document_title: Batting average

question_text: who had the best batting average in baseball history

text: Batting average

text: Cricket[edit]

text: In cricket, a player's batting average is the total number of runs they have scored divided by the number of times they have been out. Since the number of runs a player scores and how often they get out are primarily measures of their own playing ability, and largely independent of their teammates, batting average is a good metric for an individual player's skill as a batsman. The number is also simple to interpret intuitively. If all the batsman's innings were completed (i.e. they were out every innings), this is the average number of runs they score per innings. If they did not complete all their innings (i.e. some innings they finished not out), this number is an estimate of the unknown average number of runs they score per innings. Batting average has been used to gauge cricket players' relative skills since the 18th century.

text: Most players have career batting averages in the range of 20 to 40. This is also the desirable range for wicket-keepers, though some fall short and make up for it with keeping skill. Until a substantial increase in scores in the 21st century due to improved bats and smaller grounds among other factors, players who sustained an average above 50 through a career were considered exceptional, and before the development of the heavy roller in the 1870s (which allowed for a flatter, safer cricket pitch) an average of 25 was considered very good.[2]

text:
All-rounders who are more prominent bowlers than batsmen typically average something between 20 and 30.
15 and under is typical for specialist bowlers.
A small number of players have averaged less than 5 for a complete career, though a player with such an average is a liability unless an exceptional bowler as Alf Valentine or B. S. Chandrasekhar were.

text: Career records for batting average are usually subject to a minimum qualification of 20 innings played or completed, in order to exclude batsmen who have not played enough games for their skill to be reliably assessed. Under this qualification, the highest Test batting average belongs to Australia's Sir Donald Bradman, with 99.94. Given that a career batting average over 50 is exceptional, and that only four other players have averages over 60, this is an outstanding statistic. The fact that Bradman's average is so far above that of any other cricketer has led several statisticians to argue that, statistically at least, he was the greatest sportsman in any sport.[3] As at 21 October 2016, Adam Voges of Australia has recorded an average of 72.75 from 27 innings played, but only 20 innings completed.

text: Batting averages in One Day International (ODI) cricket tend to be lower than in Test cricket,[4] because of the need to score runs more quickly and take riskier strokes and the lesser emphasis on building a large innings. It should also be remembered, especially in relation to the ODI histogram above, that there were no ODI competitions when Bradman played.

text: If a batsman has been dismissed in every single innings, then their total number of runs scored divided by the number of times they have been out gives exactly the average number of runs they score per innings. However, for a batsman with innings which have finished not out, this statistic is only an estimate of the average number of runs they score per innings – the true average number of runs they score per innings is unknown as it is not known how many runs they would have scored if they could have completed all their not out innings. If their scores have a geometric distribution then total number of runs scored divided by the number of times out is the maximum likelihood estimate of their true unknown average.[5]

text: Batting averages can be strongly affected by the number of not outs. For example, Phil Tufnell, who was noted for his poor batting,[6] has an apparently respectable ODI average of 15 (from 20 games), despite a highest score of only 5 not out, as he scored an overall total of 15 runs from 10 innings, but was out only once.[7]

text: A different, and more recently developed, statistic which is also used to gauge the effectiveness of batsmen is the strike rate. It measures a different concept however – how quickly the batsman scores (number of runs from 100 balls) – so it does not supplant the role of batting average. It is used particularly in limited overs matches, where the speed at which a batsman scores is more important than it is in first-class cricket.

text: Leading Test batting averages[edit]

text: (Source: Cricinfo Statsguru 23 December 2016)

text:
Rank
Batsman
Tests
Innings
N.O.
Runs
Highest
Ave[8]
Career dates

1
 D. G. Bradman
52
80
10
6996
334
99.94
1928–48

2
 A. C. Voges
20
31
7
1485
269*
61.87
2015–16

3
 S. P. D. Smith
54
100
14
5251
215
61.05
2010–present

4
 R. G. Pollock
23
41
4
2256
274
60.97
1963–70

5
 G. A. Headley
22
40
4
2190
270*
60.83
1930–54

6
 H. Sutcliffe
54
84
9
4555
194
60.73
1924–35

7
 E. Paynter
20
31
5
1540
243
59.23
1931–39

8
 K. F. Barrington
82
131
15
6806
256
58.67
1955–68

9
 E. D. Weekes
48
81
5
4455
207
58.61
1948–58

10
 W. R. Hammond
85
140
16
7249
336*
58.45
1927–47

text: Table shows players with at least 20 innings completed.

text: * denotes not out.

text: Major League Baseball[edit]

text:
A
V
G
=

H

A
B

{\displaystyle AVG={\frac {H}{AB}}}

text: In baseball, the batting average (BA) is defined by the number of hits divided by at bats. It is usually reported to three decimal places and read without the decimal: A player with a batting average of .300 is "batting three-hundred." If necessary to break ties, batting averages could be taken beyond the .001 measurement. In this context, a .001 is considered a "point," such that a .235 batter is 5 points higher than a .230 batter.

text: Henry Chadwick, an English statistician raised on cricket, was an influential figure in the early history of baseball. In the late 19th century he adapted the concept behind the cricket batting average to devise a similar statistic for baseball. Rather than simply copy cricket's formulation of runs scored divided by outs, he realized that hits divided by at bats would provide a better measure of individual batting ability. This is because while in cricket, scoring runs is almost entirely dependent on one's own batting skill, in baseball it is largely dependent on having other good hitters on one's team. Chadwick noted that hits are independent of teammates' skills, so used this as the basis for the baseball batting average. His reason for using at bats rather than outs is less obvious, but it leads to the intuitive idea of the batting average being a percentage reflecting how often a batter gets on base, whereas in contrary, hits divided by outs is not as simple to interpret in real terms.

text: In modern times, a season batting average higher than .300 is considered to be excellent, and an average higher than .400 a nearly unachievable goal. The last player to do so, with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting championship, was Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, who hit .406 in 1941, though the best modern players either threaten to or actually do achieve it occasionally, if only for brief periods of time. There have been numerous attempts to explain the disappearance of the .400 hitter, with one of the more rigorous discussions of this question appearing in Stephen Jay Gould's 1996 book Full House.

text: Ty Cobb holds the record for highest career batting average with .366, 9 points higher than Rogers Hornsby who has the second highest average in history at .358. The record for lowest career batting average for a player with more than 2,500 at-bats belongs to Bill Bergen, a catcher who played from 1901 to 1911 and recorded a .170 average in 3,028 career at-bats. The modern-era record for highest batting average for a season is held by Napoleon Lajoie, who hit .426 in 1901, the first year of play for the American League. The modern-era record for lowest batting average for a player that qualified for the batting title is held by Rob Deer, who hit .179 in 1991. While finishing six plate appearances short of qualifying for the batting title, Adam Dunn of the Chicago White Sox hit .159 for the 2011 season, twenty points (and 11.2%) lower than the record. The highest batting average for a rookie was .408 in 1911 by Shoeless Joe Jackson.

text: For non-pitchers, a batting average below .230 is often considered poor, and one below .200 is usually unacceptable. This latter level is sometimes referred to as "The Mendoza Line", named for Mario Mendoza (a lifetime .215 hitter), a stellar defensive shortstop whose defensive capabilities just barely made up for his offensive shortcomings. The league batting average in Major League Baseball for 2016 was .255,[9] and the all-time league average is between .260 and .275.

text: In rare instances, MLB players have concluded their careers with a perfect batting average of 1.000. John Paciorek had three hits in all three of his turns at bat. Esteban Yan went two-for-two, including a home run. Hal Deviney's two hits in his only plate appearances included a triple, while Steve Biras, Mike Hopkins, Chet Kehn, Jason Roach and Fred Schemanske also went two-for-two. A few dozen others have hit safely in their one and only career at-bat.

text: Sabermetrics, the study of baseball statistics, considers batting average a weak measure of performance because it does not correlate as well as other measures to runs scored, thereby causing it to have little predictive value. Batting average does not take into account walks or power, whereas other statistics such as on-base percentage and slugging percentage have been specifically designed to measure such concepts. Adding these statistics together form a player's On-base plus slugging or "OPS". This is commonly seen as a much better, though not perfect, indicator of a player's overall batting ability as it is a measure of hitting for average, hitting for power and drawing bases on balls.

text: In 1887, Major League Baseball counted bases on balls as hits. The result of this was skyrocketed batting averages, including some near .500, and the experiment was abandoned the following season.

text: Qualifications for the batting title[edit]

text: The Major League Baseball batting averages championships (often referred to as "the batting title") is awarded annually to the player in each league who has the highest batting average. Ty Cobb holds the MLB (and American League) record for most batting titles, officially winning 11 in his pro career.[10] The National League record of 8 batting titles is shared by Honus Wagner and Tony Gwynn. Most of Cobb's career and all of Wagner's career took place in what is known as the Dead-Ball Era, which was characterized by higher batting averages and much less power, whereas Gwynn's career took place in the Live-Ball Era.

text: To determine which players are eligible to win the batting title, the following conditions have been used over the sport's history:[11]

text:
Pre-1920 – A player generally is required to appear in at least 100 or more games when the schedule was 154 games, and 90 games when the schedule was 140 games. An exception to the rule was made for Ty Cobb in 1914, who appeared in 98 games but had a big lead and was also a favorite of League President Ban Johnson.
1920–1949 – A player had to appear in 100 games to qualify in the National League; the AL used 100 games from 1920–1935, and 400 at-bats from 1936–1949. The NL was advised to adopt 400 at-bats for the 1945 season, but League President Ford Frick refused, feeling that 100 games should stand for the benefit of catchers and injured players. (Taffy Wright is often erroneously said to have been cheated out of the 1938 batting title; he batted .350 in exactly 100 games, with 263 ABs. Jimmie Foxx hit .349, in 149 games and 565 AB. But since the AL requirement that year was 400 at-bats, Foxx's batting title is undisputed.)
1950–1956 – A player needed 2.6 at-bats per team game originally scheduled. (With the 154-game schedule of the time, that meant a rounded-off 400 at-bats.) From 1951–1954, if the player with the highest average in a league failed to meet the minimum at-bat requirement, the remaining at-bats until qualification (e.g., 5, if the player finished the season with 395 ABs) were hypothetically considered hitless at-bats; if his recalculated batting average still topped the league, he was awarded the title. This standard applied in the AL from 1936–1956.
1957 to the present – A player has needed 3.1 plate appearances per team game originally scheduled; thus, players were no longer penalized for walking so frequently, nor did they benefit from walking so rarely. (In 1954, for example, Ted Williams batted .345 but had only 386 ABs, while topping the AL with 136 walks. Williams thus lost the batting title to Cleveland's Bobby Ávila, who hit .341 in 555 ABs.) In the 154-game schedule, the required number of plate appearances was 477, and since the era of the 162-game schedule, the requisite number of PAs has been 502. (Adjustments to this 502 PA figure have been made during strike-shortened seasons, such as 1972, 1981, 1994, and 1995.)

text: From 1967 to the present, if the player with the highest average in a league fails to meet the minimum plate-appearance requirement, the remaining at-bats until qualification (e.g., 5 ABs, if the player finished the season with 497 plate appearances) are hypothetically considered hitless at-bats; if his recalculated batting average still tops the league, he is awarded the title. This is officially called Rule 10.22(a), but it is also known as the Tony Gwynn rule because the Padres' legend won the batting crown in 1996 with a .353 average on just 498 plate appearances (i.e., was four shy). Gwynn was awarded the title since he would have led the league even if he'd gone 0-for-4 in those missing plate appearances. His average would have dropped to .349, five points better than second-place Ellis Burks' .344.[12] In 2012, a one-time amendment to the rule was made to disqualify Melky Cabrera from the title. Cabrera requested that he be disqualified after serving a suspension that season for a positive testosterone test. He had batted .346 with 501 plate appearances, and the original rule would have awarded him the title over San Francisco Giants teammate Buster Posey, who won batting .336.[13][14]

text: All-time leaders[edit]

text:
#
Player
Avg [15]
Team(s)
Year(s)

1
Ty Cobb
.366
Philadelphia (AL), Detroit (AL)
1905-1928

2
Rogers Hornsby
.358
St. Louis (NL), New York (NL), Boston (NL), Chicago (NL), St. Louis (NL), St. Louis (AL)
1915–37

3
Shoeless Joe Jackson
.356
Philadelphia (AL), Cleveland (AL) , Chicago (AL)
1908-20

4
Lefty O'Doul
.349
New York (AL), Boston (AL), New York (NL), Philadelphia (NL), Brooklyn
1919–23, 1928–34

5
Ed Delahanty
.346
Philadelphia (NL), Cleveland (PL), Philadelphia (NL), Washington
1888–1903

6
Tris Speaker
.345
Boston (AL), Cleveland, Washington (AL), Philadelphia (AL)
1907–28

7
Billy Hamilton
.34442
Kansas City (AA), Philadelphia (NL), Boston (NL)
1888–1901

8
Ted Williams
.34441
Boston (AL)
1939–42, 1946–60

9
Dan Brouthers
.34212
Troy, Buffalo, Detroit (NL), Boston (NL), Boston (PL), Brooklyn (NL), Baltimore (NL), Louisville, Philadelphia (NL), New York (NL)
1879–96, 1904

10
Babe Ruth
.34206
Boston (AL), New York (AL), Boston (NL)
1914–36

text: Note: Batting averages are normally rounded to 3 decimal places. Extra detail here is used for tie-breaker.

text: Other contexts[edit]

text: Following from usage in cricket and baseball, batting average has come to be used for other statistical measures of performance and in the general usage on how a person did in a wide variety of actions.

text: An example is the Internet Archive, which uses the term in ranking downloads. Its "batting average" indicates the correlation between views of a description page of a downloadable item, and the number of actual downloads of the item. This avoids the effect of popular downloads by volume swamping potentially more focused and useful downloads, producing an arguably more useful ranking.


document_title: School prayer

question_text: when was the bible taken out of schools

question_tokens: when was the bible taken out of schools

root

text: School prayer

text: Countries that prohibit school-sponsored prayer[edit]

text: United States[edit]

text: In the United States, public schools are banned from conducting religious observances such as prayer. The legal basis for this prohibition is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which requires that

tag: p

text: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...

text: The first part of the amendment ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion") is known as the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, while the second part ("or prohibiting the free exercise thereof") is known as the Free Exercise Clause.

text: Though each of these clauses originally applied only to the central US government, the Fourteenth Amendment extended the scope of the entire First Amendment to all levels of government, including the state level,[1] thus compelling states and their subject schools to adopt an equally detached approach to religion in schools.

text: School prayer prior to 1962[edit]

text: In the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, it was common practice for public schools to open with an oral prayer or Bible reading.[2][not in citation given] Catholics would sometimes object to the distinct Protestant observations performed in the local schools. For instance, in the Edgerton Bible Case (Weiss v. District Board (1890)), the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in favor of Catholics who objected to the use of the King James Bible in Wisconsin public schools. This ruling was based on the state constitution and only applied in Wisconsin.

text: A Turning Point: The "Regents' Prayer" and Engel v. Vitale[edit]

text: The media and popular culture often erroneously credit atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair with removing school prayer from US public schools, when the case against recitation of the Lord's Prayer in Baltimore schools was decided by the Supreme Court in 1963. A more significant case had reached the Supreme Court one year prior, suddenly changing the legal climate for school prayer in the US.[3]

text: In 1955, the New York Board of Regents developed a prayer recommended (but not required) for the school districts under its purview. The prayer was relatively short: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence on Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country."[1][4] The board stated that the prayer would "combat juvenile delinquency and counter the spread of Communism."[4]

text: Seven years later, Steven I. Engel, a Jew, was upset to see his son’s hands clasped and his head bent in prayer. He told his son that this was “not the way we say prayers.” Engel, a founding member of the New York Civil Liberties Union, brought action along with Daniel Lichtenstein, Monroe Lerner, Lenore Lyons, and Lawrence Roth, all parents of children in the Long Island, New York public school system, against Union Free School District No. 9 for its adoption and subsequent prescription of the so-called "Regent's prayer", arguing that it constituted the state-sponsored establishment of religion in violation of citizens’ First Amendment rights via the Fourteenth Amendment.[5]

text: Use of the Regent's prayer was initially upheld in both New York State Court and in the New York Court of Appeals, prompting Engels to petition the US Supreme Court in the Engel v. Vitale case in 1962. With its 8–1 vote to make public recitation of the Regents' Prayer in public schools unlawful, the U.S. Supreme Court made its first-ever decision on prayer in public schools. It made its second in 1963—the Abington School District v. Schempp ruling, which made the corporate reading of the Bible and recitation of the Lord's Prayer unlawful in public schools.[3]

text: 1963 and after[edit]

text: In these two landmark decisions, Engel v. Vitale (1962) and Abington School District v. Schempp (1963), the Supreme Court established what is now the current prohibition on state-sponsored prayer in US schools. While the Engel decision held that the promulgation of an official state-school prayer stood in violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause (thus overruling the New York Courts’ decisions), Abington held that Bible readings and other public school-sponsored religious activities were prohibited.[6] Madalyn Murray's lawsuit, Murray v. Curlett, contributed to the removal of compulsory Bible reading from the public schools of the United States, and has had lasting and significant effects.

text: Until the lawsuit, it was commonplace for students to participate in many types of religious activities while at school, including religious instruction itself. Nonreligious students were compelled to participate in such activities and were not usually given any opportunity to opt out. The Murray suit was combined with an earlier case, so the Court might have acted without Murray's intervention. With the success of the lawsuit, the intent of the Constitution with regard to the relationship between church and state again came under critical scrutiny and has remained there to this day. While students do continue to pray in public schools, even in organized groups such as "See You at the Pole", the lawsuit disallowed schools from including prayer as a compulsory activity required of every student. The success of O'Hair's lawsuit led to subsequent lawsuits by Mormon and Catholic families in Texas in 2000 to limit compulsory prayer at school-sponsored football games.

text: Following these two cases came the Court's decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), a ruling that established the Lemon test for religious activities within schools. The Lemon test states that, in order to be constitutional under the Establishment Clause, any practice sponsored within state-run schools (or other public state-sponsored activities) must adhere to the following three criteria:[7]

text:
Have a secular purpose;
Must neither advance nor inhibit religion; and
Must not result in an excessive entanglement between government and religion.

tag: ol

text: Controversy[edit]

text: Reactions to Engel and Abington were widely negative, and many school districts and states have attempted to reestablish school-sponsored prayer in different forms since 1962.[8] Since the 1990s, controversy in the courts has tended to revolve around prayer at school-sponsored extracurricular activities. Examples can be seen in the cases of Lee v. Weisman (1992) and Santa Fe Independent School Dist. v. Doe (2000), where public prayers at graduation ceremonies and those conducted via public address system prior to high school games (at state school facilities before a school-gathered audience) were, respectively, ruled unconstitutional.

text: Despite their attempts to present a clear stance on school-sponsored religious activity, Engel, Abington, and the cases for which these serve as precedent are cited by some proponents of school prayer as evidence of a contradiction between the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses.[9] While the Establishment Clause proscribes the state sponsorship of religion, the Free Exercise Clause forbids state interference in individual religious exercise. Where a state entity moves to accommodate the right to individual religious expression under the latter clause, opponents of that "expression" may cite such accommodation as state "promotion" of one religious activity over another.[10] Regarding the Free Exercise Clause, the courts have consistently stated that students' setting forth of religious views through prayer cannot be forbidden unless such activity can be shown to cause disruption in the school, yet it remains beyond the scope of the state to require such practice.[11] Thus, anyone is allowed to pray in schools in the United States, as long as it is not officially sponsored by the school and it does not disrupt others from doing their work.

text: The United States Supreme Court: A Political and Legal Analysis discussed the results of a 1991 survey, stating that: "The Court's school prayer decisions were, and still are, deeply unpopular with the public, many politicians and most religions organizations. 95 percent of the population believe in God and some 60 percent belong to a religious organization. In a 1991 opinion poll, 78 percent of Americans support the reintroduction of school prayer."[12] As a result of public support for school prayer in the United States, The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States reports, "the public's support for school prayer was translated by various state legislatures into statutes aiding religious schools and practices."[13] Analysis of multiple polls since the 1970s by sociologist Philip Schwadel showed support for school prayer dipped slightly but remains popular with the majority of Americans, with a recent 2011 poll showing 65 percent support.[14]

text: Canada[edit]

text: British Columbia[edit]

text: Prior to 1944, in British Columbia, the Public Schools Act (1872) permitted the use of the Lord’s Prayer in opening or closing school. In 1944, the government of British Columbia amended the Public Schools Act to provide for compulsory Bible reading at the opening of the school day, to be followed by a compulsory recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. This amendment appeared as section 167 of the Public Schools Act, and read as follows:[15]

text: 167. All public schools shall be opened by the reading, without explanation or comment, of a passage of Scripture to be selected from readings prescribed or approved by the Council of Public Instruction. The reading of the passage of Scripture shall be followed by the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, but otherwise the schools shall be conducted on strictly secular and non-sectarian principles. The highest morality shall be inculcated, but no religious dogma or creed shall be taught. 1948, c.42, s.167

text: The compulsory nature of the Bible reading and prayer recitation was slightly modified by regulations drawn up by the Council of Public Instruction. These regulations provided that either a teacher or student who has conscientious ground for objecting to the religious observances may be excused from them. The procedure to be followed in such cases was outlined in the regulations, which follow in full:

text: Division (15)—Scripture Readings (Section 167)

text: 15.01 Where a teacher sends a written notice to the Board of School Trustees or official trustee by whom he is employed that he has conscientious objections to conducting the. ceremony of reading prescribed selections from the Bible and reciting the Lord’s Prayer (as provided by Section 167 of the Public Schools Act), he shall be excused from such duty, and in such case it shall be the duty of the Board of School Trustees or official trustee concerned to arrange with the Principal to have the ceremony conducted by some other teacher in the school, or by a school trustee, or, where neither of these alternatives is possible, by one of the senior pupils of the school or by some other suitable person other than an ordained member of a religious sect or denomination.

text: 15.02 Where the parent or guardian of any pupil attending a public school sends a written notice to the teacher of the pupil stating that for conscientious reasons he does not wish the pupil to attend the ceremony of reading prescribed selections from the Bible and reciting the Lord’s Prayer at the opening of school, the teacher shall excuse the pupil from attendance at such ceremony and at his discretion may assign the pupil some other useful employment at school during that period, but the pupil so excused shall not be deprived of any other benefits of the school by reason of his non-attendance at the ceremony.

text: In 1982, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms received royal assent. Section 2 of the charter guaranteeing freedom of conscience and freedom of religion trumped Section 167 of the Public Schools Act (1872). Sixteen years later in 1996, based on precedent that would be established in Ontario (1989), required recitation of the Lord’s Prayer as outlined in the Public Schools Act would be held to violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

text: Ontario[edit]

text: The challenges to Christian opening and closing exercises occurred mainly in Ontario with the crucial case being fought in The Ontario Court of Appeal in 1988.[16]

text: Zylberberg v. Sudbury Board of Education (Director) The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the use of the Lord’s Prayer in opening exercises in public schools offended the Charter s. 2(a). 1988. (1988), 65 O.R. (2d) 641, 29 O.A.C. 23 (C.A.). Education regulations did not require the use of the Lord's Prayer and there was an exemption provision. The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the regulation infringed religious freedom because schools could use only the Lord's Prayer rather than a more inclusive approach. It was argued that the exemption provision effectively stigmatized children and coerced them into a religious observance which was offensive to them.

text: The Ontario Court of Appeal was persuaded by the argument that the need to seek exemption from Christian exercises is itself a form of religious discrimination. The judges described as insensitive the position of the respondents that it was beneficial for the minority children to confront the fact of their difference from the majority.

text: Russow v. British Columbia[edit]

text: In 1989, Joan Russow challenged, in the British Columbia Supreme Court, the Public Schools Act’s requirement that in British Columbia all public schools were to be opened with the Lord’s Prayer and a Bible reading. The argument was similar to the Zylberberg case and the result was the same: The offending words in the Public Schools Act were removed as being inconsistent with freedom of conscience and religion guarantees in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Further following the Zylberberg case to strike down use of the Lord’s Prayer in schools,[17] the British Columbia Supreme Court incorporated the Ontario Court of Appeal's decision in Zylberberg in its entirety.

text: From 1871 to 1989, observance of school prayer had declined.

text: With the unfavorable court decision, the requirement for Christian morning exercises was replaced with the following clauses found in the School Act (1996) in British Columbia.[18]

text: Conduct:

text: 76 (1) All schools and Provincial schools must be conducted on strictly secular and nonsectarian principles.

text: (2) The highest morality must be inculcated, but no religious dogma or creed is to be – taught in a school or Provincial school.

text: France[edit]

text: As a declared 'laïque' (roughly 'religiously neutral', secular) state, France has no school prayers. Instead, public servants are advised to keep their religious faith private, and may be censured if they display it too openly. The French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools goes beyond restricting prayer in schools and bans the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols by pupils in public primary and secondary schools.

text: Turkey[edit]

text: The predominantly Muslim country of Turkey is in the public sphere a strongly secular nation. In this regard, it is much like France, on whose system of laïcism its founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk modelled the rules on religion when he reformed his country in the early 20th century. School prayer is therefore unknown, and suspected religious motivations can cause serious difficulties for public servants. Despite its primarily secular stance, however, courses of religion and morals (which are dominantly Islamic) are compulsory to all students during the last years of elementary and throughout high school. In these instances, various Islamic prayers and verses are both taught and tested for.

text: Countries that permit school-sponsored prayer[edit]

text: United Kingdom[edit]

text: In England and Wales, the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 states that all pupils in state schools must take part in a daily act of collective worship, unless their parents request that they be excused from attending.[19] The majority of these acts of collective worship are required to be "wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character", with two exceptions:

text:
Religious schools, which should provide worship appropriate to the school's religion (although most religious schools in the UK are Christian.)
Schools where the local education authority's Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education has determined that Christian worship would not be appropriate for part or all of the school.

tag: ul

text: Although there is a statutory requirement for schools to hold a daily act of collective worship, most do not. Ofsted's 2002-03 annual report, for example, states that 80% of secondary schools are not providing daily worship for all pupils.[20]

text: Ongoing debate[edit]

text: Arguments for and against school prayer[edit]

text: The issue of school prayer remains contentious even where courts as diverse as those in Canada, the United States, Russia, and Poland attempt to strike a balance between religious and secular activity in state-sponsored arenas.[11] Some arguments have held that religion in schools is both an effective sociomoral tool[21][22] as well as a valuable means to psychological stability.[23] On the opposing side, others have argued that prayer has no place in a classroom where impressionable students are continually subject to influence by the majority.[16] The latter kind of claim holds that, to the extent that a public school itself promotes the majority religion, the state is guilty of coercive interference in the lives of the individual.[24]

text: In recent years, programs derived from yoga, a Hindu religious practice, have been introduced into public schools in the U.S. Advocates for the programs say they help children to relax and concentrate, but critics counter that the programs violate the separation of church and state.[25][26]

text: "Moment of silence"[edit]

text: Despite ongoing debate, there are some instances where religious freedom and secular stability have been temporarily balanced. In the United States, some administrations have introduced a "moment of silence" or "moment of reflection" in which a student may, if he or she wishes to, offer a silent prayer. The US Supreme Court decision in Wallace v. Jaffree (1984) held that a moment of silence in schools for the purpose of individual prayer or meditation constituted a valid application of the Free Exercise Clause, while a moment of silence for the clear intended purpose of a state-approved devotional activity constituted a violation of the Establishment Clause.[8] In this same case, the issue of school prayer was further complicated by a distinction made between a public assembly attended by participants of their own free will, and a public event where attendance is legally required. A voluntarily attended Congress may open sessions with a prayer, but schools full of public pupils may not. Here the US Supreme Court has interpreted the issue as revolving around the degree of a government’s ability to indoctrinate its citizens.[8] If it appears that participants at a state-sponsored event are more likely to influence the State itself, courts may treat prayer as "legislative prayer". If, on the other hand, the State is more likely to influence participants at its events, courts may treat prayer as "state-sponsored" prayer and thereby rule it unconstitutional.[27]


document_title: Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

question_text: who did patsy marry in ab fab movie

question_tokens: who did patsy marry in ab fab movie

text: Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

text: Plot[edit]

text: The ever-glamorous and self-indulgent Edina and Patsy are now in their 60s, and Edina is still running her PR agency, which is quickly running out of money and interest. The duo realise that Edina needs a miracle to save her PR company and renew her reputation.

text: Bubble wakes up a hungover Edina, who has come home from a fashion event. Edina realises that she signs a deal for an autobiography that day. Edina wakes Patsy up and tells her about her book, and how it will be "made into a film because it's about her life", whilst Patsy self-applies Botox. The company head (Mark Gatiss) rejects Edina's book because it is lazily written and there is little interest in Edina's PR agency. While Patsy is setting up designer Huki Muki's fashion event, Patsy learns that supermodel Kate Moss is changing her PR, and immediately informs Edina. Patsy phones whilst Edina is at a PR meeting with rival PR Claudia Bing (Celia Imrie) and during the phone call with Patsy she accidentally leaves her phone on "speaker" and Claudia learns that Kate Moss needs a new PR.

text: Edina and Patsy go to the fashion event with Edina's granddaughter Lola while Saffron "Saffy" Monsoon, Edina's daughter and Lola's mother, has a night out with her new boyfriend Nick (Robert Webb). Edina finds Kate Moss on the balcony overlooking the Thames. As she moves to speak to her, she notices that Claudia is also heading for her. Rushing to get to Kate first, Edina accidentally bumps into her and she falls off the balcony and into the Thames.

text: Hysteria pervades the event as Kate is presumed dead. The media immediately storms the scene to report her disappearance and assumed death. Edina and Patsy, along with Lola, are taken into police custody. Saffy arrives to see them and make sure Lola is all right.

text: Edina returns home the next day. Patsy arrives angry; she's been fired from her job because of her association with Edina and the previous night's events. The pair make up and return to the Thames to look for Kate, using Bubble with a flashing beacon upon her head to simulate and retrace how Moss may have been carried away, but the beacon comes loose and unable to find Bubble, they presume her dead, too. They decide to flee before the media firestorm gets worse, taking Lola and her credit card along. The three land in Cannes while Saffy desperately searches for Lola or clues to her whereabouts back in London, finally consulting Christopher (Chris Colfer), Edina's friend and stylist.

text: In Cannes, Edina and Patsy call upon Patsy's ex-lover, billionaire Charlie (Barry Humphries). After Charlie rejects them, they seek help from Edina's mother (June Whitfield), who is celebrating her cousin Violet's birthday. During this party, they encounter the Richest Woman in the World. To attract the Woman and get quick money, Patsy quickly changes her identity to a male alter-ego, "Pat" Stone. The following day, Patsy marries the Rich Woman and Edina and Patsy find the wealth they were looking for as they stay in a high-class hotel with Dame Joan Collins and Dame Edna Everage as fellow guests.

text: Meanwhile, Edina and Patsy are seen in public by Emma Bunton who tells Lulu about their whereabouts. Saffy arrives in Cannes with Nick and immediately heads to the hotel to find Lola. Lola is with Emma who tells Saffy of Edina's whereabouts, even though it is the least of Saffy's concerns. Lulu flies out to Cannes and meets with Bubble, who reveals that Kate just swam off and did not drown in the Thames. Bubble also reveals that she is also a millionaire and owns a massive Cannes pavilion because she has had control of Eddie's accounts for years, and has been embezzling from the company.

text: Lulu reports Edina and Patsy's whereabouts to the police, since her only desire is to destroy Edina for what she has done. The police find Edina and Patsy and chase them through the town, the duo escaping in a small three-wheeled fish-market van. As they reach Bubble's pavilion, the van's brakes fail and they roll backwards and fall into an infinity pool attached to Bubble's house. Saffy arrives at the scene to find Edina and Patsy slowly sinking into the pool, still inside the van. Edina apologises to Saffy for being a careless mother and wishes to drown in the pool, and to finally embrace the fact that she is old and can't run from justice forever. Saffy tells her that she loves her. Bubble reveals that Kate Moss didn't drown in the Thames, and Edina immediately exits the van, realizing she's innocent.

text: A montage plays of countries celebrating that Kate Moss is still alive and that Edina is her new PR. Edina's PR agency is renewed, and Kate is in even more demand now that she has been found. The film finishes with Patsy revealing to her rich wife that she isn't actually a man called "Pat" and is really a woman. Her wife reveals that she is actually a man and the film closes with the series's popular theme song, "This Wheel's on Fire" sung by Kylie Minogue.

text: Cast[edit]

text: Main cast[edit]

text:
Jennifer Saunders as Edina "Eddy" Monsoon[4]
Joanna Lumley as Patsy Stone[4]
Julia Sawalha as Saffron "Saffy" Monsoon[4]
June Whitfield as Mother[4]
Jane Horrocks as Bubble[4] and Shirley Bassey impersonator
Chris Colfer[5] as Christopher
Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness as Jane "Lola" Johnson
Christopher Ryan as Marshall Turtle
Mo Gaffney as Bo Chrysalis Turtle
Kathy Burke as Magda[6]
Helen Lederer as Catriona
Harriet Thorpe as Fleur
Celia Imrie as Claudia Bing[7]
Robert Webb as Nick
Marcia Warren as Lubliana
Barry Humphries as Charlie
Lulu as Herself
Emma Bunton as Herself
Kate Moss as Herself
Wanda Ventham as Violet
Janette Tough as Huki Muki
Rebel Wilson as Flight Attendant
Rylan Clark-Neal as Flight Attendant
Mark Gatiss as Joel

text: Celebrity cameos[edit]

text: Multiple celebrity cameo appearances in the film were announced over the course of filming.[4][5][8][9][10][11][12] In April 2016, Fox and the BBC confirmed a list of 60 cameos, most of which had not yet been announced, that would be featured in the film.[13][14] They include:

text:
Richard Arnold[13]
Christopher Biggins[13]
Ozwald Boateng[13]
Judith Chalmers[13]
Gwendoline Christie as herself[13][14]
Alexa Chung[13]
Abbey Clancy[13]
Rylan Clark-Neal as Ryan[9]
Joan Collins[5][8][13]
Lily Cole as herself[7][14]
Giles Deacon[13]
Cara Delevingne[12]
Poppy Delevingne[13]
Alice Dellal[13]
Alesha Dixon[13]
Jourdan Dunn[13]
Beattie Edmondson as Claudia's assistant[13]
Ella Eyre[13]
Foxes[13]
Dawn French as Talk Show Host[13]
Sadie Frost[13]
Jean Paul Gaultier[11][13]
Llewella Gideon as Llewella
Nick Grimshaw[13]
Orla Guerin as herself[13]
Jerry Hall[7][13]
Jon Hamm[13][14]
Jodie Harsh[13]
Perez Hilton[13]
Anya Hindmarch[13]
Pam Hogg[13]
Kelly Hoppen as herself[13]
Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphries)[13]
Jocelyn Jee Esien as Nigerian TV Presenter
Alex Jones[13]
La Roux as herself[13]
Jamie Laing[13]
Kathy Lette[13]
Daisy Lowe[13]
Stella McCartney as herself[13][14]
Suzy Menkes[13]
Nick Mohammed as Caspar[13]
Graham Norton as himself[13]
Miquita Oliver[13]
Jade Parfitt[13]
Jeremy Paxman[13]
Sophie Raworth[13]
Camilla Rutherford[13]
Brix Smith[13]
Lara Stone[13]
Tinie Tempah[13]
Bruno Tonioli as himself[13]
Suki Waterhouse[13]
Kirsty Wark[13]

text: About 90 drag queens appeared in the film, including Daniel Lismore, and Charlie Hides.

text: Development and production[edit]

text: Saunders wrote and starred in Absolutely Fabulous, a British television sitcom for the BBC which originally ran for three series from 1992 to 1995, with intermittent additional series and specials through 2012.[15][16] Absolutely Fabulous features the champagne-fueled duo of "international PR guru" Edina Monsoon (Saunders) and "sex-crazed magazine editor" Patsy Stone (Lumley).[15] Additional characters include Edina's overly serious daughter Saffron (Sawalha), her daffy mother (Whitfield) and her even daffier assistant Bubble (Horrocks).[17]

text: Writing[edit]

text: Deadline.com broke the story in November 2011 that Saunders planned to begin writing a film version of the series in 2012.[15] The movie would begin with Edina and Patsy waking up hungover after a party on an oligarch's yacht, with everyone else gone and the boat somewhere the middle of the ocean.[15][18] Saunders later said that she hoped to shoot the film on the French Riviera.[19] In March 2012, Saunders confirmed that she was working on the script.[20] She said of the plot:

text: Eddy and Patsy are looking for what they imagine glamorous life should be. They're constantly searching for that perfect place to sit or that perfect pair of sunglasses. It's Shangri-La and it just might be round the next corner. In the meantime, they decide to take Saffy's daughter off her—she calls her Jane, I call her Lola—but then they lose her.[20]

text: Calling herself the "worst procrastinator in the world",[21] Saunders said in January 2014:

text: Yes, well I have to do it now because I've threatened to a lot ... And then she [Lumley] kept announcing it and saying, "Yes, she's going to do it," and then Dawn French on our radio show at Christmas said, "I bet £100,000 that you don't write it," so now I have to write it, otherwise I have to pay her £100,000 ... Once you've had a bit of success, the last thing you want to do is go and make a flop. So the biggest fear in me is that it won't be good enough. I'm really nervous about it.[21]

text: In April 2014, Saunders again confirmed on BBC Breakfast that she was in the process of writing the film.[22] In April 2015, Saunders explained her delay with the script, saying "I think that's why I didn't do it for a while ... I thought, 'Wouldn't it be awful if it was awful.'"[23] She then quipped, "but we're all so old, and Joanna [Lumley] said to me, 'Do it before we die!' We're all on the brink."[23] Saunders also noted, "[The film] involves all the main characters and virtually everyone that's ever been in the series—all those characters".[23] Lumley confirmed in July 2015 that the film's script was finished and that production would begin in October.[24] She said of the project, "We are all there, the same old gang ... It is going to be ravishingly funny! Very gorgeous ... and completely fabulous!"[24]

text: Production and filming[edit]

text: In August 2015, Deadline.com reported that "all of the original main cast" were confirmed, with Fox Searchlight Pictures in negotiations to co-finance and co-produce the film with BBC Films, and to handle worldwide distribution.[25] It was also announced that Mandie Fletcher would direct, with Jon Plowman and Damian Jones as producers and Saunders, French and Maureen Vincent as executive producers.[25] Deadline.com later reported that Christine Langan, Steve Milne, Christian Eisenbeiss and Nichola Martin were also executive producing, with DanTram Nguyen, Vice President of Production and Katie Goodson-Thomas, Director of Production overseeing the project for Fox .[26]

text: Principal photography on the film began on 12 October 2015 in south of France.[25][27] The BBC and Fox Searchlight subsequently released a promotional image of Saunders and Lumley in character on a yacht.[26] Along with Sawalha, Whitfield and Horrocks,[4] Kathy Burke was confirmed to be reprising her role as Magda,[6] and Kate Moss, Emma Bunton and Lulu would appear in guest roles as themselves, as they had in the TV series.[4] The cameo appearances of Harry Styles, Kelly Hoppen and Kim Kardashian were also announced as filming began.[4] Multiple other celebrity cameos were announced during production,[4][5][8][9][10][11][12] culminating with a 60-name list released in April 2016.[13][14]

text: Deadline.com's Ali Jaafar wrote of the film's plot in October 2015:

text: Edina and Patsy are still oozing glitz and glamour, living the high life they are accustomed to; shopping, drinking and clubbing their way around London’s trendiest hotspots. Blamed for a major incident at an uber fashionable launch party, they become entangled in a media storm and are relentlessly pursued by the paparazzi. Fleeing penniless to the glamorous playground of the super-rich, the French Riviera, they hatch a plan to make their escape permanent and live the high life forevermore![26]

text: Controversy[edit]

text: In December 2015, the film sparked controversy and accusations of racism when it was announced that caucasian comedian Janette Tough would be playing a Japanese character named Huki Muki.[28][29] Korean American comedian Margaret Cho accused Ab Fab: The Movie of "yellowface", which she described as "when white people portray Asian people. And unfortunately it's happening in this film."[28] Upon release of the film it became apparent that the character was not, in fact, Japanese but Scottish. When asked about the controversy, Jennifer Saunders replied "the whole film is about people being what they're not, Huki Muki is a brand, she is the designer and she looks a bit Japanese, but the moment she opens her mouth she's from Glasgow. There's no yellow makeup..."[30]

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text: Australian singer Kylie Minogue recorded and released a promotional single, "This Wheel's on Fire", as the official theme song for the film.[31] This new version of the track, produced by Richard Stannard and Ash Howes, was released on June 10, 2016.[32] The soundtrack, which also include songs from Paloma Faith (whose "Ready for the Good Life" appears in the film's trailer), La Roux, Jason Derulo, Eartha Kitt, Nancy Sinatra, Santigold and others, was released on July 22, 2016 via Rhino Records.[33] It debuted at number 38 on the ARIA Albums Chart in Australia on 6 August.[34]

text: Release[edit]

text: The film was released in the United Kingdom on 1 July 2016[3] and was released in the UK on Blu-ray and DVD on 5 December 2016.

text: Reception[edit]

text: Box office[edit]

text: As of 7 August 2016[update], Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie has grossed $37 million worldwide, including $20.8 million in the United Kingdom, $4.2 million in the United States, under very limited release and $6.2 million in Australia. It was also released in New Zealand.[2]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 62% based on 117 reviews; the average rating is 5.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie picks up pretty much where its source material left off, delivering an adaptation that, as fans of this British export might say, does what it says on the tin."[35] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 59 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[36]

text: Awards and nominations[edit]

text:
Year
Association
Category
Nominee(s)
Result

2017
Diversity in Media Awards
Movie of the Year

Nominated

tag: table

text: Cancelled possible sequel[edit]

text: Jennifer Saunders has hinted that a sequel may be considered if this movie does well at the box office.[37] However, on 28 November 2016, Jennifer Saunders confirmed that she "was done with Absolutely Fabulous" and it would not be returning to television for another series, or specials, nor would a sequel to the film be made. Saunders now wishes to focus on new projects and spend more time with her family.[38]

text: Home media[edit]

text: Absolutely Fabulous The Movie released on DVD , Blu-ray and Digital Download in the UK and Ireland on 5 December 2016.[39]


document_title: David Baldacci

question_text: what kind of books does david baldacci write

text: David Baldacci

text: Biography[edit]

text: Early life and education[edit]

text: David Baldacci was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. He graduated from Henrico High School and earned a B.A. at Virginia Commonwealth University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, after which he practiced law for nine years in Washington, D.C. He is of Italian descent from Barga, in Tuscany.[2]

text: Career[edit]

text: Baldacci began writing stories as a child, when his mother gave him a notebook in which to record them. He wrote for more than two decades, penning short stories and later screenplays without much success.

text: While practicing law, he turned to novel writing, taking three years to write Absolute Power. Published in 1996, it was an international best seller. To date, Baldacci has published 34 best-selling novels for adults as well as six novels for younger readers.

text: Personal life and charities[edit]

text: Baldacci resides in Fairfax County, Virginia, with his family.[3]

text: Baldacci and his wife, Michelle, are the co-founders of the Wish You Well Foundation,[4] which works to combat illiteracy in the United States.[5] Baldacci became involved with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society after his sister, author Sharon Baldacci, was diagnosed with MS.[6]

text: Works[edit]

text: Baldacci's first novel, Absolute Power, tells the story of a fictional American President and his Secret Service agents who are willing to commit murder, in order to cover up the accidental death of a woman with whom the President was having an affair. It was adapted as a film, Absolute Power (1997), starring Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman.

text: Baldacci wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of his novel Wish You Well; the movie was shot on location in southwest Virginia with Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn, Josh Lucas, and Mackenzie Foy in the lead roles.

text: Baldacci was a consulting producer on King & Maxwell, a TNT television series based on his characters Sean King and Michelle Maxwell.

text: Baldacci's novels have been translated into over 45 languages and sold in more than 80 countries. Over 110 million copies of his books were in print worldwide, as of 2013.[7]

text: Bibliography[edit]

text: Children's books[edit]

text:
The Finisher (Scholastic Press, 2014) Baldacci's first fantasy novel for young readers
The Keeper (Scholastic Press, 2015), sequel to The Finisher
The Width of the World (2017), sequel to The Keeper

text: Day of Doom (Scholastic Publishing, 2013) Book 6 in the "Cahills Vs. Vespers" series of The 39 Clues books

text:
Freddy and the French Fries: Fries Alive! (Little, Brown and Company, 2005), Baldacci's debut novel for young readers
Freddy and the French Fries: The Mystery of Silas Finklebean (Little, Brown and Company, 2006)

text: Adult novels[edit]

text: Series[edit]

text: The Camel Club series[edit]

text:
The Camel Club (2005)
The Collectors (2006)
Stone Cold (2007)
Divine Justice (2008)
Hell's Corner (2010)
Bullseye (2014, published as a bonus story in 2014 re-publication of The Christmas Train)

text: Sean King and Michelle Maxwell series[edit]

text:
Split Second (2003)
Hour Game (2004)
Simple Genius (2007)
First Family (2009)
The Sixth Man (2011)
King and Maxwell (2013)

text: Shaw and Katie James series[edit]

text:
The Whole Truth (2008)
Deliver Us From Evil (2010)

text: John Puller series[edit]

text:
Zero Day (2011)
The Forgotten (2012)
The Escape (2014)
No Man's Land (Nov 2016)

text: Will Robie series[edit]

text:
The Innocent (2012)
The Hit (2013)
Bullseye (novella) (2014)
The Target (2014)
The Guilty (2015)
End Game (2017)

text: Amos Decker series[edit]

text:
Memory Man (2015)
The Last Mile (2016)
The Fix (2017) [8]

text: Stand-alone novels[edit]

text:
Absolute Power (1996)
Total Control (1997)
The Winner (1998)
The Simple Truth (1998)
Saving Faith (1999)
Wish You Well (2001)
Last Man Standing (2001)
The Christmas Train (2003)
True Blue (2009)
One Summer (2011)
No Time Left (novella) (2012)

text: Adaptations[edit]

text:
Absolute Power (1997 film), starring Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, and Ed Harris.
King & Maxwell (2013 TV series), starring Jon Tenney and Rebecca Romijn.
Wish You Well (2013 film), starring Mackenzie Foy, Josh Lucas, and Ellen Burstyn.