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Ray of Light (song)

"Ray of Light" is a song by American singer Madonna. It is the title track from her seventh studio album, Ray of Light (1998), and was released as the album's second single on April 27, 1998, by Maverick Records. The song was also included on the compilation albums GHV2 (2001) and Celebration (2009). Written by Madonna, William Orbit, Clive Maldoon, Dave Curtiss, Christine Leach, and produced by Madonna and Orbit, "Ray of Light" is based on Curtiss Maldoon's "Sepheryn" and is an electronic dance song with techno, trance, Eurodance, and disco influences. "Ray of Light" consists of a main synth sound oscillating on the primary musical note and an electric guitar riff. Lyrically, the song has a theme of freedom.

The song has received critical acclaim by music critics for its club-friendly, electronic sound, lyrics, and "emotional warmth". The song was also nominated for three Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Best Dance Recording, and Best Short Form Music Video, winning the last two. "Ray of Light" debuted and peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Madonna's highest debut on the chart to date. It also reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. Internationally, the song reached the top five in Canada, Finland and the United Kingdom, and peaked at number one in Croatia, Greece, Scotland, and Spain.

An accompanying music video for "Ray of Light" was directed by Jonas Åkerlund and shows scenes from different cities around the world, with Madonna singing the song in front of them. The video was critically acclaimed, receiving the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video, as well as winning five awards at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards. Later, Stefano Salvati accused her of plagiarizing the concept of a music video he directed for Biagio Antonacci in 1994. The song has been performed in four of Madonna's concert tours, the last being the Celebration Tour (2023–24). It has been covered by a number of artists, and has been featured in several elements of popular culture, such as on the FOX show Glee, as well as different advertising campaigns.

Background and release
Since 1996, Madonna went through a number of "life-changing experiences" which included giving birth to her daughter Lourdes, gaining interest in Eastern mysticism and Kabbalah, as well as earning the title role on the film adaptation of the musical Evita (1996). A year later she started working on Ray of Light, her seventh studio album. Madonna wrote songs with William Orbit, Patrick Leonard, Rick Nowels and Babyface. The album would reflect the singer's changed perspectives about life. Author Carol Benson noted that it was a "deeply spiritual dance record", with the crux of it based on Madonna's career, her journey and the many identities she had assumed over the years. Motherhood had softened the singer emotionally, which was reflected in the songs. She started talking about ideas and used words which implied deep and personal thoughts, rather than the regular dance-floor anthemic tunes she had composed.

Madonna worked primarily with Orbit after Guy Oseary, Maverick Records's partner, phoned Orbit and suggested that he send some songs to the singer. He sent a 13-track digital audio tape (DAT) to Madonna, and "Ray of Light" was among these tracks. It is based on the track "Sepheryn" (1971), by English folk music duo Curtiss Maldoon (consisting of Dave Curtiss and Clive Maldoon). In 1996, English singer and songwriter Christine Leach, Maldoon's niece, had recorded her version of the track. Leach said she had always loved the duo's work and "Sepheryn" was her favorite. She worked for a time with Orbit and recorded a demo of "Sepheryn" over a melody on which he was working. Leach rewrote the chorus and also removed a few bits from the original composition. Orbit included it in the DAT thinking that Leach had written the song. After Madonna heard the demo she liked it, and reworked the lyrics to create "Ray of Light".

The track was released as the second single from the parent album on April 27, 1998, in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the single was released to retail on June 23, 1998, along with 40,000 copies of the song's music video. Curtiss was not aware of the fact that Madonna had recorded "Sepheryn" as "Ray of Light" and heard it for the first time being played on the radio. He "couldn't believe it" and was initially a bit annoyed, but became pleased when he learned that he would receive 15% of the royalties, as he had a songwriter credit. Madonna took 30% of the royalties, another 15% was given to Maldoon's estate and the rest was earned by Madonna's record company. The singer said about the song: "It's totally out of control. The original version is well over 10 minutes long. It was completely indulgent, but I loved it. It was heartbreaking to cut it down to a manageable length." The original version was to be included on a compilation album titled Veronica Electronica, but it was not released. Curtiss confirmed in an interview with The Australian in January 2017, that he recorded a contemporary jazz version of "Sepheryn".

Recording and composition
"Ray of Light" was recorded along with the rest of the album at Larrabee North Studio in North Hollywood, California during mid-1997. It was mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Studios in New York. The DAT contained the main portion of the song recordings, as well as preliminary demo sessions in Madonna's house in New York, as well as Hit Factory Studios where Madonna first sang the song. Like most of the album, the synth sounds recorded for "Ray of Light" were played on a Roland Juno-106. Madonna and Orbit had conducted a drummer session in Los Angeles, but it did not work out. So he contacted Fergus Gerrand who played drum samples for him in London. Orbit fed them in his workstation and cut them manually, instead of using auto-editing software like ReCycle.

An electronic dance music song, "Ray of Light" has stylistic influences from acid electronica. According to biographer Lucy O'Brien who wrote in Madonna: Like an Icon, Orbit created a sensurround like atmosphere in the track, which sees Madonna deepen her dance roots and go for a more electronic sound. According to the sheet music published by Musicnotes.com, the song is set in common time, with a moderately fast-groove tempo of 126 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of B♭ major, with Madonna's vocals on the song spanning 2 octaves and 1 semitone from B♭3 to B5, the sharp high note being belted on the word 'feel' near the end of the song. "Ray of Light" has a basic sequence of B♭–E♭–B–E–B♭ as its chord progression.

The song starts with an electric guitar riff comparable to the music of English alternative rock band Oasis. The chords harmonize with each other, continuing for 22 seconds. The techno melody then begins, consisting of a main synth sound oscillating on the primary musical note, with the EQ moving between the bass and the treble. The "restless" beat is accompanied by a rock-inspired chord riff, with Madonna's pitch being higher than the other tracks from the album. While recording, Orbit kept "Ray of Light" a semitone higher than the singer's limit, resulting in a strain added to the vocals. "She got frustrated when we were recording but you want that bit of edge with singers, that thing of reaching. You can't fake it, and you can hear it when she cracks it on the record," he recalled. Before the final chorus there is a synth solo again, reminiscent of a 1970s prog-rock record. According to Rikky Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, this was a link to the origin of the song from "Sepheryn".

Lyrically, the track is upbeat, keeping in theme with the music. According to Madonna the verses are a mystical look at the universe and how small we are compared to it. She wanted to capture a feeling of "wonderment" with the lyrics, as if some one has just opened their eyes and looked at the world for the first time. With NME, Madonna further clarified that the lyrics convey the feeling of being small in comparison to the vast universe. It also talks about how regular life goes on faster "than the speeding light", but one can get out of that journey and look at themselves from an outsider's perspective.

Critical reception
"Ray of Light" received acclaim from music critics. In a review of the album as a whole, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described it as "swirling". In a review of the maxi CD single, Liana Jonas of the same website called the track a "wickedly good club song" and "sonically progressive yet listener-friendly". She also praised Madonna's vocals, comparing them to those of a "club diva to celestial goddess". "The title track builds from another incongruously pretty guitar arpeggio into thumping rave anthem mode," Stuart Maconie wrote in a Q review of Ray of Light, "but always underscored with keen musical intelligence. It could be a lighter, less one-dimensional Chemical Brothers."

Larry Flick of Billboard described it as Madonna at her best, calling it a "spiritually charged, often poetic song". He especially mentioned the flexible vocals and Madonna's progression as a recording artist. British Music Week named it Single of the Week, adding, "Madonna is bang on form and this brilliant, anthemic, stand-out dance track [...] is further confirmation that motherhood and experience have only refuelled her creative ambition and commercial wisdom." Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone in his review for the album as a whole, wrote that, alongside other tracks such as "Swim" and "Drowned World/Substitute For Love", Madonna is "positively ferocious" sounding on "Ray of Light". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine wrote that the song was a "celebratory tech-frenzy", and noted Madonna's elated singing. In a review of Madonna's second hits compilation, GHV2 (2001), Cinequemani wrote: Like no other Madonna hit in recent memory, the frenetic "Ray of Light" found the singer in a celebratory tech-frenzy. Whether it was an epiphany of the spiritual or sonic kind, her elation was unmistakable. Orbit's cycles of analog synths and electric guitar licks perfectly supplemented the elasticity of Madonna's newly-trained vocal chords. Not since "Deeper and Deeper" had she reached such dizzying heights. A reviewer from Sputnikmusic listed the track as a recommended listen from Ray of Light. O'Brien found the track to be an "ecstatic hymn to the skies". The A.V. Club's Stephen Thompson commented that the "pumped-up title track is bound to be a deserving smash". J.D. Considine of The Baltimore Sun noted that Madonna's "newfound strength is particularly apparent in pulsing, rhythm driven tracks like ['Ray of Light'], which finds her soaring confidently at the top of her register on the busily percolating chorus, then whispering breathily on the brief, dream-like bridge". David Browne, while reviewing Ray of Light for Entertainment Weekly, deemed the song a "sirenlike techno-glitter-ball". Idolator's Stephen Sears explained that Madonna's vocals throughout the album were a "game-changer", including on the song, as she strengthened her voice while working on her film Evita. He ends his review by stating "Indeed, no choir is needed to lift 'Ray Of Light' into disco heaven. Madonna supplies the highs herself in some perfect moments: the extended, spiraling way she wails 'yea-ea-ears' at 3:27 or how her vocal spins out of control at 4:14, matched by Orbit's frenzied guitar work". Ranking Madonna's singles in honour of her 60th birthday, The Guardian's Jude Rogers called it one of her "most joyous electronic pop singles".

Chart performance
In the United States, "Ray of Light" premiered at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, for the issue dated July 11, 1998 with 72,000 units. It was her highest-debuting single, surpassing previous best debuts with "You'll See" (1995) and "Frozen" (1998), both of which opened at number eight. The track became the singer's then 37th top-40 hit, moving her past Connie Francis on the list of women with most top-40 chartings on Hot 100. "Ray of Light" was present for a total of 20 weeks on the Hot 100, and placed at number 75 on the year-end chart. The song also reached the top of the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart of Billboard, remaining at the top position for a total of four weeks. "Ray of Light" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in September 1998, for shipment of 500,000 copies of the single across United States. In Canada, it debuted at number 85 on the RPM Singles Chart and reached number three in its eighth week. It was present on the chart for a total of 30 weeks.

In Australia, "Ray of Light" debuted on the ARIA Singles Chart at its peak of number six on May 24, 1998, staying there for one week. It was present for a total of 17 weeks on the chart, and was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipment of 35,000 copies of the single. At the year-end charts of ARIA, "Ray of Light" was the 57th best-selling Australian single of 1998. In New Zealand, "Ray of Light" also debuted at its peak position of number nine on the RIANZ Singles Chart. It was present for a total of 14 weeks on the chart and fell out on September 13, 1998, at number 31.

In the United Kingdom, "Ray of Light" debuted with 76,000 copies and peaked at number two on May 9, 1998, being held off from the number one spot by All Saints's "Under the Bridge / Lady Marmalade", which also debuted the same week with about 31,000 more copies than "Ray of Light. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified it gold for sales and streams of 400,000 units. According to the Official Charts Company, "Ray of Light" has sold 275,000 copies in the region as of August 2008. The track debuted at its peak of number nine on the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles chart, for the issue dated May 16, 1998. In Belgium, "Ray of Light" was moderately successful in both territories, peaking at number 25 in Flanders and 33 in Wallonia. In the Netherlands, the song debuted at number 45 on the Dutch Top 40, and reached a peak of 22 on May 16, 1998, remaining there for three weeks. The song reached a peak of number two in Finland, where it remained for two weeks, before spending a total of five weeks on the chart. In Sweden, it reached number 14 and spent 10 weeks on the chart. On the Swiss Singles Chart, "Ray of Light" debuted at its peak of number 32 on the issue dated May 24, 1998. The song also reached number one in Spain on its debuting week. It stayed on the top spot for three weeks before descending the chart.

Background and development
The music video for "Ray of Light" was directed by Jonas Åkerlund, who had previously shot the controversial clip for the song "Smack My Bitch Up" (1997) by The Prodigy. Madonna had been planning the video from the time she was filming the clip for previous single "Frozen" in the Mojave Desert. "Smack My Bitch Up" was her current favorite and she enlisted Åkerlund. Madonna stated that when she makes an album, she "puts [her] soul on it", but a music video is a lot more working with a director. With the Ray of Light album, she wanted to have videos with fresh expression, and hence wanted to collaborate with new directors. She liked Åkerlund's "special way of working" and spoke with him over the telephone. Their conversations continued for over six months, and most of the time was spent coming with a final concept for the clip. Åkerlund said in an interview with Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet: I had two ideas that did not fit the song. She said no even though I had a very clear idea of how she would look in the video. I worked up on another idea and brought together a featured band for her to see. I did it all in front of me. [...] In retrospect, it feels good, the video we have done much better suited to the track than the first ideas. [Madonna] has an incredible track on everything she is doing. Style, music, business — she has a mental track of every single thing and won't give up until she is completely satisfied. And on music videos there is nothing she does with one hand on her back — she's engaged to one hundred percent. According to the singer, the clip portrays "a day in the life of the earth to show that we are rushing forward to the end of the 1900s century at full speed. I think Jonas made an excellent interpretation of the song, although he forced me to dance like crazy for two days. He's a tough director". Reviewers compared it to the 1982 American experimental film Koyaanisqatsi, which showed time-lapse footage of cities. Madonna's scenes were shot from March 25–26, 1998 at MTV/VH1 studios in Los Angeles. Background scenes were shot in various cities such as Los Angeles, New York, London, Las Vegas, and Stockholm. Test shots taken in Stockholm were presented to Madonna, for conveying the idea behind the clip, but they were deemed good enough to be used in the final product.

Filming and production
During filming Åkerlund was accompanied by three of his Swedish employees, photographer Henrik Halvarsson, production designer Mattias Lindgren, and editor Max Vitali. Madonna's daughter Lourdes was also present on set. Åkerlund remembered that one day after the filming he got a call from Mick Jagger for directing the new music video for The Rolling Stones, however he had to decline since "Ray of Light" consumed all his time. They filmed for over 14 days, during which he fit the crew in one car, found an angle for the 35 mm camera and just waited as the shots were taken one by one. He had to carry a diagram in his pocket for the whole time, which had all the plans for every frame they shot. Every ten seconds they captured one frame and continued for half-an-hour to get around five seconds of footage, resulting in "Ray of Light" being the longest shoot ever for a music video for Åkerlund. They also mounted the camera on a bus and rode around New York capturing the scenes.

Madonna insisted that the video be edited in Los Angeles, since during the "Frozen" video she had a number of back and forths with director Chris Cunningham (who was in London editing), a process she did not want to repeat. This therefore involved Åkerlund and his team briefly relocating to a hotel in Los Angeles, where the editing took place. Every piece of filmed footage was included in the final video, due to every scene being sped up and the song's moderate length.

Release and reception
The music video premiered on MTV Live on May 12, 1998. The clip starts with the rising of the sun and a man opening the curtains in his house, until it progresses into the Koyaanisqatsi inspired section, featuring time-lapse images of daily life, from people riding a subway, ordering food, bowling, and children in a classroom to sped-up city-scapes and freeways at night. Interspersed in the scenes is Madonna dancing and singing the track, her image partially merged with the backdrop of the fast-sped cityscape. During the intermediate verse the high-speed motion stops with the camera focusing on Madonna only against a sunset backdrop but quickly speeds up again. As the clip continues into nightfall, high-speed images of Madonna dancing in a discothèque is shown, with the camera focusing on the revelers. She suddenly starts screaming. After that she is seen falling asleep on the dance floor, and a revolving shot of planet Earth.

On June 23, 1998, the clip was released on VHS as a limited edition of 40,000 copies by Warner Music Vision. It had sold 7,381 copies of the following month after its release, becoming the best-selling video singles of the Nielsen SoundScan era. The video charted on Billboard's Music Video Sales chart for a total of 13 weeks. A few days after its release, Italian director Stefano Salvati accused Madonna's Warner Bros. Records imprint Maverick Records for plagiarizing the concept of a music video he directed for Biagio Antonacci's 1994 single "Non è Mai Stato Subito". According to Salvati, copies of his videos were submitted to Maverick before the "Ray of Light" video was shot and requested it to be pulled from distribution. Both clips featured the respective singers performing at regular speed against a backdrop of high-speed images. However, he did not sue the singer or her companies.

With "Ray of Light", Madonna debuted her "Earth Mother" look, complete with long strawberry blond hair and bronzed body. Author Georges Claude Guilbert wrote in his book, Madonna as Postmodern Myth, that her "straggly, expensively unwashed look" was comparable to that of singer Alanis Morissette and to Venetian paintings. According to Madonna, she went for an Italian Renaissance look, invoking work of painter Raphael and Botticelli. Guilbert found the singer's description as catering to postmodernism, in tune with the zeitgeist, and noted that it was just one of her "many reinventions". The book recalled how Madonna "quickly grew tired of the Botticelli-Earth Mother phase" with subsequent singles being promoted with a new Asian inspired look. In the book Ex-foliations: Reading Machines and the Upgrade Path, author Terry Harpold commented about the time-lapse sequences, especially the image of a clock and its hands rotating past the hours. He felt that the clip portrays the daily life as a futile attempt for survival, enhanced by another shot showing the sonogram of a fetus in utero, and a hamster running on a wheel. Santiago Fouz-Hernández, one of the authors of Madonna's Drowned Worlds, described Madonna as esoteric in the clip, as well as "skin-deep Beverly Hills spiritualism". The video can be found on the Madonna compilations, The Video Collection 93:99 (1999) and Celebration: The Video Collection (2009).

Accolades and recognition
In 1999, "Ray of Light" won two Grammy Awards for Best Dance Recording and Best Short Form Music Video. It was nominated for Record of the Year, but lost to Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On". Furthermore, The Village Voice ranked it as the fourth best in 1998 in its Pazz & Jop critics' poll. At the 1999 ASCAP Rhythm and Soul Awards, the track was the Top Dance Song winner. It also won the category of Most Performed Song at the ASCAP Pop Awards the same year. The 1999 Ivor Novello Awards nominated the record in the category of International Hit of the Year

"Ray of Light" is also often ranked as being one of the best songs of the 1990s. In 2003, Q Magazine ranked it at number 609 in its list of the "1001 Best Songs Ever". In 2005, the song was placed at number 401 on Blender's "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born". On Slant Magazine's list of the best singles of the 1990s, in which "Ray of Light" was placed 16th, a reviewer wrote that the song's "beat is restless", and that "Ray of Light" is "a standout single" due to its "emotional warmth". Pichfork ranked the track as the 55th best song of the 1990s, describing it as "a Kabbalah-coded ode to divine femininity with a racing pulse, "Ray of Light" is body music for the embodied consciousness." Billboard placed it at number five on their ranking of Madonna's best songs, saying that it "marked a new chapter in her illustrious career". In another ranking for the singer's 50 Greatest Songs by Rolling Stone, "Ray of Light" attained a rank of number eight, with a writer from the magazine noting Madonna's "most powerfully sung vocals to date". In May 2018, Billboard ranked the top songs of 1998, ranking "Ray of Light" at number nine. Joe Lynch from the publication asserted that the composition "gave radio its most joyous, ebullient and life-affirming dance banger... Yeah, the cool kids had been raving for years, but it took a trendsetting 39-year-old mom to crack open the top 40 for what was then called electronica's eventual pop takeover." One month later, The Guardian listed it as Madonna's fourth best single. Similarly, Entertainment Weekly listed it as her fifth greatest single.

The music video received a total of eight MTV Video Music Awards nominations in 1998, eventually winning five; for Video of the Year, Best Female Video, Best Direction, Best Editing and Best Choreography, becoming her most-winning song at the show. It was the first time that the singer won the Video of the Year award; Madonna said she was grateful for MTV's recognition of the clip. At the International Dance Music Awards, it won the trophy for Best Dance Video, and at the Much Music Video Awards, the clip won the Best International Video trophy. Other awards was won at the 1998 Music Video Production Association ceremony, winning the category of Best Pop Video of the Year. The video came atop a ranking of "The Top 10 Videos That Broke The Rules", issued by MTV on the channel's 25th anniversary in August 2006. In 2016, Rolling Stone listed it at position two on their ranking of "Madonna's 20 Greatest Videos" with Bilge Ebiri from the publication calling it a "bold embrace of electronica that got Madonna her due at the VMAs".

Live performances
In February 1998, Madonna premiered "Ray of Light" during a surprise concert at the Roxy NYC nightclub for promoting the parent album. Three months later she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and performed it along with album track "Little Star". During the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards Madonna started performing "Shanti/Ashtangi", sporting black hair and wearing an Indian sari. Lenny Kravitz then appeared playing the guitar, which paved way to "Ray of Light". A religious group called the World Vaishnava Association (WVA) claimed that Madonna offended Hindus with the performance by wearing Hinduism symbols on her head. A spokesperson for the association stated that the mark (called an Om) is a symbol of chastity, harmony and purity, and is designed to show "dedication to God". The representative also said that because Madonna simulated a sexual act and wore a see-through tank top onstage while wearing the mark, she offended both Hindus and Yogis. A spokesperson for Madonna stated that the singer did not understand why WVA was upset as she had not done anything insulting, and did not wish to insult anyone. However, the vice president of WVA claimed that "the Hindu community and Eastern spiritual seekers the world over should be happy for Madonna personally in terms of her genuine interest in enlightened life, and grateful to her for her sincere efforts to attract others to the same".

"Ray of Light" has also been featured in the set lists of four Madonna tours – 2001's Drowned World Tour, 2006's Confessions Tour, 2008–2009's Sticky & Sweet Tour, and 2023–2024's The Celebration Tour. On the Drowned World Tour, it was included as the fifth song on the Neo-Punk segment, where the singer performed it wearing punk inspired clothing, and the backdrop screens showed an extended version of the song's music video. This time, the electric guitar was played by Monte Pittman. Michael Hubbard from MusicOMH noted that "things quickly hotted up with [...] 'Ray Of Light', a track that was quite simply as sublime as it was infectious". In 2005, Madonna performed "Ray of Light" during the Live 8 benefit concert, and a year later at the 2006 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California. During her 2006 Confessions Tour, Madonna included a rock version of "Ray of Light" as the second song of the show's third act, the Glam-Punk segment. For this performance the singer played the electric guitar and urged the audience to jump-along. She was accompanied by six male backup dancers, dressed in black outfits and white ties doing a synchronized choreography. Rolling Stone called the performance "hard-rocking".

"Ray of Light" was next performed by Madonna during the 2007 Live Earth concert in London's Wembley Stadium again accompanied by a guitarist. Madonna's performance at the event was watched by 4.5 million people. For the 2008–09 Sticky & Sweet Tour, "Ray of Light" was included as the third song of the show's final segment. This time, Madonna played the electric guitar again and wore a futuristic outfit with a breastplate and a short wig. She was accompanied by her dancers who were dressed in futuristic outfits and performed a robotic choreography. While reviewing the tour in 2008, Jim Farber from New York Daily News called the performance of the song one of the "highest-energy" dance numbers of the show. On December 6, 2016, Madonna performed the song during the Carpool Karaoke segment of The Late Late Show with James Corden. The singer performed "Ray of Light" at Leonardo DiCaprio's annual fundraising gala in Saint-Tropez, France on July 27, 2017. On the 2023–24 Celebration Tour, Madonna performed the Sasha Ultra Violet remix of the song while floating above the crowd in a glass box. Joe Lynch of Billboard praised Madonna as the track is "a tough one to sing, but she didn’t short shrift the audience with an abbreviated version", and noted that "her live vocals sounded fairly close to the original".

Covers and usage in media
"Weird Al" Yankovic's medley "Polka Power!" from the 1999 album Running with Scissors includes a polka version of the chorus of "Ray of Light". On the 2004 compilation Platinum Blonde NRG, Vol. 2: Nrgised Madonna Classics, a Hi-NRG cover is performed by Future Force. English singer Natasha Bedingfield recorded a cover version of "Ray of Light" for BBC Radio 1's 40th anniversary; played during The Chris Moyles Show on September 19, 2007, the track was included on the Radio 1. Established 1967 compilation album. Bedingfield commented, "I have so much respect for Madonna after learning how hard it is to sing that song. She has an amazing voice—the range you need to sing the song is incredible". In 2008, Iggy Pop and The Stooges performed "Ray of Light" (along with "Burning Up") during Madonna's induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2010, the song was included in the film Burlesque during the sequence showing the character Ali (played by Christina Aguilera) rehearsing for her new position as a dancer in a Burlesque Lounge. In late 2012, American singer Adam Lambert performed a cover version on VH1 Divas, dancing through laser lights while donning a priestly black and white tunic.

Windows XP Launch Campaign
The song was famously used by Microsoft in its 2001 advertising campaign for Windows XP. It begins with a man leaping through a green field and then lifting off into a sunny sky—a landscape lifted from Windows XP's default "bliss screen". There is also a series of images of people using Windows XP for real-time communications, to collaborate in an airy restaurant, to relay digital images of flying people, watch videos, and listen to music. Then, a snippet from the song follows the phrase: "Faster than the speeding light she's flying... You soar. Yes you can". The campaign was reworked after the September 11 attacks; the tag line "Prepare to fly" was changed to "Yes you can" to sidestep new concerns about air travel, said Stephanie Ferguson, director of the company's PC Experience Solutions Marketing Group. In 2008, a Sunsilk shampoo commercial included shots of Marilyn Monroe and Shakira with songs well known by them and ends with several video shots of Madonna to the sounds of "Ray of Light". Madonna reportedly received US$10 million for the song's usage. The commercial premiered on Super Bowl XLII. In 2010, Glee tribute episode "The Power of Madonna" featured "Ray of Light" playing in the background as the school's cheerleading team performed a complicated stilts routine. In the 2011 Family Guy episode "New Kidney in Town", main character Peter Griffin is seen in the "Ray of Light" video after drinking Red Bull.

Track listings and formats

 * US 2× 12-inch vinyl
 * A1. "Ray of Light" (Sasha Ultra Violet Mix) – 10:43
 * A2. "Ray of Light" (Sasha Strip Down Mix) – 5:00
 * B1. "Ray of Light" (Victor Calderone Club Mix) – 9:29
 * B2. "Ray of Light" (William Orbit Liquid Mix) – 8:06
 * C1. "Ray of Light" (Sasha Twilo Mix) – 10:58
 * C2. "Ray of Light" (Victor Calderone Drum Mix) – 5:26
 * D1. "Ray of Light" (William Orbit Ultra Violet Mix) – 6:59
 * D2. "Ray of Light" (Album Version) – 5:19

 * European 12-inch vinyl
 * A1. "Ray of Light" (Sasha Ultra Violet Mix) – 10:43
 * A2. "Ray of Light" (William Orbit Liquid Mix) – 8:06
 * B1. "Ray of Light" (Victor Calderone Club Mix) – 9:29
 * B2. "Ray of Light" (Album Version) – 5:19

 * '''US, Australian, European, and Japanese maxi-CD; UK CD single 1
 * 1) "Ray of Light" (Album Version)  – 5:19
 * 2) "Ray of Light" (Sasha Ultra Violet Mix)  – 10:43
 * 3) "Ray of Light" (William Orbit Liquid Mix)  – 8:06
 * 4) "Ray of Light" (Victor Calderone Club Mix)  – 9:29

 * '''UK CD single 2
 * 1) "Ray of Light" (Sasha Twilo Mix)  – 10:58
 * 2) "Ray of Light" (Sasha Strip Down Mix)  – 5:00
 * 3) "Ray of Light" (Victor Calderone Drum Mix)  – 5:26
 * 4) "Ray of Light" (William Orbit Ultra Violet Mix)  – 6:59

 * '''US CD single / Cassette Single
 * 1) "Ray of Light" (Album Version)  – 5:19
 * 2) "Has to Be" (Non-LP Track)  – 5:15

 * Digital single (2023)
 * 1) "Ray of Light" (Album Version)  – 5:19
 * 2) "Ray of Light" (William Orbit Ultra Violet Mix)  – 6:59
 * 3) "Ray of Light" (Sasha Strip Down Mix)  – 5:00
 * 4) "Ray of Light" (Victor Calderone Club Mix)  – 9:30
 * 5) "Ray of Light" (Sasha Twilo Mix)  – 10:58
 * 6) "Ray of Light" (William Orbit Liquid Mix)  – 8:06
 * 7) "Ray of Light" (Sasha Ultra Violet Mix)  – 10:43
 * 8) "Ray of Light" (Victor Calderone Drum Mix)  – 5:26
 * 9) "Has to Be"  – 5:15

Credits and personnel
Credits and personnel adapted from the Ray of Light album liner notes.
 * Madonna – vocals, songwriting, producer
 * William Orbit – songwriting, producer
 * Clive Maldoon – songwriting
 * Dave Curtis – songwriting
 * Christine Leach – songwriting
 * Pat McCarthy – engineer

title: Ray of Light (song)


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Demon Crossing is an album released by rock band Yellow #5 in 2005.

Band members

 * Molly McGuire – bass, vocals, accordion, xylophone, piano, percussion, producer, cover artwork
 * Dave Catching – guitar, lap steel guitar, photography (back cover)
 * Brant Bjork – drums
 * Jose Medeles – percussion (11), drums (13)
 * Bay Woodyard – backing vocals (3)
 * Gavin North – backing vocals (3)
 * Chris Goss – harmony vocals (5)
 * Jason Monsef – kick drum (13)
 * Brenndan McGuire – producer, engineer, mixer (5), percussion (1)
 * Greg Biribauer – producer, mixer
 * Brian Gardner – mastering
 * Steve Berson – mastering (DMM)
 * Robert Griffin – layout

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Demon Crossing


text:
Talk:Jonakr's sons

[Untitled]
A quick overview of this article does not make it clear what in the world this is about (Mythology, history, etc.). Whatever it is, it would probably help if the opening sentence described the article's area of importance, such as Nordic History, or whatever. ---Mihoshi 16:51, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

 * I am afraid the article covers both history, legend and myth.--Wiglaf 16:56, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

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User:Kuchen~enwiki

Wikimedia accounts

 * Wikipedia (English) – since 2005-07-16
 * Kuchen’s user page

 * Wikipedia (German) – since 2005-07-04
 * Kuchen’s user page

 * Wikimedia Commons – since 2005-07-16
 * Kuchen’s user page

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title: User:Kuchen~enwiki


text:
Charles Calello

Charles Calello (born August 24, 1938) is an American arranger, composer, conductor, record producer, and singer born in Newark, New Jersey. Calello attended Newark Arts High School and the Manhattan School of Music, in New York City. His track record of successfully collaborating with various artists to produce or arrange Billboard hit songs led to his nickname in the industry as the "Hit Man."

In the late 1950s, Calello was a member of Frankie Valli's group The Four Lovers, but left before the group was transformed into The Four Seasons. In 1962, he became the group's musical arranger. In 1965, he briefly filled in for Nick Massi (who was Calello's replacement in The Four Lovers five years earlier but had abruptly quit the band) while the band prepared Joe Long to take the role on a permanent basis. Following his stint with the Seasons, he became a staff arranger/producer at Columbia Records. In 1968, he became an independent producer and arranger and a year later arranged Frank Sinatra's album Watertown, written by Bob Gaudio.

He has worked and recorded with Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Roberto Carlos, Neil Diamond, Al Kooper, Bruce Springsteen, Jane Olivor, Laura Nyro, Liza Minnelli, Engelbert Humperdinck, the Cyrkle, Jimmy Clanton, Ray Charles, Deana Martin, Natalie Cole, Bobby Vinton, Janis Ian, Barry Manilow, Juice Newton, Red Rider, Nancy Sinatra, the Highwaymen, Shirley Ellis, Deborah Allen, and many others. Calello was the conductor and responsible for the string arrangements on Springsteen's "Jungleland" from the album Born to Run.

Calello has had over 100 Billboard chart records, 38 of which have been top 20. Some of his hits include “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond, “Native New Yorker” by Odyssey, “My Heart Belongs to Me” by Barbra Streisand, and “After the Lovin'” by Engelbert Humperdinck. In 1979, he had his own hit record with a disco version of "Sing, Sing, Sing".

He has also composed film music, including the scores to Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965) and The Lonely Lady (1983). In 1992, he became principal arranger and assistant conductor of the Florida Symphonic Pops in Boca Raton, which became the Sunshine Pops Orchestra.

title: Charles Calello


text:
Brougham (band)

Brougham was a short-lived hip hop/rap rock side project founded by Jason Slater and his childhood friend Luke Oakson aka Luke Sick (Sacred Hoop) in Palo Alto, California, USA. Brougham recorded an album, Le Cock Sportif, for Warner Bros. Records in 2000 but the album was a commercial flop. Spin Magazine named the album title the "worst rap-rock album title" ever.

One of their tracks, titled "I Walked In," appeared on the soundtrack for the 1998 movie Can't Hardly Wait. It also appeared in the 2000 film Playing Mona Lisa.

Brougham attempted to work on a second album during 2005 and 2006, though this was never completed. Following Jason Slater's death in 2020, the demos for the second album were released under the name ''Bateh. Bros''. on July 12, 2022, through Oakson's record label, Megakut Records.

Discography
Studio albums

 * Le Cock Sportif (May 30, 2000)
 * Bateh Bros. (July 12, 2022)

title: Brougham (band)


text:
Talk:ISS A/S

Logo appearance - bug?
The logo (resized) seems to have a nasty grey outline (outside the proper white one) in both Firefox and IE; the full-size logo looks fine (except being way too large for this article). Perhaps this is related to MediaWiki bug 234?   — Peter L <talk|contribs>   16:56, Jul 16, 2005 (UTC)

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 * Added archive https://archive.is/20130823115338/http://www.issworld.com/press/press_releases/archive_2013/Pages/IAOP_2013.aspx to http://www.issworld.com/press/press_releases/archive_2013/Pages/IAOP_2013.aspx

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User:Toryoidal

Tory Toroidal at your service.

title: User:Toryoidal


text: Template:DisraeliRef

title: Template:DisraeliRef


text:
Ruth Shady

Ruth Martha Shady Solís (born December 29, 1946, Callao, Perú) is a Peruvian anthropologist and archaeologist. She is the founder and director of the archaeological project at Caral.

Career
Throughout her career, she has directed many different projects of archeological investigation on the coast, the highlands and the rain forests of Peru, placing emphasis on the study of the development of the complex socio-political organizations. She was director of the Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Antropología del Perú (National Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of Peru), and director of the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology of National University of San Marcos. She has worked at the Caral site from 1994 onwards and is credited with the discovery of Norte Chico, the first known civilization of the Americas, and one of the oldest in the world. Shady has named the civilization after Caral, while the term Norte Chico has been adopted in English.

In 2001, Shady and others published radiocarbon dates from the site of Caral in the Supe Valley of Peru, indicating that monumental corporate architecture, urban settlement, and irrigation agriculture began in the Americas by 4090 years before the present (2627 calibrated years B.C.) to 3640 years before the present (1977 calibrated years B.C.). Caral is located 23 km inland from the Pacific coast and contains a central zone of monumental, residential, and nonresidential architecture covering an area of 65 ha. Caral is one of 18 large preceramic sites in the Supe Valley.

Shady holds the offices of President of ICOMOS-PERU, principal professor and co-ordinator of the master of archeology graduate program faculty of social sciences of the University of San Marcos and director of the special archeological project Caral-Supe/INC.

Awards
Shady was on the list of the BBC's 100 Women announced on 23 November 2020.

title: Ruth Shady


text:
Bailie Nicol Jarvie

Bailie Nicol Jarvie (colloquially BNJ) was a brand of whisky which was produced by The Glenmorangie Company in Scotland. It was named after a character in Walter Scott's novel Rob Roy. It is a blended Scotch whisky, which has a good following in Scotland, but is relatively unknown in other parts of the world.

The label claims "The Bailie Nicol Jarvie we believe, boasts the highest malt content of any blended Scotch whisky".

The Bailie Nicol Jarvie was first blended by Nicol Anderson & Co, a Glasgow-based whisky company that was acquired by the whisky company Macdonald & Muir of Leith in 1921. The whisky was named after a character in Sir Walter Scott's renowned novel Rob Roy – a bailie (magistrate) who tackled a sword-wielding Highland clansman in an inn at Clachan of Aberfoyle, setting fire to his kilt with a red-hot poker. The blend was particularly popular in the early 20th century.

The brand was relaunched in 1994 by Glenmorangie plc (as Macdonald & Muir had been renamed). The composition of the blend was changed from the original recipe due to market forces. Single malts from the Highlands, Islay and Speyside are blended together with a grain whisky from Ayrshire. In comparison, many blended whiskies contain between 20 and 40 single malts. The minimum maturation time in a cask is eight years and the final BNJ whisky contains 60% single malt and 40% grain whisky. In 2014 Glenmorangie announced it would discontinue BNJ, citing high demand for their malt, all of which is now used for their single malt whiskies. The BNJ has since made a quiet exit from the market and bottles are becoming extremely difficult to find.

The English newspaper The Independent ranked it as one of the "Top 10 Best Scotch Whiskies".

The Bailie Nicol Jarvie was a hotel/public house in Aberfoyle. It has now been turned into flats.

title: Bailie Nicol Jarvie


text:
Singosari

Singosari is a district in Malang Regency, East Java, Indonesia. It covers an area of 118.51 km2 and had a population of 165,357 at the 2010 Census and 180,050 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 180,740. It is situated about 400 m above sea-level, and is therefore quite cool especially from June to August. Temperature hovers around 18–20 degrees Celsius at night.

History
The name Singosari is derived from Singhasari, a famous Javanese medieval kingdom (1222–1292), which palace located not far away from modern Singosari District. Candi Singhasari (Singosari temple) - which was used as worship palace during this kingdom - is located in Kertanegara street, about 3 km from Singosari market.

Economy and demography
It is predominantly occupied by Javanese with smaller number of Madurese, Chinese, Arabs and other groups. Singosari district is located on the main highway connecting Surabaya, the capital of East Java province, and Malang city. The main activity is at the Singosari market. A small airport, Abdul Rachman Saleh, has been constructed to facilitate air travel between Malang and Jakarta.

Interesting places
There are a couple of places of interest in Singosari such as the Candi Singhasari, dated to the 13th century, Sumberawan stupa and the 3339 m high Mount Arjuno. It is a moderate 2 day climb including the return trip. There are also natural springs in the area.

Further to the west from this temple is Ken Dedes swimming pool, believed to be the bathing place and royal garden of Singhasari. Upon entering this pool complex there are 2 big statues called Dwarapala at each side of the entrance. Dwarapala is a squatting giant holding big staff as a weapon, symbolizing the guard of holy places in Javanese culture.

title: Singosari


text: Category:Libraries in the United Kingdom


text:
Barnard

Barnard is a surname of Anglo-Saxon origin, derived from the Old English given name "Beornheard". It is composed of two elements: "Beorn," meaning "young warrior" or "bear," and "heard," meaning "hardy," "brave," or "strong." In some cases, Barnard is a version of the surname Bernard, which is a French and West Germanic masculine given name and surname. The surname means as tough as a bear, Bar(Bear)+nard/hard(hardy/tough)

People
Some of the people bearing the surname Barnard in England are thought to have arrived after the time of the Norman Conquest (1066), Changing their surnames from Bernard to Barnard. Some of whom, it has been suggested, can be traced back to Hugo Bernard. Some of the Barnard family in England may have been Huguenots who fled from the Atlantic coast region of France circa 1685 (the time of the revocation of the edict of Nantes) or earlier than that date. By contrast, the Barnard family in Holland (the western provinces of the Netherlands) can be definitively traced back to circa 1751 (Izaak Barnard) of Scheveningen.The surname Barnard is also found in South Africa among the Afrikaner community. An example of this is Christiaan Barnard, A South African Cardiac Surgeon who performed the first Successful Heart Transplant.The surname is Also found in Australia and North America because of mostly UK and Huguenot immigration from Europe. Other families bearing or subsequently adopting the surname Barnard arrived as Jewish immigrants from continental Europe after 1656 and are well documented. Some of the latter branch are descendants of Rabbi Daniel Barnard of Canterbury, with recorded descendants around London, Chatham, Dartford, Kingston upon Hull, Stockton-on-Tees,  Bournemouth, Ipswich, Norwich and in Australia.

Surname
In England the surname is most commonly found in Greater London and the South Eastern counties (most common occurrences are in Essex, East Sussex, Kent and Suffolk). And in the United States of America it is most commonly found in California, Texas, Florida, and New York. It is also found in France, Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands, South Africa, Australia, and occasionally in Germany. The first syllable of the name derives from bear; Bär or Baer in German. corresponding family names are BAER, BER, BERR, BEHR, BERNHARDT, BERNARD (in France).

List of people with the surname

 * Alfred Barnard (1837–1918), British brewing and distilling historian
 * Aneurin Barnard (born 1987), Welsh actor
 * Andrew Barnard (1773–1855), Irish-born British Army General
 * Anita Barnard (born 1960), American poet and artist
 * Anne Barnard, American journalist
 * Lady Anne Barnard (1750–1825), Scottish travel writer, artist and socialite
 * Anne Henslow Barnard (1833–1899), British botanical artist
 * Baron Barnard, of Barnard Castle in the Bishopric of Durham, a title
 * Bill Barnard (1886–1958), New Zealand politician
 * Bob Barnard (musician) (1933–2022), Australian jazz trumpeter
 * Catherine Barnard, British legal scholar
 * Cecil Barnard, aka Hotep Idris Galeta (1941–2010), South African jazz pianist
 * Charles Barnard (American football) (1915–2008), American football player
 * C. D. Barnard (1895–1971), British racing and record-breaking pilot
 * Chester Barnard (1886–1961), telecommunications executive and author
 * Chris Barnard (author) (1939–2015), South African writer
 * Christiaan Barnard (1922–2001), South African surgeon, known for heart transplants
 * Claude Barnard (1890–1957), Australian politician
 * Clio Barnard, British film director
 * Daniel D. Barnard (1797–1861), US Representative from New York
 * Darren Barnard (born 1971), British professional footballer
 * Dorothy Wedderburn (née Barnard, 1925–2012), British economist and academic
 * Doug Barnard Jr. (1922–2018), American lawyer and politician
 * Edward Emerson Barnard (1857–1923), American astronomer for whom Barnard's Star is named
 * Ernest Barnard, President of Major League Baseball's American League, 1927–1931
 * Eusebius Barnard (1802–1865), American abolitionist and station master on the Underground Railroad
 * Frances Catherine Barnard (1796–1869), English author
 * Francis Jones Barnard, aka Frank Barnard Sr., pioneer freighting entrepreneur and Canadian MP
 * Francis Stillman Barnard, aka Frank Barnard Jr., Canadian MP and Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia
 * Franklyn Leslie Barnard (1896–1927), British air racing and airline pilot
 * Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard (1809–1889), American scientist and educationalist
 * George Alfred Barnard (1915–2002), British statistician
 * George Grey Barnard (1863–1938), American sculptor
 * George N. Barnard (1819–1902), American Civil War photographer
 * Henk Barnard (1922–2003), Dutch writer of children's literature
 * Henry Barnard (1811–1900), American educationalist
 * Henry D. Barnard, adopted name of Chalmers Bryant, a fictional character in Lost Horizon
 * Holly Barnard, American Geographer
 * Isaac D. Barnard (1791–1831), American lawyer and politician
 * John Barnard (born 1946), British race car designer
 * John Barnard (musician) (born 1948), British church music composer
 * John G. Barnard (1815–1882), US Army general during the American Civil War
 * Joseph Osmond Barnard (1816–1865), engraver of the Mauritius "Post Office" stamps
 * Kate Barnard (1875–1930), American politician
 * Keppel Harcourt Barnard (1887–1964), South African zoologist
 * Lance Barnard (1919–1997), Australian politician
 * Lee Barnard (born 1984), English football player
 * Leigh Barnard (born 1958), English football player
 * Lester Barnard (1894–1985), American college sports coach
 * Margaret Barnard (1898–1992), British painter and linocut maker
 * Marius Barnard (surgeon), South African surgeon, inventor of critical illness insurance
 * Marius Barnard (tennis), South African professional tennis player
 * Marjorie Barnard (1897–1987), Australian writer, with Flora Eldershaw
 * Mary Barnard (1909–2002), American poet and translator
 * Mary Baylis Barnard (1870–1946), English artist
 * Megan Barnard (born 1984), Australian sports presenter
 * Mike Barnard (sportsman) (Henry Michael Barnard) (1933–2018), English cricketer and footballer
 * Neal D. Barnard, American medical doctor, author and clinical researcher
 * Niel Barnard, head of South Africa's National Intelligence Service during the apartheid era
 * Norman R. Barnard (1914–1998), American probate judge
 * Paolo Barnard, Italian journalist
 * Pat Barnard (born 1981), South African rugby union player
 * Paul Barnard (born 1973), American Politician
 * Ray Barnard, English footballer
 * Rebecca Barnard (born 1960), Australian singer, songwriter and musician
 * Robert Barnard (1936–2013), English mystery writer and critic
 * Simeon Barnard (1844–1924), racehorse owner and racing official in South Australia
 * Timpoochee Barnard (1776–1834), Native American major of Battle of Calebee Creek
 * Thomas Barnard (c. 1726/28–1806), Anglican bishop in Ireland
 * Tom Barnard, American radio talk show host
 * Trevor Barnard (born 1938), British-born Australian pianist and teacher
 * William Barnard (bishop) (1803–1831), Irish Bishop of Derry, Northern Ireland
 * William Barnard (engraver) (1774–1849), English mezzotint engraver
 * William O. Barnard (1852–1939), representative in U.S. Congress from Indiana

Given name

 * Bernard Courtois (also spelled Barnard Courtois), (1777–1838), French chemist
 * Barnard E. Bee Sr. (1787–1853), early settler and political leader in the Republic of Texas
 * Barnard Elliott Bee Jr. (1824–1861), Confederate Army general during the American Civil War
 * Barnard Pananasky, a pseudonym of Gary Morgan (actor)
 * M. Barnard Eldershaw, Australian literary pseudonym

Schools

 * Barnard Castle School
 * Barnard College
 * Barnard School South Hampton

Places

 * Barnard, Kansas
 * Barnard, Michigan
 * Barnard, Missouri
 * Barnard, South Dakota
 * Barnard, Vermont
 * Barnard Castle, England
 * Barnard River
 * Barnardsville, North Carolina
 * Mount Barnard

title: Barnard


text:
Jim Buckmaster

Jim Buckmaster (born August 14, 1962) is an American computer programmer who has been the CEO of Craigslist since 2000.

Early life
Buckmaster was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He graduated with a bachelor's from Virginia Tech and attended medical school at the University of Michigan. However, he dropped out in 1986, citing a lack of interest. He remained a student for the next ten years by taking at least one class for credit, therefore maintaining certain student privileges like gym access. During this time, he audited classics courses, did data entry, and eventually taught himself how to code.

In the early 1990s, he worked as a programmer for the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, where he designed the organization's web interface. Buckmaster later got a job in San Jose, California and moved to San Francisco, where he commuted 5 hours roundtrip to work. During the Dot-com bubble, he worked as a webmaster for a short lived tech company, Creditland, in San Francisco.

Craigslist
In late 1999, Buckmaster posted his resume onto Craigslist, where he was recruited by Craig Newmark, the founder of the website. As lead programmer, he contributed to the site's multi-city architecture, search engine, discussion forums, flagging system, self-posting process, homepage design, personals categories, and best-of-craigslist. In November 2000, he was promoted to the post of CEO.

Buckmaster wrote a series of haiku that appear in lieu of error messages on craigslist:

"The little poems he has written appear on the screen at times when users might expect a helpful message from the staff. They function as a gnomic clue that what you are seeing is intentional, while discouraging further conversation or inquiry. For instance, start too many conversations in the forums and your new threads may fail to show up. Instead, you will see this:

'Frogs croak and gulls cry silently a river floods a red leaf floats by.'"

Referring to the purple peace sign he created that serves as craigslist's symbol and favicon:

 * "The only topic he can remember their disagreeing about is the peace sign that adorns the craigslist Web address. "Craig thought it was associated with the hippies and that hippies were discredited," Buckmaster says. "Whereas I think peace is among the most desirable things you can have."

On the topic of craigslist's company culture:

 * "The long-running tech-industry war between engineers and marketers has been ended at craigslist by the simple expedient of having no marketers. Only programmers, customer service reps, and accounting staff work at craigslist. There is no business development, no human resources, no sales. As a result, there are no meetings. The staff communicates by email and IM. This is a nice environment for employees of a certain temperament. "Not that we're a Shangri-La or anything," Buckmaster says, "but no technical people have ever left the company of their own accord."

Buckmaster also manages the Craigslist Charitable Fund and serves as executive producer for craigslist TV.

Personal life
A fan of Noam Chomsky, Buckmaster has been accused of being "anti-capitalistic", which Buckmaster claims is an inaccurate characterization:

 * "We are not so much anti-capitalist (...) We're fortunate enough to have built a very healthy business, even though we haven't attempted to. All we have done is stop short of trying to become insanely wealthy. We have met billionaires and it sounds funny but it's not necessarily a bed of roses to have that kind of money. (...) Their life becomes about figuring out how to employ all that money either by philanthropy or other means. So we don't consider it that revolutionary to have stopped short of that."

"Companies looking to maximize revenue need to throw as many revenue-generating opportunities at users as they will tolerate," Buckmaster says. "We have absolutely no interest in doing that, which I think has been instrumental to the success of craigslist."

Buckmaster was once denounced on Fox News by Reverend Jerry Falwell.

title: Jim Buckmaster


text:
Baily

Baily may refer to:

People

 * Baily (surname)
 * Baily Cargill (born 1995), English footballer

Places

 * Baily (crater), lunar crater
 * Baily Head, Deception Island, Antarctica
 * Baily House, Newark, Delaware, United States
 * An area of Howth in North County Dublin, Ireland, where the Baily Lighthouse is located

Other uses

 * 3115 Baily, main-belt asteroid
 * Baily's Beads, a feature of total solar eclipses

title: Baily


text:
Intelligence (solitaire)

Intelligence is a Patience game which uses two decks of playing cards mixed together. It is basically a two-deck version of another solitaire game, La Belle Lucie, and its game play is somewhat closer to the parent game than its cousins House in the Wood and House on the Hill. As the name suggests, with intelligent play good players should be able to win about half of their games.

Rules
First, 18 piles (or fans) of three cards are dealt. During this deal any ace encountered regardless of where it would end up in the pile will be moved to a foundation and be replaced with another card. As they become available, the other aces are placed on the foundations, which are all built up by suit.

The top cards of the piles are available to be built on the foundations or on each other's piles on the tableau. When building on the tableau, the cards are built either up or down by suit. Aces cannot be placed over kings, however, and vice versa.

When a gap occurs, it is immediately filled by three new cards from the stock. This is the only way cards from the stock are introduced from the game and the only way spaces are refilled. As in the original deal, any ace that comes up is immediately placed on the foundations.

When all moves have been made and become stuck, even if there are still cards in the stock, the stock and all the cards in the tableau are gathered, reshuffled, and 18 piles of three cards each are redealt, or as many piles of three cards as the remaining ones can allow. This can be done twice and during both redeals as in the original deal, any aces the player encounters are immediately placed onto the foundations.

The game is won when all cards end up in the foundations.

Variants
The version of the game described by Sloane Lee and Gabriel Packard slightly increases the number of tableau piles to 19, because they think this improves the game.

title: Intelligence (solitaire)


text:
K. Ajitha

Kunnikkal Ajitha (born 1950) is a former Indian naxalite who took active part in the naxalite movements in Kerala in the 1960s when the group conducted armed raids on Thalassery and Pulpally police stations and killed two policemen. Ajitha was subsequently arrested, tried and sentenced to nine years in prison.

After her jail sentence, Ajitha parted ways with the armed struggle movement and is currently a human rights activist and social reformer with an active presence in Kerala's social milieu. Anweshi, the non-governmental organisation she founded in 1993 which now is a constituent of Kerala Sthree Vedhi (Kerala Women's Forum), works for the cause of women's rights in co-ordination with the National Mission for Empowerment of Women.

Ajitha is married to Yakoob, a former colleague and the couple has a son named Clint and a daughter named Gargi. She is an atheist.

Early years
K. Ajitha was born in April 1950 in Kozhikode, Kerala, India to Kunnikkal Narayanan and Mandakini, both active supporters of naxalite movement. She had her early education in Kozhikode. By the time Ajitha reached college, she became disillusioned with the society and started associating with the naxal movement. She dropped out of college while doing Pre-degree course and became an active naxalite.

Thalassery and Pulpally police station attacks
In the late 1960s, Ajitha got associated with Arikkad Varghese, a militant activist working against the atrocities meted out by the feudal lords and police to the tribal and villagers of Wyanad. They formed a group in 1968 and decided to take up arms. Ajitha was the only female member of the group.

On 22 November 1968, a group of about 300 armed guerrillas, under Ajitha's father Kunnikkal Narayanan, made an unsuccessful attempt to attack the Thalassery police station with the aim to steal arms.

48 hours later, on 24 November 1968, the group, under the leadership of Varghese and consisting of Thettamala Krishnankutty, Kurichiyan Kunjiraman, Kisan Thomman, Philip M. Prasad and Ajitha, targeted the Malabar Special Police camp in Pulpally set up to deal with the 7000 farmers who were agitating against the eviction by Pulpally Dewaswom authorities. The armed attack left 2 policemen, a wireless operator and a sub inspector dead. Later, the group attacked the farms of two local landlords and distributed the food grains stocked there to the tribals.

After the raids, the militants entered the dense forests of Wyanad and went into hiding. But, they were captured by the police after a few days of intensive search. Varghese was murdered in a faked encounter. One of the leaders of the group, Kisan Thomman, was also killed in a bomb blast.

Prison life
After her capture, Ajitha was reported to have endured torture at the police station; she was paraded before the public and was reportedly submitted to the Third degree treatment. After the trial that ensued, Ajitha was sentenced to 9 years of solitary confinement in prison.

She spent the first half of the term at the Central Jail at Trivandrum and the latter half at the Cannanore jail where her parents were also imprisoned. Ajitha used the time in prison to learn about the problems faced by women of Kerala, especially sex workers.

She was released in 1977 after 8 years at the age of 27.

Social career
After her release from prison, Ajitha attempted to start a normal life, married Yakoob and gave birth to a baby girl. However, it was a short-lived attempt when, in 1988, a conference of women's organisations in Mumbai influenced her to return to social activism and she founded an organisation called 'Bodhana' (Awareness), based in Kozhikode (Calicut).

The organisation could not carry on for long but Ajitha set up another organisation called Anweshi (the Searcher) in 1993. She was an active participant in many sensational human rights cases in Kerala.

Ice cream parlour case
Ice cream parlour case (1997) involved the sexual exploitation of minor girls at a local ice cream parlour in Kozhikode which offered ice cream laced with sedatives to sexually exploit them later. The scandal surfaced when five minor girls approached Ajitha who, under the aegis of Anweshi, conducted a private investigation and reported the matter to the police. They alleged that the dead bodies of two teenage girls found on the railway tracks in the city had strong connection with the case. Many known names such as that of P. K. Kunhalikutty, Kerala's Industries Minister at that time and leader of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), CPM leader T.P Dasan and some custom officials featured on the list of accused.

During the trial, two of the five victims retracted their statements. Kerala High Court, in 2005, dismissed the petition and the Supreme Court dismissed the case citing lack of evidence in 2006.

Amnesty International
In 2016, she supported Amnesty international in the controversy against ABVP.

Awards and recognitions
Anweshi, the NGO founded by Ajitha, has received many awards for its contribution to the social cause.
 * Jana Samskruti Award, Abu Dhabi, 1997
 * Lakshmi Award by Sahrudaya Vedi, Trichur, 1997
 * Yugadeepam Sam Award-Trivandrum, 1998
 * Kamala Bhaskar Award, by Bhaskar Foundation, 2003
 * Sadguru Jnanananda Award by Manava Seva Dharma Samvardhini Trust, Chennai, 2004
 * V.K. Rajan Puraskaram, Bhoomika Trust, Kodungalloor, 2004
 * Award by B.P. Moideen Seva Mandir, Mukkam, Kozhikode, 2004.
 * Award by K.Balakrishnan Smaraka Samithi for human rights activist, 2007
 * R. Shankaranarayanan Thampi Smaraka Award on 2 November 2009

title: K. Ajitha


text:
My Favorite Brunette

My Favorite Brunette is a 1947 American romantic comedy film and film noir parody, directed by Elliott Nugent and starring Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. Written by Edmund Beloin and Jack Rose, the film is about a baby photographer on death row in San Quentin State Prison who tells reporters his history. While taking care of his private-eye neighbor's office, he is asked by an irresistible baroness to find a missing baron, which initiates a series of confusing but sinister events in a gloomy mansion and a private sanatorium. Spoofing movie detectives and the film noir style, the film features Lon Chaney Jr. playing Willie, a character based on his Of Mice and Men role Lennie; Peter Lorre as Kismet, a comic take on his many film noir roles; and cameo appearances by film noir regular Alan Ladd and Hope partner Bing Crosby. Sequences were filmed in San Francisco and Pebble Beach, California.

Plot
The story is told in flashback from Death Row as Ronnie Jackson (Bob Hope) relates to a group of reporters the events that led to his murder conviction. Ronnie's a San Francisco baby photographer who dreams about being a real private detective like his office neighbor Sam McCloud (Alan Ladd). One day, he is mistaken for a detective by mysterious lady in distress Carlotta Montay (Dorothy Lamour), who claims that her wheelchair-using husband was kidnapped at the pier as they arrived from overseas. A sinister figure (Lorre) listens at the office door. Carlotta gives Ronnie her address, a coded map, and a $5,000 ring as payment, telling him that no one must know he's a detective.

Ronnie hides the map in the cups next to his office water cooler. He then drives to the address, which is a mansion down the Peninsula. Kismet (Peter Lorre) greets him at the door, lifting his handgun. Carlotta tells Ronnie that the missing man is her uncle, not her husband. He entered the country on some secret mission, she says. The mansion belongs to Major Montague, Carlotta says, her uncle's former partner. Major Montague enters the room and tells Carlotta she has a phone call.

When Carlotta leaves, Montague tells Ronnie that he had Kismet follow Ronnie from his office; he knows that Ronnie is a private detective. He tells Ronnie that Carlotta is mentally ill and introduces him to a wheelchair-using man in the next room as Carlotta's uncle, who obviously hasn't been kidnapped. Ronnie tells Montague that Carlotta had given him a map to hold. Carlotta re-enters the room and, alone with Ronnie, tells him that the call was from her uncle, who told her he was safe, but was forced to call. She suspects Montague, because he lied to Ronnie about her. He returns her ring, confused about whether Montague or Carlotta's telling the truth. Eventually, he believes her, and Carlotta tells him to guard the map with his life.

As Ronnie leaves, he finds that his handgun is missing. He climbs a tree and sees the gang conferring through a window before the shade is pulled. He sees "Uncle" stand up from the wheelchair and walk around the room. Ronnie snaps a photo of "Uncle" through the keyhole as evidence. Kismet, who's followed him, throws a knife at him. Ronnie runs to his car, roaring down the mansion driveway. The others chase him by car and shoot out one of his tires. Ronnie runs into an apartment building and intercoms himself in by saying that he is "Joe." Many women buzz him in, and he loses his tail.

Back at his office, Ronnie develops the keyhole photo showing the "Uncle" walking about. Kismet has followed him and, as Ronnie is calling the police, slugs him over the head. Kismet burns the photo and what he thinks is the negative. When Ronnie comes to, the prior day's customer arrives to pick up her baby's photograph; Ronnie gives her what he thinks is her baby's negative.

Ronnie summons the police and drives back to the mansion with them. The mansion is deserted, and Kismet poses as the gardener for the owners, who are out of the country. The police apologize to Kismet for the interruption. (This scene would be repeated years later by Alfred Hitchcock in his film "North By Northwest" with Cary Grant.) Montague gives Kismet Carlotta's ring with a note attached to leave as a 'clue' for Ronnie to discover. Ronnie returns to the mansion and finds the clue, which is a card for the Seacliffe Lodge in Carmel. Ronnie drives to the Lodge, which is really a sanitarium.

After a bizarre golf match with an inmate and an imaginary golf ball, Ronnie is captured by the Montague gang and locked in a room at the sanitarium. Carlotta is also prisoner there. Montague explains that Carlotta's uncle had turned down his offer to buy mineral rights. Carlotta's real uncle is then wheeled into the room to prove he is unhurt. He asks Carlotta to light his cigarette, puts it out, and then returns it to her. When Ronnie refuses to reveal the whereabouts of the coded map, Kismet slugs him. Carlotta lies, saying that the map is at the Ferry Building, about an hour away. Montague sends a stooge to the Ferry Building to retrieve the map.

In her room, Carlotta unwraps the cigarette from her uncle. Inside is a paper note, saying to see "James Collins", a scientist. Ronnie and Carlotta are able to knock out a nurse and flee. At his office, Ronnie returns the map to Carlotta. They call Collins' office and arrange to meet him at a restaurant that night. Unfortunately, Montague's stooge has followed them and overhears the arrangement.

Ronnie and Carlotta meet Collins and show him the map. Collins says that he made it, and it depicts cryolite deposits from which uranium can be mined. He says that Carlotta's uncle had scheduled an important meeting with the government at the Pilgrim Hotel in Washington. Collins pockets the map, and Ronnie drives him to the police station so he can testify. As Ronnie parks, Kismet, who's hiding in the back seat with Ronnie's gun, shoots Collins and steals the map from his pocket. Ronnie and the dead Collins are spotted by the police, and Ronnie flees the scene, now wanted for Collins' murder.

Carlotta and a disguised Ronnie fly to Washington and go to the Pilgrim Hotel. They answer a help wanted ad, applying as a bellboy and a maid. In the Montague gang's suite, they record the gang's confessions on a recording machine, including Kismet's confession that he murdered Collins. But, when the police are called, Kismet switches the records and throws the incriminating record out the window. Montague tells the police that Ronnie is wanted for the Collins murder in San Francisco. Ronnie is arrested and taken away; the gang still has the map and Carlotta's real uncle.

The flashback ends. Ronnie is on death row, cursing Carlotta for disappearing and not testifying at his murder trial. When the prison warden comes to get Ronnie from his death row cell, Ronnie faints. When he comes to, Carlotta is there and tells him that he is a free man. Ronnie had mistakenly given the keyhole photo negative to his customer. The photo from that negative revealed the "uncle" as an impostor. Carlotta said that a detective took that lead, capturing the gang, and "the rest was routine". Ronnie is cleared, and Carlotta's uncle is safe. The warden tells the executioner that the execution was cancelled. The executioner (Bing Crosby) curses and walks away. Ronnie and Carlotta embrace.

Cast

 * Bob Hope as Ronnie Jackson
 * Dorothy Lamour as Baroness Carlotta Montay
 * Peter Lorre as Kismet
 * Lon Chaney Jr. as Willie
 * John Hoyt as Dr. Lundau
 * Charles Dingle as Major Simon Montague
 * Reginald Denny as James Collins
 * Frank Puglia as Baron Montay
 * Ann Doran as Miss Rogers
 * Willard Robertson as Prison Warden
 * Jack La Rue as Tony
 * Charles Arnt as Crawford
 * Alan Ladd as Sam McCloud (cameo appearance)
 * Bing Crosby as Would-be Executioner Harry (cameo appearance)

 * Jean Wong as Mrs. Fong (uncredited)
 * Roland Soo Hoo as Mrs. Fong's Toddler Son (uncredited)
 * Clarence Muse as Death Row Inmate (uncredited)
 * Anthony Caruso as Death Row Inmate (uncredited)
 * James Flavin as Detective Hennessey (uncredited)

Reception
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times liked the film, saying: "Paramount knows a good thing when it sees one, especially when it earns a pile of bucks. And it also knows that there is magic in the juxtaposition of Mr. Hope and a dame—any dame this side of Woodlawn—and a preposterously turbulent plot. That's why the Paramount's new picture, the aforementioned 'My Favorite Brunette,' which candidly observes these criteria, is a commendably funny film."

My Favorite Brunette was described by a reviewer for the St. Petersburg Times as a "first rate [Bob] Hope performance".

Home media
In 1975, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.

My Favorite Brunette has been widely available on home video with most copies varying in picture and sound quality. It was released by Video Treasures in early 1995 on VHS under license from All American Television and Columbia Pictures Television. There have been authorized video releases of the film, under license from the Bob Hope estate and distributor FremantleMedia North America, using the original negatives stored at Sony. The film was released by BCI Eclipse Company in 2007 in an HD DVD double feature with Son of Paleface, and Shout! Factory in 2010 in a DVD box set with other Hope films.

title: My Favorite Brunette