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The Ark (Swedish band)

The Ark are a Swedish glam rock band formed in 1991 and disbanded in 2011. They released five studio albums and became one of the most successful groups in Scandinavia. They made their breakthrough in 2000 with the song "It Takes a Fool to Remain Sane", and since then several hit songs followed; they reunited in 2020.

The Apocalyptic Era (1991–1994)
The Ark was formed by Ola Salo (at the time named "Svensson") in the small town of Rottne outside Växjö, Sweden in the summer of 1991. At the age of fourteen, during a family vacation to Ireland, he wrote a poem in six lines with the title The Ark and got the idea to form a new band from this concept.

"And God told me to build an ark

To gather the ones who wander in the dark"

- first lines of the poem The Ark (1991) He formed the band with his friends Lars "Leari" Ljungberg, Mikael Jepson and Magnus Olsson, all of whom had previously been in the band Ashram, and they held their first band rehearsals in August 1991, and their inspiration for both music and fashion came from the psychedelic 60's and the decadent 70's. According to Ola Salo the name The Ark was not only intended as a religiously grand symbol but also a symbol for sailing away from Rottne and out into the world.

While Ashram had mainly played covers, such as Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, The Ark was meant to focus on original material. Ola Salo had written some amateurish songs - such as Ashram's only original song "The Kinky Blues" - but in the summer of 1991 he studied the tablature anthology of The Beatles, a book he had received as a Christmas present, and entered a new phase of songwriting.

The Ark's earliest repertoire consisted of covers of "My Generation" by The Who and "Honky Tonk Women" by The Rolling Stones, but also original songs written by Ola Salo such as "Only the Wind" and "Crumble and Fall". The music was in a light-hearted and folky 60's style but the lyrics were dark and epic and the recurring theme was philosophy and religion, most notably about the World's ending with much inspiration from the Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible.

The very first show was played at an outdoor festival on the main street of Växjö in mid-August 1991. On November 16 that same year, the band played their first club show at a venue called Uffes källare in Växjö, as the support act for the band The Shiremen who were fronted by Leari's brother Pelle.

The band was totally unknown outside Växjö but got a local audience. They wanted to make every concert unique, and Ola Salo wrote new songs for each concert. In 1992 the rock club Café Kristina released a double album to promote the local scene, and The Ark participated with the song "The Lamb". This is their first official recording, and for this song they also made their first music video. The song became a small hit in the underground scene of Växjö, and the band had secured a small but devoted local audience.

In the autumn of 1992 the band changed drummer, since Magnus Olsson had chosen a school that demanded much of his time on weekends and since he had also enlisted with the Swedish Home Guard. He was replaced with Markus Rosengardten who was a school friend to Ola Salo.

Ola Salo kept on writing songs with an apocalyptic and darkly philosophical theme, with titles such as "Merciful Sledge", "The World's Aflame", "Eucharist", "Rip It Out", "Up Against The Wall" and "My Sin". The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had become a major influence. The music had grown darker, heavier and more psychedelic with complicated chord changes. But at the same time, The Ark wanted to break down the barriers between the art-kids who liked moody and heavy stuff and the kids who liked catchy pop. Songs from this era that would live on and become properly recorded after band's breakthrough are "Topsy Kaiser", "Cygnet to Cygnet", "The Homecomer" (all released on the band's early cd-singles in 2000 and 2001) and "Uriel" (recorded for the album "Prayer for the Weekend" released in 2007).

In 1994 the band made their second music video, this time for the song "The Flower King".

Racing With the Rabbits (1995–1996)
In the winter of 1995 they travelled to Malmö, Sweden to record some newly written tracks in a studio called Dundret. The songs recorded during this session was "What Do To With Aileen?", "Racing With the Rabbits" and "Cracked Messiah". The youngest band members were by now 18 years.

This studio session inspired Ola Salo to re-think his way of song-writing, and the first song to came out of his new phase was "Like Mortals Do". It became a fan favourite in the band's live set and Ola Salo describes this song as "the biggest hit of The Ark's Apocalyptic Era".

In March 1995 the band returned to Dundret studio and recorded two additional new songs: "I Laid It Down" and "Od Slatrom Ekil".

The Dundret recordings, excluding "What To Do With Aileen?", were compiled into an EP with the title "Racing With The Rabbits", released by the small sub-label Beat That! on a small record label in Malmö called Energy Records. 1000 copies were pressed on CD, less than 100 were sold, and the few reviews where negative.

The band members all moved to Malmö, and planned to record a full-length album with the best songs from the Apocalyptic era. The album was to be called "Speak Loud", but Beat That! could never afford to make the album.

Depression and re-ignition (1996–1999)
In the years following the failed EP-release, Ola Salo was once again re-thinking his life philosophy and his song-writing. He was experiencing a lingering depression and The Ark was fading from existence. Outside of Växjö the band had no fan-base, and Malmö showed no interest in their music. In 1997 Ola Salo was thinking of breaking up the band, but Martin Axén joined the band as a second guitarist and brought them new energy.

In Malmö, Leari and Jepson had formed a new band with Martin Axén and Jens Andersson, called Stereo Explosion, and together with The Ark they began organizing popular parties to promote their music, often sharing the stage with The Ark. The idea was to make fun music and make people dance. Ola Salo was inspired by this and decided to mix the superficial and seemingly plastic aspects of pop music with his heavy and deep themes. Another important revelation came on December 16, 1996 when Ola Salo, Leari and Jepson went to see KISS perform at Avicii Arena in Stockholm, and Ola Salo had a clear epiphany of outrageous aesthetics and plastic image, combined with superficial but powerful music. But instead of the shallow lyrics from KISS, he intended for The Ark to have a much more important message. The dark and drawn-out apocalyptic theme was over, and it was time for accessible pop music for the masses, but with a sincere substance. In 1998 Ola Salo also began to openly embrace his bisexuality, which further added to the band's new image and message.

But when Ola Salo presented his new vision for the band, their drummer Martin Rosengardten was not as rapturous as the other members. He was very sceptical of the new image, and also had little time for the band because of his education at university. By Christmas 1999, he was sacked from the band by Ola Salo. Sylverster Schlegel, an old friend of the band's from Växjö, became their new drummer.

While The Ark were experimenting with their new pop sound they got help from Robert Jelinek from the successful Swedish band, The Creeps. Robert Jelinek gave the demos to Jon Gray who was well-established within the music industry and had his own publishing company called Mad House. One of the demo-songs was "Laurel Wreath", and two others (never released) were called "It Seems To Be The Way" and "Activity". Jon Gray would later become manager for the band and according to Martin Axén he was the first person to really believe in their potential.

The band kept recording new songs as demos, with help from Jens Andersson in the home studio he had built together with Jepson, and the first song they recorded together was "Siamese Centerfold" (later released as a b-side on the cd-single "Let Your Body Decide").

In 1999, a record deal for three albums was signed with Grand Recordings, who were soon to be merged with Virgin Records, and preparations began for the recording of a debut album. Gula studio in Malmö was chosen for the recording, and Marco Manieri was hired as producer.

We Are The Ark (2000–2001)
In the winter of 2000 The Ark went on tour as the support act for kent during their Hagnesta Hill tour, with the premiere in Gothenburg on January 28 and finishing in Stockholm on March 9. They opened their set with the song "Laurel Wreath" and played soon-to-be hit singles such as "Let Your Body Decide", "Echo Chamber" and "It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane". Halfway through the tour, on January 31, the first single "Let Your Body Decide" was released. The song peaked at #9 in the Swedish charts.

The second single, "It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane", was released on May 15. The song became a huge radio hit and the music video was on heavy rotation in the music channels. The song was also successful in Europe, especially in Italy where it remained a top 10 in the charts for four months.

The debut album, entitled We Are The Ark, was released on September 25. Another title, "Electric Body Design", had been considered based on how a friend of the band had misheard the chorus of "Let Your Body Decide". The album sold 120.000 copies, making it one of Sweden's most successful debut albums of all time.

A recurring theme on the album is to find strength and joy in being an outsider, to choose joy and lust in life and to go one's own way regardless of the stagnated norms and views of the world. This was also the message that Ola Salo and the rest of the band would often speak about in interviews and during concerts. This theme was to remain constant throughout the remainder of the band's career.

On October 18 in Gothenburg, the band began an extensive club tour of Sweden. The setlist for the concerts consisted exclusively of the songs from the album, except the ending song "Racing With The Rabbits" which was the only song included from their former 1990s era. Life on tour was filmed for a documentary titled "Vi är the Ark" (the Swedish translation of the album title) broadcast on Sweden's SVT. A second documentary was later filmed for Sweden's TV4. During the year of 2000, The Ark made more than 60 live performances and ended they year by performing "It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane" together with singer Tommy Körberg on New Year's Eve on Sweden's TV3.

In the summer of 2001 the band played the largest stage of the Hultsfred Festival and teamed up with fellow Swedish pop acts Magnus Uggla and Håkan Hellström for a tour of 22 concerts across the country.

The songs "Echo Chamber" (October 14, 2000) and "Joy Surrender" (April 2, 2001) were released as the third and fourth singles from the album, also to good success. All four singles had music videos.

The Ark was nominated for six Swedish Grammy Awards in 2001, winning Song of the Year for "It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane" and Artist of the Year. Swedish National Radio awarded "It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane" as Most Played Song, and the band won the reader's choice Rockbjörnen award for Group of the Year.

In Lust We Trust (2002–2003)
In September 2001 the band started working on their second album, which was to be recorded in Stockholm with Peter Kvint as producer. In February 2002 they released their first single of the album, "Calleth You, Cometh I", which was also the main theme song for the Swedish movie "Klassfesten". The song was big success and remained in the Italian top 20 for 4 weeks. The music video was directed by Swedish director and musician Amir Chamdin.

During the recording of the album, the band also did a cover of the song "Kolla kolla" from Swedish progband Nationalteatern for a tribute album.

On August 19 they released their next single, "Father of a Son", which became number-one on the Swedish charts. The song is about homosexuals’ right to adopt. Amir Chamdin once again directed the video, which was inspired by The Who's rock opera Tommy.

The album, titled In Lust We Trust, was released on August 29 and became a gold record the same day. It sold more than 57.000 copies, and because of the increase in illegal downloading it was the first Swedish cd to be encoded with copy protection.

In Lust We Trust was a departure from the style on We Are The Ark, with darker lyrics and a heavier sound. Ola Salo would later say, in the band's official biography No End from 2011, that he had intended to make a second album about lust, joy and happiness, but he was tired from the intense success of their breakthrough year and was not feeling very well, which he says can be heard on darker songs such as "A Virgin Like You" and "2000 Light-years Of Darkness."

Starting on October 22 the band did an autumn tour of Scandinavia with 20 concerts. In addition to songs from the two full-length albums, the setlist of the tour also included the older song "I Laid It Down" from 1996.

Two more singles were lifted from the album, "Tell Me This Night Is Over" released in early November 2002 and "Disease" released in early March 2003. "Disease" was the only single from the album not to have a video.

At the Swedish radio gala P3 Guld in 2003, The Ark were rewarded the prize for best live act.

The band did their final show for the In Lust We Trust-era in Florence, Italy on February 3, 2004, before withdrawing from the stage for almost a year.

State of the Ark (2004–2006)
The first single of the band's upcoming third album was released in November 2004. It was titled "One Of Us Is Gonna Die Young" and once again saw a somewhat new style for band. The song would become one of the band's biggest crowd favourites, same as the second single "Clamour For Glamour" that was released on March 30, 2005. The album, titled "State of the Ark", was released on December 27, 2004 and had a much more stripped-down and minimalistic sound than the predecessors. The style was intended as a mix 80's dance with modern electro grooves and guitar pop. The album was recorded in Tambourine Studios in Malmö and producers were Per Sunding and Nathan Larsson.

On February 21, 2005 the band began their touring for the album, and would come to play more than 125 concerts in 2005 and 2006. It would remain their most extensive touring for an album cycle.

The closing song on the album, "Trust Is Shareware", was released as a third single on July 13, 2005. It is the first The Ark single since their breakthrough on a major label not to have a physical copy released. "One Of Us Is Gonna Die Young" was re-released in 2006 with a new video intended for the international market.

Beginning in the first half of 2005, The Ark was to be launched in the United States and did much travelling to New York where they gained a small but dedicated audience. Justin Hawkins from the British band The Darkness intended to aid The Ark in their British career and brought them along as support act when The Darkness toured the UK and Ireland in February–March 2006, and also Scandinavia.

In late 2006, Jens Andersson joined The Ark as an official member. He had at that point worked with the band for several years and played on most of their tours.

Washington incident
On October 22, 2006, The Ark had been invited to perform during the grand opening of the House of Sweden, the new Swedish embassy in Washington, D.C. A crowd of 150 people were attending, including the Swedish ambassador. As often before during their live sets, Ola Salo was characteristically cheeky and full of jokes. When a commercial airliner passed by in the sky, he said the sentence that would abruptly end their chances of an American career. While watching the plane go by he said: "Well, you never know in this country where they're heading, right?" The crowd gasped, but found some relief when he added: "But that one seems to be heading in the right direction." Thinking he meant the airport, the crowd gave a nervous laugh. But then Ola Salo added "The White House" to conclude the cheeky joke, and that joke was to cause much trouble.

The Washington Post reported the incident with the headline "A Swedish Star's Rock-and-Rile words". Back in Sweden, it became an even bigger scandal in the newspapers. The North American tour that was booked for the rest of the autumn became cancelled in its entirety, except for one last concert in New York. To a certain part, this was because some venues were receiving bomb threats. A contributing reason was that the band had not been able to get their new American working visas before travelling to Washington, which meant that they had already been planned to go back to Sweden and get this done. The main reason for cancelling the tour was that Ola Salo, who had quickly made an apology for the joke, was feeling totally burned out because of the scandal and was too tired to return. The concert at Bowery Ballroom in New York on November 20, 2006 was The Ark's final concert in the US.

Prayer for the Weekend (2007–2008)
On January 18, 2007 the band performed their new song "Absolutely No Decorum" at the radio gala P3 Guld in Gothenburg. It was their first new song since December 2004 and it was the first taste of the upcoming fourth album. The song promised a return to the bombastic sound from the band's early albums, and in interviews, the band said that the album was characteristically epic. The single became number-one on the famous radio show Tracks, where it ended up becoming the biggest hit of the year. Like "Trust Is Shareware" the song only had a digital release and no cd-single (apart from a promo version).

In February The Ark participated in Melodifestivalen, the Swedish preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest, which they won with their song The Worrying Kind (see below).

The album Prayer for the Weekend was released on April 11. The band was now on the new record label Roxy Recordings, and the album had been produced by Marco Manieri who also produced the debut in 2000. The album went to number one and stayed on the top 20 for many weeks.

In April the band made a celebrated club tour, and from June 16 to August 31 they made an intensive summer tour. During the summer, the title track of the album was released as the third single, with a music video. In September the tour continued across clubs in Europe, with Oskar Humblebo (MotoBoy) on guitar instead of Jepson who was on paternal leave. A total of more than 70 shows were performed during the year of 2007.

The album's fourth single was released on November 17, "Little Dysfunk You", and made a new Tracks record when it was the first song to make straight into the top 5 on the same day of its release.

On January 24, 2008 the band won the Swedish Rockbjörnen Award in the new category "Best live act of the year.

After the immense success of 2007, The Ark notified that they would not be active for a long period of time, and in 2008 they only played two concerts, one in Sundsvall, Sweden on July 4 and one at Provinssirock, Finland on July 5.

Melodifestivalen and Eurovision Song Contest
On December 26, 2006, Swedish TV revealed that The Ark were one of four acts invited to be jokers in Melodifestivalen. The Ark would later explain that they had taken the offer because Melodifestivalen is the biggest TV show in Sweden and they would be able to perform their new single to 4 million viewers, and since the show always dominated the media during the winter they would cheekily dominate the show and thereby dominate the media.

When Melodifestivalen started, The Ark participated with their song "The Worrying Kind" in the second heat at the Scandinavium arena in Gothenburg. They performed last and went straight to the final in Stockholm with 185,858 televotes. The final was held at Avicii Arena on March 10, where The Ark once again performed as the last song. They won the final with a total of 248 points, against the runner up's 189 points ("A Little Bit of Love" with Andreas Johnson). The Ark had received 492 180 televotes (against the runner up Måns Zelmerlöw with 402 133), which was a new voting record for the show, and 116 jury points (against the runner up Andreas Johnson's 101). After the victory there were some newspaper articles discussing the song's similarities with "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" by Edison Lighthouse, and the songwriter Barry Mason made a comment that he was thinking of suing The Ark. This never happened.

On May 12 the band represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki, where they ended on 18th place. The song was still a huge radio hit in Sweden, and The Ark became the first band in the history of the famous Swedish radio show Tracks to hold the number one and the number two spots of the charts with two of their songs at the same time, "The Worrying Kind" as number one and "Absolutely No Decorum" as number two.

Hiatus and country dreams (2008–2009)
After the massive success of 2007 The Ark announced that they would take a longer break from the band. In 2008 they only performed two concerts, one in Sundsvall, Sweden on the 4th of July and one at Provinssirock, Finland on July 5.

While planning for a fifth album Ola Salo had the idea of making a country record. After all the success as a rockstar he had entered a new phase of life, with a house in the countryside and no interest in repeating The Ark's earlier concepts. Though never a big fan of country, he had always loved the way the country guitars sounded. He had bought a Telecaster and some instruction books already during the tours of 2007 to make it his hobby in hotel rooms to practice country playing. Another hobby project was to listen to all the classical music from Gustav Mahler.

During a band meeting in 2008, the band talked about making the next album a grandiose rock record focusing on the styles of Prayer for the Weekend and State of the Ark. The problem was that Ola Salo had no such songs prepared, except "Superstar" that had already been suggested for the "Prayer"-record. Ola Salo went on a meditation trip to India, but the music that came to him was not the "Clamour For Glamour"-stompers the band had wished for, but simple country/folk-melodies that morphed into complicated symphonies. It was the mixture of country and Mahler that his subconscious mind had prepared for him. Among the early songs he came up with at this time were "Singing 'Bout the City" and "Hygiene Songs", but also songs that would never be released such as "Do Right To Me, Babe", "Take Me To The Doctor", "The Wonders of New Amsterdam" and "Hanuman." He found them to be fantastic songs, but they didn't sound like The Ark. His working title for The Ark's country-pop-album was "Zeitgeist For The Lame", which was a line taken from another new song called "The Leadership Void" that would never be released.

On May 8, 2009, Ola Salo invited the band to his home in order to present his vision of The Ark's upcoming psychedelic country/western-phase and the album Zeitgeist To The Lame. Leari and Sylvester Schlegel showed great joy to the idea, but Ola Salo felt that the larger part of the band was hesitant. The country idea was too far from The Ark's established style, and Ola Salo realised that he must return to the original idea of bombastic glam-rock for the fifth album.

Parts of Ola Salo's outlines and ideas for the never made Zeitgeist To The Lame album can be seen in the documentary "Ola Salo Svensson" made by Stefan Berg in 2009. In this documentary The Ark also perform parts of "Singing 'Bout the City".

In Full Regalia (2010)
In the autumn of 2009 the band revealed that they were working on their fifth album, after nearly three years of hiatus. Ola Salo had retrieved and updated the song "Superstar" that had been intended for "Prayer for the Weekend", and also "The Red Cap" which he had been working on earlier. He wrote more songs in the same style as these, and from songs such as "Singing 'Bout the City" survived from the "Zeitgeist To The Lame"-idea. When he played the majestic arena ballad "Stay With Me" to the band he noticed that they were relieved to recognize the classic style of The Ark.

On October 12, 2009, the recordings became in 9Voltstudio in Stockholm, with Fabian Torsson producing. The work was documented for the television documentary series "Dom kallar oss artister" on SVT and for the documentary series "Starka karaktärer" and TV3 (Sweden).

"Superstar" was premiered live on the talk show Skavlan on 26 March 2010, and the song was released as a single on March 29.

The album In Full Regalia was released on April 26, 2010, and sold gold in its first week. The CD was released with a magazine and was sold in magazine shops as well as the few remaining record stores. The idea was to battle dwindling record sales by reaching out to hundreds of more stores than just the record stores, since magazines were sold everywhere. But the idea was also to help recording costs by filling the magazine with commercials and to be able to be taxed with the smaller magazine tax. The Swedish Tax Agency did not accept the idea and in 2012 the publishing company for the magazine was ordered in court to pay the higher tax rates.

"In Full Regalia" was to be the only The Ark album to not result in any indoors touring. Instead, there was a Swedish festival tour with 21 concerts, including two in Finland. On June 29 the band appeared on the popular Swedish live show Allsång på Skansen, and on July 2 they did the first concert at the Peace & Love (festival). The tour ended in Linköping on August 21, followed by a short live appearance at the Rockbjörnen Music Awards in Stockholm on September 1.

"Stay With Me" was the album's second single, released by the end of May and as a digital download on June 7.

Arkeology and farewell tour (2011)
On December 8, 2010 The Ark announced that they would disband after the summer of 2011 and that there would be an extensive farewell tour. The decision was mutual and had grown out of the realisation that the band members did not want to repeat earlier concepts and that they spoke and thought of the band in a past tense. Especially Ola Salo was feeling that he rather spoke of the band with nostalgia as a fine memory, while plans for the future made him hesitant. In the autumn of 2010 he came to the realisation that The Ark had run its course. He realised that the reason for his fading ideas for new The Ark songs was because The Ark had already said everything they wanted to say. During a visit to New York in October 2010 he made the decision and e-mailed the band. At the same time, the rest of the members had been thinking the same and already talked to each other about quitting.

In early January 2011 the band released their new single "Breaking Up With God" and performed it live during the Swedish Grammy Awards at the Royal Swedish Opera on January 17. Along with the song "The Apocalypse Is Over" this was the last new music from The Ark, and the two songs were included on the best-of album Arkeology - The Complete Singles Collection that was released on February 23. On February 26 the band performed "Breaking Up With God" as the interval act of Melodifestivalen 2011 in Malmö Arena.

In the winter and spring the band did an extensive club tour, starting at Tavastia Club in Helsinki on March 3 and finishing in Milan, Italy on 12 May. During the club tour they performed a wide variety of songs from all their five albums.

Already on May 22, the farewell continued with a summer tour, both starting and finishing in Stockholm. During the summer concerts, they used a recording of the poem "The Ark" as their intro, the same poem that had given name and purpose to the band in 1991. On September 9 the band did their final club show in Helsingborg, with an extra-long setlist of 23 songs. About 50 shows were performed in this last year. Both the spring and the summer tour got very good reviews as well as sold-out shows, and the band once more received the Rockbjörnen Award for "Best Live Act". The Ark did their final TV appearance on July 2 at Gröna Lund on TV4 (Sweden) with the songs "The Apocalypse Is Over" and "It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane".

The final concert was played at Gröna Lund on September 16, 2011. The former band members Martin Rosengardten and Magnus Olsson took part during the song "Laurel Wreath". The concert was broadcast into space by use of radiowaves.

Reunion (2020–2021)
Ola Salo had played his residency show "Ola Salo's It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane" during 2019 and early 2020 in Gotheburg, Stockholm and on a short arena tour of Sweden, doing close to 150 shows. A new greatest hits collection was released on double vinyl for the show, and the rest of the band all attended the premiere in Gothenburg together on January 24, 2019. The show was about the journey of The Ark and was almost exclusively made up of the band's songs. During the song "The Worrying Kind", newly made video projections of all the band members were shown on stage.

On February 13, 2020, the band announced a reunion tour, meant to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the breakthrough and debut album. They announced that the reunion was only intended for a one-off tour in the summer of 2020, only focusing on the band's existing songs, and there would be no new music. The idea of a reunion had come already in 2017, when Ola Salo and Leari were talking about the fact that they had some big band anniversaries coming up. When they spoke to the rest of the band, it turned out that the feelings were mutual. The tour was named "The Ark Reunion Tour", and it was meant to premiere on Lollapalooza Stockholm festival on June 28. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic the tour was postponed to the summer of 2021, and the anniversary was changed to the 30 years since the band had formed.

The Ark made their first reunion performance on April 11, 2020, when playing "Calleth You, Cometh I" in an empty studio in Malmö during a televised charity gala on SVT in response to COVID-19. The studio they played in was the same studio where they recorded their debut album.

Trivia
Expressen, a Swedish newspaper, once referred to Ola Salo and Jepson as two of the 10 most important personalities in Scandinavia.

"One of Us is Gonna Die Young" was used in the 2007 snowboarding video, "Picture This" from Mack Dawg Productions for Seth Huot and Andreas Wiig's video part, also was it used for the Sam Blenkinsop and Philip Polc Section of the FOX Racing Shox 2007 sequel.

"Let Your Body Decide" was used in the 2010 film Super starring Rainn Wilson and Elliot Page.

Omar Rudberg sang a cover version of "It Takes a Fool to Remain Sane" for the Netflix show Young Royals. He also released it as a single in 2021.

Members

 * Ola Salo: vocals, piano, percussion, rhythm guitar and songwriting (1991–2011, 2020–present)
 * Mikael Jepson: lead guitar (1991–2011, 2020–present)
 * Lars "Leari" Ljungberg: bass, backing vocals (1991–2011, 2020–present)
 * Martin Axén: rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1997–2011, 2020–present)
 * Sylvester Schlegel: drums and backing vocals (1999–2011, 2020–present)
 * Jens Andersson: keyboards and sound engineering (2006–2011, 2020–present)

Touring members

 * Jens Andersson: keyboards and sound engineering (2001–2006)
 * Nicklas Stenemo: Keyboards (2000).

Extended plays

 * The Ark (The debut EP is sometimes referred to as Racing with the Rabbits) - 1996

Singles
Notes

 * P "Deliver Us from Free Will" was only released as a promo single for International use.
 * D "Gimme Love To Give" wasn't released as a single as such but charted on the Swedish Singles Chart due to the large amount of digital sales of the album track.

title: The Ark (Swedish band)


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Weather Underground (weather service)

Weather Underground is a commercial weather service providing real-time weather information over the Internet. It provides weather reports for most major cities around the world on its Web site, as well as local weather reports for newspapers and third-party sites.

Its information comes from the National Weather Service (NWS), and over 250,000 personal weather stations (PWS). The site is available in many languages, and customers can access an ad-free version of the site with additional features for an annual fee.

In February 2024, Weather Underground and its parent company, The Weather Company, became controlled by Francisco Partners.

History
The company is based in San Francisco, California and was founded in 1995 as an offshoot of the University of Michigan internet weather database. The name is a reference to the 1960s radical left-wing militant organization the Weather Underground, which also originated at the University of Michigan. The name, formerly UM-Weather, was changed to Weather Underground in 1991 due to feedback from the National Science Foundation in response to Perry Samson's proposal for funding. Weather Underground has since adopted the nickname Wunderground in addition to Weather Underground.

Jeff Masters, a doctoral candidate in meteorology at the University of Michigan working under the direction of Professor Perry Samson, wrote a menu-based Telnet interface in 1991 that displayed real-time weather information around the world. In 1993, they recruited Alan Steremberg and initiated a project to bring Internet weather into K–12 classrooms. Weather Underground president Alan Steremberg wrote "Blue Skies" for the project, a graphical Mac Gopher client, which won several awards. When the Mosaic Web browser appeared, this provided a natural transition from "Blue Skies" to the Web.

In 1995 Weather Underground Inc. became a commercial entity separate from the university. It has grown to provide weather for print sources, in addition to its online presence. In 2005, Weather Underground became the weather provider for the Associated Press; Weather Underground also provides weather reports for some newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Google search engine. Alan Steremberg also worked on the early development of the Google search engine with Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

In October 2008, Jeff Masters reported that the site was No. 2 for Internet weather information in 2008.

In February 2010, Weather Underground launched FullScreenWeather.com, a full screen weather Web tool with integrated mapping and mobile device use in mind.

On July 2, 2012, The Weather Channel announced that it would acquire Weather Underground, which would become operated as part of The Weather Channel Companies, LLC, which was later renamed "The Weather Company". The Weather Underground web site continues to operate as a separate entity from The Weather Channel primary site, weather.com, with its existing staff retained. Third-party web analytics providers Alexa and SimilarWeb rate the site as the 117th and 98th most-visited site in the United States, respectively, as of July 2015. SimilarWeb rates the site as the second most visited weather website globally, attracting more than 47 million visitors per month. The Weather Company also uses the site's San Francisco headquarters as a regional office.

The site popularity also helped launch a television show hosted by meteorologist Mike Bettes, which aired on The Weather Channel from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET. The show was renamed Weather Unfiltered on May 13, 2024.

On October 28, 2015, Jeff Masters noted that IBM had officially announced an agreement to acquire The Weather Company's mobile and cloud-based Web properties, including Weather Underground, WSI, weather.com, and also the Weather Company brand. The Weather Channel television service remained a separate entity, later sold to Entertainment Studios in 2018. The deal was finalized on January 29, 2016.

On October 3, 2019, Jeff Masters announced that he would be leaving Weather Underground.

On August 22, 2023, IBM agreed to sell The Weather Company to private equity firm Francisco Partners for an undisclosed sum. After the acquisition of the company was completed in February 2024, Weather Underground also became controlled by the American private equity firm.

Blogs
Web logs (blogs) were one of the main features in Weather Underground, allowing users of the site to create blogs about weather, everyday life and anything else. Jeff Masters started the first blog on April 14, 2005, and he posts blog entries nearly every day. From 2007 through early 2017 Richard B. Rood wrote blogs on climate change and societal response, with new entries on a weekly basis.

On October 14, 2016, the Wunderblog announced that it would be changing their name to Category 6, a name suggested by Jeff Masters. They decided on the name, because it "alludes to our deep fascination with all types of weather and climate extremes, including the many important facets of our changing climate", and "will provide all the insight and expert analysis needed to put the extreme events of our evolving 21st-century climate into context."

On April 3, 2017 Weather Underground ended all Member blogs, WUMail, SMS alerts, NOAA Weather Radio rebroadcast and Aviation.

Services
Weather Underground also uses observations from members with automated personal weather stations (PWS). Weather Underground uses observations from over 250,000 personal weather stations worldwide.

The Weather Underground's WunderMap overlays weather data from personal weather stations and official National Weather Service stations on a Mapbox Map base and provides many interactive and dynamically updated weather and environmental layers. On November 15, 2017, users were notified by email that their worldwide, user-provided weather cameras would cease to be available on December 15, 2017. However, on December 11, 2017 users received another email from Weather Underground announcing that they were reversing their position and would not be discontinuing the service based on significant user feedback.

The service previously distributed Internet radio feeds of NOAA Weather Radio stations from across the country, as provided by users, and had a Weather Underground Braille Page.

The Associated Press uses Weather Underground to provide national weather summaries.

Weather Underground has several Google Chrome extensions and applications for iPhone, iPad and Android including FullScreenWeather.com, a redirect to a full screen weather viewer tied into OpenStreetMap. There was an app developed for Roku devices, which has been deleted.

In February 2015, Weather Underground released an iOS app called Storm. This app is universal, and can be used on both iPhone and iPad. Other apps by Weather Underground include WunderStation for iPad and WunderMap for iOS and Android. In 2017, Weather Underground removed support for "Storm," in favor of the "Storm Radar" app released by The Weather Channel Interactive in June 2017.

On December 31, 2018, Weather Underground ceased offering its popular application programming interface (API) for weather data, further reducing the breadth of its services.

On September 10, 2019, Weather Underground announced the discontinuation of its Email Forecast Program as of October 1, 2019, continuing the reduction in services noted above.

title: Weather Underground (weather service)


text:
Trump University

Trump University (also known as the Trump Wealth Institute and Trump Entrepreneur Initiative LLC) was an American company that ran a real estate training program from 2005 to 2010. It was owned and operated by The Trump Organization. A separate organization, Trump Institute, was licensed by Trump University but not owned by The Trump Organization. In 2011, amid multiple investigations, lawsuits and student complaints, it ceased operations. It was founded in 2004 by Donald Trump, who was U.S. president from 2017 to 2021, and his associates Michael Sexton and Jonathan Spitalny. The company offered courses in real estate, asset management, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation.

Despite its name, the organization was not an accredited university or college. It conducted three- and five-day seminars (often called "retreats") and used high-pressure tactics to sell them to its customers. It did not confer college credit, grant degrees, or grade its students. In 2011, the company became the subject of an inquiry by the New York Attorney General's office for illegal business practices, which resulted in a lawsuit filed in August 2013. An article in the National Review called the organization a "massive scam".

Trump University was also the subject of two class actions in federal court. The lawsuits centered around allegations that Trump University defrauded its students by using misleading marketing practices and engaging in aggressive sales tactics. The company and the lawsuits against it received renewed interest due to Trump's candidacy in the 2016 presidential election. Despite repeatedly insisting he would not settle, Trump settled all three lawsuits in November 2016 for a total of $25 million after being elected president.

History
Michael Sexton created a business plan for a real estate training program and presented it to Donald Trump, looking to pay Trump a flat fee for the use of his name. Trump instead decided he wanted to be the principal owner.

Trump University was incorporated in 2004 by Trump, Sexton, and Spitalny, as a New York limited liability company. Trump owned 93% of the company. On May 23, 2005, Trump University formally launched its education program. At the opening presentation, Trump said, "If I had a choice of making lots of money or imparting lots of knowledge, I think I'd be as happy to impart knowledge as to make money." According to The Washington Post, part of the school sales pitch was, "the billionaire had made enough money for himself. Now, he would put his famous brain to work for the little guy". High prices were charged for seminars and programs not to enrich Trump, but so that (as one teacher explained to students) "you assume personal responsibility for doing the work".

The company's original business plan focused on online education, but quickly expanded to include live, in-person instruction. The instruction's focus was real estate investing, with Trump claiming in advertisements: "I can turn anyone into a successful real estate investor, including you." Instruction typically began with an introductory seminar in rented space such as a hotel ballroom. At the introductory seminar, students were urged to sign up for additional classes, ranging from $1,495 seminars to a $35,000 "Gold Elite" program. Records indicate 7,611 tickets were sold to customers attending courses. About 6,000 of these were for a $1,500 3-day course, and 1,000 were for silver, gold or elite mentored courses ranging in price from $10,000 to $35,000. While not licensed as a college or using student loans, the operation used many of the same tactics as predatory colleges: preying on vulnerable populations, implying that the school offered a fast track to financial security, and creating the impression that the recruiter is a friendly advisor.

Trump claimed that students gave the program 98% favorable reviews, but according to some former students, Trump University employees pressured students to give favorable reviews, told them they had to fill out the forms to obtain graduation certificates, and did not undertake procedures often used to ensure that surveys were filled out objectively.

In an infomercial, Trump said he "hand-picked" Trump University's instructors. But in a 2012 deposition, he testified that he never selected the instructors. According to Sexton, Trump signed off on the school's advertisements. For a time in 2008, it used the name "Trump Wealth Institute". In June 2010, Trump University changed its name to "The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative". It largely ceased operations in 2010.

The Trump Institute was a separate business. It was licensed by Trump University, and Trump received a cut of every seat sold, but Trump University owned no part of it. It was owned and operated by Irene and Mike Milin of Boca Raton, Florida. It offered real estate seminars from 2006 to 2009, at which point the licensing agreement expired and was not renewed. Trump was not involved in the operation of the Trump Institute, but he recorded a broadcast infomercial promoting it and appeared in an introductory video before each seminar.

Allegations of impropriety and lawsuits
Three lawsuits were filed asserting that Trump University engaged in a variety of illegal business practices, ranging from false claims to racketeering. Two were federal class actions: one against Trump University and its managers, including Trump, and one against Trump personally. A third case was filed in New York State court.

New York v. Trump Entrepreneur Initiative LLC
In 2005, the New York State Department of Education sent Trump, Sexton, and Trump University a letter saying that they were violating state law by using the word "university" when Trump University was not actually chartered as one and did not have the required license to offer live instruction or training. Sexton promised that the organization would stop instructing students in New York State, but the New York Attorney General alleged that such instruction continued.

A March 2010 letter Deputy Commissioner for Higher Education Joseph Frey sent to Trump stated: "Use of the word 'university' by your corporation is misleading and violates New York Education Law and the Rules of the Board of Regents." In June 2010, Trump University changed its name to "The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative".

On August 24, 2013, the State of New York filed a $40 million civil suit against Trump University alleging illegal business practices and false claims made by the company. According to a press release from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the case was to be handled by Assistant Attorneys General Tristan C. Snell and Melvin L. Goldberg, under the supervision of the Bureau of Consumer Frauds and Protection's Deputy Bureau Chief Laura J. Levine, Bureau Chief Jane M. Azia, and Executive Deputy Attorney General for Economic Justice Karla G. Sanchez. Schneiderman described Trump University as a bait-and-switch scheme. He accused Trump of misleading more than 5,000 people to pay up to $35,000 to learn his real estate investment techniques.

Trump denied the allegations, claiming the school had a 98% approval rating, and said Schneiderman was "a political hack looking to get publicity". He filed a complaint alleging that Scheiderman's investigation was accompanied by a campaign donation shakedown; a New York ethics board investigated the complaint and dismissed it in August 2015. Because of strict confidentiality laws, it is unknown whether the complaint was dismissed because Trump's claims were untrue or because Schneiderman's actions did not contravene any ethical rules.

In October 2014, a New York judge found Trump personally liable for operating the company without the required business license.

Texas investigation
In May 2010, the consumer protection division of the state of Texas sought permission from the office of the Attorney General of Texas to sue Trump University. An investigation by the consumer protection division had found the company was "engaging in false, misleading and deceptive practices" and had defrauded Texas taxpayers out of $2.6 million. According to John Owens, the Texas attorney general's deputy chief of consumer protection at the time, an estimated 267 Texans spent more than $425,000 on the three-day seminars, and 39 purchased Trump's “Gold Elite” package of additional classes and other perks costing $35,000 each. Another 150 customers from Texas spent more than $826,000 on other goods and services. According to the investigation, "The 'free workshops' are merely a selling ground for the Defendant Trump U's 3-day seminars and offer little useable content. The training materials we have reviewed indicate that Trump University 3-day seminar attendees are taught to prey upon homeowners in financial turmoil and to target foreclosure properties. ... Defendants falsely assert at these 'free workshops' that classes are approved continuing education credit for Realtors, but Trump University courses were not approved by the Texas Real Estate Commission, nor was Trump University an accredited institution with the legal credentials to call itself a 'university.'" The lawsuit proposed by the consumer protection division sought to recover more than $2.6 million that Texas taxpayers who had been students at the "university" had "spent on seminars and materials, plus another $2.8 million in penalties and fees".

The investigation was dropped and no lawsuit was filed, but Trump University agreed to cease operations in Texas. (The attorney general Greg Abbott went on to become governor, and the deputy chief of consumer protection Owens later alleged that Abbott's decision "not to sue [Trump] was political": Trump later donated $35,000 to Abbott's campaign for governor. Abbott's communications director called the charge "absurd", and Trump University "disputed that its classes were deceptive".)

Low v. Trump University, LLC
Tarla Makaeff, who paid nearly $60,000 to Trump University in 2008, brought a class action against Trump University on April 30, 2010, in the U.S. District Court for Southern California. The suit, Makaeff v. Trump University, LLC, sought refunds for Makaeff and other former clients of Trump University, as well as punitive damages for breach of contract, fraud, negligent misrepresentation and bad faith. It did not originally name Donald Trump as a defendant, but did so in a later amended complaint. In February 2014, U.S. district court judge Gonzalo P. Curiel denied recognition to the nationwide class the plaintiffs had requested and recognized the suit as class-action on the part of Trump University clients in three states—California, Florida, and New York—based on specific alleged violations of the consumer protection laws of those states. He also narrowed the case to five of the plaintiffs' original 14 charges.

On May 26, 2010, Trump University filed a counterclaim alleging Makaeff had made defamatory statements about Trump University, "including many completely spurious accusations of actual crimes", which caused Trump University losses of more than $1 million. On June 30, 2010, Makaeff countered that Trump University's defamation claim was an attempt to intimidate her, known as a SLAPP suit (a strategic lawsuit against public participation), and that because Trump University is a "public figure" the defamation claim required proof that she "acted with actual malice" when speaking and writing about Trump University. By invoking California's anti-SLAPP statute, Makaeff triggered procedures that hastened consideration of the defamation claim without further discovery.

On August 23, 2010, U.S. district judge Irma E. Gonzalez ruled that Trump University was not a public figure, did not need to show malice on Makaeff's part, and could proceed with its defamation claim. Makaeff appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where a three-judge panel ruled unanimously on April 17, 2013, that Trump University is a "limited-purpose public figure" that must demonstrate malice on Makaeff's part to establish defamation; it returned the case to the district court to consider the defamation claim against that standard. After additional briefing, Judge Curiel ruled in Makaeff's favor on June 16, 2014, and dismissed the defamation claim. At the court's invitation, Makaeff then presented evidence of her legal costs and fees in connection with the defamation litigation. She asked for $1.3 million, and on April 20, 2015, Curiel ordered Trump University to reimburse Makaeff $798,000 in legal fees and costs.

In November 2015, the district court ruled on Trump's motion for summary judgment. In a 44-page opinion, the court denied Trump's motion for summary judgment on most of the claims, finding that there was a genuine issue of fact on plaintiffs' claims of deceptive practices and misrepresentation in advertisements in violation of California, Florida, and New York consumer protection and business law and therefore letting these claims proceed to trial. The court did grant summary judgment in Trump's favor on plaintiffs' request for an injunction, because Trump University stopped enrolling students in July 2010 and no longer sold the same seminars or other programs.

On March 21, 2016, over objections from the attorneys for Trump University, Curiel allowed Makaeff to withdraw as the lead plaintiff, naming Sonny Low in her stead, resulting in the case title Low v. Trump University, LLC.

Cohen v. Trump
On October 18, 2013, California businessman Art Cohen filed a civil suit, Art Cohen v. Donald J. Trump, in the U.S. District Court for Southern California, as a class action on behalf of consumers throughout the United States who purchased services known as "Live Events" from Trump University after January 1, 2007. It alleged violations of the RICO statute, essentially a scheme to defraud. It accused Trump of misrepresenting Trump University "to make tens of millions of dollars" while actually delivering "neither Donald Trump nor a university". The suit named Trump as the sole defendant and sought restitution as well as damages, including punitive and treble damages.

In an order dated October 24, 2014, Judge Curiel certified the class proposed by the plaintiff and ruled that Cohen had presented enough evidence to allow the case to proceed. Alan Garten, general counsel for the Trump Organization, said Trump University would appeal Curiel's ruling, which he said showed a "manifest disregard for the law". In October 2015, Garten also said Trump would ask Curiel to recuse himself because of his "animosity toward Mr. Trump and his views". But Trump's lawyers never filed a motion to recuse, and according to legal experts such a motion would lack legal merit and possibly be considered frivolous.

In May 2016, Curiel set the trial on the suit to begin on November 28, 2016, after the U.S. presidential election, with jury selection several weeks earlier.

In August 2016, the district court denied Trump's motion for summary judgment, ruling that there was sufficient evidence against Trump for the case to go to a jury.

On November 10, 2016, Curiel denied a request by Trump to delay the trial until after his inauguration. At the same time, Curiel urged the parties to work toward a settlement, and both sides accepted an offer from U.S. district judge Jeffrey T. Miller to facilitate such talks.

Public release of court documents
On May 27, 2016, Curiel granted a request by The Washington Post for public release of certain documents that had been filed in the case. He noted that they were "routine" and many were already publicly available. The released information included "playbooks" documenting instructions for employees to use a hard-sell approach, as well as depositions in which former employees said that Trump University had defrauded or lied to its students.

On August 2, 2016, the court denied a request by The Washington Post and other media organizations for public release of hours of videotaped testimony from Trump's two depositions in Cohen, taken in November 2015 and January 2016. Transcripts of those depositions had already been released, showing "that Trump repeatedly indicated that he had never met instructors at Trump University, despite advertisements for the program indicating that its staff had been hand-picked by the real estate mogul." Trump's attorneys had opposed the requests to release the videotapes. Curiel ruled that there was a legitimate public interest in the content of the deposition, but that interest was satisfied via public release of the transcripts. He also noted that if the videos were publicly released, it was "nigh-inevitable" that the footage would be used in news accounts and political ads, which might prejudice the jury pool pre-trial.

Trump's comments about Curiel
During primary campaign speeches, Trump repeatedly called the judge a "hater" and described him as "Spanish" or "Mexican" (Curiel was born in Indiana to parents who had immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico). Trump also said Curiel should recuse himself, although his attorneys said they did not plan to ask for the judge to be removed from the case. Curiel's only comment was to write in a procedural ruling that Trump has "placed the integrity of these court proceedings at issue". Trump's references to Curiel's ethnicity, as well as his comments that "someone ought to look into" the judge, alarmed legal experts, who expressed concern about the effects of the comments on judicial independence.

On June 7, 2016, Trump issued a lengthy statement saying his criticism of the judge had been "misconstrued" and that his concerns about Curiel's impartiality were not based upon ethnicity alone, but also upon rulings in the case.

Settlement
On November 18, 2016, it was reported that Trump had agreed to pay $25 million to settle the two class actions and the New York suit. The settlement was reached 10 days before the San Diego class action was scheduled to go to trial. $21 million went to the participants in the class actions, $3 million to New Yorkers not covered by the class actions, and a penalty of up to $1 million will be assessed by the state of New York for running an unlicensed university. The plaintiffs' attorneys agreed to forgo their fees and work pro bono to maximize the amount that will go to the approximately 7,000 former Trump University students involved in the case. The settlement also specified that Trump, who had previously vowed he would never settle, did not admit any wrongdoing. The settlement was brokered by U.S. district judge Jeffrey T. Miller, who offered his services to the parties on November 10 at Curiel's request. Curiel approved the settlement on March 31, 2017.

Schneiderman said the settlement and payment by Trump "is a stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university". Trump himself said he settled "for a small fraction of the potential award" because he was too busy as president-elect to take it to trial. He added: "The ONLY bad thing about winning the Presidency is that I did not have the time to go through a long but winning trial on Trump U. Too bad!"

Final payment of the settlement was put on hold because one member of the class opted out of the settlement to pursue an individual claim. A district court and an appeals court rejected that person's claim, and Curiel finalized the settlement in April 2018. Former students can now get a refund of up to 90% of the money they spent on courses.

The settlement was paid not by Trump but by his Las Vegas hotel business partner, billionaire Phil Ruffin. In February 2019, during a meeting of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Representative Jackie Speier suggested "a Kansan", later revealed to be Ruffin, had paid $25 million to satisfy Trump's liability in the Trump University judgment. Ruffin admitted to paying Trump $28 million in 2018, but claimed it was for "back-fees" related to Trump International Hotel Las Vegas and unrelated to the Trump University case.

Other investigations
In 2010, the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott investigated Trump University. No suit was brought, but after exchanging communications with investigators that included requests from the investigators for customer lists and internal documents, Trump University closed its operations in Texas. These had included newspaper advertising, free presentations, and three-day seminars. Six years later, during the 2016 presidential election, the Associated Press found that Trump had donated $35,000 Abbott's successful campaign for governor in 2014. Texas Monthly questioned whether Abbott had treated Trump with especial favor. Ken Paxton, who succeeded Abbott as Texas Attorney General, sent a cease and desist letter to former Deputy Chief of Consumer Protection John Owens, who said he had been told to drop the case and had forwarded previously undisclosed documents to the Associated Press. Paxton said in a statement that Owens had released "confidential and privileged information". David S. Morales, the Deputy Attorney General in 2010, admitted in 2016 that he had quashed the $5.4 million suit without discussing the issue with Abbott. In 2018, Trump nominated Morales to serve as a judge at the District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

The office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in September 2013 that it was considering joining a New York lawsuit against Trump University. Four days later, the Donald J. Trump Foundation donated $25,000 to "And Justice for All", a 527 group supporting Bondi's reelection campaign. After that, Bondi declined to join New York. According to a Bondi spokesman, Bondi had personally solicited the donation from Trump several weeks before her office announced it was considering joining the lawsuit. In March 2016, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the IRS about the potentially illegal donation. In September 2016, it was reported that the donation violated laws against political contributions from nonprofit organizations, and that Trump had reimbursed the foundation with his own money and paid the IRS a $2,500 excise tax as a penalty. Trump denied the donation was connected to the Trump University lawsuit, saying it was for Bondi's performance as Attorney General. The White House announced in November 2019 that Bondi would join its staff temporarily for handling communications about the ongoing impeachment inquiry against Trump, prompting objection from ethics watchdogs.

Issue in the 2016 presidential election campaign

During the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, Trump's opponents used Trump University to criticize him. Mitt Romney said in early March: "Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University." Senators and fellow presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio raised the subject during televised debates in February and March. One debate moderator, Megyn Kelly of Fox News, pursued the issue at length. Trump responded that Trump University was "a small business" and student evaluations were overwhelmingly positive. He said lawsuits were a routine part of business and that he wins most of them. Of one of the class actions, he said: "It's something I could have settled many times. I could settle it right now for very little money, but I don't want to do it out of principle." Hillary Clinton used the Trump University allegations against Trump in speeches and campaign ads.

In popular culture
Trump University was the subject of a week-long series in the comic strip Doonesbury in June 2005.

In the second episode of The Root of All Evil, a sketch makes fun of Trump University.

Trump University was also the butt of jokes in a Will and Grace mini-episode released in September 2016, created to get out the vote for the 2016 presidential election. In it, Karen says she sent her Latina maid, Rosario, to Trump University for a course on "dusting".

title: Trump University


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jeff Vail

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was delete. — Xezbeth 19:27, Jun 16, 2005 (UTC)

Jeff Vail
Probably not notable. The book is published by a vanity press, so it doesn't count towards notability. I find it a bit suspicious that all the 5 reviews at amazon have given the book 5/5 stars. Thue | talk 10:08, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * Delete NN. Book is not in the Library of Congress or the British Library. Only significant google hits appear to be references to blog entries. David | Talk 14:52, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Utter dreck and vanity.  His blog is the same; self-involved garbage. 216.158.31.195 16:52, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete nn vanity. Nice of him to give himself 5/5 on Amazon.  --Etacar11 18:06, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete non notable. JamesBurns 04:53, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages.  Please do not edit this page .


text:
Palm Valley (Northern Territory)

Palm Valley, within the Finke Gorge National Park, is an east-west running valley in the Krichauff Range 123 km (138 km by road) southwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Australia. Palm Valley and the surrounding area is the only place in Central Australia where Red Cabbage Palms (Livistona mariae) survive. The nearest related species is 850 kilometres away in Katherine NT. The surrounding region is largely dry Central Ranges xeric scrub.

The average rainfall for Palm Valley is only 200 mm per year. Although the gorge usually appears dry, there are some small pockets of semi-permanent spring-fed pools that allow the unique flora in this region to survive. During significant rainfall in the region, expanses of water can be witnessed flowing through the valley gorge. During such events, a variety of aquatic life such as desert fish, shield shrimps (Triops australiensis), tadpoles and frogs can flourish.

Origins of the palms
It had been assumed that the cabbage palms were remnants of a prehistoric time when the climate supported tropical rainforest in what is now the arid inland of Australia. Genetic analysis published in 2012 determined that Livistona mariae at Palm Valley is actually the same species as Livistona rigida from samples collected near Katherine and Mount Isa, both around 1000 km away. The research by Professor David Bowman and colleagues at the University of Tasmania concluded that the populations separated only about 15,000 years ago. Aboriginal legend recorded in 1894 by Carl Strehlow describes "gods from the north" bringing the seeds to Palm Valley.

Getting there
In early 1928, Herbert Joseph Larkin led an exploratory aerial expedition exploring the possibility of developing the Palm Valley into a resort. However, the exploration led to naught.

The track to Palm Valley is still only accessible with a four-wheel drive vehicle. It departs from the town of Hermannsburg and travels south, following the usually dry bed of the Finke River. Palm Creek flows into the Finke River from the west about 15 km (by track) south of Hermannsburg. The track follows the creek to Palm Valley about 5 km west of the Finke River.

Gas field
The Palm Valley gas field is an onshore source of natural gas north of the valley itself. The gas field is part of the Amadeus Basin and supplies gas to Alice Springs and beyond via the Amadeus Gas Pipeline.

title: Palm Valley (Northern Territory)


text:
Jack Huddle

Jack Huddle (1928–1973) was an American rockabilly musician and songwriter. He performed and recorded with Buddy Holly early in Holly's career.

Early life
Huddle was born in Paris, Texas into the family of Adrian and Velma Huddle in 1928. Twelve years later he was joined by his only sister, Judith. Even at a young age, Jack loved to sing and play the guitar. Sometimes he played on the air on radio KPLT.

At age 16, Jack got married. Soon after, he joined the Navy to serve for three years in WWII.

Music career
After his return to Paris, Jack started playing the bass fiddle in dance bands. His marriage soon broke up and his wife left with their newly born son. Jack was drafted to do his duty in Korea for ten months.

In 1953, he started working for the brand-new KDUB TV Channel 13, the local branch of CBS. He had a friendly manner and a way with children. He hosted the children's program Children's Theater every weekday.

On an evening show once a week called Circle 13 Roundup, Jack was accompanied by a combo and sang popular western hits of the day. On this show he sometimes teamed up with Charlene Hancock, the wife of Tommy Hancock. Tommy was the owner of the infamous Cotton Club in Lubbock where Elvis and Little Richard performed. Also Clyde Hankins was asked by Jack to join him now and then. Clyde worked at the Adair musicstore in Lubbock and was known for selling Buddy Holly his first Fender Stratocaster. He also taught Buddy how to play the guitar and widened Buddy's view into musical styles other than country, especially jazz.

In 1953 Jack gave a young Buddy Holly a break when he let him perform with his friend Jack Neal as the Buddy & Jack duo on the talentshow "Around Lubbock." For a short stint Jack even hosted a Grand Ole Opry-style show called the "G.E. Jamboree." In those years at KDUB Jack became widely known in the West Texas area and played many gigs.

On April 28, 1957, Jack made the trip to Clovis, New Mexico, together with his friend and writing partner Jim Robinson. Buddy Holly was also there or was asked by Jack to go with him. Buddy played lead guitar on the recordings made that day: "Starlight" and "Believe Me". The instrumental break on "Starlight" was often considered as one of the most catchy guitar breaks by Buddy on a non-Buddy or non-Crickets record. The session was kicked off by Jim Robinson (Jimmie Zed Robinson) singing "Whole Lot of Lovin'" and "It's a Wonderful Feeling." After that it was Huddle's turn. Jack and Jim recorded two other songs in Clovis in 1959. "Midnight Monsters Hop" and "Tarzan and Jane". Buddy didn't play on them. Jack and Jim also wrote "Frankie Frankenstein" that was recorded in Clovis and sung by Jerry Allison, Buddy Holly's drummer.

Around 1959 Jack moved to Houston. There he kept playing gigs and started working as a sales manager for a valve company.

Death
In 1973, Huddle died of a heart attack at the age of 45.

title: Jack Huddle


text: User talk:66.27.187.114

title: User talk:66.27.187.114


text:
Five to One

"Five to One" is a song by American rock band the Doors, from their 1968 album Waiting for the Sun. The song's lyrics were written by lead singer Jim Morrison, though the songwriting credit identified each member of the Doors as songwriters.

Composition
Unlike some of the Doors tracks, "Five to One" was created in the studio. According to music journalist Gillian G. Gaar, the song originated during a session when Morrison asked drummer John Densmore to lay down a 4/4 beat to which he inserted the lyrics. The song is consistently applied at 4/4 time signature, accompanied by a distorted sound of drums and bass.

The tune features a rhythm and blues vibe, and has been considered as an origin of the heavy metal genre. Critic Matthew Greenwald of AllMusic described Robby Krieger's guitar playing as "a menacing, proto-heavy metal", and on "top of that, John Densmore's relentless, almost march-rhythm drums take the song through various sections with a convincing power."

Lyrics
Morrison asserted that the song's lyrics are not political. Part of the song ("Your ballroom days are over, baby/ Night is drawing near/ Shadows of the evening/ crawl across the years"), was seemingly lifted from the 19th-century hymnal and bedtime rhyme "Now the Day Is Over" ("Now the day is over/ Night is drawing nigh/ Shadows of the evening/ Steal across the sky") by Morrison. Similarly, Morrison quoted the "Christian child's prayer" in a live version of "Soul Kitchen" sung in 1969, and also seemingly altered the children's rhyme "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick" to suit part of his poem "Curses, Invocations" in An American Prayer ("Words dissemble/ Words be quick/ Words resemble walking sticks").

Public performances
The song's most famous performance was at the 1969 Miami concert at the Dinner Key Auditorium. Towards the end of the performance, a drunken Morrison declared the audience "idiots" and "slaves". The concert would end with Morrison being accused of "attempting to incite a riot" among the concert goers, resulting in his arrest, and later conviction, for indecent exposure.

During the reunion of the original lineup of the Doors sans Jim Morrison on VH1 Storytellers, Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots took up vocals. Before the performance John Densmore said Weiland was one of the few frontmen who could "fill Jim's leather pants". Scott said that "Five to One" was what inspired him to begin a career in rock music. In 2012, Ray Manzarek and Krieger recorded a live version of "Five to One" in the Sunset Strip Music Festival with Marilyn Manson on vocals.

Legacy
The guitar solo on Pearl Jam's "Alive" was based on Ace Frehley's guitar solo on the Kiss song "She", which was in turn based on Robby Krieger's solo in "Five to One". In 2001, producer Kanye West sampled the song to form the beat of Jay-Z's diss song of Nas and Mobb Deep called "Takeover", also used in the Lordz of Brooklyn song "White Trash". The lyric featured in the track, "No one here gets out alive", was used as the title for the 1980 Morrison biography. Stereogum declared "Five to One" the "best song the band ever recorded", while the British daily newspaper, The Guardian, ranked it fifth on their 2015 respective list. The song was used in the film Rambo: Last Blood.

title: Five to One


text:
Graham Allison

Graham Tillett Allison Jr. (born March 23, 1940) is an American political scientist and the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is known for his contributions in the late 1960s and early 1970s to the bureaucratic analysis of decision making, especially during times of crisis. His book Remaking Foreign Policy: The Organizational Connection, co-written with Peter Szanton, was published in 1976 and influenced the foreign policy of the Carter administration. Since the 1970s, Allison has also been a leading analyst of U.S. national security and defense policy, with a special interest in nuclear weapons and terrorism.

Early life and education
Allison is from Charlotte, North Carolina, and graduated from Myers Park High School in 1958. He attended Davidson College for two years, then transferred to Harvard University from which he graduated in 1962 with a B.A. degree. Allison then completed B.A. and M.A. in philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar in 1964 and returned to Harvard to earn a Ph.D. in political science in 1968, where Henry Kissinger was one of his professors.

Career
Allison has spent his entire academic career at Harvard, as an assistant professor (1968), associate professor (1970), then full professor (1972) in the department of government on the strength of his book Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (1971), in which he developed two new theoretical paradigms – an organizational process model and a bureaucratic politics model – to compete with the then-prevalent approach of understanding foreign policy decision-making using a rational actor model. Essence of Decision revolutionized the study of decision-making in political science and beyond.

From 1977 to 1989, Allison was dean of the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University. Over the course of his tenure as dean, Harvard Kennedy School increased in size by 400% and its endowment by 700%.

He was associated with the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy and Plans from 1993 to 1994, where he coordinated strategy and policy towards the states of the former Soviet Union. President Bill Clinton awarded Allison the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, for "reshaping relations with Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan to reduce the former Soviet nuclear arsenal".

Allison directed the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs from 1995 until 2017, when he was succeeded by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.

In a 2012 Financial Times article titled "Thucydides’s trap has been sprung in the Pacific", Allison coined the term the Thucydides Trap to argue for the possibility of a war between the United States and China. Allison later defined as the Trap as a historical pattern where "when one great power threatens to displace another, war is almost always the result," and in 2017 expanded his argument about a future conflict into a full-length book, Destined for War. The theory is based on the History of the Peloponnesian War, in which Thucydides wrote, "What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta." Allison asserts that circumstances at the start of World War I (involving British fears about Germany), the War of the Spanish Succession, and the Thirty Years' War (involving French insecurity about the Habsburg empires of Spain and Austria) exhibit the trap. The term appeared in a paid opinion advertisement in The New York Times on April 6, 2017, on the occasion of U.S. President Donald Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which stated, "Both major players in the region share a moral obligation to steer away from Thucydides's Trap." Both Allison's conception of the Thucydides Trap and its applicability to U.S.-Chinese relations have encountered heavy scholarly criticism. In March 2019, the Journal of Chinese Political Science dedicated a special issue to the topic, suggesting power transition narratives do appear to matter with regard to domestic perception.

Allison remains Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard.

Allison has also been a fellow of the Center for Advanced Studies (1973–74); member of the visiting committee on foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution (1972–77); and a member of the Trilateral Commission (1974–84 and 2018). He was among those mentioned to succeed David Rockefeller as President of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1979 Allison received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Uppsala University, Sweden.

In 2009 he was awarded the NAS Award for Behavior Research Relevant to the Prevention of Nuclear War from the National Academy of Sciences.

Allison has also been a member of the Board of Trustees for the lobbying group USACC (United States-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce).

Allison is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Defence analyst work
Allison has been heavily involved in U.S. defense policy since working as an advisor and consultant to the Pentagon in the 1960s, and has been consultant for the RAND Corporation. He has been a member of the Secretary of Defense's Defense Policy Board from 1985. He was a special advisor to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger for three years in the second term of office of Ronald Reagan.

Books

 * Destined For War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap? Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2017). ISBN 978-0544935273.
 * Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. Little, Brown (1971). ISBN 0673394123.
 * 2nd ed., with Philip Zelikow. Longman (1999). ISBN 0321013492.

Articles

 * Trump Is Already Reshaping Geopolitics, Foreign Affairs, January 16, 2024
 * The Path to AI Arms Control, Foreign Affairs, October 13, 2023 (co-authored with Henry Kissinger)

Wikipedia paid editing scandal
From 2012 to 2013, the Belfer Center (through the Wikimedia Foundation) paid an editor to cite Allison's scholarly writings in various articles. Funding for the position came from the Stanton Foundation, for which Graham Allison's wife, Liz Allison, was one of two trustees. The editor also made "supposedly problematic edits" based heavily on work of other scholars affiliated with the Belfer Center.

Works

 * 1969: "Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis". American Political Science Review. 63(3): 689–718.
 * 1971: Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. Little, Brown.
 * 1972: "Bureaucratic Politics: A Paradigm and Some Policy Implications." World Politics. 24:40–79 (with Morton H. Halperin).
 * 1976: Remaking Foreign Policy: The Organizational Connection. Basic Books (with Peter Szanton).
 * 1983: Sharing International Responsibility Among the Trilateral Countries. Trilateral Commission (with Nobuhiko Ushiba and Thierry de Montbrial).
 * 1985: Hawks, Doves and Owls: An Agenda for Avoiding Nuclear War. W.W. Norton. (edited with Albert Carnesale and Joseph Nye Jr).
 * 1989: Windows of Opportunity: From Cold War to Peaceful Competition. Ballinger (edited with William Ury).
 * 1992: Rethinking America's Security: Beyond Cold War to New World Order. W.W. Norton (edited with Gregory Treverton).
 * 1996: Avoiding Nuclear Anarchy: Containing the Threat of Loose Russian Nuclear Weapons and Fissile Material. MIT Press.
 * 2004: Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe. Henry Holt.
 * 2013: Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights on China, the United States, and the World. MIT Press (with Robert D. Blackwill, Ali Wyne, and a foreword by Henry A. Kissinger).
 * 2017: Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

title: Graham Allison


text:
Jane Tewson

Jane Tewson  (born 9 January 1958) is a British charity worker and the originator of several charitable organisations and ideas for community strengthening in the UK and Australia.

Early life and education
Tewson is the daughter of Edward Tewson and Jocelyn (née Johnston), a doctor in rural South East England. With dyslexia, she left Lord Williams's Grammar School in Thame without qualifications, but later attended lectures at Oxford while working as a cleaner in the city.

Career
In 1981, aged 23, Tewson founded Charity Projects in London, with funding from Lord (Tim) Bell and numerous other donations. Its initial focus was tackling homelessness in Soho.

Tewson had worked in a refugee camp in Sudan in 1985, where she was pronounced clinically dead after contracting cerebral malaria. She recounts the sensation of looking down on her own body and but then returning to it and surviving – there were no drugs left in the camp. Her response to the African famine, Comic Relief was launched on Christmas Day 1985 from the refugee camp in Safawa, Sudan. By 2005 Comic Relief had raised £337 million for famine relief and community development, notably for Africa and disadvantaged areas of the UK.

In 2000, Tewson moved to Melbourne, Australia, when her husband, Charles Lane, became CEO of the Myer Foundation, a philanthropic organization and then a lead civil servant at the Dept. of Victorian Communities. At the time she was suffering from ovarian cancer but survived after operations in Melbourne.

Tewson works on some inner city Melbourne projects, and elsewhere, through Igniting Change (formerly Pilotlight Australia). The book Change the World for Ten Bucks was published and German and British editions have also been released. The Dying to Know project and book (2009) is about coming to terms with death, and negotiating grief.

Approach
Tewson is known for her approach to charitable works and giving - she believes in making charity "active, emotional, involving and fun", by building connections between people of different backgrounds, cultures, wealth, and social positions. Her approach argues for "people getting directly involved and giving themselves.....", as with the Timebank concept, rather than giving money for charitable works. This "embraces human connection as a vital part of social change".

Concepts she pioneered include:

 * Comic Relief (1985). Tewson left to form Pilotlight in 1995.
 * Timebank (1999). Otherwise known as ONE20, encourages people from all walks of life to give time to community projects, with beneficiaries 'passing on' a similar dedication of time and effort to others. TimeBank has featured on BBC TV several times.
 * The Corporate Responsibility Index in Australia, that benchmarks companies against their corporate responsibility performance.
 * Melbourne Cares – promoting corporate support to disadvantaged people.
 * Charitable Projects ran the Holborn Great Investment Race – which challenged investment companies in the City of London to accrue maximum returns (within ethical guidelines) on 'seed money' donated by Prudential Holborn Trust. In two years, over £1.5 million was raised and donated to charity.
 * Feet First for Homeless People saw central London commuters walking home in the evening, and donate the money saved in fares to help young homeless people living in the West End. This raised £100,000 in four weeks.
 * Pilotlight undertook further unconventional activities like Real Deal, which brought together homeless and disadvantaged young people with key policy-makers to speak about drugs, health, education and so-on. A "closed doors" workshop took place between young people and Cabinet Ministers at 11 Downing Street.
 * With her husband, Tewson organised Whose land?, which funded exchange visits between East African Maasai pastoralists and Australian Aborigine communities, both fighting to regain land rights.

Awards and honours

 * In 1999 Tewson received a CBE from HM Queen Elizabeth II for her foundational work with Charity Projects and other projects.
 * In March 2000, she was named by The Times newspaper as one of the top ten innovators of the 1990s in the UK.
 * In 2007 she was named Social Entrepreneur of the year for VIC and TAS, by Ernst and Young.
 * Beacon Awards Winners 2010, Philanthropy Advocate Award, UK
 * Among numerous other roles, she has been Trustee of The Media Trust, The Camelot Foundation, Oxfam, and she served on the Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Committee. She sits on the boards of the Reichstein Foundation, the St James Ethics Centre and Talent.
 * In 2020, Melbourne journalist and writer Martin Flanagan published The Art of Pollination: The Irrepressible Jane Tewson. Hardie Grant Books. ISBN 9781743796689. It was discussed with Richard Branson in 2022.
 * Tewson was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2024 King's Birthday Honours.

title: Jane Tewson


text:
The Singing Senators

The Singing Senators were a group of U.S. Republican senators who sang as a barbershop quartet.

Members
In 2000, the members were John Ashcroft (baritone), Larry Craig (lead), Jim Jeffords (tenor), and Trent Lott (bass).

Beginnings
In 1995, at New Hampshire Senator Bob Smith's birthday party, Ashcroft, Jeffords, Lott, and Connie Mack sang "Happy Birthday". Later, when Senator Bob Packwood was having a birthday party, Jeffords called Lott and suggested that the four of them sing at the party. Mack declined, but Larry Craig joined. According to his autobiography, Herding Cats, A Life in Politics, Lott formed the group in large part to improve relations between the Republican Conference, of which Lott was Majority Leader, and Jeffords, a Republican who frequently voted with the Democrats.

During the initial years, the four senators usually practiced in Lott's hideaway office. Guy Hovis, the Mississippi state director for Lott, trained the senators, who practiced together every day.

1995–2000
Their first official performance of the group was in October 1995 for the American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL), in which they sang "Elvira" at a fundraising event at the Kennedy Center organized by Ray Ivey of Consolidated Natural Gas. In December 1995, the group appeared on The Today Show.

In April 1996, the Oak Ridge Boys sang with the group at a Senate reception; it was described in The Hill as "Congressional Harmony". In September 1996 the group performed again with the Oak Ridge Boys in Branson, Missouri. The same year, the senators sang at the 1996 Republican National Convention.

In 1998, the group released their only album, Let Freedom Sing, a ten-song CD recorded in Nashville. In 2000, clips of the group's songs could be streamed from the Senate pages of Ashcroft and Jeffords.

In November 2000, Ashcroft lost his Senate re-election race (he was appointed Attorney General in early 2001). In May 2001, Jeffords announced he was leaving the Republican Party to become an Independent, returning control of the Senate to the Democrats. The two events led to the apparent demise of the group.

Revival
In October 2006, Lott and Craig said they were putting the quartet back together after a six-year hiatus. They said they had found two solid prospects in Senators Bob Bennett and John Thune.

In June 2007, Ashcroft, Craig, and Lott gave their first public performance in more than six years. Craig was subsequently inducted into the Idaho Hall of Fame, having been selected in March 2007. Craig said that the group was now a trio. Lott's announced resignation in 2007 seemed to put the existence of even a trio in doubt. Craig's decision to not run for another term in 2008—due in part to the controversy over his arrest for solicitation the previous year—spelled the formal end of the group.

title: The Singing Senators


text: User talk:84.55.138.27

title: User talk:84.55.138.27