title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: "Little Shop of Horrors" was filmed on the Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage at the Pinewood Studios in England, where a "downtown" set, complete with overhead train track, was constructed. Produced on a budget of $25 million, in contrast to the original 1960 film, which, according to Corman, only cost $30,000, it was well received by critics and audiences alike, eventually developing a cult following. The film's original 23-minute finale, based on the musical's ending, was rewritten and reshot after test audiences did not react positively to it. For years only available as black-and-white workprint footage, the original ending was fully restored in 2012 by Warner Home Video.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: In the early 1960s, a three-girl "Greek chorus" – Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon – introduce the film, warning the audience that some horror is coming their way ("Prologue: Little Shop of Horrors"). Seymour Krelborn and his colleague, Audrey, work at Mushnik's Flower Shop in a run-down, rough neighborhood in New York City referred to as "Skid Row". They lament that they cannot escape the neighborhood ("Skid Row (Downtown)"). Struggling from a lack of customers, Mr. Mushnik decides to close the store, but Audrey suggests he may have more success by displaying an unusual plant that Seymour owns. Immediately attracting a customer, Seymour explains he bought the plant – which he dubbed "Audrey II" – from a Chinese flower shop during a solar eclipse ("Da-Doo"). The plant brings much business to Mushnik's shop, but soon starts to wither. Seymour accidentally pricks his finger, and discovers that Audrey II needs human blood to thrive ("Grow for Me").


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: Audrey II begins to grow rapidly and Seymour becomes a local celebrity. Meanwhile, Audrey suffers at the hands of her sadistic boyfriend, Orin Scrivello; however, she has feelings for Seymour and secretly dreams of running off with him to the suburbs ("Somewhere That's Green"). Seymour continues to feed Audrey II his own blood, draining his energy ("Some Fun Now"). Seymour soon attempts to ask Audrey out, but she turns him down because she has a date with Orin, who is revealed to be a dentist ("Dentist!"). After Seymour closes up shop, Audrey II begins to talk to Seymour, demanding more blood than Seymour can give. The plant proposes that Seymour murder someone in exchange for fame and fortune, as well as the ability to woo Audrey; Seymour initially refuses, but eventually agrees after witnessing Orin abusing Audrey ("Feed Me (Git It!)").


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: After Orin finishes with his masochistic patient, Arthur Denton, who had requested "a long, slow, root canal", Seymour draws a revolver on Orin, but cannot bring himself to use it. Orin, who abuses nitrous oxide, puts on a type of venturi mask to receive a constant flow of the gas, but breaks the valve, and Seymour watches as he asphyxiates. Seymour dismembers Orin's body and feeds it to Audrey II, which has grown to enormous size, but is unknowingly witnessed by Mushnik, who flees in fear.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: Audrey, feeling guilty over Orin's disappearance, is comforted by Seymour and the two admit their feelings for each other ("Suddenly, Seymour"). That night, Mushnik confronts Seymour about Orin's death and holds Seymour at gunpoint, blackmailing him into turning the plant over and leaving town. With no choice, Seymour begins to tell him how to care for Audrey II but before he can reveal the secret, the plant swallows Mushnik whole ("Suppertime").


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: Despite widespread success, Seymour worries about Audrey II's growth and unbridled appetite. Offered money and a contract for a botany TV show, Seymour becomes overwhelmed and decides to escape Skid Row with Audrey using money coming the next day, and leaving the plant to starve. After Audrey accepts Seymour's marriage proposal, Audrey II catches Seymour leaving and demands another meal: Seymour agrees, but insists on meat from a butcher. While Seymour is gone, the plant telephones Audrey, coaxes her into the shop, and then tries to eat her ("Suppertime II").


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: Seymour, returning in time to save Audrey, escapes the store with her. Explaining that he fed the plant to become successful and win Audrey's heart, Seymour discovers she has always loved him ("Suddenly, Seymour" (reprise)). Approached by an executive named Patrick Martin from a botanical company, Seymour is offered a contract to breed Audrey II and sell the saplings worldwide. Horrified by the idea, Seymour drives Martin away and realizes he must destroy Audrey II for the sake of humanity.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: Returning to the shop, Seymour learns that Audrey II is actually an alien from outer space ("Mean Green Mother from Outer Space"). Audrey II traps Seymour and destroys the shop. Seymour grabs an exposed electrical cable in the rubble and electrocutes Audrey II, resulting in an explosion. Leaving the destroyed shop, Seymour safely reunites with Audrey. The two wed and move to the suburbs. As they arrive at their new home, a smiling Audrey II bud can be seen among the flowers in their front yard.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: David Geffen was one of the original producers of the off-Broadway show and he began planning to produce a feature film adaptation. Originally Steven Spielberg was attached to serve as an Executive producer with Martin Scorsese attached to direct the film, which he wanted to shoot in 3D, but production was stalled when a lawsuit was filed by the original film's screenwriter and actor, Charles B. Griffith. John Landis was also attached to the project for a time.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: Geffen then offered the film to Frank Oz, who was finishing work on "The Muppets Take Manhattan" around the same time. Oz initially rejected it, but later had an idea that interested him in the cinematic aspect of the project. Oz spent a month and a half restructuring the script which he felt was stage-bound. Geffen and Ashman liked what he had written and decided to run with it. Oz was also studying the Off-Broadway show and how it was thematically constructed, in order to reconstruct it for a feature film.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: The film differs only slightly from the stage play. The title song is expanded to include an additional verse to allow for the opening credits. The song "Ya Never Know" was rewritten into a calypso-inspired song called "Some Fun Now", although some of the lyrics were retained. Four other songs ("Closed for Renovation", "Mushnik and Son", "Now <nowiki>[</nowiki>It's Just the Gas<nowiki>]</nowiki>", as well as "Call Back in the Morning") were cut from the original production score, and "Finale (Don't Feed the Plants)" does not appear in the theatrical version of the film. A new song, "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space", was written by Ashman and Menken for the film.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: Greene was not the first choice for the role of Audrey. The studio wanted Cyndi Lauper, who turned it down. Barbra Streisand was also rumored to have been offered the part. Since Greene was the original off-Broadway Audrey, the role was given to her. "She's amazing," Oz said. "I couldn't imagine any other Audrey, really. She nailed that part for years off-Broadway." The character of the masochistic dental patient (who in Corman's original film was named Wilbur Force and played by Jack Nicholson) was cut from the stage version but added back to the new film, renamed Arthur Denton, and played by Bill Murray, who improvised all of his dialogue. It supposedly took Steve Martin six weeks to film all his scenes as Orin. He contributed ideas such as socking the nurse in the face (originally he was to knock her out using his motorbike helmet) and ripping off the doll head.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: All the scenes were filmed at Pinewood Studios in England, making use of every sound stage there, including the 007 Stage. Oz and his crew did not want to shoot on location as it would tamper with the fantastical mood of the film. Part of the giant 007 stage was used to film the "Suddenly Seymour" number. But because of its size, the stage was impractical to heat properly and thus caused breath condensation to appear from the actor's lips. This was countered by having Ellen Greene and Rick Moranis put ice cubes in their mouths.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: This would be the first time Moranis and Steve Martin starred in a film together, and they would later appear together in three more films: "Parenthood", "My Blue Heaven" and "L.A. Story".


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: As mentioned, additional sequences and songs from the original off-Broadway show were dropped or re-written in order for the feature version to be paced well. The notable change was for the "Meek Shall Inherit" sequence. As originally filmed, it detailed through a dream sequence Seymour's rising success and the need to keep the plant fed and impress Audrey. In the final cut, the dream sequence and much of the song is cut out. Oz said, "I cut that because I felt it just didn't work and that was before the first preview in San Jose. It was the right choice, it didn't really add value to the entire cut." The full version of the song was included on the film's soundtrack album, as were the songs from the original ending. The sequence was deemed to be lost until in 2012 when it was rediscovered on a VHS workprint that contained alternate and extended takes and sequences.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: The film's version of Audrey II was an elaborate creation, using puppets designed by Lyle Conway, who had previously worked with Oz on "The Muppet Show", "The Dark Crystal", and "The Great Muppet Caper". The animatronic and fabrication team consisted of many of the same people who had worked on the creatures in "Labyrinth".


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: While developing the mouth of the plant for the dialogue scenes and musical numbers, Oz, Conway and his crew struggled to figure out how to make the plant move convincingly. "We kept trying and trying and it didn't work." The solution presented itself while reviewing test footage of the puppet. When the film ran backwards or forward at a faster than normal speed, the footage looked more convincing and lifelike. They realized they could film the puppet at a slower speed, making it appear to move faster when played back at normal speed. "By slowing it down it looked it was talking real fast. We then went 'holy cow, look at that. We can do it. The frame rate for filming the plant was slowed to 12 or 16 frames per second, depending on the scene, and frequent screen cuts were used to minimize the amount of screen time the puppet spent with human actors; when interaction was necessary, the actors (usually Moranis) would pantomime and lip sync in slow motion. The film was then sped up to the normal 24 frames per second and voices were reinserted in post-production. Levi Stubbs' recordings were pitch-shifted through a Harmonizer when slowed down so that they were coherent for Moranis or Ellen Greene.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: There are no blue screens or opticals involved in any of Audrey II's scenes, with the exception of the reshot ending where the plant is electrocuted, designed by Visual Effects supervisor Bran Ferren, and in some shots during the rampage in the original ending. The plant was made in six different stages of growth and there were three different versions of Mushnik's shop, making it possible for two units to work with different sized plants at the same time. Each of the talking plants had to be cleaned, re-painted and patched up at the end of each shooting day, which would take up to three hours depending on the size. The "Suppertime" number uses two different sizes of Audrey II. When "Twoey" is singing all alone in the shop, it is actually a smaller size: the same size as when it sang "Feed Me", but now standing on a scaled down set to make it appear larger. The full size one that is seen to interact with Seymour and Mushnik was not provided with lip movement, but was built to swallow Mushnik's (mechanical) legs. Performing the plant in its largest form required around 60 puppeteers, many of whom had worked with director Frank Oz on previous projects, including "The Dark Crystal", "Labyrinth", and "Return of the Jedi", and would go on to puppeteer in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "The Muppet Christmas Carol".


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: During production, director Oz shot a 23-minute ending based on the original off-Broadway musical's ending but even darker. However, after audiences at the preview screenings did not react positively to it, the ending had to be rewritten and re-shot for the theatrical release with a happier ending.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: In the cut ending, the plant attacks Audrey and reveals that it also ate Orin and Mr. Mushnik. Seymour pulls her from its jaws but is too late, as she is mortally wounded. Seymour confesses that he fed Orin and Mushnik to the plant. Audrey asks Seymour to feed her to the plant too, so Seymour can earn the success he deserves, and, in a way, she'll always be with him ("Somewhere That's Green" (reprise)). After fulfilling her dying wish, he attempts suicide by jumping off the roof of a building, only to be stopped by Patrick Martin. Martin offers to propagate and sell Audrey IIs, saying he has already grown an Audrey II from a cutting he harvested earlier. Realizing Audrey II is planning global conquest, Seymour resolves to destroy the plant. Martin shouts that his permission is not needed, as plants are in the public domain. Seymour tries to kill Audrey II, who tears down the shop, fishes him from the rubble and eats him alive (“Mean Green Mother from Outer Space”). The plant spits out Seymour's glasses and laughs victoriously.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: The three chorus girls appear in front of an American flag and tell how Audrey II buds became a worldwide craze, and grew into an army of monstrous plants that began to take over the Earth. Giant Audrey II plants are shown toppling buildings and destroying cities, as well as eating people. The United States Army fights the buds as they ascend the Statue of Liberty and Audrey II bursts through the movie screen ("Finale (Don't Feed the Plants)").


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: Oz and Ashman wanted to retain the ending of the musical where Seymour and Audrey die and the plant succeeds and takes over the city of New York, but Geffen was actually against it. "He said you can't do that", Oz recounts. "But again he knew what Howard and I wanted to do, so he supported us." A special effects team skilled in working with miniatures, and Special Visual Effects team, went to great lengths to create the finale. The model department was supervised by Richard Conway, known for his model work on "Flash Gordon" and "Brazil". "It was all model stuff, that was the brilliant thing. He created the bridge, the buildings, several Audrey IIs and created all of it, all on tabletop. It's all old-fashioned, tabletop animation" (although no stop motion animation was used in the film or in the ending). The Visual Effects work was supervised by Bran Ferren ("Altered States").


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: Reportedly the entire planned climax cost about $5 million to produce, and included elaborate special and visual effects. Oz said in an interview, "this was, I think, the most expensive film Warner Bros. had done at the time." As the film was nearing completion, the excited studio set up a test screening in San Jose. Oz said, "For every musical number, there was applause, they loved it, it was just fantastic... until Rick and Ellen died, and then the theatre became a refrigerator, an ice box. It was awful and the cards were just awful. You have to have a 55 percent 'recommend' to really be released and we got a 13. It was a complete disaster." Oz insisted on setting another test screening in L.A. to see if they would get a different reaction. Geffen agreed to this, but they received the same negative reaction as before. Oz later recounted, "I learned a lesson: in a stage play, you kill the leads and they come out for a bow—in a movie, they don't come out for a bow, they're dead. They're gone and so the audience lost the people they loved, as opposed to the theater audience where they knew the two people who played Audrey and Seymour were still alive. They loved those people, and they hated us for it."


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: Oz and Ashman scrapped Audrey and Seymour's grim deaths and the finale rampage, and Ashman rewrote a happier ending, with Jim Belushi replacing Paul Dooley (who was unavailable for the re-shoot) as Patrick Martin. The musical number "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" was left mostly intact from the original cut, with new shots of Audrey observing from a window added in. A brief sequence from the "Mean Green Mother" number was also removed in which Seymour fires his revolver at Audrey II, only to discover that the bullets ricochet harmlessly off of the plant. In the happy ending, Audrey II is destroyed and Seymour, Audrey, and humanity survive. This happy ending is made somewhat ambiguous, however, with a final shot of a smiling Audrey II bud in Seymour and Audrey's front yard. Tisha Campbell was unavailable for the final appearance of the chorus girls in the yard and was replaced with a lookalike seen only from the waist down.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: "We had to do it," Oz recounted. "[and do it] in such a manner that the audience would enjoy the movie. It was very dissatisfying for both of us that we couldn't do what we wanted. So creatively, no, it didn't satisfy us and being true to the story. But we also understood the realities that they couldn't release the movie if we had that ending." "We had to take [the workprint] apart, and we never made a dupe of [the original ending]." At the time, the only copies of it that were made to be viewed were VHS workprint tapes given to few crew members. The scene in which Seymour proposes to Audrey originally contained the reprise of "Suddenly, Seymour". This scene was re-shot and the reprise was placed later in the new ending. In the final theatrical cut, the only miniatures that are retained are the New York City streets passing behind Steve Martin's motorcycle ride at the beginning of "Dentist!" "When we did re-shoot the ending, the crowd reaction went over 50 percent in our favor. Before it was a point where they hated it so much, Warner probably wouldn't even release the movie", Oz said.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: "Little Shop of Horrors", after a delay needed to complete the revised ending, was released on December 19, 1986, and was anticipated to do strong business over the 1986 holiday season. The film grossed $39 million at the box office, which, from the viewpoint of the studio, was considered an underperformer. However, it became a smash hit upon its home video release in 1987 on VHS and Beta, as well as a decades-long history of being viewed on both cable and satellite television.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: Rotten Tomatoes retrospectively collected reviews to give it a score of 90% based on reviews from 51 critics, with an average rating of 7.37/10. The general consensus states: "Remixing Roger Corman's B-movie by way of the Off-Broadway musical, "Little Shop of Horrors" offers camp, horror and catchy tunes in equal measure—plus some inspired cameos by the likes of Steve Martin and Bill Murray." On Metacritic, which uses an average of critics' reviews, the film has an 81% rating based on 15 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim" (14 positive reviews, 1 mixed, and no negative). Richard Corliss of "Time" magazine said, "You can try not liking this adaptation of the Off-Broadway musical hit -- it has no polish and a pushy way with a gag -- but the movie sneaks up on you, about as subtly as Audrey II." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: In "The New York Times", Janet Maslin called it "a full-blown movie musical, and quite a winning one". Roger Ebert said in his review: "All of the wonders of "Little Shop of Horrors" are accomplished with an offhand, casual charm. This is the kind of movie that cults are made of, and after "Little Shop" finishes its first run, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it develop as one of those movies that fans want to include in their lives." Oz's friend and Muppet colleague Jim Henson praised the film and said "the lip sync on the plant in that film is just absolutely amazing."


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: The film was nominated for two Academy Awards. "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" was the first Oscar-nominated song to contain profanity in the lyrics and was the first to be sung by a villain (Audrey II). The film's other Academy Award nomination was for Best Visual Effects. Neither of these two Oscar nods yielded a victory.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: "Little Shop of Horrors" was the first DVD to be recalled for content. In 1998, Warner Bros. released a special edition DVD that contained approximately 23 minutes of unfinished footage from Oz's original ending, although it was in black and white and was missing some sound, visual and special effects. Producer and rights owner David Geffen was not aware of this release until it made it to the stores. Geffen said, "They put out a black-and-white, un-scored, un-dubbed video copy of the original ending that looked like shit." As a result, the studio removed it from shelves in a matter of days and replaced it with a second edition that did not contain the extra material. Geffen wanted to theatrically re-release the film with the original ending intact. Geffen also claimed to have a color copy of the original ending, while the studio had lower quality, black and white duplicates as their own color print was destroyed in a studio fire years earlier. But Geffen had not known, until after the DVD was pulled, that the studio did not know there was a colored copy of the original ending in existence.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: In November 2011, Oz held a Q&A session at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens during a Henson-themed exhibit. During the talk, he announced that the film would be released as a new special edition with the original ending restored. Warner Bros. reconstructed and restored the ending in an alternate edit, with re-discovered color negatives of the sequence and the help of production notes from Oz and others on the film's creative team. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 9, 2012, with features returning from the original DVD. It was initially subtitled as "The Intended Cut", but changed to "The Director's Cut" once Oz began to support the release. The new edit was screened at the 50th New York Film Festival in the "Masterwork" line-up on September 29, 2012, alongside titles such as Laurence Olivier's "Richard III" and Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate". Oz worried that the audience would react negatively at the 2012 screening; however, "the audience accepted Audrey and Seymour's deaths with applause and roared in glee during the plant rampage," says Oz.


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: In January 2020, "Full Circle Cinema" reported that a remake of the film was planned, with Taron Egerton in talks to play Seymour, Scarlett Johansson as Audrey and Billy Porter voicing Audrey II. "The Hollywood Reporter" affirmed in February that the film was being developed by Warner Bros. Pictures with Greg Berlanti directing and producing with Marc Platt and David Geffen, Porter confirmed, and Egerton and Johansson in negotiations. Additionally, Chris Evans was also in talks to play Dr. Scrivello. Matthew Robinson was to write the screenplay. As of May 2021, the remake had been postponed indefinitely, and in September 2022 it was announced that the remake had been cancelled.


title: Manchuria

text: Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endodemonym "Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manchuria). Its meaning may vary depending on the context:


title: Manchuria

text: First used in the 19th century by the Japanese, the term is deprecated among people of the People's Republic of China (PRC) due to its association with pro Japanese imperialism, the historical puppet state of Manchukuo of the Empire of Japan, and its origination of alleged contemporary "Manchurian nationalism". Official state documents use the term Northeast Region (东北; Dōngběi) to describe the region. Northeast China is predominantly occupied by Han Chinese due to internal Chinese migrations and Sinicization of the Manchus especially during the Qing dynasty. It is considered the homeland of several minority groups besides the Manchus, including the Yemaek the Xianbei, the Shiwei, and the Khitans. The area is also home to many Mongols and Hui.


title: Manchuria

text: Manchuria is often referred to as the "Chinese rust belt", due to the shrinking cities that used to be the center of China's heavy industry and natural resource mining, but today face increasing economic decline.


title: Manchuria

text: Manchuria is now most often associated with the three Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning. The former Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo further included the prefectures of Chengde (now in Hebei), and Hulunbuir, Hinggan, Tongliao, and Chifeng (now in Inner Mongolia). The region of the Qing dynasty referenced as Manchuria originally further included Primorskiy Kray, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, the southern parts of Amur Oblast and Khabarovskiy Kray, and a corner of Zabaykalʼskiy Kray. These districts were acknowledged as Qing territory by the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk but ceded to the Russian Empire due to the Amur Annexation in the unequal 1858 Treaty of Aigun and 1860 Convention of Beijing. (The People's Republic of China indirectly questioned the legitimacy of these treaties in the 1960s but has more recently signed agreements such as the 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship, which affirm the current status quo; a minor exchange nonetheless occurred in 2004 at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri rivers.) Various senses of Greater Manchuria sometimes further include Sakhalin Island, which despite its lack of mention in treaties was shown as Qing territory on period Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and French maps of the area.


title: Manchuria

text: "Manchuria"variations of which arrived in European languages through Dutchis a Latinate calque of the Japanese place name "Manshū" "Region of the Manchus"), which dates from the 19th century. The name "Manju" was invented and given to the Jurchen people by Hong Taiji in 1635 as a new name for their ethnic group; however, the name "Manchuria" was never used by the Manchus or the Qing dynasty itself to refer to their homeland.


title: Manchuria

text: According to the Japanese scholar Junko Miyawaki-Okada, the Japanese geographer Takahashi Kageyasu was the first to use the term "Manshū" as a place name in 1809 in the "Nippon Henkai Ryakuzu", and it was from that work that Westerners adopted the name. According to Mark C. Elliott, the term "Manshū" first appeared as a place name in Katsuragawa Hoshū's 1794 work "Hokusa Bunryaku" in two maps, "Ashia zenzu" and "Chikyū hankyū sōzu", which were also created by Katsuragawa. "Manshū" then began to appear as a place name in more maps created by Japanese like Kondi Jūzō, Takahashi Kageyasu, Baba Sadayoshi and Yamada Ren, and these maps were brought to Europe by the Dutch Philipp von Siebold. According to Nakami Tatsuo, Philip Franz von Siebold was the one who brought the usage of the term "Manchuria" to Europeans after borrowing it from the Japanese, who were the first to use it in a geographic manner in the 18th century.


title: Manchuria

text: According to Bill Sewell, it was Europeans who first started using the name Manchuria to refer to the location and it is "not a genuine geographic term". The historian Gavan McCormack agreed with Robert H. G. Lee's statement that "The term Manchuria or Man-chou is a modern creation used mainly by westerners and Japanese", with McCormack writing that the term Manchuria is imperialistic in nature and has no "precise meaning" since the Japanese deliberately promoted the use of "Manchuria" as a geographic name to promote its separation from China at the time they were setting up their puppet state of Manchukuo.


title: Manchuria

text: The Japanese had their own motive for deliberately spreading the usage of the term Manchuria. The historian Norman Smith wrote that "The term 'Manchuria' is controversial". Professor Mariko Asano Tamanoi said that she "should use the term in quotation marks" when referring to Manchuria.


title: Manchuria

text: In 18th-century Europe, the region later known as "Manchuria", was most commonly referred to as "[Chinese] Tartary". However, the term Manchuria ("Mantchourie", in French) started appearing by the end of the century; French missionaries used it as early as 1800. The French-based geographers Conrad Malte-Brun and Edme Mentelle promoted the use of the term Manchuria ("Mantchourie", in French), along with "Mongolia", "Kalmykia", etc., as more precise terms than Tartary, in their world geography work published in 1804.


title: Manchuria

text: In present-day Chinese, an inhabitant of the Northeast is a "Northeasterner" (). "The Northeast" is a term that expresses the entire region, encompassing its history and various cultures. It's usually restricted to the "Three East Provinces" or "Three Northeast Provinces", however, to the exclusion of northeastern Inner Mongolia. In China, the term Manchuria () is rarely used today, and the term is often negatively associated with the Japanese imperial legacy and the puppet state of Manchukuo.


title: Manchuria

text: Manchuria has been referred to as Guandong (), which literally means "east of the pass", and similarly Guanwai (), a reference to Shanhai Pass in Qinhuangdao in today's Hebei, at the eastern end of the Great Wall of China. This usage is seen in the expression "Chuǎng Guāndōng" (literally "Rushing into Guandong") referring to the mass migration of Han Chinese to Manchuria in the 19th and 20th centuries. The name Guandong later came to be used more narrowly for the area of the Kwantung Leased Territory on the Liaodong Peninsula. It is not to be confused with the southern province of Guangdong.


title: Manchuria

text: During the Qing dynasty, the region was known as the "three eastern provinces" (; Manchu, "Dergi Ilan Golo") since 1683 when Jilin and Heilongjiang were separated even though it was not until 1907 that they were turned into actual provinces. The administrators of the three areas were the General of Heilongjiang (Sahaliyan Ula i Jiyanggiyūn), General of Jilin (Girin i Jiyanggiyūn), and General of Shengjing (Mukden i Jiyanggiyūn). The area of Manchuria was then converted into three provinces by the late Qing government in 1907. Since then, the phrase "Three Northeast Provinces" was officially used by the Qing government in China to refer to this region, and the post of Viceroy of the Three Northeast Provinces (dergi ilan goloi uheri kadalara amban) was established to take charge of these provinces. After the 1911 revolution, which resulted in the collapse of the Manchu-established Qing dynasty, the name of the region where the Manchus originated was known as "the Northeast" in official documents in the newly founded Republic of China, in addition to the "Three Northeast Provinces".


title: Manchuria

text: During the Ming dynasty the area where the Jurchens lived was referred to as Nurgan. Nurgan was the area of modern Jilin in Manchuria.


title: Manchuria

text: Manchuria consists mainly of the northern side of the funnel-shaped North China Craton, a large area of tilled and overlaid Precambrian rocks spanning . The North China Craton was an independent continent before the Triassic period and is known to have been the northernmost piece of land in the world during the Carboniferous. The Khingan Mountains in the west are a Jurassic mountain range formed by the collision of the North China Craton with the Siberian Craton, which marked the final stage of the formation of the supercontinent Pangaea.


title: Manchuria

text: No part of Manchuria was glaciated during the Quaternary, but the surface geology of most of the lower-lying and more fertile parts of Manchuria consists of very deep layers of loess, which have been formed by the wind-borne movement of dust and till particles formed in glaciated parts of the Himalayas, Kunlun Shan and Tien Shan, as well as the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts. Soils are mostly fertile mollisols and fluvents except in the more mountainous parts where they have poorly developed orthents, as well as in the extreme north where permafrost occurs and orthels dominate.


title: Manchuria

text: The climate of Manchuria has extreme seasonal contrasts, ranging from humid, almost tropical heat in summer to windy, dry, Arctic cold in winter. This pattern occurs because the position of Manchuria on the boundary between the great Eurasian continental landmass and the huge Pacific Ocean causes complete monsoonal wind reversal.


title: Manchuria

text: In summer, when the land heats faster than the ocean, low-pressure forms over Asia and warm, moist south to southeasterly winds bring heavy, thundery rain, yielding annual rainfall ranging from , or less in the west, to over in the Changbai Mountains. Temperatures in summer are very warm to hot, with July average maxima ranging from in the south to in the extreme north.


title: Manchuria

text: In winter, however, the vast Siberian High causes very cold, north-to-northwesterly winds that bring temperatures as low as in the extreme south and in the north where the zone of discontinuous permafrost reaches northern Heilongjiang. However, because the winds from Siberia are exceedingly dry, snow falls only on a few days every winter, and it is never heavy. This explains why corresponding latitudes of North America were fully glaciated during glacial periods of the Quaternary while Manchuria, though even colder, always remained too dry to form glaciers – a state of affairs enhanced by stronger westerly winds from the surface of the ice sheet in Europe.


title: Manchuria

text: Manchuria was the homeland of several ethnic groups, including Manchu, Mongols, Koreans, Nanai, Nivkhs, Ulchs, Hui and possibly Turkic peoples and ethnic Han Chinese in southern Manchuria. Various ethnic groups and their respective kingdoms, including the Sushen, Donghu, Xianbei, Wuhuan, Mohe, Khitan and Jurchens, have risen to power in Manchuria. Various Koreanic kingdoms such as Gojoseon (before 108 BCE), Buyeo (2nd century BCE to 494 CE) and Goguryeo (37 BCE to 688 CE) also became established in large parts of this area. The Han dynasty (202 BCE to 9 CE and 25 to 220 CE), the Cao Wei dynasty (220–266), the Western Jin dynasty (266–316), the Tang dynasty (618–690 and 705–907) and some other minor kingdoms of China established control in parts of Manchuria and in some cases tributary relations with peoples in the area. Parts of northwestern Manchuria came under the control of the First Turkic Khaganate of 552–603 and of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate of 581–630. Early Manchuria had a mixed economy of hunting, fishing, livestock, and agriculture.


title: Manchuria

text: With the Song dynasty (960-1269) to the south, the Khitan people of Inner Mongolia created the Liao dynasty (916-1125) and conquered Outer Mongolia and Manchuria, going on to control the adjacent part of the Sixteen Prefectures in Northern China as well. The Liao dynasty became the first state to control all of Manchuria.


title: Manchuria

text: In the early 12th century the Tungusic Jurchen people, who were Liao's tributaries, overthrew the Liao and formed the Jin dynasty (1115–1234), which went on to control parts of Northern China and Mongolia after a series of successful military campaigns. During the Mongol Yuan dynasty rule of China (1271–1368), Manchuria was administered as Liaoyang province. In 1375 Naghachu, a Mongol official of the Mongolia-based Northern Yuan dynasty of 1368–1635 in Liaoyang province invaded Liaodong, but later surrendered to the Ming dynasty in 1387. In order to protect the northern border areas, the Ming dynasty decided to "pacify" the Jurchens in order to deal with its problems with Yuan remnants along its northern border. The Ming solidified control over Manchuria under the Yongle Emperor (), establishing the Nurgan Regional Military Commission of 1409–1435. Starting in the 1580s, a Jianzhou Jurchen chieftain, Nurhaci (1558–1626), started to unify Jurchen tribes of the region. Over the next several decades, the Jurchen took control of most of Manchuria. In 1616 Nurhaci founded the Later Jin dynasty, which later became known as the Qing dynasty. The Qing defeated the Evenk-Daur federation led by the Evenki chief Bombogor and beheaded Bombogor in 1640, with Qing armies massacring and deporting Evenkis and absorbing the survivors into the Banners.


title: Manchuria

text: Chinese cultural and religious influence such as Chinese New Year, the "Chinese god", motifs such as the dragon, spirals, and scrolls, agriculture, husbandry, methods of heating, and material goods such as iron cooking-pots, silk, and cotton spread among the Amur natives including the Udeghes, Ulchis, and Nanais.


title: Manchuria

text: In 1644, after peasant rebels sacked the Ming dynasty's capital of Beijing, the Jurchens (now called Manchus) allied with Ming general Wu Sangui and seized control of Beijing, overthrowing the short-lived Shun dynasty (1644–1649) and establishing Qing-dynasty rule (1644–1912) over all of China. The Manchu conquest of China involved the deaths of over 25 million people. The Qing dynasty built the Willow Palisade – a system of ditches and embankments – during the later 17th century to restrict the movement of Han civilians into Jilin and Heilongjiang. Only bannermen, including Chinese bannermen, were allowed to settle in Jilin and Heilongjiang.


title: Manchuria

text: After conquering the Ming, the Qing often identified their state as "China" (中國, "Zhongguo"; "Middle Kingdom"), and referred to it as "Dulimbai Gurun" ("Middle Kingdom") in Manchu. In the "Qing shilu" the lands of the Qing state (including Manchuria and present-day Xinjiang, Mongolia, and Tibet) are thus identified as "the Middle Kingdom" in both the Chinese and Manchu languages in roughly two-thirds of the cases, while the term refers to the traditional Chinese provinces populated by the Han in roughly one third of the cases. It was also common to use "China" ("Zhongguo", "Dulimbai gurun") to refer to the Qing in official documents, international treaties, and foreign affairs. In diplomatic documents, the term "Chinese language" ("Dulimbai gurun i bithe") referred to the Chinese, Manchu, and Mongol languages, and the term "Chinese people" (中國人 Zhongguo ren; Manchu: Dulimbai gurun i niyalma) referred to all Han, Manchus, and Mongol subjects of the Qing. The Qing explicitly stated that the lands in Manchuria belonged to "China" (Zhongguo, Dulimbai gurun) in Qing edicts and in the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk.


title: Manchuria

text: Despite migration restrictions, Qing rule saw massively increasing numbers of Han Chinese both illegally and legally streaming into Manchuria and settling down to cultivate land – Manchu landlords desired Han Chinese peasants to rent their land and to grow grain; most Han Chinese migrants were not evicted as they crossed the Great Wall and Willow Palisade. During the eighteenth century Han Chinese farmed 500,000 hectares of privately owned land in Manchuria and 203,583 hectares of lands which were part of courier stations, noble estates, and Banner lands; in garrisons and towns in Manchuria Han Chinese made up 80% of the population.


title: Manchuria

text: The Qing resettled Han Chinese farmers from north China to the area along the Liao River in order to restore the land to cultivation. Han Chinese squatters reclaimed wasteland, and other Han rented land from Manchu landlords.


title: Manchuria

text: By the 18th century, despite officially prohibiting Han Chinese settlement on Manchu and Mongol lands, the Qing decided to settle Han refugees from northern China – who were suffering from famine, floods, and drought – into Manchuria and Inner Mongolia, so that Han Chinese farmed 500,000 hectares in Manchuria and tens of thousands of hectares in Inner Mongolia by the 1780s. The Qianlong Emperor () allowed Han Chinese peasants suffering from drought to move into Manchuria despite his having issued edicts in favor of banning them from 1740 to 1776. Han Chinese then streamed into Manchuria, both illegally and legally, over the Great Wall of China and the Willow Palisade. Chinese tenant farmers rented or even claimed title to land from the "imperial estates" and Manchu Bannerlands in the area. Besides moving into the Liao area in southern Manchuria, Han Chinese settled the path linking Jinzhou, Fengtian, Tieling, Changchun, Hulun, and Ningguta during the Qianlong Emperor's reign, and Han Chinese had become the majority in urban areas of Manchuria by 1800. To increase the Imperial Treasury's revenue, the Qing sold formerly Manchu-only lands along the Sungari to Han Chinese at the beginning of the Daoguang Emperor's 1820–1850 reign, and Han Chinese filled up most of Manchuria's towns by the 1840s, according to Abbé Huc.


title: Manchuria

text: The Russian conquest of Siberia was met with indigenous resistance to colonization, but Russian Cossacks crushed the natives. The conquest of Siberia and Manchuria also resulted in the spread of infectious diseases. Historian John F. Richards wrote: "... New diseases weakened and demoralized the indigenous peoples of Siberia. The worst of these was smallpox "because of its swift spread, the high death rates, and the permanent disfigurement of survivors." ... In the 1690s, smallpox epidemics reduced Yukagir numbers by an estimated 44 percent." At the behest of people like Vasilii Poyarkov in 1645 and Yerofei Khabarov in 1650, Russian Cossacks killed some peoples like the Daur people of Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang to the extent that some authors speak of genocide.


title: Manchuria

text: The Daurs initially deserted their villages since they had heard about the cruelty of the Russians the first time Khabarov came. The second time he came, the Daurs decided to do battle against the Russians instead, but were slaughtered by Russian guns. The Russians came to be known as "red-beards". The Amur natives called Russian Cossacks "luocha" (羅剎), after demons in Buddhist mythology, because of their cruelty towards the Amur tribespeople, who were subjects of the Qing. The Qing viewed Russian proselytization of Eastern Orthodox Christianity to the indigenous peoples along the Amur River as a threat.


title: Manchuria

text: In 1858 Russian diplomacy forced a weakening Qing dynasty to cede Manchuria north of the Amur to Russia under the Treaty of Aigun. In 1860, with the Treaty of Peking, the Russians managed to obtain a further large slice of Manchuria, east of the Ussuri River. As a result, Manchuria became divided into a Russian half (known as "Outer Manchuria", and a remaining Chinese half (known as "Inner Manchuria"). In modern literature, "Manchuria" usually refers to Inner (Chinese) Manchuria. As a result of the Treaties of Aigun and Peking, Qing China lost access to the Sea of Japan.


title: Manchuria

text: Inner Manchuria also came under strong Russian influence with the building of the Chinese Eastern Railway through Harbin to Vladivostok. In the "Chuang Guandong" movement, many Han farmers, mostly from the Shandong peninsula moved there. By 1921, Harbin, northern Manchuria's largest city, had a population of 300,000, including 100,000 Russians. Japan replaced Russian influence in the southern half of Inner Manchuria as a result of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904–1905. Most of the southern branch of the Chinese Eastern Railway was transferred from Russia to Japan, and became the South Manchurian Railway. Japanese influence extended into Outer Manchuria in the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1917, but Outer Manchuria had reverted to Soviet control by 1925. Manchuria was an important region due to its rich natural resources including coal, fertile soil, and various minerals. For pre–World War II Japan, Manchuria was an essential source of raw materials. Without occupying Manchuria, the Japanese probably could not have carried out their plan for conquest over Southeast Asia or taken the risk of attacking the United States and the British Empire in 1941.


title: Manchuria

text: There was a major epidemic known as the Manchurian plague in 1910–1911, likely caused by the inexperienced hunting of marmots, many of whom are diseased. The cheap railway transport and the harsh winters, where the hunters sheltered in close confinement, helped to propagate the disease. The response required close coordination between the Chinese, Russian and Japanese authorities and international disease experts held an 'International Plague Conference' in the northern city of Shenyang after the disease was under control to learn the lessons.


title: Manchuria

text: It was reported that among Banner people, both Manchu and Chinese (Hanjun) in Aihun, Heilongjiang in the 1920s, would seldom marry with Han civilians, but they (Manchu and Chinese Bannermen) would mostly intermarry with each other. Owen Lattimore reported that during his January 1930 visit to Manchuria, he studied a community in Jilin (Kirin), where both Manchu and Chinese Bannermen were settled at a town called Wulakai, and eventually the Chinese Bannermen there could not be differentiated from Manchus since they were effectively Manchufied (assimilated). The Han civilian population was in the process of absorbing and mixing with them when Lattimore wrote his article.


title: Manchuria

text: Around the time of World War I, Zhang Zuolin established himself as a powerful warlord with influence over most of Manchuria. During his rule, the Manchurian economy grew tremendously, backed by the immigration of Chinese from other parts of China. The Japanese assassinated him on 2 June 1928, in what is known as the Huanggutun Incident. Following the Mukden Incident in 1931 and the subsequent Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the Japanese declared Inner Manchuria an "independent state", and appointed the deposed Qing emperor Puyi as puppet emperor of Manchukuo. Under Japanese control, Manchuria was brutally run, with a systematic campaign of terror and intimidation against the local populations including arrests, organised riots and other forms of subjugation. Manchukuo was used by Japan as a base to invade the rest of China. At that time, hundreds of thousands of Japanese settlers arrived in Manchuria.


title: Manchuria

text: After the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan in 1945, the Soviet Union invaded from Soviet Outer Manchuria as part of its declaration of war against Japan. Soon afterwards, the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) started fighting for control over Manchuria. The communists won in the Liaoshen Campaign and took complete control over Manchuria. With the encouragement of the Soviet Union, Manchuria was then used as a staging ground during the Chinese Civil War for the Chinese Communist Party, which emerged victorious in 1949. Ambiguities in the treaties that ceded Outer Manchuria to Russia led to disputes over the political status of several islands. The Kuomintang government in Taiwan (Formosa) complained to the United Nations, which passed resolution 505 on February 1, 1952, denouncing Soviet actions over the violations of the 1945 Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance.


title: Manchuria

text: As part of the Sino-Soviet split, this ambiguity led to armed conflict in 1969, called the Sino-Soviet border conflict, resulting in an agreement. In 2004, Russia agreed to transfer Yinlong Island and one half of Heixiazi Island to China, ending an enduring border dispute.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: Carl XVI Gustaf (Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus; born 30 April 1946) is King of Sweden. He ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf, on 15 September 1973.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: He is the youngest child and only son of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His father died on 26 January 1947 in an airplane crash in Denmark when Carl Gustaf was nine months old. Upon his father's death, he became second in line to the throne, after his grandfather, the then Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf. Following the death of his great-grandfather, King Gustaf V, in 1950, Gustaf Adolf ascended the throne and thus Carl Gustaf became Sweden's new crown prince and heir apparent to the throne at the age of four.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: Shortly after he became king in September 1973, the new 1974 Instrument of Government took effect, formally stripping Carl XVI Gustaf of his remaining executive power. As a result, he no longer performs many of the duties normally accorded to a head of state, such as the formal appointment of the prime minister, signing off on legislation, and being commander-in-chief of the nation's military. The new instrument explicitly limited the king to ceremonial functions and, among other things, to be regularly informed of affairs of state. As head of the House of Bernadotte, Carl Gustaf has also been able to make a number of decisions about the titles and positions of its members.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: The King's heir apparent, after passage on 1 January 1980 of a new law establishing absolute primogeniture (the first such law passed in Western European history), is Crown Princess Victoria, the eldest child of the King and his wife, Queen Silvia. Before the passage of that law, Crown Princess Victoria's younger brother, Prince Carl Philip, was briefly the heir apparent, as of his birth in May 1979. Carl XVI Gustaf is the longest-reigning monarch in Swedish history, having surpassed King Magnus IV's reign of 44 years and 222 days on 26 April 2018.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: Carl Gustaf was born on 30 April 1946 at 10:20 in Haga Palace in Solna, Stockholm County. He was the youngest of five children and the only son of Sweden's Prince Gustaf Adolf and Princess Sibylla. He was christened at the Royal Chapel on 7 June 1946 by the Archbishop of Uppsala, Erling Eidem.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: He was baptised in Charles XI's baptismal font, which stood on Gustav III's carpet; he lay in Charles XI's cradle with Oscar II's crown beside him. The same christening gown in white linen batiste which the prince carried had been worn by his father in 1906 and would later be worn by his three children. His godparents were the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Denmark (his paternal uncle and aunt), the Crown Prince of Norway, Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, the King of Sweden (his paternal great-grandfather), the Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (his maternal uncle), the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Sweden (his paternal grandfather and step-grandmother), and Count Folke and Countess Maria Bernadotte af Wisborg.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: Prince Carl Gustaf was also given the title of the Duke of Jämtland. His father, Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, was killed in an airplane crash on 26 January 1947 at Copenhagen Airport. His father's death had left the nine-month-old prince second in line for the throne, behind his grandfather, then Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf. When his paternal great-grandfather, Gustaf V died in 1950, the four-year-old prince became the heir apparent of Sweden.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: Carl Gustaf was seven years old before he was told about his father's death. He expressed his feelings about growing up without knowing his father in a speech in 2005.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: His earliest education was received privately at the Royal Palace. The young prince was then sent to Broms school, and then on to Sigtuna boarding school. After graduating from high school in 1966, Carl Gustaf completed two-and-a-half years of education in the Swedish Army, the Royal Swedish Navy, and the Swedish Air Force. During the winter 1966–1967, he took part in a round-the-world voyage with the mine-laying vessel "Älvsnabben". The Crown Prince received his commission as an officer in all three services in 1968, eventually rising to the rank of captain (in the army and air force) and lieutenant (in the navy), before his ascension to the throne. He also completed his academic studies in history, sociology, political science, tax law, and economics at Uppsala University and later economics at Stockholm University.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: To prepare for his role as the head of state, Crown Prince Carl Gustaf followed a broad program of studies on the court system, social organisations and institutions, trade unions, and employers' associations. In addition, he closely studied the affairs of the Riksdag, Government, and Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The Crown Prince also spent time at the Swedish Mission to the United Nations and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), worked at a bank in London and at the Swedish Embassy there, at the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in France, and at the Alfa Laval Company factory in France. In 1970, he represented the King at the head of the Swedish delegation to the World Exposition in Osaka, Japan. Since his youth the present monarch has been a strong supporter of the Scout Movement in Sweden.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: On 15 September 1973, Carl Gustaf became King of Sweden upon the death of his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf. On 19 September, he took the required regal assurance () during an extraordinary meeting of the cabinet. Afterwards, he appeared before the parliament, diplomatic corps, court, etc. in the Hall of State at the Royal Palace where he gave a speech. Both the cabinet meeting and ceremony at the Hall were broadcast live on television. Following the ceremonies, he appeared on the balcony to acknowledge gathered crowds. At the cabinet meeting, the King declared that his regnal name would be Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden. He adopted "For Sweden – With the times" as his personal motto ("För Sverige – i tiden").


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: When Carl Gustaf ascended the throne, plans were already in place to replace the 1809 Instrument of Government, which made the King "de jure" chief executive. Though the King was a near-autocrat on paper, the Riksdag's authority grew steadily into the early 20th century, culminating in the definitive establishment of parliamentary government in 1917.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: The new 1974 Instrument of Government first took effect on 1 January 1975 and formally stripped the new King of his remaining formal political powers, though these powers had effectively died with Carl Gustaf's great-grandfather, Gustaf V, in 1950. The new document made the King's role almost entirely ceremonial and representative in nature, while codifying a number of practices and conventions dating from 1917. Previously, the King formally appointed the Prime Minister, though in practice he was almost always the leader of the majority party or coalition in the Riksdag. Since the adoption of the current Instrument, a prospective prime minister is nominated by the Speaker of the Riksdag, and if that candidate is elected by the Riksdag, the Speaker signs the commission (). Additionally, bills passed by the Riksdag do not need royal assent to become law.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: He is the foremost representative of Sweden and pays state visits abroad and receives those to Sweden, he opens the annual session of the Riksdag, chairs the Special Council held during a change of Government (), holds regular Information Councils with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet (), chairs the meetings of the Foreign Affairs Council (), and receives Letters of Credence of foreign ambassadors to Sweden and signs those of Sweden to foreign nations. As a figurehead, he also voluntarily abstains from voting in Swedish elections.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: King Carl Gustaf holds the highest ranks in the three branches of the Swedish Armed Forces; this is due to the fact that he was, as stipulated by § 14 of the 1809 Instrument of Government in effect at the time of his accession to the throne in 1973, the Commander-in-Chief (; not to be confused with the military professional holding the position of Supreme Commander) and therefore he was promoted "ex officio" from his earlier ranks of captain (Army & Air Force) and lieutenant (Navy), to general and admiral. Under the provisions of the Instrument of Government of 1974, which became effective on 1 January 1975, the King no longer holds this constitutionally-mandated position, but he kept his ranks "à la suite" since he no longer has any military command authority, except over His Majesty's Military Staff.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: Worldwide, Carl XVI Gustaf is probably best known as the presenter of the Nobel Prizes each year; the first Nobel laureate who received the prize from his hands was Leo Esaki. He also hands over the Polar Music Prize. The King holds honorary doctoral degrees from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the Royal Institute of Technology, the Stockholm School of Economics and from the Åbo Akademi University in Finland.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: The king is passionate about the environment, technology, agriculture, trade, and industry. Like many members of the Swedish royal family, he has a keen interest in automobiles. He owns several Porsche 911s, a car model which is said to be a particular favourite of his, as well as a vintage Volvo PV444, a Ferrari 456M GT, an AC Cobra and other cars. The first pictures taken of him and his future wife were of them sitting in his Porsche 911. In the summer of 2005 he was involved in a traffic accident in Norrköping. The accident was described as a "fender bender", with no serious personal injuries claimed. Nevertheless, the incident caused national headlines. The king and queen of Sweden frequently travel to the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, including in 2014, 2016 and 2018.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: In December 2020, the king said Sweden's approach to dealing with COVID-19 had failed. Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said that "the fact that so many have died can't be considered as anything other than a failure".


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: The King is the honorary chairman of the World Scout Foundation, and often participates in Scout activities both in Sweden and abroad. He regularly visits World Scout Jamborees, for instance the 1979 Dalajamb World Jamboree International Encampment hosted by Sweden, the 2002 World Jamboree held in Sattahip, Thailand, and the 100th Anniversary of World Scouting 2007 World Jamboree held in Hylands Park, England. He also attended the 1981 National Scout Jamboree in Virginia, United States, and was awarded the Bronze Wolf, the only distinction of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, awarded by the World Scout Committee for exceptional services to world Scouting, in 1982. He also attended the 22nd World Scout Jamboree. He gave a speech on 6 August 2011 at the closing ceremony with more than 40,000 people watching. The band Europe also performed for him singing "The Final Countdown". King Carl Gustaf made an appearance at the 2013 Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree in West Virginia.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: So empowered as head of the House of Bernadotte, King Carl Gustaf since he was enthroned in 1973 has made a number of personal decisions regarding the titles and positions of relatives and family members, including the demotion of a sister, elevation of several commoners to royalty, rebuff of an elderly uncle's wishes and the creation of new Swedish titles and duchies.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: The King married Silvia Sommerlath, whose father was German and whose mother was Brazilian, and who had grown up in both countries. They met at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, where she was an interpreter and host. The wedding was held on 19 June 1976 at Stockholm Cathedral, the ceremony performed by the Archbishop of Uppsala, Olof Sundby. The wedding was preceded the previous evening by a Royal Variety Performance, at which, among other performances, the Swedish musical group ABBA gave one of the first performances of "Dancing Queen", as a tribute to Sweden's future queen. The King and his family moved to Drottningholm Palace west of Stockholm in 1980. He and the Queen have maintained their business offices at the Royal Palace of Stockholm.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: Prince Carl Philip was born the heir apparent. However, a constitutional reform, which was already under way at the time of his birth, made his elder sister, Victoria, the heir apparent and Crown Princess of Sweden on 1 January 1980, according to the principles of absolute primogeniture, which Sweden was the first recognised monarchy to adopt. King Carl Gustaf objected after the reform, not to the succession by females but to the fact that his son lost the position and title which he had had since birth.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: Gustaf VI Adolf was the last king to use the style "by the Grace of God, of the Swedes, Goths and Wends King" (; ). This title had been in use since its adoption by Gustav I in 1523. Carl XVI Gustaf instead chose the simpler "King of Sweden" ("Sveriges Konung"), thereby ending a centuries-old tradition.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: There have not actually been sixteen kings of Sweden named Carl/Charles. The numeral stems from an erroneous genealogy that includes fictitious kings, created by 16th-century writer Johannes Magnus.


title: Carl XVI Gustaf

text: On his creation as Duke of Jämtland, Carl XVI Gustaf was granted an achievement of arms which featured the arms of Jämtland in base (these arms can be seen on his stallplate as knight of the Danish Order of the Elephant at Frederiksborg Palace). Since his accession to the throne, he has used the greater coat of arms of Sweden although he is still associated with the ducal title of Jämtland.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: The Dark Tower is a series of eight novels, one short story, and a children's book written by American author Stephen King. Incorporating themes from multiple genres, including dark fantasy, science fantasy, horror, and Western, it describes a "gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. The series, and its use of the Dark Tower, expands upon Stephen King's multiverse and in doing so, links together many of his other novels.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: In addition to the eight novels of the series proper that comprise 4,250 pages, many of King's other books relate to the story, introducing concepts and characters that come into play as the series progresses.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: The series was chiefly inspired by the poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning, whose full text was included in the final volume's appendix. In the preface to the revised 2003 edition of "", King also identifies "The Lord of the Rings", Arthurian legend, and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" as inspirations. He identifies Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" character as one of the major inspirations for the protagonist, Roland Deschain. King's style of location names in the series, such as Mid-World, and his development of a unique language (High Speech), are also influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien's work.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: Stephen King saw "The Dark Tower" series as a first draft, initially planning to rewrite it. However, after revising "The Gunslinger", "he is trying to decide how much he can rewrite."


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: In the story, Roland Deschain is a member of a knightly order known as "gunslingers" and the last of the line of "Arthur Eld", his world's analogue of King Arthur. Politically organized along the lines of a feudal society, it shares technological and social characteristics with the American Old West but is also magical. Many of the magical aspects have vanished from Mid-World, but traces remain as do relics from a technologically advanced society. Roland's quest is to find the Dark Tower, a fabled building said to be the nexus of all universes. Roland's world is said to have "moved on", and it appears to be coming apart at the seams. Mighty nations have been torn apart by war, entire cities and regions vanish without a trace and time does not flow in an orderly fashion. Sometimes, even the sun rises in the north and sets in the east. As the series opens, Roland's motives, goals, and age are unclear, although later installments shed light on these mysteries.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: The series has become a linchpin that is interwoven with, and ties together, much of King's body of work. The worlds of "The Dark Tower" are in part composed of locations, characters, events and other various elements from many of King's novels and short stories. Some of the principal books that are tied to this series, or that this series references, include "It", "The Stand", "'Salem's Lot", "Insomnia", "Hearts in Atlantis", "Black House", "The Eyes of the Dragon", "The Shining", and "Cell". The TV miniseries "Kingdom Hospital" takes place in a world in which Nozz-A-La is the most popular beverage in the world, possibly meaning those events take place in the same universe as books 4 and 5 are set.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: Along his journey to the Dark Tower, Roland meets a great number of friends and enemies. For most of the way, he is accompanied by a group of people who, together with him, form the Ka-tet of the Nineteen and Ninety-nine, consisting of Jake Chambers, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, and Oy. Among his many enemies on the way are The Man in Black, Mordred, and The Crimson King.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: King created a language for his characters, known as the High Speech. Examples of this language include the phrases "Thankee, Sai" ("Thank you, Sir/Ma'am.") and "Dan-Tete" ("Little Savior"). In addition, King uses the term "Ka", which is the approximate equivalent of destiny, or fate, in the fictional language High Speech (and similarly, "Ka-tet," a group of people bound together by fate/destiny). This term originated in Egyptian mythology and storytelling, and has figured in several other novels and screenplays since 1976. The term also appears in King's short story, "Low Men in Yellow Coats", in which Ted describes its meaning to Bobby.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: While the series was declared finished with the publication of the seventh volume in 2004, Stephen King described in an interview in March 2009 an idea for a new short story he'd recently had: "And then I thought, 'Well, why don't I find three more like this and do a book that would be almost like modern fairy tales?' Then this thing started to add on bits and pieces so I guess it will be a novel." According to King, the idea was a new "Dark Tower" novel.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: King said, regarding "The Dark Tower", "It's not really done yet. Those seven books are really sections of one long über-novel." King confirmed this during his TimesTalk event at The Times Center in New York City on November 10, 2009, and the next day King's official site posted that King would begin working on this novel in about eight months, with a tentative title being "The Wind Through the Keyhole". King noted that this novel would likely be set between the fourth and the fifth books of the series. The book, titled "", was announced on Stephen King's official site on March 10, 2011, and was published on April 24, 2012.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: Each book in the series was originally published in hardcover format with a number of full-color illustrations spread throughout. Each book contained works by a single illustrator only. Subsequent printings of each book in trade paperback format usually preserve the illustrations in full, except for books I and IV. Pocket-sized paperback reprints contain only black-and-white chapter or section header illustrations.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: Bill Sheehan of "The Washington Post" called the series "a humane, visionary epic and a true magnum opus" that stands as an "imposing example of pure storytelling," "filled with brilliantly rendered set pieces... cataclysmic encounters and moments of desolating tragedy." Erica Noonan of the "Boston Globe" said, "There's a fascinating world to be discovered in the series" but noted that its epic nature keeps it from being user-friendly. Allen Johnston of "The New York Times" was disappointed with how the series progressed; while he marveled at the "sheer absurdity of [the books'] existence" and complimented King's writing style, he said preparation would have improved the series, stating "King doesn't have the writerly finesse for these sorts of games, and the voices let him down." Michael Berry of the "San Francisco Chronicle", however, called the series' early installments "highfalutin hodgepodge" but the ending "a valediction" that "more than delivers on what has been promised." Joshua Rothman of "The New Yorker" praised the series, feeling that "the novels were better and weirder than [he'd] hoped." Because it features several of his classic tropes, Rothman claimed, "If you really like Stephen King, you owe it to yourself to give the series a shot."


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: The series has prompted related non-fiction books by authors besides King. Robin Furth has published the two-volume "Stephen King's The Dark Tower: A Concordance", an encyclopedia-style companion to the series that she originally wrote for King's personal use. Bev Vincent has published "The Road to The Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus", a book containing back story, summary and analysis and "The Dark Tower Companion", which includes interviews and coverage of the Marvel graphic novels. Stephen King has endorsed these books.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: "Charlie the Choo-Choo" is a "children's book" by Stephen King released in 2016, published under the pseudonym Beryl Evans. It is adapted from a section of King's previous novel "The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands". It was illustrated by Ned Dameron.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: A prequel, "" is plotted by Robin Furth, scripted by Peter David, and illustrated by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove, and is set around the time of the flashbacks in "The Gunslinger" and "Wizard and Glass". The first issue of this first arc was released on February 7, 2007. A hardcover volume containing all seven issues was released on November 7, 2007.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: The second arc in the series, "", began publication on March 5, 2008. A hardcover volume containing all five issues was released on October 15, 2008.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: The third arc, "", began publication on September 10, 2008. A hardcover volume containing all 6 issues was released on April 21, 2009.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: Following the completion of the third arc a one-shot issue titled "" was released April 8, 2009. The story focuses on the history of the villainous wizard Marten Broadcloak.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: The fourth arc, "", began publication on May 13, 2009. A hardcover volume containing all 6 issues, as well as the Sorcerer One-Shot was released on February 2, 2010.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: The fifth arc, "", began publication on December 3, 2009. A hardcover volume containing all 5 issues was released on August 17, 2010.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: Marvel Comics has also published three supplemental books to date that expand upon characters and locations first introduced in the novels. "The Dark Tower: Gunslingers' Guidebook" was released in 2007, "The Dark Tower: End-World Almanac" was released in 2008, and "The Dark Tower: Guide to Gilead" was released in 2009. All three books were written by Anthony Flamini, with Furth serving as creative consultant. "End-World Almanac" and "Guide to Gilead" feature illustrations by David Yardin.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: A five-issue adaptation of King's novel "", titled "", began publication on May 19, 2010. The collected hardback edition was released on January 26, 2011.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: An adaptation of King's novella "The Little Sisters of Eluria", titled "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Little Sisters of Eluria", began publication on December 8, 2010. The collected hardback edition was released on June 8, 2011.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: A second adaptation of King's novel "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger", titled "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Battle of Tull", began publication on June 1, 2011. The collected hardback edition was released on January 25, 2012.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: A third adaptation of King's novel "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger", titled "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Way Station", began publication on December 14, 2011. The collected hardback edition was released on June 27, 2012.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: December 7, 2009 saw the release of a spin-off online game titled "Discordia",<ref name="Stephenking.com/discordia"></ref> available to play free of charge on the official Stephen King website. The game is a continuation of the original "Dark Tower" story, following the war between the Tet Corporation and Sombra/NCP in New York, and it has been supervised by both Stephen King and Robin Furth. From the website: "Exploring the behind-the-scenes conflict between the two companies, "Discordia" introduces long-time "Dark Tower" fans to new characters and numerous mechanical/magical items developed by Mid-World's Old Ones. Over the course of our adventure we will visit many locations, both those familiar to "Dark Tower" fans and others which we only glimpsed in the "Dark Tower" novels. While we may not see Roland and his ka-tet in this adventure, the development team has remembered the faces of its fathers. We have done our best to honor the original "Dark Tower" series while simultaneously mapping new and exciting "Dark Tower" territory."


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: Sony Pictures and Media Rights Capital adapted the series for film. The film is directed by Nikolaj Arcel, and stars Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, cast respectively as Roland Deschain and Walter O'Dim. The film was released on August 4, 2017. Critics panned the film with it receiving a score of 16% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film combines elements from several novels in "The Dark Tower" series, serving as a canonical sequel to the novel series, which concluded with the revelation that Roland's quest was a cyclical time loop; the presence of the Horn of Eld, which Roland carries in the film, indicates that this is the next cycle. Stephen King has indicated that "The Dark Tower" film and television series will follow Roland's "last time round" to the titular Dark Tower. In July 2016, director Nikolaj Arcel confirmed that "The Dark Tower" film would be a sequel to the novels as well as a direct adaptation, with Roland in the next cycle of his journey to the Tower.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: In an interview with Collider, Stephen King expressed hope for a sequel film in addition to the upcoming television series, suggesting that it should be R-rated, with Roland wearing a hat, and that it would include the "lobstrosities" from "". In an interview with ComingSoon.net, Nikolaj Arcel confirmed that "The Drawing of the Three" would form the basis for the sequel, and that yet-to-be-cast actors who will play Eddie and Susannah Dean would appear alongside Elba, McConaughey, Taylor, and Haley reprising their roles as Roland, Walter, Jake and Sayre respectively.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: In February 2018, Amazon bought the rights to "The Dark Tower" books for a series adaptation, though it was not made clear at first if anyone from the film would be involved. It was later confirmed that the series would serve as a reboot, with Sam Strike and Jasper Pääkkönen being cast as Roland Deschain and The Man in Black, respectively. In June 2019, Michael Rooker, Jerome Flynn and Joana Ribeiro were also believed to be cast members. In January 2020, Amazon decided not to move forward with the pilot, but production company MRC is shopping the pilot scripts elsewhere. In December 2022, director Mike Flanagan announced that he had acquired the rights to develop a television series based on the books and had plans for a multi season release.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: Currently there exist five audio versions of The Dark Tower series – in English, Polish, German, French and Russian. The audio book in English published by Hodder & Stoughton features voices of George Guidall and Frank Muller and has neither music nor sound effects. The audio book in German published by introduces and as the narrators. The French audiobooks are published by Éditions Gallimard and narrated by Jacques Frantz.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: The first two novels in the series, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger and The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, were produced on audio cassette by New Audio Library (NAL) in 1988 and 1989 respectively. The Waste Lands, The Dark Tower Part III, was produced on audio cassette by Penguin Highbridge Audio in 1991. Each of these early editions was narrated by the author. The Waste Lands includes musical accompaniment throughout.


title: The Dark Tower (series)

text: All of these editions were subsequently re-recorded in 1997 with Frank Muller as the narrator for continuity. Muller narrates the fourth book in the series, The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass. Stephen King selected Muller as his voice for all audio narrations at this time. Frank Muller suffered a catastrophic brain injury in a motorcycle accident in 2001. The narration task then fell to George Guidall, who recorded the final three books in the series in quick succession in 2003 and 2004. George Guidall was also called upon to re-record The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, the first book in the series, in 2003, as the author made significant changes to that story to better match what came later.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, in Shortugai, and in other mines in Badakhshan province in northeast Afghanistan.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: Lapis lazuli artifacts, dated to 7570 BC, have been found at Bhirrana, which is the oldest site of Indus Valley civilisation. Lapis was highly valued by the Indus Valley Civilisation (7570–1900 BC). Lapis beads have been found at Neolithic burials in Mehrgarh, the Caucasus, and as far away as Mauritania. It was used in the funeral mask of Tutankhamun (1341–1323 BC).


title: Lapis lazuli

text: By the end of the Middle Ages, lapis lazuli began to be exported to Europe, where it was ground into powder and made into ultramarine, the finest and most expensive of all blue pigments. Ultramarine was used by some of the most important artists of the Renaissance and Baroque, including Masaccio, Perugino, Titian and Vermeer, and was often reserved for the clothing of the central figures of their paintings, especially the Virgin Mary. Ultramarine has also been found in dental tartar of medieval nuns and scribes.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: Mines in northeast Afghanistan continue to be a major source of lapis lazuli. Important amounts are also produced from mines west of Lake Baikal in Russia, and in the Andes mountains in Peru which is the source that the Inca used to carve artifacts and jewelry. Smaller quantities are mined in Pakistan, Italy, Mongolia, the United States, and Canada.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: is the Latin word for "stone" and is the genitive form of the Medieval Latin , which is taken from the Arabic , itself from the Persian . It means "sky" or "heaven"; so this is a "stone (of/from) the sky" or "stone (of/from) heaven". Historically, it was mined in the Badakhshan region of upper Afghanistan. is etymologically related to the color blue, and used as a root for the word for blue in several languages, including Spanish and Portuguese .


title: Lapis lazuli

text: The most important mineral component of lapis lazuli is lazurite (25% to 40%), a blue feldspathoid silicate mineral with the formula . Most lapis lazuli also contains calcite (white), sodalite (blue), and pyrite (metallic yellow). Some samples of lapis lazuli contain augite, diopside, enstatite, mica, hauynite, hornblende, nosean, and sulfur-rich löllingite "geyerite".


title: Lapis lazuli

text: The intense blue color is due to the presence of the trisulfur radical anion () in the crystal. The presence of disulfur () and tetrasulfur () radicals can shift the color towards yellow or red, respectively. These radical anions substitute for the chloride anions within the sodalite structure. The radical anion exhibits a visible absorption band in the range 595–620 nm with high molar absorptivity, leading to its bright blue color.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: Lapis lazuli is found in limestone in the Kokcha River valley of Badakhshan province in north-eastern Afghanistan, where the Sar-e-Sang mine deposits have been worked for more than 6,000 years. Afghanistan was the source of lapis for the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, as well as the later Greeks and Romans. Ancient Egyptians obtained the material through trade with Mesopotamians, as part of Egypt–Mesopotamia relations. During the height of the Indus Valley civilisation, approximately 2000 BC, the Harappan colony, now known as Shortugai, was established near the lapis mines.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: In addition to the Afghan deposits, lapis is also extracted in the Andes (near Ovalle, Chile); and to the west of Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia, at the Tultui lazurite deposit. It is mined in smaller amounts in Angola, Argentina, Burma, Pakistan, Canada, Italy, India, and in the United States in California and Colorado.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: Lapis takes an excellent polish and can be made into jewellery, carvings, boxes, mosaics, ornaments, small statues, and vases. Interior items and finishing buildings can be also made with lapis. Two of the columns framing the iconostasis in Saint Isaac's Cathedral in Saint Petersburg are built with lapis. During the Renaissance, lapis was ground and processed to make the pigment ultramarine for use in frescoes and oil painting. Its usage as a pigment in oil paint largely ended during the early 19th century, when a chemically identical synthetic variety became available.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: Lapis lazuli is commercially synthesized or simulated by the Gilson process, which is used to make artificial ultramarine and hydrous zinc phosphates. It may also be substituted by spinel or sodalite, or by dyed jasper or howlite.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: Lapis lazuli has been mined in Afghanistan and exported to the Mediterranean world and South Asia since the Neolithic age, along the ancient trade route between Afghanistan and the Indus Valley, dating to the 7th millennium BC. Quantities of these beads have also been found at 4th millennium BC settlements in Northern Mesopotamia, and at the Bronze Age site of Shahr-e Sukhteh in southeast Iran (3rd millennium BC). A dagger with a lapis handle, a bowl inlaid with lapis, amulets, beads, and inlays representing eyebrows and beards, were found in the Royal Tombs of the Sumerian city-state of Ur from the 3rd millenium BC.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: Lapis was also used in ancient Mesopotamia by the Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians for seals and jewelry. It is mentioned several times in the Mesopotamian poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh (17th–18th century BC), one of the oldest known works of literature. The Statue of Ebih-Il, a 3rd millennium BC statue found in the ancient city-state of Mari in modern-day Syria, now in the Louvre, uses lapis lazuli inlays for the irises of the eyes.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: In ancient Egypt, lapis lazuli was a favorite stone for amulets and ornaments such as scarabs. Lapis jewellery has been found at excavations of the Predynastic Egyptian site Naqada (3300–3100 BC). At Karnak, the relief carvings of Thutmose III (1479-1429 BC) show fragments and barrel-shaped pieces of lapis lazuli being delivered to him as tribute. Powdered lapis was used as eyeshadow by Cleopatra.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: Jewelry made of lapis lazuli has also been found at Mycenae attesting to relations between the Myceneans and the developed civilizations of Egypt and the East.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: Pliny the Elder wrote that lapis lazuli is “opaque and sprinkled with specks of gold”.  Because the stone combines the blue of the heavens and golden glitter of the sun, it was emblematic of success in the old Jewish tradition. In the early Christian tradition lapis lazuli was regarded as the stone of Virgin Mary.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: In late classical times and as late as the Middle Ages, lapis lazuli was often called sapphire ("sapphirus" in Latin, "sappir" in Hebrew), though it had little to do with the stone today known as the blue corundum variety sapphire. In his book on stones, the Greek scientist Theophrastus described "the sapphirus, which is speckled with gold," a description which matches lapis lazuli.


title: Lapis lazuli

text: There are many references to "sapphire" in the Old Testament, but most scholars agree that, since sapphire was not known before the Roman Empire, they most likely are references to lapis lazuli. For instance, Exodus 24:10: "And they saw the God of Israel, and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone..." (KJV). The words used in the Latin Vulgate Bible in this citation are "quasi opus lapidis sapphirini", the terms for lapis lazuli. Modern translations of the Bible, such as the New Living Translation Second Edition, refer to lapis lazuli in most instances instead of sapphire.


title: It (character)

text: It is the titular main antagonist in Stephen King's 1986 horror novel "It". The character is an ancient, trans-dimensional evil entity which preys upon the children (and sometimes adults) of Derry, Maine, roughly every 27 years, using a variety of powers that include the ability to shapeshift, manipulate reality, and go unnoticed by adults. During the course of the story, It primarily appears in the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. "The Losers Club" first realizes Pennywise's presence because of Bill's little brother, Georgie.


title: It (character)

text: King stated in a 2013 interview that he came up with the idea for Pennywise after asking himself what children feared "more than anything else in the world", and feeling that the answer was clowns. King thought of a troll like the one in the children's tale "Three Billy Goats Gruff", though he imagined it living in a sewer system rather than under a bridge.


title: It (character)

text: The character was portrayed in its Pennywise form by Tim Curry in the 1990 television adaptation and by Bill Skarsgård in the 2017 film adaptation and its 2019 sequel "It Chapter Two".


title: It (character)

text: In the novel, It is a shapeshifting monster who usually takes the form of "Pennywise the Dancing Clown", originating in a void containing and surrounding the Universe—a place referred to in the novel as the "Macroverse". It arrived on Earth during an asteroid impact and made its home under the land upon which Derry would later be constructed, initially preying on indigenous tribes. It would sleep for millions of years, then, when humans appeared in the area, It awoke and began a feeding cycle lasting about a year: feeding on people's fear and frequently assuming the shape of whatever its prey feared the most. After feeding, It resumed hibernation for approximately 30 years, before reappearing. It has a preference for children since their fears are easier to interpret and adults are more difficult to frighten while It is in physical form. It can manipulate people with weaker wills, making them indifferent to the horrific events that unfold or even serve as accomplices.


title: It (character)

text: In the novel, It claims that its true name is Robert "Bob" Gray, but decided to be named “It”. Throughout the book, It is generally referred to as male due to usually appearing as Pennywise. The Losers come to believe It may be female after seeing It's form as a monstrous giant spider that lays eggs. However, It's true appearance is briefly observed by Bill Denbrough via the Ritual of Chüd as a mass of swirling destructive orange lights known as "deadlights", which inflict insanity or death on any living being that sees them directly. The only person to survive the ordeal is Bill's wife Audra Phillips, although she is rendered temporarily catatonic by the experience.


title: It (character)

text: Its natural enemy is the "Space Turtle" or "Maturin", another ancient dweller of King's "Macroverse" who, eons ago, created the known universe and possibly others by vomiting them out as the result of a stomachache. The Turtle appears again in King's series "The Dark Tower". "", one of the novels in the series, suggests that It, along with the Turtle, are themselves creations of a separate, omnipotent creator referred to as "the Other" (possibly Gan, who is said to have created the various universes where King's novels take place).


title: It (character)

text: Throughout the novel "It", some events are depicted from Pennywise's point of view, describing itself as a "superior" being, with the Turtle as an equal and humans as mere "toys". It's hibernation begins and ends with horrific events, like the mysterious disappearance of Derry Township's 300 settlers in 1740–43 or the town's later ironworks explosion. It awoke during a great storm that flooded part of the city in 1957, with Bill's younger brother Georgie the first in a line of killings before the Losers Club fight the monster, a confrontation culminating in Bill using the Ritual of Chüd to severely wound It and force It into hibernation. Continually surprised by the Losers' victory, It briefly questions its superiority before claiming that they were only lucky, as the Turtle is working through them. It is finally destroyed 27 years later in the second Ritual of Chüd, and an enormous storm damages the downtown part of Derry to symbolize It's death.


title: It (character)

text: Pennywise makes a tangential appearance in King's 2011 novel "11/22/63", in which protagonist Jake Epping meets a couple of the children from "It", asks them about a recent murder in their town, and learns that the murderer apparently "wasn't the clown." It also appears to Jake in the old ironworks, where it taunts Jake about "the rabbit-hole," referring to the time portal in which Jake moves from one time to another.


title: It (character)

text: In the 2017 film adaptation, "It Chapter One" and its 2019 sequel "It Chapter Two", Pennywise is portrayed by Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård. English actor Will Poulter was originally cast as Pennywise, with Curry describing the role as a "wonderful part" and wishing Poulter the best of luck, but the latter dropped out of the production due to scheduling conflicts and first film's original director Cary Fukunaga leaving the project.


title: It (character)

text: The modern incarnation of Pennywise, introduced in the 2017 adaptation, appears as a background character in the family friendly live-action/animated film "", which is also distributed by Warner Bros.


title: It (character)

text: Several media outlets such as "The Guardian" have spoken of the character, ranking it as one of the scariest clowns in film or pop culture. "The Atlantic" said of the character; "the scariest thing about Pennywise, though, is how he preys on children's deepest fears, manifesting the monsters they're most petrified by (something J. K. Rowling would later emulate with boggarts)." British scholar Mikita Brottman has also said of the miniseries version of Pennywise; "one of the most frightening of evil clowns to appear on the small screen" and that it "reflects every social and familial horror known to contemporary America". Author Darren Shan cited Pennywise as an inspiration behind the character Mr. Dowling in his 12.5 book serial "Zom-B".


title: It (character)

text: The character was suggested as a possible inspiration for two incidents of people dressing up as clowns in Northampton, England and Staten Island, New York, both during 2014.


title: It (character)

text: In 2016, appearances of "evil clowns" were reported by the media, including nine people in Alabama charged with "clown-related activity". Several newspaper articles suggested that the character of Pennywise was an influence, which led to King commenting that people should react less hysterically to the sightings and not take his work seriously.


title: It (character)

text: The first reported sighting of people dressed as evil clowns in Greenville, South Carolina was by a small boy spoke to his mother of a pair of clowns that had attempted to lure him away. Additional creepy clown sightings were reported in other parts of South Carolina.


title: It (character)

text: Evil clowns were reported in several other U.S. states including North Carolina, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming Later the same year, "clown sightings" were reported in Great Britain, Australia, and Latin America.


title: It (character)

text: One hypothesis for the wave of 2016 clown sightings was a viral marketing campaign, possibly for the Rob Zombie film "31" (2016). A spokesperson for New Line Cinema (distributor of the 2017 film adaptation of "It") released a statement claiming that "New Line is absolutely not involved in the rash of clown sightings."


title: Stuart Townsend

text: Stuart Townsend (born 15 December 1972) is an Irish actor. He portrayed Lestat de Lioncourt in the film adaptation of Anne Rice's "Queen of the Damned" (2002), and Dorian Gray in Alan Moore's "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (2003). In 2007, he directed the film "Battle in Seattle".


title: Stuart Townsend

text: Townsend was born in Howth, County Dublin, the son of Lorna Hogan, an Irish model, and Peter Townsend, an English professional golfer. His younger brother, Dylan, is also an actor.


title: Stuart Townsend

text: Stuart attended the Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin, and made his non-professional stage debut in its 1993 production of Colin Teevan's "Tear Up The Black Sail". The following year he made his professional stage debut in "True Lines", directed by John Crowley, which opened in Kilkenny, before moving to the Dublin Theatre Festival and on to the Bush Theatre in London. His early film roles were in Irish short films, including "Godsuit" and "Summertime", before landing a role in the feature length film, "Trojan Eddie", a 1996 Anglo-Irish co-production. In 1997 he starred in the British film, "Shooting Fish".


title: Stuart Townsend

text: With his portrayal of a seducer in the title role of "About Adam", Townsend gained exposure in the United States. He briefly returned to the London stage in 2000, in the Tennessee Williams play "Orpheus Descending", starring as Val Xavier, alongside Helen Mirren as Lady Torrance, before landing roles in several major films. He appeared in "Queen of the Damned" as the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, and in "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" as Dorian Gray. Townsend was hired to play the part of Aragorn in "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy, but was replaced by Viggo Mortensen the day before principal photography began. According to Townsend:


title: Stuart Townsend

text: In 2005, he starred alongside Gabrielle Union in "Night Stalker", the remake of the 1974 ABC TV series "". He portrayed Carl Kolchak, an investigative reporter looking into his wife's murder. "Night Stalker" was abruptly cancelled by ABC after six episodes due to bad viewing figures, with some critics reportedly saying he was too young compared to Darren McGavin in the original series. The same year, Townsend had a guest starring role on NBC's "Will & Grace" as Karen Walker's pansexual pastry chef who seduces her, Will Truman, and then her maid, Rosario. He also made an uncredited cameo in "Æon Flux" (2005). Townsend starred alongside Ryan Reynolds in "Chaos Theory" (2007). The same year, he made his directorial debut with "Battle in Seattle", a portrayal of the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 which was undermined by anti-globalisation protesters. The film's cast included Charlize Theron, Ray Liotta and Woody Harrelson, but enjoyed only limited release and no blockbuster support.


title: Stuart Townsend

text: Townsend was set to play Fandral in Kenneth Branagh's "Thor", but was replaced in January 2010, due to unspecified creative differences. He appeared in the ABC thriller, "Betrayal", the second season of "Salem", and a 2017 episode of "". In 2021, Townsend starred in the films "The Martini Shot" and "Grace and Grit".