title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: Former MLB player Doug Glanville, in "The Athletic", wrote that it was "inevitable" that an Astros pitcher like Fiers was going to break the scandal because the sign stealing scheme only benefited hitters. According to Glanville: "No pitcher, even on a team taking advantage of it, likes technological sign-stealing espionage of this kind, not deep down. Sure, you have teammates you are loyal to, but you are also in a professional order that unites you with other pitchers in the league."


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: Many executives and players at other MLB clubs were unhappy that no players were punished. According to Passan, several executives made their dissatisfaction known in a conference call at which Manfred spelled out the sanctions. One team president told Passan that he believed the scandal was handled in a manner "programmed to protect the future of the [Astros] franchise." The Dodgers were the only team to release a statement the week the report was released, only to say that they had been ordered by MLB not to comment on the punishments or "any wrongdoing during the 2017 World Series".


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki said he believed the Astros were still cheating in the 2019 World Series: "Oh, yeah, no question. We could hear it from their dugout. We heard their whistling. What are you going to do?" Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said after the Astros won the AL pennant in 2019, "we got a lot of volunteer phone calls on how to beat them and how to play them." He also expressed frustration that most media attention at the start of 2020 spring training was focused on the Astros and not the reigning World Series champion Nationals.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: Olney later said "front-office staffers around baseball cannot remember a circumstance of such widespread and loud player-to-player condemnation." Angry comments from players increased when spring training began in February. Many players criticized the Astros, especially after their press conference at the beginning of camp. Many of the condemnations came from members of the Dodgers, who the Astros defeated in the 2017 World Series, and the Yankees, who the Astros defeated in the ALCS in both 2017 and 2019.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: Catcher Jonathan Lucroy said that he became aware of the Astros' illegal sign stealing in 2018 when new teammate Fiers told him about it. This led Lucroy to create more complicated sign-calling patterns against the Astros. According to Lucroy, "Everyone in baseball [knew], especially in that division that played against them. But we were all aware of the Astros doing those things and it was up to us to outsmart them, I guess you could say." Lucroy also said that the Oakland Athletics had told MLB about the Astros but that no investigation was started until Fiers publicly broke the scandal in November 2019. Athletics general manager David Forst also confirmed that Oakland complained to MLB before the investigation.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: In an interview with ESPN's Karl Ravech which aired on February 16, Manfred defended his decision not to punish any Astros players. He cited longstanding precedent against stripping titles. Additionally, Manfred claimed that had he disciplined any players, the Players Association would have filed a grievance–one that Manfred believed MLB would have almost certainly lost due to Luhnow's failure to notify the Astros players about the 2017 memorandum. As Manfred put it, the union would have opposed any player suspensions "on the basis that we never properly informed them of the rules." He did say, however, that "in a perfect world," he would have disciplined players.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: The Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution in January 2020 calling on MLB to strip the Astros of the 2017 World Series title and award it to the Dodgers. US Representative Bobby Rush from Illinois released a letter calling on the chairman of the US House Committee on Oversight and Reform to open a congressional investigation into the scandal along with MLB's response.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: An Astros fan named Tony Adams published data that he collected from watching 58 Astros home games from the 2017 season and listening for banging noises. He found evidence of the trash can banging on 1,143 of 8,274 pitches thrown to Astros hitters, hearing the most instances of banging during the at bats of Springer, Beltrán, Bregman, and Marwin González, and the fewest instances during Altuve's at-bats.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: A group of Dodgers fans called Pantone 294 purchased over 2,700 tickets to the Los Angeles Angels' home opener on April 3 against the Astros, since the Astros were not scheduled to play the Dodgers in 2020, to jeer the Astros.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: In February 2020, a writer named Brendan Donley started a Twitter account called the "2020 Astros Shame Tour" to post about the Astros season. He tweeted videos of Astros players getting hit by pitches and getting heckled by fans. The account quickly gained a large following and has over 188,000 followers as of March 28, 2020. On the Astros' cheating, Donley said: "Just the same feeling I had when I was a kid during the steroid era. You feel deceived. You just feel put off. Just make it up to us—properly apologize or take the proper punishment. Neither of those two things happened."


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: ESPN conducted a survey of 1,010 adults, including 810 MLB fans, asking about the scandal on January 16 and 17, 2020. Fifty-eight percent of adults said Astros players should have been penalized, and 72 percent of adults said they would support additional steps by MLB to punish players involved in sign stealing. Sixty-one percent of MLB fans said they were closely following the scandal, and 86 percent of MLB fans said the situation was "serious" (including 57 percent who said it was "very serious"). Forty-nine percent of adults said the steroid scandal was more serious than the sign stealing scandal, but 44 percent said the sign stealing scandal was worse than Pete Rose gambling on his own team. Seventy-four percent of adults and 76 percent of MLB fans said they believed most teams were using technology to steal signs, but only the Astros and Red Sox were caught. Fifty-four percent of adults said their views of MLB were unchanged by the scandal and 60 percent of adults said the scandals made no difference in their likelihood to watch MLB games.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: Seton Hall University released a poll of 693 adults about the scandal. Fifty-four percent of respondents said Manfred should have punished the players, with seventeen percent saying he should not have. Forty-nine percent said Manfred's investigation was a "cover up", compared to 14 percent who said it was a serious effort to punish wrongdoing. Seventy percent of respondents said MLB's handling of the scandal had no effect on their inclination to follow baseball, while seventeen percent said it made them less inclined and seven percent said it made them more inclined.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: Two users of the sports betting website DraftKings, in which MLB is an investor, filed separate lawsuits against MLB, alleging that the league had encouraged fans to bet on games through sponsorship deals with DraftKings while failing to "ensure the honesty and integrity of games that served as the basis of [DraftKings] competitions."


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: In February 2020, former MLB pitcher Mike Bolsinger filed a lawsuit against the Astros in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging that the Astros used the banging scheme against him while he was a pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2017. Bolsinger gave up four runs and got only one out against the Astros on August 4, 2017, and was demoted to the minor leagues after the game and never made it back to the majors. Bolsinger alleges that the Astros changed the course of his career by engaging in unfair business practices, negligence and intentional interference with contractual and economic relations. Bolsinger's suit seeks unspecified damages for him, and he also wants the Astros to forfeit $31 million in bonuses from their 2017 World Series win to charities in Los Angeles and to a fund for retired players seeking financial assistance. In an op-ed for "The Washington Post", Bolsinger wrote: "The Astros had robbed me of the opportunity to determine my own future on the mound. If I failed at my craft because I wasn't good enough, that would be on me. I could live with that. But thinking about the cheating and the toll it ultimately took on my family—that was something I couldn't tolerate."


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: Three lawsuits against the Astros were filed on behalf of current and former season ticket holders in Harris County, Texas, courts in February 2020. Each case alleges the season ticket holders were defrauded by the sign stealing scandal because the play on the field was not what they believed it to be, and the team had raised season ticket prices because of success obtained through sign stealing. A minor league affiliate of the Astros, the Corpus Christi Hooks, revoked the season tickets of Bob Hilliard, an attorney in one of the lawsuits against the Astros a week after it was filed.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: On November 8, 2020, ex-Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, sued the Astros, alleging that Astros owner Jim Crane and Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred negotiated penalties for the sign-stealing scandal that enabled the team to paint Luhnow as “the scapegoat for the organization and fire its general manager "in order to save more than $22 million in guaranteed salary."


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: On February 7, 2020, Jared Diamond of "The Wall Street Journal" published a report of previously undisclosed details uncovered by the MLB investigation, drawn from a letter sent by Manfred to Luhnow on January 2, 2020, that was obtained by the "Journal" and interviews with sources. According to the article, the sign stealing scandal originated in September 2016 when an intern named Derek Vigoa, who later became the Astros senior manager for team operations, gave Luhnow a PowerPoint presentation on what he called "Codebreaker", a Microsoft Excel-based program used by front office staff to log and decode opposing catchers signs and then communicate them to baserunners who would relay them to hitters. The report said Codebreaker was enhanced in June 2017 when the trash can scheme was developed. The report also said that Codebreaker was used both at home and on the road and Astros personnel continued to use it into the 2018 season. The sign-stealing operations were referred to as "dark arts" within the Astros front office.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: Diamond's report quoted emails from Luhnow and Astros employees who said Luhnow was not only aware of but also enthusiastic about the sign stealing operations, even though he denied knowledge of them to MLB and in public statements. In a subsequent "Journal" article, Diamond quoted an email sent by an Astros employee named Tom Koch-Weser to his colleagues which read, I don't want to electronically correspond too much about 'the system' but Cora/Cintrón/Beltrán have been driving a culture initiated by Bregman/Vigoa last year and I think it's working,' Koch-Weser wrote. 'I have no proof that it has worked, but we get real good dope on pitchers tipping and being lazy. That information, if it's not already, will eventually yield major results in our favor once players get used to the implementation. The article also quotes Manfred's January 2 letter to Luhnow as saying, Most or all Astros players were active participants in the Banging Scheme by the conclusion of the 2017 World Series. ... The Banging Scheme was so prevalent,' Manfred wrote, 'that witnesses regularly describe that everyone in and around the Astros dugout was presumptively aware of it. In a February press conference, Manfred sarcastically "congratulated" Diamond, saying, "You know, congratulations. You got a private letter that, you know, I sent to a club official. Nice reporting on your part."


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: On February 11, 2020, Rosenthal and Drellich published an article in "The Athletic", drawing from interviews of six unnamed members of the 2017 Astros, which portrayed Beltrán as the leader of the clubhouse and the ringleader of the electronic sign stealing system. According to the article, "small groups of Astros discussed their misgivings" with the system, and catcher Brian McCann at one point asked Beltrán to stop. One player said, "He disregarded it and steamrolled everybody. Where do you go if you're a young, impressionable player with the Astros and this guy says, 'We're doing this'? What do you do?"


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: The scandal led to scrutiny of the culture of the Astros organization under Crane and Luhnow, which according to Jeremy Venook of "The Atlantic" had "developed a reputation for a cutthroat, win-at-all-costs mentality that sacrificed the human element of the game for marginal gains on the playing field." It also prompted questions about how technology had taken over the game, especially with the introduction of instant replay review in 2014 and all thirty teams installed video rooms to decide whether to challenge calls in real time. Some questioned the leadership of Manfred as Commissioner and his decision not to punish players or sanction Crane. Manfred was heavily criticized by players after a February press conference in which he defended his decision not to discipline Astros players and called the Commissioner's Trophy merely a "piece of metal" that did not need to be taken away.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: Manfred said MLB would restrict players' access to video during games beginning in the 2020 season. New Astros manager Dusty Baker, hired to replace Hinch, asked MLB to try to prevent opposing pitchers from throwing beanballs at Astros hitters after some pitchers made explicit or veiled threats; Manfred said a memo would be issued to teams about it. In the first five games of 2020 spring training, seven Astros were hit by pitches from opposing pitchers. Pete Rose, the all-time MLB leader in hits who was banned for life from baseball for gambling on games as a player-manager, applied for reinstatement in the wake of the scandal, arguing that his permanent ban was disproportionately severe compared to the lack of discipline for Astros players.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a shortened 2020 MLB season with no fans in the stands, which lessened the impact of the scandal on the Astros and MLB. However, tempers boiled over in a July 2020 series when Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly and Astros hitter Carlos Correa jawed at each other, leading to a benches clearing incident. The Astros finished the abbreviated 2020 regular season with a 29–31 record, second in the AL West, but in the expanded playoff format, they made it into the playoffs and advanced to Game 7 of the ALCS, where they lost to the Tampa Bay Rays.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: After his suspension ended after the 2020 World Series, A. J. Hinch was hired as the team manager for the Detroit Tigers. Alex Cora, who was also suspended through the 2020 season, came back as the manager of the Boston Red Sox for the 2021 season.


title: Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

text: The 2021 season was the first season in which teams allowed fans in stadiums since the beginning of the pandemic. On Opening Day 2021, fans of the Oakland Athletics relentlessly booed and mocked the players throughout the game with signs referencing the scandal and trash cans. In a game in Anaheim against the Los Angeles Angels in early April, fans yelled and threw both an inflatable and real trash can onto the right field warning track. Following the game, Astros manager Dusty Baker criticized the fans' behavior, stating the team had already "paid" for its past mistakes. During a game against the New York Yankees in May, many Yankees fans directed hostile insults at Astros players, with the most hostile insults going towards Jose Altuve whenever he was on the field. On May 25, 2021, the first full capacity game at Minute Maid Park was held with the Dodgers as the visiting team. Members of the Pantone 294 Dodgers fan group began to protest outside of the stadium and heckled both players and fans during the game. On August 3, 2021, the Dodgers and Astros played the first game of a two-game series at Dodger Stadium, their first meeting in front of Dodgers fans since the story broke in 2019. Stadium and league personnel increased security in anticipation of crowd anger towards the Astros. The game had the largest attendance of any MLB game in 2021. Some fights broke out in the stands. The Astros won the first game of the series. The Dodgers won the second game, which had a similar attendance and fan hostility towards the Astros, splitting the series.


title: Del

text: Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes the standard derivative of the function as defined in calculus. When applied to a "field" (a function defined on a multi-dimensional domain), it may denote any one of three operators depending on the way it is applied: the gradient or (locally) steepest slope of a scalar field (or sometimes of a vector field, as in the Navier–Stokes equations); the divergence of a vector field; or the curl (rotation) of a vector field.


title: Del

text: Strictly speaking, del is not a specific operator, but rather a convenient mathematical notation for those three operators that makes many equations easier to write and remember. The del symbol (or nabla) can be interpreted as a vector of partial derivative operators; and its three possible meanings—gradient, divergence, and curl—can be formally viewed as the product with a scalar, a dot product, and a cross product, respectively, of the "del operator" with the field. These formal products do not necessarily commute with other operators or products. These three uses, detailed below, are summarized as:


title: Del

text: In the Cartesian coordinate system R with coordinates formula_4 and standard basis formula_5, del is defined in terms of partial derivative operators as


title: Del

text: Where the expression in parentheses is a row vector. In three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system R with coordinates formula_7 and standard basis or unit vectors of axes formula_8, del is written as


title: Del

text: Del can also be expressed in other coordinate systems, see for example del in cylindrical and spherical coordinates.


title: Del

text: Del is used as a shorthand form to simplify many long mathematical expressions. It is most commonly used to simplify expressions for the gradient, divergence, curl, directional derivative, and Laplacian.


title: Del

text: The vector derivative of a scalar field formula_12 is called the gradient, and it can be represented as:


title: Del

text: It always points in the direction of greatest increase of formula_12, and it has a magnitude equal to the maximum rate of increase at the point—just like a standard derivative. In particular, if a hill is defined as a height function over a plane formula_15, the gradient at a given location will be a vector in the xy-plane (visualizable as an arrow on a map) pointing along the steepest direction. The magnitude of the gradient is the value of this steepest slope.


title: Del

text: In particular, this notation is powerful because the gradient product rule looks very similar to the 1d-derivative case:


title: Del

text: The divergence is roughly a measure of a vector field's increase in the direction it points; but more accurately, it is a measure of that field's tendency to converge toward or diverge from a point.


title: Del

text: The formula for the vector product is slightly less intuitive, because this product is not commutative:


title: Del

text: The curl at a point is proportional to the on-axis torque that a tiny pinwheel would be subjected to if it were centred at that point.


title: Del

text: This gives the rate of change of a field formula_12 in the direction of formula_31, scaled by the magnitude of formula_31. In operator notation, the element in parentheses can be considered a single coherent unit; fluid dynamics uses this convention extensively, terming it the convective derivative—the "moving" derivative of the fluid.


title: Del

text: Note that formula_33 is an operator that takes scalar to a scalar. It can be extended to operate on a vector, by separately operating on each of its components.


title: Del

text: The Laplace operator is a scalar operator that can be applied to either vector or scalar fields; for cartesian coordinate systems it is defined as:


title: Del

text: The Laplacian is ubiquitous throughout modern mathematical physics, appearing for example in Laplace's equation, Poisson's equation, the heat equation, the wave equation, and the Schrödinger equation.


title: Del

text: While formula_35 usually represents the Laplacian, sometimes formula_35 also represents the Hessian matrix. The former refers to the inner product of formula_37, while the latter refers to the dyadic product of formula_37:


title: Del

text: Del can also be applied to a vector field with the result being a tensor. The tensor derivative of a vector field formula_41 (in three dimensions) is a 9-term second-rank tensor – that is, a 3×3 matrix – but can be denoted simply as formula_42, where formula_43 represents the dyadic product. This quantity is equivalent to the transpose of the Jacobian matrix of the vector field with respect to space. The divergence of the vector field can then be expressed as the trace of this matrix.


title: Del

text: Another relation of interest (see e.g. "Euler equations") is the following, where formula_50 is the outer product tensor:


title: Del

text: When del operates on a scalar or vector, either a scalar or vector is returned. Because of the diversity of vector products (scalar, dot, cross) one application of del already gives rise to three major derivatives: the gradient (scalar product), divergence (dot product), and curl (cross product). Applying these three sorts of derivatives again to each other gives five possible second derivatives, for a scalar field "f" or a vector field v; the use of the scalar Laplacian and vector Laplacian gives two more:


title: Del

text: These are of interest principally because they are not always unique or independent of each other. As long as the functions are well-behaved (formula_53 in most cases), two of them are always zero:


title: Del

text: Most of the above vector properties (except for those that rely explicitly on del's differential properties—for example, the product rule) rely only on symbol rearrangement, and must necessarily hold if the del symbol is replaced by any other vector. This is part of the value to be gained in notationally representing this operator as a vector.


title: Del

text: Though one can often replace del with a vector and obtain a vector identity, making those identities mnemonic, the reverse is "not" necessarily reliable, because del does not commute in general.


title: Del

text: Central to these distinctions is the fact that del is not simply a vector; it is a vector operator. Whereas a vector is an object with both a magnitude and direction, del has neither a magnitude nor a direction until it operates on a function.


title: Del

text: For that reason, identities involving del must be derived with care, using both vector identities and "differentiation" identities such as the product rule.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: Tryambakeshwar Shiva Temple (श्री त्र्यंबकेश्वर ज्योतिर्लिंग मंदिर) is an ancient Hindu temple in the town of Trimbak, in the Trimbakeshwar tehsil in the Nashik District of Maharashtra, India, 28 km from the city of Nashik and 40 km from Nashik road. It is dedicated to Hindu god Shiva and is one of the twelve "jyotirlingas" where the Hindu genealogy registers at Trimbakeshwar, Maharashtra are kept. The origin of the sacred Godavari river is near Trimbak.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: Kusavarta "kunda" (sacred pond) in the temple premises, built by Shrimant Sardar Raosaheb Parnerkar who was the Fadnavis of Indore State, is the source of the Godavari River, the second longest river in peninsular India. A bust of Sardar Fadnavis and his wife can be seen on the edge of the kunda. The current temple was built by Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao after it was destroyed by invaders.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: The temple is located between three hills namely Brahmagiri, Nilagiri and Kalagiri. The temple has three "lingas" (an iconic form of Shiv) representing Shiv, Vishnu and Brahma. The temple tank is called Amritavarshini, which measured by . There are three other bodies of water, namely, Bilvatheertha, Viswananthirtha and Mukundathirtha. There are images of various deities, namely, Gangadevi, Jaleswara, Rameswara, Gautameswara, Kedarnatha, Rama, Krishna, Parasurama and Lakshmi Narayana. The temple has also several monasteries and samadhis of saints.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: As per the "Shiva Purana", once Brahma (the Hindu God of creation) and Vishnu (the Hindu God of preservation) had an argument in terms of supremacy of creation. To test them, Shiva pierced the three worlds as a huge endless pillar of light, the "jyotirlinga". Vishnu and Brahma split their ways to downwards and upwards respectively to find the end of the light in either direction. Brahma lied that he found out the end, while Vishnu conceded his defeat. Shiva appeared as the second pillar of light and cursed Brahma that he would have no place in ceremonies while Vishnu would be worshipped till the end of eternity. The "jyotirlinga" is the supreme partless reality, out of which Shiva partly appears. The "Jyotirlinga" shrines, thus are places where Shiva appeared as a fiery column of light. Originally there were believed to be 64 "jyotirlingas" while 12 of them are considered to be very auspicious and holy. Each of the twelve "jyotirlinga" sites take the name of the presiding deity - each considered different manifestation of Shiv. At all these sites, the primary image is "lingam" representing the beginningless and endless "Stambha" pillar, symbolizing the infinite nature of Shiv. The twelve "jyothirlinga" are Somnath in Gujarat, Mallikarjuna at Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh, Mahakaleswar at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh, Kedarnath in Himalayas, Bhimashankar in Maharashtra, Viswanath at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Trimbakeshwar in Maharashtra, Vaidyanath at Deoghar in Jharkhand, Nageshwar Temple at Dwaraka in Gujarat, Rameshwar at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu and Grishneshwar at Aurangabad in Maharashtra.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: Lord Shiva showed himself as a Jyotirlinga on the night of the Aridra Nakshatra. It is believed that a person can see the Jyotirlingas as columns of fire piercing through the earth as he reaches a higher level of spiritual attainment. Each Jyotirlinga site takes the name of the presiding deity. Basically, the Jyotirlinga signifies the infinite nature of Lord Shiv. At the highest level, Shiva is regarded as formless, limitless, transcendent and unchanging absolute Brahman and the primal Atman (soul, self) of the universe.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: Hindu genealogy registers at Trimbakeshwar are the genealogy registers of pilgrims maintained here by pandits.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: Trimbakeshwar is a religious center having one of the twelve Jyotirlingas. The extraordinary feature of the Jyotirlinga located here is its three faces embodying Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu, and Lord Rudra. Due to the excessive use of water, the linga has started to erode. It is said that this erosion symbolizes the eroding nature of human society. The Lingas are covered by a jeweled crown which is placed over the Gold Mask of Tridev (Brahma Vishnu Mahesh). The crown is said to be from the age of Pandavs and consists of diamonds, emeralds, and many precious stones. The crown is displayed every Monday from 4-5 pm (Shiv).


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: All other Jyotirlingas have Shiva as the main deity. The entire black stone temple is known for its appealing architecture and sculpture and is at the foothills of a mountain called Brahmagiri. Three sources of the Godavari originate from the Brahmagiri mountain.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: Brahmadev worshipped God Trivikram when he came to Satya Loka (on earth) with the same holy water of the Ganges, to get the river Ganges held up by God Shankar on his head, to flow. There was a famine of 24 years and people were affected by the pangs of hunger. However, Varun - the God of Rains, pleased with Sage Gautama arranged rains every day in Gautama's Ashram (dwelling place) which was in Trimbakeshwar. Gautama used to sow rice in the surrounding fields of his Ashram in the morning, reap the crop in the afternoon and with it fed a large group of Hrishis, who took shelter in his Ashram on account of the famine. The blessings of the group of rishis increased the merit (Punya) of Gautama. Lord Indra's position became shaky because of his increased merit. So Indra ordered clouds to rain all over Trimbakeshwar, so that the famine will be over and rishis will go back and the increasing merits of Gautama will be weakened. Although the famine was over, Gautama urged the Rishis to stay back and kept on feeding them and gaining merit. Once he saw a cow grazing in the paddy field and he drove her away by throwing Darbha (sharp, pointed grass). The slender cow died by this. It was Jaya - Parvati's friend, who had taken the form of a cow. This news upset the Rishis and they refused to luncheon at his Ashram. Gautama requested Rishis to show a way out of this sin. He was advised to approach Lord Shiva and request him to release the Ganges and a bath in the Ganges would set him free of his sins. Gautama then practiced penance by going to the peak of Brahmagiri for 1000 years. Lord Shankara was pleased by his worships and gave him the Ganges.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: However, Ganges was not prepared to part with Lord Shiv, which irritated him. He made TandavNrutya (dance) on the peak of Brahmagiri and dashed his "jata" there. Frightened by this action, Ganges appeared on Brahmagiri. Later on, Ganges appeared in the Trimbak Tirtha. Gautama praised her but she off and on appeared on the mountain at various places and disappeared in anger. Gautama could not bathe in her waters. The Ganges then appeared in Gangadwar, Varaha-tirtha, Rama-Laxman tirtha, Ganga Sagar tirtha. Still, Gautama could not bathe in her waters. The Gautama surrounded the river with enchanted grass and put a vow to her. The flow stopped there and the tirtha thus came to be called Kushavarta. It is from this Kushavarta that the river Godavari flows up to the sea. The sin of killing a cow by Gautama was wiped off here.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: This place is famous for its many religious rituals (vidhis). Narayan Nagbali, Kalsarpa Shanti, Tripindi Vidhi are done here. Narayan Nagbali puja is performed at Trimbakeshwar only. This puja is performed in three days. This puja is performed on special dates. Some days are not suitable to perform this puja. This puja is performed for many reasons like to cure an illness, going through bad times, killing a Cobra (Nag), childless couples, financial crisis or you want to perform some religious puja to have everything.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: Trimbakeshwar town has a large number of Brahmin households and is also a centre for Vedic Gurukuls (kind of boarding school). It also has ashrams and Muths devoted to Ashtanga Yoga, the Hindu art of living.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: The existing temple was built out of basalt after it was commissioned by Peshwa Nanasaheb. It so happens that the Peshwa made a bet on whether the stone surrounding the Jyotirlinga, is hollow from the inside or not. The stone was proved to be hollow, and on losing the bet, the Peshwa built a marvelous temple out of it.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: The Shiva deity of the temple consisted of the world-famous Nassak Diamond. It was looted by the British in The Third Anglo-Maratha War and lies with one owner or the other ever since. The diamond presently lies with Edward J. Hand, a trucking firm executive from Greenwich, Connecticut, USA


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: The place is known for its scenic beauty in rainy/monsoon season and is surrounded by lush green hills untouched by pollution. Anjaneri mountain, the birthplace of Lord Hanuman, is 7 km from Trimbakeshwar.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: This temple is on top of the Neel mountain. All goddesses ('Matamba', 'Renuka', 'Mananmba') came here to see 'Parashuram' when he was performing penance (tapas). After his penance, he requested all goddesses to stay there and the temple was formed for these goddesses.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: Akhil Bhartiya Shree Swami Samarth Gurupeeth, Trimbakeshwar Temple of Shri Swami Samarth Maharaj. This temple is 1 km from Shiva Temple. This temple is a marvelous example of Vastu Shastra.


title: Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple

text: The Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple is 30 kilometers on road from Nashik, and 157 kilometers from Thane. The best way to reach the temple is by road. The closest railway station is the Nashik Road Railway Station that is 39 kilometers by road.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: Alexei Ivanovich Rykov (25 February 188115 March 1938) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician and statesman, most prominent as premier of Russia and the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1929 and 1924 to 1930 respectively. He was one of the accused in Joseph Stalin's show trials during the Great Purge.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: Rykov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898, and after it split into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions in 1903, he joined the Bolsheviks, which were led by Vladimir Lenin. He played an active part in the 1905 Russian Revolution. Months prior to the October Revolution of 1917, he became a member of the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets and was elected to the Bolshevik Party Central Committee in July–August of the same year, during the Sixth Congress of the Bolshevik Party. Rykov, a moderate, often came into political conflict with Lenin and more radical Bolsheviks but proved influential when the October Revolution finally overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and as such served many roles in the new government, starting October–November (Old Style) as People's Commissar for Internal Affairs on the first roster of the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom), which was chaired by Lenin.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: During the Russian Civil War (1918–1923), Rykov oversaw the implementation of the "War Communism" economic policy, and helped oversee the distribution of food to the Red Army and the Red Navy.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: After Lenin was incapacitated by his third stroke in March 1923 Rykov, along with Lev Kamenev, was elected by the Sovnarkom to serve as deputy chairman to Lenin. While both Rykov and Kamenev were Lenin's deputies, Kamenev was the acting premier of the Soviet Union.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: Lenin died from a fourth stroke in January 1924, and in February, Rykov was chosen by the Council of People's Commissars as premier of both the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and of the Soviet Union, which he served as until May 1929 and December 1930, respectively. In December 1930 he was removed from the Politburo.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: From 1931 to 1937, Rykov served as People's Commissar of Communications on the council he formerly chaired. In February 1937 at a meeting of the Central Committee, he was arrested with Nikolai Bukharin. In March 1938, both were found guilty of treason and executed.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: Alexei Ivanovich Rykov was born on 25 February 1881 in Saratov, Russia. His parents were ethnic Russian peasants from the village of Kukarka (located in the province Vyatka). Alexei's father, Ivan Illych Rykov, a farmer whose work had led the family to settle in Saratov died in 1889 from cholera while working in Merv. His widowed stepmother could not care for him, so he was cared for by his older sister, Klavdiya Ivanovna Rykova, an officeworker for the Ryazan-Uralsk railroad. In 1892 he began his first year of middle school in Saratov. An outstanding student, he started high school at age 13. He excelled in mathematics, physics and the natural sciences. At 15 Rykov stopped attending church and confession, and renounced his faith. He graduated from high school in 1900 and enrolled at the University of Kazan to study law, which he did not complete.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: Rykov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1898 and supported its Bolshevik faction when the party split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks at its Second Congress in 1903. He worked as a Bolshevik agent in Moscow and Saint Petersburg and played an active role in the Russian Revolution of 1905. He was elected a member of the Party's Central Committee at its 3rd Congress (boycotted by the Mensheviks) in London in 1905 and its 4th Congress in Stockholm in 1906. He was elected candidate (non-voting) member of the Central Committee at the 5th Congress in London.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: Initially supportive of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin in the 1908-09 struggle with Alexander Bogdanov for the leadership of the Bolshevik faction Rykov voted to expel the latter at the June 1909 mini-conference in Paris. He spent 1910-11 exiled in France, and in 1912 expressed reproach towards Lenin's proposal that the Bolsheviks become an independent party. The dispute was interrupted by Rykov's exile to Siberia for revolutionary activity.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: Rykov returned from Siberia after the February Revolution of 1917 and re-joined the Bolsheviks, although he remained skeptical of their more radical inclinations. He became a member of the Petrograd Soviet and the Moscow Soviet. At the 6th Congress of the Bolshevik Party in July–August 1917 he was elected to the Central Committee. During the October Revolution of 1917, he was a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee in Moscow.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: After the revolution, Rykov was appointed People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. On 29 October 1917 (Old Style), immediately after the Bolshevik seizure of power, the executive committee of the national railroad labor union, "Vikzhel", threatened a national strike unless the Bolsheviks shared power with other socialist parties and dropped Lenin and Leon Trotsky from the government. Grigori Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, and their allies in the Bolshevik Central Committee argued that the Bolsheviks had no choice but to start negotiations since a railroad strike would cripple their government's ability to fight the forces that were still loyal to the overthrown Provisional Government. Although Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Rykov briefly had the support of a Central Committee majority and negotiations were started, a quick collapse of the anti-Bolshevik forces outside Petrograd allowed Lenin and Trotsky to convince the Central Committee to abandon the negotiating process. In response Rykov, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Vladimir Milyutin, and Victor Nogin resigned from the Central Committee and from the government on 17 November 1917 .


title: Alexei Rykov

text: On 3 April 1918 Rykov was appointed Chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy and served in that capacity throughout the Russian Civil War. On 5 July 1919, he also became a member of the reorganized Revolutionary Military Council, where he remained until October 1919. From July 1919 and until August 1921, he was also a special representative of the Council of Labor and Defense for food supplies for the Red Army and Navy. Rykov was elected to the Communist Party Central Committee on 5 April 1920 after the 9th Party Congress and became a member of its Orgburo, where he remained until 23 May 1924.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: Once the Bolsheviks emerged victorious in the civil war, Rykov resigned his Supreme Council of National Economy post on 28 May 1921. On 26 May 1921, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council of Labor and Defense of the Russian SFSR under Lenin. With Lenin increasingly sidelined by ill health, Rykov became his deputy at the Sovnarkom (Council of People's Commissars) on 29 December. Rykov joined the ruling Politburo on 3 April 1922, after the 11th Party Congress. A government reorganization in the wake of the formation of the Soviet Union in December 1922 resulted in Rykov's appointment as Chairman of the USSR Supreme Council of National Economy and Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of People's Commissars on 6 July 1923.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: After Lenin's death on 21 January 1924 Rykov gave up his position as Chairman of the USSR Supreme Council of National Economy and became Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and, simultaneously, of the Sovnarkom of the RSFSR, on 2 February 1924.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: Along with Nikolai Bukharin and Mikhail Tomsky, Rykov led the moderate wing of the Communist Party in the 1920s, promoting a partial restoration of the market economy under NEP policies. The moderates supported Joseph Stalin, Grigory Zinoviev, and Lev Kamenev against Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition in 1923–24. After Trotsky's defeat and Stalin's break with Zinoviev and Kamenev in 1925, Rykov, Bukharin and Tomsky supported Stalin against the United Opposition of Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev in 1926–27. After Kamenev voiced opposition to Stalin at the 14th Party Congress in December 1925, he lost his position as Chairman of the Soviet Council of Labor and Defense—which he had assumed from Lenin following Lenin's death—and was replaced by Rykov on 19 January 1926.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: Under his leadership vodka was heavily taxed, and became known as "Rykovka". Some of his political opponents claimed that he was a heavy drinker, but in reality he was an abstainer.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: Rykov's Premiership encompassed drastic change in the power structure of the Soviet Union. From 1924 to 1930 the role of the Communist Party—informally led by Stalin who, as General Secretary, controlled Party membership—increasingly usurped powers from the legitimate governmental structures. Although an exact date cannot be given for Stalin's rise to power, the United Opposition—which consisted of Kamenev, Zinoviev, and Trotsky—was defeated and its followers were expelled from the Party by December 1927.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: After the defeat of the United Opposition, Stalin adopted more radical policies and came into conflict with the moderate wing of the party. The two factions maneuvered behind the scenes throughout 1928. In February–April 1929 the conflict came to a head and the moderates, branded the Right Opposition, or "Rightists", were defeated and forced to "admit their mistakes" in November 1929. Rykov lost his position as Premier of the Russian SFSR to Sergei Syrtsov on 18 May 1929, but retained his other two posts. On 19 December 1930, after admitting another round of "mistakes", he was replaced by Vyacheslav Molotov as both Soviet Premier and Chairman of the Council of Labor and Defense. Two days later, Rykov was expelled from the Politburo, taking with him any chance of political advancement.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: On 30 May 1931, Rykov was appointed People's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs, a position that he continued to occupy after the Commissariat was reorganized as People's Commissariat for Communications of the USSR in January 1932. On 10 February 1934, he was demoted to a candidate (non-voting) member of the Party's Central Committee. On 26 September 1936, in the wake of accusations made at the first Moscow Show Trial against Kamenev and Zinoviev, and Tomsky's suicide, Rykov lost his position as People's Commissar of Communications, but retained his membership in the Central Committee.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: Expecting the worst, Rykov nearly decided to follow the example of his close friend Mikhail Tomsky and preempt arrest by committing suicide, but was convinced otherwise by his family. As Stalin's Great Purge intensified in early 1937, Rykov and Bukharin were expelled from the Communist Party and arrested at the February–March 1937 meeting of the Central Committee on 27 February. On 13 March 1938, at the Trial of the Twenty-One, Rykov, Bukharin, Nikolai Krestinsky, Christian Rakovsky, Genrikh Yagoda, and sixteen other Soviet officials were found guilty of treason (having plotted with Trotsky against Stalin) and sentenced to death by the Soviet Military Board. Rykov wrote a letter to the Soviet Military board requesting clemency but failed to get them to overturn the verdict. On 15 March, most of them were executed. Rakovsky was executed in 1941.


title: Alexei Rykov

text: The Soviet government annulled the verdict in 1988 and rehabilitated him during the perestroika. Rykov was then reinstated in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.


title: Joe Son

text: Joseph Hyungmin Son (; born November 22, 1970) is a South Korean-born American convicted felon and a former mixed martial artist, kickboxer, professional wrestler and actor. Prior to his 2008 arrest, he was best known for his appearance in the 1997 film "". In 2011, he was sentenced to seven years to life in prison in California for torture committed during a 1990 gang rape. Following beating his cell mate Michael Thomas Graham to death, he was sentenced to an additional 27 years for voluntary manslaughter. He is now serving 34 years to life.


title: Joe Son

text: Son was a mixed martial arts fighter and retired with a record of 0–4. Though he had appeared before in Ultimate Fighting Championship's UFC 3 in 1994 as Kimo Leopoldo's cornerman, Son had his proper debut at the UFC 4 event, entering the tournament billed as a taekwondo black belt and founder of a style called "Jo Son Do". He was pitted against kenpo fighter Keith Hackney, whom Son outweighed by 30 pounds, but was seven inches shorter. Son was able to perform a takedown and a guillotine choke attempt, but Hackney countered by punching Son's groin repeatedly, which was legal under the rules of the event. Hackney then performed a blood choke with his fingers and Son tapped out, being eliminated from the tournament.


title: Joe Son

text: After his fight in UFC, Son competed in a match for the K-1 kickboxing federation, facing established star Nobuaki Kakuda. The much heavier Son initially led the pace with body shots and knees, scoring a mild knockdown by right hook, but he was eventually knocked out by Kakuda via high kick and punches.


title: Joe Son

text: In 2002, Son debuted for Japanese promotion PRIDE Fighting Championships, fighting Takada Dojo exponent Yusuke Imamura at the PRIDE The Best Vol.2. He infamously wore a leopard thong with the PRIDE logo and sported eye makeup, as well as a bowler hat at his entrance, and hugged Imamura during the staredown. The bout was short, and Son quit after he was taken down and almost slid out of the ring, claiming an elbow injury.


title: Joe Son

text: On April 12, 2002, Son also took part in Xtreme Pankration 2, wherein he faced Joe Moreira. After a brief exchange of strikes, Moreira landed a hit which drew blood, and Son then refused to continue fighting, and the fight was called. The result was officially listed as "submission (terror)". Son would return to PRIDE in July, facing Jukei Nakajima, and he once again gave up after being injured by being thrown on his head by the Japanese fighter.


title: Joe Son

text: Son was also a professional wrestler in Japan for a short time, wrestling Shinya Hashimoto at All Japan Pro Wrestling's second Wrestle-1 event and working as singer and dancer for HUSTLE's third event.


title: Joe Son

text: Son is best known for his role in the 1997 movie "" as Random Task, a parody of the James Bond character Odd Job. This was also his final film role. Previously, Son had appeared in several low-budget action films, including "Joshua Tree" (1993) and "" (1994). He played the main villain in the Lorenzo Lamas action film "Bad Blood" in 1994. He plays a supporting role in "Shootfighter: Fight to the Death" (1993) and a leading role as the main villain in its sequel "Shootfighter II" (1996).


title: Joe Son

text: Son was first arrested for kicking in the door of a roommate's car. He pleaded guilty to felony vandalism on May 16, 2008, whereupon he was sentenced to probation and 60 days in jail. On August 18, 2008, he was taken into custody and given an additional 90 days in jail, due to a probation violation for failing to report to the Department of Probation and keep them informed of his current residence. As a condition of his original plea agreement, Son was required to provide a DNA sample. In early October 2008, his DNA sample was linked to a gang rape on Christmas Eve, 1990. Already in custody for a probation violation, Son was arrested at the Theo Lacy facility on October 7, 2008.


title: Joe Son

text: Son was initially charged in Orange County, California, with five counts of rape, two felony counts of forcible sodomy, two felony counts of sodomy in concert by force, seven felony counts of forcible oral copulation, and one felony count of sexual penetration by foreign object by force. He faced a maximum sentence of 275 years to life if convicted.


title: Joe Son

text: Son and an accomplice tortured and repeatedly raped the victim before releasing her with her pants tied around her eyes. During the trial, the woman said that Son told her, "It's Christmas. This is your lucky day." Before jury selection began for his trial in early August 2011, the initial charges against Son were dropped having expired due to the statute of limitations. Son was then charged with conspiracy to commit murder and torture, crimes which have no statute of limitations. In late August, Son was found guilty of one felony count of torture.


title: Joe Son

text: During the trial, the Orange County District Attorney's Office maintained that both Son and his co-defendant, Santiago Lopez Gaitan, pistol-whipped their female victim, repeatedly threatened to kill her, and raped her before finally releasing her. Gaitan, 40, pleaded guilty to one felony count each of kidnapping, sodomy by force in concert, rape in concert, forcible oral copulation, and forcible rape with a sentencing enhancement for committing rape while armed with a firearm. He was sentenced January 28, 2011, to 17 years and four months in state prison. On September 19, 2011, Son was sentenced to 7 years to life.


title: Joe Son

text: In October 2011, Son was accused of killing his cellmate, Michael Thomas Graham, who was serving two years for failure to register as a sex offender in the county in February. The killing happened on October 10, 2011, on "B" Yard Reception, building 5 at Wasco State Prison. The beating occurred at 5:25 p.m. and Graham died 25 minutes later. After the killing, Son was moved to solitary confinement. On September 13, 2013, Son was charged with Graham's murder. At his trial in 2017, he was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, and received a 27-year sentence.


title: Crystal Dynamics

text: Crystal Dynamics, Inc. is an American video game developer based in San Mateo, California and part of Embracer Group. The studio developed the "Gex", "Legacy of Kain", and "Tomb Raider" series. Founded in 1992 by Madeline Canepa, Judy Lange, and Dave Morse, it was acquired by Eidos Interactive in 1998. It became part of SCi Entertainment in 2005, Square Enix Europe in 2009 and CDE Entertainment in 2022.


title: Crystal Dynamics

text: Crystal Dynamics was founded by Madeline Canepa, Judy Lange, and Dave Morse. Morse, a founder of Amiga Corporation, had previously founded New Technology Group with Dave Needle and Robert J. Mical in 1989 to create a video game console that could succeed those by Nintendo and Sega. In 1990, New Technology Group's founders discussed this idea with Trip Hawkins, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Electronic Arts, who shared with them his vision for such a system. The two companies signed an agreement in September 1990 that would see New Technology Group develop the system under Electronic Arts' provision of software and money. The development of what would become the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer began in 1991, and out of the partnership between New Technology Group and Electronic Arts grew The 3DO Company, led by Hawkins. Canepa and Lange had been marketing executives for Sega, where Canepa (the "Mother of Sonic") had been integral in the launch of "Sonic the Hedgehog". On July 8, 1992, Canepa, Lange, and Morse spun off Crystal Dynamics from The 3DO Company as an independent developer. Its first offices were located in the retail space of Palo Alto Airport in Palo Alto, California. Crystal Dynamics started out simultaneously developing "Crash 'n Burn" and "Total Eclipse", which were announced for the then-upcoming 3DO in April 1993. Developing for the 3DO meant that it could produce games for CD-ROM, avoiding the higher costs of cartridges. A 1993 editorial in "Electronic Gaming Monthly" declared the studio "the hottest new video game company on the upscale scene". In June 1993, Strauss Zelnick resigned as president and CEO of 20th Century Fox to become the president and CEO of the nascent studio. He acquired between 25% and 50% of the company. Lange, who had acted as Crystal Dynamics' president, stated that he had been hired for his business expertise, whereas the creative expertise was already present at the studio, which had twenty-eight developers at that time. Zelnick brought in investors through earlier connections: Home Box Office bought 10% in July 1993, followed by King World Productions acquiring 10% for in September of that year. While Home Box Office's price was not disclosed, the combined stakes' value was estimated at . Zelnick's background in film and television increased Crystal Dynamics' focus on full-motion video in its games.


title: Crystal Dynamics

text: "Crash 'n Burn" was released as part of the 3DO in October 1993. In January 1994, Zelnick was in the process of setting up the company Star Interactive, which was to publish third-party games by outsourcing the management and distribution to Crystal Dynamics, as well as the manufacturing to a third company. In return for the former, Crystal Dynamics was to receive annual payments of and 10% of Star Interactive's profit for the management role, as well as 22.5% of its gross receipts for the distribution. The management was to consist of The Software Toolworks' former senior vice president (VP) Mark Beaumont as CEO, as well as Crystal Dynamics' now-executive VP Lange and VP of sales Allen Chaplin. In February, Zelnick announced his intent for Crystal Dynamics to, like a movie studio, produce its own games while also releasing titles from other, independent developers. As such, it partnered with Toys for Bob for several games, starting with "The Horde". In March, Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), which Zelnick had been consulting, agreed to handle marketing and distribution for Crystal Dynamics and Star Interactive outside of North America. As Star Interactive failed to raise , the plan for this company was scrapped in early 1994 and Lange departed Crystal Dynamics shortly thereafter. In August, Crystal Dynamics had more than 100 employees. Despite Zelnick steering Crystal Dynamics away from relying solely on the 3DO and the company becoming the first licensed third-party developer for the PlayStation, the 3DO's poor commercial performance had a significant impact on the company. John Eastburn, the studio's chief operating officer, estimated that 3DO game developers could not break even unless its consumer base expanded from 75,000 to 500,000. In September, Zelnick was announced as the new manager for BMG's North American operations. He would join the company in January 1995 while remaining a director and shareholder in Crystal Dynamics. The vacant CEO position attracted several parties interested in acquiring the studio. Although The 3DO Company and Spectrum HoloByte were frequently rumored as potential buyers, chairman Morse stated that Crystal Dynamics was not for sale, having spare savings of and a newly acquired loan of from Silicon Valley Bank. The studio partnered with Matsushita Electric, the manufacturer of the 3DO, in December 1994 to have its 3DO games distributed through 10,000 consumer electronics stores.


title: Crystal Dynamics

text: Looking to come up with a mascot character for itself, the studio sought after an animal that was generally liked and had interesting abilities. The result was Gex, an anthropomorphic gecko introduced with the game of the same name in 1995. Geckos' ability to walk on walls allowed the development team to implement planar and vertical platforming elements despite the 3DO's limitations. In 1995, Crystal Dynamics hired LucasArts' Randy Komisar as CEO and began converting its older 3DO games to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Around this time, Crystal Dynamics' publishing arm released "Slam 'N Jam '95" and "Blazing Dragons", and it was working with Canada-based Silicon Knights on "". The game was already expansive in content but lacked structure, wherefore Crystal Dynamics brought Amy Hennig into the project to help make the game more engaging. By 1996, due chiefly to the unexpectedly slow growth of the next-generation games market, the studio's expansion in its early years had failed to pay off. The company had raised capital through Technology Partners, and that company's general partner Ted Ardell announced a reorganization of the studio in June 1996: Of its 102 employees, a third would be laid off over a course of three months, while Komisar, Canepa, and Eastburn would be ousted and Ardell installed as the new CEO. Crystal Dynamics also ceased publishing efforts to focus solely on internally developed games. Ardel managed the day-to-day operations while Crystal Dynamics lacked a president until Rob Dyer was promoted to this position in April 1997. Surplus computer hardware and office equipment were auctioned off from its newer Menlo Park in September of that year.


title: Crystal Dynamics

text: Following the release of "Enter the Gecko", Crystal Dynamics began producing "". By this point, many developers–including close the entire team of the original "Gex"–had left the company, and some of them had joined Naughty Dog. Bruce Straley, a designer on "Enter the Gecko", was initially offered to direct the third game but chose to join his friends at Naughty Dog instead. Crystal Dynamics further began the development of a second "Legacy of Kain" game, codenamed "Shifter", without Silicon Knights' involvement. While original characters were created by Hennig and Seth Carus, Silicon Knights filed an injunction, accusing Crystal Dynamics of plagiarizing the characters from "Blood Omen". In a private settlement, the two companies agreed that Crystal Dynamics could use "Blood Omen"s characters as long as Silicon Knights was credited as their creator. Thus, "Shifter" became "". Following losses of in its 1997 fiscal year, Crystal Dynamics agreed to bought by publisher Eidos Interactive in September 1998 for () paid in cash. The studio had returned to over 100 employees by this time. Originally set to close on October 31, the acquisition was completed on November 5, 1998. Dyer and Crystal Dynamics' VP of marketing Scott Steinberg subsequently acceded to Eidos Interactive as president and senior VP of marketing, respectively, in January 1999.


title: Crystal Dynamics

text: Following the commercial disappointment of "" in 2003, Eidos assigned the "Tomb Raider" franchise to Crystal Dynamics, forgoing series creator Core Design. Its first game in the series, "", was released in 2006 and was the fastest-selling game in the series, selling 4.5 million units worldwide. Crystal Dynamics co-developed "" with developer Buzz Monkey Software. A remake of the first "Tomb Raider" game, it was released in June 2007. The next installment, "", was released in October 2008. Crystal Dynamics' next release was the spin-off title "Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light", which did not feature the "Tomb Raider" branding despite utilizing the lead character.


title: Crystal Dynamics

text: In 2009, Crystal Dynamics laid off over 30 employees to refocus their efforts on the "Tomb Raider" games only. In the same year, Eidos Interactive was acquired by Square Enix and integrated into its Western operations, becoming Square Enix Limited. On January 3, 2012, studio community manager Meagan Marie said that the studio would be revealing a new intellectual property (IP) in 2012. In a podcast, released on June 23, 2012, executive producer Scot Amos said Crystal Dynamics new IP will be "fresh and familiar" and offer a similar experience to the new "Tomb Raider" game. This was followed by "Tomb Raider" in 2013, a reboot which introduced a new backstory for Lara.


title: Crystal Dynamics

text: In December 2015, Square Enix announced that Darrell Gallagher, the studio's head, had left the company. His role in the company was filled by Scot Amos and Ron Rosenberg. In 2016, Brian Horton, director of the game "Rise of the Tomb Raider", left the company. He had previously undertaken the role of senior art director on the "Tomb Raider" reboot in 2013. On January 26, 2017, Square Enix announced a partnership with Marvel Entertainment to create multiple video games based on Marvel properties, the first of which was announced as "Avengers", based on the comics of the same name, which would be developed by Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal. On August 13, 2018, Square Enix announced that Crystal Dynamics had opened a satellite studio based in Bellevue, Washington called Crystal Northwest, which will assist the development of the "Avengers" game and future Crystal Dynamics projects. On May 26, 2021, Crystal Dynamics announced that they opened a new studio based in Austin, Texas, called Crystal Southwest. The studio will be headed by Dallas Dickinson, who worked before as Executive Producer in Crystal Dynamic games and will be a major part of Crystal Dynamics titles. On September 23, 2021, Crystal Dynamics partnered with The Initiative to work on the upcoming "Perfect Dark" reboot which is in development.


title: Crystal Dynamics

text: On May 1, 2022, the Embracer Group announced that it would acquire Crystal Dynamics alongside other assets of Square Enix Limited for $300 million. Embracer expected the deal to close between July and September 2022. On May 20, 2022, Embracer Group (before the acquisition was complete) expressed interest in sequels, remakes and remasters in established franchises of the studio such as "Tomb Raider" and "Legacy of Kain". The acquisition was completed on August 26, 2022, with the assets being held under CDE Entertainment.


title: Mustard seed

text: Mustard seeds are the small round seeds of various mustard plants. The seeds are usually about in diameter and may be colored from yellowish white to black. They are an important spice in many regional foods and may come from one of three different plants: black mustard ("Brassica nigra"), brown mustard ("B. juncea"), or white mustard ("Sinapis alba").


title: Mustard seed

text: Grinding and mixing the seeds with water, vinegar or other liquids creates the yellow condiment known as prepared mustard.


title: Mustard seed

text: Mustard seeds are used as a spice in the South Asia. The seeds are usually fried until they pop. The leaves are also stir-fried and eaten as a vegetable. Mustard oil is used for body massage during extreme winters, as it is thought to keep the body warm. In South Asian cuisine mustard oil or "shorsher tel" is the predominant cooking medium. Mustard seeds are also essential ingredients in spicy fish dishes like "jhaal" and "paturi". A variety of pickles consisting mainly of mangoes, red chili powder, and powdered mustard seed preserved in mustard oil are popular.


title: Mustard seed

text: In North America, mustard seeds are used in spices and condiments. Yellow mustard is popular in the United States and is often used as a condiment in sandwiches and other dishes. Mustard seeds are first ground into a powder and then mixed with other ingredients to create this condiment. Roughly 1,000 seeds are used in manufacturing just 8oz of mustard.


title: Mustard seed

text: Mustard seeds generally take eight to ten days to germinate if placed under the proper conditions, which include a cold atmosphere and relatively moist soil. Mature mustard plants grow into shrubs.


title: Mustard seed

text: Yellow mustard has a plant maturity of 85 to 90 days; whereas, brown and oriental mustard have a plant maturity of 90 to 95 days. If the temperature conditions are conducive to growth, a mustard plant will begin to bud five weeks after the seedlings have appeared. The plant will reach full bloom 7 to 10 days later. Brown or oriental varieties of mustard tend to have higher yields compared to yellow mustard. Seed yield is also related to the bloom period. In other words, the longer the bloom period, the greater the seed yield.


title: Mustard seed

text: Mustard grows well in temperate regions. Major producers of mustard seeds include India, Pakistan, Canada, Nepal, Hungary, Great Britain and the United States. Brown and black mustard seeds return higher yields than their yellow counterparts.


title: Mustard seed

text: In Pakistan, rapeseed-mustard is the second most important source of oil, after cotton. It is cultivated over an area of 307,000 hectares with an annual production of 233,000 tonnes and contributes about 17% to the domestic production of edible oil.


title: Mustard seed

text: Mustard seeds are a rich source of oil and protein. The seed has oil as high as 46-48%, and whole seed meal has 43.6% protein.


title: Mustard seed

text: In North America, mustard is produced as a specialty crop. Majority of the production is found in upper Midwest United States and Canada. In 2020, the total production of mustard in the United States was .


title: Mustard seed

text: Ground mustard seed meal is used as a natural soil amendment for soil borne disease management in other crops.


title: Mustard seed

text: Mustard seeds carry seed borne pathogens which affect germination rate, as any other seed. Latif "et al.", 2006 isolate "Alternaria", "Aspergillus", "Chaetomium", "Curvularia", "Fusarium", "Penicillium", and "Rhizopus" in Bangladesh.


title: Mustard seed

text: The mustard seed is frequently referenced in world literature, including in religious texts, as a metaphor for something small or insignificant.


title: Mustard seed

text: In the Bible, Jesus tells the Parable of the Mustard Seed referring to faith and the Kingdom of God. There, Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade"."


title: Mustard seed

text: There are references to mustard seeds in India from a story of Gautama Buddha in the fifth century BC. Gautama Buddha told the story of the grieving mother (Kisa Gotami) and the mustard seed. When a mother loses her only son, she takes his body to the Buddha to find a cure. The Buddha asks her to bring a handful of mustard seeds from a family that has never lost a child, husband, parent, or friend. When the mother is unable to find such a house in her village, she realizes death is common to all, and she cannot be selfish in her grief.


title: Mustard seed

text: Jewish texts compare the knowable universe to the size of a mustard seed to demonstrate the world's insignificance and to teach humility.


title: Mustard seed

text: The mustard seed is mentioned in the Quran: "And We place the scales of justice for the Day of Resurrection, so no soul will be treated unjustly at all. And if there is [even] the weight of a mustard seed, We will bring it forth. And sufficient are We as accountant (21:47)", and according to the Hadith, Muhammad said that he who has in his heart the weight of a mustard seed of pride would not enter Paradise.


title: Sri Venkateswara Creations

text: Sri Venkateswara Creations is an Indian film production company based in Hyderabad. It is established by Dil Raju in 2003. Raju has produced several Telugu films on this banner. The company also has a subsidiary film distribution business named 'Sri Venkateswara Film Distributors'.


title: Sri Venkateswara Creations

text: Some of the notable films produced by the company include "Dil" (2003), "Arya" (2004), "Bhadra" (2005), "Bommarillu" (2006), "Kotha Bangaru Lokam" (2008), "Brindavanam" (2010), "Mr. Perfect" (2011), "Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu" (2013), "Sathamanam Bhavati" (2017), "Fidaa" (2017), "" (2019), "Maharshi" (2019), and "Sarileru Neekevvaru" (2020). Eight directors debuted in Telugu cinema through Sri Venkateswara Creations Sukumar, Boyapati Srinu, Bhaskar, Vamsi Paidipally, Srikanth Addala, Vasu Varma, Ravi Yadav, and Venu Sri Ram.


title: Sri Venkateswara Creations

text: Raju and his brothers started film distribution in the early 1990s and partnered with "Venkata Lakshmi Films". In 1996, they opened a new office with the name "Sri Harshita Films". Most of the films that they distributed were unsuccessful at the box-office and they incurred heavy losses leading them to shut the company. After few more years studying the market, they established "Sri Venkateswara Film Distributors" in 1999. They chose to distribute films in the Nizam area which refers to the esrstwhile Hyderabad State and present-day Telangana. The first three films distributed were "Oke Okkadu" (1999), "Nuvvu Vastavani" (2000), and "Sakhi" (2000). They went on to distribute more films like "Nuvvu Naaku Nachav" (2001), "Murari" (2001), "Kushi" (2001), "Aadi" (2002), "Athadu" (2005), "Chatrapati" (2005), and "Pokiri" (2006).


title: Sri Venkateswara Creations

text: After distributing films for four years, Raju, along with Giri, Sirish, and Lakshman, established "Sri Venkateswara Creations" production house in 2003. The first film that was made under the banner was "Dil" (2003), directed by V. V. Vinayak. After "Dil", Giri has separated himself from the banner, while the rest continued. In 2004, they made "Arya" (2004) under the direction of Sukumar. In 2005, they made another successful film "Bhadra", under the direction of Boyapati Srinu. In 2006, they produced "Bommarillu" under the direction of Bhaskar.


title: Sri Venkateswara Creations

text: By the end of the year 2018, 40 films associated with the banner were released: out of which 30 films were produced by them, 6 were dubbed films, and 4 were collaborations. In an interview with Anil Ravipudi for "GreatAndhra" website, Dil Raju claimed that 22 of his 30 films (2003-2018) were either hits, super-hits, or classics; 4 were average grossers; and 4 films were flops.


title: Sri Venkateswara Creations

text: In 2019, Sri Venkateswara Creations produced "" which was released on the occasion of Sankranthi. The film became the highest grossing film for the banner and is one of the highest grossers of all time in Telugu cinema.


title: Sri Venkateswara Creations

text: This list is not complete and needs updating. This company and its predecessors have been distributing films in Nizam region, and occasionally Vizag region since 1999.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: Emily the Criminal is a 2022 American crime thriller film written and directed by John Patton Ford in his feature film debut. It stars Aubrey Plaza, Theo Rossi, Megalyn Echikunwoke, and Gina Gershon. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2022, and was released in the United States on August 12, 2022, by Vertical Entertainment and Roadside Attractions. It received generally positive reviews from critics for its social commentary and Plaza's performance.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: Emily lives in Los Angeles and is deeply in debt. She struggles to pay off her student loans, largely because a felony conviction prevents her from obtaining a well-paying job. Consequently, she delivers food as an "independent contractor" for a catering company. A co-worker connects Emily to a "dummy shopper" service that promises to make her $200 in one hour.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: The service is revealed to be a credit card fraud ring, and Emily meets Youcef, one of its organizers, who instructs her to purchase a flat-screen TV using a fake card and ID. The next day, Emily is sent on a larger job (purchasing a car on a no-limit credit card) which goes poorly after the dealer discovers the scam, leading to a physical altercation.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: Youcef tends her wounds and they discuss their aspirations. Emily, an aspiring artist, wishes to visit South America once her loans are paid off, while Youcef plans to purchase a rental property with the money made from the fraud ring.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: On her request, Youcef teaches Emily how to make fake credit cards on her own. He gives her a taser for protection, and instructs her not to sell stolen goods at her home or scam the same store twice in a week. Youcef lies about his involvement with Emily to his cousin Khalil, with whom he works.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: While dogsitting for her childhood friend Liz, a buyer for some of her stolen goods follows Emily to her apartment and robs her of her earnings, taking the dog. She tases the buyer and reclaims both.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: At a party, Emily learns that there is an opening at Liz's advertising agency, and that Liz has gotten her an interview with Alice, her boss. Emily invites Youcef to the party, which sparks a romance between them.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: At a dinner with Youcef's family, Khalil reveals that Emily has been caught hitting the same store twice within a week, prompting the store to post security footage of her online. This leads to a falling-out between Youcef and Khalil, who cuts him out of the fraud ring.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: Emily's job interview with Alice goes poorly after she discovers the job is actually an unpaid internship. When Emily objects, Alice insults her, calling her "spoiled".


title: Emily the Criminal

text: Youcef reveals to Emily that Khalil had not been paying him for several months. Further, the owner of the rental property he plans to purchase requests an immediate down payment and so he decides to rob the fraud ring itself. Youcef and Emily arrive at the ring's storage unit to find that Khalil has already taken everything, as well as emptying their shared business bank account.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: Emily convinces Youcef to confront Khalil at his safehouse, where they attempt to ambush him. Khalil attacks Youcef, severely injuring him, though Emily is able to subdue him using a box cutter. Taking the ring's money and assisting Youcef to his car, she realizes they have lost his car keys and cannot drive away. As police and ambulance sirens draw closer, Emily chooses to abandon him in his car and take the money for herself.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: The police eventually raid Emily's apartment and discover she is gone. Now living in South America, she returns to making art. Emily also establishes a credit card fraud ring of her own, recruiting dummy shoppers with the promise of making $200 in one hour, just as Youcef had done.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: In August 2021, Aubrey Plaza, Gina Gershon, Megalyn Echikunwoke, and Theo Rossi were confirmed to star. Filming took place over the course of twenty days in Los Angeles with an additional day of shooting in Mexico. Nathan Halpern composed the musical score.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: "Emily the Criminal" is writer and director John Patton Ford's first feature film. His thesis film at the American Film Institute, "Patrol", premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and made the short list for the 2011 Academy Awards. In writing "Emily the Criminal", Ford drew on his own experiences with student debt and working at restaurants. After Plaza read the script, she came onboard as a producer, in addition to agreeing to star in the film.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 24. In February 2022, Vertical Entertainment and Roadside Attractions acquired distribution rights for the United States and Canada, and Universal Pictures acquired international rights. It was released on August 12, 2022. Netflix began carrying the movie in the United States on December 7, 2022.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: The film was released for VOD platforms on September 27, 2022, followed by a Blu-ray and DVD release on November 29, 2022.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: "Emily the Criminal" grossed $2.2 million in North America, against a production budget of $2 million.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: Plaza's performance and Ford's direction received praise. "Deadline Hollywood" Damon White wrote, "[While] Ford doesn't insult us with clichés about kick-ass heroines, he does give us a deceptively rich script that explains where Emily has come to—and where she will go, ensuring a satisfying ending that, while dark, doesn't feel too sugar-coated." Kate Erbland from "IndieWire" gave the film an A– and wrote of Plaza's character Emily: "Is she likable? Is she redeemable? Is she a hero? As Emily might ask, who gives a fuck? With a film and a star this in control of its pitch-black material, she's not wrong. We're just along for the ride, and wouldn't have it any other way." Benjamin Lee of "The Guardian" gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and praised Ford's direction, calling it "an undeniably striking debut, slick and involving enough to have us curiously excited for whatever he decides to do next."


title: Emily the Criminal

text: Thematically, "Emily the Criminal" explores harsh realities that notably resonate differently today than they would have in past eras. As critic Sheila O’Malley for Roger Ebert points out, “In a different world, a different time, "Emily the Criminal" may very well have been a romantic drama, similar to Jacques Audiard's "Rust and Bone", mixing romance, criminality, class divides, and moral/ethical dilemmas.” While these are still clearly aspects at play, they are approached in a more matter-of-fact way, without Emily or her counterparts dwelling on them. She, like many other young adults who attended college, finds herself in overwhelming debt compared to previous generations. Her employment options are further limited as she faces, even at the first stage of interviewing, discrimination due to her criminal record. Thus she is forced work as an independent contractor food delivery driver, highlighting the popularity of the gig economy; as such she receives low pay without benefits, and struggles for control over her hours. When her hours are drastically changed and she objects, she is dared by her boss to unionize, a challenge that is made essentially impossible for such workers due to a variety of converging factors. Through the help of a successful childhood friend, she lands an interview for a coveted fashion assistant job. During the interview, she learns that it is first an unpaid internship with only the possibility of starting to be paid months later (an increasingly criticized practice, particularly within industries such as fashion). She calls out the hiring manager for what she sees as an unfair practice and storms out. This can be seen as a defining moment wherein she casts aside her earnest attempts at traditional post-collegiate career in favor of a life of full-time criminality.


title: Emily the Criminal

text: “The pace of the film is deliberately relentless”, explains Vanessa Zimmer of Sundance. Throughout the film, the audience sees through Emily’s point of view; a character who is purposefully presented as someone who makes a series of urgent choices that, in some way, don’t seem like choices, as she charges “full-octane” through her difficulties.” Confirming this in an American Film Institute interview, writer/director John Patton Ford says he intended “to grab you really unapologetically and just take you on this ride, and to never really give you much of a choice but to watch it…to have that kind of a raw effect upon an audience.”


title: Rui Costa

text: Rui Manuel César Costa (; born 29 March 1972) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who is the 34th president of sports club S.L. Benfica. He also succeeded Luís Filipe Vieira as president of the club's SAD board of directors.


title: Rui Costa

text: Regarded as one of the best midfielders in world football and one of Portugal's best players of all time, Costa usually played as an attacking midfielder and was particularly known for his excellent technique, playmaking ability, and eye for goal from midfield. In 2004, he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 as one of the 125 greatest living football players.


title: Rui Costa

text: Nicknamed "The Maestro" and "Il Musagete" (The leader of Muses), Costa spent the majority of his career with Benfica in Portugal and Fiorentina and AC Milan in Italy. In a top-flight career spanning 17 years, he won several trophies, including one Primeira Liga title, one Taça de Portugal, one Serie A title, three Coppa Italia, one UEFA Champions League and one UEFA Super Cup. A Portuguese international, he amassed 94 caps and scored 26 goals for "A Seleção" and represented the country in three UEFA European Championships and one FIFA World Cup.


title: Rui Costa

text: At age five, Costa joined the infant indoor football team of Damaia Ginásio Clube. Costa tried his luck at Benfica. Within ten minutes of training, Portugal legend Eusébio, who was supervising the youngsters, was impressed with Costa's skills. Up until 1990, Costa played for Benfica's youth squads. In his first full season, he was loaned to A.D. Fafe on a season-long deal.


title: Rui Costa

text: In 1991, after the Under-21 World Cup, which Portugal won after a penalty kick scored by Costa, he returned to Benfica. In his first full season with Benfica, he was featured regularly in Benfica's team. In his next two seasons, his role in the team would prove to be pivotal as Benfica captured two trophies. He formed a formidable midfield partnership with João Vieira Pinto. During his last two seasons with Benfica in his first spell with the club, he won the Taça de Portugal in 1993 and the Portuguese First Division title in 1993–94. This would be Benfica's last league title for 11 years.


title: Rui Costa

text: At the end of his third season in Benfica's senior squad, Fiorentina offered for the young midfielder. Since Benfica were struggling with financial problems, Costa had to leave.


title: Rui Costa

text: Despite the heavy competition with the best midfielders in that time such as Zinedine Zidane, Costa was named the best number 10 player in Serie A a few times. His departure from Fiorentina was discussed every season, since many clubs constantly showed interest in signing him. However, he only left Fiorentina one season before their bankruptcy in the 2001–02 season. With the Florentine club, Costa won the Coppa Italia twice, also winning a Supercoppa Italiana. In June 2001, Fiorentina agreed to sell both Costa and Francesco Toldo to Parma for 140 billion lire. Despite both players refusal to join, Costa and Toldo were sold to AC Milan and Inter Milan, respectively, for the same total transfer fee.


title: Rui Costa

text: Fatih Terim was the coach of Fiorentina in the 2000–01 season. When he was leaving Fiorentina for AC Milan, he took Costa with him, paying 85 billion lire (€43,898,836) for the player. In so doing, Costa became Milan's most expensive transfer of all-time.


title: Rui Costa

text: On 27 September 2001, Costa scored his first goal for Milan to open a 4–0 home win (6–0 aggregate) in the first round of the UEFA Cup against BATE Borisov. He added further goals in wins over CSKA Sofia (second round) and Hapoel Tel Aviv (quarter-finals) in a run to the last four.


title: Rui Costa

text: Costa scored his first domestic goal on 18 December 2002, equalising in a 5–1 win (6–2 aggregate) against Ancona at the San Siro in the second leg of the last 16 of the Coppa Italia. In the 6–3 aggregate final win over Roma in May, he played only 30 minutes as a substitute as Brazilians Rivaldo and Serginho were preferred in attacking midfield. This was to rest him for the 2003 UEFA Champions League Final against Juventus, in which he was substituted injured for Massimo Ambrosini near the end of regulation time in a goalless draw that the "Rossoneri" won on penalties at Old Trafford. On 29 August, he played in the 1–0 victory over Porto in the 2003 UEFA Super Cup, in which he crossed for the only goal by Andriy Shevchenko.


title: Rui Costa

text: From 2003–04, Costa's playing time was limited by the emergent Brazilian youngster Kaká. He contributed his first three league goals to Milan's title-winning campaign, starting with one in a 5–0 home win over Ancona on 25 January.


title: Rui Costa

text: On 25 May 2006, Costa's return to Benfica to play in the upcoming season was announced in a press conference. He had been released from Milan after both the player and the club reached an agreement to end his contract. Costa gave up of his €4.6 million per year contract with Milan after he had dreamt of his return to Benfica year after year. His return saw former Benfica and Portugal international Eusébio praise Costa's return. Costa's first match back saw him start in a 2006–07 UEFA Champions League qualifier against Austria Wien in August 2006. The return leg saw Costa score in his return to the Estádio da Luz in the 21st minute. Benfica would go on to win 3–0 and clinch a place in the group stages of the Champions League.


title: Rui Costa

text: Following the start of the season, Costa would suffer a serious injury which would keep him out of action for three months. Costa returned in January 2007, in a Taça de Portugal fourth round tie against Oliveira do Bairro Following his return, he was used as a regular in Benfica's starting XI under manager Fernando Santos. His first season would see Benfica finish behind rivals Porto and Sporting CP in the Primeira Liga. In other competitions Benfica participated in, the club would be eliminated in the round of 16 in the Taça de Portugal and bow out of the UEFA Cup against Espanyol.


title: Rui Costa

text: Prior to start of the 2007–08 Primeira Liga, Costa would announce that the 2007–08 season would be his last as a professional. Despite the sacking of Fernando Santos at the beginning of the league campaign, Costa would remain a first team regular under José Antonio Camacho. The first match of the season saw Costa be decisive in Benfica reaching the Champions League group stage. He scored two goals in a qualifier against Copenhagen in the first leg. He would also play an important part in the second leg where Benfica defeated the Danish side 1–0 away from home to seal Benfica's third consecutive presence in the group stage.


title: Rui Costa

text: Costa would score his first league goal since his return to Benfica against C.D. Nacional in September 2007. His displays in the league would earn him the SJPF Player of the Month award for September 2007. Following qualification to the group stage, Benfica was drawn against Costa's former club Milan. The inaugural match of the group stage in September 2007 saw Benfica take on the "Rossoneri" at the San Siro, where Milan won 2–1. The return fixture on matchday 5 would see Milan visit the Estádio da Luz, where the teams drew 1–1. Benfica would exit the competition in third place behind Milan and Celtic, thereby dropping into the knockout stages of the UEFA Cup.


title: Rui Costa

text: In the new year, Benfica dropped various points along their campaign to Académica de Coimbra, Braga, Porto, Sporting CP and União de Leiria, which effectively dropped them out of the title race. Their failure to compete for the title resulted in Benfica setting their priorities to capture third place which secured a Champions League qualification. Benfica would fail to capture third place, which instead would go to newly promoted Vitória de Guimarães. Benfica would also drop out of the round of 16 of the UEFA Cup to Spanish side Getafe. Under Costa's captaincy, Benfica would also fall short in the 2007–08 Taça de Portugal, where they lost to Sporting in the semi-finals despite Costa scoring in a match which ended 5–3. Costa played his final match on 11 May 2008 at the Estádio da Luz against Vitória de Setúbal. He was substituted in the 86th minute to a standing ovation from the spectators.


title: Rui Costa

text: In the summer of 1991, Costa's displays at Fafe had impressed Portugal Under-21 coach Carlos Queiroz so much that he was called up to the team to represent Portugal in the World Youth Cup. The Portuguese under-20 national team won a World Youth Championship in 1991. His clinching penalty kick against Brazil in the final helped win the title on home soil and announced Costa as one of the brightest members of what would become known as the “Golden Generation.”


title: Rui Costa

text: Costa was a member of Portugal's most consistent years at senior level as the team reached the quarter-finals of UEFA Euro 1996, the semi-finals of Euro 2000 and the final of UEFA Euro 2004.


title: Rui Costa

text: Costa was especially instrumental in helping Portugal reach the 2004 final on home soil, scoring a screamer of a goal at the Estádio da Luz against England in the quarter-final match, and the sight of a distraught Costa at the end of a 1–0 defeat to Greece was one of the enduring images of the tournament.


title: Rui Costa

text: Costa also took part in the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Japan and South Korea, scoring Portugal's winning goal in their 4–0 win over Poland. The only time in his career that Costa was sent off was in an international game against Germany.


title: Rui Costa

text: Despite being principally a provider, Costa scored 26 goals in 94 games; he is Portugal's eighth-highest capped player and seventh-highest goalscorer.


title: Rui Costa

text: Considered one of the greatest midfielders of his generation, Costa was a classic number 10, who usually played in a creative role as an attacking midfielder behind the strikers, but was also capable of playing as a deep-lying playmaker, as a second striker, or as a winger. Despite his ability, however, he was also known for being inconsistent.


title: Rui Costa

text: Costa was sponsored by American sportswear company Nike and appeared in Nike commercials. In 1996, he starred in a Nike commercial titled "Good vs Evil" in a gladiatorial game set in a Roman amphitheatre. Appearing alongside football players from around the world, including Ronaldo, Paolo Maldini, Eric Cantona, Luís Figo and Patrick Kluivert, they defend "the beautiful game" against a team of demonic warriors, before it culminates with Cantona striking the ball and destroying evil. Rui Costa features in EA Sports' FIFA football video game series; he was included in the Ultimate Team Legends in "FIFA 16".


title: Rui Costa

text: The day after his last professional match, Costa was presented as director of football at Benfica. During the summer 2008 transfer window, Costa brought head coach Quique Sánchez Flores, playmaker Pablo Aimar, winger José Antonio Reyes, and striker David Suazo, the latter two on loan. The following Summer, Costa tried to strengthen the team after a disappointing league campaign the previous season; he signed striker Javier Saviola, attacking midfielder Ramires, and defensive midfielder Javi García, led by manager Jorge Jesus. Benfica would win the 2009–10 Primeira Liga, the first league title since 2004–05, and the Taça da Liga that season, defeating Porto in the final.


title: Rui Costa

text: On 14 May 2008, Costa was appointed an administrator of Benfica SAD. For the 2020–24 quadrennial, he became a vice-president of the club's board of directors, as part of Luís Filipe Vieira's list for a sixth consecutive mandate. After acting as interim president of the club and its SAD from 9 July 2021, in the aftermath of Vieira suspending his presidency due to arrest, Costa was elected the 34th president of Benfica on 9 October, assuming office the following day. With 84.48% of the votes, he defeated candidate Francisco Benitez, who received 12.24%. During election campaign, Costa had promised, among many promises, a forensic audit of the club's SAD, a revision of the club's statutes – both promises yet to be fulfilled – transparency regarding football transfers, retention of players "made in Seixal", a reduction of the number of players, a maximum wage for players, improvements to Estádio da Luz, etc. Including his interim role, the men's football team was trophyless under his first year of presidency.


title: Rui Costa

text: Costa was married to Rute from 1994 to 2013, and fathered two sons. The elder, Filipe, is involved in football agency, while the younger, Hugo, is a footballer.


title: Sirenia

text: The Sirenia (), commonly referred to as sea-cows or sirenians, are an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit swamps, rivers, estuaries, marine wetlands, and coastal marine waters. The Sirenia currently comprise two distinct families: Dugongidae (the dugong and the now extinct Steller's sea cow) and Trichechidae (manatees, namely the Amazonian manatee, West Indian manatee, and West African manatee) with a total of four species. The Protosirenidae (Eocene sirenians) and Prorastomidae (terrestrial sirenians) families are extinct. Sirenians are classified in the clade Paenungulata, alongside the elephants and the hyraxes, and evolved in the Eocene 50 million years ago (mya). The Dugongidae diverged from the Trichechidae in the late Eocene or early Oligocene (30–35 mya).


title: Sirenia

text: Sirenians grow to between in length and in weight. The historic Steller's sea cow was the largest known sirenian to have lived, and could reach lengths of and weights of .


title: Sirenia

text: Sirenians have a large, fusiform body to reduce drag through the water. They have heavy bones that act as ballast to counteract the buoyancy of their blubber. They have a thin layer of blubber and consequently are sensitive to temperature fluctuations, which cause migrations when water temperatures dip too low. Sirenians are slow-moving, typically coasting at , but they can reach in short bursts. They use their strong lips to pull out seagrasses, consuming 10–15% of their body weight per day.


title: Sirenia

text: While breathing, they hold just their nostrils above the surface, sometimes standing on their tails to do so. Sirenians typically inhabit warm, shallow, coastal waters, or rivers. They are mainly herbivorous, but have been known to consume animals such as birds and jellyfish. Males typically mate with more than one female (polygyny), and may participate in lek mating. Sirenians are K-selected, and display parental care.


title: Sirenia

text: The meat, oil, bones, and skins are valuable items sold in markets. Mortality is often caused by direct hunting by humans or other human-induced causes, such as habitat destruction, entanglement in fishing gear, and watercraft collisions. Steller's sea cow was driven to extinction due to overhunting in 1768.


title: Sirenia

text: Sirenia, commonly sirenians, are also referred to by the common name sirens, deriving from the sirens of Greek mythology. This comes from a legend about their discovery, involving lonely sailors mistaking them for mermaids. "Seekoei" (sea cow) is also the name for a hippopotamus in Afrikaans.


title: Sirenia

text: Sirenians are classified within the cohort Afrotheria in the clade Paenungulata, alongside Proboscidea (elephants), Hyracoidea (hyraxes), Embrithopoda, Desmostylia, and Afroinsectiphilia. This clade was first established by George Gaylord Simpson in 1945 based on anatomical evidence, such as testicondy and similar fetal development. The Paenungulata, along with the Afrotheria, are one of the most well-supported mammalian clades in molecular phylogeny. Sirenia, Proboscidae, and Desmotylia are grouped together in the clade Tethytheria. Based on morphological similarities, Tethytheria, Perissodactyla, and Hyracoidea were considered to be grouped together as the Altungulata, but this has been invalidated by molecular data.


title: Sirenia

text: The warm waters of the equator have been the center of Sirenian habitation and tend to live in warm shallow waters. Florida is the most Northern territory of the Florida Manatee subspecies because of temperature barriers limiting its range. To regulate temperature in cold winters the Florida Manatee frequents springs, power plants, and warm canals. The Florida Manatee is a costal animal that travels into freshwater rivers, springs, and bays. Individuals may migrate North in the warm summer months, some up to 1,000 kilometers (about 621.37 mi) from their normal wintering site. The Antillean manatee (Trichechus manatus manatus) are Caribbean, South America, and Central America and frequent drowned cays, mangroves, lagoons, and sea grass beds. The Amazonian Manatee (Trichechus inunguis) has been documented in all parts of the Amazon River Basin in South America. River channels that connect allow for easy travel to other waterways where food may be plentiful. The Amazonian manatee lives only in fresh bodies of water. The West African Manatee live in murky isolated inland mangroves and costal flats in West Africa. They are found in waters above 18 °C and their range spans from Senegal to Angola.