title: Medusa (comics)

text: Medusa belongs to the race of Inhumans, a species of prehistoric earthlings mutated by the Terrigen Mists produced deep under the Inhuman city-state of Attilan, presently located in the oxygen-rich Blue Area of the Moon. Medusa's younger sister is Crystal (who later became the wife of the Avenger Quicksilver). Considered a member of Attilan's Royal Family, Medusa's parents chose to expose her to the Terrigen Mists when she was a child.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: During her adolescent years, Medusa would often visit her distant cousin Black Bolt during his confinement, and she learned to communicate with him through body language. During these visits, the two fell in love and became engaged. She attended Black Bolt's release from his isolation cell at the age of eighteen and witnessed the first confrontation between Black Bolt and his insane brother, Maximus the Mad. Maximus also claims to be in love with Medusa and has made frequent attempts to usurp both the throne of Attilan as well as his brother's bride-to-be. It was in Maximus' first successful attempt to take the throne that Medusa was knocked off a sky-sled by the Trikon and afflicted with amnesia. She left Attilan and wandered across Europe as a thief.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Still suffering from amnesia, Medusa joined the super-villain team the Frightful Four and battled the Fantastic Four on three separate occasions.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: She was then pursued by Gorgon on behalf of Maximus. Eventually, Medusa regained her senses and rejoined forces with the Inhumans Royal Family on the run. She was reunited with Black Bolt who had been searching for her, and returned to Attilan. However, she became trapped in Atillan by the "negative zone" barrier created by Maximus. She was eventually freed from the barrier at great cost by Black Bolt, and left the Great Refuge to visit the outside world as an adventurer. It was some time before the disastrous effects of worldly pollution on the Inhumans were known. She engages Spider-Man in his title for an issue, being manipulated by the manufacturer/promoter of a line of shampoo products. She also has been re-abducted by the Frightful Four in an attempt to manipulate her. The Fantastic Four became friends and allies and aided the Inhumans on several occasions, such as during the frequent power struggles between Black Bolt and the deranged Maximus.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Medusa has been known to join the Fantastic Four as a full team member for brief periods. She became a temporary replacement for Susan Richards, known as the Invisible Girl at that time when on family leave, caring for her comatose son Franklin Richards. Through her relations with the Fantastic Four, Medusa and Black Bolt have sought to achieve an understanding and peace between the races of Earth and Attilan. Nevertheless, the Inhumans have been forced to relocate their home of Attilan several times due to continued human hostility.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Black Bolt would eventually become the king of the Inhumans upon the death of his parents. Medusa oversaw the moving of Attilan to the Blue Area of the Moon. Alongside the Inhuman Royal Family, she battled the Avengers under Maximus's mind control. Medusa and Black Bolt were then married and Medusa was made queen, becoming both royal consort and royal interpreter. When Medusa became pregnant, Attilan's Genetics Council argued that the pregnancy should be terminated due to the possibility of the child inheriting Maximus' insanity coupled with Black Bolt's immense and destructive power. Medusa defied the council and fled to Earth to avoid the compulsory abortion and live anonymously in the desert until the child was born, a son named Ahura. Black Bolt reconciled with Medusa and the pair returned to Attilan and turned their infant son over to the Genetics Council. Following these events, Ahura was not mentioned or seen in the Marvel Universe for several years.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Later, alongside the Inhumans and the original X-Factor, she battled Apocalypse. Alongside the Inhumans and Avengers, she also battled the Brethren.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Medusa's primary role among the Inhumans is as interpreter for her liege and husband, the silent but commanding Black Bolt. As such she is an experienced state figure within the quasi-feudal system of the Inhumans' government, and is used to speaking with awareness of regal issues of protocol and comportment. This imperial attitude is usually tempered by her strong sense of morality and fairness.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Medusa is featured in the six issue series "Beyond!". She is kidnapped along with other famous and infamous superhumans to the artificial planet known as Battleworld. Medusa witnessed Venom's killing of the Space Phantom disguised as Spider-Man, leading her to believe the real Spider-Man had been murdered. Medusa passes royal judgement that Venom must undergo fifty lashes. She supersedes the authority of the Avenger's representative, Janet Van Dyne, and uses the control over her hair to create a whipping motion so fast that it produces miniature sonic booms, which Venom is especially vulnerable to. While Hank Pym tries to dissuade Medusa from continuing the punishment, Venom is able to stab Medusa through the thigh. Later on in the issue, Medusa saves the team during the sudden crash landing of their space vessel by absorbing the majority of the impact with her hair. As stated by Wasp, Medusa is the team's primary short-range offense. Eventually the team triumphs over the Beyonder and returns to Earth. At the end of the series, Medusa can be seen alongside Black Bolt attending the funeral of her "Beyond!" teammate Gravity. She gives Gravity's parents a precious statue, the highest honor amongst the Inhumans, in commemoration of Gravity's sacrifice.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: In "I Heart Marvel", Medusa stars and narrates in a one-shot vignette appearing in issue #3 of the "Marvel Ai" edition. Titled "Silence of the Heart", the story explores the relationship between Medusa and Black Bolt. Medusa explains that her husband's silence is a burden that she also bears. Black Bolt makes an appearance at this point and the two are shown to make love as Medusa contemplates her longing to hear a moan, whisper, or laugh from him.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: The title "Son of M" focuses on Pietro Maximoff following the events of "House of M". After attempting to commit suicide, a dying Pietro is brought to Attilan by Crystal. While Gorgon protests, Medusa grants Pietro asylum in Attilan until he is fully recovered. Once healed, a depowered Pietro tries to convince Black Bolt and Medusa to allow him access to the Terrigen Mists, but Medusa firmly states that Terrigenesis is a process forbidden to outsiders and that such a process upon a human could result in drastic mutations. Pietro manages to expose himself to the Mists regardless, and receives new powers before collecting both the Terrigen Crystals and his daughter, Luna, and returning to Earth. The crystals eventually end up in the possession of a black-ops sector of the United States government. The sector's subsequent refusal to return the crystals sparks a declaration of war between the Inhumans and the United States.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: During this title it is made reference that Black Bolt and Medusa are childless. Upon discovery that Luna has been taken to Earth by Pietro, Medusa advises Crystal that perhaps it is right that Pietro should spend time with his daughter. Crystal remarks that if Medusa had children of her own she might be able to understand how she felt over the matter. It is not apparent whether this is an example of Ahura's existence being retconned from the Marvel Universe, or if this is meant to be a sarcastic comment in reference to Ahura's supposed confinement.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: The events of "Silent War" immediately follow the events of "Son of M". The Silent War series reveals a growing rift between Medusa and Black Bolt as the two disagree on his decision to declare war against the United States for failing to relinquish the Terrigen Crystals. Medusa finds herself no longer able to interpret her husband's wishes as she used to. While Medusa is issuing Black Bolt's war declarations to the Inhumans council he becomes frustrated and snaps his fingers to silence her, indicating that she wasn't relating what he intended. Medusa later confides to Black Bolt that he had never treated her that way before, as if she were a dog, and Black Bolt responds apologetically.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Their son, Ahura, also reappears in this series as a mentally unstable adolescent. Medusa argues that Black Bolt seems not to care that their son is being kept in isolation, and advises him that despite his orders she has gone to visit Ahura in his cell on more than one occasion. Black Bolt is angered by this and becomes physically aggressive with Medusa, grabbing her face and mouth to silence her. In her growing confusion with her husband's actions, Medusa finds herself drawn to Maximus against her will and would visit him often in his prison cell. It is revealed by Luna, Crystal's daughter, that Maximus had somehow implanted a "darkness" into Medusa's mind that was affecting her actions. Later on, Medusa and Maximus share a kiss as a distraught Black Bolt watches from the shadows. Medusa's thoughts at the time, however, reveal that she is not in control of her actions and that she only loves Black Bolt. The end of Silent War is left a cliffhanger with Black Bolt confined in prison, Ahura released, and Medusa now at Maximus' side as he assumes the throne of the Inhumans.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Due to inconsistencies with other Marvel titles featuring Black Bolt during this time, it is unclear when, and if, "Silent War" takes place in relation to The Illuminati, World War Hulk, and Secret Invasion storylines.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Medusa appears alongside Black Bolt in issue #1 of the "World War Hulk" series. Medusa is seen with Black Bolt when Hulk attacks Attilan. She warns Hulk not to pursue a fight with her husband, as Black Bolt has defeated Hulk in past battles. The fight begins and Medusa is not shown to interfere or assist. Black Bolt is subsequently defeated by Hulk, though the battle is not shown beyond Black Bolt's opening attack, and it is made unclear as to how Hulk managed to win the fight.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: It was revealed in "" that Black Bolt had been replaced by a Skrull impostor for an unknown amount of time. The impostor revealed himself to the Illuminati and was killed. Both the sudden rift between Medusa and Black Bolt apparent in "Silent War" and Black Bolt's later defeat at the hands of Hulk in "World War Hulk" could be attributed to this development, for it is uncertain just when Black Bolt might have been replaced by his Skrull duplicate.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: When the "Secret Invasion" begins, the Inhumans part of the story, by "Heroes" writer Joe Pokaski, digs into how the Inhuman Royal Family deals with the news that the Black Bolt they knew was a Skrull impostor. Medusa is shown fighting a Skrull that not only possesses her powers, but also possesses the powers of Mister Fantastic. Medusa heads into Kree space to get Ronan the Accuser to help look for the Skrull ship containing Black Bolt and her son. She succeeds in rescuing her family and returning to Attilan.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: During the "War of Kings" storyline, Medusa was with the Inhumans when they went into space and forged an alliance with the Kree and was also there when Havok, Lilandra Neramani, and the rest of Havok's Starjammers requested asylum from Vulcan and his forces. When Maximus speaks out, Medusa pushes him aside. After Ronan is wounded in battle with Vulcan's forces, Medusa states to the Shi'ar that they had made a big mistake and vows that they will pay for this. Medusa does a broadcast on Black Bolt's behalf and tells the citizens of the Kree Empire that they have suffered an unprovoked assault by the forces of the Shi'ar. The shield that once protected their star system has fallen. During a discussion with the other members of the Inhuman Royal Family, Medusa states that Shi'ar blood will spill in the next fight while trying to keep the Kree in line. Medusa and Black Bolt approve of Maximus' idea to create a mechanism to help them in their fight against the Shi'ar. Medusa ends up devastated when the T-Bomb goes off with Black Bolt and Vulcan still where the T-Bomb was. While weeping in Crystal's arms, Medusa declared that they have won.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: During the "Dark Reign" storyline, Medusa was seen when Quicksilver appears in Attilan and present them with the Xerogen Crystals following the defeat of Unspoken. Medusa then absolves him of his crimes and restores his citizenship.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: During the "Realm of Kings" storyline, Medusa ends up taking control of the Inhumans following Black Bolt's death. Devos the Devastator arrives and ends up inciting a riot in the Alpha Primitives. The Mighty Avengers arrive and help to quell the riots incited by Devos the Devastator. Henry Pym learns from Medusa about what happened to Black Bolt and expresses his sorrow for her loss as he too had lost Wasp. Medusa and the rest of the Inhumans deal with Dr. Vere and Zarek when they plot to overthrow the Inhuman Royal Family.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: She takes her husband's place in the Illuminati when Iron Man reassembles the team in response to the Hood's attempts to acquire the Infinity Gems, although in the end Steve Rogers takes 'custody' of Black Bolt's gem at the conclusion of the crisis.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: As part of the "Marvel NOW!" event, Medusa becomes a member of the Future Foundation when the Fantastic Four take a time-traveling trip.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: During the "Civil War II" storyline, Medusa and Crystal introduce the Inhuman Ulysses to Captain Marvel, War Machine, and Black Panther. Medusa later catches Iron Man infiltrating New Attilan to claim Ulysses and fails to reason with him. After Iron Man defeats Medusa, Crystal, and Karnak and makes off with Ulysses, Medusa leads some Inhumans to Stark Tower to confront Iron Man which led the Avengers, the Ultimates, S.H.I.E.L.D., and other superheroes to intervene. Medusa was present when Ulysses projected his latest vision of a rampaging Hulk standing over the corpses of the superheroes.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: During the "Inhumans vs. X-Men" storyline, Beast overhears Medusa telling the rest of the Inhuman Royal Family that they to be prepared just in case the X-Men lose patience in their truce and attack them. As the X-Men take action against the Inhumans, Medusa sends Iso and Inferno to find out what happened to Black Bolt and Crystal as she prepares for battle. Medusa then fights the time-displaced Beast in the lab of the original Beast as she effectively calls off the truce. As she gets the upper hand, Nightcrawler teleports in and takes her away. Despite the subsequent escalation of the conflict, when Medusa learns that the X-Men only attacked now because the Terrigenesis cloud was about to reach the point where it would make the whole planet toxic to mutants, she resolves the situation by destroying the cloud, preventing any further Inhumans from manifesting their powers, feeling that the future of her species is not worth the present loss of mutant life that would result. She also abdicates her throne to Iso.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: In the aftermath, she along with her sister, Crystal, Black Bolt, Flint, Gorgon and Swain, are guided by Noh-Varr to the former Kree throne-world of Hala where he has stated they may discover the origins of Terrigen and in so doing offer a future to their doomed people, however, things are not well for the former Queen as she runs her hand through her powerful hair only to pull a large clump out with it, forcing her to announce to her crew that she is dying. It is soon apparent that Medusa's decision to destroy the Terrigen Cloud is the reason that is afflicting Medusa. She did what she had to in order to save the Mutant race, but in doing so she had doomed the future of her people. Because Medusa had pressed the button, that act had the consequence of gradually draining the life energies from her. Akin to dying of a broken heart, Medusa had acted to end a cultural heritage that had lasted millennia, and her body has essentially chosen to end with it. Her only hope now is to find the secrets of the Terrigen and bring a new source of it back to their people, so she too can be revitalized. When the Inhumans obtain the Primagen from the Progenitors' World Farm and Gorgon buys his fellow Inhumans time to get away, Maximus takes a sample of the Primagen and has a vision where the Progenitors attack Earth in retaliation for the theft of the Primagen. While on the Astral Plane with Black Bolt, Medusa and Black Bolt agreed to continue as partners and not lovers. When Medusa takes the Primagen, it restores her hair and health while also causing a backlash in the attacking Progenitor to destroy the approaching Progenitors causing the Ordinator-Class Progenitors that saw the attack from the World Farm to spare Earth from their invasion.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: During the "Death of the Inhumans" storyline, Medusa is seen with the Inhuman Royal Family when they find the dead bodies of the Universal Inhumans. When an explosive trap starts to go off, Medusa managed to make it out alive. Medusa and the Inhuman Royal Family later mourn the fallen Inhumans following Vox's attack on New Arctilan. After Black Bolt was taken captive by the Kree, Medusa and the surviving Inhuman Royal Family members try to recruit Beta Ray Bill in their fight against Vox and the Kree. The Inhuman Royal Family are finally taking the battle to the Kree and arrive just in time to save Black Bolt from Vox. Medusa is present when it is discovered that Vox is not a Super-Inhuman and is just a Kree programming. When the Inhuman Royal Family and Beta Ray Bill take the battle to the Kree, Medusa and Karnak fight a Vox-controlled Crystal and Lockjaw. After Black Bolt's sonic scream is used on the Vox-controlled Inhumans enough to free Crystal and Lockjaw and cause the Kree to retreat, Medusa is pleased that Crystal and Lockjaw are freed from Vox's control. Black Bolt emerges from the room as Medusa orders Lockjaw to take them away from the Kree base. When Crystal asks where they should go, Black Bolt uses his sign language to say "home." Lockjaw then teleports them away.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Medusa possesses a long, thick head of red hair; thanks to her exposure to the mutagenic Terrigen Mist, every strand of her hair has great tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and sheer resistance far surpassing human hair. She possesses the psychokinetic ability to animate her hair for a number of feats, including elongating it to almost twice its normal length (Medusa's hair is approximately in length when relaxed), and using her hair to lift and move heavy weights (up to 1.6 tons); a portion of her hair must be used to anchor the rest at these greater weights, so that more than her scalp/skull is used as a brace.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Medusa can control the movement of her hair as if it were countless thin appendages growing from her head. A psionic field permeates her mutagenically altered hair-cells, causing mutual attraction across the gaps between strands. These relatively small forces operate in conjunction to develop larger forces. Through concentration, she can psionically move her hair in any manner imaginable. She can snap the length of it through the air like a whip (the tip of which moves faster than the speed of sound), or rotate it in a fan-like manner. She can bind persons or objects with it as if it were rope, or use it to lift objects which weigh more than she could lift with her arms. Her scalp, skull, and neck do not support the weight of an object that she lifts: It is held aloft by the psionic force coursing through the hair. Medusa can also perform delicate manipulations with her hair such as lock picking or threading a needle, and such complex acts of coordination as typing or shuffling a deck of cards. Although she has no nerve endings in her hair, she can "feel" sensations on all parts of her hair by a form of mental feedback from her psionic field.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Medusa is an accomplished thief, using her hair. Medusa is also able to retain some degree of control over her hair after it has been cut or otherwise severed from her scalp. She presumably has the typical enhanced physical abilities granted by the genetically superior Inhuman physiology. She is also highly skilled at interpreting the gestures and body language of Black Bolt, and is fluent in a special sign language she uses with Black Bolt.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Like all Inhumans, Medusa's immune system is weaker than that of an average human. However, due to her frequent ventures into the outside world, Medusa's immune system is stronger than that of her fellow Inhumans. As such, she has attained a resistance to the pollutants of the outside world, which enabled her to join the Fantastic Four (as well as be a former member of the Frightful Four) in the first place.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Jesse Schedeen of "IGN" stated, "If any Inhuman rivals Black Bolt in terms of importance, it's his queen, Medusa. Unlike her namesake, Medusa isn't known for having snakelike qualities or turning people to stone. Instead, her hair is her primary weapon. She can control every strand, using it to choke or restrain enemies, or even cut through objects like razor wire. Like Black Bolt, Medusa seems too important a character to not introduce in some form before the Inhumans movie. Unlike her husband, Medusa has a habit of venturing out into the wider world and mingling with humanity. She's even served as a member of the Fantastic Four several times in the comics. Much like Karnak, we could see Medusa appearing in the role of an emissary from Attilan, tasked with exploring the outside world and meeting the growing population of Inhumans. With the growing outcry for more female heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel could do a lot worse than introducing Medusa well ahead of the Inhumans movie. In many ways, she's become the face of the franchise in the comics now, and the same could happen for the MCU as well." CA Staff of "ComicsAlliance" asserted, "Like many great characters, Medusa casts an evocative image, with her massive red mane of prehensile hair. Moreso than its king, Attilan's queen is immediately noticeable as a figure of power, and as the voice of the royal family and its matriarch, Medusa at her best is allowed to be a complex figure balancing the responsibilities of power and family. Her time with the Future Foundation deepened her character, showcasing her empathy, balanced with her otherworldly authority and that hair that radiates around her like an aura. A striking figure both in design and character, Medusa is not to be trifled with." Matthew Aguilar of "Comicbook.com" wrote, "Medusa has become a bigger fixture of the Marvel universe in recent years, thanks to the push the Inhumans have received in the comics. That push is now starting to expand past the comics and into television, as a new series will be debuting on ABC later this year, and Medusa will be front and center. The character has seen the share of unique and eye catching looks over the years. She's gone from the Fantastic Fouresque costume (she was in the Frightful Four after all) to something much more fantasy oriented and a bit of everything in between. Some have worked, some have woefully underdelivered, but she's remained one of the most popular Inhumans despite the changes in appearance." Jackson Brueheim of "CBR.com" said, "Medusa is without a doubt the most recognizable Marvel character to have prehensile hair. She is well-known as the Queen of the Inhumans and a fierce fighter with equally fierce follicles. She rules her people alongside her husband Black Bolt while sharing a telepathic connection to him. As for her hair, it can double its length when needed and lift objects over 1,000 pounds. Adding in the fact that her immune system is stronger than the average Inhumans', she sets a high standard for other characters with controllable hair."


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Trevor Norkey of "Screen Rant" wrote, "Among the different characters in the "Inhumans" comics, Medusa is certainly one of the most well known. This Queen of Attilan had a profound effect on all of her people, being one of the most powerful members of the civilization's political spectrum. Much of Medusa's work was done in outreach programs to Earth. After Earth's discovery of Attilan, Medusa dealt with most of the relations between the two civilizations to make sure that there was a mutual respect between the different governments. Medusa's work on Earth combined with her respect in Attilan itself makes her into a truly great Queen. Additionally, her personal power adds to her overall strength. After all, a Queen with magic, crazy powerful hair is certainly not a Queen you would want to mess with. Unfortunately, Medusa is not the most fond of her leadership position. She is only part of the Attilan Royal Family through marriage, and originally had much different plans for her career during her early years. All in all, while Medusa may not be as powerful as Blackbolt, she is still one of the greatest leaders in Attilan, and overall one of the greatest members of royalty in all of Marvel comics." Blair Marnell of "Nerdist" asserted, "Medusa is best known for her striking red hair, which has incredible tensile strength and the ability to elongate at will, while also giving Medusa the ability to carry herself or heavy objects. Think of the way that Disney used Rapunzel in "Tangled", except on a much grander scale. [...] For decades, Medusa and the rest of the Inhumans were better known as supporting characters. But in recent years, Marvel has aggressively pushed the Inhumans in their comic book universe. Consequently, Medusa has emerged as one of Marvel’s top heroines and headlined many of the "Inhumans" comic book titles as the sole ruler of her people. Medusa has even joined A-Force, the team of all-female Avengers that emerged during the "Secret Wars" crossover. More recently, Medusa led her followers into war against the mutants during the "Inhumans vs. X-Men" event series. Now that the Inhuman royal family are finally joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Medusa’s profile will inevitably be raised again. It should be interesting to see how Medusa’s signature hair will be rendered on screen." Mark Peters of "Salon.com" said, "The comic-book grapevine is continually buzzing that Marvel is determined to push the Inhumans as a substitute for the mutants whose movie rights are owned by rival studio Fox. So why not bring in the queen of the Inhumans to build interest? Bonus: Medusa has the most visually exciting hair in comics: her red locks, which can be used as tentacle-like weapons, have enlivened more classic comic-book covers than any other character’s coiffure." Peyton Hinckle of "ComicsVerse" stated, "Recent comics have tried to separate Medusa and Black Bolt in the hopes of showing each character as an individual instead of as part of a unit. Black Bolt’s solo series, "Black Bolt", has fleshed out his character and made him more than just a scary guy who sits on a throne all day. Similarly, the series "Royals" made Medusa into a character who was more than just the Queen of the Inhumans. The loss of her Inhuman power showed a vulnerable side of Medusa’s character that’s never been seen before. Although modern Inhumans comics have done interesting things with Medusa and Black Bolt as separate characters, the two haven’t had a lot of panel time together."


title: Medusa (comics)

text: In the alternate future of "Earth X", Medusa's hair volume has drastically increased. She has lost Black Bolt and fears the emotional loss of her son, Ahura. She is the acting ruler and Queen of the Inhumans. Many of her remaining friends and allies have mutated due to the incidents on Earth. As a way to tie together some of the powerful factions remaining on Earth, Captain Britain proposes to her. Their story continues into the mini-series "Paradise X", where convenience has turned into love. However, the status of their relationship and their political positions is thrown into turmoil when Captain Britain's presumed lost wife Meggan is brought back to life.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: In "Heroes Reborn", Medusa's home city of Attilan plays host to the Fantastic Four. As in other realities, she speaks for her husband, Black Bolt. The Four are asked to help the Inhumans stop the plans of Maximus the Mad, who seeks out and plans to control the Terrigen Mists. The group at first does not understand the request, which leads to a battle. Medusa proves herself a capable fighter, helping to keep the battle at a stalemate.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: In this universe, Galactus is worshipped, and the Royal Council pay reverence to him and his team of heralds in the form of finely crafted statues throughout Attilan.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Medusa appears in the "Marvel 1602" miniseries: "1602: Fantastick Four" as a member of the "Four Who Are Frightful", and the Wizard's lover. She has snakes for hair and must also wear a veil to prevent her gaze from turning men to stone. While her introduction describes her as "Inhuman," Medusa's origins are not mentioned. She appears to be a native French speaker and goes by "Madame" Medusa.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: In "Mutant X", after the Beyonder/Goblin Queen and the vampire Dracula lay waste to the Earth's heroes in an attempt to conquer the Multiverse, a team of Inhumans, Medusa included, and Eternals attack from above. They battle in the heart of Washington D.C. Dracula easily slays the entire group.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: In "Marvel Zombies 3" #2, Medusa and the Inhuman Royal Family are shown to be zombies. Together, they visit zombie Kingpin to ask for food, which they get. In the next issue, Machine Man blows up and obliterates Medusa's rotting head.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: A version of Medusa appears in the "Ultimate Marvel" series, first appearing in the Ultimate Fantastic Four issue "Annual 1: Inhuman". She is still the queen of the Inhumans and wife to their leader, Black Bolt. As with her namesake, in this universe her skin is green in color, and she has actual snakes for hair. It is not stated whether her newly serpentine hair restricts or enhances her abilities in any way. Along with Crystal, the Inhuman Gorgon is female and also Medusa's sister. Black Bolt's brother, Maximus, does not display any romantic feelings for Medusa in this universe.


title: Medusa (comics)

text: Unlike other versions, Ultimate Medusa is against all associations with the Fantastic Four and believes that the Inhumans and humans can never co-mingle in peace. She also exhibits an extreme degree of loyalty towards her people, stating that there can be no greater honor than to put aside one's individual happiness for the welfare of Attilan. Despite these sentiments, she expresses regret over her husband's inability to vocalize his feelings. When Black Bolt does feel the need to safely speak, he vocalizes regret over Crystal's actions.


title: Berry Oakley

text: Raymond Berry Oakley III (April 4, 1948 – November 11, 1972) was an American bassist and one of the founding members of the Allman Brothers Band, known for long melodic bass runs. He is ranked number 46 on the "Bass Player" magazine's list of "The 100 Greatest Bass Players of All Time". He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Allman Brothers Band in 1995.


title: Berry Oakley

text: Oakley was born in Chicago, Illinois, raised in the suburb of Park Forest, Illinois, then moved to Florida where he met and joined Dickey Betts's band, the Blues Messengers, later called Second Coming. He was a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band in 1969, along with guitarists Betts and Duane Allman, singer and keyboardist Gregg Allman, and drummers and percussionists Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson.


title: Berry Oakley

text: Oakley's bass guitar, nicknamed "The Tractor Bass", was a Fender Jazz Bass with a Guild Bisonic bass pickup (manufactured by Hagström, a Swedish company).


title: Berry Oakley

text: On November 11, 1972, Oakley had a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia, just three blocks from where Duane Allman had his fatal motorcycle accident the year before. Oakley was riding around a sharp right bend of the road on Napier Avenue at Inverness when he crossed the line and collided at an angle with a city bus making the bend from the opposite direction. After striking the front and then the back of the bus, Oakley was thrown from his motorcycle, just as Allman had been, and struck his head. Oakley declined medical treatment after the accident and caught a ride home. Three hours later he was rushed back to the hospital, delirious and in pain, and died of cerebral swelling caused by a fractured skull. Attending doctors stated that even if Oakley had gone straight to the hospital from the scene of the accident, he could not have been saved. He was 24 years old when he died, the same age as Duane Allman.


title: Berry Oakley

text: In 1998, the Georgia State Legislature passed a resolution designating a bridge on State Highway 19/U.S. Route 41 in Macon, Georgia, as the "Raymond Berry Oakley III Bridge." At the same time, the road carried by the bridge was named Duane Allman Boulevard. The resolution stated that the names were designated "in honor and remembrance of the late founding members of the Allman Brothers Band."


title: Drive (novel)

text: Drive is a 2005 novel by James Sallis. It was first published by Poisoned Pen Press on September 1, 2005. A sequel, entitled "Driven", was published in 2012.


title: Drive (novel)

text: Set mostly in Arizona and Los Angeles, "Drive" is about a man who does stunt driving for movies by day and drives for criminals at night.


title: Drive (novel)

text: "Drive" is an expansion of a story of the same name that Sallis originally wrote for the noir anthology "Measures of Poison" (2002), published by Dennis McMillan Publications. The novel was published by Poisoned Pen Press on September 1, 2005.


title: Drive (novel)

text: "Publishers Weekly" called it Sallis' "most tightly written mystery to date, worthy of comparison to the compact, exciting oeuvre of French noir giant Jean-Patrick Manchette."


title: Drive (novel)

text: Marilyn Stasio, writing for "The New York Times", called the novel "a perfect piece of noir fiction."


title: Drive (novel)

text: Paul Skenazy of "The Washington Post" praised the author's "refreshing, even startling" prose and called it "a lovely piece of work that makes you wish some other writers would take lessons from him."


title: Drive (novel)

text: "Entertainment Weekly" wrote that the novel "reads the way a Tarantino or Soderbergh neo-noir plays, artfully weaving through Driver's haunted memory and fueled by confident storytelling and keen observations about moviemaking, low-life living, and, yes, driving."


title: Drive (novel)

text: "Drive" was adapted by screenwriter Hossein Amini into a 2011 film of the same name, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Ryan Gosling as the protagonist. Refn won the Best Director Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival for his direction of the film.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: Tata Consumer Products is an Indian fast-moving consumer goods company and a part of the Tata Group. Its registered office is located in Kolkata while its corporate headquarters is in Mumbai. It is the world's second-largest manufacturer and distributor of tea and a major producer of coffee.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: Formerly known as Tata Global Beverages Limited (TGBL), Tata Consumer Products was formed when the consumer products business of Tata Chemicals merged with Tata Global Beverages in February 2020. The company now operates in the food and beverages industry, with ~56% of their revenue coming from India while the rest is from their international businesses. After the merger, the company controls Indian and international brands like Tata Salt, Tata Tea, Tetley, Eight O'Clock Coffee, Good Earth Tea, Tata Sampann and Tata Starbucks.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: Tata Tea is the biggest-selling tea brand in India. Tetley is the biggest-selling tea brand in Canada and the second-biggest-selling in the United Kingdom and the United States.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: In the early 1980s, the tea industry in India was experiencing rising input and labour costs and dwindling margins as well as high taxes. India was facing competition on the world market not just from China, but also from other countries entering the business.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: In 1983, Tata Tea bought the stake belonging to the James Finlay group to form the individual entity Tata Tea. In the same year, the company decided to move from the commodities business to consumer branding. The first brand Tata Tea was introduced. This was followed by other brands like Kannan Devan, Agni, Gemini and Chakra Gold. In spite of being the largest market in the world, the concept of branded tea took time to be accepted.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: In the 1990s, Tata Tea decided to take its brands into the global markets. It formed an export joint venture with Britain's Tetley Tea in 1992. Other new enterprises included a majority interest in Consolidated Coffee Ltd. (Tata Coffee Ltd.) and a joint venture to manage agricultural estates in Sri Lanka. Tata Tea Inc. in United States processed and marketed instant tea from its facility in Florida, based on sourcing of instant tea products out of Munnar and Kerala. In 1993, they entered into a joint venture with Allied Lyons PLC in UK to form Estate Tata Tetley.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: In the mid-1990s, Tata Tea attempted to buy Tetley and the Lankan JVC acquired 51% shareholding in Watawala Plantations Ltd.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: In 1997 the company was embroiled in a major scandal known as the "Tata Tapes controversy" which related to funds the company provided to the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), an armed-struggle group operating in Assam.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: By 1999, Tata Tea's brands had a combined market share of 25% in India. The company had 74 tea gardens and was producing 6.2 crore kilograms of tea a year, two-thirds of it packaged and branded. Towards the end of the year, the tea business was hit by a drought in much of India. In addition, Russia, once the largest buyer of Indian tea, temporarily withdrew from the market.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: An important step for Tata Tea was the acquisition of the Tetley Group (based in United Kingdom) in 2000. It was a £271 million ($432 million) leveraged buyout. Tata Tea reportedly outbid the American conglomerate Sara Lee in what was described, at the time, as the largest takeover of a foreign company by an Indian company. At the time, Tetley was the world's second-largest tea company after Unilever's Brooke Bond-Lipton and had an annual turnover of £300 million. It was the market leader in Britain and Canada and a popular brand in United States, Australia and the Middle East.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: Established in 1837, Tetley was the first British tea company to introduce the tea bag to UK in 1953. The tea bag was followed by the first round tea bag in 1989 and the 'no drip, no mess' drawstring bag in 1997. Tetley now contributes for around two-thirds of the total turnover of Tata Tea.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: From 2005, Tata Tea began a restructuring exercise to divest direct ownership of plantations in India, a process facilitated by subsidised loans from the World Bank's International Finance Corporation.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: In 2006, Tata Tea acquired Eight O'Clock Coffee, a U.S.-based coffee producer from Gryphon Investors for $220m; before being sold to Gryphon, the Eight O'Clock Coffee brand was originally owned by The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company from its beginnings in 1859 to 2003.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: In 2007, Tata Tea launched the campaign Jaago Re! to awaken youth to social issues. The campaign was extended into 2008. In 2009, their campaign revolve around the issue of corruption with a new adline 'Ab Se Khilana Bandh, Pilana Shuru'.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: The international trade union IUF criticized the company in 2009 for not allowing statutory maternity leave to pregnant tea pluckers, and for locking out 1,000 workers on the Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate in West Bengal for so long that the local government began distributing food coupons for emergency rations to workers and their families. In May 2010, a crop sprayer died of suspected poisoning on a Tata estate in Assam, leading to protests at which two more workers were shot dead by riot police.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: On 30 January 2012, Tata Consumer Products Limited and Starbucks announced the creation of a 50:50 joint venture called Tata Starbucks Limited, which will own and operate Starbucks outlets branded as "Starbucks Coffee "A Tata Alliance"" in India. The stores started operating in 2012, launching initially in Delhi and Mumbai. The coffee shops source coffee beans from Tata Coffee, a subsidiary company of Tata Consumer Products Limited.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: On May 15, 2019, Tata Chemicals Limited (TCL) announced the de-merger of the Consumer Products Business of TCL and into TGBL through a National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) approved scheme of arrangement (“Scheme”) to become Tata Consumer. In the beverages business, Tata Consumer brands include Tata Tea, Tetley, Vitax, Eight O’Clock Coffee, Himalayan Natural Mineral Water, Grand Coffee and Joekels. In the food segment, the brands include Tata Salt and Tata Sampann.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: Tata Global Beverages Limited (TGBL) and Tata Chemicals Limited (TCL) announced that the Scheme of Arrangement between TGBL and TCL regarding the Consumer Products Business of TCL is now operational, effective from 7 February 2020. Following this, TGBL has been renamed Tata Consumer Products Limited. Tata Consumer Products combines the food and beverages brands, which include Tata Salt, Tata Tea, Tata Sampann, Tetley, Soulfull and Himalayan mineral water, under a single umbrella.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: Tata Consumer Products acquired complete control of Tata SmartFoodz Limited from Tata Industries Limited for on 12 November 2021.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: On 1 May 2022, Tata Consumer Products announced that Tata Coffee would merge with itself as part of a reorganization plan. The company stated that the merger was expected to be completed in late 2023, with shareholders of Tata Coffee receiving 3 shares in Tata Consumer Products for every 10 shares of Tata Coffee. In July 2022, Tata Consumer Products launched premuim honey products and flavoured preserves, under the company's Himalayan brand name. Also in July 2022, the company launched plant-based meat products under the brand name, Tata Simply Better.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: The company was renamed as Tata Global Beverages (now Tata Consumer Products Limited) to include the range of health and nutritional beverages it wants to enter into. Via subsidiary companies, Tata Consumer Products Limited manufactures 7 crore kilograms of tea in India, controls 54 tea estates, ten tea blending and packaging factories and employs around 59,000 people. The company owns 51 tea estates in India and Sri Lanka, especially in Assam, West Bengal in eastern India and Kerala in the south. The company is the largest manufacturer of Assam tea and Darjeeling tea and the second-largest manufacturer of Ceylon tea.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: Set up in 1964 as a joint venture with UK based James Finlay and Company to develop value-added tea, Tata Consumer Products Limited has now product and brand presence in 50 countries. It is one of India's first multinational companies. The operations of Tata Consumer Products Limited and its subsidiaries focus on branded product offerings in tea, but with a significant presence in plantation activity in India and Sri Lanka.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: The consolidated worldwide branded tea business of Tata Consumer Products Limited contributes to around 86% of its consolidated turnover with the remaining 14 per cent coming from bulk tea, coffee and investment income. With an area of approximately under tea cultivation, Tata Consumer Products Limited produces around 30 million kg of black tea annually. Instant tea is used for light density 100% teas, iced tea mixes and in the preparation of ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: Tata Consumer Products Limited owns five brands in India: Tata Tea, Tetley, Kannan Devan, Chakra Gold, and Gemini. The company has a 100% export-oriented unit (KOSHER and HACCP certified) manufacturing instant tea in Munnar, Kerala, which is the largest such facility outside United States. Tata Consumer Products Limited has subsidiaries in Australia, Great Britain, The United States of America, Czechia and India.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: In spite of a global presence, the brands are distributed differently depending on the location. As Tata tea is far better known in India and a powerful brand there, it is pushed on this market and countries with a large Indian population. Therefore, Tetley is the company's global face and the largest markets focus on the Tetley brand. Where both brands co-exist in one market, Tetley is positioned as the premium tea.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: Tata Global Beverages worked with Janaagraha on a voter registration drive, with the campaign name ""Jaago Re!"" ("Wake Up!"). Following this, the company moved the campaign on to opposing corruption. The Jaago Re! website encourages discussion on this and other social issues.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: Tata Global Beverages awarded the Tata Global Beverages Re-imagination Scholarships on 17 March 2013 to eight students from the 'Urban Scholars' program at Brunel University in London. The participating students were required to write an essay based on the following topic "A hot cup of tea on a cold morning, sharing a joke over a cup of coffee, a sip of cool water after a long trek. Beverages are part of our everyday life and yet they also sprinkle some magic on it—moments of reflection, sharing, inspiration and laughter...moments which take us away from the ordinary. What do you think makes a magical beverage moment?"


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: In January 2014, Tata Consumer Products Limited and International Finance Corporation (IFC) which is part of World Bank were criticized for poor working conditions, low wages, and gross human rights violations in a report released by Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School. The report alleges Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited (APPL) that is partly owned by Tata Tea and IFC is in violation of many of provisions of Indian Plantation Labor Act (PLA) on its tea plantations in Assam and West Bengal.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: In March 2014 a documentary on The Guardian news web site claims that Tata Global Beverages is underpaying the minimum Indian wage at an Assam tea plantation that Tata co-owns with Tetley and other major tea producers.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: In October 2015, a movement of 6,000 female labourers calling themselves "Pempilai Orumai", or women's unity laid siege to the Munnar tea estates, one of Kerala's most popular tourist destinations and owned subsidiary of Tata Tea's plantation in Kerala. Trade and tourism were brought to a near standstill but, after nine days of protest and marathon negotiations overseen by the chief minister of the state, it gave in.


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: The spark that ignited the protest was a decision to cut the 20% bonus paid to tea pickers, but its roots go much deeper than that. "Part of the women's complaint is that they live in one-bed huts without toilets and other basic amenities and, while they earn significantly more than the tea workers in Assam, they say the (£2.30) they are paid for a day's work is half what a daily wage laborer in Kerala would get."


title: Tata Consumer Products

text: The maximum stake is being held with Indian promoters of the business i.e., Tata Group with a percentage share of 34.66%. Mutual funds hold a 14.86% share and FPIs hold a 17.05% stake in the company. Non-institutional individuals hold a 20.38% share in the company.


title: Primum non nocere

text: Non-maleficence, which is derived from the maxim, is one of the principal precepts of bioethics that all students in healthcare are taught in school and is a fundamental principle throughout the world. Another way to state it is that, "given an existing problem, it may be better not to do something, or even to do nothing, than to risk causing more harm than good." It reminds healthcare personnel to consider the possible harm that any intervention might do. It is invoked when debating the use of an intervention that carries an obvious risk of harm but a less certain chance of benefit.


title: Primum non nocere

text: The origin of the phrase is uncertain. Some early versions of the Hippocratic Oath include the promise "to abstain from doing harm" () but do not include the precise phrase. Perhaps the closest approximation in the Hippocratic Corpus is in "Epidemics": "The physician must ... have two special objects in view with regard to disease, namely, to do good or to do no harm" (book I, sect. 11, trans. Adams, ).


title: Primum non nocere

text: According to Gonzalo Herranz, Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Navarre, "Primum non nocere" was introduced into American and British medical culture by Worthington Hooker in his 1847 book "Physician and Patient". Hooker attributed it to the Parisian pathologist and clinician Auguste François Chomel (1788–1858), the successor of Laennec in the chair of medical pathology, and the preceptor of Pierre Louis. Apparently, the axiom was part of Chomel's oral teaching. Hooker, however, was quoting an earlier work by Elisha Bartlett who, on pages 288–289, says "The golden axiom of Chomel, that it is only the second law of therapeutics to do good, its first law being this – not to do harm – is gradually finding its way into the medical mind, preventing an incalculable amount of positive ill.”


title: Primum non nocere

text: However, Hooker used neither the specific expression, nor the traditional Latin phrase. A detailed investigation of the origins of the aphorism was reported by the clinical pharmacologist Cedric M. Smith in the April 2005 issue of "The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology". It addresses the questions of the origin and chronology of appearance of the maxim. Rather than being of ancient origin as usually assumed, the specific expression, and its even more distinctive associated Latin phrase, has been traced back to an attribution to Thomas Sydenham (1624–1689) in a book by Thomas Inman (1860), "Foundation for a New Theory and Practice of Medicine". Inman's book and his attribution were reviewed by an author who signed simply as "H. H." in "The American Journal of the Medical Sciences", also in 1860. An American surgeon, L.A. Stimson, used the expression in 1879 and again in 1906 (in the same journal). That it was in common use by the 20th century is apparent from later mentions, such as by the prominent obstetrician J. Whitridge Williams in 1911, as well as detailed discussion of its use in a popular book authored by Dr. Morris Fishbein, editor of "The Journal of the American Medical Association" in 1930.


title: Primum non nocere

text: The article also reviews the various uses of the now popular aphorism, its limitations as a moral injunction, and its increasingly frequent use in a variety of contexts.


title: Steven Rinella

text: Steven Rinella (born February 13, 1974) is an American outdoorsman, conservationist, writer, and television personality known for translating the hunting and fishing lifestyle to a wide variety of audiences.


title: Steven Rinella

text: Steven Rinella was born in Twin Lake, Michigan on February 13, 1974. He grew up in Twin Lake along with his two older brothers, who were taught to hunt and fish at an early age by their father.


title: Steven Rinella

text: Rinella is the host of MeatEater, a weekly half-hour hunting show. The show ran for six seasons on Sportsman Channel before moving to Netflix in 2018. The show is based on Rinella's hunting and fishing adventures in such locations as Montana (deer, elk); Alaska (waterfowl, mountain goat, Dall sheep, caribou, black bear, moose); Mexico (wild turkey, buffalo); New Zealand (tahr, chamois, red stag); Arizona (mountain lion, Coues deer); Wisconsin (white-tailed deer, rabbit, beaver, muskrat); and California (wild pigs, quail, and turkey.)


title: Steven Rinella

text: The show offers a defense of hunting and makes the case that hunters are obligated to be stewards of the land and protectors of their chosen prey species. The episodes include interesting and sometimes artful food preparations after the hunt. Examples include a deer's heart wrapped in caul fat and roasted over a fire, javelina meat boiled inside the animal's own stomach, and more common preparations. The series premiered on January 1, 2012, and has completed its tenth season.


title: Steven Rinella

text: "A 2018 documentary that follows a group of hunters as they grapple with complexities in the wild. Steven directed and starred in this."


title: Steven Rinella

text: Rinella hosts a podcast called "The MeatEater Podcast" that ranks among the top ten sports podcasts. In addition to hosting his own podcast, Rinella is also a frequent guest on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast hosted by Joe Rogan.


title: Steven Rinella

text: In 2012, "MeatEater" was nominated for Sportsman Channel's Sportsman Choice Awards for Best New Series, Best Host, Best Hunting Show and Best Educational Show


title: Steven Rinella

text: A year earlier, "The Wild Within" was a James Beard Awards finalist for best Television Program, On Location.


title: Steven Rinella

text: "American Buffalo" won a number of awards, including the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award. It was also an Amazon Book of the Month and one of "The San Francisco Chronicle"ʼs best fifty non-fiction books of 2008.


title: John o' Groats

text: John o' Groats () is a village 2.5 mi (4 km) northeast of Canisbay, Caithness, in the far north of Scotland. John o' Groats lies on Great Britain's northeastern tip, and is popular with tourists as one end of the longest distance between two inhabited points on the British mainland, with Land's End in Cornwall lying southwest, but it is not the northernmost point of mainland Great Britain, which is the nearby Dunnet Head.


title: John o' Groats

text: John o' Groats is from London, from Edinburgh, from the Orkney Isles, and from the North Pole. It is from the uninhabited Island of Stroma.


title: John o' Groats

text: The settlement takes its name from Jan de Groot, a 15th-century Dutchman who once plied a ferry from the Scottish mainland to Orkney, which had recently been acquired from Norway by King James IV. Local legend has that the "o' Groats" refers to John's charge of one groat for use of his ferry, but it actually derives from the Dutch "de groot", meaning "the large". People from John o' Groats are known as "Groaters".


title: John o' Groats

text: The name John o' Groats has a particular resonance because it is often used as a starting or ending point for cycles, walks, and charitable events to and from Land's End (at the extreme south-western tip of the Cornish peninsula in England). The phrase "Land's End to John o' Groats" is frequently heard both as a literal journey (being the longest possible in Great Britain) and as a metaphor for great or all-encompassing distance, similar to the phrase common in the American continents, "coast to coast". Also, for many years, it was the northern terminal of the A9 trunk road, which now ends at Scrabster.


title: John o' Groats

text: In 2007, the population of John o' Groats was about 300. The village is dispersed, but has a linear centre with council housing, sports park, and a shop, which is on the main road from the nearest town of Wick.


title: John o' Groats

text: John o' Groats attracts large numbers of tourists from all across the world all year round. In 2005, a popular tourist guide, "Lonely Planet", described the village as a "seedy tourist trap" and in 2010, John o' Groats received a Carbuncle Award from "Urban Realm" magazine for being "Scotland's most dismal town". The completion of major redevelopment work in 2013 aimed to revitalise the area. Every July (usually the second weekend) has the annual Wildcat Motorcycle Rally held at the local village hall, which is run by a local club of motorcycle enthusiasts called TEAM MCC (The End And More Motorcycle Club).


title: John o' Groats

text: John o' Groats lies at the end of the 14th stage of the John o' Groats Trail, a long-distance walking trail from Inverness to John o' Groats.


title: John o' Groats

text: John o' Groats has public transport in the form of buses run by Stagecoach to the nearby towns of Wick and Thurso.


title: John o' Groats

text: The John o' Groats House Hotel was built on or near the site of Jan de Groot's house, and was established in 1875. It has been described by Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant as "one of the UK's most famous landmarks". It was closed for several years, and fell into disrepair until undergoing a radical transformation by Edinburgh-based architects GLM for self-catering holiday specialists Natural Retreats. It reopened for business in August 2013.


title: John o' Groats

text: John o' Groat's House was an ancient house believed to be situated in front of the present hotel and was marked with a flagpole now removed, deriving its name from John of Groat, or Groot, and his brothers, originally from Holland, said to have settled here about 1489. The house was of an octagon shape, being one room, with eight windows and eight doors, to admit eight members of the family; the heads of different branches of it, to prevent their quarrels for precedence at table. Each came in by this contrivance at his own door, and sat at an octagon table, at which, of course, there was no chief place or head.


title: John o' Groats

text: The landmark "Journey's End" signpost at John o' Groats was installed in 1964 on private land and operated as a visitor attraction by a Penzance-based photography company that also operates its counterpart at Land's End. Visitors paid a fee for a photograph of themselves next to the signpost displaying either a message or the date and distance to a location of their choice.


title: John o' Groats

text: The original site was bought in 2013 as part of the hotel redevelopment, and the signpost moved to a caravan park away. When the hotel reopened, a publicly accessible signpost was erected at the original site, without customisable text.


title: John o' Groats

text: The John O'Groat Book Festival was held for the first time in 2018. Since then, it has attracted authors such as Theresa Breslin and Christopher Brookmyre, as well as a number of local authors.


title: Crucible

text: A crucible is a ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperatures. While crucibles were historically usually made from clay, they can be made from any material that withstands temperatures high enough to melt or otherwise alter its contents.


title: Crucible

text: The form of the crucible has varied through time, with designs reflecting the process for which they are used, as well as regional variation. The earliest crucible forms derive from the sixth/fifth millennium B.C. in Eastern Europe and Iran.


title: Crucible

text: Crucibles used for copper smelting were generally wide shallow vessels made from clay that lacks refractory properties which is similar to the types of clay used in other ceramics of the time. During the Chalcolithic period, crucibles were heated from the top by using blowpipes. Ceramic crucibles from this time had slight modifications to their designs such as handles, knobs or pouring spouts allowing them to be more easily handled and poured. Early examples of this practice can be seen in Feinan, Jordan. These crucibles have added handles to allow for better manipulation, however, due to the poor preservation of the crucibles there is no evidence of a pouring spout. The main purpose of the crucible during this period was to keep the ore in the area where the heat was concentrated to separate it from impurities before shaping.


title: Crucible

text: A crucible furnace dating to 2300–1900 BC for bronze casting has been found at a religious precinct of Kerma.


title: Crucible

text: The use of crucibles in the Iron Age remains very similar to that of the Bronze Age with copper and tin smelting being used to produce bronze. The Iron Age crucible designs remain the same as the Bronze Age.


title: Crucible

text: The Roman period shows technical innovations, with crucibles for new methods used to produce new alloys. The smelting and melting process also changed with both the heating technique and the crucible design. The crucible changed into rounded or pointed bottom vessels with a more conical shape; these were heated from below, unlike prehistoric types which were irregular in shape and were heated from above. These designs gave greater stability within the charcoal. These crucibles in some cases have thinner walls and have more refractory properties.


title: Crucible

text: During the Roman period a new process of metalworking started, cementation, used in the production of brass. This process involves the combination of a metal and a gas to produce an alloy. Brass is made by mixing solid copper metal with zinc oxide or carbonate which comes in the form of calamine or smithsonite. This is heated to about 900 °C, the zinc oxide vaporizes into a gas, and the zinc gas bonds with the molten copper. This reaction has to take place in a part-closed or closed container otherwise the zinc vapor would escape before it can react with the copper. Cementation crucibles, therefore, have a lid or cap which limits the amount of gas loss from the crucible. The crucible design is similar to the smelting and melting crucibles of the period utilizing the same material as the smelting and melting crucibles. The conical shape and smallmouth allowed the lid to be added. These small crucibles are seen in Colonia Ulpia Trajana (modern-day Xanten), Germany, where the crucibles are around 4 cm in size, however, these are small examples. There are examples of larger vessels such as cooking pots and amphorae being used for cementation to process larger amounts of brass; since the reaction takes place at low temperatures lower fired ceramics could be used. The ceramic vessels which are used are important as the vessel must be able to lose gas through the walls otherwise the pressure would break the vessel. Cementation vessels are mass-produced due to crucibles having to be broken open to remove the brass once the reaction has finished as in most cases the lid would have baked hard to the vessel or the brass might have adhered to the vessel walls.


title: Crucible

text: Smelting and melting of copper and its alloys such as leaded bronze were smelted in crucibles similar to those of the Roman period which have thinner walls and flat bases to sit within the furnaces. The technology for this type of smelting started to change at the end of the Medieval period with the introduction of new tempering material for the ceramic crucibles. Some of these copper alloy crucibles were used in the making of bells. Bell foundry crucibles had to be larger at about 60 cm. These later medieval crucibles were a more mass-produced product.


title: Crucible

text: The cementation process, which was lost from the end of the Roman to the early Medieval period, continued in the same way with brass. Brass production increased during the medieval period due to a better understanding of the technology behind it. Furthermore, the process for carrying out cementation for brass did not change greatly until the 19th century.


title: Crucible

text: However, during this period a vast and highly important technological innovation happened using the cementation process, the production of crucible steel. Steel production using iron and carbon works similarly to brass, with the iron metal being mixed with carbon to produce steel. The first examples of cementation steel are wootz steel from India, where the crucibles were filled with good quality low-carbon wrought iron and carbon in the form of organics such as leaves, wood, etc. However, no charcoal was used within the crucible. These early crucibles would only produce a small amount of steel as they would have to be broken once the process has finished.


title: Crucible

text: By the late Medieval period, steel production had moved from India to modern-day Uzbekistan where new materials were being used in the production of steel crucibles, for example, Mullite crucibles were introduced. These were sandy clay crucibles which had been formed around a fabric tube. These crucibles were used in the same way as other cementation vessels but with a hole in the top of the vessel to allow pressure to escape.


title: Crucible

text: At the end of the Medieval Era and into the Post-Medieval Era, new types of crucible designs and processes started. Smelting and melting crucibles types started to become more limited in designs which are produced by a few specialists. The main types used during the Post Medieval period are the Hessian crucibles which were made in the Hesse region in Germany. These are triangular vessels made on a wheel or within a mold using high alumina clay and tempered with pure quartz sand. Furthermore, another specialized crucible which was made at the same time was that of a graphite crucible from southern Germany. These had a very similar design to that of the triangular crucibles from Hesse but they also occur in conical forms. These crucibles were traded all across Europe and the New World.


title: Crucible

text: The refining of methods during the Medieval and Post-Medieval periods led to the invention of the cupel which resembles a small egg cup, made of ceramic or bone ash which was used to separate base metals from noble metals. This process is known as cupellation. Cupellation started long before the Post Medieval period, however, the first vessels made to carry out this process started in the 16th Century. Another vessel used for the same process is a scorifier which is similar to a cupel but slightly larger and removes the lead and leaves the noble metals behind. Cupels and scorifiers were mass-produced as after each reduction the vessels would have absorbed all of the lead and become fully saturated. These vessels were also used in the process of metallurgical assay where the noble metals are removed from a coin or a weight of metal to determine the amount of the noble metals within the object.


title: Crucible

text: Crucible is used in the laboratory to contain chemical compounds when heated to extremely high temperatures. Crucibles are available in several sizes and typically come with a correspondingly-sized lid. When heated over a flame, the crucible is often held inside a pipeclay triangle which itself is held on top of a tripod.


title: Crucible

text: Crucibles and their covers are made of high temperature-resistant materials, usually porcelain, alumina or an inert metal. One of the earliest uses of platinum was to make crucibles. Ceramics such as alumina, zirconia, and especially magnesia will tolerate the highest temperatures. More recently, metals such as nickel and zirconium have been used. The lids are typically loose-fitting to allow gases to escape during the heating of a sample inside. Crucibles and their lids can come in high form and low form shapes and in various sizes, but rather small 10 to 15 ml size porcelain crucibles are commonly used for gravimetric chemical analysis. These small-size crucibles and their covers made of porcelain are quite cheap when sold in quantity to laboratories, and the crucibles are sometimes disposed of after use in precise quantitative chemical analysis. There is usually a large mark-up when they are sold individually in hobby shops.


title: Crucible

text: In the area of chemical analysis, crucibles are used in quantitative gravimetric chemical analysis (analysis by measuring mass of an analyte or its derivative). Common crucible use may be as follows. A residue or precipitate in a chemical analysis method can be collected or filtered from some sample or solution on special "ashless" filter paper. The crucible and lid to be used are pre-weighed very accurately on an analytical balance. After some possible washing and/or pre-drying of this filtrate, the residue on the filter paper can be placed in the crucible and fired (heated at very high temperature) until all the volatiles and moisture are driven out of the sample residue in the crucible. The "ashless" filter paper is completely burned up in this process. The crucible with the sample and lid is allowed to cool in a desiccator. The crucible and lid with the sample inside are weighed very accurately again only after it has completely cooled to room temperature (higher temperature would cause air currents around the balance giving inaccurate results). The mass of the empty, pre-weighed crucible and lid is subtracted from this result to yield the mass of the completely dried residue in the crucible.


title: Crucible

text: A crucible with a bottom perforated with small holes which are designed specifically for use in filtration, especially for gravimetric analysis as just described, is called a Gooch crucible after its inventor, Frank Austin Gooch.


title: Crucible

text: For completely accurate results, the crucible is handled with clean tongs because fingerprints can add a weighable mass to the crucible. Porcelain crucibles are hygroscopic, i. e. they absorb a bit of weighable moisture from the air. For this reason, the porcelain crucible and lid is also pre-fired (pre-heating to high temperature) to constant mass before the pre-weighing. This determines the mass of the completely dry crucible and lid. At least two firings, coolings, and weighings resulting in exactly the same mass are needed to confirm the constant (completely dry) mass of the crucible and lid and similarly again for the crucible, lid, and sample residue inside. Since the mass of every crucible and lid is different, the pre-firing/pre-weighing must be done for every new crucible/lid used. The desiccator contains desiccant to absorb moisture from the air inside, so the air inside will be completely dry.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Super Bowl VIII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Minnesota Vikings and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Miami Dolphins to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1973 season. The Dolphins defeated the Vikings by the score of 24–7 to win their second consecutive Super Bowl, the first team to do so since the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowls I and II, and the first AFL/AFC team to do so.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The game was played on January 13, 1974 at Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas. This was the first time the Super Bowl venue was not home to that of an NFL franchise. At the time, the Astrodome seated just over 50,000, and was considered too small to host a Super Bowl. This was also the first Super Bowl not to be held in either the Los Angeles, Miami or New Orleans areas. It was also the last Super Bowl, and penultimate game overall (the 1974 Pro Bowl in Kansas City played the next week was the last) to feature goal posts at the front of the end zone (they were moved to the endline, in the back of the end zone, the next season).


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: This was the Dolphins' third consecutive Super Bowl appearance. They posted a 12–2 record during the regular season, then defeated the Cincinnati Bengals and the Oakland Raiders in the playoffs. The Vikings were making their second Super Bowl appearance after also finishing the regular season with a 12–2 record, and posting postseason victories over the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Super Bowl VIII was largely dominated by the Dolphins, who scored 24 unanswered points during the first three quarters, including two touchdowns on their first two drives. Minnesota's best chance to threaten Miami occurred with less than a minute left in the first half, but Vikings running back Oscar Reed fumbled the ball away at the Dolphins' 6-yard line, and his team was unable to overcome Miami's lead in the second half. The Dolphins' Larry Csonka became the first running back to be named Super Bowl MVP; both his 145 rushing yards and his 33 carries were Super Bowl records.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The NFL awarded Super Bowl VIII to Houston on March 21, 1972 at the owners' meetings held in Honolulu. Houston was the first Super Bowl host to have more than a year to prepare for the game, and lead time has grown greatly in succeeding years (Los Angeles was also awarded Super Bowl VII at the March 1972 meeting).


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Although the Dolphins were unable to match their 17–0 perfect season of 1972, many sports writers, fans and Dolphins players themselves felt that the 1973 team was better. While the 1972 team faced no competition that possessed a record better than 8–6 in the regular season, the 1973 team played a much tougher schedule that included games against the Oakland Raiders, Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys (all playoff teams), plus two games against a resurgent Buffalo Bills squad that featured 2,000-yard rusher O. J. Simpson. Despite this, the Dolphins finished the 1973 season giving up fewer points (150) than in 1972, and recorded a 12–2 record, including an opening-game victory over the San Francisco 49ers that tied an NFL record with 18 consecutive wins. The Dolphins' winning streak ended in Week 2 with a 12–7 loss to the Raiders in Berkeley, California.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Just like the two previous seasons, Miami's offense relied primarily on its rushing attack. Fullback Larry Csonka recorded his third consecutive 1,000-rushing-yard season (1,003 yards), while running back Mercury Morris rushed for 954 yards and scored 10 touchdowns. Running back Jim Kiick was also a key contributor, rushing for 257 yards and catching 27 passes for 208 yards. Quarterback Bob Griese, the AFC's second-leading passer, completed only 116 passes for 1,422 yards, but threw more than twice as many touchdown passes (17) as interceptions (8), and earned an 84.3 passer rating. He became the first quarterback to start three Super Bowls and is joined by Jim Kelly and Tom Brady as the only quarterbacks to start at least three consecutive Super Bowls. Wide receiver Paul Warfield remained the main deep threat on the team, catching 29 passes for 514 yards and 11 touchdowns. Marlin Briscoe added 30 receptions for 447 yards and 2 scores. The offensive line was strong, once again led by center Jim Langer and right guard Larry Little. Griese, Csonka, Warfield, Langer, Nick Buoniconti and Little would all eventually be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Bobby Beathard was also elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Miami's "No Name Defense" continued to dominate their opponents. Future Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti recovered three fumbles and returned one for a touchdown. Safety Dick Anderson led the team with eight interceptions, which he returned for 163 yards and two touchdowns on route to winning NFL Defensive Player of the Year. And safety Jake Scott, the previous season's Super Bowl MVP, had four interceptions and 71 return yards. The Dolphins were still using their "53" defense devised at the beginning of the 1971 season, in which Bob Matheson (#53) would be brought in as a fourth linebacker in a 3–4 defense, with Manny Fernandez at nose tackle. Matheson could either rush the passer or drop back into coverage.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The Vikings also finished the regular season with a 12–2 record, winning their first nine games before a 20-14 loss on "Monday Night Football" to the Atlanta Falcons. The Vikings' other loss was a 27-0 shutout in Week 12 to the eventual AFC Central Division Champion Cincinnati Bengals, whom the Dolphins defeated in the AFC divisional playoffs.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Minnesota's offense was led by 13-year veteran quarterback Fran Tarkenton. During the regular season, Tarkenton completed 61.7 percent of his passes for 2,113 yards, 15 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. He also rushed for 202 yards and another touchdown. The team's primary deep threat was Pro Bowl wide receiver John Gilliam, who caught 42 passes for 907 yards, an average of 21.6 yards per catch, and scored eight touchdowns. Tight end Stu Voigt was also a key element of the passing game, with 23 receptions for 318 yards and two touchdowns.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The Vikings' main rushing weapon was NFL Rookie of the Year running back Chuck Foreman, who rushed for 801 yards, caught 37 passes for 362 yards and scored six touchdowns. The Vikings had four other significant running backs – Dave Osborn, Bill Brown, Oscar Reed and future actor Ed Marinaro – who combined for 1,469 rushing/receiving yards and 11 touchdowns. The Vikings' offensive line was also very talented, led by right tackle Ron Yary and six-time Pro Bowl center Mick Tingelhoff.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The Minnesota defense ranked second in the league in fewest points allowed (168) and was again anchored by a defensive line nicknamed the "Purple People Eaters", consisting of defensive tackles Gary Larsen and Alan Page, and defensive ends Jim Marshall and Carl Eller. Behind them, Pro Bowl linebacker Jeff Siemon had 2 interceptions and 2 fumble recoveries. Cornerback Bobby Bryant (seven interceptions, 105 return yards, one touchdown) and safety Paul Krause (four interceptions) led the defensive secondary.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The Vikings earned their second appearance in the Super Bowl after defeating the wild card Washington Redskins, 27–20, and the NFC East champion Dallas Cowboys, 27–10, in the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Dolphins defeated the AFC Central champion Cincinnati Bengals 34–16 in the divisional round, and the AFC West Champion Oakland Raiders, 27–10 for the AFC Championship. The Dolphins were the first team to appear in three consecutive Super Bowls. Just as in the regular season, Miami relied primarily on their run game in the playoffs, racking up 241 rushing yards against Cincinnati and 266 vs the Raiders. The ground game was particularly crucial against Oakland, as it enabled them to win despite completing just 3 of 6 passes for 34 yards in the game.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: This was the first Super Bowl in which a former AFL franchise was the favorite. The 1970 AFC champion Baltimore Colts had been the favorite in Super Bowl V, but they were an original NFL franchise prior the 1970 merger.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: This was also the first Super Bowl played in a stadium that was not the current home to an NFL or AFL team, as no team had called Rice Stadium home since the Houston Oilers moved into the Astrodome in 1968. At that time, the Astrodome seated just over 50,000 for football, and was considered too small to host the Super Bowl. It was also the first Super Bowl game played on the then-popular AstroTurf artificial playing surface, not surprising since Houston's Astrodome was the first facility to install AstroTurf in 1966. (Super Bowl V and Super Bowl VI, the first two Super Bowls played on artificial turf were played the competing Poly-Turf brand.)


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The Vikings complained about their practice facilities at Houston ISD's Delmar Stadium, a 20-minute bus ride from their hotel. They said the locker room was cramped, uncarpeted, had no lockers and that most of the shower heads did not work. The practice field had no blocking sleds. "I don't think our players have seen anything like this since junior high school", said Vikings head coach Bud Grant. The Dolphins, meanwhile, trained at the Oilers' facility, since they were an AFC team like Miami.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Having already become the first NFC Central team to even reach the NFC Championship Game, the Vikings became the first non-East Division team from either conference to play in a post-merger Super Bowl.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: There were reports of dissension among the Dolphins arising from owner Joe Robbie's decision to allow married players to bring their wives at the club's expense. The single players were reportedly angry that they could not bring their girlfriends, mothers or sisters.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Vikings defensive tackle Alan Page and Dolphins left guard Bob Kuechenberg were former teammates at the University of Notre Dame. Kuechenberg, who would be blocking Page in the game, had sustained a broken arm in a game against the Colts and wore a cast while playing in the Super Bowl. Paul Warfield entered the game with a well-publicized hamstring injury to his left leg.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: On television before the game, New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath said, "If Miami gets the kickoff and scores on the opening drive, the game is over.". Indeed, the Dolphins became the first team to score a touchdown after receiving the game's opening kickoff.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The Dolphins, who were designated as the home team, were obligated by a now-defunct policy to wear their aqua jerseys despite having normally worn white jerseys for home games (though Miami wore aqua for its final two regular-season home games vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions). Also, the Dolphins wore two slightly different helmet decals; some had the decal that the team had previously used in the 1967 season (Bob Griese's rookie year) and would permanently adopt in 1974 (mostly linemen; with the mascot dolphin leaping through the sun), while others had the decal used in 1966 and again from 1968-1973 (with the mascot dolphin halfway through the sun).


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Famed "Gonzo" writer Hunter S. Thompson covered the game for "Rolling Stone" magazine, and his exploits in Houston are legendary.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: This was the only Super Bowl in which the game ball had stripes. Until the late 1970s, the NFL permitted striped footballs for night games, indoor games and other special situations.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The game was televised in the United States by CBS with play-by-play announcer Ray Scott and color commentators Pat Summerall and Bart Starr. This was Scott's final telecast for CBS. Midway through the following season Summerall would take Scott's place as the network's lead play-by-play announcer, holding that position through 1993, when CBS lost rights to the NFC television package to Fox.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The Longhorn Band from the University of Texas at Austin performed during the pregame festivities. Later, country music singer Charley Pride sang "America the Beautiful" and the national anthem. This game marked the first time that "America the Beautiful" was performed before a Super Bowl game.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The halftime show also featured the Longhorn Band, along with Judy Mallett, Miss Texas 1973, playing the fiddle, in a tribute to American music titled "A Musical America".


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The pre-game party was held on the floor of the Astrodome the night before the game. It was attended by the players, the coaches, media, and celebrities. Entertainment was provided by The La France Sisters and Charley Pride.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The Dolphins' game plan on offense was to use misdirection, negative-influence traps, and cross-blocking to exploit the Minnesota defense's excellent pursuit. (The Kansas City Chiefs had used similar tactics against the same Vikings defensive line in Super Bowl IV). Wrote Jim Langer, "All this was successful right away. We kept ripping huge holes into their defense and Csonka kept picking up good yardage, especially to the right. We'd hear Alan [Page] cussing because those negative-influence plays were just driving him nuts. He didn't know what the hell to do." On defense, the Dolphins' goal was to neutralize Chuck Foreman by using cat-quick Manny Fernandez at nose tackle and to make passing difficult for Tarkenton by knocking down his receivers and double-teaming John Gilliam. They were also depending on defensive ends Bill Stanfill and Vern Den Herder to contain Tarkenton's scrambling. Coach Don Shula wrote, "In the case of Tarkenton we wanted to hem him in. In the case of Page, Eller and company, we wanted to try to turn their aggressiveness to our advantage. We decided to emphasize negative influence by misdirection and cross blocking, trying to make the Vikings Front Four commit to the influence of the play and then actually running it elsewhere. The Vikings responded as we anticipated. Then later in the game we found that the Vikings started hesitating, reducing their charge. When they did that, we beat them with straight blocking."


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: As they had the two previous Super Bowls, the Dolphins won the coin toss and elected to receive. The Dolphins dominated the Vikings right from the beginning, scoring touchdowns on two 10-play drives in the first quarter. Said Jim Langer, "It was obvious from the beginning that our offense could overpower their defense." The two drives were very similar, both containing 8 rushes, 2 passes (both of which were complete), one third-down conversion, and four first downs picked up, while Miami did not get penalized. First, Dolphins defensive back Jake Scott gave his team good field position by returning the opening kickoff 31 yards to the Miami 38-yard line. Then Mercury Morris ran right for four yards, Larry Csonka crashed through the middle for two, and quarterback Bob Griese completed a 13-yard pass to tight end Jim Mandich to advance the ball to the Vikings 43-yard line. Csonka then ran on second down for 16 yards, then Griese completed a six-yard pass to receiver Marlin Briscoe to the 21-yard line. Three more running plays, two by Csonka and one by Morris moved the ball to the Vikings 5-yard line. Csonka then finished the drive with a five-yard touchdown run.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Then after Minnesota's offense went three downs and out, Mike Eischeid's punt went only 34 yards. Scott fumbled the return but recoved the ball, giving Miami better field position than the opening drive. The Dolphins then went 56 yards in 10 plays (aided with three runs by Csonka for eight, 12, and eight yards, and Griese's 13-yard pass to Briscoe) to score on running back Jim Kiick's one-yard run (his only touchdown of the season) to give them a 14–0 lead.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: By the time the first quarter ended, Miami had run 20 plays for 118 yards and eight first downs, and scored touchdowns on their first two possessions, with Csonka carrying eight times for 64 yards and Griese completing all four of his passes for 40 yards. Meanwhile, the Miami defense held the Minnesota offense to only 25 yards, six plays from scrimmage, and one first down. The Vikings advanced only as far as their own 27-yard line. The Dolphins set the record which still stands for the largest Super Bowl lead (14 points) at the end of the first quarter. It has since been tied by the Oakland Raiders against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV (led 14-0) and the Green Bay Packers against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV (led 14-0).


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The situation never got much better for the Vikings the rest of the game. After each team traded punts early in the second period, Miami mounted a seven-play drive starting from their own 35-yard line, culminating in a 28-yard field goal from kicker Garo Yepremian to make the score 17–0 midway through the second quarter. On the first play of the drive, Minnesota was penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct on linebacker Wally Hilgenberg. On the previous series, Hilgenberg had thrown an elbow through Csonka's facemask, cutting Csonka above the eye, but had not been penalized. Later in the drive, Mercury Morris ran for 10 yards on a 3rd down play from the Minnesota 40-yard line to allow Miami to get into field goal range.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The Vikings then had their best opportunity to score in the first half on their ensuing drive. Starting at their own 20-yard line, Minnesota marched to the Miami 15-yard line in nine plays, aided by Fran Tarkenton's completions of 17 and 14 yards to tight end Stu Voigt and wide receiver John Gilliam's 30-yard reception. Tarkenton's eight-yard run on first down then advanced the ball to the 7-yard line. But on the next two plays, Vikings running back Oscar Reed gained only one yard on two rushes, bringing up a fourth-down-and-one with less than a minute left in the half. Instead of kicking a field goal, Minnesota attempted to convert the fourth down with another running play by Reed. However, Reed lost the ball while being tackled by linebacker Nick Buoniconti, and Scott recovered the fumble. About the decision to run with Reed on three straight plays, Grant defended the decision since the Vikes twice had converted in the NFC title game against Dallas. "If it's less than a yard, we go for it", he said. "We feel we have the plays to make it." The Dolphins, however, made the stop where the Cowboys had not.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Gilliam returned the second half kickoff 65 yards, but a clipping penalty on the play moved the ball all the way back to the Minnesota 11-yard line. Two plays later, Tarkenton was sacked for a six-yard loss by defensive tackle Manny Fernandez on third down, forcing Minnesota to punt from their own 7-yard line. Scott then returned the punt 12 yards to the Minnesota 43-yard line.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Miami then marched 43 yards in eight plays to score on Csonka's two-yard touchdown run through Hilgenberg to increase their lead to 24–0 with almost nine minutes left in the third quarter. The key play was Griese's third-and-five, 27-yard pass to wide receiver Paul Warfield to the Minnesota 11-yard line. It was Griese's last pass of the game, his only pass of the second half and just the seventh overall, and only Warfield's second, and last, catch of the game. (Because of his hamstring injury, Warfield had earlier been limping through primarily decoy routes.) The Vikings might have had the drive held to a field goal attempt when Morris lost 8 yards on a third-and-4 play from the Minnesota 5, but Hilgenberg was called for holding, giving Miami an automatic first down at the 8. From there, Csonka carried twice to a score. On the scoring play, Griese forgot the snap count at the line of scrimmage. He asked Csonka, who said "two." Kiick said, "No, it's one." Griese chose to believe Csonka, which was a mistake; it was "one." Griese bobbled the ball slightly, but still managed to get it to Csonka.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: After an exchange of punts, Minnesota got the ball back at their 43-yard line after Larry Seiple's kick went just 24 yards.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The Vikings then mounted a 10-play, 57-yard drive, with Tarkenton completing 5 passes for 43 yards, including a 15-yarder to Voigt on 3rd-and-8, and taking the ball into the end zone himself six plays into the 4th quarter on a 4-yard touchdown run. This was the first rushing touchdown by a quarterback in Super Bowl history.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Minnesota recovered the ensuing onside kick, but an offsides penalty on the Vikings nullified the play, and they subsequently kicked deep. Miami went three-and-out, but Seiple boomed a 57-yard punt and Minnesota got the ball back at its own 3-yard line. Eight plays later, along with the only penalty charged to Miami in the game (four yards for pass interference), the Vikings reached the Miami 32-yard line. Tarkenton got there with a 27-yard completion to Ed Marinaro. But after two incomplete passes, his pass intended for wide receiver Jim Lash was intercepted by Dolphins cornerback Curtis Johnson at the goal line. Miami got the ball back at their 10-yard line with 6:24 left in the game, and Csonka and Kiick were the ball carriers on all 12 remaining plays. The Dolphins picked up 2 first downs by rush and 2 by penalty on Minnesota in running out the clock. With less than four minutes to play, a frustrated Alan Page was called for a personal foul for a late hit on Griese, and then two plays later both Page and Kuechenberg were given offsetting personal fouls after getting in a scuffle with each other.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Wrote Jim Langer, "We just hit the Vikings defense so hard and so fast that they didn't know what hit them. Alan Page later said he knew we would dominate them after only the first couple of plays."


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Griese finished the game with just six out of seven pass completions for 73 yards. Miami's seven pass attempts were the fewest ever thrown by a team in the Super Bowl. The Dolphins rushed for 196 yards, did not have any turnovers, and were not penalized in the first 52 minutes. Tarkenton set what was then a Super Bowl record for completions, 18 out of 28 for 182 yards, with one interception, and rushed for 17 yards and a touchdown. Reed was the leading rusher for the Vikings, but with just 32 yards. Tight end Stu Voigt was the top receiver of the game with three catches for 46 yards. The Vikings' lethargic performance was very similar to their performance in their loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: The following records were set or tied in Super Bowl VIII, according to the official NFL.com boxscore and the ProFootball reference.com game summary. Some records have to meet NFL minimum number of attempts to be recognized. The minimums are shown (in parenthesis).


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: In the Dolphins' locker room after the game, Csonka was asked about his battered face. Without naming Hilgenberg, he said, "It was a cheap shot, but an honest cheap shot. He came right at me and threw an elbow right through my mask. I could see the game meant something to him."


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: With their 32–2 record over two years, the still-young Dolphins appeared to have established a dynasty. In 1974, however, their offense was hurt by injuries to Csonka and the offensive line, and the defense was hurt by the departure of defensive coordinator Bill Arnsparger who became the New York Giants head coach. The Dolphins finished 11–3 but lost a dramatic playoff game ("The Sea of Hands") to the Oakland Raiders. In 1975 Csonka, Kiick, and Warfield left to join the World Football League. The Dolphins would not win another playoff game until 1982, and they have not won a Super Bowl since. They would appear in but lose two more, XVII and XIX.


title: Super Bowl VIII

text: Jim Langer ended his career with the Vikings in 1981, allowing him to play for the franchise closest to his native South Dakota. Langer lost his starting center job in 1980 to Dwight Stephenson, who like Langer is a member of the Hall of Fame.


title: Harishchandra

text: Harishchandra () is a legendary king of the Solar dynasty, who appears in several legends in texts such as the "Aitareya Brahmana", "Mahabharata", the "Markandeya Purana", and the "Devi Bhagavata Purana". The most famous of these stories is the one mentioned in the "Markandeya Purana". According to this legend, Harishchandra gave away his kingdom, sold his family, and agreed to be a slave – all to fulfill a promise he had made to the sage Vishvamitra.


title: Harishchandra

text: According to a legend mentioned in "Aitareya Brahamana", Harishchandra had one hundred wives, but no son. On advice of the sage Narada, he prayed to the deity Varuna for a son. Varuna granted the boon, in exchange for an assurance that Harishchandra would make a sacrifice to Varuna in the future. As a result of this boon, a son named Rohita (or Rohitashva) was born to the king. After his birth, Varuna came to Harishchandra and demanded that the child be sacrificed to him. The king postponed the sacrifice multiple times citing various reasons, but finally agreed to it when Rohita became an adult. Rohita refused to be sacrificed and escaped to the forest. An angry Varuna afflicted Harishchandra with a stomach illness. Rohita intermittently visited his father, but on the advice of Indra, never agreed to the sacrifice. Later, Rohita managed to substitute himself with Sunahshepa in the human sacrifice. Sunahshepa prayed to the Rigvedic deities, and was saved from the sacrifice. Harishchandra's illness was also cured because of Sunahshepa's prayers; Sunahshepa was adopted by the sage Vishvamitra.


title: Harishchandra

text: A similar story is narrated in the "Ramayana", but the king's name is Ambarisha instead of Harishchandra.


title: Harishchandra

text: In the Puranas, Harishchandra is the son of Trishanku. The "Vishnu Purana" mentions him, but does not describe his life in detail. The "Markandeya Purana" contains a detailed legend about his life, narrated by wise birds to the sage Jaimini. The "Bhagavata Purana" mentions him as the father of Sagara and grandfather of Badaka, and contains a legend about his descendants.