query: Patrick Bateman always obeys the law.

pos: Patrick Bateman Patrick Bateman is a fictional character , the villain protagonist and narrator of the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis , and its film adaptation . He is a wealthy , materialistic Wall Street investment banker who leads a double life as a serial killer . Bateman has also briefly appeared in other Ellis novels .

neg: Law enforcement Law enforcement is any system by which some members of society act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering , deterring , rehabilitating , or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society . Although the term may encompass entities such as courts and prisons , it is most frequently applied to those who directly engage in patrols or surveillance to dissuade and discover criminal activity , and those who investigate crimes and apprehend offenders , a task typically carried out by the police or another law enforcement agency . Furthermore , although law enforcement may be most concerned with the prevention and punishment of crimes , organizations exist to discourage a wide variety of non-criminal violations of rules and norms , effected through the imposition of less severe consequences .

neg: Law enforcement in France Law enforcement in France has a long history dating back to AD 570 , when night watch systems were commonplace . Policing is centralized at the national level . Recently , legislation has allowed local governments to hire their own police officers which are called the `` police municipale '' .   There are two national police forces called `` Police nationale '' and `` Gendarmerie nationale '' . The Prefecture of Police of Paris provides policing services directly to Paris as a subdivision of France 's Ministry of the Interior . Within these national forces only certain designated police officers have the power to conduct criminal investigations which are supervised by investigative magistrates .

neg: Procedural drama A procedural drama is a genre of television programming which focuses on how crimes are solved or some other aspect of a law enforcement agency , legislative body , or court of law . Some dramas include a lab or conference room with high-tech or state-of-the-art equipment where the main characters meet to work out the problem . Shows usually have an episodic format that does not require the viewer to have seen previous episodes . Episodes typically have a self-contained , also referred to as stand-alone , plot that is introduced and resolved within the same episode .   The procedural format is popular around the world . In 2011 , the director of a TV consultancy said , `` The continuing trend is for procedurals because they use a predictable structure . '' Due to their stand-alone episodic nature , they are more accessible to new viewers than serials . Self-contained episodes also make it easier for viewers to return to a show if they have missed some episodes . In general , procedural dramas can usually be re-run with little concern for episode order .   Procedurals are often criticized for being formulaic . Procedurals are also generally less character-driven than serialized shows . However , some procedurals have more character emphasis than is typical of the format . Some may occasionally feature a storyline stretching over several episodes .   A popular variant is the police procedural .

neg: Legal fiction A legal fiction is a fact assumed or created by courts which is then used in order to apply a legal rule . Typically , a legal fiction allows the court to ignore a fact that would prevent it from exercising its jurisdiction , by simply assuming that the fact is different . This is the case with the Bill of Middlesex where the Court of King 's Bench could only exercise jurisdiction over cases which took place in the historic English county of Middlesex . To allow the Court , which was the central court of the land , to take jurisdiction over other cases , parties began to plead that , along with the other facts , there had also been a trespass which occurred in Middlesex . This allowed the King 's Bench to rule on the whole of the case .   Legal fictions are different from legal presumptions which assume a certain state of facts until the opposite is proved , such as the presumption of legitimacy . They are different from hypothetical examples , such as the ` reasonable person ' which serve as tools for the court to express its reasoning . They are also different from legal principles which create a legal state of affairs that is different from the underlying facts , such as corporate personhood although these are sometimes wrongly called legal fictions .   The term `` legal fiction '' is not usually used in a pejorative way , and has been likened to scaffolding around a building under construction .

neg: Leg before wicket Leg before wicket ( lbw ) is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed in the sport of cricket . Following an appeal by the fielding side , the umpire may rule a batsman out lbw if the ball would have struck the wicket , but was instead intercepted by any part of the batsman 's body ( except the hand holding the bat ) . The umpire 's decision will depend on a number of criteria , including where the ball pitched , whether the ball hit in line with the wickets , and whether the batsman was attempting to hit the ball .   Leg before wicket first appeared in the laws of cricket in 1774 , as batsmen began to use their pads to prevent the ball hitting their wicket . Over several years , refinements were made to clarify where the ball should pitch and to remove the element of interpreting the batsman 's intentions . The 1839 version of the law used a wording that remained in place for nearly 100 years . However , from the latter part of the 19th century , batsmen became increasingly expert at `` pad-play '' to reduce the risk of their dismissal . Following a number of failed proposals for reform , in 1935 the law was expanded , such that batsmen could be dismissed lbw even if the ball pitched outside the line of off stump . Critics felt this change made the game unattractive as it encouraged negative tactics at the expense of leg spin bowling .   After considerable debate and various experiments , the law was changed again in 1972 . In an attempt to reduce pad-play the new version , which is used to this day , allowed batsmen to be out lbw in some circumstances if they did not attempt to hit the ball with their bat . Since the 1990s , the availability of television replays and , later , ball-tracking technology to assist umpires has increased the percentage of lbws in major matches . However , the accuracy of the technology and the consequences of its use remain controversial .   In his 1995 survey of cricket laws , Gerald Brodribb states : `` No dismissal has produced so much argument as lbw ; it has caused trouble from its earliest days '' . Owing to its complexity , the law is widely misunderstood among the general public and has proven controversial among spectators , administrators and commentators ; lbw decisions have sometimes caused crowd trouble . Since the law 's introduction , the proportion of lbw dismissals has risen steadily through the years . Statistics reveal that the probability of a batsman being dismissed lbw in a Test match varies depending on where the match is played and which teams are playing .

neg: Congressional power of enforcement A Congressional power of enforcement is included in a number of amendments to the United States Constitution . The language `` The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation '' is used , with slight variations , in Amendments XIII , XIV , XV , XVIII , XIX , XXIII , XXIV , and XXVI . The variations in the pertinent language are as follows : the Thirteenth Amendment leaves out the word `` the '' , the Fourteenth Amendment states `` The Congress shall have the power to enforce , by appropriate legislation , the provisions of this article . '' and the Eighteenth Amendment states `` The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation .

neg: Patrick Bet-David Patrick Bet-David is an American entrepreneur and financial advisor .   In the late 1980s he fled Iran with his father during the Iran -- Iraq War ; they lived for two years in a refugee camp in Germany before immigrating to the US in 1990 , when Bet-David was 12 years old . After high school he enlisted in the US army and served with the 101st Airborne Division .   After leaving the Army he got a job at Morgan Stanley . After a dinner event with George Will in 2009 , he launched a website called Saving America and later a radio show broadcast in Los Angeles , to encourage people to be entrepreneurial and to educate people about fiscal responsibility . Later that year he opened a financial services agency offering term and permanent insurance , debt settlements , and 401 ( k ) rollovers into indexed annuities called PHP Agency , which stood for `` People Helping People '' .   Before starting People Helping People , he was part of another financial marketing organization called World Financial Group from 2002-2009 . He went on to become one of the Chairmans of the company before 2009 where he began PHP Agency .   In 2013 he gave interviews advising people to avoid debt , and based on the housing market at that time , not to buy houses but instead rent , and to use any wealth they had acquired to start a business . In 2015 he gave an interview advising people graduating from high school to avoid the debt of going to college unless they had a clear professional goal of being a doctor or lawyer or want to play professional sports , and advised them instead to travel or intern for a year .   Bet-David has published four books , The 25 Laws for Doing the Impossible ( 2011 ) , The Next Perfect Storm ( 2012 ) , `` The Life of an Entrepreneur in 90 Pages '' ( 2016 ) and his most controversial publication , `` Drop Out and Get Schooled '' ( 2017 ) . Doing the Impossible is a self-help book about realizing your goals , The Perfect Storm tries to teach people how to profit from bubbles like the real estate market in the 2000s and the stock market of the late 1990s , Entrepreneur in 90 pages outlines a basis for starting a business and Drop out addresses the problems with modern day higher education .

neg: Stand-your-ground law A stand-your-ground law ( sometimes called `` line in the sand '' or `` no duty to retreat '' law ) is a justification in a criminal case , whereby defendants can `` stand their ground '' and use force without retreating , in order to protect and defend themselves or others against threats or perceived threats . An example is where there is no duty to retreat from any place where they have a lawful right to be , and that they may use any level of force if they reasonably believe the threat rises to the level of being an imminent and immediate threat of serious bodily harm or death . One case describes `` the ` stand your ground ' law ... a person has a right to expect absolute safety in a place they have a right to be , and may use deadly force to repel an unlawful intruder . '' Justification using stand-your-ground laws may be limited in that the justification can not be used in some cases where defendant was engaged in other illegal conduct at the time , when '' -LSB- the defendant -RSB- was engaged in illegal activities and not entitled to benefit from provisions of the ` stand your ground ' law '' .   This castle doctrine gives immunity from liability to individuals ( i.e. , there is no duty to retreat ) when an intruder enters their home . Of these , twenty-two jurisdictions have also extended the immunity to other locations , some extending it to anywhere where a person may legally be .   Other restrictions may still exist , however . For example , a person carrying a firearm or other weapon in public ( whether concealed or openly ) must do so in a legal manner .

neg: Ward (law) In law , a ward is someone placed under the protection of a legal guardian . The wardship jurisdiction is an ancient jurisdiction derived from the Crown 's duty as parens patriae to protect his/her subject , and particularly those unable to look after themselves . In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms , the Queen as parens patriae is mother for all the children in her realms . A court may take responsibility for the legal protection of an individual , usually either a child or incapacitated person , in which case the ward is known as a ward of the court or a ward of the state . However , the House of Lords in the case of Re F ( Mental Patient : Sterilisation ) held that the Queen has no parens patriae jurisdiction with regard to mentally handicapped adults .   In Australia , New Zealand and the United States , the child is termed a ward of the court . In Ireland and the United Kingdom `` the '' is not used ; the ward is thus termed a ward of court . In Canada the legal term is Crown ward .   Children who are in the custody of government departments , also known as foster care , become wards of the respective government entity , and in the US wards of the states in which they reside . The government or state is in loco parentis to the child , which generally entails assuming all lawful authority to make medical and legal decisions on the child 's behalf .

neg: California Assembly Bill 962 (2009) California Assembly Bill 962 ( 2009 ) ( AB 962 ) was a gun control law in California , authored by Assemblyman Kevin de León , and signed into law by Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger on October 11 , 2009 . AB 962 was set to take effect on February 1 , 2011 , but was ruled unconstitutional by Fresno Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hamilton on January 18 , 2011 , in Parker v. California .   AB 962 would have required that all transfers of ownership of `` handgun ammunition '' be done in a face-to-face transaction , with the deliverer or transferor being provided bona fide evidence of identity of the purchaser or other transferee . As part of every `` handgun ammunition '' transfer , AB 962 would have required vendors to record and maintain , for a time period no less than five years : the transaction date , the ammunition brand and caliber , the processor 's name , as well as the purchaser 's driver license number , signature , name , right thumbprint , residential address , phone number , and date of birth . The bill also aimed to stop felony gang crimes by making it a misdemeanor to possess ammunition while associating with a criminal street gang .   On August 19 , 2010 , the NRA-CRPA Foundation Legal Action Project filed a lawsuit challenging AB 962 . The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit was Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker . The lawsuit alleged that the mandates in AB 962 were incomprehensible , and that the definition of `` handgun ammunition '' was unconstitutionally vague .   On January 18 , 2011 , Fresno Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hamilton ruled , in Parker v. California , that the definition of `` handgun ammunition '' was indeed unconstitutionally vague . The Court enjoined enforcement of the bill . Mail order ammunition sales to California therefore continue .

neg: Perfect crime Perfect crime is a colloquial term used in law and fiction ( especially crime fiction ) to characterize crimes that are undetected , unattributed to a perpetrator , or else unsolved as a kind of technical achievement on the part of the perpetrator . In certain contexts , the concept of perfect crime is limited to just undetected crimes ; if an event is ever identified as a crime , some investigators say it can not be called `` perfect '' .   A perfect crime should be distinguished from one that has merely not been solved yet or where everyday chance or procedural matters frustrate a conviction . There is an element that the crime is ( or appears likely to be ) unable to be solved .

neg: Peter Lawford Peter Sydney Ernest Lawford ( born Peter Sydney Ernest Aylen ; 7 September 1923 -- 24 December 1984 ) was a British actor who lived in the United States throughout his adult life .   He was a member of the `` Rat Pack '' and brother-in-law to President John F. Kennedy . In later years , he was noted more for his off-screen activities as a celebrity than for his acting . From the 1940s to the 1960s , he had a strong presence in popular culture and starred in a number of highly acclaimed films .

neg: Precedent In legal systems based on common law , a precedent , or authority , is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts . Common law legal systems place great value on deciding cases according to consistent principled rules so that similar facts will yield similar and predictable outcomes , and observance of precedent is the mechanism by which that goal is attained . The principle by which judges are bound to precedents is known as stare decisis . Black 's Law Dictionary defines `` precedent '' as a `` rule of law established for the first time by a court for a particular type of case and thereafter referred to in deciding similar cases . '' Common law precedent is a third kind of law , on equal footing with statutory law ( statutes and codes enacted by legislative bodies ) , and Delegated legislation ( in U.K. parlance ) or regulatory law ( in U.S. parlance ) ( regulations promulgated by executive branch agencies ) .   Case law , in common law jurisdictions , is the set of decisions of adjudicatory tribunals or other rulings that can be cited as precedent . In most countries , including most European countries , the term is applied to any set of rulings on law which is guided by previous rulings , for example , previous decisions of a government agency .   Essential to the development of case law is the publication and indexing of decisions for use by lawyers , courts and the general public , in the form of law reports . While all decisions are precedent ( though at varying levels of authority as discussed throughout this article ) , some become `` leading cases '' or `` landmark decisions '' that are cited especially often .

neg: Follow-on In cricket , a follow-on is where the team that bats second is forced to take its second batting innings immediately after its first , because the team was not able to get close enough to the score achieved by the first team batting in the first innings . If the second team to bat scores substantially fewer runs than the first team , the first team have the option of enforcing the follow-on , that is , instructing the second team to bat again immediately . In this case the sequence of batting innings will be first team , second team , second team and then , if required , the first team again . This is in contrast to the normal progression of batting innings which is first team , second team , first team , second team . The first team may choose not to enforce the follow-on , and bat themselves instead .   The rules governing the circumstances in which the follow-on may be enforced are found in Law 13 of the Laws of Cricket .

neg: Sentencing Act of 1987 The Sentencing Act of 1987 ( Pub.L . 100-182 ) enacted some changes to the federal sentencing regime in the United States . The legislation amended to permit expressly departures based on circumstances of an exceptional `` kind '' or `` degree . '' The insertion of this new language was described by the manager of the House bill , Representative John Conyers , as `` clarifying '' in nature because it simply made explicit in the law that which was previously described in the Senate Committee Report as implicit and intended . There is evidence that under the new regime , sentences may not have increased as much as expected : although the average prison term for trial sentences increases post‐reforms , there is no systematic increase in the average length of the pleas .   Additionally , the law abolished parole for federal prisoners and created the United States Sentencing Commission . The commission makes the guidelines used by federal judges when sentencing people convicted of a federal crime .   The bill was introduced by Senator Joseph Biden on October 27 , 1987 . It was signed into law on December 7 , 1987 , by President Ronald Reagan .

neg: Reasonable doubt Reasonable doubt is a term used in jurisdiction of Anglo-Saxon countries . Evidence that is beyond reasonable doubt is the standard of evidence required to validate a criminal conviction in most adversarial legal systems .   Generally , prosecutors bear the burden of proof and are required to prove their version of events to this standard . This means that the proposition being presented by the prosecution must be proven to the extent that there could be no `` reasonable doubt '' in the mind of a `` reasonable person '' that the defendant is guilty . There can still be a doubt , but only to the extent that it would not affect a reasonable person 's belief regarding whether or not the defendant is guilty . Beyond `` the shadow of a doubt '' is sometimes used interchangeably with beyond reasonable doubt , but this extends beyond the latter , to the extent that it may be considered an impossible standard . The term `` reasonable doubt '' is therefore used .   If doubt does affect a `` reasonable person 's '' belief that the defendant is guilty , the jury is not satisfied beyond `` reasonable doubt '' . The precise meaning of words such as `` reasonable '' and `` doubt '' are usually defined within jurisprudence of the applicable country . A related idea is Blackstone 's formulation `` It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer '' .   Beyond a reasonable doubt is the highest burden of proof in any court in the United States . Criminal cases must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt .

neg: Caroline affair The Caroline affair ( also known as the Caroline case ) was a diplomatic crisis beginning in 1837 involving the United States , Britain , and the Canadian independence movement . It began in 1837 when William Lyon Mackenzie and other Canadian rebels , commanding the ship Caroline , fled to an island in the Niagara River , with support from nearby American citizens . British forces then boarded the ship , killed an American crew member in the fighting , and then burned the ship and sent it over Niagara Falls .   This action outraged the United States . In retaliations , a group of American and Canadian raiders attacked a British ship and destroyed it . There were several other attacks in 1838 between the British and Americans . The diplomatic crisis was defused by the negotiations that led to the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842 , where both the Americans and British admitted to wrongdoing .   In the aftermath , the incident led to the legal principle of the Caroline test . The principle states that the necessity for preemptive self-defense must be `` instant , overwhelming , and leaving no choice of means , and no moment for deliberation '' , as formulated by Daniel Webster in his response to British claims that they attacked the Caroline in self-defense . The Caroline test remains accepted as part of international law today . In 2008 , Thomas Nichols wrote :

neg: Lennie Briscoe Leonard W. `` Lennie '' Briscoe is a fictional character on NBC 's long-running police procedural and legal drama television series Law & Order . He was created by Walon Green and René Balcer , and was portrayed by Jerry Orbach . He was featured on the show for 12 seasons , from 1992 to 2004 ; making him one of the longest-serving main characters in the series ' 20-year-run history , as well as the longest-serving police detective on the show . He also appeared in three Law & Order spin-offs , and was part of the original cast of Law & Order : Trial by Jury , appearing in only the first two episodes due to Orbach 's death . He appears in 282 episodes ( 273 episodes of Law & Order , two episodes of Law & Order : Trial by Jury , one episode of Law & Order : Criminal Intent , three episodes of Law & Order : Special Victims Unit , and three episodes of Homicide : Life on the Street ) , the TV movie Exiled and the Law & Order video games Dead on the Money , Double or Nothing , Justice is Served and Legacies .   Orbach 's performance as Briscoe on the New York-based series was so popular that it resulted in him being declared a `` Living Landmark '' by the New York Landmarks Conservancy , along with fellow longtime series cast member Sam Waterston ( who portrayed the prosecutor Jack McCoy on the show ) .

neg: Patriot Act, Title III, Subtitle B The USA PATRIOT Act was passed by the United States Congress in 2001 as a response to the September 11 attacks in 2001 . It has ten titles , with the third title ( `` Title III : International Money Laundering Abatement and Financial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001 '' ) written to prevent , detect , and prosecute international money laundering and the financing of terrorism .   Title III is itself divided into three subtitles . The second subtitle , entitled Subtitle B : Bank Secrecy Act Amendments and Related Improvements , largely modifies the Bank Secrecy Act ( BSA ) to make it harder for money launderers to operate , and to make it easier for law enforcement and regulatory agencies to police money laundering operations . The BSA was amended to allow the designated officer or agency who receives suspicious transaction reports to notify U.S. intelligence agencies . It also addresses issues of record keeping and reporting by making it easier to undertake the reporting of suspicious transactions ; by making it a requirement that financial institutions report suspicious transactions ; through the creation of anti-money laundering programs and by better defining anti-money laundering strategy ; and by making it a requirement that anyone who does business file a report for any coin and foreign currency receipts that are over US$ 10,000 . The subtitle increases civil and criminal penalties for money laundering and introduces penalties for violations of geographic targeting orders and certain recordkeeping requirements .   Subtitle B legislated for the creation of a secure network which can be used by financial institutions to report suspicious transactions and which can also give them alerts of relevant suspicious activities . Subtitle B also makes FinCEN a bureau of the United States Department of Treasury . The subtitle allows the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to authorize personnel to act as law enforcement officers to protect the premises , grounds , property and personnel of any U.S. Federal reserve bank , and allows them to delegate this authority to U.S. Federal Reserve Banks . It instructs any United States Executive Directors of international financial institutions to use their voice and vote to support any country that has taken action to support the U.S. 's War on Terrorism , and to require such Executive Directors to provide ongoing auditing of disbursements made from their institutions to ensure that no funds are paid to persons who commit , threaten to commit , or support terrorism .

neg: Imprisonment for public protection In England and Wales , the imprisonment for public protection ( IPP ) sentence was a form of indeterminate sentence introduced by s. 225 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 ( with effect from 2005 ) and abolished in 2012 . It was intended to protect the public against criminals whose crimes were not serious enough to merit a normal life sentence but who were regarded as too dangerous to be released when the term of their original sentence had expired . It is composed of a punitive `` tariff '' intended to be proportionate to the gravity of the crime committed and an indeterminate period which commences after the expiration of the tariff and lasts until the Parole Board judges the prisoner no longer poses a risk to the public and is fit to be released . The equivalent for under-18s was called detention for public protection , introduced by s. 226 of the 2003 Act . The sentences came into effect on 4 April 2005 .   Although there is no limit to how long prisoners can be detained under IPPs , and some may never be released , they may be released on review ; an IPP sentence is not a sentence of life imprisonment with a whole-life tariff .   In 2007 the Queen 's Bench Division of the High Court ruled that the continued incarceration of prisoners serving IPPs after tariff expiry where the prisons lack the facilities and courses required to assess their suitability for release was unlawful , bringing up concern that many dangerous offenders would be freed . In 2010 a joint report by the chief inspectors of prisons and probation concluded that IPP sentences were unsustainable with UK prison overcrowding .   In 2012 the IPP sentence for new cases was abolished by the Legal Aid , Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act , although over 6,000 prison inmates remained imprisoned for public protection ; over 4,600 remained . Three-quarters of them had completed their minimum term , and about 400 had served five times the minimum . The government 's policy was that IPP prisoners should remain in prison until it is deemed that the risks they pose if released are manageable .


query: In 2010, Chris Noth was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for The Good Wife.

pos: Chris Noth Christopher David `` Chris '' Noth ( -LSB- ` no : th -RSB- ; born November 13 , 1954 ) is an American actor . He is known for his television roles as Detective Mike Logan on Law & Order ( 1990 -- 95 ) , Mr. Big on Sex and the City ( 1998 -- 2004 ) , and Governor Peter Florrick on The Good Wife ( 2009 -- 16 ) . He reprised his role of Mike Logan on Law & Order : Criminal Intent ( 2005 -- 08 ) , and reprised his role of Mr. Big in the films , Sex and the City ( 2008 ) and Sex and the City 2 ( 2010 ) . He was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television for Sex and the City in 1999 and for The Good Wife in 2010 .

neg: Chris Carter (actor) Chris Carter is a Canadian actor and screenwriter .

neg: Chris Orbach Christopher Ben `` Chris '' Orbach ( born November 11 , 1968 ) is an actor , singer-songwriter , and voice actor who is the youngest son of late Law & Order star Jerry Orbach and his first wife , Marta Curro .

neg: Matthew Greenfield Matthew Greenfield ( born September 14 , 1968 ) a producer of independent films . He is senior vice-president of production at Fox Searchlight . He was formerly the associate director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program .   Greenfield attended the Crossroads School , a private school associated with the entertainment industry , and later attended Wesleyan University . At Wesleyan , he met future collaborator Miguel Arteta .   Greenfield and Arteta teamed up to make Star Maps , which debuted in 1997 at the Sundance Film Festival and received five Independent Spirit Award nominations , including Best First Feature . They followed with Chuck & Buck in 2000 , for which they won the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award for Best Low Budget Feature , and The Good Girl in 2002 , starring Jennifer Aniston .   In 2005 Greenfield worked as a producer on The Motel and Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody ?   Greenfield started Cloverfield Press , a boutique publishing company , in 2004 with his wife , Laurence Dumortier .

neg: Goodfellas Goodfellas ( stylized as GoodFellas ) is a 1990 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese . It is an adaptation of the 1986 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi , who co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese . The film narrates the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill and his friends over a period from 1955 to 1980 .   Scorsese initially named the film Wise Guy and postponed making it ; later , he and Pileggi changed the name to Goodfellas . To prepare for their roles in the film , Robert De Niro , Joe Pesci , and Ray Liotta often spoke with Pileggi , who shared research material left over from writing the book . According to Pesci , improvisation and ad-libbing came out of rehearsals wherein Scorsese gave the actors freedom to do whatever they wanted . The director made transcripts of these sessions , took the lines he liked best , and put them into a revised script , which the cast worked from during principal photography .   Made on a budget of $ 25 million , Goodfellas grossed $ 46.8 million . It received positive reviews from critics and was nominated for six Academy Awards , including Best Picture and Best Director , with Pesci winning Best Actor in a Supporting Role . The film won five awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts , including Best Film and Best Director . Additionally , Goodfellas was named the year 's best film by various critics ' groups .   Goodfellas is widely regarded as one of the greatest films in the crime genre . In 2000 , it was deemed `` culturally , historically , and aesthetically significant '' and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress . Its content and style have been emulated in numerous other films and television shows .

neg: National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress The National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress is one of the annual awards given by the National Society of Film Critics .   This awards was given for the first time in 1967 to Marjorie Rhodes for her role in The Family Way .   Meryl Streep won this award three times ( record ) : in 1978 for The Deer Hunter , in 1979 for Kramer vs. Kramer , for Manhattan and for The Seduction of Joe Tynan and in 2006 for The Devil Wears Prada and for A Prairie Home Companion . Anjelica Huston ( 1985 and 1989 ) , Dianne Wiest ( 1986 and 1994 ) , Patricia Clarkson ( 2002 and 2003 ) and Amy Adams ( 2005 and 2012 ) each won the award two times . In 2009 , Mo'Nique became the first African-American to win in this category for her performance in Precious .

neg: Chris Attoh Chris Attoh ( born Christopher Keith Nii Attoh ; 17 May 1979 ) is a Ghanaian actor , on-air personality , television presenter and producer . He is best known as `` Kwame Mensah '' in Nigerian soap opera Tinsel .

neg: Gotham Independent Film Awards 2010 The 20th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards were held on November 29 , 2010 . The nominees were announced on October 18 , 2010 . The ceremony was hosted by Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci .

neg: Hollywood & Wine Hollywood & Wine is a 2010 American comedy film .

neg: Silver Linings Playbook Silver Linings Playbook is a 2012 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by David O. Russell . It was adapted from the novel The Silver Linings Playbook , by Matthew Quick . The film stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence , with Robert De Niro , Jacki Weaver , Chris Tucker , Anupam Kher , and Julia Stiles in supporting roles .   Cooper plays Patrick `` Pat '' Solitano , Jr. , a man with bipolar disorder who is released from a psychiatric hospital and moves back in with his parents , played by Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver . Determined to win back his estranged wife , Pat meets recently widowed Tiffany Maxwell , portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence , who offers to help him get his wife back if he enters a dance competition with her . The two become closer as they train and Pat , his father , and Tiffany examine their relationships with each other as they cope with their problems .   Silver Linings Playbook premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8 , 2012 , and was released in the United States on November 16 , 2012 . The film opened to major critical success and earned numerous accolades . It received eight Academy Award nominations , including Best Picture , Best Director , Best Adapted Screenplay . It became the first film since 1981 's Reds to be Oscar-nominated for the four acting categories and the first since 2004 's Million Dollar Baby to be nominated for the Big Five Oscars , with Lawrence winning the Academy Award for Best Actress . It also achieved four Golden Globe Award nominations , with Lawrence winning Best Actress ; three BAFTA nominations , with Russell winning for Best Adapted Screenplay ; four Screen Actors Guild nominations ; and five Independent Spirit Award nominations , winning in four categories , including Best Film . The film was a success at the box office , grossing over $ 236 million worldwide , more than eleven times its budget .

neg: Oscar Martinez (The Office) Oscar San Juan Martinez is a fictional character from the US mockumentary-style television series The Office played by Cuban actor Oscar Nunez . Martinez was one of the few openly gay characters in broadcast television at the time that the series aired . Although Nunez , who is straight , did not know his character might be gay when he first signed on , he has no issues with the character 's sexuality as long as the material is funny . For the 2006 -- 2007 season , Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation ( GLAAD ) reported he was the only LGBT ( lesbian , gay , bisexual , transgender ) person of color character on a regular series . For the 2007 -- 2008 season he was the `` only remaining gay character on a half-hour comedy program '' and the only LGBT lead or supporting character who is a person of color . For the 2009 -- 2010 season , Martinez was one of four people of color LGBT regular series characters ; in 2010 -- 2011 there were six and in 2011 -- 2012 there were five.Along with doctor Callie Torres on Grey 's Anatomy , and gay nurse Angel Garcia on Mercy , Martinez are Latino/a , and forensic facial reconstruction artist Angela Montenegro on Bones , is an Asian-Pacific Islander . ( Where we are on TV : GLAAD 's 14th Annual Diversity Study Previews the 2009-2010 Primetime Television Season , Taj Paxton , Jonathan Rosales , Callan Koenig , Brian MacKough , Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation . ) For the 2009-2010 season there are zero black LGBT series regular characters and one non-human , American Dad 's Roger the alien on Fox . For the 2009-2010 season , LGBT media watchdog group Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation ( GLAAD ) reported 3 percent of all regular characters were LGBT . ( Gay Characters on Network TV : 2009-10 , Hanh Nguyen and Rick Porter , Los Angeles Times , ) An increase from 2.6 percent in the 2008-2009 season and 1.1 percent in the 2007-2008 season . ( Gay Characters on Network TV : 2009-10 , Hanh Nguyen and Rick Porter , Los Angeles Times , ) For the 2010-2011 season there were six LGBT people of color characters . ( Where we are on TV : GLAAD 's Annual Diversity Study Previews the 2010-2011 Primetime Television Season , Taj Paxton , Matthew Kane , Lauren Mattia , Rob Avruch , Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation . ) For the 2011-2012 season there were five LGBT people of color characters . ( Where we are on TV : GLAAD 's Annual Diversity Study Previews the 2011-2012 Primetime Television Season , September 2011 , Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation . )   Martinez is an accountant at the Scranton , Pennsylvania , office of the paper distribution company Dunder Mifflin and gets his first name from Núñez ; series producer Greg Daniels felt that `` Oscar '' sounded like a good accountant 's name . He is a first-generation Mexican American . He is also openly gay after being outed by his then boss Michael Scott in `` Gay Witch Hunt '' , the third-season premiere episode devoted to the outing . However , the character was implied to be gay in the second-season episode `` The Secret '' , when Dwight catches him faking sickness to spend the day with his boyfriend ( Dwight remains oblivious to this detail as he was obsessed with proving that Oscar was not ill ) . As a result , in earlier episodes , many co-workers erroneously attribute to him various Mexican stereotypes ( e.g. being involved in drug cartels ) but after his outing , his stereotypes are more focused on his being gay , particularly by Michael , which may explain their conflicted relationship . Núñez explained in a 2008 interview that the character variously feels amusement , pity and hatred towards his fictional boss . He has no specific counterpart in the original British series .   Oscar is known for being a rational , quietly efficient , and intellectual worker in the office , often the one who will ask pointed financial questions that his colleagues will not or that Michael avoids answering . Martinez refers to himself as being in the `` Coalition for Reason '' with Jim and Pam Halpert . According to Núñez , the three `` are there to set up the comic situations '' for boss Michael and Dwight Schrute , Michael 's toady . He explained , `` We can still be funny but we are definitely the ` straight guys ' . '' He is often the one who is able to clearly see the reality and logic in situations , including financial ones such as when Michael started up his own paper company or Ryan Howard 's online startup business . Because of this , Oscar is considered to be a know-it-all by many of his co-workers . Oscar is frequently exasperated by the antics of his coworkers and tends to find their humor offensive . He is reserved , not really exhibiting a desire for close contact with any of his co-workers , although he is friendly when not outwardly pedantic . In an AfterElton.com interview , Núñez explained he plays the character like an accountant , who happens to be gay , and just trying to do his work and not really interested in what the documentarians are filming . Actor Núñez references the character as a Log Cabin Republican , though no mention of this has occurred in the show . In the episode `` Dwight Christmas '' , he is in fact openly acknowledged as a Democrat . His more balanced and normal personality makes him an everyman type character , contrasting with the generally extroverted people with whom he works . He 's also a charter member of the company 's three-person ( and exclusive ) `` Finer Things Club '' with Pam and Toby Flenderson . He and co-worker Kevin Malone seem to have a strong friendship with each other , often a dynamic where Oscar is often the calm , rational one while Kevin is the fun-loving one .

neg: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series . In early Primetime Emmy Award ceremonies , the supporting categories were not always genre , or even gender , specific . Beginning with the 22nd Primetime Emmy Awards , supporting actors in comedy have competed alone . However , these comedic performances often included actors from miniseries , telefilms , and guest performers competing against main cast competitors . Such instances are marked below :   # -- Indicates a performance in a Miniseries or Television film , prior to the category 's creation .  § -- Indicates a performance as a guest performer , prior to the category 's creation .

neg: Christine Lahti Christine Ann Lahti ( born April 4 , 1950 ) is an American actress . She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1984 film Swing Shift . Her other film roles include ... And Justice for All ( 1979 ) , Housekeeping ( 1987 ) , Running on Empty ( 1988 ) , and Leaving Normal ( 1992 ) . For her directorial debut with the 1995 short film Lieberman in Love , she won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film .   Lahti made her Broadway debut in 1980 as a replacement in Loose Ends , and went on to star in the Broadway productions of Present Laughter ( 1982 ) and The Heidi Chronicles ( 1989 ) . An eight-time Golden Globe nominee and six-time Emmy Award nominee , she won a Golden Globe for the 1989 TV movie No Place Like Home , and won a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 1998 for her role as Kate Austin in the CBS series Chicago Hope ( 1995 -- 99 ) . She returned to Broadway in 2009 to star in God of Carnage . She also had a recurring role as Sonya Paxton in the NBC series Law and Order : Special Victims Unit ( 2009 -- 11 ) , as Doris McGarrett in the CBS series Hawaii Five-0 ( 2012 -- 16 ) , and Laurel Hitchin in NBC 's The Blacklist ( 2015 -- 17 ) .

neg: Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2010 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2010 may refer to :   15th Critics ' Choice Awards , the fifteenth Critics ' Choice Awards ceremony that took place in 2010  16th Critics ' Choice Awards , the sixteenth Critics ' Choice Awards ceremony that took place in 2011 and which honored the best in film for 2010

neg: Chen Jianbin Chen Jianbin ( born June 27 , 1970 ) is a Chinese actor active in television and film . He is most notable for the portrayal of Cao Cao in the 2010 television series Three Kingdoms , for which he won the Best Actor Award at the 2011 Seoul International Drama Awards in Seoul , South Korea .   Chen married his Qiao 's Grand Courtyard costar Jiang Qinqin in 2006 .

neg: The Stunt Man The Stunt Man is a 1980 American film directed by Richard Rush , starring Peter O'Toole , Steve Railsback , and Barbara Hershey . The movie was adapted by Lawrence B. Marcus and Rush from the 1970 novel of the same name by Paul Brodeur . It tells the story of a young fugitive who hides as a stunt double on the set of an anti-war movie whose charismatic director will do seemingly anything for the sake of his art .   It was nominated for three Academy Awards : Best Actor in a Leading Role ( Peter O'Toole ) , Best Director ( Richard Rush ) , and Best Writing , Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium . However , due to its limited release , it never earned much attention from US audiences at large . As O'Toole remarked in a DVD audio commentary , `` The film was n't released , it escaped . ''

neg: 36th César Awards The 36th César Awards ceremony was presented by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma in Paris , France to honour its selection of the best French films of 2010 on 25 February 2011 . The ceremony was chaired by Jodie Foster and hosted by Antoine de Caunes . The audience gave a standing ovation to Olivia de Havilland , their `` special honored guest '' .

neg: A Good Marriage (film) A Good Marriage is a 2014 American psychological thriller film based on the novella of the same name by Stephen King , from the 2010 collection Full Dark , No Stars . It stars Joan Allen , Anthony LaPaglia , Kristen Connolly and Stephen Lang . It was released on October 3 , 2014 .

neg: Country Strong Country Strong ( originally titled Love Do n't Let Me Down ) is a 2010 drama film starring Gwyneth Paltrow , Tim McGraw , Garrett Hedlund , and Leighton Meester . The film , about an emotionally unstable country music star who attempts to resurrect her career , was directed and written by American filmmaker Shana Feste . It premiered in Nashville , Tennessee on November 8 , 2010 , and had a wide release in the United States on January 7 , 2011 . This is the second film in which McGraw and Hedlund have worked together , the first being Friday Night Lights in 2004 .

neg: Supporting Healthy Marriage Project The Supporting Healthy Marriage Project , SHM , is part of the Healthy Marriage Initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services , Administration for Children and Families , that was launched in 2003 as `` the first large-scale , multisite , multiyear , rigorous test of marriage education programs for low-income married couples . '' The project is motivated by research that `` indicates that married adults and children raised by both parents in stable , low-conflict households do better on a host of outcomes . '' The evaluation is led by MDRC , in collaboration with Abt Associates and other partners . USASpending.gov reports payments of more than $ 30 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to MDRC for work on the Supporting Healthy Marriage Project from 2009 to 2012 .   Major study questions of the Supporting Healthy Marriage Project include :  What are the experiences , issues and challenges in designing , implementing and operating healthy marriage education and related services for lower-income couples with children ?  What are the net impacts of the programs on : marital stability and relationship quality ; attitudes and expectations regarding their marriage ; parenting attitudes and behaviors ; measures of adult well-being and child well-being and development ( e.g. , cognitive , social , emotional , health ) , and economic outcomes for families ?   Limited federal funding for a Healthy Marriage Initiative began in 2001 to `` help couples who choose to get married gain greater access to marriage education services that will enable them to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to form and sustain a healthy marriage . '' In 2005 , Wade Horn , Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families , highlighted plans for a significant expansion of funding in testimony before the Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness , House Committee on Education and the Workforce :   `` Although I have focused on the areas of primary interest to your committee , I would be remiss if I did not briefly highlight other key areas of our proposal that play a critical role in the well-being of children , teenagers , and families . Indeed , we establish improving the well-being of children as the overarching purpose of TANF ... . In support of that overarching purpose , our proposal seeks to improve child well-being through programs aimed at encouraging responsible fatherhood and healthy marriages . By discontinuing the Out of Wedlock Birth Reduction Bonus and redirecting part of the High Performance Bonus Funding , we provide $ 200 million for programs aimed at promoting family formation and healthy marriages . We also provide $ 40 million in funding for the support of responsible fatherhood and healthy marriage programs to reverse the rise in father absence and its subsequent impact on children . ''

neg: Conviction (2010 film) Conviction is a 2010 legal drama film directed by Tony Goldwyn , written by Pamela Gray , and starring Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell . The film premiered on September 11 , 2010 , at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the US on October 15 , 2010 .


query: A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of novels and it is by an American.

pos: A Song of Ice and Fire A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of epic fantasy novels by the American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin . He began the first volume of the series , A Game of Thrones , in 1991 and had it published in 1996 . Martin , who initially envisioned the series as a trilogy , has published five out of a planned seven volumes . The fifth and most recent volume of the series published in 2011 , A Dance with Dragons , took Martin five years to write . He is still writing the sixth novel , The Winds of Winter .   A Song of Ice and Fire takes place on the fictional continents Westeros and Essos . The point of view of each chapter in the story is a limited perspective of a range of characters growing from nine , in the first novel , to thirty-one by the fifth . Three main stories interweave a dynastic war among several families for control of Westeros , the rising threat of the supernatural Others in the northernmost reaches of Westeros , and the ambition of Daenerys Targaryen , the deposed king 's exiled daughter , to assume the Iron Throne .   Martin 's inspirations included the Wars of the Roses and the French historical novels The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon . A Song of Ice and Fire received praise for its diverse portrayal of women and religion , as well as its realism . An assortment of disparate and subjective points of view confronts the reader , and the success or survival of point of view characters is never assured . Within the often morally ambiguous world of A Song of Ice and Fire , questions concerning loyalty , pride , human sexuality , piety , and the morality of violence frequently arise .   As of April 2015 , the books have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide and , as of January 2017 , have been translated into 47 languages . The fourth and fifth volumes reached the top of The New York Times Best Seller lists upon their releases . Among the many derived works are several prequel novellas , a TV series , a comic book adaptation , and several card , board , and video games .

neg: Karen Bender Karen Bender is an American novelist .

neg: Ned Stark Eddard `` Ned '' Stark is a fictional character in the first book of George R. R. Martin 's A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels and the first season of its television adaptation . Introduced in 1996 's A Game of Thrones , Ned is the honorable lord of Winterfell , an ancient fortress in the North of the fictional continent of Westeros . Though the character is established as a primary character in the novel and the TV adaptation , Martin 's plot twist at the end involving Ned shocked both readers of the book and viewers of the TV series .   Ned is portrayed by Sean Bean in the first season of HBO 's adaptation of the series , Game of Thrones , and as a child and young man by Sebastian Croft and Robert Aramayo respectively in the sixth season . Bean was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television and a Scream Award for Best Fantasy Actor for the role . He and the rest of the cast were nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2011 .

neg: Gilly (A Song of Ice and Fire) Gilly is a fictional character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin , and its television adaptation Game of Thrones .   Introduced in 1998 's A Clash of Kings , she is a wildling from the wild lands north of the Wall . She subsequently appeared in Martin 's A Storm of Swords , A Feast for Crows , A Dance with Dragons and will appear in the upcoming novel The Winds of Winter .   Gilly is portrayed by Hannah Murray in the HBO television adaptation .

neg: C. Dale Brittain C. Dale Brittain is an American author and professor of medieval history . As well as writing historical works , she is the author of fantasy novels .

neg: Dan DeBono Daniel DeBono ( born November 13 , 1964 in Detroit , Michigan ) is an American writer and novelist .

neg: List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters George R. R. Martin 's A Song of Ice and Fire novels feature a massive cast of characters . The series follows three interwoven plotlines : a dynastic war for control of Westeros by several families ; the rising threat of the superhuman Others beyond Westeros 's northern border ; and the ambition of Daenerys Targaryen , the exiled heir of the previous ruling dynasty .   Each chapter is narrated in the third person limited point of view through the eyes of a single character . Beginning with nine POV characters in A Game of Thrones ( 1996 ) , the number grows to thirty-one by A Dance with Dragons ( 2011 ) .

neg: Benjamin Rosenbaum Benjamin Rosenbaum ( born August 23 , 1969 ) is an American science fiction , fantasy , and literary fiction writer and computer programmer , whose stories have been finalists for the Hugo Award , the Nebula Award , the Theodore Sturgeon Award , the BSFA award , and the World Fantasy Award .

neg: Mark Frost Mark Frost ( born November 25 , 1953 ) is an American novelist , screenwriter , director and film producer , best known as a writer for the television series Hill Street Blues and as the co-creator of the television series Twin Peaks .

neg: Throne of Glass Throne of Glass is a young adult high fantasy novel series by American author Sarah J. Maas , beginning with the inaugural entry of the same name . The story follows the journey of Celaena Sardothien , a teenage assassin in a corrupted kingdom with a tyrannical ruler . As the tale progresses , Celaena forms unexpected bonds and uncovers a conspiracy amidst her adventures . The series has appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list . It has been optioned for a TV series by Mark Gordon and will premiere on Hulu .

neg: Lacey Dancer Sydney Ann Cook ( born 1948 ) is an American author of contemporary and historical romance novels , who wrote under the pen names Sara Chance , Sherry Carr , Sydney Ann Clary and Lacey Dancer .   She won the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award in 1991-1992 for Series Romance Love and Laughter . Romantic Times awarded her a second Career Achievement Award in 1996 for Series Romantic Adventure . Romantic Times described Dancer 's novel Silke as `` a dazzling , richly intense love story brimming with fascinating characters , sharply imaginative plotting and irresistible romantic suspense '' .   Many of her early books were published by Meteor in their Kismet line of category romances . The final title in her Pippa series was ready to be shipped to bookstores when Meteor suddenly folded . The orphaned novel , Many Faces of Love , had difficulty finding a new home , partly because the heroine was over 40 , which was rare in the romance novel genre . Dancer finally created her own publishing company , Clear Ice Publishing , to release the novel in mass market paperback form .

neg: Bruce Golden Bruce Edward Golden ( born December 3 , 1952 ) is an American writer of science fiction , a satirist , and a journalist .

neg: Robert Littell (author) Robert Littell ( born January 8 , 1935 ) is an American novelist and former journalist who resides in France . He specializes in spy novels that often concern the CIA and the Soviet Union .   Littell was born in Brooklyn , New York , to a Jewish family , of Russian Jewish origin . He is a 1956 graduate of Alfred University in western New York . He spent four years in the U.S. Navy and served at times as his ship 's navigator , antisubmarine warfare officer , communications officer , and deck watch officer .   Later Littell became a journalist and worked many years for Newsweek during the Cold War . He was a foreign correspondent for the magazine from 1965 to 1970 .   Littell is an amateur mountain climber and is the father of award-winning novelist Jonathan Littell . His brother , Alan Littell ( born 1929 ) , is also an author and journalist .

neg: Dragon Harper Dragon Harper is a science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd McCaffrey , part of the Dragonriders of Pern series that she initiated in 1967 . Published forty years later , it was the twenty-first in the series .   Dragon Harper and the previous novels Dragon 's Kin and Dragon 's Fire feature Kindan as a boy and young man , about 500 years after landing on Pern ( 500 AL ) . They were the first collaborations by mother and son .

neg: Jerome Charyn Jerome Charyn ( born May 13 , 1937 ) is an American author . With nearly 50 published works over a 50-year span , Charyn has a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life . Michael Chabon calls him `` one of the most important writers in American literature . ''   New York Newsday hailed Charyn as `` a contemporary American Balzac , '' and the Los Angeles Times described him as `` absolutely unique among American writers . ''   Charyn 's first novel , Once Upon a Droshky was published in 1964 . Only with Blue Eyes ( 1975 ) , the debut of detective character Isaac Sidel , did Charyn vault to wide attention and acclaim . As of 2017 , Charyn has published 37 novels , three memoirs , nine graphic novels , two books about film , short stories , plays and works of non-fiction . Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year . Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction . Charyn was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Fiction , 1983 . He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has been named Commander of Arts and Letter ( Ordre des Arts et des Lettres ) by the French Minister of Culture .   Charyn was Distinguished Professor of Film Studies at the American University of Paris until 2009 , when he retired from teaching .   In addition to his writing and teaching , Charyn is a tournament table tennis player , once ranked in the top 10 percent of players in France . Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn 's book on table tennis , Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins , `` The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong . ''   Charyn lives in Paris and New York City .

neg: Nancy Asire Nancy Asire ( born 1945 ) is an American fantasy and science fiction author , best known for her Twilight 's Kingdoms fantasy trilogy and her contributions to the shared universe series Heroes in Hell , Sword of Knowledge and Merovingen Nights .

neg: Susan Sizemore Susan Sizemore is an American author of both romance and science fiction novels .

neg: Brandon Mull Brandon Mull is an American author best known for the New York Times bestselling fantasy series , Fablehaven . Mull has also written The Candy Shop War , the Beyonders trilogy , and the Five Kingdoms series , as well as numerous other popular young adult novels . Mull travels the country speaking to students , with the message that `` imagination can take you places . ''   He has stated that his greatest inspirations for his stories are J. R. R. Tolkien , C. S. Lewis , and J. K. Rowling .

neg: Mary H. Herbert Mary H. Herbert ( born 1957 ) is an American fantasy writer , author of the Dark Horse series and several Dragonlance novels .

neg: Cold Fire (Koontz novel) Cold Fire is a 1991 novel written by the best-selling author Dean Koontz .

neg: Stephen Mansfield Stephen Lee Mansfield ( born 1958 ) is an American author who writes about history , modern culture , religion and men 's issues . His books have appeared on the New York Times best-seller list .


query: Rift uses Curse, Inc.

pos: Curse, Inc. Curse , Inc. is an online game portal and network of gaming websites founded by Hubert Thieblot in 2006 . The company is headquartered in Huntsville , Alabama , and has offices in San Francisco , New York City , Los Angeles , Brighton , UK , and Berlin , Germany . Claiming to be the `` number one resource for core online gamers , '' Quantcast estimated monthly unique traffic in 2013 in excess of 30 million visitors . Curse has several primary functions , the most notable of which include an add-on and modification service called Curse Client for such games as World of Warcraft , Rift , The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim , Terraria , Kerbal Space Program , and Minecraft , a collection of over 1000 gaming wikis known as Gamepedia , and a Voice over IP ( VoIP ) service called Curse Voice .   Curse formerly sponsored a professional team , known collectively as Team Curse , that competed in League of Legends and Call of Duty '' , which in addition to various high-profile wins have garnered sponsorship from companies such as Nissan , Alienware , and Cooler Master . In January 2015 Team Curse merged with Team Liquid under the name of the latter organization .   While Curse initially offered modifications and add-ons alone through their Curse-Beta website , offerings have expanded to include Wiki services , the Curse client , CurseForge , CurseVoice , Union for Gamers , BukkitDev , and in-house content produced for YouTube .   On August 16 , 2016 , Curse announced that it had agreed to be acquired by Amazon.com Inc. via its subsidiary Twitch Interactive for an undisclosed amount .

neg: Zoetrope Interactive Zoetrope Interactive is an independent game developer located in Istanbul , Turkey . Their mission is to develop quality games in which gamers will enjoy a unique gaming experience . One of the notable products they have developed is Darkness Within 2 : The Dark Lineage and their proprietary panoramic game engine , CPAGE .

neg: Darkspore Darkspore was a video game that borrowed creature editing technology from Spore . It was described as `` a fast-paced , science fiction action role-playing game in which the player battled across alien worlds to save the galaxy from the mutated forces of Darkspore '' . In addition to the creature editor , the game features a unique squad-based mechanic , various multiplayer options , and a player versus player arena . The game was released in North America on April 26 , 2011 for Microsoft Windows , and in Europe on April 28 , 2011 .   EA has removed the store page of Darkspore from Steam , meaning any attempt to purchase it through Steam can not be made . The game was later relisted with EA saying that they would continue to support for the game . Those who have purchased it prior to the page 's removal still have the game and could play it until the servers were shut down permanently on March 1 , 2016 . The game is currently unplayable due to its DRM scheme requiring a connection .

neg: Curse A curse ( also called an imprecation , malediction , execration , malison , anathema , or commination ) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity : one or more persons , a place , or an object . In particular , `` curse '' may refer to such a wish or pronouncement made effective by a supernatural or spiritual power , such as a god or gods , a spirit , or a natural force , or else as a kind of spell by magic or witchcraft ; in the latter sense , a curse can also be called a hex or a jinx . In many belief systems , the curse itself ( or accompanying ritual ) is considered to have some causative force in the result . To reverse or eliminate a curse is sometimes called `` removal '' or `` breaking '' , and is often believed to require elaborate rituals or prayers .   The study of the forms of curses comprise a significant proportion of the study of both folk religion and folklore . The deliberate attempt to levy curses is often part of the practice of magic . In Hindu culture the Sage or Rishi is believed to have the power to bless and curse . Examples include the curse placed by Rishi Bhrigu on king Nahusha and the one placed by Rishi Devala .  Special names for specific types of curses can be found in various cultures :  African American hoodoo presents us with the jinx and crossed conditions , as well as a form of foot track magic which was used by Ramandeep , whereby cursed objects are laid in the paths of victims and activated when walked over .  Middle Eastern and Mediterranean culture is the source of the belief in the evil eye , which may be the result of envy but , more rarely , is said to be the result of a deliberate curse . In order to be protected from the evil eye , a protection item is made from dark blue circular glass , with a circle of white around the black dot in the middle , which is reminiscent of a human eye . The size of the protective eye item may vary .  German people , including the Pennsylvania Dutch speak in terms of hexing ( from the German word for witchcraft ) , and a common hex in days past was that laid by a stable-witch who caused milk cows to go dry and horses to go lame .

neg: Ritual Entertainment Ritual Entertainment was a video game developer established in 1996 by Robert Atkins , Mark Dochtermann , Jim Dosé , Richard ` Levelord ' Gray , Michael Hadwin , Harry Miller , and Tom Mustaine . Based in Dallas , Texas , Ritual Entertainment was formerly known as Hipnotic Interactive , during which period they began development of their signature video game SiN .   Members of the Ritual Entertainment development team have contributed game assets to other titles such as American McGee 's Alice , Medal of Honor : Airborne , Tomb Raider : Legend , and 25 to Life , and are also the creators of '' Übertools '' for id Tech 3 , which has been licensed for a number of other games .   On January 24 , 2007 , developer MumboJumbo announced the acquisition of Ritual Entertainment . With this acquisition , Ritual 's focus on traditional action-oriented games was changed to casual games , essentially `` stalling '' Ritual 's latest game series , SiN Episodes , after releasing only one episode out of a planned nine .   The purchase followed months of departures of several key employees including chief executive officer Steve Nix who became director of business development at id Software , vice president and co-founder Tom Mustaine who left to found Escalation Studios . Several months after the acquisition , community relations manager Steve Hessel left the company to join Splash Damage .   Prior to the announcement , on December 6 , 2006 , Ritual announced the appointment of Ken Harward as the company 's new studio director .

neg: The Dark Mod The Dark Mod is free and open-source software first-person stealth video game , inspired by the Thief series by Looking Glass Studios . The game provides the basic framework and tools -- engine , assets , models , an editor -- for more than 100 fan-made missions , including several multi-mission campaigns . The Dark Mod was first released in 2009 as a total conversion mod for Doom 3 . Version 2.0 was released in October 2013 as a standalone game using the open-source id Tech 4 game engine .

neg: IMVU IMVU , Inc. , ( -LSB- ˈɪmvjuː -RSB- ) is an online metaverse and website . IMVU was founded in 2004 and was originally backed by venture investors Menlo Ventures , Allegis Capital , Bridgescale Partners and Best Buy Capital . IMVU members use 3D avatars to meet new people , chat , create , and play games . IMVU has over 3 million active users and currently has the largest virtual goods catalog of more than 30 million items . The business is located in Mountain View , California , and has 120 full-time employees . It is also known as one of the leading practitioners of the lean startup approach .   The company name is neither an acronym nor an initialism . IMVU co-founder Eric Ries described the accidental process by which the company acquired its meaningless name , and stated `` It 's not an acronym ; it does n't stand for anything '' .   IMVU contains its own economy with a currency system based on IMVU `` credits '' and `` promo credits '' . A third form of currency also exists for creators , known as `` developer tokens '' , which are earned when a user purchases an item with `` promo-credits '' . Credits can be purchased online using actual currency directly from IMVU . Credits may also be purchased on IMVU gift cards available from retail outlets such as department stores . Credits can be transferred back from IMVU to actual currency for developers accounts only . The credits are used by members to purchase virtual items like fashion pieces ( hair , clothes , skins , and accessories ) , pets , and 3D scenes such as homes , clubs and open landscapes . Furniture can also be purchased the same way and placed into unlocked rooms , but there are also rooms that have some furniture included in them as well as locked rooms that include furniture that can not be removed .   Promotional credits , abbreviated to `` promo-credits '' , are a second form of currency distributed to members by IMVU and can be obtained by participating in various `` Partner '' promotions as well as a few activities the IMVU provides . With relation to a standard free or full member , promo-credits are similar to standard credits . A given number of credits equates , promo-credits can not be used to purchase items as gifts for other members and may not be traded back to an IMVU re-seller for actual currency . Promo-credits used to purchase a virtual product are exchanged into `` developer tokens '' , also known as `` dev tokens '' . The purchase transfers the promo-credits into developer tokens but nets a single developer token per purchase when promo-credits are used regardless of the price of the product purchased .

neg: Forced Forced is a single-player and co-op action role-playing game developed by BetaDwarf , released in October 2013 for Windows , OS X and Linux through the Steam platform as well as Wii U . It is about gladiators fighting for their freedom in a fantasy arena and are assisted by a spirit-like character called Balfus . Gameplay consists of selecting a weapon class and abilities to combat the various enemies of each arena , while solving puzzles using the help of Balfus . BetaDwarf was formed by a small group of students in 2011 , who began developing the game in an unused classroom in Aalborg University -- Copenhagen , Denmark . They were removed months later and launched a successful Kickstarter campaign involving an Imgur picture which documented their progress . Forced received moderate to favorable reviews with most critics praising its competitive gameplay and puzzle-system . The game 's weak plot , technical glitches and excess difficulty were the negative highlights . It won the Level Up 2013 Intel award and BetaDwarf received the Danish Developer Of The Year ( 2013 ) for it .

neg: Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade Untold Legends : Brotherhood of the Blade is a launch title for the Sony PSP handheld video game system . It is a third person action role-playing game in which the player can complete various quests for money and items . Although made by Sony Online Entertainment , Untold Legends is not online , but it can be played cooperatively with up to four other players via Ad Hoc .   The player can choose to be one of four characters ( Knight , Druid , Berserker or Alchemist ) . The goal is to save Aven , a city so high in the mountains that it often appears to be floating in the clouds , from the attack of various creatures . This `` floating city '' is the last defense of humanity against a sudden onslaught of dark , foul creatures . It is up to the player to explore the world of Untaca and its various regions , searching for items , talking to people , and killing monsters .

neg: Xbox One Controller Xbox One Wireless Controller is the primary controller for the Microsoft Xbox One console . The controller maintains the overall layout found in the Xbox 360 controller , but with various tweaks to its design , such as a revised shape , redesigned analog sticks , shoulder buttons , and triggers , along with new vibrators within the triggers to allow for directional haptic feedback .   It has had three revisions with several changes to the controller 's design and functionality . Microsoft also markets the Elite Wireless Controller , a premium version geared towards professional gamers , including interchangeable parts and programmability features . In turn , each of the aforementioned variations has been offered in various color schemes , some featuring special designs tying into specific games .   Per a partnership between Microsoft and Oculus VR , Xbox One controllers are bundled with the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset .

neg: Visceral Games Visceral Games ( formerly EA Redwood Shores ) is an American video game development studio owned by Electronic Arts . The studio is best known for the Dead Space series .

neg: AEGIS (Ragnarok Online) AEGIS is Windows Server software used along with Microsoft SQL Server by Gravity Corporation to run the official Ragnarok Online game servers . It was originally developed for exclusive use within Gravity and Gravity subsidiaries , but has been leaked within its lifetime , purportedly by several teams who compromised official computers which contained AEGIS binaries .   AEGIS consists of a number of components , an Inter Server ( responsible for Guild Siege , Guild Chat , Private Message and synchronization between servers ) , a Zone Server ( responsible for Game Play Dynamics ) , a Character Server ( responsible for Character Information ) , and an Account Server ( responsible for verifying information in account database , such as if it exists , if it is either paid for or not ( active/inactive ) , etc. ) .   AEGIS was originally created by Hakkyu Kim ( Neolith ) and was his first server project . Despite the fact that Aegis is referred to as production quality ( due to the involvement of commercial organizations ) leaked versions revealed that the majority of its configuration files were very simple , it used very inefficient means of storing information for reference , and showed very high memory usage when there were no routines running to suggest such usage .   The original development team was forced to leave the company after a takeover by Samsung Electronics and most of the core members are now working on a new project known as Granado Espada .   Category : Ragnarok Online

neg: Autodesk MotionBuilder MotionBuilder is a professional 3D character animation software produced by Autodesk . It is used for virtual production , motion capture , and traditional keyframe animation . It was originally named Filmbox when it was first created by Canadian company Kaydara , later acquired by Alias and renamed to MotionBuilder . Alias in turn was acquired by Autodesk .   It is primarily used in film , games , television production , as well as other multimedia projects . Mainstream examples include Assassin 's Creed , Killzone 2 , and Avatar .   At SIGGRAPH 2012 , Autodesk announced a partnership with Weta Digital and Lightstorm Entertainment to develop the next generation of the technology .

neg: Corrupted Blood incident The Corrupted Blood incident was a virtual plague in the MMORPG World of Warcraft , which began on September 13 , 2005 , and lasted for one week . The epidemic began with the introduction of the new raid Zul ` Gurub and its end boss Hakkar the Soulflayer . When confronted and attacked , Hakkar would cast a hit point-draining and highly contagious debuff spell called Corrupted Blood on players .   The spell , intended to last only seconds and function only within the new area of Zul ` Gurub , soon spread across the virtual world by way of an oversight that allowed pets and minions to take the affliction out of its intended confines . By both accidental and purposeful intent , a pandemic ensued that quickly killed lower-level characters and drastically changed normal gameplay , as players did what they could do to avoid infection . Despite measures such as programmer-imposed quarantines , and the players ' abandoning of densely populated cities ( or even just not playing the game ) , it lasted until a combination of patches and resets of the virtual world finally controlled the epidemic .   The conditions and reactions of the event attracted the attention of epidemiologists for its implications of how human populations could react to a real-world epidemic .

neg: PowerVR PowerVR is a division of Imagination Technologies ( formerly VideoLogic ) that develops hardware and software for 2D and 3D rendering , and for video encoding , decoding , associated image processing and DirectX , OpenGL ES , OpenVG , and OpenCL acceleration .   The PowerVR product line was originally introduced to compete in the desktop PC market for 3D hardware accelerators with a product with a better price/performance ratio than existing products like those from 3dfx Interactive . Rapid changes in that market , notably with the introduction of OpenGL and Direct3D , led to rapid consolidation . PowerVR introduced new versions with low-power electronics that were aimed at the laptop computer market . Over time , this developed into a series of designs that could be incorporated into system-on-a-chip architectures suitable for handheld device use .   PowerVR accelerators are not manufactured by PowerVR , but instead their integrated circuit designs and patents are licensed to other companies , such as Texas Instruments , Intel , NEC , BlackBerry , Renesas , Samsung , STMicroelectronics , Freescale , Apple , NXP Semiconductors ( formerly Philips Semiconductors ) , and many others .

neg: The Rifter The Rifter is a role-playing game magazine published by Palladium Books . It is based in Taylor , Michigan .   Named after its most successful game at the time of debut , Rifts , its content pertains to all the games in the Palladium system , though after the first three years they ceased accepting articles specifically for games based on licenses ( Specifically , Robotech , Macross II , and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , but would apply to any other licenses should they be acquired ) , over concerns with the licensing agents .   The latest issue to have been published is issue 70 , with issue 71 in production . Digital versions of all issues ( including the three special issues below ) up to issue # 62 are available through drivethrurpg.com , as are previews of some of the more recent issues .

neg: Blindlight Blindlight is a Los Angeles-based company providing Hollywood production services to the videogame industry . Notable properties the company has contributed to include the Elder Scrolls , Fallout , Splinter Cell , Tomb Raider , Destiny , and Halo series .

neg: Skin gambling In video games , skin gambling is the use of virtual goods , which are most commonly cosmetic elements such as `` skins '' which have no direct influence on gameplay , as virtual currency to bet on the outcome of professional matches or on other games of chance . It primarily has occurred within the player community for the game Counter-Strike : Global Offensive by Valve Corporation , but practice of it exists in other game communities . Valve also runs the Steam marketplace which can be interfaced by third-parties to enable trading , buying , and selling of skins from players ' Steam inventories for real-world or digital currency , though Valve itself condones the gambling practices .   Valve added random skin rewards as part of an update to Counter-Strike : Global Offensive in 2013 , believing that players would use these to trade with other players and bolster both the player community and its Steam marketplace . A number of websites were created to bypass monetary restrictions Valve set on the Steam marketplace to aid in high-value trading and allowing users to receive cash value for skins . Some of these sites subsequently added the ability to gamble on the results of professional matches or in games of chance with these skins , which in 2016 was estimated to handle around $ 5 billion of the virtual goods . These sites , along with Valve and various video game streamers , have come under scrutiny due to ethical and legal questions relating to gambling on sporting matches , underage gambling , undisclosed promotion , and outcome rigging . Evidence of such unethical practices was discovered in June 2016 , and led to two formal lawsuits filed against these sites and Valve in the following month . Valve subsequently has taken steps to stop such sites from using Steam 's interface for enabling gambling , leading to about half of these sites to close down , while driving more of the skin gambling into an underground economy .

neg: Realm of the Mad God Realm of the Mad God is a massively multiplayer online shooter video game created by Wild Shadow Studios ( acquired by Kabam in June 2012 , and later sold to Deca Games in July 2016 ) and Spry Fox . It was in public beta from January 2010 and the browser version launched on June 20 , 2011 . On February 20 , 2012 the game was made available on the digital distribution platform Steam for Microsoft Windows and OS X.   The game has been described as a `` massively-multiplayer cooperative bullet hell shooter '' with an 8 bit pixelated art style . Players control characters who have been transported to the realm of Oryx ( the titular Mad God ) to become food for his many minions and abominations , which the players must dispatch . Central to the design of the game is the fact that character death is permanent . Upon death , the player 's character is lost along with all carried equipment , although the player may store a number of items for safekeeping in a limited capacity vault away from danger . Different character choices in class also help make the game more diverse and help to support teamwork .   The game is free-to-play with optional in-game micro-transactions . Items which can be bought with optional transactions vary from high-level equipment , pets that provide aid to the player ( by attacking enemies , paralyzing enemies , healing the character , restoring the character 's magic points , and acting as a decoy ) , increased storage space , and aesthetic features such as skins , cloths and dyes .   This game client is written in Flash and can be played in-browser on the official site , on Kongregate , or it can be downloaded from the Google Chrome Web Store .

neg: Shark 3D Shark 3D is a 3D software program and engine developed by Spinor for creating and running interactive virtual 3D worlds . It is used for video games , films , animated series , broadcasting graphics , and 3D industry applications .   Shark 3D is mainly used for developing video games ( similar to a Game engine ) , producing films and TV series , creating broadcast graphics , and developing 3D applications .