Liqun Luo (; born January 1966) is a neuroscientist in the Department of Biology at Stanford University, where he is the Ann and Bill Swindells Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His laboratory studies the development and organization of neural circuits, and he is the author of the textbook Principles of Neurobiology.

Early life and education
Luo was born in January 1966 in Shanghai, China. After graduating from the middle school of No.1 High School Affiliated to East China Normal University, he was admitted to the Special Class for the Gifted Young at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 1981 and skipped high school.

Luo earned his bachelor's degree in molecular biology from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1986. He completed his PhD at Brandeis University in 1992, studying the Drosophila melanogaster homolog of the Amyloid precursor protein. After his postdoctoral work in the lab of Lily Jan and Yuh Nung Jan at the University of California in San Francisco, he became an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Stanford University in 1996.

Research
Luo's research focuses on the assembly and organization of neural circuits. His lab has invented tools to facilitate mosaic analysis in flies (MARCM) and mice (MADM).

Honors and awards
Luo has been an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2005., and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received numerous awards including the Technology Innovation in Neuroscience award from the McKnight Foundation and The Young Investigator Award from the Society for Neuroscience.

References

External links
 Luo lab website
 Website for Dr. Luo's textbook, Principles of Neurobiology

1966 births
Living people
University of Science and Technology of China alumni
Brandeis University alumni
Stanford University faculty
Chinese emigrants to the United States
American neuroscientists
Chinese neuroscientists
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Biologists from Shanghai

Liqun Luo


The Last King of Scotland (In Scots The Last Keeng o' Scotland) is a 2006 pictur, set throu the rule o' Idi Amin in Uganda. The pictur haes Forest Whittaker as Idi Amin an the Scots actor James McAvoy as Nicholas Garrigan.

Story

Nicholas Garrigan graduates frae a unversity in Scotland (it daesna say whit ane), an traivels ti Uganda ti practeece, whaur he becams Idi Amin's ain doctor. He bedeen lears aboot the coorseness o Amin's régime.

The Last King of Scotland


The Junta de Administración Portuaria y de Desarrollo Económico de la Vertiente Atlántica de Costa Rica (JAPDEVA) is the Board of Port Administration and Economic Development of the Atlantic Coast of Costa Rica. It was established in 1963 as an autonomous entity of the State in order to ensure the maintenance of the canals of the northern province of Limon (Tortuguero and Barra del Colorado) and monitor government contracts with regard to ports and railway.

Institutions of Costa Rica


Giuseppe Zangara (September 7, 1900 – March 20, 1933) was an Italian immigrant and naturalized United States citizen who attempted to assassinate the President-elect of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, on February 15, 1933, 17 days before Roosevelt's inauguration. During a night speech by Roosevelt in Miami, Florida, Zangara fired five shots with a handgun he had purchased a couple of days before. He missed his target and instead injured five bystanders and killed Anton Cermak, the Mayor of Chicago.

Early life
Zangara was born on September 7, 1900, in Ferruzzano, Calabria, Italy. After serving with the Italian Royal Army in the Tyrolean Alps during World War I, he did a variety of menial jobs in his home village before emigrating with his uncle to the United States in 1923. He settled in Paterson, New Jersey, and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1929.

Health issues
Zangara had little education and worked as a bricklayer. He suffered severe pain in his abdomen, which doctors told him was chronic and incurable. In 1926 he underwent an appendectomy, but it was no help; if anything, it may have made his pain worse. The doctors who performed his autopsy attributed his abdominal pain to adhesions they found on his gallbladder. In his prison memoir, Zangara himself attributed his pain to being forced to do grueling physical labor on his father's farm from an early age. He wrote that his pain began when he was six years old.

Observers at the time and following his execution have discussed his mental state. Arguments have been made that Zangara was mentally ill, incapable of distinguishing right from wrong, and ought to have had an insanity defense presented on his behalf while others have contended that he was sane.

Assassination attempt

On February 15, 1933, Roosevelt was giving an impromptu speech at night from the back of an open car in the Bayfront Park area of Miami, Florida, where Zangara was working the occasional odd job and living off his savings. Zangara, armed with a .32-caliber US Revolver Company revolver he had bought for $8 () at a local pawn shop, joined the crowd of spectators, but as he was only  tall, he was unable to see over other people and had to stand on a wobbly metal folding chair, peering over the hat of Lillian Cross to get a clear aim at his target from 25 feet away. He placed his gun over Mrs. Cross' right shoulder (She was only about 4 inches taller than he was and weighed 105 pounds).

After Zangara fired the first shot, Cross and others grabbed his arm, and he fired four more shots wildly. Five people were hit: Mrs. Joseph H. Gill (seriously wounded in the abdomen); Miss Margaret Kruis of Newark, New Jersey, (minor wound in hand and a scalp wound); New York detective/bodyguard William Sinnott (superficial head wound); Russell Caldwell of Miami (flesh wound on the forehead); and Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who was standing on the running board of the car next to Roosevelt. Mrs Cross had powder burns on her right cheek. A Secret Service agent Bob Clark had a grazed hand, possibly caused by the bullet that struck Cermak. The intended target, Roosevelt, was unharmed.

Roosevelt cradled the mortally wounded Cermak in his arms as the car rushed to the hospital; after arriving there, Cermak spoke to Roosevelt, and before he died 19 days later, allegedly uttered the line that is engraved on his tomb: "I'm glad it was me, not you." The Tribune reported the quote without attributing it to a witness, and most scholars doubt it was ever said.

Aftermath
Zangara confessed in the Dade County Courthouse jail, stating: "I have the gun in my hand. I kill kings and presidents first and next all capitalists." He pleaded guilty to four counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to 80 years in prison. As he was led out of the courtroom, Zangara told the judge: "Four times 20 is 80. Oh, judge, don't be stingy. Give me a hundred years."

Cermak died of peritonitis 19 days later, on March 6, 1933, two days after Roosevelt's inauguration. Zangara was promptly indicted for first-degree murder in Cermak's death. Because Zangara had intended to commit murder, the fact that his intended target may not have been the man he ultimately killed was not relevant as he would still be guilty of first-degree murder under the doctrine of transferred intent. There were worries that Zangara's defense would argue that Cermak's death was not a result of his bullet injury. A theory, raised decades later, questioned whether Cermak's death was caused by medical malpractice on the part of the doctors treating him. It alleged that they failed to realize that the bullet had actually caused direct damage to his colon and precipitated the perforation. The perforation led to sepsis and his death but Cermak might not have died "but for [the] physicians' blunders". This theory was refuted by a later medical analysis of the event.

Zangara pleaded guilty to the additional murder charge and was sentenced to death by Circuit Court Judge Uly Thompson. Zangara said after hearing his sentence: "You give me electric chair. I no afraid of that chair! You one of capitalists. You is crook man too. Put me in electric chair. I no care!" Under Florida law, a convicted murderer could not share cell space with another prisoner before his execution, but another convicted murderer was already awaiting execution at Raiford. Zangara's sentence required prison officials to expand their waiting area for prisoners sentenced to death and the "death cell" became "Death Row".

Execution
After spending only 10 days on death row, Zangara, who refused to appeal his sentence, was executed on March 20, 1933, in Old Sparky, the electric chair at Florida State Prison in Raiford. Zangara became enraged when he learned no newsreel cameras would be filming his final moments. His final statement was "Viva l'Italia! Goodbye to all poor peoples everywhere! ... Push the button! Go ahead, push the button!"

Conspiracy theory
While accounts focus on Cermak and the other victims being random casualties of an attempt to assassinate Roosevelt, a conspiracy theory emerged sometime before 1999, originating in Chicago, asserting that Zangara was a hired killer working for Frank Nitti, who was the head of the Chicago Outfit crime syndicate. John William Tuohy, author of numerous books on organized crime in Chicago, after reviewing Secret Service records, described in detail in a 2002 article his interpretation of how and why Cermak was the real target and the relationship of the shooting to the rampant gang violence in Chicago. The theory is enhanced by numerous researchers, citing their analysis of court testimony, asserting that Cermak had directed an assassination attempt on Nitti less than three months earlier.

The conspiracy theorists suggest that Zangara had been an expert marksman in the Italian Army 16 years earlier, who would presumably hit his target, though sidestepping any issues about Zangara's progressive age and health issues since his time in the war, his short stature requiring him to stand on a jostled chair, his experience being with a rifle rather than with a pistol from a great distance, and his own statements regarding his target.

Raymond Moley, who interviewed Zangara, believed he was not part of any larger conspiracy, and that he had intended to kill Roosevelt.

In popular culture
In a 1960 two-part story line titled "The Unhired Assassin" on the TV series The Untouchables, actor Joe Mantell played the part of Giuseppe "Joe" Zangara. This episode, while depicting Zangara's story throughout, focuses mostly on Nitti's plan to kill Cermak with an initial (fictionalized) attempt in Chicago that is foiled by Eliot Ness and his agents at the end of part one. In part two, another attempt is made using a contract hitman, an ex-Army rifleman in Florida, which again fails thanks to Ness. Suddenly, Zangara's failed, and unrelated, obsession with killing Roosevelt unintentionally achieves Nitti's goal. This two-part story was later edited together as a feature-length movie retitled The Gun of Zangara. In the 1993 reboot of The Untouchables, the episode "Radical Solution" has actor David Engel portraying Zangara.

Zangara plays a significant role in the background provided for Philip K. Dick's 1962 novel The Man in the High Castle (as well as the subsequent Amazon original series). This alternate history novel, set after an Axis victory in World War II, bases the point of divergence on the premise that Zangara succeeded in assassinating President-elect Roosevelt on February 15, 1933, in Miami. A similar Zangara-is-successful premise is used in the GURPS Alternate Earths role-playing game's "Reich 5" alternate universe.

Max Allan Collins' 1983 novel True Detective, first in his Nathan Heller mystery series, features Zangara's attempted assassination of Roosevelt, positing it as an actual attempt on Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. The novel won the 1984 Shamus Award for Best P.I. Hardcover from the Private Eye Writers of America.

In the original 1990 Off-Broadway production of Assassins by Stephen Sondheim, Zangara was played by Eddie Korbich. In later productions, he was played by Paul Harrhy in London's West End (1992 premiere) and Jeffrey Kuhn on Broadway (2004 premiere). Appearing in several songs from the musical, the Zangara character has a major solo in the number "How I Saved Roosevelt".

In HBO's 1998 biopic Winchell, moments after the assassination attempt, Walter Winchell leaps onto the running board of Miami's Police Chief's car, asking for an interview with Zangara, thereby getting at exclusive story for the New York Daily Mirror.

The 2011 fantasy noir novel Spellbound by Larry Correia features Zangara's attempted assassination of Roosevelt. Zangara is magically enhanced in a plot to inflame bigotry and curtail the civil rights of the magically gifted protagonists of the Grimnoir Society. Instead of using a small-caliber handgun, Zangara is made into a living cannon or bomb and kills nearly 200 onlookers, including Cermak, and cripples Roosevelt.

Charlaine Harris' fantasy Western Gunnie Rose Series is set in a world in which Zangara succeeded in assassinating Roosevelt, and the United States fractured into several different successor states.

See also

 List of assassinations
 List of people who were executed

Notes

References

External links

1900 births
1933 deaths
Italian military personnel of World War I
20th-century executions by Florida
American bricklayers
American male criminals
20th-century executions of American people
Naturalized citizens of the United States
Executed American assassins
American failed assassins
American people convicted of attempted murder
Failed assassins of presidents of the United States
Italian assassins
Italian emigrants to the United States
Italian people executed abroad
People convicted of murder by Florida
People executed by Florida by electric chair
People from Paterson, New Jersey
People from the Province of Reggio Calabria
1933 mass shootings in the United States
Volunteer execution

Giuseppe Zangara


Desert of Desolation is a compilation adventure module published by TSR for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game. It combines three previously published individual modules: Pharaoh, Oasis of the White Palm, and Lost Tomb of Martek.  The modules were made for use with the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) rules. Pharaoh was created by Tracy and Laura Hickman soon after the couple married in 1977, and published by TSR in 1982.  Oasis of the White Palm was a collaboration between Tracy Hickman and Philip Meyers, and Hickman wrote the Lost Tomb of Martek on his own; both were printed in 1983.

Each module is an Egyptian-styled adventure.  The individual modules were well received by critics at the time of their release, and the compilation garnered accolades in the early 2000s.

Plot summary

Pharaoh

Pharaoh is an Egyptian-styled adventure that includes a pyramid map and a trap-filled maze.

Oasis of the White Palm

Oasis of the White Palm is an adventure in which the player characters come to the Oasis of the White Palm to find out that Shadalah, intended bride of the eldest son of the sheikh, has been kidnapped. The sheikh suspects that his enemies are holding her somewhere within the oasis. The PCs must solve the mystery before they can progress further. After the characters establish contacts at the oasis, they must go to the temple of Set and then the crypt of Badr al-Mosak, and the adventure will finish in the city of Phoenix; there, the PCs must acquire the three Star Gems (the one from Amun-Re's tomb in the previous adventure and two more introduced here) and set the djinni free if they plan to move on to the next module. The Oasis of the White Palm module contains wilderness maps, and also includes a number of smaller adventures.

Lost Tomb of Martek

The goal of the PCs is the tomb of the millennium-dead wizard Martek. The tomb can be found in the immense Desert of Desolation, and most of the action in the adventure happens inside the enormous tomb of Martek. The player characters have to traverse a sea of glass using skate-ships, and then go through the Crystal Prism and the Mobius Tower to get to the final crypt. The adventure is organized into seven parts, taking the party from the desert through a number of planes on their way to the Citadel of Martek.  They must use the Star Gems to revive the dead wizard.  When they have done so, he lets them choose from a variety of magical treasure, and leaves to defeat the Efreet.

Publication history

In 1977, Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman (co-creators of the Dragonlance campaign setting) were married. Soon after, while living in Provo, Utah, they wrote the adventures Pharaoh and Ravenloft.  The Hickmans privately published their first two adventures, Rahasia and Pharaoh, which earned them a local reputation. DayStar West Media Productions published Pharaoh as part of the "Night Ventures" line of adventure scenarios in 1980, as a sixty-eight-page book. Tracy was working with a business associate who left the Hickmans to cover thirty-thousand dollars in bad checks, driving them to declare bankruptcy, and Tracy Hickman decided to sell their adventure modules to TSR, "literally so that I could buy shoes for my children". TSR decided to buy the modules, and also hired Tracy as a game designer:
 "They said it would be easier to publish my adventures if I was part of the company. So, we made the move from Utah to Wisconsin."
In 1982, TSR published Pharaoh as a thirty-two-page booklet with two outer folders, for the first edition of AD&D. It was designed for 6-8 player characters of levels 5–7, and formed the first of the three-part Desert of Desolation module series.

Oasis of the White Palm is the sequel to the Pharaoh module. TSR published this adventure in 1983 as a thirty-two-page booklet with two outer folders, and the adventure was written by Tracy Hickman and Philip Meyers with cover art by Jim Holloway and interior illustrations by Keith Parkinson. It was intended for 6 to 8 characters of levels 6–8. Lost Tomb of Martek is the third module in the series, and was designed by Tracy Hickman, for 7th-9th level characters. Lost Tomb of Martek was published in 1983 as a 32-page booklet with two outer folders.

The compilation module Desert of Desolation was printed in 1987. The compilation features a cover by Keith Parkinson. It features additional design and revision work by The Companions team members Peter Rice and William John Wheeler on the I3, I4, and I5 AD&D game adventures.  Wheeler attempted to expand on the originals, without altering their tone. The adventures in Desert of Desolation are designed for a 5th-10th level party and have been refitted to take place in the Forgotten Realms setting, and also made compatible with the rules in the Wilderness Survival Guide. Rice and Wheeler added more background material, and included staging tips for the Dungeon Master. The details of various elements that had been open-ended elements were spelled out. Desert of Desolation includes a 128-page adventure booklet, a sixteen-page maps booklet, and a large A1 size sheet containing maps and player handouts. The compilation module contains new maps, including an isometric map depicting the tomb of Amun-Re. The revision also introduces ancient inscriptions that the players can decipher.

At the time these modules were released, each D&D module was marked with an alphanumeric code indicating the series to which it belonged. The earlier modules have module codes I3, I4, and I5 respectively, and the combined module's code is I3–5

Reception
The modules were well received by critics, both separately and as a compilation.  Called "The definitive "Egyptian-themed" D&D adventure", it was ranked the 6th greatest adventure of all time by Dungeon in 2004.  Christopher Perkins noted that "This adventure introduced a new encounter format later adapted for third edition adventures," serving as the precursor to the format Dungeon would use for third edition. Chris Pramas felt the backstory made the adventure "so much more interesting than the typical dungeon bash, and the whole series dripped with atmosphere."

Pharaoh and Oasis of the White Palm were reviewed in White Dwarf, No. 45 by Jim Bambra, who gave both modules 10 of out 10 overall. Bambra felt that the presentation of both modules was excellent, and liked the new format, which utilized a short paragraph to quickly describe how the adventure should be run. He felt that this system, which also included distinct listings of traps, tricks, monsters, and treasure, "makes it far easier to find information quickly and reduced the chance of leaving something important out in the heat of play." While Bambra was disappointed with I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, he felt that with I2 Tomb of the Lizard King and these two modules "the I series is fast becoming one of the best available". Bambra concluded by stating that these "are both excellent adventures, they are imaginative, colourful and challenging. If I5 The Lost Tomb of Martek is as good as these two the Desert series will be one of the best yet ranking with the G and D modules."

Doug Cowie reviewed Oasis of the White Palm for Imagine magazine, and stated that "This is an excellent, varied module. It has excitement, depth and tension. A must for those who have played 13 and highly recommended for anyone else."

Lost Tomb of Martek received a positive review (9 out of 10) from Dave Morris in issue No. 55 of White Dwarf magazine. Morris felt the module met the high standards one would expect from Tracy Hickman. He complimented the "fun with spacetime distortion", the Mobius Tower, and the Guilders and Maddogs—dimwitted inbred descendants of rogues and paladins, respectively, who became trapped in the tomb over many centuries. According to Morris, "There is the sense throughout this adventure that the characters are agents of destiny, heroes fulfilling a chain of events set in motion long ages ago—the author has succeeded admirably in creating this effect".  Morris compared this module to Temple of Death, feeling that both are excellent adventures for characters of roughly the same level, but that while the characters would have to retire after the world-shattering adventure in Lost Tomb of Martek, the campaign would not necessarily have to end after playing Temple of Death.

Doug Cowie reviewed Lost Tomb of Martek for Imagine magazine. He noted the module's attractive cover, but found the internal illustrations to be of low quality even though they were at times helpful to understand tricky bits of text. Cowie's main problem was with the "purple" prose of the descriptions to be read aloud by the DM to the players. He doubted that many gamemasters would use them as given. Overall, Cowie thought the module to be of "praiseworthy detail" and "so well designed [he] couldn't help liking it".

Jim Bambra reviewed the Desert of Desolation compilation release for White Dwarf No. 93, calling it "more than a simple repackaging of the three original adventures... The adventure material itself has received considerable expansion." Bambra praised the adventure, stating:
"These adventures are classic stuff and have stood the test of time well. They mix roleplaying, wilderness and dungeon adventuring in an entertaining and intriguing way. While the roleplaying is fun, and the wilderness adventures certainly have the feel of being in a dry and dusty desert, it is the dungeon adventure sections which really shine. These are some of the best TSR has ever produced—they include tricks, traps, and combat, all the stuff associated with dungeons. But more importantly, they are connected by an epic storyline which really catches the flavour of the Arabian Nights." Bambra liked the wall inscriptions in the pharaoh's tomb as part of the revised adventure, feeling that they add to the adventure and give the players some insight into what is going on: "They also pose an interesting problem, as they first need to be deciphered. Although written in English, their meanings are cunningly disguised, so some thought will be required to interpret them correctly." He felt that the "adventurers must rely on their roleplaying skills to deal with the problems facing them" at the Oasis of the White Palm, and that once they figure out the mystery of the place "the action really hots up and in more ways than one!" Bambra described the last part of the adventure as "Another dungeon, but a very interesting one." Bambra concluded his review by stating "These are easily the best of TSR's reprint series."

Desert of Desolation was reviewed in Dragon No. 126 by Ken Rolston. According to Rolston, "Tracy Hickman... is a first-rate designer, and these modules are exceptional examples of the module genre... The original modules were nifty dungeons, with lots of puzzles, monsters, and colorful encounters." Rolston felt that the compilation module was a bit too heavy for his taste, "densely packed with information, built around a very linear narrative, and consisting, for the most part, of dungeon crawls—well, it makes slow going, and the writing style of the revision is pretty wordy". He also felt that the old-fashioned graphic design did not help the adventure's pacing and readability. Rolston concluded his review by stating "The original I3–I5 modules were pretty exciting in their time. In this revised version, they still count as classic AD&D game adventures. But exciting? I'm afraid not."

References

External links
 Desert series at the Acaeum

Dungeons & Dragons modules
Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1982

Desert of Desolation


Usborne Young Reading is a series of books from Usborne Publishing forming part of the Usborne Reading Programme.  They are a collection of stories aimed at readers 5 years and above, covering Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 of the English National Curriculum.  Series 1 is for beginner readers with simple sentence structure, whilst Series 3 is for more advanced readers.

References

Series of children's books
Children's short story collections

Usborne Young Reading


In Australian aboriginal mythology (specifically: Mandjindja), Kidili (or Kidilli) was an ancient moon-man who attempted to rape some of the first women on Earth.  The Wati-kutjara wounded him in battle, castrating him with a boomerang, and he died of his wounds in a waterhole.  The women he was trying to rape became the Pleiades.

Australian Aboriginal gods
Mythological rapists

Kidili


The Girl Who Played with Fire () is the second novel in the best-selling Millennium series by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. It was published posthumously in Swedish in 2006 and in English in January 2009.

The book features many of the characters who appeared in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005), among them the title character, Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant computer hacker and social misfit, and Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist and publisher of Millennium  magazine.

Widely seen as a critical success, The Girl Who Played with Fire was also (according to The Bookseller magazine) the first and only translated novel to be number one in the UK hardback chart.

Synopsis
After a yearlong sojourn to Grenada, Lisbeth Salander uses three million laundered kronor to purchase a new apartment in Stockholm. She re-establishes contact with Dragan Armansky, her former boss at Milton Securities, and her former legal guardian Holger Palmgren. Nils Bjurman, who had previously raped Salander, focuses his attention on capturing her and destroying the film she made of his crime. Reviewing her medical records, he identifies a person from her past as his strongest ally. Mikael Blomkvist, the publisher of Millennium magazine, who had lost contact with Salander since her absence, sees her being attacked by a member of the Svavelsjö outlaw motorcycle club. He attempts to help, to Salander's astonishment, and their joint efforts enable her to elude her attacker.

Millennium is approached by Dag Svensson and Mia Johansson, who have put together a report concerning sex trafficking in Sweden and the abuse of underage girls by high-ranking figures. Everyone is intrigued by recurring mentions of "Zala", a mysterious figure heavily involved in the sex-trafficking industry. Salander, hacking Blomkvist's computer, is taken aback by the mention of Zala, and visits Svensson and Johansson to ask questions. Later that same night, Blomkvist finds the couple shot dead in their apartment. With Salander's fingerprints on the murder weapon, and her formal record establishing a history of violent instability, she is implicated in the double murder. Bjurman is also found dead, shot by the same weapon; Salander is the prime suspect.

Eager to clear Salander's name and realizing that she has hacked into his notebook computer, Blomkvist leaves her notes on his desktop; her replies point him to "Zala". Blomkvist confronts Gunnar Björck, a policeman on sick leave and one of the high-ranking abusers identified by Svensson and Johansson, who agrees to disclose information about Zala if Blomkvist leaves him out of Millenniums exposé. Miriam Wu, Salander's current sex partner, is taken in for questioning by the police. After her release, Paolo Roberto, Salander's former boxing coach, witnesses her being kidnapped into a van by Salander's earlier attacker, aided by a "blond giant". He follows them to a warehouse south of Nykvarn, where he attempts to fight the giant and manages to escape with Wu. The giant recovers and sets the warehouse on fire to destroy the evidence.

Visiting Bjurman's summer cabin, Salander finds a classified Säpo file and begins to make the connection between Bjurman and Zala, whose real name is Alexander Zalachenko. By coincidence, two members of the motorcycle club, Carl-Magnus Lundin (Salander's attacker) and Sonny Nieminen, have been dispatched to burn the place down. Salander incapacitates them, leaving suspects for the police to find. She returns to her apartment and, having no choice, decides to find and kill Zalachenko. She discovers the identity of the giant, Ronald Niedermann, and traces him to a post office box in Göteborg. Meanwhile, Blomkvist manages to find Salander's new apartment as well as the DVD revealing Bjurman's crime.

With information from Björck and Palmgren, Blomkvist pieces together the entire story: Zalachenko is a former Soviet defector whose very existence is kept classified by Säpo. Initially an intelligence source, Zalachenko began to traffic in sex slaves on the side. He became the partner of a 17-year-old girl who became pregnant with twins, Lisbeth and Camilla. Zalachenko was an itinerant father who habitually abused his partner, culminated in Lisbeth's deliberately setting his car alight while her father was in it. The authorities imprisoned Salander and declared her insane, since acknowledging Zalachenko's crimes would require them to divulge his existence. Niedermann had killed Svensson and Johansson on Zalachenko's orders; Bjurman, who was involved with Zalachenko, played a role in the murders and was killed to ensure his silence.

Between Blomkvist's testimony, Salander's various character witnesses, and the additional suspects piling up, the police are forced to admit that their original suspicions were wrong. Blomkvist finds Niedermann's Göteborg address and sets off for the farm where he and Zalachenko await. There, Salander is captured and brought before Zalachenko. She is shot when she attempts to escape and is buried by Neidermann, not realising she is still alive. Battling through immense pain, Salander slowly digs herself out and attempts to kill Zalachenko with an axe. On his way to Göteborg, Blomkvist captures Niedermann and ties him against a signpost by the road.  The book ends as Blomkvist finds Salander and calls emergency services.

Characters

Main characters
 Mikael Blomkvist – A journalist and publisher at Millennium magazine
 Lisbeth Salander – A private investigator, hacker, and accused triple-murderer
 Alexander Zalachenko (Zala) a.k.a. Karl Axel Bodin – A former Soviet spy who turns out to be deeply involved in Salander's dark past
 Ronald Niedermann a.k.a. The Giant – Zalachenko's henchman who is connected to Salander in a way which she does not realise
 Carl-Magnus Lundin – The President of Svavelsjö Motorcycle Club (Svavelsjö MC) who sells drugs and is commissioned to kidnap Salander for Zala

Related to Millennium magazine
 Erika Berger – Editor in chief of Millennium magazine and Blomkvist's on–off lover
 Harriet Vanger – Majority investor in Millennium
 Malin Eriksson – Managing editor of Millennium magazine
 Christer Malm – Art director and designer of Millennium magazine
 Dag Svensson – A journalist who is writing an exposé on the Swedish sex trade and Mia's boyfriend
 Mia Johansson – A doctoral student in criminology and Dag's girlfriend
 Henry Cortez – Part-time journalist at Millennium magazine
 Lotta Karim – Part-time journalist at Millennium magazine
 Monika Nillson – Journalist at Millennium magazine

Related to Milton Security
 Dragan Armansky – Salander's former boss and director of Milton Security
 Sonny Bohman – A former policeman and part of the team Armansky assigns to support the police investigation
 Johan Fräklund – Chief of Operations at Milton Security and assigned to support police investigation
 Niklas Hedström – Works for Milton Security and is assigned to support police investigation but sabotages it. A heart problem kept him from becoming a police man. He hates Salander since she caught him blackmailing a client

Related to police investigation
 Jan Bublanski – A police officer who is in charge of Salander's case, nicknamed Officer Bubble
 Sonja Modig – A detective in Bublanski's team
 Richard Ekström – A prosecutor of Salander's case
 Hans Faste – Working in Bublanski's team, causing trouble with his sexually discriminating attitude
 Curt Andersson – Police officer in Bublanski's team
 Jerker Holmberg – Police officer in Bublanski's team

Other characters
 Annika Gianinni – Blomkvist's sister and an attorney
 Miriam "Mimmi" Wu – A kickboxer, university student and Salander's on and off girlfriend
 Nils Bjurman – An attorney and Salander's current guardian since Palmgren's stroke
 Paolo Roberto – A former professional boxer and Salander's boxing instructor. The character is based on the real boxer Paolo Roberto.
 Gunnar Björk – A Swedish Security Police officer and former punter abusing women. He is also the lead source for Blomkvist on Zalachenko.
 Holger Palmgren – Lisbeth Salander's former guardian; she visits him in a rehabilitation home and they play a game of chess together.  In her memoir "There Are Things I Want You to Know" About Stieg Larsson and Me, Eva Gabrielsson tells readers that this chess game was inspired by her brother Björn who Stieg Larsson used to play the game with and with whom he was very close.
 Greger Beckman – Erika Berger's husband
 George Bland – Black teenage boy whom Salander has an affair with in Grenada
 Richard Forbes – Reverend and Salander's hotel room neighbour in Grenada
 Geraldine Forbes – A millionaire heiress and battered wife of Richard Forbes
 Sonny Nieminen – Part of Svavelsjö MC and involved in trying to kidnap Salander

Reception
The English version was published in January 2009 and immediately became a number 1 bestseller. It received generally positive reviews from most of the major UK newspapers. Many reviewers agreed with Joan Smith at The Sunday Times that this novel was "even more gripping and astonishing than the first".

Most of the reviewers concentrated mainly on the character of Lisbeth Salander, with Mark Lawson at the Guardian saying that "the huge pleasure of these books is Salander, a fascinating creation with a complete and complex psychology."
Boyd Tonkin in The Independent said: "the spiky and sassy Lisbeth Salander – punkish wild child, traumatised survivor of the 'care' system, sexual adventurer and computer hacker of genius" was "the most original heroine to emerge in crime fiction for many years". Michiko Kakutani at The New York Times wrote that "Salander and Blomkvist, transcend their genre and insinuate themselves in the reader's mind through their oddball individuality, their professional competence and, surprisingly, their emotional vulnerability."

Cultural notes
The character of Paolo Roberto is an actual person. He is a former boxer and television chef who has also dabbled in politics. He played himself in the 2009 film adaptation of the book.

In the first part of the book, Salander is exploring Dimensions in Mathematics apparently written by L. C. Parnault and published by Harvard University Press in 1999. On February 9, 2009, Harvard University Press announced on their website that this book and the author are purely fictitious.

The mysterious Karl Axel Bodin, in whose house Salander finds Zalachenko and Niedermann, is a historical name. Bodin was born in Karlstad and later moved to Sundsvall. He went to Norway to join the Waffen-SS; at the end of World War II, he was attached to the country's branch of the Gestapo. At the war's end, Bodin and another Swedish volunteer stole a car in an attempted escape to Sweden. The car's owner saw the theft, and soon a gunfight erupted in which the car owner and Bodin's friend were shot. Bodin left his friend behind and crossed the border.

Film and television adaptations
 The Girl Who Played with Fire, a 2009 Swedish film directed by Daniel Alfredson.
 Millennium, a Swedish six-part television miniseries based on the film adaptations of Stieg Larsson's series of the same name, was broadcast on SVT1 from 20 March 2010 to 24 April 2010. The series was produced by Yellow Bird in cooperation with several production companies, including SVT, Nordisk Film, Film i Väst, and ZDF Enterprises.
 Dragon Tattoo Trilogy: Extended Edition is the title of the TV miniseries release on DVD, Blu-ray, and video on demand in the US. This version of the miniseries comprises nine hours of story content, including over two hours of additional footage not seen in the theatrical versions of the original Swedish films. The four-disc set includes two hour special features and extended editions of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

References

External links
 IMDb The Girl Who Played With Fire
 Current edition of The Girl Who Played With Fire on Amazon UK
 Fan site on WordPress
 UK publisher website for Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played with Fire

2006 Swedish novels
Swedish crime novels
Swedish mystery novels
Millennium (novel series)
Novels published posthumously
Novels set in Sweden
Works about human trafficking
Swedish novels adapted into films
Human trafficking in Sweden
Norstedts förlag books
Swedish-language novels
Novels with bisexual themes

The Girl Who Played with Fire


Throughout its history, the costume of ballet has influenced and been influenced by fashion. Ballet-specific clothing used in productions and during practice, such as ballet flats, legwarmers, and leotards have been elements of fashion trends. Ballet costume itself has adapted aesthetically over the years, incorporating contemporary fashion trends while also updating fabrics and materials to allow for greater freedom of movement for the dancers. The classic ballerina costume with a tutu and pointe shoes debuted in the 1830s. Ballet costume is marked by the innovation in lightweight materials such as tulle, chiffon, and organza.

In the early 20th century, productions by the Russian ballet company Ballets Russes had a large influence on fashion design in Paris. Designers incorporated ballet-inspired themes in their creations. Designers that have been influenced by ballet include Christian Dior, Elsa Schiaparelli, Paul Poiret, Coco Chanel, Jacques Fath, Jeanne Lanvin, Madeleine Vionnet, Molly Goddard, and Simone Rocha.

History

17th and 18th centuries

Ballet costume originated in the 17th-century royal courts of Italy and France, including that of Louis XIV. Early costume designs in ballet productions were based on court dress, though more extravagant. All of the performers in early ballets were men, with boys performing the female roles en travesti. In the 18th century, as ballet became professionalized and moved from the courts to the theaters, women joined the ranks of ballet dancers. Traditionally, dancers wore heeled shoes, until the 1730s, when Paris Opera Ballet dancer Marie Camargo was one of the first to wear ballet slippers instead. She also wore midcalf-length skirts and close-fitting drawers.

Until the late 18th century, lead dancers in a ballet company often wore masks. The practice was abandoned after balletmaster Jean-Georges Noverre and choreographer Maximilien Gardel dispensed with them, seeing how they impeded the dancers' movements and the ability to see their facial expressions. Similarly, cumbersome hairstyles and wigs that were not conducive to ballet movements were largely excluded from the stage.

19th century
Ballet costume has an essential role in facilitating the movements of dancers while "maintaining the integrity of the line of the body". Technical and visual problems with ballet costume are avoided through the creation of well-designed and proportioned clothing. Ballet costume has evolved alongside choreography to allow for the display of musculature.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the industrialisation of cotton manufacturing led to the widespread availability of cheap cotton fabrics such as tulle, muslin, tarlatan, and gauze. Ballet companies were able to produce new costumes for each production.

Ballet costume during the early 19th century mirrored the women's fashions of the era. Ballet appropriated high fashion elements, including full sleeves, revealing decolletage, fitted waist, bell-shaped skirts, and more diaphanous fabrics. Adaptations such as lighter fabrics and raised hemlines allowed dancers greater freedom of movement and the audience to appreciate the dancer's footwork. As clothing became less restricted, the natural silhouette was emphasized.

Pointe shoes were invented around 1820 and the archetypal look of the romantic ballerina was provided by Marie Taglioni in the 1832 ballet La Sylphide. Her fitted décolleté bodice, diaphanous calf-length tulle skirt, and satin pointe shoes laced around the calf provided the template for the ballerina costume. Her ballerina skirt was a shortened version of the 1830s fashion gown. She was the first ballerina to dance a full-length ballet en pointe, and became very popular with images of her widely published. Following her fame, luxury fabrics and corsets were produced bearing the names Taglioni or La Sylphide.

As ballet emerged as entertainment for aristocrats, the ballet dancer became principally a woman's profession and the reputation of ballerinas declined in the later 19th century. The feminization of ballet was due in part to a larger male audience. Ballerinas were frequently poor, marginalized members of society, regarded more as workers than artists. They were often subject to the attention of lascivious men, sexually commodified, and sometimes forced into prostitution.

Styles of ballet costume were influenced by the popularity of romantic narratives of regional and supernatural folklore, such as the sylph motif. Towards the end of the 19th century, the classical tutu was codified in St. Petersburg during the era of ballet master Marius Petipa. During this time, the tutu was shortened and the boxes of pointe shoes were reinforced.

20th century

Ballets Russes

Beginning in 1909, the Russian ballet company Ballets Russes brought high classical ballet to the West, principally in Paris. Fashion designers and haute couture were inspired by the influential ballet company. Léon Bakst was the troupe's principal costume designer in the early 1900s. His designs inspired Paul Poiret, who also designed for the company. Trends in Parisian fashion were adapted into ballet costume by Ballets Russes. The dress from Stravinsky's 1910 ballet The Firebird was influential in fashion design. The Orientalist aesthetic of Ballets Russes influenced the boldly colored trousers and harem skirts and trousers of fashion designer Paul Poiret. Coco Chanel designed costumes for the 1924 ballet Le Train Bleu and went on to create ballet-inspired fashions.

1920s
Ballets Russes continued to have an influence on fashion into the 1920s. A turning point in the relationship between ballet and fashion was Sergei Diaghilev's 1921 production of The Sleeping Beauty. The ballet's use of light pastels such as lilac influenced color trends in fashion. The production's bluebird blue costumes inspired Elsa Schiaparelli to create her signature color "sleeping blue". French fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin's full-skirted robe de style dresses of the mid-1920s and Madeleine Vionnet's Ballerina dress both had inspiration in the ballerina costume. According to ballet historian Ilyana Karthas, during the 1920s images of femininity were promoted in the context of athleticism, exercise, and the physical body.

Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli also collaborated with the Ballets Russes, inspired by the surrealistic costuming of Giorgio de Chirico in Diaghilev's 1929 production of Le Bal.

1930s and balletomania
The 1932 ballet Cotillon was choreographed by George Balanchine and starred Tamara Toumanova, one of the first Baby Ballerinas. Costumes from the production were designed by Christian Bérard and made by Barbara Karinska, who innovated the layering of differently colored tulle. Bérard's designs inspired the glittering tulle gowns that Coco Chanel designed in the 1930s.

Since the 1930s, ballet costume has inspired the fashion trends of fitted bodices and bell-shaped silhouettes. Materials used for tutus, such as chiffon, silk tulle, and organza were later incorporated into fashion collections. The romantic-era tutu style also had an influence on the design of gowns. In the 1930s, longer dresses with tulle skirts became fashionable, as exemplified by Coco Chanel's 1937 "Etoiles" dress. which drew inspiration from Balanchine's 1932 ballet Cotillon.

The balletomania trend of the 1930s and 1940s had a marked influence on fashion. In the early 1930s, ballet fashion was frequently featured in magazines. Ballerinas were also employed as models from the 1930s onward.

1940s and 1950s
With the advent of synthetic materials, ballet practice clothing such as leotards and tights became popular as fashion pieces from the 1940s on.

In 1941, former ballet student and fashion editor Diana Vreeland innovated the use of pointe shoes as everyday wear, in part because wartime restrictions did not apply to them. Due to a shortage of leather, fashion designer Claire McCardell commissioned the dance house Capezio to produce a range of ballet flats to match her designs. The ballet flat went on to become everyday footwear.

Designers of high fashion and haute couture collaborated frequently with star ballerinas such as Margot Fonteyn in the 1940s. Couturiers such as Pierre Balmain designed costume for ballet as well as high fashion. Designers Christian Dior and Jacques Fath were both influenced by ballet costume. Costumes designed by Fath for the 1948 film The Red Shoes featuring the ballerina Moira Shearer were also influential in creating a demand for ballet-inspired fashion.

The fashion house Balmain, founded by Pierre Balmain, and the designer Cristóbal Balenciaga drew inspiration from the aesthetics of ballet costume. The use of feathers in the ballet costumes of ballerina-bird characters in productions of The Firebird, The Dying Swan, and Swan Lake was also mimicked in fashion.

1960s and 1970s

During the late 1960s and 1970s, the clothing brand Danskin produced leotards that could be worn for dance as well as streetwear. Fashion designer Bonnie August popularized the look of unitards worn under wrap skirts in the mid-1970s. Ballet-inspired fashion designs experienced a revival in the 1970s during the disco era while athleisure incorporated mainstays of ballet rehearsal clothing such as leotards.

In the 1970s, Dance Theatre of Harlem founder Arthur Mitchell decided that dancers' tights and shoes should match their skin tone. The dance apparel company Capezio produced brown pointe shoes for the company.

A 1976 collection from Yves Saint Laurent paid homage to the Ballets Russes and Serge Diaghilev.

21st century
During the early 2000s, a ballet-inspired fashion trend drawing heavily on warm-up clothing was called "dancer off-duty". In the 2000s, ballet fashion was popularized on film and television through the film Black Swan and Carrie Bradshaw's iconic tulle skirt from Sex and The City. The 2000s saw the lines of companies that produce pointe shoes broaden to include skin tones of people of color, including Black women in ballet.

A 2020 exhibition Ballerina: Fashion's Modern Muse was held at The Museum at FIT.

Balletcore
A resurgence in interest in ballet-inspired fashion in the early 2020s came to be known as balletcore. The fashion trend has been called "hyper-feminine" and embraces both comfort and body movement in a context that explores femininity. The popularity of the trend has been attributed to Gen Z's obsession with nostalgia.

Balletcore continued fashion's use of traditional ballet costumes such as ballet flats, pointe shoes, leotards, and tights. Athleisure fashions incorporate dancewear elements such as legwarmers, which are often layered or combined with tie skirts and wrap tops. Balletcore continued to rely on lightweight materials such as tulle and satin, organza, sheer fabrics, mesh, and spandex. Ballet-inspired fashion continues to emphasize soft pastel hues such as pink, peach, baby blue, lilac, and light neutral colors.

In the 2020s, ballet-inspired elements have been part of the collections of Rodarte and Miu Miu, as well as those of fashion designers Molly Goddard and Simone Rocha. While principally a phenomenon in women's clothing, ballet has also influenced designs in men's wear.

See also
History of ballet
History of fashion design

References

Further reading

Ballet
Fashion design
Fashion industry
History of ballet
History of fashion

Ballet and fashion


Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra (), is a microstate located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France.

Andorra claims it is the last independent survivor of the Marca Hispanica. This was the buffer states created by Charlemagne to keep the Islamic Moors from advancing into Christian France. According to the tradition, Charlemagne granted a charter to the Andorran  people in return for their fighting the Moors.  In the 9th century,  Charlemagne's grandson, Charles the Bald, named the Count of Urgell as overlord of Andorra. A descendant of the count later gave the lands to the Diocese of Urgell.

In the 11th century, the Bishop of Urgell placed himself under the protection of the Lord of Caboet, a Catalan nobleman. Later, the Count of Foix  became heir to the Lord of Caboet through marriage in 1208. A dispute arose between the Occitan Count and the Catalan bishop over  Andorra.

In 1278, the conflict was resolved by the signing of a pareage (pariatges). This stated that Andorra's sovereignty was shared between the Count of Foix and the Bishop of La Seu d'Urgell  (Catalonia). The pareage gave the small  state its territory and political form. In return, Andorra pays an annual tribute or questia to the co-rulers consisting of four hams, forty loaves of bread, and some wine. Andorra's borders have remained unchanged since 1278.

Andorra was briefly annexed to the Crown of Aragon twice, in 1396 and 1512.

References

History of Andorra


Kommunistisk Universitetslag (KUL), founded in 1973, was a revolutionary student organisation with a basis in the philosophy and social economics departments of the University of Oslo in the 1970s. They had a theoretical schooling in Marxism. KUL considered the AKP(m-l) as a parochial organisation and stated that a Marxist analysis meant that individual groups must join together to form a reactionary class. They also criticised the AKP(m-l) for their nationalism and militarism, and defined themselves to the left of the party. KUL published the university newspaper Gnisten.

KUL worked together with the Kommunistisk Arbeiderforbund (KA) and aligned themselves with the student organisation. KUL also worked together for a short time with the Kommunistiske Arbeidsgrupper (KAG) at the University of Bergen.

At its foundation, KUL was aligned with a national communist Leninism. In time, the organisation, similarly to the AKP(m-l), aligned itself to the politics of the People's Republic of China, which defined itself differently from and opposed to Soviet-Communism after the De-Stalinization. KUL later went on to criticise the change in the politics of China after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, and went on for a short time to support the systems in Albania and other socialist countries.

KUL were generally critical of Soviet communism both under and after Stalin, in contrast to the overwhelmingly positive attitudes towards  Stalin in the KA. The first splits with the KA came in winter 1980. The KUL then ceased their political activity, starting from 1981.

KUL were strongest in Oslo, but also had branches in Tromsø, Trondheim and Ås, but not in Bergen, although parts of the (KAG) often joined together with them. Although the KUL always remained a small group, there were many members who went on to greater cultural, intellectual, and political careers. Among the best known are Espen Søbye, Gerd-Liv Valla, Harald Berntsen, Jørgen Sandemose, Truls Wyller, Knut Erik Aagaard, Jo Sivertsen, Sissel Myklebust, Ole Jacob Bull, Jon Langdal and Nils Johan Ringdal.

External links
Valla, Clemet og Stalin by Knut Erik Aagaard (Tidens Tegn 5-97).
STEMTE FOR STALIN by Vidar Helgesen.
Ingen har rene hender, debattinnlegg i Dagsavisen by Truls Wyller.

Political advocacy groups in Norway
University of Oslo
Communism in Norway
1973 establishments in Norway
1981 disestablishments in Norway

Kommunistisk Universitetslag


Divock Okoth Origi (born 18 April 1995) be Belgian professional footballer who dey play as forward give Serie A club AC Milan and the Belgium national team.

Origi began his career at Lille, wey he score on his professional debut for dem in 2013. A year and a half later, he sign for £10 million by Premier League club Liverpool, wey dem loan am back give Lille for de 2014–15 Ligue 1 season. Afta struggling at Liverpool due to injuries, and spending a year on loan for VfL Wolfsburg insyde, Origi made various crucial contributions to de club during de 2018–19 season. He most notably scored two goals, including the winning goal, in de 2019 Champions League semi-final in a comeback against Barcelona. na he dey part of de  squad wey win de 2019–20 Premier League de following season, Liverpool's first league title for 30 years. Due to his loyalty and penchant for scoring goals in big games and in important moments for Liverpool, Origi be recognised as a  hero at de club. After 8 years at Liverpool, Origi now lef de club, join AC Milan for Italy on a permanent deal insyde the 2022 summer transfer window.

Origi made his international debut for Belgium in 2014 and was part of their team wey dem reached the quarter-finals for de 2014 FIFA World Cup insyde, during which he became the youngest goalscorer in Belgian World Cup history as a 19 year old.

Divock Origi


Democracy Rising was an American organization founded in 2001 to oppose corporate corruption. It later became an organization opposed to the military actions of the United States against Iraq and, after the Iraq War, to promote an exit strategy to end the occupation of Iraq.

It began with three volunteers, Jason Kafoury (National Coordinator), Matthew Zawisky (National Organizer), and Richard Martin (National Operations Manager and Web Administrator). It collaboratively organized stadium and smaller sized manifestations called "Super Rallies" across the Eastern United States (Tampa, Florida,  Wall Street, New York, Buffalo, New York, Trenton, New Jersey, and others) under the umbrella of a 501 (c)(4) non-profit organization (US Federal EIN # 54-2043043) that had been founded by Ralph Nader.  It focused on corporate corruption during the run up and aftershock of the Enron debacle, and eventually merged into an anti-war group led by Kevin Zeese following the 2004 elections.  At that time, it changed its website domain from a "democracyrising.org" to "democracyrising.us".

It was then that it became a member of United for Peace and Justice. Its web site hosted Ralph Nader's interactive blog and one by Kevin Zeese, director of the organization and a 2006 U.S. Senate candidate in Maryland. The organization folded in late 2007.

References

External links
 November 2002 democracyrising.org web site from Archive.org
 October 2007 DemocracyRising.US web site from Archive.org
 Protesting Capitalism on Wall Street- October 7th, 2002 from TheNation.com
 Failed re-election candidate may seek Green Party presidential nomination September 12th, 2002 from OnlineAthens.com
 Greens to Run Presidential Candidate in 2004, But Who? July, 2002 from baltimorechronicle.com
 How Nader made me an anarchist August 7th, 2001 from Indymedia.org
 Ralph Nader Democracy Rising Rallies 2001-2003 from GWU.edu

Organizations established in 2001
American political blogs
Anti–Iraq War groups
Ralph Nader
Organizations disestablished in 2007

Democracy Rising


Chavara is a village in Karunagappally taluk, Kollam district, Kerala, India. It is a part of Kollam Lok Sabha constituency constituency. The MLA of the constituency is currently Vijayan Pillai.

Location and tourism

Chavara is on the shores of the Arabian sea and the major freshwater lake in Kerala, Ashtamudi, which flows through it. Chavara has many lakes and lagoons including Sasthamkota Lake. Popular tourist centres are St Andrew's Church, Kovilthottam, Kottankulangara Devi Temple, Kovilthottam beach, Kovilthottam lighthouse, and the area around Ashtamudi lake.

Industries

The village has a high supply of mineral sand, mainly titanium in its beaches. For the processing of titanium, India's first Titanium Sponge Plant in India (TSP) was developed by KMML ( Kerala Minerals and metals Ltd) here, inaugurated in 2011 by the then Defence Minister of India, A. K. Antony. IRE (Indian Rare Earths Ltd) is another public sector unit in Chavara. Kerala Premo Pipes a govt company(under KWA)in Chavara has been lying closed for the past 18 years.The Premo pipe factory which started production in 1961 and was closed in 1997 following adverse market conditions.Though an MOU was signed between KWA and HLL in the year 2011 for starting PVC pipes, same is yet to be materialized. Ratna mushroom is one of the famous mushroom farm in Chavara.

Notable people
Jackson Stephan (The village is named after him)

References

Other websites

Villages in India

Chavara


The will to live (German: Wille zum Leben) is a concept developed by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, representing an irrational "blind incessant impulse without knowledge" that drives instinctive behaviors, causing an endless insatiable striving in human existence.

This is contrasted with the concept of the will to survive under life threatening conditions used in psychology since Schopenhauer's notion of the will to live is more broadly understood as the "animal[istic] force to endure, reproduce and flourish."

There are significant correlations between the will to live and existential, psychological, social, and physical sources of distress. Many, who overcome near-death experiences with no explanation, have described the will to live as a direct component of their survival. The difference between the wish to die versus the wish to live is also a unique risk factor for suicide.

Concept
In psychology, the will to live is the drive for self-preservation, usually coupled with expectations for future improvement in one's state in life. The will to live is an important concept when attempting to understand and comprehend why we do what we do in order to stay alive, and for as long as we can. This can be related to either one's push for survival on the brink of death, or someone who is just trying to find a meaning to continuing their life. Some researchers say that people who have a reason or purpose in life during such dreadful and horrific experiences will often appear to fare better than those that may find such experiences overwhelming. Every day, people undergo countless types of negative experiences, some of which may be demoralizing, hurtful, or tragic. An ongoing question continues to be what keeps the will to live in these situations. People who claim to have had experiences involving the will to live have different explanations behind it.

Background
The will to live is considered to be a very basic drive in humans; but not necessarily the main driving force. In psychotherapy, Sigmund Freud termed the pleasure principle, which is the seeking of pleasure and avoiding of pain. Viktor Frankl, who spent time in German concentration camps, developed psychotherapy called logotherapy, which may be translated as the therapy focused on the "will to meaning". Maslow's hierarchy of needs highlights the innate appetite that people possess for love and belonging but before all this there is the very basic and powerful will to live.
Psychologists have established that human beings are a goal-oriented species. In assessing the will to live, it should be borne in mind that it could be augmented or diminished by the relative strength of other simultaneously existent drives. Psychologists generally agree that there is the will to live, the will to pleasure, the will to superiority and the will to connection. There are also usually varying degrees of curiosity with regard to what may be termed the will to identity or establishing meaningful personal responses. The will to live is a platform without which it would not be possible to satisfy the other drives. However, this overlooks the possibility that there is a commonality among all creatures that drives all other urges.

Similarity to self-preservation

Self-preservation is a behavior that ensures the survival of an organism. Pain and fear are integral parts of this mechanism. Pain motivates the individual to withdraw from damaging situations, to protect a damaged body part while it heals, and to avoid similar experiences in the future. Most pain resolves promptly once the painful stimulus is removed and the body has healed, but sometimes pain persists despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body; and sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus, damage or disease. Fear causes the organism to seek safety and may cause a release of adrenaline, which has the effect of increased strength and heightened senses such as hearing, smell, and sight. Self-preservation may also be interpreted figuratively, in regard to the coping mechanisms one needs to prevent emotional trauma from distorting the mind (see: defence mechanism.)

Even the most simple of living organisms (for example, the single-celled bacteria) are typically under intense selective pressure to evolve a response that would help avoid a damaging environment, if such an environment exists. Organisms also evolve while adapting - even thriving - in a benign environment (for example, a marine sponge modifies its structure in response to current changes, in order to better absorb and process nutrients). Self-preservation is therefore an almost universal hallmark of life. However, when introduced to a novel threat, many species will have a self-preservation response either too specialised, or not specialised enough, to cope with that particular threat. An example is the dodo, which evolved in the absence of natural predators and hence lacked an appropriate, general self-preservation response to heavy predation by humans and rats, showing no fear of them.

Correlations
"Existential, psychiatric, social, and, to a lesser degree, physical variables are highly correlated with the will to live". Existential issues found to correlate significantly include hopelessness, the desire for death, sense of dignity, and burden to others. Psychiatric issues found to be strongly associated are such as depression, anxiety, and  lack of concentration. Physical issues that showed the strongest associations were appetite and appearance which did not show the same consistent degree of correlation. The four main predictor variables of the will to live changing over time are anxiety, shortness of breath, depression, and sense of well-being which correlate with the other variable predictors as well.  Social variables and quality of life measures are shown to correlate significantly with the will to live such as support and satisfaction with support from family, friends, and health care providers. Findings on the will to live have suggested that psychological variables are replaced by physical mediators of variation as death draws nearer. The will to live has also proven to be highly unstable.

Research
Many studies have been conducted on the theory of the will to live.  Among these studies are subject to the difference in gender and the elderly and also in the terminally ill. One study focused on a simple question that asked about rating one's will to live and presented the findings that elderly participants reporting a stronger will to live and strengthened or stable will to live survived longer in comparison to those with a weak will to live. This study found that women were able to cope with life-threatening situations, but suggested that the participants could not have been stable and requires future replication. The second study presented the idea of the will to live in the terminally ill specifically cancer patients termed as older. In this study researchers were able to suggest that patients who had tested as having a low sustained will to live died soonest, as opposed to having a moderate level of the will to live, lived the longest while high will to live could affect individuals in any direction. This study needs future replication that can show the effects of will to live in the terminally ill from different diseases and age categories.

Other accounts of the will to live exist in many extreme medical cases, where patients have overcome extraordinary odds to survive. The Holocaust has provided many instances of this phenomenon, and is a good example of this as well. A proposed mechanism for the will to live is the idea that positive mental thinking tends to lower one's risk for disease and health complications. One study showed that women who thought positively were more likely to carry more antibodies against certain strains of the flu, thus having a stronger immune system than those who were told to think negative thoughts.
Powerful examples of humans having a will to live can be seen in death records throughout history showing that people were more likely to die right after a major holiday, such as Christmas and Thanksgiving, and even birthdays, not actually on or before them, but passing shortly after.

See also
 Antipredator adaptation
 Collective intelligence
 Conatus
 Dear enemy recognition
 Death drive
 Élan vital
 Fight-or-flight response
 Learned helplessness
 Self-defense
 Will to power

References

External links

 Attitude - The Will to Live, Ernest H. Rosenbaum, MD, and Isadora R. Rosenbaum, MA.
 Why life extension?

Ethology
Evolutionary biology
Motivation
Arthur Schopenhauer

Will to live


Primitive Radio Gods is an American alternative rock band from Southern California. Current members consist of frontman Chris O'Connor, who performs vocals and bass; percussionist Tim Lauterio; and Luke McAuliffe, who contributes various additional instrumentation (guitars, violins, piano) as well as much of the art that has appeared on the band's albums and website. Former member Jeff Sparks wrote, sang, and played bass before leaving the band to pursue other music projects in 2001.

The band is best known for their 1996 hit "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand", which peaked No. 1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart.

History

Early years (1991–1994)
The history of the Primitive Radio Gods begins with The I-Rails. Formed in the late 1980s, The I-Rails were an independent alternative rock band based in Oxnard, California. Consisting of three members, bassist/singer Chris O'Connor, guitarist Jeff Sparks (a childhood friend of O'Connor), and drummer Tim Lauterio, The I-Rails released a total of four albums, none of which received much public attention. After the fourth album, Panharmonium, was released in 1990 and similarly ignored, the band decided to split. While Sparks and Lauterio went on to pursue other potential careers, O'Connor continued to work with material originally intended for a fifth I-Rails album. Inspired by bands such as Public Enemy, O'Connor recorded additional material and ultimately mixed a total of ten tracks. After mastering, O'Connor released the demo to public music stations under the (misspelled) moniker "Primative Radio Gods", a song on the I-Rails album Nine Songs from Nowhere. Like his former band's works, O'Connor's Rocket, as the album came to be called, was widely disregarded by both radio and the general public. Defeated, O'Connor retired from the music business.

Mainstream success (1994–1996)
While housecleaning in 1994, O'Connor rediscovered the box of demo tapes he had packed away years prior. In a final act of desperation, he mailed copies of the tape to any major record label he could think of. Weeks later, he received a call from an executive named Jonathan Daniel from the New York City offices of Fiction Records. One unique song in particular had caught Daniel's attention: "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand", a piano-driven ballad over a hip-hop backbeat, which heavily sampled B. B. King's "How Blue Can You Get?". Daniel immediately signed O'Connor to a publishing deal, and took him to Columbia Records for a recording deal. "Phone Booth" first appeared on the soundtrack to the black comedy film The Cable Guy in May 1996, and a slightly remastered Rocket was released the following month. "Phone Booth" was released to radio as the Primitive Radio Gods' first single, and was remarkably successful in the U.S. market. Due to the single's success, Rocket was certified gold.

Fall from the public eye (1997–2001)
Due to the success of Rocket, O'Connor reunited with his former bandmates Sparks and Lauterio and recruited guitarist Luke McAuliffe to form a complete band, and the foursome toured North America throughout the summer of 1996. Later in the year, the band attempted to release a second single, "Motherfucker", but lack of promotion resulted in very little radio airplay, far from the runaway success that "Phone Booth" had become. Early in 1997, they began writing and recording their first material as a full band. Shortly after, Columbia dropped the band without warning or apparent reason. However, Jonathan Daniel, the former Columbia executive who had originally signed them (and a self-proclaimed fan of the band), arranged a deal with Hi-Fi/Sire Records for the band's next album, Mellotron On!. In [1999], mere weeks before the album was set to be released, Sire Records and the U.S. division of London Records underwent a merger, causing the release of Mellotron On! to be postponed. London-Sire did not want to drop the band, but were having issues negotiating the release of the album. As the band waited for the issue to resolve itself, its members took on day jobs: O'Connor, who had lived off the money he made from Rocket as long as possible, was forced to get a job as a flower delivery man. Eventually, London-Sire dropped the band, but Jonathan Daniel was there to pick them up again. He signed them to a personal project of his, Boulder, Colorado-based indie label What Are Records?. The second album was finally released in late 2000, retitled White Hot Peach  and consisting of a slightly different track listing than Mellotron On!. White Hot Peach was made available in certain indie record stores and over a number of online music sharing services such as eMusic and Napster.

Independent era (2001–present)
After the release of White Hot Peach, the band released a few additional works through What Are Records?, including an extended version of the LP and the Fading Out EP. In addition, a pair of ten-track albums were released on eMusic.com, containing unreleased material and songs recorded for Mellotron On! that did not appear on White Hot Peach. By late 2001, Jeff Sparks had left the band to pursue other musical ventures, while the remaining members had begun work on a third album. They were no longer attached to What Are Records?, instead opting to release future material through their new website. The site originally consisted of a series of cryptic images, some of which were later revealed to be lyrics from the forthcoming album. The website largely remained this way until March 2003, when they announced the release of their new album, Still Electric. The band began selling promotional copies of the original intended release of Mellotron On! at around the same time; a DVD version of Still Electric featuring home-made music videos for all eleven songs was released in September; and a second edition of Still Electric (with different cover art and missing the track "Normalizer") was released in early 2004. The site remained mostly quiet until August 2005, when the band created a MySpace account, featuring a brand new song from a forthcoming album. The band's fourth album, Sweet Venus, was released on May 4, 2006, exclusively as an mp3 download. In 2010, the band released a fifth album Out Alive. The band have since offered most of their back catalog (excluding Rocket and White Hot Peach) through their online MP3 store, and have uploaded the videos from the Still Electric DVD to YouTube. Manmade Sun, the band's sixth album, was released on December 26, 2016.

In 2020 the band announced it would release their final "full length" LP album "Untitled Final LP" through their own company the PRG Partnership.

"Primitive Radio Gods collected works: 2000-2020" featuring songs from a twenty year period was released on CD in 2022 also through PRG Partnership and available only through the bands website Primitiveradiogods.info

Discography

As The I-Rails

Studio albums
Valentino Says (1987)
Unfocused (1988)
Nine Songs from Nowhere (1989)
Panharmonium (1990)

Singles
"Same Old Me / Everyone's in Love" (1988)

As Primitive Radio Gods

Studio albums
Rocket (1996)- #36 US
White Hot Peach (2000)
Still Electric (2003)
Sweet Venus (2006)
Out Alive (2010)
Manmade Sun (2016)
Untitled Final LP (2020)
Collected Works: 2000-2020 (2022)

EPs
Fading Out (2001)

Compilation albums
Mellotron On! (1999/2003)
Umpteen Spooks (2006)
Motor of Joy (2006)
 Collected Works: 2000-2020 (2022)

DVD releases
Still Electric: Interactive Video Album (DVD, 2003)

Singles

References

External links
Primitive Radio Gods Official website
Luke McAuliffe's Archive of Art, Music and Motorcycles
Tomatrax interview with the Primitive Radio Gods

Alternative rock groups from California
Musical groups established in 1991
Musical trios from California
Columbia Records artists
Sire Records artists
London Records artists
1991 establishments in California
Santa Barbara, California
American musical quartets

Primitive Radio Gods


Torvosaurus was a large carnivorous dinosaur,
from the Upper Jurassic. It lived about 153 to 148 million years ago in what is now Colorado and Portugal.

Torvosaurus, possibly the largest carnivore of its time, was a large, heavily-built, bipedal carnivore. It grew to  9 to 11 meters (30 to 36 ft) in length and an estimated weight of about 2 metric tons (2.2 tons). Its hands and arms were about average for its size. In proportion, Allosaurus had more powerful arms, and T. rex had tiny arms.

Studies suggest that the paleoenvironment of this part of the Morrison Formation had rivers flowing from the west into a basin with a giant, saline alkaline lake. There were extensive wetlands nearby. Fossils from the Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry of western Colorado show one of the most diverse Upper Jurassic vertebrate assemblages in the world.   The Dry Mesa Quarry has produced the remains of the sauropods Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Barosaurus, Supersaurus, Dystylosaurus, Camarasaurus, the iguanodontid Camptosaurus, and the theropods Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus and Ornitholestes, as well as  Dryosaurus, and Stegosaurus.

References

Jurassic dinosaurs
Megalosauridae

Torvosaurus


The Khadgamala (, , "Garland of the Sword") is an invocational mantra that names each of the Devi Hindu goddesses according to their place in the Sri Yantra or in the Maha Meru. This list of divine names is described poetically as a "garland" (). The sword (Sanskrit: khaḍga) is an epithet for the Devi's "power to strike down desire, hatred, and delusion".

This recitation of mantra is a spiritual practice of Hindu tantra.

See also

References

External links

 Khadagmala mantra and explanation

Hindu tantra
Shaktism
Tantric practices

Khadgamala


Savva Ivanovich Mamontov  (, ; 3 October 1841 (15 October N.S.), Yalutorovsk – 6 April 1918, Moscow) was a Russian industrialist, merchant, entrepreneur and patron of the arts.

Business career

He was a son of the wealthy merchant and industrialist Ivan Feodorovich Mamontov and Maria Tikhonovna (Lakhitina). In 1841, the family moved to Moscow. From 1852, he studied in St. Petersburg, and later at the Moscow University. In 1862 his father sent him to Baku to engage in business with the elder Mamontov's Trans-Caspian Trade Partnership.

In 1864, Savva visited Italy where he began to take lessons in singing. There he was introduced to the  daughter of Moscow merchant Grigory Sapozhnikov, 17-year-old Elizabeth, who subsequently became his wife. The wedding took place in 1865 at the Kireevo estate, near Khimki, just northwest of Moscow.

Upon his father's death in 1869, he succeeded to his share in the Moscow-Yaroslavl Railway, and at the recommendation of his father's friend, Fedor Vasilyevich Chizhov, he was elected a director of the company. In 1872 he was elected its chairman.

The extension of the railway from Sergiev Posad to Yaroslavl, begun in 1868, was opened for traffic on 18 February (2 March N.S.) 1870. A narrow-gauge branch from Uroch station to Vologda was opened on 20 June (2 July) 1872, followed by the Alexandrov-Karabanovo branch in 1877 and the Yaroslavl-Kostroma line in 1887. Mamontov also supervised the construction of the Donets Coal Railway (now Donets Railway), which connected a network of sparsely populated mining villages with the port of Mariupol, between 1875 and 1878.

Patron of the arts

In 1870, Mamontov purchased the Abramtsevo Estate, located north of Moscow, and founded there an artists' colony which included most of the best Russian artists of the beginning of the 20th century, such as Konstantin Korovin, Rafail Levitsky, Mikhail Nesterov, Ilya Repin, Vasily Polenov, Valentin Serov, Mikhail Vrubel, the brothers Vasnetsov, sculptors Viktor Hartmann and Mark Antokolsky, as well as various others. The colony of artists who were hosted there during the 1870s and 1880s sought to recapture the quality and spirit of medieval Russian art. Several workshops were set up there to produce handmade furniture, ceramic tiles, and silks imbued with traditional Russian imagery and themes.

Mamontov also patronised the Russian Private Opera which discovered the great Russian bass, Chaliapin, and supported the Russian opera composers, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Borodin, Modest Musorgsky, and many others. Drama and opera on Russian folklore themes (e.g., Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden) were produced at Abramtsevo by the likes of Konstantin Stanislavsky, with sets contributed by the brothers Vasnetsov, Mikhail Vrubel, and other distinguished artists. "The Russian Private Opera" was Mamontov's main contribution to the arts. Mamontov acted as a stage director, a conductor and a teacher of singing. The success of the "Private Opera" in the provinces was followed by a triumph in Moscow.

Downfall

Mamontov's world came crashing down when, in 1899, an audit revealed that his factories had been improved since 1890 with funds from the railway, a course of action that was contrary to law. He was compelled to resign as chairman of the railway on 30 July (11 August) 1899. (The railway company was taken over by the Imperial Ministry of Treasury on 1 (14) April 1900.) Unable to pay his creditors, he began to sell off assets to raise funds, but this course was brought to an abrupt end on 11 (23) September 1899 when he was arrested and lodged in the Taganka Prison in Moscow. Mamontov was unjustly accused of embezzlement; he was released from custody early in 1900, and at his trial in June 1900, defended by , he was acquitted. Acquittal did not avert his financial ruin, for on 7 (20) July 1900 he was declared insolvent by the Moscow District Court, and his property was sold at public auction.

Savva Ivanovich Mamontov died in Abramtsevo after a long illness on 6 April 1918.

Bibliography
 Arenzon, E. Savva Mamontov. Moskva, "Russkaia kniga", ©1995.  (in Russian)
 Bakhrevskii, V. A: Savva Mamontov. Moscow,  Molodaia Gvardiia, 2000, 513 p. [15 ill.]  (in Russian)
 Haldey, Olga (2010). Mamontov's Private Opera : the search for modernism in Russian theater . Bloomington: Indiana University Press. .

Quotations

 "I was a rich man, that's true, but I gave up everything since I believed that money is for the people and not people for the money. Who needs money when there is no life?" (Savva Mamontov: from his Diary)
 "Contemporaries called Savva Mamontov "Savva the Magnificent" likening him to Duke Lorenzo de' Medici who was known as Lorenzo the Magnificent. But Savva Mamontov was more than a patron of arts and letters, he was a businessman as well, and his contribution to both the national economy and the arts was equally great."  (The Russian Cultural Navigator)

Popular culture
Third Eye Blind's song "Monotov's Private Opera" from the album Ursa Major is inspired by Mamontov's private opera.

See also
Russian opera

References

External links

The Russian Cultural Navigator: THE MOSCOW MEDICI (about Savva Mamontov)
The Russian Cultural Navigator: SAVVA MAMONTOV
Mamontov Savva Ivanovich, Russian entrepreneur and patron of art
 Mamontov typeface was named after Savva Ivanovich and has been inspired by Russian poster types of the beginning of the 20th century.

1841 births
1918 deaths
People from Tyumen Oblast
People from Yalutorovsky Uyezd
Industrialists from the Russian Empire
Opera directors
Opera managers
Philanthropists from the Russian Empire
19th-century philanthropists
Humanitarians from the Russian Empire
Railway entrepreneurs

Savva Mamontov


Echoes of Life: What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History is a book by Susan M. Gaines, Geoffrey Eglinton, and Jurgen Rullkotter concerning organic chemistry and, in particular, the links between the living and the material Earth. It was published by Oxford University Press in 2008.

Synopsis
Echoes of Life chronicles the history of the discipline of organic geochemistry. In early experiments, Alfred E. Treibs identified organic molecules, which he extracted from various samples, as chemically altered chlorophyll.  He explained the chlorophyll as having come from plants that died millions of years ago. Since Treibs' discovery, thousands of biomarkers (a term coined 25 years after Treibs' discovery) have been identified.

Chapter one, entitled Molecular Informants: A Changing Perspective of Organic Chemistry, gives a brief overview on the history of organic chemistry and explores the possibilities inherent in the science. It also describes how the authors first became interested in the subject and the work they have done within the field.

Chapter two entitled Looking to the Rocks: Molecular Clues to the Origin of Life looks at the findings of Sir Robert Robinson and Melvin Calvin discoveries of organic compounds in petrol and the conversion of CO2 to organic molecules during photosynthesis. Early experiments had shown that organic compounds can form spontaneously under conditions similar to the pre-biotic era of earth. These findings led to speculation on the possible discovery on the origins of life. The chapter ends with the authors saying as a precursor to the next chapter

Chapter three entitled From the Moon to Mars: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life. A Carbonaceous Meteorite which was found in Hungary in 1857, which was examined by Friedrich Wöhler was found to have organic compounds which he believed were Extraterrestrial in origin. The book moves on to Marcellin Berthelot who in 1864 claimed to have found "petroleum-like hydrocarbons" in a meteorite found near Orgueil. Louis Pasteur also ran experiments on this meteor and concluded it was sterile and not capable of generating life. The discovery of the Murchison meteorite also led to the finding of 70 amino acids most of which are not native to earth's biosphere. The authors look into the work done on samples brought back from the Apollo program missions. Geoffrey Eglinton one of the authors had been given a sample and although he knew there had never been life on the moon they had hoped to find organic compounds. None were found within those samples, which led to disappointment. These findings led the authors to speculate on the possibility of answering the question of whether there has ever been life on Mars and if future missions will bring back viable samples for testing.

Reception

The book has received positive reviews in specialist scientific journals such as Astrobiology and from the Astrobiology Society of Britain.

Bill Green, writing in Chemical & Engineering News, called it "a remarkable book" and a "highly readable introduction to the field of organic geochemistry and that it also manages to capture the deep sense of curiosity and wonder associated with scientific investigation.".

In BioScience, Karen Bushaw-Newton said that "those who are looking to broaden their knowledge of the connections between chemical compounds and the diversity of life, will find Echoes of Life well worth reading."

Katherine H. Freeman writing for Science said that "the authors interweave an account of the development of biomarker research and sketches of what these fossil organic molecules tell us about the histories of Earth and life".

See also

Marcellin Berthelot

References
Notes

Bibliography

2009 non-fiction books
Books about the history of science
Chemistry books
Geology books

Echoes of Life


is a 1998 Japanese kaiju film directed by Okihiro Yoneda, written by Masumi Suetani, and produced by Shōgo Tomiyama. Produced and distributed by Toho Studios, it is the final film in the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy, following the previous year's Rebirth of Mothra II.

Rebirth of Mothra III stars Megumi Kobayashi, Misato Tate, Aki Hano, Atsushi Ohnita, and Miyuki Matsuda, and features the fictional giant monster characters Mothra and King Ghidorah. The film was released theatrically in Japan on December 12, 1998, and was released in the United States as a Sci-Fi Channel TV premiere on May 31, 2003. However, despite its predecessors being released on DVD in 2000, the film did not receive a North American home media release until 2014 when all three films were released on a Blu-ray bundle by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Plot

The Elias sisters, Moll and Lora, attempt to stop their vengeful sister, Belvera, from stealing the Elias triangle, three power units that can transform the sisters' daggers into powerful swords. Belvera succeeds, but is thwarted by her sisters' pet, Fairy Mothra, and fails to retrieve the proper unit for her dagger while Moll and Lora end up with one for the former.

The next day, preteen Shota ditches school to investigate a meteor that recently landed just as children from across the city mysteriously vanish. Moll and Lora examine the meteor's remains and deduces that the evil King Ghidorah, a three-headed space dragon who visited Earth in its past and destroyed the dinosaurs, has returned, captured the children, and placed them inside an organic dome. Mothra Leo, summoned by Moll and Lora, arrives to battle Ghidorah, but gets overpowered and retreats. Moll and Lora encounter Ghidorah, who hypnotizes the latter and forces her to attack Moll, attempting to drag both into the dome, but Fairy saves Moll. Intrigued by Ghidorah's arrival, Belvera investigates, but gets dragged into the dome.

As the space dragon wreaks havoc, Moll meets Shota, who learned his siblings Shuehei and Tamako were captured as well and tells him about Ghidorah's plan to feed on the children's life force. She convinces him to accompany her to see Leo. Communicating telepathically, Moll and Leo devise a plan, wherein Leo transforms into Light Speed Mothra and travels back in time to confront a younger Ghidorah with Moll's help.

Meanwhile, Moll gives Shota her sword and asks him to go inside the dome to find Lora and convince her to help Leo. After Shota reluctantly agrees, Moll, depleted of her powers after sending Leo to the past, falls into a state of suspended animation. Inside the dome, a worried Belvera encounters Lora and tells her that Ghidorah plans to destroy Earth. Still under Ghidorah's spell, Lora takes Belvera's unit, transforms her dagger, and engages her sister in combat. Belvera begs Lora to see reason and work with her, but to no avail. Shota finds Lora, but she attacks him. Belvera tries to stop her while Shota reminds Lora of who she is. Ghidorah's spell then breaks and Lora collapses, her sword combining with Moll's. Discovering the Elias triangle represents her and her sisters, Belvera uses the last unit to transform her dagger and combine her sword with Moll and Lora's in an attempt to break the dome. As the dome shakes violently, Shota realizes Leo is losing and asks the recovering Lora to help him. Lora sends her powers to Leo, and he recovers and immobilizes Ghidorah, dropping him into an erupting volcano, though not before a severed piece of Ghidorah's tail burrows itself underground. Grievously injured, Leo crashes to the ground. However, three primitive Mothra larvae wrap him in a cocoon time capsule.

In the present, Ghidorah and the dome disappear, freeing the captives. Shota reunites with his siblings and join Belvera and Lora as they stand vigil over Moll. Suddenly, a new Ghidorah, having regenerated from the severed tail, emerges and recaptures the children. Belvera and Lora then join forces in an attempt to stop Ghidorah long enough for Leo to return and reemerge as Armor Mothra and disintegrate Ghidorah in the ensuing battle. He then tells Belvera and Lora to channel their powers through their sword to revive Moll. The Elias do as they are told and succeed, resulting in a touching reunion for the sisters, though Belvera flies off shortly after. The children are released once more and reunite with their parents. Shota, Shuehei, Tamako, and their parents watch as the Elias, Fairy, and Leo, now Eternal Mothra, fly off into the sunset.

Cast
 Megumi Kobayashi as Moll
 Misato Tate as Lora
 Aki Hano as Belvera
 Atsushi Ohnita as Father
 Miyuki Matsuda as Mother
 Kôichi Ueda as Kôchô

Home media

The film was released on Blu-ray by Sony, as part of the Toho Godzilla Collection, with all 3 Rebirth of Mothra films in September 2014.

References

External links

1998 films
1998 fantasy films
1990s monster movies
Films directed by Okihiro Yoneda
Films set in 1999
Films about dragons
Films set in Tokyo
Films set in Osaka
Films set in Nagoya
Films set in Kyoto
Films set in Yamanashi Prefecture
Giant monster films
Japan in fiction
1990s Japanese-language films
Japanese sequel films
Kaiju films
Mothra
Films about time travel
Films about dinosaurs
Films scored by Toshiyuki Watanabe
1990s Japanese films

Rebirth of Mothra III