet has been around since the 1980s via public providers such as NSFNET-linked universities and was first offered commercially in July 1992 by Sprint.[2] Despite losing ground to broadband since the late-1990s, dial-up may still be used where other forms are not available or the cost is too high, such as in some rural or remote areas.

Dial-up connections to the Internet require no infrastructure other than the telephone network and the modems and servers needed to make and answer the calls. Where telephone access is widely available, dial-up remains useful and it is often the only choice available for rural or remote areas, where broadband installations are not prevalent due to low population density and high infrastructure cost. Dial-up access may also be an alternative for users on limited budgets, as it is offered free by some ISPs, though broadband is increasingly available at lower prices in many countries due to market competition.

Dial-up requires time to establish a telephone connection (up to several seconds, depending on the location) and perform configuration for protocol synchronization before data transfers can take place. In locales with telephone connection charges, each connection incurs an incremental cost. If calls are time-metered, the duration of the connection incurs costs.

Dial-up access is a transient connection, because either the user, ISP or phone company terminates the connection. Internet service providers will often set a limit on connection durations to allow sharing of resources, and will disconnect the userâ€”requiring reconnection and the costs and delays associated with it. Technically inclined users often find a way to disable the auto-disconnect program such that they can remain connected for more days than one.[citation needed]

A 2008 Pew Research Center study stated that only 10 percent of US adults still used dial-up Internet access. The study found that the most common reason for retaining dial-up access was high broadband prices. Users cited lack of infrastructure as a reason less often than stating that they would never upgrade to broadband.[3] According to the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 6% used dial-up in 2010.[4] By 2013, that number had fallen to 3%.[5]

Broadband internet access via cable, digital subscriber line, satellite and FTTx has been replacing dial-up access in many parts of the world. Broadband connections typically offer speeds of 700 kbit/s or higher for two-thirds more than the price of dial-up on average.[4] In addition broadband connections are always on, thus avoiding the need to connect and disconnect at the start and end of each session. Finally, unlike dial-up, broadband does not require exclusive use of a phone line and so one can access the Internet and at the same time make and receive voice phone calls without having a second phone line.

However, many rural areas still remain without high speed Internet despite the eagerness of potential customers. This can be attributed to population, location, or sometimes ISPs' lack of interest due to little chance of profitability and high costs to build the required infrastructure. Some dial-up ISPs have responded to the increased competition by lowering their rates and making dial-up an attractive option for those who merely want email access or basic web browsing.[6][7]

Dial-up Internet access has undergone a precipitous fall in usage, and potentially approaches extinction as modern users turn towards broadband. In contrast to the year 2000 when about 34% of Internet users used dial-up, this dropped to 3% in 2013.[8] Adding to the extinction of dial-up is many newer programs such as antivirus and major applications download their sizable updates automatically in the background when a connection is first made and this can greatly impact the available bandwidth available to other applications like browsers until all updates have completed which may take several minutes or longer. Since an "always on" broadband is the norm expected by most newer applications being developed, this automatic upload trend in the background will continue to eat away at dial-up's available bandwidth to the detriment of dial-up user's applications.[9] Many newer websites also now assume broadband speeds as the norm and when confronted with slower dial-up speeds may drop (timeout) these slower connections to free up communication resources. On websites that are designed to be more dial-up friendly, use of a reverse proxy prevents dial-ups from being dropped as often but can introduce long wait periods for dial-up users caused by the buffering used by a reverse proxy to bridge the different data rates.

Modern dial-up modems typically have a maximum theoretical transfer speed of 56 kbit/s (using the V.90 or V.92 protocol), although in most cases, 40â€“50 kbit/s is the norm. Factors such as phone line noise as well as the quality of the modem itself play a large part in determining connection speeds.

Some connections may be as low as 20 kbit/s in extremely noisy environments, such as in a hotel room where the phone line is shared with many extensions, or in a rural area, many miles from the phone exchange. Other factors such as long loops, loading coils, pair gain, electric fences (usually in rural locations), and digital loop carriers can also slow connections to 20 kbit/s or lower.

Analog telephone lines are digitally switched and transported inside a Digital Signal 0 once reaching the telephone company's equipment. Digital Signal 0 is 64 kbit/s and reserves 8 kbit/s for signalling information; therefore a 56 kbit/s connection is the highest that will ever be possible with analog phone lines.

Older games released from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s such as EverQuest, Red Faction, Warcraft 3, Final Fantasy XI, Phantasy Star Online, Guild Wars, Unreal Tournament, Halo: Combat Evolved, Audition, Quake 3: Arena, and Ragnarok Online, are capable of running on 56k dial-up. The first consoles to provide Internet connectivity, the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2, supported dial-up as well as broadband. The GameCube had an ability to use dial-up and broadband connections, but this was used in very few games and required a separate adapter. The original Xbox exclusively required a broadband connection. Many computer and video games released since the mid-2000s do not even include the option to use dial-up. However, there are exceptions to this, such as Vendetta Online, which can still run on a dial-up modem.

The V.42, V.42bis and V.44 standards allow modems to accept uncompressed data at a rate faster than the line rate. These algorithms use data compression to achieve higher throughput.

For instance, a 53.3 kbit/s connection with V.44 can transmit up to 53.3 Ã— 6 = 320 kbit/s if the offered data stream can be compressed that much. However, the compressibility of data tends to vary continuously, for example, due to the transfer of already-compressed files (ZIP files, JPEG images, MP3 audio, MPEG video).[11] A modem might be sending compressed files at approximately 50 kbit/s, uncompressed files at 160 kbit/s, and pure text at 320 kbit/s, or any rate in this range.[12]

As telephone-based internet lost popularity in the early 2000s, some Internet service providers such as TurboUSA, Netscape, CdotFree, and NetZero started using data compression to increase the perceived speed. As an example, EarthLink advertises "surf the Web up to 7x faster" using a compression program that squeezes images, text/html, and SWF flash animations prior to transmission across the phone line.[13]

The pre-compression operates much more efficiently than the on-the-fly compression of V.44 modems. Typically website text is compacted to 5% thus increasing effective throughput to approximately 1000 kbit/s, and JPEG/GIF/PNG images are lossy-compressed to 15-20% (increasing throughput up to 300 kbit/s).

The drawback of this approach is a loss in quality, where the graphics acquire compression artifacts taking on a blurry or colorless appearance; however the perceived speed is dramatically improved. (If desired the user may choose to view uncompressed images instead, but at a much slower load rate.) Since streaming music and video are already compressed at the source, they are typically passed by the ISP unaltered.

Note that the values given are maximum values, and actual values may be slower under certain conditions (for example, noisy phone lines).[14]