Frederick William Savidge (1862 – 1935) was a pioneer English Christian missionary in northeast India. He and James Herbert Lorrain brought Protestantism to Mizoram, and some parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Together they were entirely responsible for the creation of written language in Mizo, beginning of literacy, origin of formal education and establishment of churches in Mizoram. They devised the original Mizo alphabets based on Roman script, prepared the first book and dictionary in Mizo, started the first school among the Mizos.  Mizoram has become the most Christian populated state in India. As a professional educator Savidge was single-handedly responsible for introducing quality education in Mizoram (now the second highest in literacy rate in India). He is deservedly known as the Father of Mizo Education.

Early life

Frederick William Savidge was born in 1862 in Stretham, a small village in Cambridgeshire. His family belonged to Baptist Church. He had BA and PhD degrees. He worked as schoolmaster in London, where he met his future missionary partner J. H. Lorrain. The two became friends through their congregation at the Highgate Road Baptist Church in London. In 1891 he accepted the missionary post offered by the Arthington Aborigines Mission to work in India. He quitted his teaching job and left England in October 1891. He sailed for India and arrived in Calcutta in November. He attended an evangelical campaign at Brahmanbaria (now in Bangladesh) organised by the New Zealand Baptists where he met Lorrain. Lorrain was already in India since 1 January 1890.

Mission in India

Arthington Mission

Savidge and Lorrain were to start camping and work in Tripura according to the plan of Arthington Aborigines Mission. From Brahmanbaria they headed east into Tripura, where their visit was bluntly objected by the ruler, Maharaja. Dejected they travelled northward into Chittagong. Here they stayed for sometime awaiting permission to enter Lushai Hills (now Mizoram). Since Lushai Hills was still under tribal chieftainships with constant warfare, their application was deferred and allowed to stay at Kasalong village, the nearest possible location. The area suffered a heavy shortage of food supply, and infectious diseases were rampant. They stayed for a few months under constant hunger. To defend themselves from any tribal intrusion the Rangamati Commissioner provided them with a rifle. Unfortunately neither of them had any experience in shooting, and failed to hit jungle fowls flogging around their hut. Then they suffered from severe dysentery. The medical doctor advised them to move to Darjeeling where a colder climate would revive them. After they recovered the doctor suggested they return to England for fear of their health. They were more determined than ever and soon sought passage to Mizoram. They stayed at Silchar for one whole year in 1893. Fortunately they could encounter some Mizo visitors from time to time, so that they could start learning their language. Finally a permit was issued and they immediately set off on Tlawng River in a canoe on Boxing Day of 1893. They arrived in Aizawl on 11 January 1894. The day is now observed as public holiday as "Missionary Day" in the state. They made camp at Thingpui Huan Tlang, MacDonald Hill, Zarkawt. They were the first foreigners the Mizo had ever seen having not authority on anything, so that they soon earned the nickname Sap Vakvai ("Vagabond Sahibs"). They immediately worked on creating Mizo alphabets based on Roman script. After only two and half months, Savidge started the first school on 1 April 1894. Their first and only pupils were Suaka and Thangphunga. The first book in Mizo Mizo Zir Tir Bu (A Lushai Primer) was released on 22 October 1895. They translated and published the Gospels of Luke and John, and Acts of the Apostles. They also prepared A Grammar and Dictionary of the Lushai language (Dulien Dialect) which they published in 1898, and became the foundation of Mizo language.

Mission to Arunachalis

The Arthington Mission mandated that the missionaries should move to new fields, and handed over its field to Welsh Presbyterian Mission in 1897. The Welsh Mission objected to the continued service of Savidge and Lorrain because of their Baptist persuasion. They left Aizawl for England on 31 December 1897. After taking up a brief course of medicine, they ventured back to India in the name of Assam Frontier Pioneer Mission, an independent mission. They first worked at Sadya in Assam (now Arunachal Pradesh) among the Abor and Miri tribes. They prepared Gospels in their language, and compiled the Abor-Miri Dictionary.

Baptist mission to southern Mizoram

Since the Welsh Mission managed only the northern part of Mizoram, the Baptist Missionary Society of London adopted the new field. The experienced Baptist workers Savidge and Lorrain were the immediate choice. They accepted the appointment and arrived in Lunglei on 13 March 1903 and settled at Serkawn. This marked the establishment of Baptist Church in Mizoram.  For effective administration Savidge took up education and social works, while Lorrain pursued pastoral and translation works. They both got married during this period. The Savidges were fully devoted to school management, theology classes, medical centre and social services.  Their educational works were a tremendous success that by 1921 there were already fifteen schools with 421 students in the region. The medical services were strengthened as a small dispensary in 1919 with the help new missionaries. The dispensary ultimately developed into the present day Christian Hospital Serkawn. The present Baptist Higher Secondary School, Serkawn, was established as an extension of Savidge's school. Evangelism in Mizoram was recorded as the most successful development in any BMS field in the 20th century. Between 1919 and 1924, the total Baptist community increased from 3,670 to 8,770, and church membership from 1,017 to 3,198.

Honorific names

Savidge and Lorrain were given an honorific title Zosap (meaning "Mizo Sahib" or "respected master". Note that "sahib" was adopted from a Hindi title meaning "master") because of their services to Mizos. When David Evan Jones from the Welsh Mission arrived in 1897 to take over the mission, Mizo called the young Welshman "Zosapthara" (meaning "the new/fresh Mizo Sahib"), Jones automatically became "Zosaphluia" ("the older Mizo Sahib"), and Savidge became "Sap Upa" (simply "old Sahib") as he was the oldest. Lorrain, on the other hand, due to his different complexion became "Pu Buanga" ("Mr Grey"). They were known only by their new names among the Mizos.

Later years

Savidge became poorer in health and retired in 1925. He left Mizoram on 13 April 1925 for England. He brought home a soil from Serkawn to be buried with him. He lived in London, but his health was worsened by diabetes mellitus. After long suffering he died on 28 September 1935.

References

Further reading

Mizorama missionary hmasa ber: Rev. Dr. F.W. Savidge & Rev. J.H. Lorrain (sap upa & pu buanga) : an sulhnu-Mizote ro hlu bihchianna. Research & Development Department, Academy of Integrated Christian Studies, 2012, pages 152.

1862 births
1935 deaths
English Baptist missionaries
Baptist missionaries in India
Christianity in Mizoram
British people in colonial India
People from Stretham

Frederick William Savidge


Socialist Youth League of Norway (in Norwegian: Norges sosialistiske ungdomsforbund), initially founded as the Social Democratic Youth League of Norway (Norges sosialdemokratiske ungdomsforbund), was the youth wing of the Social Democratic Labour Party of Norway (NSA). NSU was formed on January 8, 1922.

In May 1926, the organization took its later name.

The organ of NSU was Arbeiderungdommen.

At a unity congress held in 1927 NSU merged with the Left Communist Youth League (VKU) to form the Workers' Youth League (AUF), as the youth wing of the unified Norwegian Labour Party (DNA).

1922 establishments in Norway
1927 disestablishments in Norway
Youth wings of political parties in Norway
Socialism in Norway

no:Norges sosialistiske ungdomsforbund

Socialist Youth League of Norway


Emilie Maria Claeys (8 or 9 May 1855 - 16 February 1943) was a Belgian feminist and socialist.

Biography
Emilie Claeys was born in Ghent in 1855 as daughter of a labourer who died young. She worked as a spinner and a maidservant before becoming politically active from 1886 on. Raised a Catholic, she lost her faith as an adult. She was an unmarried mother of two by the age of 26.

In 1886 she founded and became president of the "Socialistische Propagandaclub voor Vrouwen" (the Socialist Propaganda Club for Women) in Ghent; this club organised a school for adult women, where they studied French, reading, writing and mathematics. They also organised lectures, reading clubs, art evenings, .. all with the goal of "pull women away from the double morality of men and capitalism". Her goal was the emancipation of women, both in marriage and at the workplace: socialism was only a means to get that goal.

In 1891 she wrote the pamphlet "Een woord aan de vrouwen" ("A word to the women"), about the roles of men and women in education: and in 1892 followed "Het vrouwenstemrecht", about the right for women to vote, a subject she also tackled in multiple lectures in those years, e.g. for the congress of the Belgian Labour Party in April 1893. She was elected there as a member of the party council, and was the first woman to reach this position; she also participated at the International Socialist Congress in Zurich in the same year. In 1895 she left the party again, because she didn't receive sufficient support for her positions.

Still in 1893, she launched together with the Dutch feminist Nellie van Kol the "Hollandsch-Vlaamsche Vrouwenbond" ("Dutch-Flemish Women's Union"), and its biweekly magazine "De Vrouw". In this magazine she published the article "Een ernstig woord" ("A serious word"). The same article was also published as a pamphlet, but nearly all 500 copies were seized by law enforcement. The article promoted birth restriction, and was probably the first such article in Flanders. The subject was highly controversial, and not supported by her own party.

Between 1892 and 1896 Claeys printed and published the socialist newspaper Vooruit (Forward), and during the same period she was a governor of the Bond Moyson, a socialist health insurance. In 1896 she started to live together with a married man, and she was attacked about this in the newspaper Het Volk. Claeys denied having a relation with the man, but in November she was caught in adultery by the police: afterwards she resigned from the newspaper and from the Socialistische Propagandaclub voor Vrouwen, which soon afterwards folded. Only her work with "De Vrouw" continued until 1900. After this, her role at the forefront of feminism in Flanders was done. Claeys continued to live in Ghent, converted to Protestantism, and died in poverty in 1943.

Notes

Further reading

1855 births
1943 deaths
Politicians from Ghent
Belgian women's rights activists
Belgian socialists
19th-century Belgian women

Emilie Claeys


Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (27 June 1838 – 8 April 1894) was a Bengali writer, poet and journalist. He was the composer of India's national song Vande Mataram. It was originally a Bengali and Sanskrit stotra (hymn) portraying India as a mother goddess. The song inspired the activists during the Indian Independence Movement. Chattopadhyay wrote 13 novels. He also wrote several 'serious, serio-comic, satirical, scientific and critical articles in Bengali. His works were widely translated into other regional languages of India.
Chattopadhyay was born to an orthodox Brahmin family. He was educated at Hooghly Mohsin College. The college was founded by Bengali philanthropist Muhammad Mohsin and Presidency College, Calcutta. He was one of the first graduates of the University of Calcutta. From 1858, until his retirement in 1891, he served as a deputy magistrate and deputy collector in the government of British India.

References

Indian writers

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay


The Rule in Wild's Case is a common law rule of construction dating back to 1599 concerning a particular type of ambiguity in devises (such as grants or bequests) of real property:  If a grantor (O) grants, by deed or will, property to another person (A) with the language "To A and her children", who gets lawful possession of the property?

The rule resolves this ambiguity as follows:
 If A has living children at the time of the grant, A and her children take the property as joint tenants.
 If A does not have living children at the time of the grant, A takes the property in fee tail.

This rule has fallen into disuse in those jurisdictions which no longer recognize the fee tail as a legal estate.  Some U.S. states ignore the rule altogether, and interpret such a grant as giving a life estate and creating a remainder in her children.  Section 14.2 of the Restatement (Third) of Property repudiates the Rule in Wild's Case, suggesting that many authorities consider it to be obsolete.

References
Dukeminier, Jesse, Johansen, Stanley M., Lindgren, James, and Sitkoff, Robert. Wills, Trusts, and Estates, 7th Edition, p. 664. Aspen Publishers, 2005.

External links
 Article from Answers.com

1599 in law
16th century in case law
Real property law
Common law rules
Legal history of England

Rule in Wild's Case


The Atom (Raymond "Ray" Palmer) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by editor and co-plotter Julius Schwartz, writer Gardner Fox and penciler Gil Kane. The Atom was one of the first superheroes of the Silver Age of Comic Books and debuted in Showcase #34 (October 1961).

The Atom has been played in various television series by Alfie Wise and John Kassir. He was played by Brandon Routh in Legends of Tomorrow in the shared DC Arrowverse on The CW. His character first appeared in the third season of Arrow.

Publication history
The Atom debuted in Showcase #34 (cover-dated Oct. 1961) from the DC Comics precursor, National Comics. Early comics-fandom pioneer Jerry Bails wrote to the National Comics editor Julius Schwartz in December 1960 outlining an updated version of Al Pratt, the company's 1940s Golden Age Atom. Bails and future Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Roy Thomas collaborated on a suggested version that incorporated elements of a Golden Age hero, Quality Comics' Doll Man. Eventual Atom writer Gardner Fox wrote Bails on January 1, 1961, stating that Schwartz passed along Bails' letter to him.

Schwartz wrote Bails on January 6 saying he had already been planning a new version of the Atom, in the vein of National's reimagined Golden Age superheroes the Flash and Green Lantern, and had already asked artist Gil Kane to sketch designs. Kane, unaware of Bails' suggestions, said he did "a series of drawings" on large illustration boards, including a depiction of the new Atom riding a German shepherd dog and another of a pistol firing at the Atom, who wore the costume he eventually would in his comic debut but without a belt. Kane, who lived in Jericho, New York, on Long Island, at the time, drove to the nearby Hicksville home of DC production person Tom Nicolosi, who colored the drawings using St. Martin's dyes. Schwartz, after seeing the drawings, had the belt added, a detail Kane said he disliked since "it broke up the costume lines." Schwartz said he had not wanted to reuse the Golden Age Atom, Al Pratt, and had read about dwarf stars and thought a fragment of one could power the new hero's miniaturization. He added that he and Fox together plotted the early stories of this new Silver Age Atom. Fox said in 1979, "I doubt that any feedback from Bails or Thomas had very much of an influence, though always kept their ideas in the back of our minds."

His alter ego, Ray Palmer, is an homage to science-fiction magazine editor Raymond A. Palmer.

Fictional character biography

Silver Age
Raymond "Ray" Palmer, is a physicist and professor at Ivy University in the fictional city of Ivy Town, somewhere in New England, specializing in matter compression as a means to fight overpopulation, famine and other world problems. Using a mass of white dwarf star matter he finds after it lands on Earth, Palmer fashions a lens that enables him to shrink any object to any degree he wishes. Compression destabilizes an object's molecular structure, however, causing it to explode.

During a spelunking expedition, Palmer and his students, along with his girlfriend, lawyer Jean Loring, find themselves trapped in a cave. In desperation, Palmer secretly uses the lens he has carried with him to shrink himself to be able to climb through a small opening in the fallen rocks sealing the cave, knowing he will likely explode. Using a diamond engagement ring, Palmer enlarges the hole sufficiently and descends to the floor to try to alert the others of the escape route before dying. However, upon entering the lens' beam, he finds himself returned to normal size and without danger of exploding. As the lens is covered with cave moisture, Palmer believes this has altered the beam to allow this strange effect. When subsequent experiments still result in objects exploding, Palmer concludes some unknown force in his own body allows him to safely size-shift. He decides to use this effect to become a superhero. A retcon in Brightest Day: The Atom Special (July 2010) removes the influence of his exotic physical makeup, tying his survival instead to the discovery of a compression matrix, a fabric able to spread the effects of the ray on the entire body, stabilizing it. The prototype matrix later became his costume.

Palmer creates a belt tool to control his miniaturization to subatomic size with an emergency backup mechanism in his gloves, and develops a costume that he can wear at most times that only becomes visible when he shrinks significantly. In addition, he develops equipment that allows him to decrease his weight in addition to his size, allowing him to glide on air currents on a low setting, while a high setting allows him to handle or strike objects with the equivalent strength of his normal size and build. A favorite travel method is to call some location on the telephone and when the phone is answered, Palmer can shrink enough to travel through the phone lines in seconds to emerge out the answering phone.

He carries out the bulk of his early superheroic adventures in Ivy Town, where he often helps his girlfriend, Jean Loring, win her cases. Much later, he gains the innate equivalent powers within his own body.

Palmer has fought against several alien and supernatural threats, as well as having his own rogues gallery: his arch enemy is Chronos the Time Bandit, the menace of the Bug-Eyed Bandit, the dangerous eco-terrorist Floronic Man, and the miniature misguided Bat-Knights of Elvaran. He also had several time travel adventures by means of Professor Alpheus V. Hyatt's Time Pool. The Atom is a member of several incarnations of the Justice League, and the team is gracious enough to supply a special chair scaled to his default size which can elevate to whatever height needed so he can easily partake in team meetings without having to go out of costume. There, he meets Hawkman (Katar Hol pre-Hawkworld, Carter Hall post-Hawkworld), one of his closest friends in the superhero community. Neither character achieved major popularity, and even in their heyday were mostly supporting characters, often with Palmer as a specialist in size alteration who was often needed to access extremely confined areas only he could access. Hawkman would manufacture prosthetic wings for a myna Ray saved, taking on the name Major Mynah and became the Atom's partner and steed.

Sword of the Atom, Power of the Atom, and Teen Titans

The Atom had one short-lived miniseries and three subsequent specials, all titled Sword of the Atom, in which Palmer abandons civilization after divorcing his wife Jean, who had an affair with fellow lawyer Paul Hoben, and becomes the hero of a tribe of six-inch (152 mm) -tall yellow-skinned humanoid aliens called Morlaidhans in the jungles of South America. He also becomes consort to their princess, Laethwyn. Palmer bequeathes his size-changing belt and role as Ivy Town's protector to Jean's new husband, Hoben. During this time, Palmer's friend Norman Brawler pens the book The Atom's Farewell, in which he reveals Palmer's identity as the Atom.

Eventually the colony is destroyed, despite Palmer's attempt to save it, by a group associated with the US Government acting as loggers. Palmer is forced to escape via the telephone to North America. In the attempt, he fails to anticipate that the connection will involve satellite relay and the unexpectedly arduous trip causes him to remain at approximately three feet high and without his costume's size changing equipment.

With the help of a friend, Ray creates a new costume from the material of the white dwarf star. This time, instead of a belt, Palmer uses an encephalotronic grid in the costume's headpiece to control the costume. The grid is keyed to his unique brainwaves. This enables him to transfer his mass into an unknown dimension which allows him to alter his size and weight just by thinking about it. He can even make the new costume appear or disappear with a thought by shifting most of its atoms to or from the other dimension. This allows him to be in costume while at full height or to shrink without having to have his costume appear. He can even increase his weight while remaining six inches (152 mm) tall or reduce his weight while remaining at full size. Ray often does this and is then light enough to ride wind currents, where he actually appears to be flying to a limited degree. Palmer also develops a mental link with the white dwarf matter to which he has been regularly exposed. Most of the mass lies within another dimension. Ray can draw upon that mass and hit with a super-concussive force. He has been shown to punch through concrete walls, crush an exam table and break the axle of a car that is moving at high speed.

Palmer would learn of those behind the genocide of the Morlaidhans, namely five CIA operatives, part of a group called the Cabal. In a mission called Operation: Fireball, the tiny aliens were murdered in hopes Ray would return as the Atom and become a tool for the Cabal (as Ray worked for the CIA in his earlier years). Instead, Palmer shrank the five agents to six-inch height and the CIA would employ them as a group called Micro/Squad. The Atom would take on new enemies during this period, such as Humbug, a sentient robot in control of an army of duplicates of itself, and Strobe, a technological armor-clad crook. Micro/Squad would also return, attempting to murder Palmer for what he did to them. Instead, teammate Ginsburg dies in the explosion they set and Ray approaches Adam Cray about becoming the new Atom to bring the remaining Micro/Squad into the open. Cray agrees, steals Paul Hoben's size-changing belt, and joins the Suicide Squad. The plan works as the villains emerge and Palmer takes the place of operative Sting; but their leader, Blacksnake, kills Cray and takes the belt for himself, returning to normal height. Blacksnake murders the remaining members of his crew as Ray arrives, revealing himself, posing as Sting, and battles him. After Blacksnake is defeated, the Cabal employs Task Force X II to murder him to protect their secrets.

Later, during the events of Zero Hour, Palmer is rejuvenated to a teenage state and develops the ability to grow in height in addition to his previous abilities, all of which he was capable of controlling innately without using his white dwarf star-based equipment. He becomes field leader of a new group of Teen Titans, composed of hybrids of human beings and the H'San Natall, after a chance meeting with Isaiah Crockett on his first day attending Ivy University. As a former member of the Justice League, Palmer viewed his affiliation with the Teen Titans as a step backward. The group primarily battled the Veil, an anti-alien organization that employed Deathstroke and Dark Nemesis, but it's revealed that their leader Pylon was actually a H'San Natall. They would also face Jugular (hired by the H'San Natall) and Loren Jupiter's son Jarrod, aka Haze. The Atom's new growth powers were instrumental in the battle against Sekhmet of the Millennium Giants. Ray subsequently regains his original age and memories and loses his new powers after he begins to rapidly age and Waverider has to use DNA taken prior to his rejuvenation to restore him to his original state. Palmer returns to his teaching job at Ivy University, but also becomes an associate and alternate member of the JLA. With his exit from the Teen Titans, the group disbands. One notable student under Palmer was Ronnie Raymond, who, without the knowledge of elements of Martin Stein, found difficulty in fully employing his abilities as Firestorm.

Identity Crisis and Countdown

In the 2004-05 limited series Identity Crisis, Jean Loring kills Sue Dibny, the wife of the Elongated Man. After stealing some of the Atom's shrinking technology and his costume, she kills Sue in a misguided attempt to win Palmer back. She also arranges a hit on Tim Drake's father which is carried out by Captain Boomerang (Digger Harkness). The intent is for Jack Drake to kill some random attacker, but both manage to kill each other. After committing her to Arkham Asylum, Palmer shrinks himself to microscopic size and disappears.

Palmer eventually meets up with his old friend Carter Hall after microscopically traveling through phone lines. He warns Hall of the consequences of mindwiping Batman and of harassing criminals over a crime that is perpetrated by Jean, one of their own. Palmer explains he needs time away, and shrinks himself again after Hall agrees to keep the meeting secret.

His legacy lived on, however. Ryan Choi, a student of physics in Hong Kong who corresponded with Ray Palmer via mail in the past, found a copy of his costume and shrinking device to become the current Atom. Around this same time, an unnamed teenager with powers similar to Palmer joins the Teen Titans under the name Molecule. After a brief tenure with the team, he is later killed during a confrontation with the Terror Titans.

During the missing year, Palmer's technology is employed by Supernova to shrink and grow in size to enter and exit the bottle city of Kandor.

DC Comics would not reveal Palmer's whereabouts since his disappearance at the end of Identity Crisis. However, Palmer returned to play a very important role in the Countdown limited series. A Monitor asks the Source Wall what is the solution to "the great disaster," it answers "Ray Palmer". Subsequently, Kyle Rayner, Donna Troy and Jason Todd scour the Multiverse for the former Atom, who just might hold the key to saving reality from a crisis of unparalleled proportions."

In their travels, the quartet has found people marked with the Atom's familiar symbol. The group tracks Palmer to Earth-51, where he assumes the life of its native Palmer after his life is cut short during his studies of the Multiverse and discovery of the looming Crisis. Meeting the Jean of Earth-51 and the Justice League again for the first time, Palmer is found on a world where the heroes have been able to eradicate supercrime and create a utopian Earth (later revealed to have been the result of this reality's Batman murdering all of this world's super-criminals after the Joker killed Jason Todd). However, once Kyle, Donna, Jason and Bob the Monitor are able to track him down, Bob attempts to kill Palmer; with the Challengers' help, Palmer escapes and reveals to the Challengers that it was the Ray Palmer of Earth-51 who was meant to stop the Great Disaster and that he had been trying to carry on his work, to no avail.

When the Challengers return to their own Earth, Jimmy Olsen is kidnapped by Mary Marvel, who has been corrupted by Darkseid. Palmer hitches a ride from within Jimmy. When Darkseid takes control of Jimmy's powers, Palmer locates and shuts down the control sphere inside Jimmy's brain, but is then swarmed by Apokoliptian antibodies. While escaping this onslaught, Palmer discovers the "battery" containing the New God spirit energies. Palmer removes it from Jimmy's head and shatters it, releasing the energies.

Palmer later (after much cajoling) joins Donna, Kyle, and Forager in their new mission as border guards to the Multiverse, realizing that there is nothing left for him on Earth anymore. However, Palmer returns home to New Earth one more time, upon realizing that his old nemesis Chronos had taken his identity to mislead a young pretender to his identity, Ryan Choi. After helping his successor to once again save Ivy Town, he returns to the Multiverse with a new sense of fulfillment, leaving his town in the hands of a new, capable hero.

During the Final Crisis, Palmer returns to New Earth and works with Choi again to aid in the efforts to evacuate the last free humans.

In the Justice League: Cry for Justice mini-series, it has been confirmed that Palmer will become a member of Hal Jordan's new Justice League.

Blackest Night

On the night of the superhero's memorial day, Palmer asks Hawkman to visit Jean's grave to be honored as a fallen member of the community, but Hawkman refuses because of what she did in Identity Crisis. Palmer is later shown speaking to Hawkman again, over the phone (unaware that his friend has been killed and reanimated as a Black Lantern). Atom is then invited to visit undead Hawkman to discuss his heartache over his wife. Palmer is later revealed to have shrunk into Hawkman's ring, escaping certain death. Joining the battle between Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, and the Black Lanterns, Palmer is set upon by Black Lanterns Ralph and Sue Dibny, who use his guilt over Jean's actions to try to feed on his compassion-filled heart. Palmer is saved from death by the Indigo Tribe, who combine their light with Hal's to destroy the Dibnys and their rings. During the crisis, Palmer was able to deduce with the heroes that the black rings are simulations taking the identities of the deceased and needing to feed. The Indigo Tribe take the heroes to the Hall of Justice, unceremoniously taking Hal Jordan and abandoning the rest when the Black Lanterns renew their attack.

Palmer helps the heroes escape via a phone line, and then brings them to the JSA, who were also being attacked by Black Lanterns. During the crisis, Palmer meets Damage, son of Al Pratt, the first hero to be called Atom. The two heroes briefly acquainted during the battle, and begin to develop a friendship. Palmer stopped the Black Lantern Al Pratt from killing Damage, but was unable to keep the reanimated Jean from finishing the job. Palmer made a futile attempt to stop one of the black rings from turning Damage's corpse into an undead before Jean used his own technology to shrink him, Mera, and herself into the fully transformed Damage's ring. As Palmer and Mera battle Jean inside the black ring, Jean reveals Nekron's plan along showing what is happening at Coast City, as deceased residents and revived heroes arise as Black Lanterns under the demon lord's commands. Deadman witnesses their battle and plans to rescue Palmer and Mera from Jean. Deadman saves Palmer and Mera by briefly possessing Jean, allowing them to escape and join the heroes against Nekron and his army. During the battle, Palmer is chosen as a deputy officer of the Indigo Tribe to be more effective against Nekron's forces. Although the Indigo Tribe eschews formal uniforms for tribal patterns over simple garments, Ray Palmer's costume is turned into a close approximation of the tattered Sword of the Atom clothing he had used in the past.

Palmer's past is rehashed, showing that he never quite got over Jean, even during the days of Sword of the Atom. Indigo-1 claims that she can teleport the armies of each Lantern Corps onto Earth, if given time to meditate. The responsibility falls to Palmer to protect her while she does so. Before she enters her trance, she reveals to Palmer that the indigo staff and his overwhelming compassion allows him to mimic the other powers of the Lantern Corps; she demonstrates this by temporarily becoming a Red Lantern and vomiting corrosive blood all over an attacking company of Black Lanterns. She then enters her trance, while Palmer fights off Black Lanterns Hawkman and Hawkgirl by temporarily becoming an Orange Lantern, loudly proclaiming "I want my friends back!" He then summons two orange energy duplicates of Khufu and Chay-Ara to help him fight off his and Indigo-1's attackers. He is briefly successful. But then Jean shows up to torment him, and she leaps into Indigo-1's ring. Palmer follows her. He ends up reliving Sue Dibny's death, and is then attacked by various Black Lantern Morlaidhans, the minuscule race he befriended during Sword of the Atom. He fights them off and, summoning the powers of a Green Lantern, destroys Jean. Indigo-1 manages to summon the various armies and thanks Palmer for his help. He tells her to keep his involvement in the deployment of the troops a secret, and asks that she help him find a way to legitimately resurrect Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

In the final battle, Palmer gets his wish when Hawkman and Hawkgirl are brought back to life by power of white light at the end of the Blackest Night series. Ray's involvement of secret resurrect remains unknown.

Brightest Day and Adventure Comics co-feature
In July 2010 Ray Palmer had a Brightest Day one-shot that led to a co-feature in Adventure Comics. Written by Jeff Lemire with art by Mahmud Asrar, the co-feature focused on Ray Palmer's early life. For a brief three-issue tenure, Palmer was part of writer James Robinson's new Justice League line-up, but resigned to help his friend Martin Stein with some sort of project. At the start of the Brightest Day event, Ray and Stein are seen at the funeral of Gehenna, the girlfriend and partner of the second Firestorm, Jason Rusch. When Jason gets into a confrontation with Ronnie Raymond over Gehenna's death, Ray steps in and tries to stop it. Ray manages to separate Jason and Ronnie from Black Lantern constructs.

Afterward, Ray discovered his father was attacked and the suspect was his own uncle David. With Ray's father in the hospital, Ray discovers his father had a stroke and his investigation of technology had been stolen. He seeks out Oracle to find the Calculator, Oracle manages to trace a data line, and Ray enters through the internet where he then encounters the Calculator and interrogates him to find out the dealers are. However, Calculator creates a room with no oxygen to make Atom's heartrate slower and he attempts to kill the Atom. Ray manages to grab Calculator and shrinks to return to Oracle's base. While Ray is in remission, he threatens Calculator who tells him that something called the Colony has manipulated Ray. Later, Prof. Hyatt was attacked by the Colony while looking for white dwarf matter. When Ray arrives, he goes to rescue Prof. Hyatt. During the fight, the Colony dies by incineration from the white dwarf matter. Ray calls Oracle to trace the phone line, and while he arrives at the Colony's base he is confronted by the Colony squad.

After failing to avoid detection, he is confronted by Uncle David and with his help, pulls him away from the Colony heading towards the teleporter. Once safe, Uncle David tells Ray about the Colony. David also tells Ray that he could not leave and could not work on the projects on his own, he shows Ray how to travel using the astrology orb called the ant farm to see a mini-planet of microscopic nature. But, the Colony followed them to David's hideout and travels to the ant farm Ray then engages them in an epic battle. After the battle the Colony died from incineration as it did before but, Ray managed to save him using his stable white dwarf matter. Ray demanded to know what they desired and the Colony tells him the same thing, and they transport the ant farm to the Colony's base. He destroys Ray's belt buckle's white dwarf matter and kills himself. Since they cannot return, Ray follows David with a backup plan when suddenly Ray is approached by robotic insects. David explains that the robotic insects are caretakers. They manage to fix the belt buckle and he returns to normal size when in Colony's base. Failing to escape, Ray is forced by the scientist to bring the white dwarf matter. He shows the monitor renderings where Colony is standing in front of the hospital where is father his and he is going to kill him.

When Ray refused, Hawkman prevents Colony from attacking Ray's father. Ray receives a call from Oracle to trace the monitor renderings, but Hawkman is being attacked by the Colony squad that miniaturize into Hawkman's body. Ray chooses to save Hawkman to leave the Colony's base while the other Colony escapes and kidnaps Ray's father. Ray rescues Hawkman by leaping into a body of the Colony attackers. When Hawkman is recovering, the Colony leaves their message to bring the white dwarf meteor and warned him no tricks, and to bring the meteor to save his family. While Ray traded the meteor to Colony before the Colony leaves, they exchange it for Ray's family that is in the ant farm. Ray travels into the ant farm and discovers that they planted a nuclear bomb on a vest strapped to his uncle David. Ray then manages to save his father and David and shrinks the bomb before it had a chance to detonate. While Ray's father is recovering, Ray reveals to David that he planted the white dwarf meteor into a nano-liquid to make the Colony's headquarters shrink. Ray, David, and Hawkman arrive at the location of the Colony's headquarters to attack their base. After the Colony was defeated however, David tells him there are more Colonies in the area. Later, Ray returns his father home. Ray forgives his father and apologizes for giving him a rough life before he overhears a firefighter rescue service, as he is a capable hero once more.

During this same period, Ray begins an investigation into the disappearance of Ryan, whom unbeknownst to the superhero community, had been murdered by Deathstroke. Ray comforts Ryan's girlfriend Amanda, and muses Ryan may be hiding out like Ray did after the events of Identity Crisis. While he shrinks himself to investigate he discovers microbiology blood. He arrives at the Hall of Justice to tell the League members that Ryan is missing. The League starts to help Ray's investigation to find Ryan's whereabouts. He discovers Ryan's DNA cell is not a match. The DNA cell came to someone else. Later, Ray discovers evidence that Dwarfstar had a hand in Ryan's death, and vows to find him and make him pay. Ray eventually finds Dwarfstar in a hospital, where he is recovering from the severe injuries he sustained from his torture at the hands of Giganta (Ryan's ex-girlfriend). Believing it may lead to a lighter sentence, Dwarfstar confesses to hiring Deathstroke to kill Ryan. Armed with this knowledge, Ray leaves to inform the Justice League. Later, he asked Batman (Dick Grayson) to get revenge on Deathstroke for murdering Ryan. Ray and the Justice League arrive to attempt to arrest Deathstroke and the Titans. The Justice League battle against the Titans in Khandaq, where Ray seriously injures Deathstroke for killing his friend. The battle is stopped by Isis, who forces the Justice League to flee to avoid restarting World War III. After failing, Ray begins writing the eulogy for Ryan's funeral, and is comforted by Superman. In the final issue, Ray meets Ryan's friends and family, and gives the speech at his protégé's funeral.

Convergence
In the Convergence crossover, when the alternate Brainiac miniaturized the universe of the New Earth, Ray Palmer, who had been in a mental state with his powers to increase size affected since imprisoned in the dome, sends out a broadcast message that he will pursue Deathstroke for Ryan Choi's murder. Ray then engages Deathstroke in an epic battle, but Ray is being pulled by the mysterious voice of Telos to fight opposite Angor universe's Barracuda. While Ray battles Barracuda, Ryan Choi suddenly appears and to be alive, and confronts him. Ryan explains that his death and consciousness had survived in the universe where the Atoms' masses are shifted to whenever they change size. Ryan then returns to the realm of the living after appropriating Ray's hand that Barracuda severed during their battle, to create a new body for him after they defeat Barracuda. Ray is hospitalized after losing his hand, and Deathstroke infiltrates the hospital and attempts to kill him, but Ryan interferes as they work together to defeat Deathstroke and restored Ray's hand.

The New 52
In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Ray appears in Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. as S.H.A.D.E.'s science advisor, although he appears to have retained his abilities. His shrinking technology enables S.H.A.D.E. agents to enter and leave their microscopic headquarters, the Ant Farm. He later uses his size-shifting abilities to assist Superman in visiting the Bottle City of Kandor, during which he wears a protective suit similar to the Atom costume. At the end of this adventure he expresses an interest in becoming a superhero as the Atom. He subsequently assists Superman in costume during Superman's fight with Vandal Savage.

DC Rebirth
Subsequently, in the DC Rebirth reboot, on Earth-0, Ray Palmer is, by day, a professor at an Ivy League college and, by night, the experienced crime fighter The Atom. He reveals his secret identity to his friend and apprentice Ryan Choi, and enlists him for tech support during his adventures. After many adventures together, Ray disappears and Ryan is scolded when Ray cancels classes for the fifth day in a row. When Ryan goes to get Ray from his workshop where he has seemingly been confined for a week, he instead finds a video recording from Ray. In it he reveals he discovered a universe beyond the subatomic, a so-called Microverse while investigating a disruption in space and time, and within he found something that posed an existential threat to their universe. He asks Ryan, the only other person who knows how to use the Atom's technology and whom Ray trusts, to go into it, rescue him, and finish his work. Ray informs Ryan that upon arrival he will also meet with someone who he himself has encountered. He tries to warn Ryan about something, but the footage cuts out abruptly before he can finish. When Batman begins recruiting for his new Justice League of America, he chooses Ray as one of the members of the new league, however when he enters Ray's office he finds Ryan instead. Ryan explains to Batman about Ray's situation so he takes Ryan as Ray's successor.

Carter Hall, during his ongoing quest to reveal the mysteries of his past lives, is transported to the Microverse, where Ray has relocated. Together they recover a starship located on the living planet Moz-Ga which belonged to several of Hall's past lives.

Powers and abilities
Atom possesses the power to alter his size down to the subatomic level while retaining his natural strength level. This is accomplished by using the remnants of a white-dwarf star made into a belt buckle worn with his costume. Originally, he had to manipulate his abilities via the belt, and later with hand movements, before eventually syncing directly with his brain via mental commands. The Atom is one of the few heroes in the DC Universe that has 100% control over his body on the molecular level (Plastic Man being another), thus making him exponentially more powerful than he is often portrayed; he is limited only by his application of his powers. Some of the applications he has demonstrated include reducing his mass to glide through the air and increasing his mass to punch through concrete. He also demonstrated the ability to make his costume appear and disappear at will by shifting its atoms between this dimension and another.

During Countdown to Final Crisis, Palmer learned he could shrink down beyond the subatomic scale to traverse the Multiverse by slipping below the quantum layer beneath reality. He has been shown to be able to ride phone lines to his destination by dialing a number and traveling through the handset (his signature use of his power), and recently shrinking small enough to travel on photon signals through fiber optic cable.

Some of The Atom's more impressive feats include shrinking into Superman's atomic structure and manually compile his protonic minutia to generate Kryptonite radiation and defusing Black Lantern Al Pratt's Atomic Punch and resizing within him, ripping his body apart in the process.

Following the events of Zero Hour, the Atom gained the ability to also grow in size and internalizes his other abilities without the use of his white dwarf star-based apparatus. However, when returned to his natural age, these abilities were lost.

As a member of the Indigo Tribe, Ray possessed an indigo power ring powered by compassion, which provided him with flight, energy projection, and a protective force field. He also utilized a staff capable of duplicating the abilities of other wielders of the Emotional spectrum within range.

He has also shown the ability to allow others to shrink down with him if the situation requires it, such as when he shrank himself, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Plastic Man to repair the links between seven shattered subatomic particles, or shrinking Steel, Supergirl and Superboy to directly treat a kryptonite tumor in Superman's body. However, this ability is relatively limited; initially anyone other than himself who was shrunk would explode after two minutes if not returned to their normal size, although by the time he sent Superman's allies into the Man of Steel, he was able to extend this time to around an hour.

Palmer is exceptionally intelligent. He has a IQ of 140 and prior to acquiring his abilities, he had four PhDs under his belt. He is a world authority on physics, with other superheroes often consulting him for assistance with physics-related projects.

Although physics is his primary forte, he is proficient in various other scientific disciplines. He has proven to be a master of engineering, as he was able to design and build the A.T.O.M. He has also developed several other technologically sophisticated gadgets during his tenure as the CEO of Palmer Tech such as surgical nanobots, dispersal units, smartwatches, etc. He is an adept chemist as well, as he was able to analyze and modify Eobard Thawne's biomolecular enhancer to have lasting and more stable effects while in World War II, despite the formula initially being made from 22nd-century technology.

Additionally, he is in excellent physical condition, engaging in frequent exercise and workouts. He has a high level of experience with-hand-to-hand combat, having received training from various different Justice League members, namely Batman. Boxing and judo are his preferred fighting styles. He has also displayed proficiency in swordsmanship and acrobatics.

Supporting cast

 Adam Cray - The son of an assassinated senator, Adam Cray is approached by Ray Palmer to take up his mantle as the Atom to bring Micro/Squad into the open so Palmer can infiltrate their ranks and bring them to justice. Cray steals the size-changing belt given to Paul Hoben and joins the Suicide Squad. The plan works but at the cost of Cray's life.
 Hawkman - Meeting in the Justice League, Hawkman became Palmer's best friend.
 Jean Loring - Palmer's girlfriend when he became the Atom. He would go on to marry her but the two would divorce years later when Jean had an affair with fellow lawyer Paul Hoben. Jean would marry Hoben but the two would eventually divorce. In wake of the events of Identity Crisis, Jean and Ray would reconnect until it was discovered Jean was behind the murders therein and separated again.
 Laethwyn - Princess of the Morlaidhans that falls mutually in love with the Atom when he helps her reclaim her throne. She, like the rest of her people, are murdered by the CIA operatives under order of the Cabal.
 Loren Jupiter - A wealthy philanthropist that financed the original Teen Titans during their early years. He would return to help form another band of Teen Titans with his daughter Lilith when the alien race H'San Natall threatened Earth, largely the force behind Ray Palmer's membership in the group as its leader in the wake of Zero Hour.
 Major Mynah - A myna Palmer saves and brings to Hawkman to give it prosthetic wings to replace its severely damaged wings. The bird goes on to become the Atom's partner and steed.
 Maya - Queen of the Flower Spirits/Dryads from another dimension, after the Atom frees her people from the control of the Plant Master they become his friends and assist him occasionally. She later became friends with Floronic Man.
 Norman Brawler - A close friend of Palmer's that authors his biography The Atom's Farewell where the Atom's identity is revealed to the world.
 Paul Hoben - Lawyer who had an affair with Jean Loring while she was married to Ray Palmer. After her divorce, she marries Paul with Ray's blessing. When Ray decides to remain in Morlaidh, he gives Paul his size-changing belt and the role as the protector of Ivy Town.
 Professor Alpheus V. Hyatt - A scientist and friend of Ray Palmer at Ivy University that invents a Time Pool, but the opening to it is remarkably small. As such, the Atom is the only person capable of using it to travel through time.

Rogues gallery
 Big Gang - A group of specialists that each take the title 'Big' for their specialties that target the largest/biggest of items to steal. Membership includes Big Deal (illusionist and expert in prestidigitation), Big Ben (timing specialist), Big Wig (master of disguise wigs), Big Bertha (strong woman), Big Shot (marksman), Big Cheese (who uses specially made cheeses with different properties), and led by Big Head.
 The Bug-Eyed Bandit - Bertram Larvan invented an army of mechanical insects and spiders to do his bidding as the Bug-Eyed Bandit.
 Chronos the Time-Thief - David Clinton was a criminal with perfect timing and developed an arsenal of time-based paraphernalia. As Chronos, he became the Atom's archenemy and would, in time, became an expert in time travel and time manipulation.
 The Colony - They started during the Cold War program using their connections, codenaming it Project Colony. The C.I.A. gathered a group of America's brightest scientific minds power of the United States. Project Colony quickly developed projects and weapons systems that over the next years. The original group changed over the decades, faces and minds were constantly being and handed an unlimited budget to explore and experiment. After the Cold War ended, the group and Project Colony was officially discontinued. However, the greatest minds the country had to offer were in the middle of new experiments and projects. They reformed as a private organization, now calling ourselves simply the Colony, and continued their work in secret to America's global and metahuman. Unfortunately, the global landscape grew increasingly unstable; tension grew within their ranks. The Colony was willing to sacrifice anything, including humans, for their mankind to come to fruition.
 Deathstroke the Terminator - Originally facing the mercenary as part of the Teen Titans and again when he protected Dr. Light, Palmer would help take down Deathstroke after he murdered his protégé Ryan Choi.
 Doctor Light - After Dr. Light escapes from prison, the warden asks the Atom to discover how he achieved such a feat. The Atom is able to recreate the escape and follows the villain to his hideout. Though captured, he manages to stop Light from his assault on the Justice League and brings him into custody. Later, the Atom would vote to lobotomize Light for his rape of Sue Dibny.
 Eddie Gordon - A petty criminal, Eddie Gordon stumbled upon the Bat-Knights of Elvaran, a race of miniature humanoids, in Giants Cavern and would manipulate them on several occasions to perform crimes for him.
 The Floronic Man - Exiled from an alternate dimension, Jason Woodrue would become the Plant Master and try to control plants to conquer Earth. One of the Atom's most frequent opponents, Woodrue would become a living plant able to control flora and take the name the Floronic Man.
 Humbug the Reusable Man - In an attempt to create artificial intelligence, the Department of Scientific Investigation's Darwin Jones, Annetta Kaplan, and Anton Kraft created the computer Gestalt. However, the project took on a life all its own and the trio built a humanoid body for the emerging lifeform, giving birth to Humbug. Armed with an army of these artificial bodies endowed with super-strength, super-durability, and able to inflate/deflate, Humbug could jump between them at will with a murderous penchant for games.
 The Man in the Ion Mask - Masquerading as a modern-day Man in the Iron Mask, Bill Jameson wore a mask that emitted ion rays that when in the presence of Encephalonic waves (such as those his brother Ed's brain emitted) would black out those nearby and rob them.
 Micro/Squad - A group of CIA operatives tasked with committing genocide on the Morlaidhan race in Operation: Fireball in hopes of rousing the absent Ray Palmer into returning to the agency as an operative. When Palmer learned of this, he shrank the operatives responsible to six-inch height (much to the pleasure of the CIA whom employed the group in Palmer's stead). The group, dubbed Micro/Squad, composed of Mr. Baily, Ms. Hubbard, Ginsburg, Sting, and led by Blacksnake, returned and believed they murdered Palmer in an explosion. When a new Atom emerged in the Suicide Squad, Blacksnake murdered him and claimed his size-changing belt to return to normal height. He followed this by killing Mr. Baily and Ms. Hubbard, crushing them in his hands. However, Ray switched places with Sting and revealed Ginsburg instead died in the explosion. Defeating Blacksnake, the villain is murdered by Task Force X II to bury evidence of the CIA's involvement in mass murder. Sting would return as a member of the Society.
 The Panther Gang - A group of criminals known for robbery.
 Strobe - Employing a suit of technological armor, Strobe had super-strength and could fire concussion blasts and blinding flashes of light. When this did not pan out, he became Edg the Destroyer again using armor but in a samurai motif. Defeated again by the Atom, he has returned to his Strobe identity since.
 The Thinker - In a plot to steal without penalty of arrest, the Thinker robs artifacts of Earth-One and returns to his native Earth-Two where he cannot be prosecuted for his ill-gotten gains. This plot brings him into conflict with the Atoms of both worlds.
 Toyboy - Criminal ringleader Johnny Burns becomes the supervillain Toyboy when his mother experienced an accident that briefly endowed her with psychic powers, which in turn gave Toyboy telekinesis (which he uses to control toys) and super-strength. Mrs. Burns also created a psionic construct of Johnny that wanted to reform and when in the presence of Toyboy, Johnny was reborn as a man seeking redemption for his crimes.
 Wizardo the Great (fake) - Howard Crane wears an astronaut-like suit to blame Wizardo the Great for robberies during his Space Man act.

Other versions

The Dark Knight Strikes Again
Frank Miller portrayed Ray Palmer as a major player in Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again. He was taken prisoner by Lex Luthor and made to live in one of his own petri dishes for a period of years until his rescue by Catgirl. He was then instrumental in the liberation of Kandor, gaining access to the bottle by 'hiding' inside Lara- the daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman- when she confronted Brainiac, slipping inside the bottle to break it from the inside and allowing the Kryptonians within to gain superpowers to defeat Brainiac.

In The Dark Knight III: The Master Race, Palmer attempts to restore the natives of Kandor to their full height, but is instead tricked into reviving a twisted Kryptonian cult, whose leader proceeds to crush Palmer and Kandor.

League of Justice
Other re-imaginings of the Atom include an appearance in League of Justice, an Elseworlds story portraying the Justice League in a The Lord of the Rings-type story where the Atom was recast as a wizard/fortune teller called "Atomus The Palmer".

JLA: Age of Wonders
In JLA: Age of Wonder, Ray Palmer worked with a science consortium whose members at one point included Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.

JLA: Rock of Ages
In JLA: Rock of Ages, the Atom is part of what remains of the Justice League in an alternate future where Darkseid has taken control of the Earth. The Atom dies sacrificing himself to kill Darkseid, riding a burst of photons through the villain's invisible force field and into his optic nerve, then discharging white dwarf radiation into Darkseid's four-lobed brain.

JLA/Avengers
In JLA/Avengers, Ray appears first as taking the place of Wally West during the Justice League's mission to the Marvel Universe when he realizes that there is no Speed Force in the other reality. The Justice League arrives and battles a group of monsters while searching for the Ultimate Nullifier, but Ray stays behind after a brief confrontation with the Avengers, where he sees them meeting with Metron who gives a story different from the one given to the League by The Grandmaster. Intrigued at this turn of events, Ray jumped on Metron's chair, which took him to the Grandmaster's base. When Batman and Captain America arrive, having tracked Metron with the aid of equipment provided by the Fantastic Four, he shows them that while the Grandmaster is trying to stop Krona, his team in his game is the League, rather than his own universe's Avengers. When the Grandmaster merges the universes to stop Krona, Ray disappears until the two teams join up to go after Krona himself. Ray participates in the battle and ends up disappearing after Krona's defeat.

DC: The New Frontier
In DC: The New Frontier, Ray Palmer hasn't become the Atom yet but is a leading scientist in using lenses to shrink matter. However, in his experiments this matter would then explode. His technology was instrumental in destroying the Centre when the Flash bathes the alien in the beam and it explodes. Later, in the epilogue, the Atom is shown in a group shot.

JLA: The Nail
In JLA: The Nail and Another Nail, Atom often stands on Flash's shoulder, following Hawkman's death. He is shown infiltrating the Thinker's base to investigate the possibility that he was involved in the conspiracy against other heroes, but discovered upon entering the base that the Thinker was dead after he stumbled upon clues to the true mastermind's plans, the villain having been killed by a brainwashed Metamorpho (The only other person capable of infiltrating the Thinker's security). In the sequel, the Flash and the Atom are briefly sent to the Earth of the Crime Syndicate of America during the dimensional anomalies caused by the limbo cell, with the Atom observing that the Syndicate's tendency to steal everything they have prevents them from understanding the true nature of their current threat. Despite their efforts, the two only return to their world after the Limbo Cell has been defeated.

Countdown to Final Crisis
In Countdown to Final Crisis, The Search for Ray Palmer and Countdown: Arena (2007), a number of alternate versions of Ray are introduced.

 On Earth-6, Ray Palmer has developed solar powers and taken the name of superhero the Ray.
 Ray's counterpart on Earth-11 is a woman on a gender-reversed world.
 The Jessica Palmer of Earth-15 is a young physicist on a world of efficient second- and third-generation heroes.
 On Earth-30 in the Superman: Red Son limited series, Ray is an American scientist living in Russia.
 On Earth-51, a younger Ray's life is cut short during a dangerous experiment. This Ray never specialized in size-manipulation or became a superhero, but served as the JLA's resident genius and was uniquely born with a superhuman immune system.

Flashpoint
In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, the Atom lost a leg to radiation poisoning and became a corrections officer in Doom Prison, acting as a controller of Amazo. During the prison break, the Atom's control is pulled out by Eel O'Brian and Heat Wave who then force him to retrieve their weapons. After the Atom does it, Heat Wave crushes his skull with his fingers.

In other media

Television
 Ray Palmer / Atom appears in The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, voiced by Pat Harrington Jr..
 Ray Palmer / Atom appears in Super Friends, voiced by Wally Burr.
 Ray Palmer / Atom appears in Justice League of America, portrayed by John Kassir.
 Ray Palmer / Atom appears in Justice League Unlimited, voiced by John C. McGinley. This version is a member of the Justice League.
 Ray Palmer / Atom appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Sword of the Atom!", voiced by Peter Scolari. This version was the original Atom and mentored Ryan Choi before eventually retiring to the Amazon rainforest, where he entered a relationship with Princess Laethwyn of the Morlaidhans.
 Ray Palmer / Atom appears in Young Justice, voiced by Jason Marsden. This version is a member of the Justice League who is assisted by Bumblebee.
 Ray Palmer / Atom appears in the DC Nation Shorts segment "Sword of the Atom", voiced again by Jason Marsden.
 Ray Palmer / Atom appears in Justice League Action, voiced by Jerry O'Connell.
 Ray Palmer / Atom appears in the Teen Titans Go! episode "Strength of a Grown Man", voiced by Patton Oswalt.

Arrowverse

Ray Palmer / Atom appears in media set in the Arrowverse, portrayed by Brandon Routh. This version has an I.Q. of 140 and four PhDs, is the CEO of Palmer Technologies (formerly Queen Consolidated), and was married to Anna Loring before she was killed by Deathstroke's men. Additionally, his suit was originally designed as the combat exosuit OMAC. Palmer first appears as a recurring character in the live-action TV series Arrow before making guest appearances in the live-action spin-off The Flash and the animated CW Seed series Vixen, as well as being a main character in the live-action spin-off Legends of Tomorrow.

Film
 Ray Palmer appears in Justice League: The New Frontier, voiced by an uncredited Corey Burton.
 An alternate universe version of Ray Palmer appears in Justice League: Gods and Monsters, voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. This version was a member of Lex Luthor's "Project Fair Play", a weapons program contingency meant to be used to destroy their version of the Justice League if necessary, before Palmer is killed by a Metal Man designed by Will Magnus to frame Wonder Woman.
 Ray Palmer / Atom appears in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, voiced again by Patton Oswalt.

Video games
 Ray Palmer appears in Injustice: Gods Among Us as a non-player character in the Insurgency headquarters stage and a playable character in the Joker's S.T.A.R. Labs minigames.
 Ray Palmer appears as a playable character in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, voiced by Troy Baker.
 The Arrowverse incarnation of Ray Palmer / Atom appears as a playable character in the "DC TV Super-Heroes" DLC of Lego DC Super-Villains, voiced by Brandon Routh.
 Ray Palmer / Atom appears in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.

Miscellaneous
 Jessica Palmer appears in Smallville Season 11 as an associate of Superman, among others.
 Ray Palmer / Atom appears in the Injustice: Gods Among Us prequel comic.
 Ray Palmer / Atom appears in the Injustice 2 prequel comic as a member of Batman's Insurgency working to repair the damage caused by the Regime.

Collected editions

Reception
This version of Atom was ranked as the 144th Greatest Comic Book Character of All Time by Wizard magazine. IGN also ranked the Atom as the 64th Greatest Comic Book Hero of All Time stating; "Of all the superheroes out here, Dr. Ray Palmer might be one of the most brilliant tortured souls imaginable."

See also
 Ant-Man

References

1961 comics debuts
2010 comics debuts
Characters created by Gardner Fox
Characters created by Gil Kane
Characters created by Julius Schwartz
Comics characters introduced in 1961
DC Comics American superheroes
DC Comics male superheroes
DC Comics scientists
Atom
DC Comics characters who are shapeshifters
Fictional characters who can change size
Fictional nuclear physicists
Fictional professors
Fictional swordfighters in comics

da:Atomet
pt:Eléktron
sv:Atom (serier)

Atom (Ray Palmer)


is a fictional character who serves as the first protagonist to appear in the Castlevania series. He appears in Castlevania, Vampire Killer, Haunted Castle, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Super Castlevania IV, and Castlevania Chronicles, and acts as a supporting character in Castlevania Judgment and Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. He also appeared as a playable character in DreamMix TV World Fighters and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Simon has received positive reviews from critics.

Character design and appearances
In 1691, Simon Belmont kills Count Dracula in an event that is retold in multiple games (Castlevania, Vampire Killer, Haunted Castle, Super Castlevania IV, and Castlevania Chronicles). By the events of Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, the now deceased Dracula has placed a curse on Simon and all of Transylvania. Simon breaks the curse by gathering and incinerating Dracula's remains, though it is hinted that Dracula will return when his skinless hand rises from his grave. Simon is one of only two Belmonts to have faced Dracula twice in his lifetime, the other being his ancestor Christopher. Worlds of Power, a 1990s series of books with stories based on Nintendo games, has a novel about Simon's Quest. It was written by Christopher Howell, and the series was produced by Seth Godin. It departs from the original plot and introduces characters not seen in the game, including junior high school student Timothy Bradley, a video gamer who crosses over into the world of Simon's Quest and assists Simon in looking for Dracula's body parts.

In Haunted Castle, Simon is blue-haired and has a wife called Selena, who is kidnapped by Dracula directly after their marriage. It is actually unknown if this is Simon at all. The guide to the game calls him Simons, a descendant of the canonical Simon, while a newsletter by Konami itself names him William.

Although Simon is the first Belmont to appear in a Castlevania game, in the Belmont lineage, Leon Belmont originates the direct bloodline of the clan. It can then be presumed that he is followed by Trevor, Christopher, Soleil, Simon, Juste, Richter, and then Julius. In Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, Simon is playable in the Boss Rush mode, looking exactly as he did in Castlevania. In Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, Simon is an extra character purchased as downloadable content, the sprite from the original game also being reused here. A special stage that recreates the game's castle layout can also be purchased.

Simon Belmont appears in the rebooted series Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate, as the son of Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades, and grandson of Gabriel Belmont, later known as Dracula. He seeks revenge for the murder of his parents and throughout the game is unaware that Dracula is his grandfather. But, Konami shows the early design of young Simon as Gabriel Belmont a new protagonist at the game.

Simon's Castlevania Judgment incarnation was designed by Death Note artist Takeshi Obata. He has red-orange hair comparable to that of Light Yagami (the protagonist of Death Note), a jacket with many belts on it that exposes his muscular chest, and bandages on his forearms.
The Bradygames Official Guide states that Simon is 23 years old and approximately 185 cm (6 ft 1 in). Series director Koji Igarashi emphasized that these designs were different from what he envisioned, Simon in particular, but commented that this was how Obata envisioned them. He added that while the design felt radically different, so did Kojima's. Simon's design by Obata was criticized, which was perceived as too derivative of Obata's work on Death Note.

In other media
Simon appeared in Captain N: The Game Master, a television cartoon featuring characters from contemporary games released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. He is depicted as an arrogant and egotistical vampire hunter who competes with the main character Kevin Keene for the heroine Princess Lana, who he carries a torch for. Simon has a whip and a backpack of resources which he uses throughout the series. His appearance in the cartoon was met with criticism. Ben Rhudy of Monsters and Critics stated that he looks nothing like his video game counterpart, and that the show's creator DiC should have consulted the game before choosing this design. CBR is critical of the "cowardly" portrayal of Simon in the cartoon series, and felt that the creators should have drawn more from the source material.

Simon also appears in several games outside the Castlevania franchise including the 2003 crossover fighting game DreamMix TV World Fighters, the 2017 action game Super Bomberman R, and the 2018 crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as well receiving an amiibo figure later. He will also debut as a playable fighter in Brawlhalla on October 19, 2022. First 4 Figures made a figure of Simon as part of a line of Halloween figures which was modeled at the original NES box art.

Reception
CBR refers to Simon as the face of the Castlevania series, having been the protagonist of the original game, as well as multiple games overall. This is also the view of TheGamer, who calls him "the face of the franchise and the Belmont who started it all, Simon had headlined more games than any other Belmont in the series." In another discussion of the Castlevania characters, TheGamer celebrates Simon's multiple character designs, and decides that he is the most legendary vampire hunter of the Belmont clan.

Nintendo Power listed Simon as its seventh favorite hero, stating that while it respects all of the vampire hunters in Castlevania, he was the first. According to Nintendo Power, the worst cover for a Nintendo Power was one depicting Simon Belmont holding the decapitated head of Dracula (the scene was a depiction of Castlevania II). It is considered the worst cover because hundreds of parents called in to complain about the goriness of the cover. It was reported in the complaints that children suffered nightmares resulting from the image. The use of a whip is considered one of the features that makes Simon Belmont a memorable hero character, which is echoed by CBR in saying "he's not Simon Belmont unless he cracks out his classic whip." GamesRadar+ stated that Simon Belmont deserves his own movie, while Kotaku expressed concern that in such a movie Simon might be armed with a sword instead of whip. GamesRadar+ also called Simon in Castlevania Judgement sexy and said that "Simon's Judgment apparel is a lot of belts and leather wrapped around an exposed torso". Game Informer criticized the character design in Castlevania Judgement. Chris Morgan for Yardbarker described Simon as one of "the most memorable characters from old school Nintendo games".

Complex Networks listed Simon as a top 10 best vampire hunter in video games, and top 2 among most drastic character makeovers in gaming.

Simon Belmont's inclusion in the roster of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was received enthusiastically. Before his inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, multiple gaming websites called for his inclusion, including GameRadar, Game Informer and Complex. He has been described as a fan favorite character. USgamer praised the addition as he defines "old school Nintendo nostalgia". VentureBeat also praised for giving a neglected character a chance. While Destructoid praised and said "The axe, the cross, the holy water items, they're all here, and they work wonderfully within the confines of Smash". Polygon ranked Simon as top 12 character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, while Paste magazine ranked him as top 5. Gavin Jasper of Den of Geek ranked Simon as 48th of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate characters, criticizing his appearances as it lacks the impact of most of the other guest characters. HobbyConsolas included Simon Belmont on its "The 30 best heroes of the last 30 years."

References

Castlevania characters
Fictional blade and dart throwers
Fictional vampire hunters
Konami protagonists
Male characters in video games
Fictional whip users
Super Smash Bros. fighters
Fictional monster hunters
Video game characters introduced in 1986

Simon Belmont


James Andrew Trehane Lake (c. 1840 – 13 March 1876), generally referred to as J. A. T. Lake, was a businessman, lawyer and politician in the British colony of South Australia.

History
James was born in London to Henry Lake (1811–1878) and his wife Ann née Trehane (died 1885), and the older brother of George Hingston Lake (1847–1900). The family arrived in South Australia in 1853.

e had, with his father and brother, an interest in a sheep station on the Eastern Plains near the Barrier Range, on which they worked for five years, but were forced to leave after a devastating flood.

He studied law in England, serving his articles with (later Sir) Samuel Way, and though he had broken this service for ten weeks to help with the pastoral property, was admitted to the Bar in 1867, and immediately set up a practice of his own, later joined by F. O. Bruce, and the partnership continued for about a year.

In 1871 he and Charles John Reynolds, later mayor of Port Adelaide, purchased John Thomas Fielder's timber yard, which as Lake & Reynolds they ran, brother George serving as accountant, until 1877, when they sold the business to A. Clausen; the property shortly became the site of the Port Adelaide Market. He also had a financial interest in some copper mines in the mid-north.

He was elected to the seat of Barossa in the South Australian House of Assembly, defeating Walter Duffield, and served from December 1871 to February 1875, a colleague of J. H. Angas. In contrast with his business life, he was not noted as a forceful or innovative politician. He did not seek a seat in the next Parliament owing to ill health. He died at his home in Enfield.

Family
He married Harriette Bridgetina Dyer on 13 July 1867; they lived in "Menindee near North Adelaide" (presumably Medindie), later Barton Terrace, North Adelaide. Their children included:
Ethelinde Augusta Lake (11 May 1868 – 29 September 1917)
Percival James Lake (12 July 1871 – 6 December 1875)
Pearl Eglantine Lake (20 October 1874 – )
James Herbert Trehane Lake (22 March 1876 – ) born at Redruth after the death of his father
Harriette Bridgetina (or Harriet Bridget) married again, to Henry John "Richard" Whittington

His eldest sister Sarah Ann Trehane Lake (ca.1835 – 25 October 1895) married Anthony James Liddell; another sister, Philippa Hodge Lake married Charles Kerr Herriot on 10 April 1873; his youngest sister Catherine Trehane Lake (ca.1850 – 28 November 1918) married Stuart Robert Herriot on 17 July 1875.

References

Members of the South Australian House of Assembly
19th-century Australian lawyers
1840s births
1876 deaths
19th-century Australian politicians
British emigrants to Australia
19th-century Australian businesspeople

James Andrew Trehane Lake


In positive psychology, zest (or enthusiasm) is among the discrete strengths people possess. Having zest means treating life as an adventure and feeling motivated in challenging situations. People with zest display enthusiasm, excitement, and energy as they tackle life's tasks. Zest is a component of the virtue of courage in some positive psychology paradigms.

Measurement
The VIA-IS is a self-report questionnaire that assesses the strength with which respondents answer strength-relevant statements about themselves on a 1–5 Likert scale.  The following statements on the VIA-IS are designed to measure a person's zest:
 I look forward to each new day.
 I cannot wait to get started on a project.
 I want to fully participate in life, not just view it from the sidelines.

Criticism

As with many other constructs in positive psychology, it is difficult to quantify zest. Other traits like socioeconomic status, which can be measured by household income, or constructs like fear, which can be quantified by changes in heart rate, skin conductance, and pupil dilation, have more well-defined and widely accepted methods of measure.

Much of the research on character strengths is done via self-reports. A self-report study is one in which participants are simply asked to report their own feelings, thoughts, or assessments. Self-report research is problematic. For one thing, self-reported measures are subjective. Also, people may misrepresent themselves or misinterpret the questions posed to them.

Because of such problems, the data behind this research is not as scientifically convincing as it could be. Positive psychology research aims to develop more objective measures for topics such as zest to address this.

Work

Zest can be promoted in the workplace with the aim of contributing to a more positive approach to life by workers. This can indirectly affect their anticipation, excitement, and energy in the workplace and thereby perhaps increase their productivity.

In one study study, 9,803 employed adults responded to an internet survey which measured zest, orientation to work as a calling, and satisfaction to work and life in general. For many employees surveyed, work was a calling and a satisfaction. The study found that professionals had the highest zest, while clerical workers and homemakers were the least zestful. Professionals and homemakers were more likely to view their job as a calling, while clerical workers were the least likely to do so. Clerical workers displayed among the lowest levels of zest because in most instances they viewed their work as merely a stepping-stone to some better calling. The results of this study agree with many other studies.

Zest may be contagious, like many other strengths of character. Zest is connected to group morale, and so some studies from a positive organizational perspective emphasize zest. Psychologists have discerned two ways of promoting zest in workers: physical fitness and health set the tone for zest, and zest can be sustained through hope and optimism. Depression is a well-documented enemy of zest, and it negatively affects productivity and physical health alike. The prevention or reduction of depression among workers might also increase their sense that their work is a calling.

Zest is linked to psychological well-being, which is also crucial in a work organization. Psychological well-being predicts better job performance, less absenteeism, and less employee turnover.

A 2009 study of 228 schoolteachers in Hong Kong indicated that zest was often associated with positive emotions and higher levels of life satisfaction. Cultivating zest in school teachers might help combat teacher burnout. Zest correlates with healthy working behaviors such as ambition, creativity, persistence, and leadership. This suggests that interventions that nurture zest may improve work environments, increase work satisfaction (as well as general life satisfaction), and decrease workplace burnout (the loss of productivity and enthusiasm for working).

Positive youth development
Zest is important to character development. Promotion of character strengths such as zest helps children experience fewer psychological problems such as depression and anxiety disorders. This suggests that the cultivation of zest may buffer against mental illness.

Youths with high levels of zest tend to excel academically and lead happier,  lives.

Life satisfaction and Zest
Higher levels of zest correlate with higher levels of life satisfaction among adults as well as youths. Zest may be associated with higher life satisfaction because it is associated with living in the "here and now." The definition of zest might make also a correlation with life satisfaction tautological: It is difficult to imagine zestful people who are often unhappy. Increasing one's zest is likely to also increase one's ability to be habitually happy.

Demographics
Zest is among those character strengths that are more common among youths than adults. This may reflect the influence of social and cognitive maturation and certain needs during different developmental periods

One study indicated slight gender differences in levels of zest. For women, life satisfaction was predicted by zest, gratitude, hope, appreciation of beauty, and love. Men's life satisfaction was predicted by creativity, perspective, fairness, and humor. These findings confirm gender stereotypes and suggest that life satisfaction may follow from living aligned with those strengths especially valued in one's culture.

Zest and mental state
On the VIA-Youth subscale zest is correlated with higher levels of neuroticism.

Post-traumatic growth appears to boost zest; measured levels of zest increase with each traumatic event. This suggests that people may be more resilient than existing theories account for, given the correlation between traumatic events and increases in character strengths such as zest

Application
One way to cultivate zest is acting "as if"—living a "faith-based" rather than an "evidence-based" life. This means believing in things that there may not be much evidence for or proof of. Additionally, adopting strong body language may help, as well as "faking it until you make it" (acting as though one has more zest until that increased enthusiasm is a reality).

Groups that were trained to cultivate strengths that are highly correlated with life satisfaction (such as zest) had significant improvements in self-reported life satisfaction after the training.

See also
 Character Strengths and Virtues
 Flow

Notes

References

Positive psychology
Emotions

Zest (positive psychology)


Llorts () is a village in Andorra, located in the parish of Ordino.

Main sights
Andorra's Iron Route runs between Llorts and La Cortinada, following the sites of Andorra's historic mining and iron working industries that were active in the 17th–19th centuries. On the edge of the village is a 19th-century iron mine, La Mina de Llorts, which is open as a tourist attraction.

References

Populated places in Andorra
Ordino

Llorts


Janelee Marcus Chaparro Colón (born September 12, 1991 in Barceloneta), known professionally as Janelee Chaparro, is a Puerto Rican model and beauty queen who represented Puerto Rico at Miss World 2012 where she finished in the Top 30 and at Miss Grand International 2013 where she became the first winner in the pageant's history.

Personal life

Chaparro was born in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico to Sonia Colón and Sergio Chaparro, both pastors. In August, 2019, Colón gave birth to a baby girl.

Pageant participation

Miss Mundo de Puerto Rico 2011
Chaparro competed in Miss Mundo de Puerto Rico 2011, representing Barceloneta, where she placed 1st Runner-Up to Amanda Vilanova of San Juan. On April 26, 2012, Janelee was appointed as Miss Mundo de Puerto Rico 2012 in a press conference as no competition was held that year.

Miss World 2012
Chaparro represented Puerto Rico at Miss World 2012 pageant, held at Ordos, China on August 18, 2012 where she placed in the Top 30.

Miss Grand International 2013
Janelee represented Puerto Rico at the first Miss Grand International pageant on November 19, 2013, where she won becoming the first winner in the pageant's history. During her reign, she had travelled to Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia, South Sudan, Thailand, Puerto Rico, Singapore and Philippines.

References

External links

Miss Grand International winners
1991 births
Living people
People from Barceloneta, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican beauty pageant winners
Miss World 2012 delegates

Janelee Chaparro


Ural-batyr (Bash. Ural batyr) is a Bashkir folk epic poem. It is a very important piece of Bashkir writing.
The central place in the epic is  the topics of life and death, immortality, the struggle of Good and bad.
The epic poetry cosist of 4,576 poetic and 19 prose lines. The composition is divided into 3 parts.

History of study
Old people told the story to young people for many generations.  They told it orally, by saying the poem instead of writing it down. In 1910, two story tellers told this epic to Mukhametsha Burangulov. He wrote them down. After writing this epic, Mukhametsh Burangulov gave the story teller his horse, and he returned home on foot.

There are other versions of the epic writed from other story tellers.

In 1968, the epic was published in the Bashkir magazine "Agidel". In 1972, the epic was published in a multi -volume compilation of "Bashkir folk art".
In 1975, the epic was published in the series "Library of World Literature" in the head of the "Epics of the peoples of the USSR".

There are several translations of the epic into Russian -  by literal translation and poetic.
In 2003, Ural Batyr was translated into English. In 2006, Ural Batyr was published in German. The epic "Ural Batyr" was also translated into other languages of the world (Abkhazian, Hebrew, Turkish, Chuvash and others).

In Bashkortostan, many events are held to popularize the epic. There is a tourist route "In the footsteps of the Ural Batyr". Theaters are performances, films are shot. A competition of readers of the epic is held annually.

The epic "Ural-Batyr" is one of the Seven Wonders of Bashkortostan. The epic is included in the TURKSOY (International Organization of Turkic Culture) List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Plot
The plot of the epic about the struggle of the Ural Batyr for the happiness of people, the battle with the evil forces of nature. The main characters of the epic are people living on Earth. This is the life of three generations. The mythical bird Samrau is one of the main characters of the epic.

Epos tells about the Deluge myth, the first people - Yanbird and Yanbike. They have two sons of the Ural Batyr and Shulgen. Ural Batyr and Shulgan find out that death is stronger than man. They are sent in search of spring water of non -immortality. A dispute arises between the brothers. Shulgen entered into a conspiracy with the evil forces of nature sach Azhdakha. Ural Batyr fights for the happiness of people.

The epic presents ancient ideas about the structure of the cosmos, Earth, about the Underworld.

References

Other websites
  Folklore of Bashkortostan People: Encyclopedia / [Scientific. Collegium: F. A. Nadrshina (chap. Ed.), S. I. Apsatarova, L. A. Afanasyeva, V. Ya. Babenko, F. G. Galieva, M. Kh. Idelbaev, I.E. Karpukhin, T. G. Minnihmetova, I. G. Petrov, R. R. Sadikov, U. G. Saitov (ed.), R. A. Sultangareeva, I.K. Fazlutdinov, G. R. Khusainova;. - Per. in English. Yaz.: LLC "Center for Intercultural Cooperation". -Ufa:  "Bashkir Encyclopedia", 2020.-ISBN ISBN 978-5-88185-474-4 . (en)
 The regional encyclopedic portal "Bashkortostan" (ru)

Bashkir folklore

Ural Batyr


The Mayor of London is an elected politician in London. The role, created in 2000, was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The Mayor of London is also referred to as the London Mayor, a form which helps to avoid confusion with the Lord Mayor of London, the ancient and now mainly ceremonial role in the City of London. The Mayor of London is mayor of Greater London, which has a population of over 7.5 million while the City of London is only a small part of the modern city centre and has a population of less than 10,000.

The first elected Mayor of London is Ken Livingstone, who was re-elected in 2004. Boris Johnson was elected mayor in 2008. Johnson announced that he will not run for re-election in 2016. Sadiq Khan was elected mayor in 2016.

Role
The Mayor is responsible for budgeting and strategic planning of some governmental functions across the whole of the London region. The plans of the mayor are looked at by the London Assembly and actioned by the Greater London Authority. Responsibilities include transport, the police, fire and emergency services, cultural strategy and economic development.

Salary

The mayor of London's salary is one that ranks along that of a government cabinet minister's. The current salary is £137,579 per year.

List of mayors of London
This provides a list of people who have held the office of Mayor of London,

Other websites
 Mayor of London website
 Mayor of London's Cultural Strategy Group
 Page about the process of nomination
 Page about Ken Livingstone's relationship with Labour

References

Directly elected British mayors

Mayor of London


Albert Berg (April 16, 1864 – March 5, 1945) was an American football player, coach, teacher, and an advocate, writer and editor on issues of concern to the deaf.  Berg was rendered deaf as the result of a childhood bout of spinal meningitis.  He played football in Washington, D.C. at the school that became known as Gallaudet University.  Despite being deaf, he became the first football coach at Purdue University, coaching the team to an 0–1 record in the inaugural 1887 season.  Berg also coached football at Franklin College and Butler University.  He later served for more than 40 years as a teacher at the Indiana School for the Deaf.

Early years
Berg was born in Lafayette, Indiana in 1864.  His mother died when he was an infant, and he contracted spinal meningitis as a boy.  The illness rendered Berg deaf. Berg was sent to the Indiana Institution for the Deaf in Indianapolis where he was a student for nine years.

After leaving the Indiana Institution for the Deaf, Berg enrolled at the "Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb" (later renamed Gallaudet University), run by Edward Miner Gallaudet in Washington, D.C.  He was a halfback and captain of the football team at Gallaudet.  Berg later recalled:"In passing and kicking the ball, I was considered exceptionally strong."  He received a bachelor's degree from Gallaudet in 1886.

Several sources report that Berg was an alumnus of Princeton University. Other sources dispute Berg's having any connection with Princeton.

Purdue football coach
A group of students at Purdue University formed the school's first football team in 1887.  Berg was hired as the coach.  Despite being deaf, Berg was reportedly "the only man in the territory with any knowledge of the game."  Berg was 23 years old when he became Purdue's football "coacher."  He was paid $1 for each lesson he gave to the newly organized football team and had only one week to prepare the team for its first game.  The 1887 Purdue team played its only game on October 29, 1887, against the Butler College team at Athletic Park in Indianapolis.  Butler soundly defeated Berg's squad by a score of 48–6.  After the loss to Butler, Purdue did not field a football team again until 1889.

Newspaper columnist George Ade (for whom Ross–Ade Stadium is named) described the loss to Butler as "a low comedy reproduction of the Custer massacre at Little Big Horn," and noted that the deaf Berg had been given an unenviable task to "take charge of the halt, the lame, the blind, and the perniciously anemic to imbue them with stamina, courage and strategy."

Berg later recalled how his condition impacted his coaching: "On account of my inability to hear and my ability to talk only to a limited extent and on account of the game being practically brand new in this part of the country, my instruction was mainly by imitation of my own playing, and the way they caught on and improved upon it would have encouraged and delighted any coach."  According to another account, Berg's coaching "consisted of excited sign language and some rather bizarre sounds from his throat which his players correctly translated as pure profanity."

Teaching career and advocacy
After his brief stint as Purdue's football coach, Berg worked briefly as an architect's apprentice and with the YMCA and the Chicago stockyards.   He also returned to coaching briefly at Franklin College and at Butler University.

In the late 1880s, he became a teacher at the Indiana School for the Deaf.  He taught there for between 41 and 45 years until retiring in 1933.  He received a Master of Arts degree from Gallaudet in 1895.  He delivered his thesis on "Labor and Capital" to an audience that included President Grover Cleveland, though Cleveland reportedly fell asleep during Berg's presentation.

Berg also became an advocate for the deaf.  He lobbied for better pay for deaf teachers, wrote several books, served as an editor for "The Silent Hoosier," and published "Who's Who of the Deaf."  Berg also sold life insurance, mostly to the deaf, for an eastern insurance company.  He reportedly sold over $1 million in policies.

Berg preferred not to be remembered as a football coach.  In his autobiography, "From My Reliquary of Memories," Berg wrote:

Family and later years
In approximately 1890, Berg was married to his wife, Maude, who was 21 years old and had been a student at the Indiana School for the Deaf.  They had two children, Myrtle born in May 1891, and Lloyd born in September 1898.  After retiring in 1933, Berg and his wife moved to the Mount Airy neighborhood in Philadelphia, where he was employed by the New England Life Insurance Company.  In October 1939, Berg fell and sustained a broken hip.  After the injury, Berg and his wife moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where their son Lloyd was employed as the superintendent of the Iowa School for the Deaf. Berg never recovered from the broken hip and remained confined to his room for the final six years of his life.  His wife died in 1942, and he died three years later after experiencing a stroke at age 80.

Head coaching record

References

1864 births
1945 deaths
Purdue Boilermakers football coaches
Gallaudet University alumni
Sportspeople from Lafayette, Indiana
Deaf players of American football
Franklin Grizzlies football coaches
Butler Bulldogs football coaches
American deaf people

Albert Berg


Euro disco is a form of disco-based dance music which originated in the late-1970s in Europe, as a more European variant of disco music. Euro disco was based on disco music, yet it was a more encompassing genre which borrowed influences from pop, rock and New Wave music. In such a way, it was more pop-friendly and less "gritty" than regular disco music. It often included synthesizers within its composition.

Euro disco, as the term suggests, was popular in Europe. Nevertheless, it also achieved popularity in the United States through artists such as Donna Summer. Some regard Kraftwerk as the first Euro disco group. Furthermore,  Giorgio Moroder was also a major force within the Euro disco scene.

References

Disco
Pop music
Electronic dance music

Euro disco


Coronidium scorpioides, commonly known as the button everlasting, is a perennial herbaceous shrub in the family Asteraceae found in Australia. Previously known as Helichrysum scorpioides, it was placed in the newly described genus Coronidium in 2008.

Taxonomy and naming
Jacques Labillardière described the button everlasting as Helichrysum scorpioides in 1806 from a specimen collected in Tasmania.  The large genus Helichrysum was long recognised as polyphyletic and many of its members have been transferred to new genera. Botanist Paul Graham Wilson erected the new genus Coronidium for 17 species of daisy of the eastern states of Australia, and it was given its new name of C. scorpioides in 2008. Wilson suspects there may be several species within C. scorpioides as currently defined, but deferred formally splitting them when revising the genus.

Description
The button everlasting is a herbaceous perennial plant that grows to  high from a woody rootstock. The woolly stems rise vertically and are unbranched, and are topped by the yellow flowerheads in spring.

Distribution and habitat
Coronidium scorpioides is found from the Gibraltar Range in northern New South Wales, south through the eastern part of the state into Victoria and southeastern South Australia as well as Tasmania. It grows on heavier more fertile soils, such as brown clay or clay-loam, derived from basalt, or sandstone-shale, in open forest under such trees as narrow-leaved peppermint (Eucalyptus radiata), Sydney peppermint  (E. piperita), brown barrel (E. fastigata), grey gum (E. punctata), manna gum (E. viminalis) or Blaxland's stringybark (E. blaxlandii), or in more open woodland under scribbly gum (Eucalyptus sclerophylla) and narrow-leaved apple (Angophora bakeri).

Ecology
Coronidium scorpioides resprouts after bushfire, some plants taking as little as 16 weeks to flower.

References

scorpioides
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Victoria (state)
Garden plants of Australia
Taxa named by Jacques Labillardière
Taxa named by Paul G. Wilson

Coronidium scorpioides