Wright v Ver headed for trial in Antigua as Roger Ver chooses not to … – CoinGeek

Roger Ver will not appeal his failed jurisdictional challenge in relation to Dr. Craig Wrights libel suit against him in Antigua, CoinGeek has learned.

In February, the High Court of Antigua and Barbudarejecteda jurisdictional challenge made byRoger Verin the Antiguan court. Ver had hoped to get the libel suit tossed on the basis that the court did not have jurisdiction to hear the claim, in particular, because neither party had sufficient connection to the country. The court disagreed, pointing to the fact that both parties were connected to the country and were highly involved in the digital asset industry there: Dr. Wright has advised the government of Antigua and Barbuda on digital asset legislation and has built important associations in the country, while Ver has a home on the beach there and has hosted several Bitcoin Cash meetups in the country as well.

It said that, as a result, Dr. Wright was entitled to defend his reputation in that jurisdiction. With Vers decision not to appeal that ruling, the case will head to a full trial to determine whether Ver has defamed Dr. Wright.

The courts affirmation of Dr. Wrights lawsuit marks the culmination of years of jurisdiction hopping by Ver, as he sought to avoid answering for Tweets he had made in which he called Dr. Craig Wright a fraud in his claim to theSatoshi Nakamoto name.

Dr. Wright brought a substantially similar action in the U.K. in 2019, which was rejected on the basis that the English courts were not the most appropriate venue to hear the dispute. This caused Ver to flee to Antigua, setting up shop in the Jolly Harbour neighborhood. Unfortunately for Ver, Dr. Wright has been a citizen of Antigua since 2016, meaning that Ver had inadvertently made Antigua the perfect venue to settle the dispute.

Its also the second time Dr. Wright has emerged victorious over Roger Ver in as many months. In February, the U.K. Court of Appeal ruled that Ver and a number of other blockchain developers must face trial over whether or not they owe legal duties to those using and relying on their blockchain protocols. It was a highly significant decision, and the trial has the potential to usher in an enormous shift in how the law deals treats ownership ofdigital assets.

As for Antigua, the scene is now set for the matter of Vers attacks on Dr. Wright to be resolved in a court of law, in the full light of the evidence. Given bloggerPeter McCormack has already been found liablefor defamation in the U.K. regarding substantially similar postings, the future does not bode well for Ver.

FollowCoinGeeks Crypto Crime Cartelseries, which delves into the stream of groupsfromBitMEXtoBinance,Bitcoin.com,Blockstream,ShapeShift,Coinbase,Ripple,Ethereum, FTXandTetherwho have co-opted the digital asset revolution and turned the industry into a minefield for nave (and even experienced) players in the market.

New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeeksBitcoin for Beginnerssection, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoinas originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamotoand blockchain.

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Wright v Ver headed for trial in Antigua as Roger Ver chooses not to ... - CoinGeek

Dogecoin (DOGE) Price Prediction 2025-2030: A 30% hike in 7 days means – AMBCrypto News

Disclaimer: The datasets shared in the following article have been compiled from a set of online resources and do not reflect AMBCryptos own research on the subject.

Dogecoin (DOGE) has been performing well on the price charts in recent days. In fact, DOGE is up by over 30% on the weekly charts. This, largely owing to Twitters Elon Musk replacing the social media platforms logo with Dogecoins. Understandably, this has fueled notions that Musk will soon add DOGE as a payment option on Twitter.

Additionally, as per a Reuters report published on 1 April, Elon Musk and his lawyers reportedly asked a US judge this week to dismiss a $258 billion lawsuit filed by investors who claimed that Musk ran a pyramid scheme to promote the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Musks lawyers also described his Dogecoin statements as innocuous and often silly tweets in an attempt to persuade the judge to dismiss the multibillion-dollar lawsuit.

Six days ago, the UK branch of global fast-food chain Burger King unexpectedly responded to a post about cryptocurrency payments at Burger King, We need doge.

Soon after, Asian stocks rallied after Chinas central bank committed to providing more financial assistance to companies, triggering a massive bull wave in all risk assets. The Chinese central bank is once again opening its wallet in order to provide financial assistance to businesses.

Last week, tech billionaire Elon Musk mentioned a fee for visiting Twitter headquarters, which should be paid in DOGE, in a tweet. The Twitter boss was responding to user DogeDesigner (@cb_doge), who wanted to visit the head office of this social media platform.

The crypto industry witnessed around $307 million in liquidations on 9 March within a day of the collapse of the crypto-friendly bank Silvergate Capital (SI). Dogecoin was among the coins, leading the price decline as it fell from $0.0715 to $0.0632. But its performance has recovered with time.

Previously, the whole FTX debacle had also been particularly bad for DOGE, as its price had reached around $0.15, the lowest since the first crypto crash in May 2022 following the Terra stablecoin debacle.

What started as a parody of mainstream cryptocurrency culture quickly gained currency among enthusiasts who had not taken the whole affair very seriously. Dogecoin is now as well-known as Bitcoin (BTC), even among the uninformed. As a result of meme culture, Dogecoin and other meme coins have become immensely powerful.

ReadPrice Prediction for Dogecoin [DOGE]for 2023-24

In fact, for the greater part of 2022, DOGE/USD performed poorly except for when Elon Musk acquired Twitter. Theacquisition raised hopesin the Dogecoin community about increased cryptocurrency usage.

Being Elon Musks favorite memecoin at one point, it was counted among the most popular cryptocurrencies. However, the FTX sagawas particularly bad for DOGE, as its price had reached around $0.15, the highest since the first crypto crash in May 2022 following the Terra stablecoin debacle.

Since its launch in around 2010, the cryptocurrency industry has come a long way. The vision of the cryptocurrency industry was an on-chain, financial order that would not invite governmental intervention. Needless to say, such a grand plan elicited suspicion and even invited smirks.

Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, a pair of software engineers, had been observing this trend. who thought that this whole crypto affair was being taken far too seriously. In response, they created a memecoin named Dogecoin in December 2013 to mock crypto maximalists. The memecoin soon became popular across the globe, thanks to it going viral on social media sites such as Reddit.

The token featured an image of an adorable Shiba Inu dog, a rare breed of hunting dog from Japan. Dogecoin went viral on social media platforms such as Reddit, gaining instant popularity worldwide.

Dogecoin soon earned a devoted following. Those who were interested in cryptocurrency but were not too serious about its alleged revolutionary potential were the first to flock to this memecoin. People who liked this breed of Japanese dogs also bought this memecoin. Anyone willing to casually engage with cryptocurrency also participated in the Dogecoin culture.

However, as it gained more traction in the market and its value increased, people began to buy this joke of a cryptocurrency in earnest. Today, it is the 10th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, and post the Ethereum Merge, has emerged as the second-largest Proof-of-Work (PoS) cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. In fact, the value and popularity of this memecoin grew so popularthat it was the sleeve sponsor for the English football club, Watford F.C. for the 2021-22 season, asreportedbyThe Atlantic.

Thanks to the popularity of Dogecoin, a herd of meme-inspired cryptocurrencies have mushroomed across the globe- Shiba Inu being the most popular among them. Over the years, more than 200 meme coins have been created since the launch of Dogecoin.

Within a few days of its launch, itrosefrom $0.00026 to $0.00095 in value, recording a significant hike of around 300%. In doing so, it quickly established itself as one of the markets top-10 cryptocurrencies. Between January and May 2021, DOGE surged by more than 8,600%.

One of the reasons behind such a surge was it being mentioned on social media by tech and entertainment giants such as Elon Musk, Snoop Dogg, and Mark Cuban. On 8 May 2021, ithit an ATHof $0.7376.

As per TradingView, DOGE, at press time, was trading at $0.0970, with a market cap of $11.8 billion. The eighth-largest cryptocurrency, at the time of writing, had a 24-hour trading volume of over $700M.

A long-term Dogecoin developer Sporklin, now no more, onceremarked,

Dogecoin can be a joke and still be functional While the branding is frontal jokes and memes, everything under that has been solid from the start.

What is peculiar to Dogecoin is it is a fascination of the business magnate Elon Musk. Musk evensupportedDogecoin on Twitter and oncecalledit a hustle on an SNL episode, significantly pushing its price both times.

However, when the crypto-market crashed in May 2022 and a lot of Dogecoin investors also lost money, an investor named Keith Johnson filed a $258 billion lawsuit against Elon Musk and his companies, SpaceX and Tesla, for allegedly running what he called a Dogecoin Crypto Pyramid Scheme. In early September, Reutersreportedthat the lawsuit now has seven new investor plaintiffs and six new defendants.

So far, DOGE has been used to reward creative users on Reddit, Twitter, and other such networks for good content. People can also get tipped with DOGE in the eponymous online communities where the currency is popular. Another new concept for our readers might be the existence of Dogecoin faucets. A Dogecoin faucet is a website that gives you a Dogecoin for free so that you get introduced to the world of Dogecoins and become an active member of this meme coin community.

Dogecoin has also been used to raise funds for a number of causes. In 2014, the community came together toraise$50,000 worth of Dogecoins to build water wells in Kenya. The same year, a group of enthusiastsraisedover $25,000 worth of dogecoins to let the Jamaican bobsleigh team attend the Winter Olympics in Sochi. In 2014 again, the community raised $55,000 worth of Dogecoins to sponsor the Nascar driver Josh Wise. I cant thank the dogecoin and Reddit community enough for the support To the moon!saidWise.

The growth of Dogecoin over these years has less to do with its infrastructure development and more to do with its strong mining community.

Only recently, Billy Markus, the co-founder of Dogecoin,rejecteda $14 million offer to promote Dogechain, the unofficial layer-2 solution for the meme coin. Many believed that the decision reflected Billys loyalty to the Doge community. Decentralization is a central marker of this revolutionary financial system and forging an alliance with another group is a possible violation if the latter comes to dominate the system. Keeping the memecoin community fun and independent has been the cornerstone of the belief system underlying the growth of the community.

Today, Dogecoin is as mainstream as Bitcoin and is traded on all the major cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase, Gemini and Binance.

Many prominent members of the blockchain and fintech communities are currently involved with Dogecoin. A foundation was formed in 2014 to support and govern the project but it dissolved over time. It was reinvigorated in 2021 by members of the original core team along with fresh faces and new seasoned advisors ready to grow Dogecoin for the decade ahead.

Its group of directors include Dogecoin founder Billy Markus, core developer Max Keller, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, and Jared Birchall representing Tesla founder Elon Musk. Markus takes care of the community and memes, Keller handles technical aspects of the project, Buterin acts as the crypto-advisor for the foundation, and Birchall provides legal and financial advice.

We can see how a currency that began as a joke has come such a long way that the most prominent members of the crypto community are today leading, advising, and monitoring its development.

Let us explore how this fun cryptocurrency, one that claims to Do Only Good Everyday, will perform in the next few years.

Dogecoin is the pioneer among all the memecoins active in the market. It is only after the initial success of Dogecoin that other memecoins like Shiba Inu and Monacoin entered the market. In fact, at press time, it was among the markets top 10 cryptocurrencies.

Dogecoin remains immensely popular among its core fanbase and other crypto-enthusiasts. Currently, its Twitter and Reddit communities have 3.7 million and 2.4 million members.A major reason behind its increasing value has been the support of these online communities.

In January 2021, its pricesawa hike of 800% in just 24 hours when a subReddit named r/SatoshiStreetBets began pushing its price to make it the cryptocurrency equivalent of Gamestop. In early April 2021, itroseby 400% after popular crypto-exchange Coinbase went public and Elon Musk tweeted about Dogecoin.

How manyDOGEs can you buy for $1?

Before investing in Dogecoin, it is wise that you should be aware of its previous performance, studies and market predictions. It is precisely for this reason that we are providing a summary of most reliable predictions regarding Dogecoin, in addition to the Fear & Greed Index.

The way Dogecoin began as a mockery of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, its performance also broadly mimicked the performance of those currencies. Adverse market conditions towards the end of Q2 in 2022 completely ravished the crypto-market and Dogecoin couldnt escape its brunt either.

In 2021, it remained one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies, peaking in May with an ATH of $0.7376 and a market cap of over $0.7 billion. Then it quickly began descending. 2022 began with a fairly decent start for the cryptocurrency, with a price of around $0.17 in early January. But since then, it has lost over 60% of its value.

It was in May 2017 that its market capitalization crossed $100 million and by the end of 2017; it crossed $1 billion. During 2018-20, the market cap of Dogecoin couldnt cross the $1 billion mark. However, come 2021 and like its price, its market cap also kept soaring. In April, it hit $52.65 billion, before reaching the $88.68 billion mark in early May. It ended the year 2021 with a market cap of over $22 billion.

Early 2022 was also fairly blissful for Dogecoin, though not as good as the previous year. In early April 2022, its market cap was $19.84 billion. Alas, since May, the same has been falling from around $17 billion.

What is peculiar to Dogecoin is it being a subject of fascination for business magnate Elon Musk. Musk evensupportedDogecoin on Twitter and oncecalledit a hustle on an SNL episode, significantly pushing its price both times.

It has also won the support of other celebrities, such as Mark Cuban and Snoop Dogg too. While the formers NBA team Dallas Mavericks has been acceptingDogecoin as a payment currency, the lattersupportedMusk in his support for the meme coin on Twitter.

Another distinction between Dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies is that there is absolutely no cap on the number of Dogecoins that can be issued. Its websiteclaimsthat it has a diminished inflation rate because it has a fixed yearly issuance of 5 billion coins.

Investors should understand that different analysts look at different sets of parameters to forecast market metrics. Different analyses can therefore widely vary. We should also remember that unexpected macroeconomic forces such as government regulations and wars cannot be foreseen. Market changes its course wildly during such changes. No prediction is therefore set in stone.

Now, let us see how different analysts have predicted the future of Dogecoin in 2025.

Coin Journal is rather bullish about the future of Dogecoin as it predicts its wider utility as more and more merchants begin accepting it as a mode of payment, raising its price to $1.18.

A Changelly blogpost mentions that the maximum and minimum prices of DOGE in 2025 will be 0.239 and 0.279. It predicts a potential ROI of 221.8% for DOGE in the said year.

Benzinga also predicts that the end of 2025 could be the beginning of the next bear market, causing DOGE to consolidate around the $0.20 mark.

Even though predicting market metrics 8 years down the line is very speculative, it is nonetheless helpful to study the predictions of reliable crypto analysts regarding Dogecoin in 2030.

CoinJournal is quite hopeful in its assessment of Dogecoin, predicting that it will be trading at $2.59 in 2030.

A Changelly blogpost predicts that DOGE will be traded for at least $1.5 in 2030, with a possible peak price of $1.81. Its average price is expected to be around $1.55 in 2030.

According to Benzinga, Dogecoin could rise and take new ATHs of $1.30 if it builds a robust network effect and strong community.

Though we must understand that the further we look into the future, the harder it becomes to predict the prices of a currency. It becomes especially challenging in a market as volatile as cryptocurrency.

We must understand that the further we look into the future, the harder it becomes to predict the prices of a currency. It becomes especially challenging in a market as volatile as cryptocurrency.

Experts opine that influencer marketing and promotions will also heat up DOGEs price. It will also grow at a substantial rate. Features such as zero staking rewards and lack of new use cases will also impact the market.

Here, its worth pointing out that perhaps, Dogecoin doesnt follow the traditional rules of a regular asset since it is a memecoin. Just consider what Panxora Hedge Funds Gavin Smith has to say

Detractors of the token forget that community is at least as important as uniqueness in the crypto-space.

Theres the matter of updates too. Ordinarily, people would associate new upgrades and updates with a hike in the cryptos price. However, has that been the case for DOGE? Well, not quite. In fact, Musk has been more useful as a catalyst. In fact, Finders panel seemed to agree with the said proposition.

The primary factors that affect the performance of Dogecoin are:

Bitcoin Jesus Roger Ver once famously said that the memecoin is superior and better than the pioneering cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Now, whether the aforementioned predictions will come true or not depends on a lot of factors, some of which cannot be foreseen. Even so, for an altcoin that began as a joke, Dogecoin has certainly come a long way.

Morgan Creek Capital Management Chief Investment Officer Mark Yusko recently launched a stinging attack on Dogecoin, saying that meme coins dont have any value. The speculative nonsense like Dogecoin, why does it even exist, Yusko asked during aYouTube showwith crypto analyst Scott Melker.

Dogecoin was the first memecoin that successfully wedded the financial potential of cryptocurrency with the fandom of meme culture, making it accessible for new crypto users. In addition, celebrity endorsement also added immensely to its popularity. Today, it is counted among the most valued cryptocurrencies.

Elon Musks takeover of Twitter has certainly piqued an interest in Dogecoin. In October 2022, Musk introduced a Boring Company fragrance on Twitter, which could be bought with Dogecoin. The announcement had an instant impact as Dogecoins price quickly rose. In November 2022, Musk unpacked Twitter 2.0 and outlined several potential changes, including a blank space next to payments. This has led to many people to speculate that a cryptocurrency may be used but there is no certainty so far.

In October 2022, Google Cloud and Coinbase announced a collaboration for Web 3.0 development projects. Certain customers will be able to pay for these services using cryptocurrencies, such as Dogecoin. Well have to wait and see if the decision is implemented and if other companies will follow suit.

Blockchain security firm Halborn released a report on 13 March that highlighted major vulnerabilities known as Rab13s plaguing more than 280 blockchains, including Dogecoin. According to Halborn, it was hired to inspect Dogecoins code in March 2022, with the project soon patching any vulnerabilities it discovered.

Dogecoins Fear and Greed Index was Neutral at press time.

We have seen how the performance of memecoin gets affected by macroeconomic factors, besides the developments in the crypto industry. Investors looking to gain on funds invested in Dogecoin should keep looking for such factors.

Continued here:

Dogecoin (DOGE) Price Prediction 2025-2030: A 30% hike in 7 days means - AMBCrypto News

Roger – Wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roger is a masculine given name, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names Roger and Rogier. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements hrd, ri ("fame", "renown", "honour") and gr, gr ("spear", "lance") (Hrigraz). The name was introduced into England by the Normans.[2] In Normandy, the Frankish name had been reinforced by the Old Norse cognate Hrgeirr.[3] The name introduced into England replaced the Old English cognate Hrogar. Roger became a very common given name during the Middle Ages. A variant form of the given name Roger that is closer to the name's origin is Rodger.[4]

From c.1650 up to c.1870, Roger was slang for the word "penis".[5][6][7] In Under Milk Wood, Dylan Thomas writes "jolly, rodgered" suggesting both the sexual double entendre and the pirate term "Jolly Roger".[8]

In 19th-century England, Roger was slang for another term, the cloud of toxic green gas that swept through the chlorine bleach factories periodically.[9]

From circa 1940 in US and UK wartime communication, "Roger" came to represent "R" when spelling out a word. "R" is the first letter in "received", used to acknowledge understanding a message. This spread to civilian usage as "ROGER" replaced "received" in spoken usage in air traffic radio parlance by 1950.[citation needed]

Current British slang includes the word as a verb to mean sexual intercourse, i.e., "took her home and Rogered her."

The following forenames are related to the English given name Roger:

See also All pages with titles beginning with Roger de, All pages with titles beginning with Roger of and All pages with titles beginning with Roger van for people with these names

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Roger - Wikipedia

Where "Roger That" Really Comes From – What Does It Mean?

The term "Roger that" is a widespread term for confirmation, either between truckers on their CB radios, kids playing back and forth with walkie-talkies, or even face to face. But it's easy to adopt the phrase and understand what it means without ever really knowing where it came from. So here's a (very) brief history for your edification.

You love military history. So do we. Let's nerd out over it together.

"Roger" comes from the phonetic alphabet used by military and aviation personnel during WWII, when the use of two-way radios became a main form of communication and operators need crystal clear ways to spell things out with no room for misinterpretation. You may be familiar with the current NATO version of the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc.), where the the word for "R" is Romeo, but before that standard was adopted in 1957, the words were a bit different, and the word for "R" was "Roger."

But the use of "Roger" as a confirmation has roots that go back even further, according to a blog post by Jakub Marian. In the Morse code days, when sending long messages could be arduous, a useful shorthand was to respond with single, meaningful letters.

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Responding to a message with the letter "R," for example, simply let the sender know their message had been received. When two-way radio came along, the shorthand continued, but with the word "Roger" instead of "R" itself.

This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Even though Roger has since been replaced with Romeo (and was "Robert" before it was ever Roger), the widespread use of the two-ray radio during the WWII wildly popularized the saying we still use so casually today. Roger that?

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Where "Roger That" Really Comes From - What Does It Mean?

Gattaca movie review & film summary (1997) | Roger Ebert

Vincent does not accept his fate. He never has. As a child, he had swimming contests with his brother Anton (Loren Dean), who has all the right scores but needs to be saved from drowning. Now Vincent dreams of becoming a crew member on an expedition to one of the moons of Saturn. Using an illegal DNA broker, he makes a deal with a man named Jerome (Jude Law), who has the right genes but was paralyzed in an accident. Jerome will provide him with blood, urine samples and an identity. In a sense, they'll both go into space. Gattaca is the remarkable debut of a writer-director from New Zealand, Andrew Niccol, whose film is intelligent and thrilling--a tricky combination--and also visually exciting. His most important set is a vast office where genetically superior computer programmers come to work every day, filing into their long rows of desks like the office slaves in King Vidor's The Crowd and Orson Welles' The Trial. (Why are perfect human societies so often depicted by ranks of automatons? Is it because human nature resides in our flaws?) Vincent, as Jerome, gets a job as a programmer, supplies false genetic samples and becomes a finalist for the space shot.

The tension comes in two ways. First, there's the danger that Vincent will be detected; the area is swept daily, and even an eyelash can betray him. Second, there's a murder; a director of the center, who questions the wisdom of the upcoming shot, is found dead, and a detective (Alan Arkin) starts combing the personnel for suspects. Will a computer search sooner or later put together Vincent, the former janitor, with Jerome, the new programmer? Vincent becomes friendly with Irene (Uma Thurman), who works in the center but has been passed over for a space shot because of low scores in some areas. They are attracted to one another, but romance in this world can be dangerous; after kissing a man, a woman is likely to have his saliva swabbed from her mouth so she can test his prospects. Other supporting characters include Gore Vidal, as a mission supervisor, and Tony Shalhoub as the broker (You could go anywhere with this guy's helix under your arm).

Hawke is a good choice for the lead, combining the restless dreams of a Godchild with the plausible exterior of a lab baby. The best scenes involve his relationship with the real Jerome, played by Law as smart, bitter, and delighted to be sticking it to the system that has grounded him. (He may be paralyzed from the waist down, but after all, as the movie observes, you don't need to walk in space.) His drama parallels Vincent's, because if either one is caught they'll both go down together.

Science fiction in the movies has recently specialized in alien invasions, but the best of the genre deals with ideas. At a time when we read about cloned sheep and tomatoes crossed with fish, the science in Gattaca is theoretically possible. When parents can order perfect babies, will they? Would you take your chances on a throw of the genetic dice, or order up the make and model you wanted? How many people are prepared to buy a car at random from the universe of all available cars? That's how many, I suspect, would opt to have natural children.

Everybody will live longer, look better and be healthier in the Gattacan world. But will it be as much fun? Will parents order children who are rebellious, ungainly, eccentric, creative, or a lot smarter than their parents are? There's a concert pianist in Gattaca who has 12 fingers. Don't you sometimes have the feeling you were born just in time?

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Gattaca movie review & film summary (1997) | Roger Ebert

Roger Federer – Wikipedia

Swiss tennis player (born 1981)

Roger Federer (German: [rdr fedrr]; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, including a record 237 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 five times. He won 103 ATP singles titles, the second most of all time, including 20 Grand Slam singles titles, a record eight men's singles Wimbledon titles, an Open Era record-tying five men's singles US Open titles, and a record-tying six year-end championships.

Federer played during an era where he dominated men's tennis along with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic as the Big Three, collectively considered by some to be the three most successful male tennis players of all time. Federer's 20 Grand Slam singles titles also put him at third most of all time, only behind Djokovic with 21 and record holder Nadal with 22, as of the end of 2022 season when Federer retired.[c] A Wimbledon junior champion in 1998 and former ball boy, Federer won his first major singles title at Wimbledon in 2003 at age 21.[4]

Between 2003 and 2009 Federer played in 21 out of 28 major singles finals. He won 3 of the 4 majors and the ATP Finals[d] in 2004, 2006, and 2007 as well as 5 consecutive titles at both Wimbledon and the US Open. He completed the career Grand Slam at the 2009 French Open after 3 consecutive runner-up finishes to Nadal, his main rival until 2010. At age 27, he surpassed Pete Sampras' record of 14 major men's singles titles at Wimbledon in 2009.

Although Federer remained in the Top 3 during most of the early 2010s, the success of Djokovic and Nadal ended his dominance over grass and hard courts, winning two majors between 2010 and 2016. During this period of time, he and Stan Wawrinka led the Switzerland Davis Cup team to their first title in 2014, following their Olympic doubles gold victory at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Federer also won a silver medal in singles at the 2012 London Olympics, where he finished runner-up to Andy Murray. After a half-year hiatus in late 2016 to recover from knee surgery, Federer made a stellar return to tennis, winning three more majors over the next two years, including the 2017 Australian Open over Nadal and an eighth singles title at the 2017 Wimbledon Championships. At the 2018 Australian Open, Federer became the first man to win 20 major singles titles and shortly the oldest ATP world No. 1 at age 36. In September 2022, he retired from professional tennis following the Laver Cup.

A versatile all-court player, Federer's perceived effortlessness has made him highly popular among tennis fans. Originally lacking self-control as a junior, he transformed his on-court demeanor to become well-liked for his general graciousness, winning the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award 13 times. He has won the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award a record five times. Outside of competing, he played an instrumental role in the creation of the Laver Cup team competition. He is also an active philanthropist. He established the Roger Federer Foundation, which targets impoverished children in southern Africa, and has raised funds in part through the Match for Africa exhibition series. He is routinely one of the top ten highest-paid athletes in any sport and ranked first among all athletes with $100 million in endorsement income in 2020.[5]

Contents

Federer was born on 8 August 1981 in Basel, Switzerland.[6][7] A member of the Federer family, his Swiss-German father, Robert Federer, is from Berneck in the canton of St. Gallen, and his Afrikaner mother, Lynette Federer (ne Durand), is from Kempton Park, Gauteng, in South Africa.[8] He has one sibling, his older sister, Diana,[9] the mother of twins.[10] Since Federer's mother is South African, he holds both Swiss and South African citizenship.[11] He grew up in nearby Birsfelden, Riehen, and then Mnchenstein, close to the French and German borders, and speaks Swiss German, Standard German, English, and French fluently as well as functional Italian and Swedish. Swiss German is his native language.[6][12][13][14] He was a ball boy at his hometown Basel event, the Swiss Indoors in 1992 and 1993.[12][15]

Like all male Swiss citizens, Federer was subject to compulsory military service in the Swiss Armed Forces. However, in 2003 he was ruled "unsuitable" and was subsequently not required to fulfill his military obligation.[16] Instead, he served in the civil protection force and was required to pay 3% of his taxable income as an alternative.[17] He grew up supporting FC Basel and the Swiss national football team.[18] He also credits his hand-eye coordination to the wide range of sports he played as a child, including badminton and basketball.[19]

Federer is married to former Women's Tennis Association player Miroslava Federer (ne Vavrinec), whom he met while they were both competing for Switzerland at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Usually called Mirka, she retired from the tour in 2002 because of a foot injury.[20] They were married at Wenkenhof Villa in Riehen near Basel on 11 April 2009, surrounded by a small group of close friends and family.[21] In 2009, she gave birth to identical twin girls.[22] They had another pair of twins in 2014, this time fraternal twin boys.[23][24] Their children were baptized in the Catholic faith by Federer's distant cousin Monsignor Urban Federer, who is the Abbot of Einsiedeln Abbey.[25]

Federer played his first junior match in 1996 at the age of 14 at a grade 2 tournament in Switzerland. His main accomplishments as a junior player came at Wimbledon in 1998 when he won both the boys' singles final over Irakli Labadze,[26] and in doubles teamed with Olivier Rochus defeating the team of Michal Llodra and Andy Ram.[27] In addition he reached the US Open Junior final in 1998, losing to David Nalbandian. Federer won four ITF junior singles tournaments in his career, including the prestigious Orange Bowl, where he defeated Guillermo Coria in the final.[28] By the end of 1998 he attained the No. 1 junior world ranking and was awarded ITF junior World Champion.[29] He ended his junior career at the end of 1998 with a high-ranking of No. 1 in singles and No. 7 in doubles (both attained on December 31, 1998) and a winloss record of 7820 in singles and 3621 in doubles.[30]

Junior Grand Slam results Singles:

Australian Open: SF (1998)French Open: 1R (1998)Wimbledon: W (1998)US Open: F (1998)

Junior Grand Slam results Doubles:

Australian Open: SF (1998)French Open: 1R (1998)Wimbledon: W (1998)US Open: 1R (1998)

Federer made his ATP debut at the 1998 Swiss Open Gstaad in his home country of Switzerland losing to Lucas Arnold Ker in the first round. Later that year, he won his first ATP match in Toulouse against Guillaume Raoux. He got a wildcard into the 1998 Swiss Indoors and lost in the first round to 4th seed and former world number 1 Andre Agassi. Federer finished his career as a 10-time champion of the tournament.

Federer entered the top 100 ranking for the first time on 20 September 1999 and started at the 1999 Marseille Open defeating the reigning champion of the 1998 French Open, Spaniard Carlos Moy. His first final came at the Marseille Open in 2000, where he lost to fellow Swiss Marc Rosset.[31] Federer won the 2001 Hopman Cup representing Switzerland, along with world No. 1 Martina Hingis.[32][33][34] The duo defeated the American pair of Monica Seles and Jan-Michael Gambill in the finals. Federer later said that his experience with Hingis "definitely helped me to become the player I am today."[35]

Federer's first singles win was at the 2001 Milan Indoor tournament, where he defeated Julien Boutter in the final.[31][36] Although he won his first title already in 1999 on the Challenger tour, winning the doubles event in Segovia, Spain with Dutchman Sander Groen, the final was played on Federer's 18th birthday. In 2001, Federer made his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the French Open, losing to former world No. 2 and eventual finalist lex Corretja. His run to the French quarterfinals launched him into the top 15 for the first time in his career.[37][38]

His international breakthrough came at the 2001 Wimbledon Championships, when the 19-year-old Federer faced the four-time defending champion and all-time Grand Slam leader Pete Sampras. Federer beat the No. 1 seed in a five-set match to reach the quarterfinals.[39] In the quarters he faced Englishman Tim Henman, eventually losing in a fourth-set tiebreaker.[40]

The first final he reached at the Masters level came at the 2002 Miami Masters event, where he lost to former and future No. 1 Andre Agassi on hard court.[41][42] Federer won his first Master Series event at the 2002 Hamburg Masters on clay, over Marat Safin; the victory put him in the top 10 for the first time.[41][43] Federer made 10 singles finals between 1998 and 2002, of which he won four and lost six.[31][41][44][45][37] He also made six finals in doubles. He finished 2001 with an ATP ranking of No. 13, and 2002 was the first year he was ranked within the top 10, finishing at No. 6.[43]

In 2003, Federer won his first Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon, beating Andy Roddick in the semifinals and Mark Philippoussis in the final.[46][47] In August he had a chance to take over the No. 1 ranking for the first time from Andre Agassi if he made it to the Montreal final. However, he fell in the semifinals to Roddick, in a final-set tiebreaker, leaving him 120 points behind Agassi.[48] This, coupled with early losses to David Nalbandian at Cincinnati and the US Open, denied Federer the chance to become No. 1 for the duration of the season.[49]

Federer won his first and only doubles Masters event in Miami with Max Mirnyi[50] and made it to one singles Masters event in Rome on clay, which he lost.[51][52] Federer made it to nine finals on the ATP Tour and won seven of them, including the 500 series events at Dubai and Vienna.[51] Lastly, Federer won the year-end championships over Andre Agassi, finishing the year as world No. 2, narrowly behind Andy Roddick by only 160 points.[51][53]

During 2004 Federer won three Grand Slam singles titles and became the first person to do in one season so since Mats Wilander in 1988. His first major hard-court title came at the Australian Open over Marat Safin, making him the world No. 1 for the first time.[54] He then won his second Wimbledon crown over Andy Roddick.[55] At the US Open, Federer defeated the 2001 champion, Lleyton Hewitt, for his first title there.[56]

Federer won three ATP Masters events, one on clay in Hamburg, and the other two on hard surfaces at Indian Wells and in Canada.[56] Federer took the ATP 500 series event at Dubai and wrapped up the year by winning the year-end championships for the second time.[56] He also won his first tournament on home soil by capturing the Swiss Open in Gstaad. His 11 singles titles were the most of any player in two decades, and his record of 746 was the best since Ivan Lendl in 1986.[57] He reached the year-end No. 1 ranking for the first time.[58]

In 2005, Federer failed to reach the finals of the first two Grand Slam tournaments, losing the Australian Open semifinal to eventual champion Safin after holding match points, and the French Open semifinal to eventual champion Rafael Nadal.[59] However, Federer reestablished his dominance on grass, winning Wimbledon for a third time by defeating Andy Roddick.[60] At the US Open, Federer defeated Andre Agassi in the latter's last major final.[61][62]

Federer also took four Masters wins: Indian Wells, Miami and Cincinnati on hard court, and Hamburg on clay.[61] The win in Miami was particularly noteworthy as it was the first final contested between Federer and Nadal. Federer recovered from two sets and a break down to take the final in five sets. Furthermore, Federer won two ATP 500 series events at Rotterdam and Dubai.[61] Federer lost the year-end championships to David Nalbandian in five sets while playing through a foot injury that sidelined him for almost the rest of the season after September.[63] He maintained his position as No. 1 for the entire season.[61]

Federer won 11 singles titles, which ties his 2004 season. Federer's 81 match victories were the most since Pete Sampras in 1993, and his record of 814 (95.2%) remains the third-best winning percentage in the Open Era behind John McEnroe's 1984 and Jimmy Connors's 1974.[57]

The 2006 season was statistically the best season of Federer's career. In November 2011, Stephen Tignor, chief editorial writer for Tennis.com, ranked Federer's 2006 season as statistically the second-best season of all time during the Open Era, behind Rod Laver's Grand Slam year of 1969.[64]

Federer won 12 singles titles (the most of any player since Thomas Muster in 1995 and John McEnroe in 1984) and had a match record of 925 (the most wins since Ivan Lendl in 1982). Federer reached the finals in an astounding 16 of the 17 tournaments he entered during the season.[65]

In 2006, Federer won three Grand Slam singles titles and reached the final of the other, with the only loss coming against Nadal in the French Open.[65] This was Federer and Nadal's first meeting in a Grand Slam final. He was the first man to reach all four finals in a calendar year since Rod Laver in 1969. Federer defeated Nadal in the Wimbledon Championships final. In the Australian Open, Federer defeated Marcos Baghdatis,[66] and at the US Open, Federer defeated 2003 champion Roddick.[65] In addition, Federer reached six Masters finals, winning four on hard surfaces and losing two on clay to Nadal. Federer, however, consistently pushed Nadal to the limit on clay throughout the season taking him to fourth-set tiebreakers in Monte-Carlo and Paris, and a thrilling match in Rome that went to a deciding fifth-set tiebreaker.[67]

Federer won one ATP 500 series event in Tokyo and captured the year-end championships for the third time in his career, again finishing the year as world No. 1.[66] Federer only lost to two players during 2006, to Nadal four times in finals, and to 19-year-old Andy Murray in the second round of the 2006 Cincinnati Masters, in what was Federer's only defeat before the final of a tournament that year.[68] Federer finished the season on a 29-match winning streak, as well as winning 48 of his last 49 matches after the French Open.[69]

Near the end of the season he won his hometown tournament, the Swiss Indoors in Basel, Switzerland for the first time, having finished runner up in 2000 and 2001, and missing the tournament in 2004 and 2005 due to injuries.[70]

In 2007, Federer reached all four Grand Slam singles finals, winning three of them again. He won the Australian Open without dropping a set, beating Fernando Gonzlez in the final. This made him the first man in the 21st century to accomplish the feat, as Bjrn Borg at the 1980 French Open was the last to win a Grand Slam tournament without the loss of a set.[71] Federer had entered the year on a huge winning streak and after capturing his fourth Dubai crown Federer's winning streak stood at 41 matches, the longest of his career and only five shy of the record. Federer entered Indian Wells as the three-time defending champion, but his streak ended in controversy. He was defeated by an Argentine, Guillermo Caas, who had failed a drug test for illegal doping.[72]

This surprising first-round loss marked the first time he was defeated since August 2006, a period spanning over 7 months.[73]

During the clay season Federer's victory in the Hamburg Masters final was particularly impressive, as it snapped Nadal's 81-match winning streak on clay, an Open-era record. Federer turned the match around from a set down to sweep 12 of the final 14 games, including a final set bagel.[74] At the French Open, some anticipated that Federer could become the first man in almost 40 years to hold all four majors simultaneously, having just resoundingly defeated young rival Nadal on clay entering the tournament. However, in a repeat of the previous year Federer played a tough four-set final against Nadal, but was undone by going 1/17 on break-point chances.[75]

At Wimbledon Federer entered the tournament not only as the four-time defending champion, but also riding a 48-match winning streak on grass. Once again, he defeated Rafael Nadal for a second consecutive year in the final, this time in a thrilling five-set encounter that many analysts hailed as the greatest Wimbledon final since 1980. Victory at Wimbledon equaled him with Bjrn Borg for the record of five consecutive championships at the All England Club.[76]

Federer reached the final in Montreal before playing a young and relatively unknown Serbian named Novak Djokovic. Djokovic proved his potential by beating the world No. 1 in a final-set tiebreaker upset. Federer rebounded in Cincinnati to capture his fifth title of the year. Federer entered the US Open as the three-time defending champion and faced Djokovic in the final. This time, Federer prevailed in a close straight-set match.[77] Victory in New York moved him ahead of Laver and Borg for third on the all-time list of major championship victories. Throughout the tournament the American press nicknamed him Darth Federer for his all-black attire (which included tuxedo-striped shorts) and the tournament played "The Imperial March" from Star Wars when he was announced onto the court for each of his matches.[78] He closed out the year with victories in Basel and the year-end championships in Shanghai.[79]

He finished the season as the year-end No. 1 for the fourth year in a row, demonstrating his dominance, and during these four years he won 11 Grand Slam singles titles. After his phenomenal triple Grand Slam season yet again, Federer became the only player in history to win three majors in a year for three years (2004, 2006, 2007).[80][81][82][83] It was the third consecutive season that Federer held the No. 1 ranking for all 52 weeks of the year.[58]

Federer's success in 2008 was severely hampered by a lingering bout of mononucleosis, which he suffered during the first half of the year.[84] At the end of the year he suffered a back injury.[85]

In 2008, Federer captured one Grand Slam, a singles title at the US Open over Andy Murray.[86] Federer was defeated by Nadal in two Grand Slam finals, the French Open and Wimbledon, which was regarded as the best match of tennis history by many, when he was going for six straight wins to break Bjrn Borg's record. He came back from two sets down to force a fifth set, where he fell just two points from the title.[86] At the Australian Open Federer lost in the semifinals to eventual winner Djokovic, which ended his record of 10 consecutive finals.[86] He lost twice in Masters finals on clay to Nadal, at Monte Carlo and Hamburg.[86] Federer captured three titles playing in 250-level events at Estoril, Halle, and Basel.[87][88][89]

At the Olympic Games Federer and Stan Wawrinka won the gold medal in doubles, after beating the Bryan brothers American team in the semifinals and the Swedish duo of Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson in the final.[90] However, Federer could reach only the quarterfinals in the singles draw, bowing out to then No. 8 James Blake, ceding his No. 1 ranking to Nadal after being at the top for a record 237 consecutive weeks.[91] He ended the year ranked No. 2.[92]

Federer entered the 2009 season with 13 Grand Slams, only one behind Pete Sampras' all-time record. The season began with a loss to Nadal in the final of the Australian Open in a hotly contested five-set match.[93] Federer struggled following the defeat in Melbourne and entered the clay season without a title.[94]

Federer's season turned around in the final Masters event of the clay season when he defeated Nadal on clay for only the second time to capture the Madrid Masters.[95] Federer entered the French Open with few predicting him to win the elusive Parisian title having lost to Nadal in the final weekend for the past four seasons. After Nadal's unexpected defeat to Robin Sderling, Federer became the overwhelming favorite. In his next match, he came from two sets and break point down in the third set to defeat Tommy Haas in five sets.[96] He also fought back from a two-sets-to-one deficit against a young Juan Martn del Potro to win a five setter in the semifinals.[97] In the final, he faced Sderling, and with straight sets victory, he finally captured the Coupe des Mousquetaires and career Grand Slam.[98] This victory also tied him with Pete Sampras for the most Grand Slam singles titles.[99][98]

Federer turned his sights to the grass courts of Wimbledon, where he breezed his way up to the final.[100] In the championship match he faced long-time rival Andy Roddick in what was their eighth and final meeting at a Grand Slam. Roddick pushed Federer into a record-setting fifth set, which Federer claimed 1614 to win his 15th Grand Slam singles title, breaking the all-time record of Pete Sampras.[101][102]

Federer continued his summer run by winning his third title on the lightning-fast courts of the Cincinnati Masters, defeating Novak Djokovic in the final.[103] At the US Open he defeated Sderling in the quarters and Djokovic, for the third consecutive year, in the semifinals. On the penultimate point of the Djokovic match he hit what many consider to be the greatest shot of his career, a tweener winner, to set up match points.[104] Federer was defeated by del Potro in the final despite leading two sets to one and falling just two points from the title in the fourth set.[103]

The 2009 season was perhaps the most historically relevant of Federer's career as he completed a career Grand Slam by winning his first French Open title and won a men's record fifteenth Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon, surpassing Pete Sampras's mark of fourteen.[103] The Wimbledon final was also historic for being the longest Grand Slam final in terms of games played with Federer prevailing 1614 in the fifth set.[102]

Federer finished the season as the year-end No. 1 for the fifth time in his career.[105]

Federer started the year with a win at the Australian Open,[106] where he defeated Andy Murray in the final, extending the Grand Slam singles record to sixteen titles and matching Andre Agassi's record of four Australian Open titles.[86] Since Wimbledon 2005 Federer had made 18 out of 19 finals in Grand Slam tournaments, a period of sustained excellence unparalleled in the Open Era. This tournament, however, marked the end of his dominance at the majors.[107]

At the French Open, Federer won his 700th tour match and 150th tour match on clay.[106][108] However, he failed to reach a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time since the 2004 French Open,[109] losing to Sderling in the last 8 and relinquishing his No. 1 ranking,[106] having been just one week away from equaling Pete Sampras's record of 286 weeks as world No. 1. In a huge upset at Wimbledon, Federer lost in the last 8 again to Tom Berdych and fell to No. 3 in the rankings for the first time in 6 years and 8 months.[106][110][111]

Towards the middle of July, Federer hired Pete Sampras' old coach Paul Annacone on a trial basis to put his tennis game and career back on track.[112] At the 2010 US Open Federer reached the semifinals, where he lost a five-set match to Novak Djokovic after holding two match points.[106] Federer made it to four Masters finals prevailing against Mardy Fish at the Cincinnati Masters.[113]

Federer finished the year in strong form, winning indoor titles at the Stockholm Open, Swiss Indoors, and the ATP Finals in London bringing his tally to 66 career titles. Federer won the year-end championships in London by beating rival Rafael Nadal for his fifth title at the event.[114] He beat all contenders except Nadal in straight sets. It remains the only tournament in his career where Federer defeated all fellow members of the Big Four.[115] In 2010 Federer finished in the top two for the eighth consecutive season.[116]

The year 2011 was a lean year for Federer, although great by most player's standards. He was defeated in straight sets in the semifinals of the 2011 Australian Open by eventual champion Novak Djokovic,[117] marking the first time since July 2003 that he did not hold any of the four major titles. In the French Open semifinals, Federer ended Djokovic's undefeated streak of 43 consecutive wins with a four-set victory.[118] Federer then lost in the final to Rafael Nadal.[119] At Wimbledon Federer advanced to his 29th consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal, losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. It marked the first time in his career that he had lost a Grand Slam tournament match after winning the first two sets.[120]

At the US Open Federer lost in the semifinals to Novak Djokovic in five sets. In a repeat of previous year's semifinal event, Federer again squandered two match points on his own serve before losing after winning first two sets for second consecutive time in the year. The loss meant that it was the first time since 2002 that Federer had not won any of the four grand slam titles.[121]

In September 2011, in a South African poll, Federer was voted the second most trusted and respected person in the world next to Nelson Mandela.[122][123]

Federer finished the season successfully in the indoor season, winning his last three tournaments of the year at the Swiss Indoors, Paris Masters, and ATP Finals, forming a 16 match winning streak. Federer finished the year ranked No. 3.[124]

The 2012 season for Federer had his most match wins since 2006 and his highest winning percentage and number of titles won since 2007.[125]

Federer reached the semifinal of the 2012 Australian Open, setting up a 27th career meeting with Nadal, a match he lost in four sets.[126]He then won the Rotterdam Open for the first time since 2005, defeating Juan Martn del Potro.[127] Federer played in the 2012 Dubai Tennis Championships, where he defeated Andy Murray in the final and won the championship title for the fifth time in his career.[128] Federer then moved on to the Indian Wells Masters, where he defeated Rafael Nadal in the semifinals, and John Isner in the final. Federer won the title for a record fourth time, and, in doing so, equalled Nadal's record of 19 ATP Masters titles.[129]

Federer went on to compete at the Madrid Masters on the new blue clay surface, where he beat Tom Berdych in the final, thus regaining the No. 2 ranking from Rafael Nadal. In the French Open, Federer made the semifinals before losing to Djokovic in straight sets, in a rematch of previous year's semifinal.[130][131]

At Wimbledon, Federer had a five-set match in the third round against Julien Benneteau on his way to the winning the tournament. Federer defeated Andy Murray in four sets in the 2012 Wimbledon final,[132] regaining the No. 1 ranking in the process.[133] "It's amazing. It equals me with Pete Sampras, who's my hero. It just feels amazing," Federer said of winning his seventh Wimbledon championship, tying Sampras' Open Era record.[134] By defeating top-ranked Djokovic in the semifinals and winning in the finals, Federer returned to the top spot in the world rankings and, in doing so, broke Sampras' record of 286 weeks atop the list.[135]

In the 2012 Summer Olympics, Federer played a 4-hour 26-minute semifinal against del Potro where Federer won 1917 in the third and final set.[136] In a lopsided match, he lost to Murray in straight sets in the final, winning a silver medal for his country.[137]

Federer won the Cincinnati open in August, beating Novak Djokovic in the final.[138] In the US Open, five-time champ Federer was defeated by Tom Berdych in the quarterfinals.[139] At the Shanghai Masters after defeating Wawrinka in the third round, Federer confirmed his 300th week at No. 1. Federer made it to the finals of the ATP Finals, where he lost to Djokovic in two sets.[140][141]

Federer developed back injuries in March and July and his ranking dropped from No. 2 to No. 6.[142][143] Federer's first and only title of 2013 came at the Gerry Weber Open (defeating Mikhail Youzhny), where he also played doubles with good friend Tommy Haas. With the victory in Halle, he tied John McEnroe for the third-most ATP titles won by a male player in the Open Era.[144] Federer, however, was unable to maintain his form into Wimbledon, suffering his worst Grand Slam tournament defeat since 2003 in the second round against Sergiy Stakhovsky. Not only did the loss end Federer's record streak of 36 consecutive quarterfinals at Grand Slam tournaments,[145] it meant he would drop out of the top 4 for the first time since July 2003.[146]

During the summer, he experimented with various different racquets and played the German Open with a blacked-out 98-inch Wilson racquet, instead of his regular Pro Staff 6.1 90 BLX racquet with the smaller 90-inch hitting area. He returned to his regular racquet for the second half of the season.[147][148] After Wimbledon, Federer continued to be upset early in tournaments in Hamburg and Gstaad because of a serious back injury through October, when he announced that he was parting ways with Paul Annacone, his coach for the last three years.[149] Federer made the final in Basel, succumbing to Juan Martn del Potro in three sets, and indicated it was a mistake to have played certain tournaments while suffering from a back injury.[150]

On 27 December 2013, Federer announced that Stefan Edberg was joining his team as co-coach with Severin Lthi.[151]

Federer began the season by changing rackets for the first time in his career, from his longtime frame of 90 square inches to one measured at 97 square inches. He had long been at a comparative disadvantage in equipment as almost the entire tour, including his top rivals Nadal and Djokovic, used more powerful frames of between 95 and 100 square inches.[147][152] At the Australian Open, Federer defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Andy Murray to reach his 11th consecutive semifinal in Melbourne, before losing to Rafael Nadal in straight sets.[153]

At the Dubai Tennis Championships, he defeated Novak Djokovic in the semifinals, and then defeated Tom Berdych in the final to win his sixth Dubai crown and his first title since Halle in 2013.[154] Federer made the final at the Indian Wells Masters, but lost to Novak Djokovic in a final-set tiebreaker.[155] At the Davis Cup quarterfinals, Federer won both of his singles rubbers against Kazakhstan, the second of which was the first live deciding rubber of his Davis Cup career.[156] Federer then took a wild card into the Monte-Carlo Masters defeating Novak Djokovic on his way to the finals, but lost to compatriot Stan Wawrinka in a tight final.[157]

In June, Federer announced that after the end of his third term, he would resign as President of the ATP Players Council, a position he had held since 2008.[158][159][160] At the Halle Open, Federer reached both the singles and the doubles finals and won his seventh Halle singles title, beating Alejandro Falla in the final.[161] At Wimbledon, Federer reached a record ninth final, but he was defeated by Djokovic in an epic five-set match.[162][163]

Federer made the final of the Canadian Open but was defeated by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.[164] Federer defeated Spain's David Ferrer in three sets to capture his sixth Cincinnati crown and 22nd ATP Masters title, his first in Cincinnati since 2012.[165] He then reached the semifinals at the US Open but lost in straight sets to eventual champion Marin ili.[166] At the Davis Cup semifinals, Federer won both his singles matches against Italy in straight sets and led Switzerland to the final for the first time since 1992.[167]

Federer then played in the Shanghai Masters. He beat Novak Djokovic in the semifinals, ending the Serb's 28-match unbeaten run on Chinese soil. He battled Frenchman Gilles Simon in his second Shanghai final, defeating him in two tiebreak sets and collected the 23rd Masters title of his career.[168] The victory saw Federer return to the No. 2 ranking for the first time since May 2013. Federer then played the Swiss Indoors in October, where he won a record sixth title and his 82nd ATP men's singles title overall. Federer also reached the finals of the 2014 ATP Finals to face Djokovic again, but withdrew from the final because of another back injury from his semifinal match against Stan Wawrinka.[169]

Despite his injury, Federer finished the season on a high by defeating Richard Gasquet to clinch the Davis Cup for Switzerland for the first time in its history.[170] The final was held at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille, France attracting over 27,000 spectators per match; this broke attendance record for the highest ever officially sanctioned competition tennis match.[171]

Federer started his season at the Brisbane International. He defeated Milos Raonic in the final, thereby becoming only the third man in the Open Era to have 1,000 or more wins, joining Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl, as well as the first man in the Open Era to win at least one title in each of 15 consecutive years.[172] In Dubai, Federer successfully defended his title with a straight-set victory over Novak Djokovic in the final, marking his seventh title at the tournament and, after Wimbledon and Halle, was the third time he had won seven or more titles in a tournament.[173] Additionally, Federer became the fourth person since 1991 to surpass 9,000 career aces.[174] In March, he reached the final of the Indian Wells but lost in three sets to defending champion Djokovic.[175]

Federer won his third title of the season at the inaugural Istanbul Open clay-court tournament, ending a title drought on red clay since the 2009 French Open. Federer made it to the final of the Italian Open in May, but was unable to win his first title there, losing to Djokovic in the final.[176] In the French Open, he made it through the first rounds losing just one set, to Gal Monfils in the 4th. In the quarterfinals, he was eventually beaten in straight sets by the later champion Stan Wawrinka.[177]

As the new expanded grass season began, Federer won his record eighth Gerry Weber Open and become only the third man in the Open Era to win a title eight times.[178] Federer entered Wimbledon as the second seed. He played a flawless match to defeat Andy Murray in straight sets in the semifinals and advance to his tenth Wimbledon final in a repeat against Novak Djokovic. Federer lost the match in four sets.[179]

He defeated Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic in straight sets to win the Cincinnati Masters for the seventh time. This marked the first time that Federer defeated the top two players in the world at the same event.[180] At the US Open, he advanced to his first final there since 2009 without dropping a set, including a win over Stan Wawrinka in the semifinals.[181] In the final, he was once again beaten by top seed Djokovic in four sets.[182] At the Swiss Indoors tournament in Basel, Federer won his sixth singles title of the year, and his 88th ATP title, defeating his old rival Rafael Nadal in the final.[183] It was the seventh time he won his hometown tournament.[184]

In December, Federer announced that he would enter the 2016 ATP Tour season with a new-look coaching team, having additionally announced that Stefan Edberg would not be travelling with him next year. While countryman Severin Lthi remained Federer's head coach, joining the team in 2016 was Croatian former world No. 3 player Ivan Ljubii. Federer revealed that Edberg originally signed on to the coaching team for one season only in 2014 but agreed to stay on in 2015.[185]

Federer started his season in the Brisbane International as the defending champion, despite having a virus when the tournament started. However, in a rematch of the previous year's final, he lost in the final to Milos Raonic in straight sets.[186] Federer then participated at the 2016 Australian Open and rebounded from his third round defeat by Andreas Seppi in 2015 by reaching the semifinals but lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in four sets.[187] The day after his loss to Djokovic, Federer sustained a knee injury and in early February, he underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his knee and missed the tournaments in Rotterdam, Dubai, and Indian Wells in February and March. He was scheduled to return to action in Miami.[188] Due to a stomach virus he had to withdraw from the Miami Open thus prolonging his time on the sidelines.[189]

Federer made his comeback at the Monte-Carlo Masters, losing in the quarterfinals to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in three sets. In Madrid, he suffered a back injury during practice and withdrew shortly after arriving. He then participated in the Internazionali BNL d'Italia where he lost in the third round to Dominic Thiem. His withdrawal from the French Open broke a record run of 65 consecutive participations in the main draw of Grand Slam tournaments, stretching back to the 2000 Australian Open.[190]

Still suffering from recurring knee pain during the grass season he lost in the semifinals of Stuttgart and Halle. On 6 July, he came back from two sets down to defeat Marin ili in five sets in the 2016 Wimbledon quarterfinals, equalling Jimmy Connors' all-time records of eleven Wimbledon semifinals and 84 match wins.[191] He suffered his first defeat in a Wimbledon semifinal two days later in a five-set loss to Raonic, re-injuring his knee in the fifth set.[192]

On 26 July, Federer announced that he would miss the 2016 Summer Olympics and the remainder of the 2016 season to fully recover from his knee injury.[193] The sudden withdrawal not only implied that 2016 was his first season since 2000 that Federer failed to win a title, but it also meant that he would have to drop out of top ten for the first time in fourteen years. This, combined with a grand slam drought spanning over four years, led to many analysts believing that his outstanding career was finally coming to an end and he would never win any major titles again.[194][195]

Federer's 2017 season marked a return to Grand Slam wins since 2012, the most titles since 2007, and the highest win percentage since 2006. Statistically, this season was his best since 2007.[196][197]Federer played in the Hopman Cup and Australian Open in January 2017.[198] His withdrawal from most of the injury affected 2016 season lead his ranking slip to No. 17 at the start of Australian Open, his lowest in over fifteen years. At the Australian Open, he beat top-10 players Tom Berdych and Kei Nishikori on his way to semifinals, making Federer the oldest man to compete in a grand slam semi-final since Jimmy Connors in 1991.[199] In the semi-finals, he defeated Stanislas Wawrinka in five sets, making him the oldest player to compete in a Grand Slam final since Ken Rosewall in 1974.[200][201] Coming back from a break down in the fifth set, Federer defeated Rafael Nadal to win the Australian Open, which also marked Federer's 100th match at the Australian Open; it was the first time Federer had won a match against Nadal in a Grand Slam event since the 2007 Wimbledon final, and also marked Federer's first ever Grand Slam victory over Nadal outside the grass courts of Wimbledon. With this victory, he re-entered the top ten.[202][203][204]

In March, Federer won his 25th Masters title at Indian Wells, defeating Wawrinka in the final and gaining another victory over Nadal in the 4th round. This was also Federer's 90th career title and he climbed to No. 6 in the ATP rankings.[205] Federer collected his 26th Masters title by defeating Nadal in the final of the Miami Masters in straight sets and climbed to No. 4 in the ATP rankings. This marked the third time Federer had won in Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back, colloquially referred to as the Sunshine Double (2005, 2006 and 2017).[206]

Due to concerns about his longevity, Federer decided that he would skip the entire clay-court season.[207] He returned to the tour at the beginning of the grass-court season in Stuttgart, where he suffered a shock defeat to Tommy Haas in the second round despite holding match points, the lowest-ranked player (No. 302) to beat him since No. 407 Bjoern Phau in 1999.[208] He rebounded the following week by winning a record-extending ninth title at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, doing so without the loss of a set.[209] In the 2017 Wimbledon Championships, Federer made it to the final without dropping a set, defeating Milos Raonic in the quarterfinals and Tom Berdych in the semifinals. In the final, Federer defeated a physically and mentally out of sorts Marin ili in straight sets to win a record-breaking eighth Wimbledon gentlemen's singles title and his record-extending 19th major title overall, becoming the oldest male player to win Wimbledon in the Open era.[210] Federer became the second man in the Open era to win Wimbledon without dropping a set after Bjrn Borg in 1976.[211] It marked the second time in his career that he had won a grand slam tournament without losing a set, matching his performance at the 2007 Australian Open.[212] Federer moved up to become No. 3 in the ATP rankings after the event and qualified for the ATP Finals for a record 15th time.[213]

At the opening of the summer hard court swing Federer was defeated in the final of the Montreal Masters by Alexander Zverev after injuring his back during the match.[214] Due to the injury, he opted to withdraw from the Cincinnati Masters to be fit for the US Open. However, Federer lost to del Potro in the quarterfinals at the US Open, in a tournament characterized by inconsistent play from Federer, unlike the major portion of the season.[215]

Federer's next participation was in September in the inaugural Laver Cup, representing team Europe. Federer won both his singles matches against Sam Querrey and Nick Kyrgios, with the latter win sealing the cup for Europe.[216] The tournament was also notable for Federer playing doubles teaming with longtime rival Nadal for the first time. The two legends emerged victorious against world duo of Sam Querrey and Jack Sock.[217]

At the Shanghai Masters Federer captured his third Masters title of the season, defeating No. 1 Rafael Nadal in the final. This was Federer's fifth straight victory over Nadal in their rivalry and his 94th career title, drawing him level with 2nd-placed Ivan Lendl.[218] During the indoor season, Federer defeated Juan Martn del Potro in the final of his hometown tournament, the Swiss Indoors in Basel, earning a record eighth championship there and winning his 95th career title, surpassing Ivan Lendl in number of career titles.[219] Federer qualified for the 2017 ATP Finals, but was beaten by David Goffin in the semifinals in three sets.[220]

Federer started his season winning the Hopman Cup partnering with Belinda Bencic. This was his second Hopman Cup title, having won previously in 2001 with Martina Hingis.[221] At the 2018 Australian Open, Federer reached the final without dropping a set, and successfully defended his title beating Marin ili in a five-set final. It was Federer's sixth title at the Australian Open, equaling the then record held by Roy Emerson and Novak Djokovic, which was surpassed by Djokovic in 2019. He also became the first man to win twenty Grand Slam titles. It was also the first time since the 2008 US Open that Federer successfully defended a major title.[222]

In mid-February, Federer won his third Rotterdam Open title to return to No. 1 in the ATP rankings, clinching the spot with a quarterfinal victory over Robin Haase.[223] He beat Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets in the final. At 36 years and 195 days of age, he became the oldest ATP world No. 1 by more than three years. He also broke the ATP record for the longest span between a player's first and last weeks to attain the No. 1 ranking at 14 years and 17 days apart, as well as the most time between two successive reigns at No. 1 at 5 years and 106 days.[224]

In March, Federer entered the Indian Wells Masters as defending champion. He defeated Chung Hyeon in the quarterfinals, ensuring that he retained the world No. 1 ranking, and Borna ori in the semifinals, solidifying a career-best start to a season at 170. His previous best season start was n 160 during the 2006 season.[225] Despite holding three championship points, Federer was defeated by Juan Martn del Potro in a close three-set final. At the Miami Open Federer received a first-round bye, but lost in the second round to Thanasi Kokkinakis. With this early exit from the tournament, Federer lost his No. 1 ranking to Nadal on 2 April. He announced that he would miss the clay court season, including the French Open, for the second consecutive season.[226] Nevertheless, he regained the No. 1 ranking in May after Nadal failed to defend one of his Masters titles at the Madrid Open.[227] He then lost the top spot the following week after Nadal won the title at the Italian Open.[228]

In June, Federer regained the No. 1 ranking after defeating Nick Kyrgios in the semifinals at the Stuttgart Open.[229] He won the tournament, defeating Milos Raonic in the final in straight sets.[230] However, he lost his No. 1 ranking the following week when he failed to defend his Halle Open title, losing in the final to Borna ori in three sets.[231] At Wimbledon, Federer was looking to defend his 2017 title and was seeded first at a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2012 US Open but lost in the quarterfinals against South African Kevin Anderson in five sets, despite winning the first two sets and having a match point in the third set.[232] This was only his second Wimbledon defeat after winning the first two sets, the other being his defeat to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the 2011 Wimbledon Championships.[233]

Federer next played in Cincinnati where he lost in the final to Novak Djokovic, who won a record Career Golden Masters, in straight sets.[234] The loss ended Federer's run of 100 consecutive service holds and 14-match winning streak in Cincinnati. Federer entered the US Open as the second seed but was upset by John Millman in the 4th round, citing extreme conditions of heat and humidity that took a toll on his body.[235] Federer then played at the Laver Cup where he successfully helped Team Europe defend their title, winning both his singles matches against Nick Kyrgios and John Isner.[236] He also paired up with Djokovic for the first time in doubles, losing their match against Jack Sock and Kevin Anderson in three sets.[237] Federer then played at the 2018 Shanghai Masters as the defending champion but lost in the semifinals to Borna ori in straight sets.[238]

At the Swiss Indoors in October, Federer shared that he had sustained a hand injury in training prior to the grass season that had caused severe pain up his forearm. He stated that this injury significantly hindered his play, particularly his forehand, since the Stuttgart Open.[239][240] Federer went on to defend his title with a straight-sets win over Marius Copil in the final, winning his ninth title at the event and his 99th career singles title.[241] Federer entered the Paris Masters, continuing his good run of form defeating Fabio Fognini and Kei Nishikori in straight sets. In the semi-finals, he played a very close match with Novak Djokovic, but ultimately lost to him in three sets. At the Nitto ATP Finals, Federer lost in straight sets to Alexander Zverev in the semifinal.[242]

Federer opened his campaign by retaining the Hopman Cup alongside Belinda Bencic, becoming the first player to win the mixed-gender event three times.[243]

Federer was seeded third at the 2019 Australian Open, entering as the two-time defending champion. He defeated Denis Istomin, Dan Evans, and Taylor Fritz to reach the fourth round, where he faced 14th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas. In a stunning upset, Tsitsipas defeated Federer in four close sets. Critically, Federer was unable to convert any of the twelve break points he held throughout the match, including four set points in the second set. After the match Federer announced he would play the clay court season for the first time since 2016.[244][245]

At the Dubai Tennis Championships Federer won his 100th Career Singles Title, beating Tsitsipas in straight sets in the final. It was his eighth title in Dubai and he became only the second man after Jimmy Connors to reach the three figure mark in the Open Era.[246] Federer then reached the final of the 2019 Indian Wells Masters where he lost to Dominic Thiem in three sets.[247] On 31 March, Federer defeated John Isner at the 2019 Miami Open in straights sets to win his 4th Miami Open title and 28th Masters title.[248] Federer then played his first clay court tournament in three years at the 2019 Madrid Open and secured his 1200th career win, beating Gal Monfils in the third round. In the quarterfinals he lost to Dominic Thiem again in three sets, despite having two match points in the second set.[249]Federer then played at the Italian Open and reached the quarterfinals but was forced to withdraw from his quarterfinal match against Stefanos Tsitsipas due to a right leg injury.[250]

Federer next played at the French Open for the first time in 4 years and seeded 3rd in the draw. Federer achieved comfortable straight-set victories against Lorenzo Sonego, Oscar Otte, Casper Ruud and Leonardo Mayer to reach the quarterfinals, where he faced good friend and compatriot Stan Wawrinka. Federer managed to avenge his loss to Wawrinka at the same stage of the tournament 4 years ago, winning in 4 sets after 3 hours and 35 minutes. With the victory Federer returned to the semifinals of the French Open for the first time since 2012, where he lost to defending and 11-time champion Rafael Nadal in straight sets.[251]

Federer then began his grass court season at the Halle Open where he won his tenth title at the event, defeating David Goffin in the final in straight sets. This marked the first time Federer had won a singles tournament ten times or more.[252] At Wimbledon, Roger Federer reached his record 12th final at the tournament after ousting his nemesis Rafael Nadal in four sets in the semifinal; thus, exacting revenge for his earlier defeat to him at the French Open. This was also the first time Federer played Nadal at Wimbledon since the 2008 Wimbledon final, a match regarded by some as the greatest match in the history of tennis.[253] Federer then faced Novak Djokovic in the final, against whom he lost in a five set thriller lasting 4 hours and 57 minutes, despite having two championship points on serve in the fifth set. The match also marked the first time a fifth set tiebreaker was played at 12 games all in the men's singles and was the longest men's final in Wimbledon history.[254]

Federer next played at the 2019 Cincinnati Masters and reached the third round where he lost in straight sets to Andrey Rublev. This was his quickest defeat in 16 years, taking just 62 minutes.[255] At the 2019 US Open, he was seeded third. He dropped the first set against both Sumit Nagal and Damir Dumhur in the first two rounds, but pulled out convincing straight sets wins over Dan Evans and David Goffin in the third and fourth. In the quarterfinals, he faced Grigor Dimitrov, who was ranked No. 78 going into the tournament. Despite taking a two sets to one lead, Federer ultimately lost the match in five sets.[256][257] At the 2019 Shanghai Masters, Federer defeated David Goffin in straight sets to reach the quarterfinals.[258] However, he lost the quarterfinal to Alexander Zverev in three sets.[259]

Federer advanced to the Swiss Indoors as the two-time defending champion. His first round match, against Peter Gojowczyk, was remarkable for being the 1500th match of his career. In the final, he defeated Alex de Minaur in straight sets for a record-extending tenth Swiss Indoors title.[260] Federer then played in the Bjrn Borg group at the 2019 ATP Finals where in the round robin, he lost his opening match to Dominic Thiem in straight sets but beat Matteo Berrettini and Djokovic (his first win over Djokovic since 2015) in straight sets to qualify for the semifinals.[261] He then lost the semifinal to Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets.[262]

Federer began his 2020 season at the 2020 Australian Open. He reached the semifinals after straight sets wins over Steve Johnson and Filip Krajinovi, a five-set win over John Millman and a four-set win over Mrton Fucsovics. Federer saved seven match points in his five-set quarterfinal win over Tennys Sandgren.[263] Federer then lost his semifinal match to Djokovic in straight sets, having sustained a groin injury earlier in the tournament.[264] In February, Federer underwent arthroscopic surgery for a right knee injury and subsequently withdrew from the Dubai Championships, Indian Wells, Miami Open, and the French Open to give time for his knee to recover, announcing that he would return in the grass season.[265] On 10 June, due to a setback from his initial rehabilitation from the knee injury suffered earlier in the year, Federer announced that he had to have an additional arthroscopic procedure on his right knee. He officially shut down his season to take the necessary time to recover, vowing to return in 2021. This was only the second year in Federer's career since he won his first title that he finished without a title.[266]

In January, Federer withdrew from the 2021 Australian Open due to still recovering from knee surgery and strict COVID-19 quarantine measures in Australia.[267][268] On 8 March, Novak Djokovic surpassed him for the most career weeks spent as the ATP number 1 ranked player.[269] On 10 March, he made his return to the ATP Tour at the Qatar Open. He won his first ATP match in 14 months against Dan Evans, but lost to Nikoloz Basilashvili in the quarterfinals.[270]

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Roger Federer - Wikipedia

Video games can never be art | Roger Ebert | Roger Ebert

What stirs me to return to the subject? I was urged by a reader, Mark Johns, to consider a video of a TED talk given at USC by Kellee Santiago, a designer and producer of video games. I did so. I warmed to Santiago immediately. She is bright, confident, persuasive. But she is mistaken.

I propose to take an unfair advantage. She spoke extemporaneously. I have the luxury of responding after consideration. If you want to follow along, I urge you to watch her talk, which is embedded below. It's only 15 minutes long, and she makes the time pass quickly.

She begins by saying video games "already ARE art." Yet she concedes that I was correct when I wrote, "No one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great poets, filmmakers, novelists and poets." To which I could have added painters, composers, and so on, but my point is clear.

Then she shows a slide of a prehistoric cave painting, calling it "kind of chicken scratches on walls," and contrasts it with Michelangelo's ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Her point is that while video games may be closer to the chicken scratch end of the spectrum, I am foolish to assume they will not evolve.

She then says speech began as a form of warning, and writing as a form of bookkeeping, but they evolved into storytelling and song. Actually, speech probably evolved into a form of storytelling and song long before writing was developed. And cave paintings were a form of storytelling, perhaps of religion, and certainly of the creation of beauty from those chicken-scratches Werner Herzog is even now filming in 3-D.

Herzog believes, in fact, that the paintings on the wall of the Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc in Southern France should only be looked at in the context of the shadows cast on those dark walls by the fires built behind the artists, which suggests the cave paintings, their materials of charcoal and ochre and all that went into them were the fruition of a long gestation, not the beginning of something--and that the artists were enormously gifted. They were great artists at that time, geniuses with nothing to build on, and were not in the process of becoming Michelangelo or anyone else. Any gifted artist will tell you how much he admires the "line" of those prehistoric drawers in the dark, and with what economy and wit they evoked the animals they lived among.

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Video games can never be art | Roger Ebert | Roger Ebert

Roger de Montgomery – Wikipedia

11th-century Norman nobleman and earl in England

Roger de Montgomery (died 1094), also known as Roger the Great, was the first Earl of Shrewsbury, and Earl of Arundel, in Sussex. His father was Roger de Montgomery, seigneur of Montgomery, a member of the House of Montgomerie, and was probably a grandnephew of the Duchess Gunnor, wife of Duke Richard I of Normandy, the great-grandfather of William the Conqueror. The elder Roger had large landholdings in central Normandy, chiefly in the valley of the River Dives, which the younger Roger inherited.

Roger inherited his fathers estates in 1055. By the time of the Council of Lillebonne, which took place in about January of 1066, he was one of William the Conqueror's principal counsellors, playing a major role at the Council. He may not have fought in the initial invasion of England in 1066, instead staying behind to help govern Normandy. According to Wace's Roman de Rou, however, he commanded the Norman right flank at Hastings, returning to Normandy with King William in 1067.[1] Afterwards, he was entrusted with land in two regions critical for the defence of the Kingdom of England. At the end of 1067 or early in 1068, William gave Roger nearly all of what is now the county of West Sussex, a total of 83 manors,[2] which at the time of the Domesday Survey (1086) was an area known as the Rape of Arundel; and about 1071 Roger was granted estates in Shropshire[3] which amounted to some seven-eighths of the whole county;[2] he was also made Earl of Shrewsbury, but it is uncertain that the earldom came to him at the same time as the land, and it may have been a few years later. In 1083, Roger founded Shrewsbury Abbey.[3]

Roger was thus one of the half dozen greatest magnates in England during William the Conqueror's reign.[4] The Rape of Arundel was eventually split into two "rapes", one keeping the name of Arundel, the other being called the Rape of Chichester.[4]

Besides his estates in Sussex and Shropshire, Roger had others in Surrey (four manors), Hampshire (nine manors), Wiltshire (three manors), Middlesex (eight manors), Gloucestershire (one manor), Worcestershire (two manors), Cambridgeshire (eight manors), Warwickshire (eleven manors), and Staffordshire (thirty manors).[2] The income from Roger's estates amounted to about 2,000 per year, and in 1086 the income of all the land in England was around 72,000. The 2,000 (equivalent to several million in 2022) was almost 3 per cent of the nation's GDP.[5][6]

After William I's death in 1087, Roger joined with other rebels to overthrow the newly crowned king, William II, in the Rebellion of 1088. However, William was able to convince Roger to abandon the rebellion and to side with him. This worked out favourably for Roger, as the rebels were beaten and lost their land holdings in England. [7]

Roger married Mabel de Bellme, who was heiress to a large territory straddling the border between Normandy and Maine. The medieval chronicler Orderic Vitalis paints a picture of Mabel of Bellme being a scheming and cruel woman.[8] She was murdered by Hugh Bunel and his brothers who, possibly in December 1077, rode into her castle of Bures-sur-Dive and cut off her head as she lay in bed.[8][9] Their motive for the murder was that Mabel had deprived them of their paternal inheritance.[10] Roger and Mabel had 10 children:

Roger then married Adelaide du Puiset, by whom he had one son, Everard, who entered the Church.

After his death, Roger's estates were divided.[19] His eldest surviving son, Robert of Bellme, received the bulk of the Norman estates (as well as his mother's estates); the next son, Hugh, received the bulk of the English estates and the Earldom of Shrewsbury.[19] After Hugh's death, the elder son Robert inherited the earldom.[19]

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Roger de Montgomery - Wikipedia

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) – IMDb

I was a little surprised that "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" wasn't on the top 250. Almost everyone loves this film. It was a major breakthrough for movies. The cartoon world meets reality.

Bob Haskins is to die for in this film, he plays such a great American detective and he didn't have much to work with. After all when he was talking to Roger, he wasn't really talking to anybody since it was a cartoon character. I love the way he develops his role so much, how he goes from this stick-to-the-book and all cartoons are bad to this lovable goofy guy due to Roger's insatiable love for life and cartoons. It's silly because it's a cartoon, but Roger and Bob clicked so well and are unforgettable.

Christopher Lloyd... shudder! This guy gave me so many nightmares as a kid from his character as the judge. The ending where he reveals his true form, he is just terrifying and effective. Jessica Rabbit is so cool and sexy for a cartoon. She's just too much fun for this movie and is wonderful as a cartoon. "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way". My favorite scene is without a doubt when Eddie(played by Bob) is looking for Jessica and meets the crazy look-a-like in Toon Town. Just great and hilarious.

Come on, fans! This is a terrific movie and deserves to be on the top 250 films of all time! It's a break through for cinema history and movies in general. It's a great one! I'd highly recommend this for the family and friends or just a Saturday with nothing to do.

10/10

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Roger B. Chaffee – Wikipedia

American astronaut, naval aviator and aeronautical engineer

Roger Bruce Chaffee (; February 15, 1935 January 27, 1967) was an American naval officer, aviator and aeronautical engineer who was a NASA astronaut in the Apollo program.

Chaffee was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he became an Eagle Scout. He graduated from Central High School in 1953, and accepted a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) scholarship. He began his college education at Illinois Institute of Technology, where he was involved in the fraternity Phi Kappa Sigma. He transferred to Purdue University in 1954, continuing his involvement in Phi Kappa Sigma and obtaining his private pilot's license.

After graduating from Purdue in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering, Chaffee completed his Navy training and was commissioned as an ensign. He began pilot training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, flying aircraft such as the T-34, T-28, and A3D. He became quality and safety control officer for Heavy Photographic Squadron 62 (VAP-62). His time in this unit included taking crucial photos of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, earning him the Air Medal. He was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1966.

Along with thirteen other pilots, Chaffee was selected to be an astronaut as part of NASA Astronaut Group 3 in 1963. He served as capsule communicator (CAPCOM) for the Gemini 3 and Gemini 4 missions and received his first spaceflight assignment in 1966 as the third-ranking pilot on Apollo 1. In 1967, he died in a fire along with fellow astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Ed White during a pre-launch test for the mission at what was then the Cape Kennedy Air Force Station Launch Complex 34, Florida. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and a second Air Medal.

Roger Bruce Chaffee was born on February 15, 1935, in Grand Rapids, Michigan,[1] the second child of Donald Lynn Chaffee (19101998) and Blanche May (Mike) Chaffee (ne Mosher; 19121996). He had an older sister, Donna, born two years earlier. In January 1935, in their hometown of Greenville, Michigan, his father was diagnosed with scarlet fever, so his mother moved in with her parents in Grand Rapids, where Roger was born. The family spent the next seven years in Greenville before moving to Grand Rapids, where his father took a job as the chief Army Ordnance inspector at the Doehler-Jarvis plant.[4] Chaffee's interest in aerospace was sparked at a young age when his father, a former barnstorming pilot, took him on his first flight at the age of seven. Chaffee was thrilled by the flight and soon after started building model airplanes with his father.

Chaffee excelled as a Boy Scout, earning his first merit badge at the age of thirteen. He earned ten more badges that year. Many of these awards were typically earned by the older scouts. He continued his success by earning four more badges at the age of fourteen. He earned four badges for each of the next two years, almost all the badges available at the time. After becoming an Eagle Scout, he managed to earn another ten merit badges, for which he was awarded the bronze and gold palms. Between his camping trips with his family and his involvement with the Boy Scouts, Chaffee developed a passion for the outdoors.

Chaffee attended the Dickinson School in Grand Rapids, and later graduated from Central High School in the top 20% of his class in 1953. Turning down a possible appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, he accepted a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) scholarship, and in September 1953 enrolled at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He performed well, making the Dean's List and finishing with a B+ average. While enrolled, he joined Phi Kappa Sigma.[4]

Chaffee was passionate about flying, and had a strong aptitude for science and engineering. To apply those talents, he transferred to Purdue University in the autumn of 1954 to attend the school's well-known aeronautical engineering program.[4] Before arriving in West Lafayette, he reported for an 8-week tour on USSWisconsin as a part of the NROTC program. To qualify, he had to finish training and pass further tests. He initially failed the eye exam, but the physician permitted him to retake it the next morning, and he passed. He was then allowed to tour on Wisconsin to England, Scotland, France, and Cuba. Upon his return to American soil, he worked as a gear cutter.[4]

After starting classes at Purdue, Chaffee sought out a job to complement his coursework and involvement in the Phi Kappa Sigma social fraternity. His first job during his sophomore year was working as a server at one of the women's residences, but he disliked the job and sought new employment. He was hired as a draftsman at a small business near Purdue. As a junior, he was hired as a teaching assistant in the Mathematics Department to teach classes to freshman students.[4] He also joined the Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Gamma Tau engineering honor societies.[10]In 1955, Chaffee took four flying lessons, but he did not have enough money to get his private pilot's license. Two years later, the NROTC sponsored flight training for him to become a naval aviator. He soloed on March 29, 1957, and obtained his private pilot's license on May 24, 1957. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree, with distinction, in aeronautical engineering at Purdue in 1957.

Chaffee met his future wife Martha Louise Horn on a double blind date in September 1955. They started dating, and he proposed to her on October 12, 1956. They married in Oklahoma City, Martha's hometown, on August 24, 1957. Martha was a homemaker. The couple had two children, Sheryl Lyn (born in 1958) and Stephen (born in 1961).[14]

After graduation, Chaffee completed his Navy training on August 22, 1957, and received commission as an ensign. Following his honeymoon, he was assigned to the aircraft carrier USSLake Champlain for a six-week assignment in Norfolk with the Naval Air Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. By the time Chaffee arrived at the base, the ship had already left port. He temporarily worked at the base until October 1957, when he attended flight school at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. He started his training by flying the T-28 and the T-34. He was posted to Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas, from August 1958 to February 1959 as a part of Advanced Training Unit 212.[16] In Kingsville, he trained on the F9F Cougar jet fighter. His daughter Sheryl was born the day before he left for his first aircraft carrier training. He was awarded his naval aviator wings in early 1959.[1][4]

Chaffee was transferred to Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida, to continue his training. His first project was not flying, but repairing an A3D twin-engine jet photo reconnaissance plane. This plane was typically flown by pilots with the rank of lieutenant commander or above, but Chaffee became so familiar with the plane from repairing it he became one of the youngest pilots ever to fly it. He joined Attack Squadron 44 (VA-44) in September 1959, and from October 1959 to March 1960 he trained with Heavy Attack Squadron 3 (VAH-3).[16]

There's only room for one mistake. You can buy the farm only once.

Roger Chaffee

Chaffee received a variety of assignments and participated in multiple training duties over the next several years, spending most of his time in photo reconnaissance squadrons. He was stationed at NAS Jacksonville as safety officer and quality control officer for Heavy Photographic Squadron 62 (VAP-62) flying the A3D.[1][10] He wrote a quality control manual for the squadron, although some of his peers saw this as too demanding. By coincidence, he was assigned to a mission where he flew over Cape Canaveral, during which aerial photographs of future launch sites were taken.

Between April 4, 1960, and October 25, 1962, including during the critical time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Chaffee flew 82 missions over Cuba, sometimes up to three per day, and achieved over 100 flight hours each month. Some of these trips included shuttling three men per plane back and forth to Guantanamo Bay, including the pilot, co-pilot, and the photographer.[16] Some biographies credit him with flying the U-2 plane to spy on Cuba, but this is erroneous since he was a Navy pilot and the U-2 was an Air Force plane.

After this, Chaffee undertook aircraft carrier flight training, including time spent on USSSaratoga performing both day and night flights. He said of day flying, "Setting that big bird down on the flight deck was like landing on a postage stamp"; and of night flying, "Getting catapulted off that flight deck at night is like getting shot into a bottle of ink!" While working in Jacksonville, he concurrently worked on a master's degree. He was on a cruise to Africa when his son Stephen was born in Oklahoma City.

During Chaffee's Navy service he logged more than 2,300 hours flying time, including more than 2,000 hours in jet aircraft.[1][4] On February 1, 1966, he was promoted to lieutenant commander.[16]

The world itself looks cleaner and so much more beautiful. Maybe we can make it that waythe way God intended it to beby giving everybody that new perspective from out in space.

Roger Chaffee[23]

In August 1962, Chaffee confided in his family that he had submitted an application for the NASA astronaut training program, and informed his superiors of his desire to train as a test pilot for astronaut status. In mid-1962, he was accepted in the initial pool of 1,800 applicants for the third group of NASA astronauts.[4] After his naval tour was over, and he had racked up over 1,800 hours of flying time, the Navy offered him the opportunity to continue work on his master's degree. In January 1963, he entered the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, to work on his Master of Science degree in reliability engineering.[10]

While at AFIT, Chaffee continued participating in astronaut candidate testing as the pool of candidates dropped to 271 in mid-1963. It was noted during testing that he had a very small lung capacity but he used it better than most people with greater capacity. On his return from a hunting trip to Fairborn, Ohio, on October 14, 1963, he found a message from NASA in Houston, Texas. He called them back, and discovered he had been chosen as an astronaut.[4] On October 18, 1963, it was officially announced that he was one of fourteen chosen for NASA's third group of astronauts.[1] He said, "I was very pleased with the appointment. I've always wanted to fly and perform adventurous flying tasks all my life. Ever since the first seven Mercury astronauts were named, I've been keeping my studies up."

Phase one of training for the third group of astronauts began in 1964 in lecture halls. Lectures in several fields were supplemented with trips to locations with geological significance so the astronauts gained hands-on experience. As well as piloting the spacecraft, the astronauts were to perform scientific experiments and measurements on the Moon. The astronauts traveled to the Grand Canyon to learn about geography and to Alaska, Iceland, and Hawaii to learn about rock formations and lava flows.[4]

The second phase was contingency training, which focused on astronauts learning the skills required to survive if the landing did not occur where planned. The group started their training by being dropped off in the middle of the jungle in Panama. They performed the survival training in pairs, carrying only their parachutes and survival kits. Chaffee, with help from his Boy Scout training, foraged for enough food to survive during the three-day training mission. Following the jungle training, the astronauts traveled to an entirely different environment: the desert of Reno, Nevada. For clothing, the astronauts had only long underwear, shoes, and robes they manufactured from their parachutes. Lizards and snakes were the main source of food, and the astronauts used their parachutes as makeshift tents for shelter for the two days of desert training.[4]

The third and final phase was operational training for the astronauts. This focused on giving them hands-on experience using the instruments and equipment required during their spaceflight. They received training in the effects of microgravity and rapid acceleration. The astronauts spent time in simulators, aboard cargo planes that simulated weightlessness, underwater to practice extravehicular activities (EVAs), and on visits to manufacturing plants to check on the progress of the hardware.[4]

Every astronaut was required to have a specialty, and Chaffee's specialty was communications. He focused on the Deep Space Instrumentation Facility (DSIF), which the astronauts needed for navigation in space.

At the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Chaffee served as capsule communicator (CAPCOM) in March 1965 for Gemini 3.[29] Later that year, he was CAPCOM, along with Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Eugene Cernan, for the Gemini 4 mission, in which Ed White performed the first spacewalk by an American.[1][4] As CAPCOM, Chaffee relayed information between the crew members and the Director of Flight Operations, Chris Kraft.[4] He never got a seat on a Gemini mission, but was assigned to work on flight control, communications, instrumentation, and attitude and translation control systems in the Apollo program.[10] During this time, along with Grissom, he also flew chase planes at an altitude of between 30,000 and 50,000 feet (9,100 and 15,200m) to take motion pictures of the launch of an uncrewed Saturn 1B rocket.[4]

Chaffee received his first spaceflight assignment in January 1966, when he was selected for the first crewed Apollo-Saturn flight, AS-204. At the time, he was the youngest American astronaut to be selected for a mission.[31] Joining Command Pilot Grissom and Senior Pilot White, he replaced the injured Donn F. Eisele in the third-ranked pilot position.[4] Eisele required surgery for a dislocated shoulder, which he sustained aboard the KC-135 weightlessness training aircraft. He was reassigned to a second Apollo crew, commanded by Wally Schirra.[31]

The crew announcement was made public on March 21, 1966. The two-week flight of Apollo1 was to test the spacecraft systems and the control and ground tracking facilities.[4] While Chaffee had monitored the manufacture of the Gemini spacecraft, he had not witnessed the building of the Apollo spacecraft. Three days after being selected for the Apollo1 crew, he flew to the North American Aviation Plant in Downey, California, to see it.[4]

Later in April, the crew traveled to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to study stars that were programmed into their flight computer. In October, the six crewmembers planned to test the spacecraft in sea level and altitude conditions. The failure of an oxygen regulator prevented them from performing the vacuum test, but they managed to complete the sea level test. They also performed egress tests, where capsule simulators were dropped in the Gulf of Mexico under various conditions and the crew had to exit the spacecraft. The crew was able to spend time with their families at Christmas. Chaffee entered a local Christmas decoration contest and he received first prize.[4] Four Purdue astronauts were requested to attend the Rose Bowl as guests of honor. Grissom, Gene Cernan, Armstrong, and Chaffee attended the game on January 2. Progress on pre-mission activities was nearing completion; NASA announced on January 23, 1967, that February 21 would be the target launch date. The primary and backup crews moved back to the Cape for the last few weeks of training. They had their own living quarters, a private waiter and chef, and gymnasium to remain fit.

On January 27, 1967, Grissom, White and Chaffee were participating in a "plugs-out" countdown demonstration test at Cape Kennedy in preparation for the planned February 21 launch. Chaffee was sitting at the right side of the cabin.[4] His main role was to maintain communications with the blockhouse. A momentary power surge was detected at 23:30:55 GMT, which was believed to accompany an electrical short in equipment located on the lower left side of the cabin, the presumed ignition source for the fire. At 23:31:04 GMT, a voice was heard declaring, "[We]'ve got a fire in the cockpit." Most investigative listeners believe that voice was Chaffee's.

Assigned emergency roles called for Grissom, in the left-hand seat, to open the cabin pressure vent valve, after which White in the center seat was to open the plug door hatch, while Chaffee in the right-hand seat was to maintain communications. Grissom was prevented from opening the valve by the intensity of the fire, which started in that region and spread from left to right. Despite this, White removed his restraints and apparently tried in vain to open the hatch, which was held closed by the cabin pressure. The increasing pressure finally burst the inner cabin wall on the right-hand side at 23:31:19 GMT. After approximately thirty seconds of being fed by a cabin atmosphere of pure oxygen at pressures of 16.7 to 29psi (115 to 200kPa), and now fed by nitrogen-buffered ambient air, the primary fire decreased in intensity and started producing large amounts of smoke, which killed the astronauts. Chaffee lost consciousness because of a lack of oxygen which sent him into cardiac arrest. He died from asphyxia due to the toxic gases from the fire, with burns contributing to his death.

Failed oxygen and ethylene glycol pipes near the fire's origin point continued burning an intense secondary fire which melted through the cabin floor. By the time firefighters were able to open the hatch, the fire had extinguished itself. The back of Chaffee's couch was found in the horizontal position, with the lower portion angled towards the floor. His helmet was closed and locked, his restraints were undone, and the hoses and electrical connections to the suit remained connected. As he was farthest from the origin of the fire, he suffered the least burn and suit damage.

Shortly after the AS-204 fire in 1967, NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Spaceflight George Mueller announced the mission would be officially designated as Apollo 1.[45][46] The capsule underwent a significant redesign as a result of the disaster. The atmosphere in the cabin was changed from 100% oxygen to a 60% oxygen and 40% nitrogen environment at launch. The astronauts' spacesuits, originally made of nylon, were changed to beta cloth, a non-flammable, highly melt-resistant fabric woven from fiberglass and coated with Teflon. There were other changes, including replacing flammable cabin materials with self-extinguishing ones, and covering plumbing and wiring with protective insulation.[47]

Chaffee and Grissom were buried in Arlington National Cemetery,[48][49] while White was buried at West Point Cemetery.[50] Chaffee's widow received $100,000 from the life insurance portion of the contract the astronauts signed with two publishing firms so they would have exclusive rights to stories and photographs of the astronauts and their families. She also received $16,250 per year for the life of the contract.[51]

Chaffee is memorialized in many ways, from the Chaffee Crater on the far side of the Moon, to the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan.[53] Another memorial is a hill on Mars, Chaffee Hill, 14.3 kilometres (8.9mi) south-southwest of Columbia Memorial Station, part of the Apollo 1 Hills.[54] Regor (Roger spelled backwards), is a seldom-used nickname for the star Gamma Velorum. Grissom used this name, plus two others for White and himself, on his Apollo1 mission planning star charts as a joke, and the succeeding Apollo astronauts kept using the names as a memorial.[55][56] A terrestrial memorial is Chaffee Island, an artificial island off Long Beach, California, created in 1966 for drilling oil (along with White, Grissom and Freeman Islands).[57][58][59] A park in Fullerton, California, was named after Chaffee; parks were also named after his fellow Apollo1 comrades.[60] Chaffee is named with his Apollo1 crewmates on the Space Mirror Memorial, which was dedicated in 1991.[61][62] Chaffee's name is included on the plaque left on the Moon with the Fallen Astronaut statue in 1971 by the crew of Apollo 15.[63]

The dismantled Launch Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral bears two memorial plaques:

They gave their lives in service to their country in the ongoing exploration of humankind's final frontier. Remember them not for how they died but for those ideals for which they lived.

In memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice so others could reach for the stars. Ad astra per aspera (a rough road leads to the stars). God speed to the crew of Apollo 1.[64]

The Roger B. Chaffee scholarship named for him has been awarded annually since 1967 to exceptional students in the Kent Intermediate School District for high school seniors who will be pursuing a career in math and science.[65][66] Chaffee Hall, an engineering building, was dedicated to him at his alma mater, Purdue University, in 1968.[67][68] Grissom High School, Ed White Middle School and Chaffee Elementary School in Huntsville, Alabama, were named for the Apollo1 astronauts.[69]

Roger That! is an annual event sponsored by the Grand Rapids Public Museum and Grand Valley State University that celebrates space exploration and the life of Grand Rapids native, Roger B. Chaffee, a former American naval officer and aviator aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut in the Apollo program.[70]

Chaffee was awarded the Navy Air Medal for his involvement in Heavy Photographic Squadron 62. He completed 82 classified missions "of paramount military importance to the security of the United States".[16] The Apollo1 crew was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal posthumously in a 1969 presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Apollo 11 crew.[71] He was posthumously awarded a second Air Medal. He was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1983 and into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, on October 4, 1997.[23][72][73][74] Chaffee and White were awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor posthumously in 1997 (Grissom received the medal in 1978).[75] He was later awarded the NASA Ambassador of Exploration Award for involvement in the U.S. space program in 2007.[76]

On the television show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine a fictional 24th century spacecraft was named after him, designed by Doug Drexler.[77][78] They named it after Chaffee as a reminder about the dangers of space exploration.[79] Star Trek and NASA have a long history of collaborations going back to the late 1960s when the television show made its debut.[80]

In 2018 a life-size bronze statue of Chaffee was unveiled outside the Grand Rapids Children's Museum in Chaffee's hometown. His wife, other family members, and astronaut Jack Lousma (a Grand Rapids native) were present for the event.[81]

Continued here:

Roger B. Chaffee - Wikipedia

Midsommar movie review & film summary (2019) | Roger Ebert

The filmmaker fidgets with that peculiar breathlessness once again throughout Midsommar, a terrifically juicy, apocalyptic cinematic sacrament that dances around a fruitless relationship in dizzying circles. We are not stuffed inside a cavernous house of horrors this time around. But be prepared to feel equally suffocated by a ravenous family (albeit, a chosen, cultish kind) all the same. In the midst of wide-open pastoral surroundings we may be, but Aster still wants us to crave and kick for oxygen, perhaps in a less claustrophobic and more agoraphobic fashion. The tangible dread in Midsommaroftentimes alleviated by welcome flashes of comedy, always charged by tight choreography and Pogorzelskis atmospheric compositionsis so recognizably out of Hereditary that you'll immediately distinguish the connective headspace responsible for both tales.

And yet, this superb psychedelic thriller sowed somewhere amid an outdoorsy mother!, a blindingly lit Dogville and fine, a contemporary The Wicker Man, is different by way of Asters loosened thematic restraint. You wont exactly feel lost while disemboweling Asters inviting beast, but you can certainly argue that the sun never sets on the films cosmically vast subject matter: reaping notions of (white) male privilege, American entitlement (that literally pisses on whats not theirs) and most prominently, female empowerment. And this is also a fitting way to describe the location where most of the story unfolds, under nearly 24-hour sun. We are in a remote, hidden-from-view Swedish village nested somewhere in Hlsingland, among tranquilly dressed Harga folk who celebrate summer through initially quaint, but increasingly bizarre and downright petrifying rituals. There is only a slack sense of yesterday and tomorrow in Asters locale of choice where an endless string of hallucinatory traditions are exercised in broad daylight.

The folkloric practices start off appealingly enougha misleading gust of peace (superbly countered by The Haxan Cloaks skin-crawling score) breezes in the air while heady drugs dissolve in tempting cups of tea. But how did we even get here and find ourselves among these hippy-dippy proceedings cloaked in white linen? Well, we followed Florence Pugh, Asters second fearless female lead after Toni Collette,playing a grieving character marked by something unspeakable. In a deeply scarred, emotionally unrestricted performanceyou might hear her screams in your nightmaresPugh plays Dani, a graduate student aiming to put some distance between herself and an extreme case of trauma involving her bipolar sister. (A stunning prologue unravels the details of the tragic ordeal with top-shelf narrative economy.) And Dani isnt on her own. In fact, she embarks upon the picturesque Scandinavian adventure as an outsider at first, tagging along some fellow scholars of academia, a group that includes her self-absorbed longtime boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor, convincingly egotistical). Also in the clan are Christians buddies Josh (William Jackson Harper)headed to the festivities for academic researchthe blabber-mouthed Mark (Will Poulter, so hysterically douchey that he earns the jesters cap hed wear later on), and Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren), the brainchild of the operation as well as a member of the makeshift family that would host the group.

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Midsommar movie review & film summary (2019) | Roger Ebert

Elon Musk Meeting With Advertisers, Begging Them Not to Leave Twitter

Advertisers are fleeing Twitter in droves now that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken over control. Now, he's trying to pick up the pieces and begging them to return.

Advertisers are fleeing Twitter in droves now that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken over control.

Ever since officially closing the $44 billion deal, Musk has been busy gutting the company's executive suite and dissolving its board. Senior executives, as well as Twitter's advertising chief Sarah Personette, have departed as well.

After all, Musk has been very clear about his disdain for advertising for years now.

The resulting uncertainty has advertisers spooked — major advertising holding company IPG has already advised clients to pull out temporarily — and the billionaire CEO is in serious damage mode.

Now, Reuters reports, Musk is spending most of this week meeting with advertisers in New York, trying to reassure them that Twitter won't turn into a "free-for-all hellscape."

According to one of Reuters' sources, the meetings have been "very productive" — but plenty of other marketers are far from satisfied.

Advertisers are reportedly grilling Musk over his plans to address the rampant misinformation being spread on the platform, a trend that Musk himself has been actively contributing to since the acquisition.

And if he's succeeding in ameliorating advertisers in private, he's antagonizing them publicly. On Wednesday, Musk posted a poll asking users whether advertisers should support either "freedom of speech," or "political 'correctness'" — a type of false dichotomy that echoes the rhetoric of far-right conspiracy theorists and conservative pundits.

"Those type of provocations are not helping to calm the waters," an unnamed media buyer told Reuters.

Some are going public with the same sentiment.

"Unless Elon hires new leaders committed to keeping this 'free' platform safe from hate speech, it's not a platform brands can/should advertise on," Allie Wassum, global media director for the Nike-owned shoe brand Jordan, wrote in a LinkedIn post.

So far, Musk's plans for the social media platform remain strikingly muddy. In addition to the behind-the-scenes advertising plays, he's also announced that users will have to pay to retain their verification badge, though he's engaged in a comically public negotiation as to what the cost might be.

He's also hinted that previously banned users — former US president Donald Trump chief among them — might eventually get a chance to return, but only once "we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks."

The move was seen by many as a way to wait out the impending midterm elections. After all, Twitter has played a huge role in disseminating misinformation and swaying elections in the past.

While advertisers are running for the hills, to Musk advertising is clearly only a small part of the picture — even though historically, social giants like Twitter have struggled to diversify their revenue sources much beyond display ads.

Musk nodded to that reality in a vague open letter posted last week.

"Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content!" he wrote in the note, addressed to "Twitter advertisers."

Big picture, Twitter's operations are in free fall right now and Musk has yet to provide advertisers with a cohesive plan to pick up the pieces.

While he's hinted at the creation of a new content moderation council made up of both "people from all viewpoints" and "wildly divergent views," advertisers are clearly going to be thinking twice about continuing their business with Twitter.

With or without advertising, Twitter's finances are reportedly in a very deep hole. The billions of dollars Musk had to borrow to finance his mega acquisition will cost Twitter around $1 billion a year in interest alone.

The company also wasn't anywhere near profitable before Musk took over, losing hundreds of millions of dollars in a single quarter.

Whether that picture will change any time soon is as unclear as ever, especially in the face of a wintry economy.

But, of course, Musk has proved his critics wrong before. So anything's possible.

READ MORE: Advertisers begin to grill Elon Musk over Twitter 'free-for-all' [Reuters]

More on the saga: Elon Musk Pulling Engineers From Tesla Autopilot to Work on Twitter

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Elon Musk Meeting With Advertisers, Begging Them Not to Leave Twitter

Scientists Found a Way to Control How High Mice Got on Cocaine

A team of neuroscientists at the University of Wisconsin claim to have found a way to control how high mice can get on cocaine.

A team of neuroscientists at the University of Wisconsin claim to have found a way to control how high mice can get on a given amount of cocaine.

And don't worry — while that may sound like a particularly frivolous plot concocted by a team of evil scientists, the goal of the research is well-meaning.

The team, led by University of Wisconsin neuroscientist Santiago Cuesta, was investigating how the gut microbiome can influence how mice and humans react to ingesting the drug.

The research, detailed in a new paper published this week in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, sheds light on a vicious feedback loop that could explain cases of substance abuse disorders — and possibly lay the groundwork for future therapeutic treatments.

In a number of experiments on mice, the researchers found that cocaine was linked to the growth of common gut bacteria, which feed on glycine, a chemical that facilitates basic brain functions.

The lower the levels of glycine in the brain, the more the mice reacted to the cocaine, exhibiting abnormal behaviors.

To test the theory, the scientists injected the mice with a genetically modified amino acid which cannot break down glycine. As a result, the behavior of mice returned to normal levels.

In other words, the amino acid could curb cocaine addiction-like behaviors — at least in animal models.

"The gut bacteria are consuming all of the glycine and the levels are decreasing systemically and in the brain," said Vanessa Sperandio, senior author, and microbiologist from the University of Wisconsin, in a statement. "It seems changing glycine overall is impacting the glutamatergic synapses that make the animals more prone to develop addiction."

It's an unorthodox approach to treating addiction, but could be intriguing — if it works in people, that is.

"Usually, for neuroscience behaviors, people are not thinking about controlling the microbiota, and microbiota studies usually don't measure behaviors, but here we show they’re connected," Cuesta added. "Our microbiome can actually modulate psychiatric or brain-related behaviors."

In short, their research could lead to new ways of treating various psychiatric disorders such as substance use by adjusting the gut microbiome and not making changes to the brain chemistry.

"I think the bridging of these communities is what's going to move the field forward, advancing beyond correlations towards causations for the different types of psychiatric disorders," Sperandio argued.

READ MORE: How gut bacteria influence the effects of cocaine in mice [Cell Press]

More on addiction: Study: Magic Mushrooms Helped 83% of People Cut Excessive Drinking

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Scientists Found a Way to Control How High Mice Got on Cocaine

Manslaughter Case Has a Strange Twist: Tesla That Killed Couple Was on Autopilot

A court case is about to kick off in Los Angeles later this month, involving a fatal crash caused by a Tesla vehicle, which was on Autopilot.

A provocative manslaughter case is about to kick off in Los Angeles later this month, involving a fatal crash caused by a Tesla vehicle that had the company's controversial Autopilot feature turned on.

It's the first case of its kind, and one that could set a precedent for future crashes involving cars and driver-assistance software, Reuters reports.

We won't know the exact defense until the case gets under way, but the crux is that the man who was behind the wheel of the Tesla is facing manslaughter charges — but has pleaded not guilty, setting up potentially novel legal arguments about culpability in a deadly collision when, technically speaking, it wasn't a human driving the car.

"Who's at fault, man or machine?" asked Edward Walters, an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University, in an interview with Reuters. "The state will have a hard time proving the guilt of the human driver because some parts of the task are being handled by Tesla."

The upcoming trial is about a fatal collision that took place in 2019. The crash involved Kevin George Aziz Riad, who ran a red light in his Tesla Model S, and collided with a Honda Civic, killing a couple who were reportedly on their first date.

According to vehicle data, Riad did not apply the brakes but had a hand on the steering wheel. Perhaps most critically, though, the Tesla's Autopilot feature was turned on in the moments leading up to the crash.

Riad is facing manslaughter charges, with prosecutors arguing his actions were reckless.

Meanwhile, Riad's lawyers have argued that he shouldn't be charged with a crime, but have so far stopped short of publicly placing blame on Tesla's Autopilot software.

Tesla is not directly implicated in the upcoming trial and isn't facing charges in the case, according to Reuters.

A separate trial, however, involving the family of one of the deceased is already scheduled for next year — but this time, Tesla is the defendant.

"I can't say that the driver was not at fault, but the Tesla system, Autopilot, and Tesla spokespeople encourage drivers to be less attentive," the family's attorney Donald Slavik told Reuters.

"Tesla knows people are going to use Autopilot and use it in dangerous situations," he added.

Tesla is already under heavy scrutiny over its Autopilot and so-called Full Self-Driving software, despite conceding that the features "do not make the vehicle autonomous" and that drivers must remain attentive of the road at all times.

Critics argue that Tesla's marketing is misleading and that it's only leading to more accidents — not making the roads safer, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk has argued in the past.

In fact, a recent survey found that 42 percent of Tesla Autopilot said they feel "comfortable treating their vehicles as fully self-driving."

Regulators are certainly already paying attention. The news comes a week after Reuters revealed that the Department of Justice is investigating Tesla over Autopilot.

Last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced an investigation of accidents in which Teslas have smashed into emergency response vehicles that were pulled over with sirens or flares.

This month's trial certainly stands the chance of setting a precedent. Was Riad fully at fault or was Tesla's Autopilot at least partially to blame as well?

The answer now lies in the hands of a jury.

READ MORE: Tesla crash trial in California hinges on question of 'man vs machine' [Reuters]

More on Autopilot: Survey: 42% of Tesla Autopilot Drivers Think Their Cars Can Drive Themselves

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Manslaughter Case Has a Strange Twist: Tesla That Killed Couple Was on Autopilot

Twitter Working on Plan to Charge Users to Watch Videos

According to an internal email obtained by The Washington Post, Musk wants to have Twitter charge users to view videos posted by content creators.

Now that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, the billionaire has been frantically shuffling through ambitious plans to turn the ailing social media platform into a revenue-driving business.

Case in point, according to internal email obtained by The Washington Post, Musk is plotting for Twitter to charge users to view videos posted by content creators and take a cut of the proceeds — a highly controversial idea that's already been met with internal skepticism.

The team of Twitter engineers has "identified the risk as high" in the email, citing "risks related to copyrighted content, creator/user trust issues, and legal compliance."

In short, Musk is blazing ahead with his infamously ambitious timelines — a "move fast and break things" approach that could signify a tidal change for Twitter's historically sluggish approach to launching new features.

Musk has already made some big structural changes to Twitter, having fired high-up positions at the company and dissolved its board of directors.

The company will also likely be facing mass layoffs, according to The Washington Post.

The new feature detailed in the new email, which is being referred to as "Paywalled Video," allows creators to "enable the paywall once a video has been added to the tweet" and chose from a preset list of prices, ranging from $1 to $10.

"This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators," Musk tweeted on Tuesday, adding that "creators need to make a living!"

But whether Twitter users will be willing to pay for stuff that was previously free remains anything but certain.

Musk has already announced that he is planning to charge $8 a month for Twitter users to stay verified, which has been met with derision.

The billionaire CEO is facing an uphill battle. Now that the company is private, he has to pay around $1 billion in annual interest payments, a result from his $44 buyout, according to the WaPo.

Compounding the trouble, Reuters reported last week that Twitter is bleeding some of its most active users.

Meanwhile, Musk's chaotic moves are likely to alienate advertisers, with the Interpublic Group, a massive inter-agency advertising group, recommending that its clients suspend all paid advertising for at least the week.

That doesn't bode well. It's not out of the question that a paywalled video feature may facilitate the monetization of pornographic content, which may end up scaring off advertisers even further — but Twitter's exact intentions for the feature are still unclear.

According to Reuters, around 13 percent of the site's content is currently marked not safe for work (NSFW).

It's part of Musk's attempt to shift revenue away from advertising on the platform. In a tweet last week, he promised advertisers that Twitter wouldn't become a "free-for-all hellscape."

But that hasn't stopped advertisers from already leaving in droves.

All in all, a paywalled video feature could mark a significant departure for Twitter, a platform still primarily known for short snippets of text.

For now, all we can do is watch.

READ MORE: Elon Musk’s Twitter is working on paid-video feature with ‘high’ risk [The Washington Post]

More on Twitter: Elon Musk Pleads With Stephen King to Pay for Blue Checkmark

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Twitter Working on Plan to Charge Users to Watch Videos

This Deepfake AI Singing Dolly Parton’s "Jolene" Is Worryingly Good

Holly Herndon uses her AI twin Holly+ to sing a cover of Dolly Parton's

AI-lands in the Stream

Sorry, but not even Dolly Parton is sacred amid the encroachment of AI into art.

Holly Herndon, an avant garde pop musician, has released a cover of Dolly Parton's beloved and frequently covered hit single, "Jolene." Except it's not really Herndon singing, but her digital deepfake twin known as Holly+.

The music video features a 3D avatar of Holly+ frolicking in what looks like a decaying digital world.

And honestly, it's not bad — dare we say, almost kind of good? Herndon's rendition croons with a big, round sound, soaked in reverb and backed by a bouncy, acoustic riff and a chorus of plaintive wailing. And she has a nice voice. Or, well, Holly+ does. Maybe predictably indie-folk, but it's certainly an effective demonstration of AI with a hint of creative flair, or at least effective curation.

Checking the Boxes

But the performance is also a little unsettling. For one, the giant inhales between verses are too long to be real and are almost cajolingly dramatic. The vocals themselves are strangely even and, despite the somber tone affected by the AI, lack Parton's iconic vulnerability.

Overall, it feels like the AI is simply checking the boxes of what makes a good, swooning cover after listening to Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" a million times — which, to be fair, is a pretty good starting point.

Still, it'd be remiss to downplay what Herndon has managed to pull off here, and the criticisms mostly reflect the AI's limited capabilities more than her chops as a musician. The AI's seams are likely intentional, if her previous work is anything to go off of.

Either way, if you didn't know you were listening to an AI from the get-go, you'd probably be fooled. And that alone is striking.

The Digital Self

Despite AI's usually ominous implications for art, Herndon views her experiment as a "way for artists to take control of their digital selves," according to a statement on her website.

"Vocal deepfakes are here to stay," Herndon was quoted saying. "A balance needs to be found between protecting artists, and encouraging people to experiment with a new and exciting technology."

Whether Herndon's views are fatalistic or prudently pragmatic remains to be seen. But even if her intentions are meant to be good for artists, it's still worrying that an AI could pull off such a convincing performance.

More on AI music: AI That Generates Music from Prompts Should Probably Scare Musicians

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This Deepfake AI Singing Dolly Parton's "Jolene" Is Worryingly Good

Greta Thunberg Says UN Climate Conference Is a Scam and She’s Not Attending

The UN's upcoming COP27 climate conference in Egypt is basically a

COP Out

Ever since she lambasted world leaders at a UN conference in 2018 when she was only 15 years old, Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has had the ear of the international community.

Now, Thunberg says she's skipping out on next week's COP27 UN climate summit in Egypt. Why? Because it's rife with "greenwashing."

"I'm not going to COP27 for many reasons, but the space for civil society this year is extremely limited," Thunberg said at a press event for her book, "The Climate Book," as quoted by The Guardian. "The COPs are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing."

Ultimately, in Thunberg's view, the COP conferences "are not really meant to change the whole system" and instead only promote incremental change. Bluntly put, they're feel-good events that don't accomplish much, so she's bowing out.

Wasted Breath

It's not an unfair assessment. For all the pledges made to drastically cut back emissions and achieve net carbon zero by 2050, very few nations have followed through in the short term. And in Europe, the energy crisis in the wake of the war in Ukraine has further sidelined those climate commitments.

So we can't blame her for not going. But it's a bit disheartening that even a tenacious young spokesperson like Thunberg has given up on convincing world leaders at the biggest climate summit in the world.

Maybe it's indicative of the frustrations of her generation at large. When Thunberg was asked what she thought about the recent wave of Just Stop Oil protests that included activists throwing soup on a Van Gogh painting, she said that she viewed what many detractors perceived as a dumb stunt to be symptomatic of the world's failure to effect meaningful environmental change.

"People are trying to find new methods because we realize that what we have been doing up until now has not done the trick," she replied, as quoted by Reuters. "It's only reasonable to expect these kinds of different actions."

Maybe the real question is: if even a UN climate conference isn't the place to get the message out and change hearts, where's the right place, and what's the right way? If the headlines are any indication, zoomers are struggling to figure that out.

More on Greta Thunberg: Greta Thunberg Thinks Germany Shutting Down Its Nuclear Plants Is a Bad Idea

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Greta Thunberg Says UN Climate Conference Is a Scam and She's Not Attending

Cats May Be Tampering With Crime Scenes, Scientists Say

Cats, ever the mischievous and frisky pets, may be harboring a lot more human DNA than once thought, possibly tampering crime scenes, a new study says.

Cat Burglar

Cats are known for not really minding their own business, getting their furry paws on just about anything they can.

And it turns out, this makes them effective vectors for DNA evidence, according to a study published last month in the journal Forensic Science International: Genetic Supplement Series.

Researchers collaborating with the Victoria Police Forensic Services Department in Australia found detectable human DNA in 80 percent of the samples collected from 20 pet cats, with 70 percent of the samples strong enough that they could be linked to a person of interest in a crime scene investigation.

"Collection of human DNA needs to become very important in crime scene investigations, but there is a lack of data on companion animals such as cats and dogs in their relationship to human DNA transfer," said study lead author Heidi Monkman, a forensic scientist at Flinders University, in a statement.

"These companion animals can be highly relevant in assessing the presence and activities of the inhabitants of the household, or any recent visitors to the scene."

Here Kitty

One possible takeaway is that cats — and other companion pets like dogs — could be harboring DNA that could help solve a case.

The bigger issue, though, is that pets could introduce foreign DNA that muddles a crime scene, possibly leading to an innocent person being implicated. A pet could be carrying the DNA of a complete stranger, or it might bring the DNA of its owner into a crime scene that they had nothing to do with.

Monkman's colleague and co-author of the paper, Maria Goray, is an experienced crime scene investigator and an expert in DNA transfer. She believes their findings could help clear up how pets might tamper a crime scene by carrying outside DNA.

"Are these DNA findings a result of a criminal activity or could they have been transferred and deposited at the scene via a pet?" Goray asked.

It's a question worth asking — especially because innocent people have been jailed off botched DNA science far too often.

More on DNA evidence: Cops Upload Image of Suspect Generated From DNA, Then Delete After Mass Criticism

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Cats May Be Tampering With Crime Scenes, Scientists Say

Scientists Use Actual Lunar Soil Sample to Create Rocket Fuel

A team of Chinese researchers claim to have turned lunar regolith samples brought back by the country's Chang'e 5 mission into a source of fuel.

Fill 'Er Up

A team of Chinese researchers say they managed to convert actual lunar regolith samples into a source of rocket fuel and oxygen — a potential gamechanger for future space explorers hoping to make use of in-situ resources to fuel up for their return journey.

The researchers found that the lunar soil samples can act as a catalyst to convert carbon dioxide and water from astronauts' bodies and environment into methane and oxygen, as detailed in a paper published in the National Science Review.

"In situ resource utilization of lunar soil to achieve extraterrestrial fuel and oxygen production is vital for the human to carry out Moon exploitation missions," lead author Yujie Xiong said in a new statement about the work. "Considering that there are limited human resources at extraterrestrial sites, we proposed to employ the robotic system to perform the whole electrocatalytic CO2 conversion system setup."

That means we could have a much better shot at carrying out longer duration explorations of the lunar surface in the near future.

Set It, Forget It

According to the paper, which builds on previous research suggesting lunar soil can generate oxygen and fuel, this process can be completed using uncrewed systems, even in the absence of astronauts.

In an experiment, the team used samples from China's Chang'e-5 mission, which landed in Inner Mongolia back in December 2020 — the first lunar soil returned to Earth since 1976.

The Moon soil effectively acted as a catalyst, enabling the electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide into methane and oxygen.

"No significant difference can be observed between the manned and unmanned systems, which further suggests the high possibility of imitating our proposed system in extraterrestrial sites and proves the feasibility of further optimizing catalyst recipes on the Moon," the researchers conclude in their paper.

Liquified

But there's one big hurdle to still overcome: liquifying carbon dioxide is anything but easy given the Moon's frosty atmosphere, as condensing the gas requires a significant amount of heat, as New Scientist reported earlier this year.

Still, it's a tantalizing prospect: an autonomous machine chugging away, pumping out oxygen and fuel for future visitors. But for now, it's not much more than a proof of concept.

READ MORE: Scientists investigate using lunar soils to sustainably supply oxygen and fuels on the moon [Science China Press]

More on lunar soil: Bad News! The Plants Grown in Moon Soil Turned Out Wretched

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Scientists Use Actual Lunar Soil Sample to Create Rocket Fuel

Scientists Spot "Stripped, Pulsating Core" of Star Caused By Horrific Accident

In a

Core Dump

Scientists studying a group of stars made an astonishing but "serendipitous" discovery when they realized that Gamma Columbae, a fairly average celestial body, might actually be the "stripped pulsating core of a massive star," according to a study published this week in Nature Astronomy.

If true, that means Gamma Columbae is missing the envelope, or vast shroud of gas, that hides a star's nuclear fusion powered core.

What caused the stripping of this atmospheric envelope is not definitively known, but the scientists posit that Gamma Columbae running out of hydrogen could've caused its envelope to expand and swallow up a nearby star, likely its binary partner. But in the middle of that relatively common process, something appears to have horrifically gone wrong and ejected the envelope — and possibly even led to the two stars merging.

Naked Core

Before the disaster, the scientists believe Gamma Columbae could have been up to 12 times the mass of our Sun. Now, it's a comparatively meager 5 stellar masses.

Although a naked stellar core missing its envelope has been theorized to exist, it's never been observed in a star this size.

"Having a naked stellar core of such a mass is unique so far," said study co-author Norbert Pryzbilla, head of the Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics at the University of Innsbruck, in an interview with Vice.

Astronomers had an idea of what the cores of massive and low mass stars looked like, Pryzbilla continued, but there wasn't "much evidence" for cores of masses in between.

Star Power

It's an exceedingly rare find because the star is in a "a short-lived post-stripping structural re-adjustment phase" that will only last 10,000 years, according to the study.

That's "long for us humans but in astronomical timescales, very, very short," Przybilla told Vice. "It will always stay as a peculiar object."

The opportunity to study such a rarely exposed stellar core could provide scientists an invaluable look into the evolution of binary star systems. And whatever astronomers learn from the star, it's a fascinating glimpse at stellar destruction at a nearly incomprehensible scale.

More on stars: Black Hole Spotted Burping Up Material Years After Eating a Star

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Scientists Spot "Stripped, Pulsating Core" of Star Caused By Horrific Accident