Laura (Scissor Sisters song)

"Laura" is a song by American glam rock band Scissor Sisters and is the lead track on their self-titled debut album (see 2004 in music). It was released as the band's first single in October 2003 in the UK, placing at #54 in the UK Singles Chart (see 2003 in British music). It was later re-issued on June 7, 2004, charting at #12 in the same chart (see 2004 in British music).

In Australia, the song was ranked #58 on Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2004.

Track listings

Initial UK release

UK re-issue

Official remixes

Laura (TV series)

Laura (also known as Laura en América, Laura sin censura, Laura de todos, and Laura en acción) is a Peruvian talk show, hosted by lawyer Laura Bozzo.

The show originated as Laura en América ("Laura in America") and first aired on America TV in February 1998. Bozzo had previously done a similar program called Intimidades ("Intimacies") in 1997. Laura is known for displaying various social problems such as domestic violence, adultery, alcoholism and drug addiction.

Laura en América was the most-watched program in Peru in the late 1990s and one of the most tuned-in talk show in several Latin American countries. The talk show stopped broadcasting in 2001, after the Alberto Fujimori controversy, which involved Bozzo. In the following years, Bozzo continued to record different programs with the same format, but were only transmitted abroad for the Telemundo International chain or cable television. Bozzo had planned to return to Peruvian television through Panamericana Television in 2007, but the project was canceled due to differences between her and her producers. She then returned for a short time at the Peruvian channel ATV, with a program of the same format called Laura en acción ("Laura in action"), which was cancelled due to several complaints.

Laura (What's He Got That I Ain't Got)

"Laura (What's He Got That I Ain't Got)" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Leon Ashley. Recorded in 1967 and released on his own Ashley Records label, the song was his only No. 1 single that September. Frankie Laine and Brook Benton took cover versions to the pop and Adult Contemporary charts that year, while Claude King, Marty Robbins and Kenny Rogers charted their own versions on the country charts.

Background

Ashley had previously released several singles on the Goldband and Imperial record labels, but none of his singles were successful. Then, in 1967, Ashley founded his own label, Ashley Records. That year, he recorded a song he co-wrote with his wife, Margie Singleton: "Laura (What's He Got That I Ain't Got)." Released that July, "Laura" went on to become a No. 1 smash on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart by the end of September.

Plot

The song is told from the perspective of Laura's husband, and depicts a confrontation the two are having regarding an apparently crumbling marriage.

Top Five

Top Five is a 2014 American comedy film written and directed by Chris Rock. The film, which stars Rock, Rosario Dawson, and Gabrielle Union, was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie follows New York City comedian and film star Andre Allen (Rock), who has to confront his past and comedic career while doing an interview with journalist Chelsea Brown (Dawson). The film was released on December 12, 2014, by Paramount Pictures.

Plot

New York Times reporter Chelsea Brown is spending a day interviewing comedian and recovering alcoholic Andre Allen, star of the hit film franchise Hammy The Bear, about a cop in a bear suit. He is attempting a foray into serious films with Uprize, in which he portrays Haitian Revolution figure Dutty Boukman, and sensitive to criticism, particularly by Times critic James Nielson, whose previous reviews of Andre's work have been negative and insulting. As the interview begins in his limousine, Andre recalls his lowest point, when he was in Houston in 2003 and met Jazzy Dee, who supplied him with drugs, alcohol and women. Yet after Jazzy refused to pay the women, they contended they were raped, leading to Andre's arrest.

John of God

John of God, O.H. (March 8, 1495 – March 8, 1550) (Spanish: Juan de Dios and Portuguese: João de Deus) was a Portuguese-born soldier turned health-care worker in Spain, whose followers later formed the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God, a worldwide Catholic religious institute dedicated to the care of the poor sick and those suffering from mental disorders. He has been canonized by the Catholic Church, and is considered one of Spain's leading religious figures.

Biography

The first biography of John of God was written by Francisco de Castro, the chaplain at John of God's hospital in Granada, Spain. He drew from his personal knowledge of John as a young man and also used material gathered from eyewitnesses and contemporaries of his subject. It was published at the express wish of the Archbishop of Granada, who gave financial backing to its publication. Castro began writing in 1579, twenty-nine years after John of God's death, but he did not live to see it published, for he died soon after completing the work. His mother, Catalina de Castro, had the book published in 1585.

João de Deus (medium)

João Teixeira de Faria (born June 24, 1942), known also as João de Deus ("John of God"), is said to be a medium and psychic surgeon. He is based in Abadiânia, Brazil, where he runs the Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola, a spiritual healing center where he sees thousands of visitors every week from all over the world.

Biography

Early life

João Teixeira de Faria was born in Cachoeira da Fumaça, Goiás (now Cachoeira de Goiás). There are no records of his early life and De Faria has not provided precise details. His best known biography is The Miracle Man, written by Robert Pellegrino-Estrich, who runs tours to Abadiânia. De Faria has no medical training and describes himself as a 'simple farmer.' He completed two years of education and spent a number of years travelling from village to village in the states of Goias and Minas Gerais.

Abadiânia

De Faria says he was told by his spirit guides that he must expand his work to reach more people and spiritist medium Chico Xavier told him he should go to the small Goiás town of Abadiânia to fulfill his healing mission. Around 1978, when João first performed healings there, he just sat outdoors in a chair near the main road where people began to arrive seeking cures for their various illnesses and conditions. Gradually the numbers increased to thousands per day and he developed his centre, Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola. The Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola has since been visited by millions of people seeking healing. He also owns a nearby cattle ranch, which covers about 1,000 acres and is valued over 2 million reias.

Flat Earth

The flat Earth model is an archaic conception of the Earth's shape as a plane or disk. Many ancient cultures subscribed to a flat Earth cosmography, including Greece until the classical period, the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations of the Near East until the Hellenistic period, India until the Gupta period (early centuries AD) and China until the 17th century. That paradigm was also typically held in the aboriginal cultures of the Americas, and the notion of a flat Earth domed by the firmament in the shape of an inverted bowl was common in pre-scientific societies.

The idea of a spherical Earth appeared in Greek philosophy with Pythagoras (6th century BC), although most Pre-Socratics retained the flat Earth model. Aristotle accepted the spherical shape of the Earth on empirical grounds around 330 BC, and knowledge of the spherical Earth gradually began to spread beyond the Hellenistic world from then on.

Historical development

Ancient Near East

In early Egyptian and Mesopotamian thought the world was portrayed as a flat disk floating in the ocean. A similar model is found in the Homeric account of the 8th century BC in which "Okeanos, the personified body of water surrounding the circular surface of the Earth, is the begetter of all life and possibly of all gods." The Israelites likely had a similar cosmology, with the earth as a flat disc floating on water beneath an arced firmament separating it from the heavens.