title: A Defense of Abortion

text: In this example, the people-seeds flying through the window represent conception, despite the precautionary mesh screen, which functions as contraception. The woman in question does not want a people-seed to root itself in her house, and so she takes the necessary precautions and measures to protect herself with the best mesh screens, and then voluntarily opens the windows. However, in the event that a single people-seed finds its way through the window screens, unwelcome as it may be, does the simple fact that the woman knowingly risked such an occurrence when opening her window deny her the ability to rid her house of the intruder? Thomson notes that some may argue the affirmative to this question, claiming that "... after all you could have lived out your life with bare floors and furniture, or with sealed windows and doors". But by this logic, she says, any woman could avoid pregnancy due to rape by simply having a hysterectomy – an extreme procedure simply to safeguard against such a possibility. Thomson concludes that although there may be times when the fetus have a right to the pregnant woman's body, certainly in most cases the fetus does not have a right to her body. This analogy raises the issue of whether all abortions are killing.


title: A Defense of Abortion

text: Thomson does not support abortion in all circumstances, she gives as an example a hypothetical woman who seeks a late termination of pregnancy; "just to avoid the nuisance of postponing a trip abroad" and declares this to be "positively indecent".


title: A Defense of Abortion

text: Thomson also explicitly rejects the claim that pregnant women have a right to kill their offspring. She argues for the right of the pregnant woman to stop being pregnant, even if this results in the death of the offspring, but not for the right to ensure that the offspring is dead. If, for example, a late-term abortion accidentally results in the birth of a living baby, then Thomson would conclude that the mother has no right to kill the baby.


title: A Defense of Abortion

text: Critics of Thomson's argument generally grant the permissibility of unplugging the violinist, but seek to block the inference that abortion is permissible by arguing that there are morally relevant differences between the violinist scenario and typical cases of abortion. One notable exception to this general agreement is Peter Singer, who argues that, despite our intuitions, a utilitarian calculus implies that one is morally obliged to stay connected to the violinist.


title: A Defense of Abortion

text: The most common objection is that Thomson's violinist argument can justify abortion only in cases of rape, though Thomson uses separate analogies to argue in cases other than rape. In the violinist scenario, the pregnant woman was kidnapped: she did not consent to having the violinist plugged into her and she did nothing to cause the violinist to be plugged in, just as a woman who is pregnant due to rape did nothing to cause the pregnancy. But in some cases of abortion, the pregnant woman had voluntary intercourse, and thus has either tacitly consented to allow the fetus to use her body (the "tacit consent" objection), or else has a duty to sustain the fetus because the pregnant woman herself caused the fetus to stand in need of her body (the "responsibility" objection). Other common objections turn on the claim that the fetus is the pregnant woman's child, whereas the violinist is a stranger (the "stranger versus offspring" objection), or that abortion directly and intentionally kills the fetus, whereas unplugging the violinist merely lets him die of natural causes (the "killing versus letting die" objection).


title: A Defense of Abortion

text: Defenders of Thomson's argument reply that the alleged disanalogies between the violinist scenario and typical cases of abortion do not matter, either because the factors that critics appeal to are not genuinely morally relevant, or because those factors are morally relevant but do not apply to abortion in the way that critics have claimed. Thomson's defenders also point to her 'people-seeds' argument as a strong analogy to typical cases of abortion.


title: A Defense of Abortion

text: Thomson's article, by positing a moral justification for abortion even if one grants a fetal right to life, opened up a new avenue in the philosophical debate about the ethics of abortion. Critics of her view have formulated many objections to her argument, and defenders have responded in kind in a back and forth that continues in philosophy journals.


title: Daifuku

text: ', or ' (literally "great luck"), is a wagashi, (a type of Japanese confection) consisting of a small round mochi (a glutinous rice cake) stuffed with a sweet filling, most commonly "anko", (a sweetened red bean paste made from azuki beans). Daifuku is a popular wagashi in Japan and is often served with green tea.


title: Daifuku

text: Daifuku comes in many varieties. The most common are white, pale green, or pale pink-colored mochi filled with anko. Daifuku are approximately 4 cm (1.5 in) in diameter. Nearly all daifuku are covered in a fine layer of rice flour (rice starch), corn starch, or potato starch to keep them from sticking to each other or to the fingers. Though mochitsuki is the traditional method of making mochi and daifuku, they can also be cooked in the microwave.


title: Daifuku

text: Daifuku was originally called (belly thick rice cake) because of its filling's nature. Later, the name was changed to (big belly rice cake). Since the pronunciations of (belly) and (luck) are the same in Japanese, the name was further changed to (great luck rice cake), a bringer of good luck. By the end of the 18th century, daifuku were gaining popularity, and people began eating them toasted. They were also used for gifts in ceremonial occasions.


title: Daifuku

text: Some versions contain whole pieces of fruit, mixtures of fruit and anko, or crushed melon paste. Some are covered with confectioner's sugar or cocoa powder.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: Georg Philipp Telemann (; – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesheim, Telemann entered the University of Leipzig to study law, but eventually settled on a career in music. He held important positions in Leipzig, Sorau, Eisenach, and Frankfurt before settling in Hamburg in 1721, where he became musical director of that city's five main churches. While Telemann's career prospered, his personal life was always troubled: his first wife died less than two years after their marriage, and his second wife had extramarital affairs and accumulated a large gambling debt before leaving him.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: Telemann is one of the most prolific composers in history, at least in terms of surviving oeuvre. He was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the leading German composers of the time, and he was compared favourably both to his friend Johann Sebastian Bach, who made Telemann the godfather and namesake of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, and to George Frideric Handel, whom Telemann also knew personally. As part of his duties, he wrote a considerable amount of music for educating organists under his direction. This includes 48 chorale preludes and 20 small fugues (modal fugues) to accompany his chorale harmonisations for 500 hymns. His music incorporates French, Italian, and German national styles, and he was at times even influenced by Polish popular music. He remained at the forefront of all new musical tendencies, and his music stands as an important link between the late Baroque and early Classical styles. The Telemann Museum in Hamburg is dedicated to him.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: Telemann was born in Magdeburg, then the capital of the semi-autonomous Duchy of Magdeburg within the Electorate of Brandenburg, in the Holy Roman Empire. His father Heinrich, deacon at the Church of the Holy Spirit ([), died when Telemann was four. The future composer received his first music lessons at 10, from a local organist, and became immensely interested in music in general, and composition in particular. Despite opposition from his mother and relatives, who forbade any musical activities, Telemann found it possible to study and composed in secret, even creating an opera at age 12.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: In 1697, after studies at the Domschule in Magdeburg and at a school in Zellerfeld, Telemann was sent to the famous Gymnasium Andreanum at Hildesheim, where his musical talent flourished, supported by school authorities, including the rector himself. Telemann was becoming equally adept both at composing and performing, teaching himself flute, oboe, violin, viola da gamba, recorder, double bass, and other instruments. In 1701 he graduated from the Gymnasium and went to Leipzig to become a student at the Leipzig University, where he intended to study law. He ended up becoming a professional musician, regularly composing works for Nikolaikirche and even St. Thomas (Thomaskirche). In 1702 he became director of the municipal opera house "Opernhaus auf dem Brühl", and later music director at the Neukirche. Prodigiously productive, Telemann supplied a wealth of new music for Leipzig, including several operas, one of which was his first major opera, "Germanicus". However, he became engaged in a conflict with the cantor of the Thomaskirche, Johann Kuhnau. The conflict intensified when Telemann started employing numerous students for his projects, including those who were Kuhnau's, from the Thomasschule.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: Telemann left Leipzig in 1705 at the age of 24, after receiving an invitation to become "Kapellmeister" for the court of Count Erdmann II of Promnitz at Sorau (now Żary, Poland). His career there was cut short in early 1706 by the hostilities of the Great Northern War, and after a short period of travels he entered the service of Duke Johann Wilhelm, in Eisenach where Johann Sebastian Bach was born. He became "Konzertmeister" on 24 December 1708 and Secretary and "Kapellmeister" in August 1709. During his tenure at Eisenach, Telemann wrote a great deal of music: at least four annual cycles of church cantatas, dozens of sonatas and concertos, and other works. In 1709, he married Amalie Louise Juliane Eberlin, lady-in-waiting to the Countess of Promnitz and daughter of the musician Daniel Eberlin. Their daughter was born in January 1711. The mother died soon afterwards, leaving Telemann depressed and distraught.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: After less than a year he sought another position, and moved to Frankfurt on 18 March 1712 at the age of 31 to become city music director and "Kapellmeister" at the Barfüßerkirche and St. Catherine's Church. In Frankfurt, he fully gained his mature personal style. Here, as in Leipzig, he was a powerful force in the city's musical life, creating music for two major churches, civic ceremonies, and various ensembles and musicians. By 1720 he had adopted the use of the da capo aria, which had been adopted by composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti. Operas such as "Narciso", which was brought to Frankfurt in 1719, written in the Italian idiom of composition, made a mark on Telemann's output.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: On 28 August 1714, three years after his first wife had died, Telemann married again, Maria Catharina Textor, daughter of a Frankfurt council clerk. They eventually had nine children. This was a source of much personal happiness, and helped him produce compositions. Telemann continued to be extraordinarily productive and successful, even augmenting his income by working for Eisenach employers as a "Kapellmeister" "von Haus aus", that is, regularly sending new music while not actually living in Eisenach. Telemann's first published works also appeared during the Frankfurt period. His output increased rapidly, for he fervently composed overture-suites and chamber music, most of which is unappreciated. These works included his 6 Sonatas for solo violin, known as the "Frankfurt Sonatas", published in 1715. In the latter half of the Frankfurt period, he composed an innovative work, his Viola Concerto in G major, which is twice the length of his violin concertos. Also, here he composed his first choral masterpiece, his "Brockes Passion", in 1716.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: Telemann accepted the invitation to work in Hamburg as "Kantor" of the Johanneum Lateinschule, and music director of the five largest churches in 1721. Soon after arrival, Telemann encountered some opposition from church officials who found his secular music and activities to be too much of a distraction for both Telemann himself and the townsfolk. The next year, when Johann Kuhnau died and the city of Leipzig was looking for a new "Thomaskantor", Telemann applied for the job and was approved, yet declined after Hamburg authorities agreed to give him a suitable raise. After another candidate, Christoph Graupner, declined, the post went to Johann Sebastian Bach.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: Telemann took a few small trips outside of Germany at this time. However, later in the Hamburg period he travelled to Paris and stayed for eight months, 1737 into 1738. He heard and was impressed by "Castor et Pollux", an opera by French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. From then on, he incorporated the French operatic style into his vocal works. Before then, his influence was primarily Italian and German. Apart from that, Telemann remained in Hamburg for the rest of his life. A vocal masterpiece of this period is his "St Luke Passion" from 1728, which is a prime example of his fully matured vocal style.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: His first years there were plagued by marital troubles: his wife's infidelity, and her gambling debts, which amounted to a sum larger than Telemann's annual income. The composer was saved from bankruptcy by the efforts of his friends, and by the numerous successful music and poetry publications Telemann made during the years 1725 to 1740. By 1736 husband and wife were no longer living together because of their financial disagreements. Although still active and fulfilling the many duties of his job, Telemann became less productive in the 1740s, when he was in his 60s. He took up theoretical studies, as well as hobbies such as gardening and cultivating exotic plants, something of a fad in Hamburg at that time, and a hobby shared by Handel.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: Most of the music of the 1750s appears to have been parodied from earlier works. Telemann's eldest son Andreas died in 1755, and Andreas' son Georg Michael Telemann was raised by the aging composer. Troubled by health problems and failing eyesight in his last years, Telemann was still composing into the 1760s. He died on the evening of 25 June 1767 from what was recorded at the time as a "chest ailment." He was succeeded at his Hamburg post by his godson, Johann Sebastian Bach's second son Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: Telemann was one of the most prolific major composers of all time: his all-encompassing oeuvre comprises more than 3,000 compositions, half of which have been lost, and most of which have not been performed since the 18th century. From 1708 to 1750, Telemann composed 1,043 sacred cantatas and 600 overture-suites, and types of concertos for combinations of instruments that no other composer of the time employed. The first accurate estimate of the number of his works was provided by musicologists only during the 1980s and 1990s, when extensive thematic catalogues were published. During his lifetime and the latter half of the 18th century, Telemann was very highly regarded by colleagues and critics alike. Numerous theorists (Marpurg, Mattheson, Quantz, and Scheibe, among others) cited his works as models, and major composers such as J.S. Bach and Handel bought and studied his published works. He was immensely popular not only in Germany but also in the rest of Europe: orders for editions of Telemann's music came from France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, and Spain. It was only in the early 19th century that his popularity came to a sudden halt. Most lexicographers started dismissing him as a "polygraph" who composed too many works, a "Vielschreiber" for whom quantity came before quality. Such views were influenced by an account of Telemann's music by Christoph Daniel Ebeling, a late-18th-century critic who in fact praised Telemann's music and made only passing critical remarks of his productivity. After the Bach revival, Telemann's works were judged as inferior to Bach's and lacking in deep religious feeling. For example, by 1911, the "Encyclopædia Britannica" lacked an article about Telemann, and in one of its few mentions of him referred to "the vastly inferior work of lesser composers such as Telemann" in comparison to Handel and Bach.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: Particularly striking examples of such judgements were produced by noted Bach biographers Philipp Spitta and Albert Schweitzer, who criticized Telemann's cantatas and then praised works they thought were composed by Bach, but which were composed by Telemann. The last performance of a substantial work by Telemann ("Der Tod Jesu") occurred in 1832, and it was not until the 20th century that his music started being performed again. The revival of interest in Telemann began in the first decades of the 20th century and culminated in the Bärenreiter critical edition of the 1950s. Today each of Telemann's works is usually given a TWV number, which stands for "Telemann-Werke-Verzeichnis" (Telemann Works Catalogue).


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: Telemann's music was one of the driving forces behind the late Baroque and the early Classical styles. Starting in the 1710s he became one of the creators and foremost exponents of the so-called German mixed style, an amalgam of German, French, Italian and Polish styles. Over the years, his music gradually changed and started incorporating more and more elements of the galant style, but he never completely adopted the ideals of the nascent Classical era: Telemann's style remained contrapuntally and harmonically complex, and already in 1751 he dismissed much contemporary music as too simplistic. Composers he influenced musically included pupils of J.S. Bach in Leipzig, such as Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach and Johann Friedrich Agricola, as well as those composers who performed under his direction in Leipzig (Christoph Graupner, Johann David Heinichen and Johann Georg Pisendel), composers of the Berlin "lieder" school, and finally, his numerous pupils, none of whom, however, became major composers.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: Equally significant for the history of music were Telemann's publishing activities. By pursuing exclusive publication rights for his works, he set one of the most important early precedents for regarding music as the intellectual property of the composer. The same attitude informed his public concerts, where Telemann frequently performed music originally composed for ceremonies attended only by a select few members of the upper class.


title: Georg Philipp Telemann

text: Sonata da chiesa, TWV 41:g5 (for Melodic instrument – Violin, Flute or Oboe, from "Der getreue Musikmeister")


title: Samarra

text: Samarra (, "") is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The city of Samarra was founded by Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim for his Turkish professional army of around 3,000 soldiers which grew to tens of thousands later. In 2003 the city had an estimated population of 348,700. During the Iraqi Civil War, Samarra was in the "Sunni Triangle" of resistance.


title: Samarra

text: In medieval times, Samarra was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate and is the only remaining Islamic capital that retains its original plan, architecture and artistic relics. In 2007, UNESCO named Samarra one of its World Heritage Sites.


title: Samarra

text: The remains of prehistoric Samarra were first excavated between 1911 and 1914 by the German archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld. Samarra became the type site for the Samarra culture. Since 1946, the notebooks, letters, unpublished excavation reports and photographs have been in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.


title: Samarra

text: The civilization flourished alongside the Ubaid period, as one of the first town states in the Near East. It lasted from 5,500 BCE and eventually collapsed in 3,900 BCE.


title: Samarra

text: A city of Sur-marrati (refounded by Sennacherib in 690 BC according to a stele in the Walters Art Museum) is insecurely identified with a fortified Assyrian site at al-Huwaysh on the Tigris opposite modern Samarra. The State Archives of Assyria Online identifies "Surimarrat" as the modern site of Samarra.


title: Samarra

text: Ancient place names for Samarra noted by the Samarra Archaeological Survey are Greek "Souma" (Ptolemy V.19, Zosimus III, 30), Latin "Sumere", a fort mentioned during the retreat of the army of Julian in 363 AD (Ammianus Marcellinus XXV, 6, 4), and Syriac "Sumra" (Hoffmann, "Auszüge", 188; Michael the Syrian, III, 88), described as a village.


title: Samarra

text: The possibility of a larger population was offered by the opening of the Qatul al-Kisrawi, the northern extension of the Nahrawan Canal which drew water from the Tigris in the region of Samarra, attributed by Yaqut al-Hamawi ("Muʿjam", see under "Qatul") to Khosrau I (531–578). To celebrate the completion of this project, a commemorative tower (modern Burj al-Qa'im) was built at the southern inlet south of Samarra, and a palace with a "paradise" or walled hunting park was constructed at the northern inlet (modern Nahr ar-Rasasi) near ad-Dawr. A supplementary canal, the Qatul Abi al-Jund, excavated by the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid, was commemorated by a planned city laid out in the form of a regular octagon (modern Husn al-Qadisiyya), called al-Mubarak and abandoned unfinished in 796.


title: Samarra

text: In 836 CE, the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mu'tasim founded a new capital at the banks of the Tigris. Here he built extensive palace complexes surrounded by garrison settlements for his guards, mostly drawn from Central Asia and Iran (most famously the Turks, as well as the Khurasani "Ishtakhaniyya", "Faraghina" and "Ushrusaniyya" regiments) or North Africa (like the "Maghariba"). Although quite often called Mamluk slave soldiers, their status was quite elevated; some of their commanders bore Sogdian titles of nobility.


title: Samarra

text: The city was further developed under Caliph al-Mutawakkil, who sponsored the construction of lavish palace complexes, such as al-Mutawakkiliyya, and the Great Mosque of Samarra with its famous spiral minaret or Malwiya, built in 847. For his son al-Mu'tazz he built the large palace Bulkuwara.


title: Samarra

text: Samarra remained the residence of the caliph until 892, when al-Mu'tadid eventually returned to Baghdad. The city declined but maintained a mint until the early 10th century.


title: Samarra

text: The Nestorian patriarch Sargis (860–72) moved the patriarchal seat of the Church of the East from Baghdad to Samarra, and one or two of his immediate successors may also have sat in Samarra so as to be close to the seat of power.


title: Samarra

text: During the long decline of the Abbasid empire, Samarra was largely abandoned starting in AD 940. Its population returned to Baghdad and the city rapidly declined. Its field of ruins is the only world metropolis of late antiquity which is available for serious archaeology.


title: Samarra

text: The city is also home to al-Askari Shrine, containing the mausolea of the Imams Ali al-Hadi and Hasan al-Askari, the tenth and eleventh Shiʿi Imams, respectively, as well as the place from where Muhammad al-Mahdi, known as the "Hidden Imam", reportedly went into The Occultation in the belief of the Twelver or Shias. This has made it an important pilgrimage centre for the Imami Shias. In addition, Hakimah and Narjis, female relatives of the Prophet Muhammad and the Imams, held in high esteem by Muslims, are buried there, making this mosque one of the most significant sites of worship.


title: Samarra

text: In the eighteenth century, one of the most violent battles of the 1730–1735 Ottoman–Persian War, the Battle of Samarra, took place, where over 50,000 Turks and Persians became casualties. The engagement decided the fate of Ottoman Iraq and kept it under Istanbul's suzerainty until the First World War.


title: Samarra

text: During the 20th century, Samarra gained new importance when a permanent lake, Lake Tharthar, was created through the construction of the Samarra Barrage, which was built in order to prevent the frequent flooding of Baghdad. Many local people were displaced by the dam, resulting in an increase in Samarra's population.


title: Samarra

text: Samarra is a key city in Saladin Governorate, a major part of the so-called Sunni Triangle where insurgents were active during the Iraq War.


title: Samarra

text: Though Samarra is famous for its Shi'i holy sites, including the tombs of several Shi'i Imams, the town was traditionally and until very recently, dominated by Sunni Arabs. Tensions arose between Sunnis and the Shi'a during the Iraq War. On February 22, 2006, the golden dome of the al-Askari Mosque was bombed, setting off a period of rioting and reprisal attacks across the country which claimed hundreds of lives. No organization claimed responsibility for the bombing. On June 13, 2007, insurgents attacked the mosque again and destroyed the two minarets that flanked the dome's ruins. On July 12, 2007, the clock tower was blown up. No fatalities were reported. Shiʿi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for peaceful demonstrations and three days of mourning. He stated that he believed no Sunni Arab could have been behind the attack, though according to the "New York Times" the attackers were likely Sunnis linked to Al-Qaeda. The mosque compound and minarets had been closed since the 2006 bombing. An indefinite curfew was placed on the city by the Iraqi police. The historic Imam Dur Mausoleum, dedicated to Muslim ibn Quraysh, a Shi'i ruler was also destroyed.


title: Samarra

text: Ever since the end of Iraqi civil war in 2007, the Shia population of the holy city has increased exponentially. However, violence has continued, with bombings taking place in 2011 and 2013. In June 2014, the city was attacked by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as part of the Northern Iraq offensive. ISIL forces captured the municipality building and university, but were later repulsed.


title: Samarra

text: Samarra has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification "BWh"). Most rain falls in the winter. The average annual temperature in Samarra is . About of precipitation falls annually.


title: Samarra

text: The metaphor of "Having an appointment in Samarra", signifying death, is a literary reference to an ancient Babylonian myth recorded in the Babylonian Talmud and transcribed by W. Somerset Maugham, in which Death narrates a man's futile attempt to escape him by fleeing from Baghdad to Samarra. The story "The Appointment in Samarra" subsequently formed the germ of a novel of the same name by John O'Hara. The story is told in "The Six Thatchers", a 2017 episode of "Sherlock".


title: Galina Jovovich

text: Galina Aleksandrovna Loginova (; born 28 October 1950) is a Russian-American actress. She was famous in the Soviet Union for her roles in movies, and then gained additional popularity for being the agent for her daughter, actress and model Milla Jovovich. She currently acts in American and Russian movies.


title: Galina Jovovich

text: She appeared in the American silent movie "Silent Life" (2014), portraying legendary Hollywood silent movie star Alla Nazimova alongside Vlad Kozlov and Isabella Rossellini, based on the life of Hollywood icon Rudolph Valentino.


title: Galina Jovovich

text: Galina Aleksandrovna Loginova was born on 28 October 1950 in Tuapse, located on the Black Sea, to a Russian family from Tula.


title: Galina Jovovich

text: Her father was a Soviet Army officer and her mother was a homemaker. Her parents divorced and she was raised by her mother in Ukraine. After graduating from high school in Dnipropetrovsk (then a city in the Soviet Union, now in Ukraine) she studied acting in her native Tuapse, then moved to Moscow and attended the prestigious acting school at VGIK (All Soviet State Institute of Cinematography, now Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography).


title: Galina Jovovich

text: In 1971, while still a student, she made her film debut in the popular TV series "Teni ischezayut v polden" (English: "Shadows Disappear at Noon"). In 1972, she graduated from VGIK as an actress, from the master-class of Vladimir Belokurov. She worked on stage as well as in film and on television in the Soviet Union. Her most notable roles were roles as Beatrice in "Much Ado About Nothing" (1973), a film adaptation of Shakespeare's play of the same name, and as Molly in the criminal drama "The Fairfax Millions" (1980), based on Alan Winnington's novel of the same name.


title: Galina Jovovich

text: In 1973, she left Moscow and returned to Ukraine on assignment as a staff actress with the Dovzhenko Film Studio in Kyiv. There, in a popular Ukrainian restaurant called Libed (Swan), she met a Serbian medical doctor, Bogdan Jovović, and struck up a romance with him. She was later interrogated by KGB officers, who insisted that she must end her relationship with a foreigner. However, Loginova and Jovović were married, and on 17 December 1975, she gave birth to their daughter, Milla Jovovich, in Kiev.


title: Galina Jovovich

text: In 1980, Galina Loginova-Jovovich, together with her family, emigrated from the Soviet Union. The Soviet authorities immediately banned all films featuring her for a period of six years, so that she could not earn any royalties from her works made in the Soviet Union. For a few years she lived with her family in London, England, then moved to Sacramento, California, and eventually settled in Los Angeles. There she raised her daughter, Milla.


title: Galina Jovovich

text: During the 1980s she also worked as a housekeeper at the home of Hollywood director Brian De Palma. Eventually, Loginova became her daughter's agent and was instrumental in building Milla's successful career. She holds Russian and American citizenship and also continues to act in Russian and American films.


title: Bengal monitor

text: The Bengal monitor (Varanus bengalensis), also called the common Indian monitor, is a monitor lizard distributed widely in the Indian Subcontinent, as well as parts of Southeast Asia and West Asia. This large lizard is mainly a terrestrial animal, and its length ranges from about from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail. Young monitors may be more arboreal, but adults mainly hunt on the ground, preying mainly on arthropods, but also taking small terrestrial vertebrates, ground birds, eggs and fish. Although large Bengal monitors have few predators apart from humans who hunt them for meat, younger individuals are hunted by many predators.


title: Bengal monitor

text: The Bengal monitor can reach 175 cm with a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of 75 cm and a tail of 100 cm. Males are generally larger than females. Heavy individuals may weigh nearly 7.2 kg. The populations of monitors in India and Sri Lanka differ in the scalation from those of Myanmar; these populations were once considered subspecies of the Bengal monitor, but are now considered two species within the "V. bengalensis" species complex. What was once the nominate subspecies, "V. bengalensis", is found west of Myanmar, while the clouded monitor ("V. nebulosus") is found to the east. Clouded monitors can be differentiated by the presence of a series of enlarged scales in the supraocular region. The number of ventral scales varies, decreasing from 108 in the west to 75 in the east (Java).


title: Bengal monitor

text: Young monitor lizards are more colourful than adults. Young have a series of dark crossbars on the neck, throat and back. The belly is white, banded with dark crossbars and are spotted with grey or yellow (particularly in the eastern part of the range). On the dorsal surface of young monitors, there are a series of yellow spots with dark transverse bars connecting them. As they mature, the ground colour becomes light brown or grey, and dark spots give them a speckled appearance. Clouded monitor hatchlings by comparison tend to have a series of backward-pointing, V-shaped bands on their necks.


title: Bengal monitor

text: Bengal monitors have external nostril openings (nares) that is slit-like and oriented near horizontal, and positions between the eye and the tip of the snout. The nares can be closed at will, especially to keep away debris or water. The scales of the skin are rougher in patches and on the sides, they have minute pits, especially well distributed in males. These scales with micropores have glandular structures in the underlying dermal tissue and produce a secretion which may be a pheromone-like substance. Like other monitors, Bengal monitors have a forked tongue similar to snakes. The function is mainly sensory, and is not very involved in the transport of food down the throat. Bengal monitors have fat deposits in the tail and body that serve them in conditions when prey are not easily available.


title: Bengal monitor

text: The lungs have spongy tissue unlike the sacs of other saurians. This allows for a greater rate of gas exchange and allows a faster metabolic rate and higher activity levels. Like all monitors, they have subpleurodont teeth, meaning the teeth are fused to the inside of the jaw bones. The teeth are placed one behind another, and there are replacement teeth behind and between each functional tooth (polyphyodont). The maxillary and dentary teeth are laterally compressed, sometimes with a slightly serrate cutting edge, while the premaxillary teeth are conical. There are 78 premaxillary teeth, 10 maxillary and 13 dentary teeth. Replacement teeth move forward and about four replacements happens each year for a tooth. While monitor lizards are venomous, there are no reports of the effects of venom in Bengal monitors other than a very controversial case report of fatal renal failure as a result of envenomation from this species.


title: Bengal monitor

text: The species ranges from Iran to Java, among the most widely distributed of monitor lizards as they are eurytopic and adaptable to a range of habitats. It is found in river valleys in eastern Iran, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma. The closely related species, the clouded monitor, occurs in southern Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra, Java and the Sunda Islands. They have not been confirmed on Sumatra, and have been found to be absent from the Andaman Islands.


title: Bengal monitor

text: The species is mainly distributed through lower elevations below an altitude of 1500 metres, and is found both in dry semiarid desert habitats to moist forest. They are often found in agricultural areas.


title: Bengal monitor

text: Bengal monitors are usually solitary and usually found on the ground, although the young are often seen on trees. Clouded monitors by contrast have a greater propensity for tree climbing. Bengal and yellow monitors are sympatric but are partially separated by their habitat as Bengal monitors prefers forest over agricultural areas. Bengal monitors shelter in burrows they dig or crevices in rocks and buildings, whilst clouded monitors prefer tree hollows. Both species will make use of abandoned termite mounds. Bengal monitors are diurnal like other monitors, becoming active around 6 AM and bask in the morning sun. During winter in the colder parts of their range, they may take shelter and go through a period of reduced metabolic activity. They are not territorial, and may change their range seasonally in response to food availability.


title: Bengal monitor

text: They are usually shy and avoid humans. They have keen eyesight and can detect human movement nearly 250 m away. When caught, a few individuals may bite, but rarely do so.


title: Bengal monitor

text: Although they are found on agricultural land, they prefer forests with large trees. Generally, high ground cover with large trees are favorable areas.


title: Bengal monitor

text: Captives have been known to live for nearly 22 years. Predators of adults include pythons, mammalian predators and birds. A number of ectoparasites and endoparasites are recorded.


title: Bengal monitor

text: Females may be able to retain sperm, and females held in confinement have been able to lay fertile eggs. Some species of monitor lizards such as the Nile monitor have additionally demonstrated to be capable of parthenogenesis. The main breeding season is June to September, but males begin to show combat behaviour by April. Females dig a nest hole in level ground or a vertical bank and lay the eggs inside, filling it up and using their snouts to compact the soil. The females often dig false nests nearby and shovel soil around the area. They sometimes make use of a termite mound to nest. A single clutch of about 20 eggs are laid. The eggs hatch in 168 to nearly as long as 254 days. About 40-80% of the eggs may hatch.


title: Bengal monitor

text: They are capable of rapid movement on the ground. Small individuals may climb trees to escape, but larger ones prefer to escape on the ground. They can climb well. On the ground, they sometimes stand on the hind legs to get a better view or when males fight other males. They can also swim well and can stay submerged for at least 17 minutes. They can use both trees and bushes for shelter.


title: Bengal monitor

text: Bengal monitors tend to remain active the whole day. Large adults may ascend vertical tree trunks, where they sometimes stalk and capture roosting bats. The species is a generalist, and feeds on a varied diet of invertebrates and vertebrates. Invertebrate prey mostly consists of beetles and their larvae followed by orthopterans, but also maggots, caterpillars, centipedes, scorpions, crabs, crayfish, snails, termites, ants, and earwigs. Larger individuals in addition to invertebrates also eat a large amount of vertebrate prey, including toads and frogs and their eggs, fish, lizards, snakes, rats, squirrels, hares, musk shrews, and birds. Hares and rodents such as Indian bandicoot rats are often caught by digging them out of their nests. Diet may differ based on season and locality, for example, they often forage for fish and aquatic insects in streams during the summer, and individuals in Andhra Pradesh eat mostly frogs and toads. Bengal monitors will also scavenge carrion, and sometimes congregate when feeding on large carcasses such as that of deer. In areas where livestock are common, they often seek out dung to forage for beetles and other insects.


title: Bengal monitor

text: The lizard is known as "bis-cobra" in western India, "Goyra" in Rajasthan, or in Bangladesh and West Bengal, "goh" in Punjab and Bihar, as "ghorpad" in Maharashtra and as "Thalagoya" in Sri Lanka. Folk mythology across the region includes the idea that these lizards, though actually harmless, are venomous, and in Rajasthan, the locals believe that the lizards become venomous only during the rainy season. Monitor lizards are hunted, and their body fat, extracted by boiling, is used in a wide range of folk remedies.


title: Bengal monitor

text: In Sri Lanka, the water monitor (Kabaragoya) is considered venomous and dangerous when confronted, while the Bengal monitor (Thalagoya) is considered harmless and rather defenseless. Land monitor meat is considered edible (especially by indigenous Veddah and Rodiya people) while water monitor meat is not. Killing a land monitor is usually considered a cowardly act, and is frequently referred to folklore along with other harmless reptiles such as rat snakes (Garandiya).


title: Bengal monitor

text: A clan in Maharashtra called "Ghorpade" claims that the name is derived from a legendary founder Tanaji Malusare who supposedly scaled a fort wall using a monitor lizard tied to a rope.


title: Bengal monitor

text: The Bengal monitor's belly skin has traditionally been used in making the drum head for the "kanjira" (known as "Dimadi" in Maharashtra), a South Indian percussion instrument.


title: Bengal monitor

text: While it is assessed LC (Least Concern) by the IUCN 2009, the assessment currently requires updating. The Bengal monitor is listed as Appendix I of CITES and Schedule I of the 1972 Wildlife Protection Act. The wild population is decreasing as it is hunted for both consumption and medicinal purposes as well as for the skin. As it is adaptable to a range of habitats, the threat of habitat degradation is relatively less prominent and is superseded by the threat of agricultural pollution, as pesticides reduce the availability of prey. In Iran, it is also sometimes killed due to being seen as a dangerous threat.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: The Petlyakov Pe-8 () was a Soviet heavy bomber designed before World War II, and the only four-engine bomber the USSR built during the war. Produced in limited numbers, it was used to bomb Berlin in August 1941. It was also used for so-called "morale raids" designed to raise the spirit of the Soviet people by exposing Axis vulnerabilities. Its primary mission, however, was to attack German airfields, rail yards and other rear-area facilities at night, although one was used to fly the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs (Foreign Minister) Vyacheslav Molotov from Moscow to the United States in 1942.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: Originally designated the TB-7, the aircraft was renamed the Pe-8 after its primary designer, Vladimir Petlyakov, died in a plane crash in 1942. Supply problems complicated the aircraft's production and the Pe-8s also had engine problems. As Soviet morale boosters, they were also high-value targets for the Luftwaffe's fighter pilots. The loss rate of these aircraft, whether from mechanical failure, friendly fire, or combat, doubled between 1942 and 1944.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: By the end of the war, most of the surviving aircraft had been withdrawn from combat units. After the war, some were modified as transports for important officials, and a few others were used in various Soviet testing programs. Some supported the Soviet Arctic operations until the late 1950s.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: Development of the Pe-8 began in July 1934, when the Soviet Air Forces (VVS) issued requirements for an aircraft to replace the obsolete and cumbersome Tupolev TB-3 heavy bomber. These requirements specified a bomber that could carry of bombs at a speed greater than at an altitude of , figures that were twice the range, speed and service ceiling of the TB-3. The task was assigned to the Tupolev Design Bureau (OKB) where Andrei Tupolev handed the work to a team led by Vladimir Petlyakov and the project received the internal bureau designation of ANT-42. The resulting aircraft, a four-engined, mid-wing cantilever monoplane, was initially designated as the TB-7 (, "Tyazholy Bombardirovschik"—Heavy Bomber) by the VVS and owed more to the streamlined design of the Tupolev SB than to the block-like design of the TB-3.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: The bomber was built mainly of duralumin, with two steel spars in the wings, although the ailerons were fabric-covered. The pear-shaped monocoque fuselage required the pilots to sit in tandem, offset to the left. In the prototype, space for a fifth engine, an auxiliary Klimov M-100, was reserved inside the fuselage, in a fairing above the wing spars and behind the pilots. It was intended to drive a supercharger that supplied pressurized air to the Mikulin AM-34FRN engines, with the installation designated ATsN-2 (—Central Supercharging Unit), an idea pioneered in 1918 by the Zeppelin-Staaken firm in the German Empire, and refined further for the Third Reich Luftwaffe's Do 217P and Hs 130E experimental bomber designs. Subsequent models of the Pe-8 omitted the internal engine, and provided seating for a flight engineer and radio operator, behind and below the pilots. The bombardier sat in the nose and manned a turret armed with a ShVAK cannon that covered a 120° cone ahead. A prominent chin gondola, nicknamed the 'beard', protruded beneath the nose. The dorsal gunner sat at the rear of the ATsN fairing with a sliding hood covering a ShKAS machine gun and another ShKAS mounted in a ventral hatch. The tail gunner had a powered turret with a ShVAK and, most unusually, there were manually operated ShVAK cannon mounted at the rear of each inner engine nacelle. Crewmen had access to these positions through the wing or by a trapdoor in the upper wing surface. The large internal bomb bay racks held up to of bombs; external racks held a single FAB-500 ("Fugasnaya AviaBomba" - high explosive bomb) bomb under each wing.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: The maiden flight of the unarmed prototype, piloted by M. M. Gromov and without the ATsN installation, occurred at Khodynka Aerodrome on 27 December 1936. After successful initial trials, the ATsN system was installed for the State acceptance trials in August 1937 and the AM-34RNB engines were fitted during the tests. Gromov reported that the rudder was ineffective and that the outer engines overheated. Subsequent wind tunnel testing identified a problem with the aerodynamics of the radiators and nacelles. To solve this problem, the outer engines' radiators were moved into deep ducts under the inner nacelles. The Pe-8 now featured only two pronounced radiator intakes, one under each inner engine, each shared by both inner and outer engines, one of the distinctive and unique features of the aircraft. The rudder was also enlarged and redesigned with a smooth skin.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: Construction of a second prototype began in April 1936, incorporating lessons from the first aircraft and feedback from the VVS. Designers widened the fuselage by ; the 'beard' was also widened and the tail section was modified to lessen resistance and improve rudder function. A reconfigured control system included an autopilot and the engineers redesigned portions of the electrical system. The engines were changed to the more powerful AM-34FRNVs and a redesigned undercarriage was fitted to the airframe. Two additional fuel tanks increased the craft's range. The defensive and offensive armament was revised, and the bomber's weaponry expanded to twin ShKAS guns in the nose, nacelle barbettes and tail turrets and a dorsal turret with a ShVAK; this design eliminated the ventral gun. The bomb bay was modified to allow for a single FAB-5000 bomb to be carried and provisions were added to carry VAP-500 or VAP-1000 poison gas dispensers under the wings.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: The arrests of both Tupolev and Petlyakov in October 1937, during the Great Purge, disrupted the program and the second prototype did not make its first flight until 26 July 1938. Although this prototype served as the basis for the series aircraft, further modifications were made to the armament. New weaponry included a retractable ShVAK in the MV-6 dorsal turret, another ShVAK in a KEB tail turret and a Berezin UBT machine gun in each ShU barbette in each inner engine nacelle, on the underside of the wing covering he lower rear arc of fire to left and right, respectively. Another fuel tank further increased the range, and the 'beard' was removed entirely, replaced by a more streamlined nose. Authorization for production was slow for several reasons, including the Great Purge, but also due to the scarcity of resources, and a shortage of workers. Although production facilities in the Kazan Factory No. 124 were ready as early as 1937, the order to begin was not given until 1939.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: Engine supply problems complicated the construction of the aircraft. Production of the ATsN superchargers could not be organized in any systematic way and only the first four Pe-8s were equipped with them. Factory No. 124 shut down its Pe-8 production line at the beginning of 1940 while alternative engines were evaluated. Somewhere in the massive Soviet chain of command, the decision was made to proceed without the superchargers. The unavailability of the Klimov M-100 engine of the ATsN-2 installation required a design change, although this modification allowed a commander and radio operator to be carried in its place. Then, to compound the problem further, the production of AM-34FRNV engines ended in the second half of 1939. Only two or four Pe-8s were equipped with them. Eighteen of the aircraft produced by the end of 1940 were fitted with AM-35A engines.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: In 1940, six aircraft without engines were fitted with Mikulin AM-35A engines, while VVS officials evaluated both the Charomskiy ACh-30 and Charomskiy M-40 aircraft Diesel engines. At least nine Pe-8s were fitted with diesel engines in 1941, but neither the ACh-30 nor the M-40 were entirely satisfactory, despite greatly increasing the range of the aircraft. All surviving Pe-8s were re-engined with AM-35As by the end of 1941. Production continued slowly at Factory No. 124; most of the factory's resources were devoted to the higher-priority Petlyakov Pe-2, a successful light bomber. At this time, most of these aircraft, re-designated as the Pe-8 after Petlyakov was killed in a Pe-2 crash on 12 January 1942, were built with out-of-production AM-35A engines.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: The 1,380-kW (1,850-hp) Shvetsov ASh-82 radial engine was proposed as a replacement to alleviate the shortage of engines and this modification went into production in late 1942. The exhaust arrangements of the ASh-82 were not compatible with the gun turrets in the rear of the engine nacelles and the guns were removed, reducing the aircraft's defensive capability. At the end of 1943, the nose turret was deleted in favor of a manually operated ShKAS machine gun in a more streamlined nose. This version of the aircraft proved to have much the same range as the diesel-engined versions, but reliability was greatly improved. Production of the Pe-8s totaled 93.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: The last Pe-8s were completed in 1944 as Pe-8ONs ("Osobovo Naznacheniya"—Special Mission) with Charomskiy ACh-30B engines and a fillet at the base of the vertical stabilizer. These were special VIP transports with a seating capacity of twelve and a cargo capacity of . Sources disagree if the armament was removed and, if it was, whether partly or entirely.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: When Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941, only the 2nd Squadron of the 14th Heavy Bomber Regiment ("Tyazholy Bombardirovochnyy Avia Polk"—TBAP), based at Boryspil was equipped with Pe-8s, but was not ready for combat. Two of its nine Pe-8s were destroyed by German air strikes shortly after the war began, before the Pe-8s were withdrawn out of reach of German bombers to Kazan. Stalin ordered that the squadron be reformed into a regiment, and that it strike targets deep inside German territory. Theoretically, this tactic would boost Soviet morale by demonstrating the vulnerability of the enemy. The squadron was re-designated on 29 June as the 412th TBAP and began training for long-range missions. On or about 27 July it was again renamed, this time as the 432nd TBAP. On the evening of 10 August, eight M-40-engined Pe-8s of the 432nd TBAP, accompanied by Yermolaev Yer-2s of the 420th Long-Range Bomber Aviation Regiment (DBAP), attempted to bomb Berlin from Pushkino Airfield near Leningrad. One heavily loaded Pe-8 crashed immediately upon take off, after it lost an engine. Only four managed to reach Berlin, or its outskirts, and of those, only two returned to their base. The others landed elsewhere or crash-landed in Finland and Estonia. The aircraft of the commander of the 81st Long-Range Bomber Division, Combrig Mikhail Vodopianov, to which both regiments belonged, was attacked mistakenly by Polikarpov I-16s from Soviet Naval Aviation over the Baltic Sea and lost an engine; later, before he could reach Berlin, German flak punctured a fuel tank. He crash-landed his aircraft in southern Estonia. Five more Pe-8s were lost during the operation, largely due to the unreliability of the M-40s. Seven Pe-8s were lost during the month of August alone, rendering the regiment ineffective. During this period, the surviving aircraft were re-equipped with AM-35As, which gave them a shorter range, but a more reliable engine.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: By 1 October 1941, the regiment mustered fourteen Pe-8s after having been replenished by new aircraft from the factory. It spent the rest of the year conducting night raids on Berlin, Königsberg, Danzig and as well as German-occupied cities in the Soviet Union. The regiment was re-designated as the 746th Separate Long-Range Aviation Regiment (—OAPDD) on 3 December. No aircraft were reported on hand two days later after this designation, but eleven were on strength on 18 March 1942. During the winter of 1941–42, the regiment was assigned the destruction of a railroad bridge over the Volga River, near Kalinin. In April 1942, one aircraft flew diplomatic personnel and mail on a non-stop flight from Moscow to Great Britain. This was a test run for a flight carrying Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov and his delegation from Moscow to London and then to Washington, D.C. and back, for negotiations to open a second front against Nazi Germany (19 May–13 June 1942). The flight crossed German-controlled airspace on the return trip without incident. From August 1941 to May 1942, the regiment flew 226 sorties and dropped of bombs. In the course of these missions, they lost 14 bombers, five in combat, and the rest from engine malfunction. The regiment received 17 Pe-8s as replacements. Sixteen aircraft were on hand on 1 May 1942, but the number had increased only to seventeen two months later; the regiment was losing aircraft almost as fast as they were being replaced.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: The 890th Long-Range Aviation Regiment (—APDD) was formed on 15 June 1942 and both regiments were used to bomb German-held transportation centers of, among others, Orel, Bryansk, Kursk and Poltava. The pace of activity increased and the regiments flew as many missions in August as they had in the first ten months of the war. By the eve of the Soviet counterattack at Stalingrad, Operation Uranus, on 8 November the regiments had fourteen Pe-8s on hand. Under the command of the 45th Long-Range Bomber Aviation Division (—DBAD), they did not participate in the Stalingrad air attacks.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: In 1943, from the division's primary airfield at Kratovo, southeast of Moscow, the regiments bombed transportation centers, airfields and troop concentrations. The railroad yard at Gomel was a favorite target and the regiment dropped approximately of bombs there between February and September 1943. It is not clear if these sorties were made by Pe-8s alone or in combination with other aircraft. In addition, the regiment dropped the first FAB-5000 bomb on Königsberg in April 1943, continuing the pin-prick attacks against targets deep in the German rear. In May 1943, efforts shifted to disrupt the German concentration of forces for the Battle of Kursk. In one sortie, the 109 bombers of the 45th DBAD struck the rail junction at Orsha during the evening of 4 May, most of which were not Pe-8s; the German High Command reported the destruction of 300 rail wagons and three ammunition trains.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: By 1 July, the regiment had 18 Pe-8s for deployment during the early phase of the Battle of Kursk. The long-range aviation units continued to attack targets in the German rear areas at night, supporting the Soviet ground offensive in the Orel Bulge, called Operation Kutuzov, that began on 12 July. The Germans had transferred the nightfighters of the Fourth Group of the 5th Night Fighter Wing (IV./Nachtjagdgeschwader 5), flying a mix of Junkers Ju 88 and Dornier Do 217 aircraft, to counter the Soviet raids near the Orel area. Initially, the night fighters were ineffective against the Soviet raids, until the deployment of their ground radar "eyes". Once the Germans had use of their radar, after the night of 17–18 July, Soviet losses increased sharply. Although the Germans flew only fourteen sorties that night, they claimed eight kills (of course, throughout the war, night or day, the number of kills "claimed" was inevitably significantly higher than the actual number shot down, regardless of nationality or aircraft type). On the night of 20–21 July, Captain (Hauptmann) Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, commander of IV./NJG 5, claimed to have shot down three himself. The exhaust plume of the ASh-82 engine may have been a contributing factor; the engines lacked flame dampening exhausts, making their plume visible from a distance. Despite its losses, the 746th was re-designated as the 25th Long-Range Guards Aviation Regiment (GAPDD) on 18 September 1943 in recognition of its achievements.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: The loss of Pe-8s to all causes—mechanical, combat, friendly fire—had steadily increased from one aircraft per 103 flights in 1942 to one per 46 sorties in 1944. Despite the losses, production kept pace with need. The number of aircraft belonging to the 45th DBAD continued to rise; 20 were on hand on 1 January 1944 and 30 on 1 June. The Pe-8s flew 276 sorties in 1944 against such targets as Helsinki, Tallinn and Pskov. Aviation historian Yefim Gordon maintains that the Pe-8 flew its last mission on the night of 1–2 August 1944, but the Statistical Digest of the VVS contradicts this claim, showing 31 Pe-8s assigned to 45th DBAD on 1 January 1945 and 32 on hand on 10 May 1945. However, during this period the 45th DBAD only had three regiments, none of which used the Pe-8 as their primary aircraft, so while the 45th DBAD may have had Pe-8s, these may not have been in use as the primary combat aircraft.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: The 890th began to fly Lend-Lease B-25 Mitchells in the spring of 1944 and was itself re-designated as the 890th Bomber Aviation Regiment on 26 December 1944. The 362nd APDD was formed in early 1944 with four Pe-8s received from the other two regiments, but these were returned in the spring of 1944, when the regiment began to convert to the Lend-Lease Mitchells.


title: Petlyakov Pe-8

text: After the war, the Pe-8 was used extensively as a testbed for trials involving Soviet derivatives of the German V-1 flying bomb and it was designated as the Pe-8LL for prototype piston engine trials. It was also used as a mother ship for the experimental rocket-engined Bisnovat 5 in 1948–49. Aeroflot received several of the surviving Pe-8s for polar exploration. Their military equipment removed, they had additional fuel tanks installed, were painted orange, and had their engines upgraded to either ASh-82FNs or Shvetsov ASh-73s. One landed at the North Pole in 1954 and others helped to monitor the drift ice stations NP-2, NP-3 and NP-4 during the late 1950s.


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: A Mighty Heart is a 2007 American drama film directed by Michael Winterbottom from a screenplay by John Orloff. It is based on the 2003 memoir of the same name by Mariane Pearl.


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: The film was screened out of competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, before being released in North America on June 22, 2007. "A Mighty Heart" was met with positive reviews from critics but was a box office failure.


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: "A Mighty Heart" is a detailed account of the search for kidnapped "Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi by supporters of Omar Sheikh. The movie also covers efforts by Pakistan's Security Forces, Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) to track the kidnappers and bring them to justice. Sheikh claimed responsibility for kidnapping and beheading Pearl in 2002. He was captured and convicted but is appealing the ruling.


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: "A Mighty Heart" was filmed primarily in India and France, during the summer and fall of 2006. Fearing for the safety of star Angelina Jolie and the rest of the cast and crew, the vast majority of the film, set in Karachi, was filmed in Pune, India.


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: However, before production was officially announced, Winterbottom traveled with co-star Dan Futterman and a skeleton crew to Karachi for ten days of filming at actual locations from the events.


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: The production also shot multiple scenes in Austin, Texas in early 2007, including a key sequence with Marianne Pearl giving an interview in a Karachi hotel. Also filmed in Austin were exteriors of the Pearl family house (set in Los Angeles) and scenes set at "The Wall Street Journal" offices in New York, which were filmed in the offices of the "Austin American-Statesman".


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: "A Mighty Heart" performed poorly at the box office, only earning a total revenue of $18 million compared to its production budget of $16 million. The film opened June 22, 2007 in the United States and Canada and grossed $3.9 million in 1,355 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #10 at the box office. It went on to gross $18,727,125 worldwide. As of December 16, 2007, the film has grossed an additional $5.4 million in DVD sales and rentals in the United States.


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: The film received positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 79% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 192 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Angelina Jolie conveys the full emotional range of a woman in a desperate situation in "A Mighty Heart", an urgent yet tactful film about a difficult subject." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 74 out of 100, based on 38 reviews.


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: Jolie's performance was widely touted by top critics as her finest artistic achievement to date. Both she and the film received a positive review from Roger Ebert. The film was described by "Newsweek" as "a movie without melodrama or movie-star lighting…allowing Jolie to deliver the most delicate, powerful and human-scale performance of her career." Other favorable reviewers included Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone", Justin Chang of "Variety" and Ray Bennett of "The Hollywood Reporter". Marc Mohan of "The Oregonian" named it the 10th best film of 2007.


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: However, Andrew O'Hehir, film critic for Salon.com, while finding Jolie's performance "restrained and dignified", dismissed the film itself, writing, "it feels like an extra-long episode of "24" with a bad conscience and a bad ending." "Entertainment Weekly"s Lisa Schwarzbaum felt that Jolie's celebrity was a problem, commenting that "Despite the best of intentions, an actress who makes her own headlines gets in the way of the big picture."


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: Asra Nomani—a colleague of Daniel Pearl who had agreed to participate in the film—stated that the film failed to portray Pearl as a journalist, doing his job, in favor of creating a dramatic arc of "ordinary heroes". She believes Pearl would have "rolled his eyes" at that description. Describing her own response to the film, Nomani said, "For me, watching the movie was like having people enter my home, rearrange the furniture and reprogram my memory."


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: The announcement of the casting of Angelina Jolie in the role of Mariane Pearl drew criticism within the African-American community. Orville Lloyd Douglas, a pop critic, has criticized the casting because, he said, "Jolie is white" and Mariane Pearl is "mixed race". Pearl is, in fact the multiracial daughter of an Afro-Chinese-Cuban mother and a Dutch Jewish father.


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: Pearl personally chose Jolie to play the lead in "A Mighty Heart". In response to casting complaints, Pearl said "I have heard some criticism about her casting, but it is not about the color of your skin. It is about who you are. I asked her to play the role—even though she is way more beautiful than I am—because I felt a real kinship to her. She put her whole heart into it, and I think she understood why we should do this movie. We had something to say that we knew we should say together."


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: On November 27, 2007, the film was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards including Best Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Picture of the Year.


title: A Mighty Heart (film)

text: Jolie was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Critics' Choice Movie Award for best actress. She also received an Outstanding Performance of the Year Award for her performance from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling said, "We are honored to celebrate Ms. Jolie in what is arguably one of the most extraordinary female roles of the year".


title: Levator ani

text: The levator ani is a broad, thin muscle group, situated on either side of the pelvis. It is formed from three muscle components: the pubococcygeus, the iliococcygeus, and the puborectalis.


title: Levator ani

text: It is attached to the inner surface of each side of the lesser pelvis, and these unite to form the greater part of the pelvic floor. The coccygeus muscle completes the pelvic floor, which is also called the "pelvic diaphragm".


title: Levator ani

text: It supports the viscera in the pelvic cavity, and surrounds the various structures that pass through it.


title: Levator ani

text: The levator ani is the main pelvic floor muscle and painfully contracts during vaginismus. It also contracts rhythmically during orgasm.


title: Levator ani

text: The iliococcygeus arises from the inner side of the ischium (the lower and back part of the hip bone) and from the posterior part of the tendinous arch of the obturator fascia, and is attached to the coccyx and anococcygeal body; it is usually thin, and may be absent, or be largely replaced by fibrous tissue. An accessory slip at its posterior part is sometimes named the "iliosacralis".


title: Levator ani

text: The pubococcygeus muscle has medial fibres forming the pubovaginalis in the female, and the puboprostaticus in the male.


title: Levator ani

text: The levator ani arises, in front, from the posterior surface of the superior pubic ramus lateral to the symphysis; behind, from the inner surface of the spine of the ischium; and between these two points, from the obturator fascia.


title: Levator ani

text: Posteriorly, this fascial origin corresponds, more or less closely, with the tendinous arch of the pelvic fascia, but in front, the muscle arises from the fascia at a varying distance above the arch, in some cases reaching nearly as high as the canal for the obturator vessels and nerve.


title: Levator ani

text: The fibers pass downward and backward to the middle line of the floor of the pelvis; the most posterior are inserted into the side of the last two segments of the coccyx; those placed more anteriorly unite with the muscle of the opposite side, in a median fibrous ridge called the anococcygeal body or raphe, which extends between the coccyx and the margin of the anus.


title: Levator ani

text: The middle fibers are inserted into the side of the rectum, blending with the fibers of the sphincter muscles; lastly in the male, the anterior fibers descend upon the side of the prostate to unite beneath it with the muscle of the opposite side, joining with the fibers of the external anal sphincter and transverse perineal muscles, at the central tendinous point of the perineum.


title: Levator ani

text: From this circumstance, as well as from its peculiar relation with the prostate, which it supports as in a sling, it has been described as a distinct muscle, under the name of "levator prostatæ".


title: Levator ani

text: The levator ani muscles are mostly innervated by the pudendal nerve, perineal nerve and acting together.


title: Levator ani

text: In addition, sacral spinal nerves (S3, S4) innervate the muscles directly as well (in ~70% of people). Sometimes (in ~40% of people) the inferior rectal nerve innervates the levator ani muscles independently of the pudendal nerve.


title: Levator ani

text: The pubococcygeus muscle or PC muscle is a hammock-like muscle, found in both sexes, that stretches from the pubic bone to the coccyx (tail bone) forming the floor of the pelvic cavity and supporting the pelvic organs.


title: Levator ani

text: The pubococcygeus arises from the back of the pubis and from the anterior part of the obturator fascia, and is directed backward almost horizontally along the side of the anal canal toward the coccyx and sacrum, to which it finds attachment.


title: Levator ani

text: Between the termination of the vertebral column and the anus, the two pubococcygeus muscles come together and form a thick, fibromuscular layer lying on the raphe (ridge) or (anococcygeal body) formed by the iliococcygei.


title: Levator ani

text: The greater part of this muscle is inserted into the coccyx and into the last one or two pieces of the sacrum.


title: Levator ani

text: The pubococcygeus muscle controls urine flow and contracts during orgasm as well as assisting in male ejaculation. It also aids in childbirth as well as core stability.


title: Levator ani

text: A strong pubococcygeus muscle has also been linked to a reduction in urinary incontinence and proper positioning of the baby's head during childbirth.


title: Levator ani

text: The Kegel exercises are a series of voluntary contractions of all the perineal muscles. Such movement is done in an effort to strengthen all the striated muscles in the perineum's area. They are often referred to simply as "kegels", named after their founder, Dr. Arnold Kegel. These exercises also serve to contract, among others, the ischiocavernosus, bulbospongiosus, and cremaster muscle in men, as voluntary contraction of the pubococcygeus muscle also engages the cremasteric reflex, which lifts the testicles up, although this does not occur in all men. Kegel exercises have been prescribed to ameliorate erectile dysfunction due to venous leakage and to help men control premature ejaculation and to treat urinary incontinence in both sexes.


title: Levator ani

text: The fibers that form a sling looping around the rectum are named the puborectalis. They arise from the lower part of the pubic symphysis, and from the superior fascia of the urogenital diaphragm. The origin of the puborectalis fibers is at the posterior surface of the pubis while their insertion is at the midline sling posterior to the rectum. The muscle band is innervated by perineal branches of the S3 and S4 nerve roots.


title: Levator ani

text: They meet with the corresponding fibers of the opposite side around the lower part of the rectum, and form for it a strong sling. Relaxation increases the angle between rectum and anus, allowing defecation in conjunction with relaxation of the internal and external anal sphincters. Levator ani relaxation and rectal emptying is facilitated by anorectal straightening during squatting.


title: Levator ani

text: The levator ani muscles are responsible for "wagging" the tail in tailed quadrupeds. These muscles are not as strong in the human, as tail-wagging is more demanding than the support function that the muscles serve in humans.


title: 2009 Ballon d'Or

text: The 2009 Ballon d'Or, given to the best football player in the world as judged by an international panel of sports journalists, was awarded to Lionel Messi of Barcelona on 1 December 2009.


title: 2009 Ballon d'Or

text: Messi won the award by a then record margin, 240 points ahead of 2008 winner Cristiano Ronaldo. Xavi was the second Barcelona player in the top three, finishing a further 63 points behind Ronaldo. Messi's win made him the first Argentine-born player to win the award since Omar Sívori in 1961; however, Sívori had taken Italian citizenship by that time and is recognised to have won the Ballon d'Or as an Italian player.


title: Ectomobile

text: The Ectomobile (also known as The Ecto-1) is a fictional vehicle from the "Ghostbusters" franchise. It appears in the films "Ghostbusters" (1984), "Ghostbusters II" (1989), the reboot "Ghostbusters" (2016), "" (2021), in the animated television series: "The Real Ghostbusters", "Slimer!" and "Extreme Ghostbusters", and in the video games "" and Beeline's "Ghostbusters" iOS app.


title: Ectomobile

text: The Ectomobile, or Ecto-1 is a 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor Sentinel limo-style endloader combination car (ambulance conversion) used in the 1984 film "Ghostbusters" and other "Ghostbusters" fiction. The original vehicle design was the creation of Steven Dane, credited as a Hardware Consultant in the credits.


title: Ectomobile

text: In the original movie, Ray Stantz pays $4,800 () for it and claims it needs a plethora of repairs. In Stantz's own words, ""it needs suspension work and shocks, brakes, brake pads, lining, steering box, transmission, rear end... maybe new rings, also mufflers, a little wiring...""


title: Ectomobile

text: After the necessary reconstruction, it is used to carry the Ghostbusters and their ghost-capturing equipment through New York City. Its features include a special pull-out rack utilizing the old ambulance's gurney in the rear containing the staff's proton packs. There are also various gadgets mounted on the top, whose function is never revealed in the movies. A cartoon episode features the "proton cannon", presumably a more powerful version of a proton pack, mounted on top for use against extra-large or even giant-sized paranormal entities.


title: Ectomobile

text: Earlier versions of scripts written by Aykroyd for the first "Ghostbusters" also includes mentions of the Ectomobile having the power of interdimensional travel. The shooting script for the movie describes the Ectomobile as being black, with purple and white strobe lights that gave the vehicle a "purple aura".


title: Ectomobile

text: A miniature replica of the vehicle was mass-produced as a children's toy. Polar Lights released a 1/24 scale model kit of the Ecto-1 in 2002. In 2010, Hot Wheels released a "Ghostbusters Ecto-1" as part of the "2010 Hot Wheels Premiere" series.


title: Ectomobile

text: Hot Wheels Elite released a highly detailed 1/18 diecast of the Ecto-1 in 2010 and in early 2013, they released a 1/18 Ecto-1A as seen in "Ghostbusters II".


title: Ectomobile

text: The repaired Ectomobile is named on-screen with the license plate shown reading "Ecto-1". The word "Ectomobile" was only used in the song "Cleaning Up The Town" from the film's soundtrack. The filmmakers planned to have the Ecto-1 painted black, but the color of the vehicle was changed to white when it was decided a black car would be too difficult to see during night scenes. Three cars have played the vehicle in the movies; the third 1959 Miller-Meteor was purchased after the second died during shooting of "Ghostbusters II". The black Miller-Meteor seen at the beginning of the first movie was leased and used only for that scene and never converted for filming, though it was later purchased by the studio and completely converted to a full Ecto-1 for touring. Both of the other Ectomobiles are currently sitting in a Sony pictures backlot, having undergone a full restoration after years of deterioration.


title: Ectomobile

text: The Universal Studios "Spooktacular" stage show featured an Ectomobile replica built by a man from Tennessee. The Universal Studios Ecto-1 Replica was sold at the Barrett-Jackson auto auction in Scottsdale Arizona on January 22, 2010, for $80,000. Another replica was made by Peter Mosen and bought by George Barris. Yet another replica currently resides at Historic Auto Attractions museum in Roscoe, Illinois.


title: Ectomobile

text: The vehicle used for Ecto-1 was a 1959 Cadillac professional chassis, built by the Miller-Meteor company. The ambulance/hearse combination was the end loader variety. Dr. Ray Stantz found the vehicle in 1984, shortly after he mortgaged his mother's house to buy the Firehouse. Because of his mechanical skills, he was able to repair the vehicle, which he acquired for $4,800. After repairs were completed, the vehicle had quite a unique character. It became a well-recognized symbol for the Ghostbusters franchise. The vehicle had enough room in it to store Proton Packs for all of the crew, along with Ecto Goggles, P.K.E. Meters, and a slew of traps.


title: Ectomobile

text: After the Ghostbusters were shut down, Ecto-1 was used primarily for transport to and from appearances at such places as children's birthday parties. It fell into a state of disrepair and was seen spewing smoke, and had other various mechanical problems. Following the Ghostbusters' return to business in 1989 after capturing the Scoleri Brothers, Ecto-1 got an overhaul and was renamed Ecto-1a, although it was eventually reverted back to Ecto-1.


title: Ectomobile

text: When his colleagues refused to believe his warnings of Gozer's potential return, Egon Spengler stole all of the team's equipment, including Ecto-1, and relocated to a farmhouse in Summerville, Oklahoma. At some point, an extendable gunner seat was added to the right rear passenger area and the corresponding door was modified to fold flat against the vehicle body, allowing a team member to fire a Proton Pack without having to lean out a window. A folding ramp was also installed in the floor to assist in deployment of the Remote Trap Vehicle (RTV), a ghost trap fitted with a radio-controlled car that can follow the Cadillac. There is also a compartment in the vehicle that can carry the RTV.


title: Ectomobile

text: In June 2021, Spengler's grandson Trevor found Ecto-1 on the grounds of the farm inherited by his mother Callie. The vehicle had deteriorated in storage to the point of being completely non-functional, but Trevor repaired it with help from Spengler's ghost. He, his sister Phoebe, and her friend Podcast used Ecto-1 and the RTV to capture a ghost named Muncher, but the three were arrested for the damage they caused and Ecto-1 was impounded at the Summerville County Sheriff's Department along with the RTV. The next day, amid the chaos caused by the interdimensional cross-rip and with the police preoccupied by the situation, the children recovered Ecto-1 and the RTV from the now-empty police department (freeing Muncher in the process) and drove to the Shandor Mining Company, aided by Trevor's friend Lucky Domingo. After the four captured Gozer's minion Zuul using the RTV, they drove back to the farm in order to lure Gozer into a field of ghost traps placed by Spengler and capture it with the help of the Ghostbusters; however, Gozer caught up to them at the last second and destroyed the RTV, releasing Zuul. During the confrontation with Gozer, Mini-Pufts snuck onto Ecto-1 and attempted to sabotage the vehicle's equipment, but Podcast eventually repels them with a taser. Following Gozer's defeat, Winston Zeddemore had Ecto-1 fully restored and delivered to the Ghostbusters' old firehouse.


title: Herb Kohl

text: Herbert H. Kohl (born February 7, 1935) is an American businessman and politician. Alongside his brother and father, the Kohl family created the Kohl's department stores chain, of which Kohl went on to be president and CEO. Kohl also served as a United States senator from Wisconsin from 1989 to 2013 as a member of the Democratic Party. He chose not to seek re-election in 2012 and was succeeded by fellow Democrat Tammy Baldwin. Kohl is also the former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association.


title: Herb Kohl

text: Kohl was born and raised in Milwaukee, the son of Mary (née Hiken) and Max Kohl. His father was a Polish Jewish immigrant and his mother was a Russian Jewish immigrant. He attended Washington High School. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1956 and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School in 1958. While an undergraduate, he joined the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. He was also a roommate of Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. Between 1958 and 1964, Kohl was a member of the United States Army Reserve.


title: Herb Kohl

text: After finishing graduate school, Kohl worked as an investor in real estate and the stock market, eventually spinning off his own company, Kohl Investments, to manage these assets. He and his brother became heir to a family-owned chain that included 50 grocery stores and several department stores, pharmacies and liquor stores. In 1970, Kohl was named president of Kohl's and served until the corporation was sold to BATUS Inc. (formerly British American Tobacco).


title: Herb Kohl

text: Kohl supported President Barack Obama's health reform legislation; he voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009, and he voted for the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.


title: Herb Kohl

text: He has voted in favor of most lawsuit reform measures as well as for rules tightening personal bankruptcy. He has long supported amending the U.S. Constitution to require a balanced budget. He was one of the few Democrats to vote for the tax cut passed in 2001, and he also supported the elimination of the "marriage penalty". Despite these views, he has been seen as generally supportive of progressive taxation. Like many moderate Democrats, he voted in favor of the welfare reform measures in the mid-1990s. He is also not opposed to the creation of individual, private savings accounts to supplement Social Security.


title: Herb Kohl

text: Kohl has generally had a pro-environmental record and has been an outspoken proponent of American energy independence. He supports increased production of hydrogen cars, establishing a federal goal for reducing oil consumption by 40 percent, and disallowing oil speculation in protected areas. However, he has voted against Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards. Kohl has been rated highly by groups that desire universal health care. He has voted in favor of expanding Medicare and SCHIP and has desired that prescription drugs be included under federal health coverage. During his 2006 re-election campaign, Kohl advocated that HMOs be placed under more scrutiny in order to determine if they're effectively delivering care.


title: Herb Kohl

text: Kohl is strongly pro-choice and opposes the death penalty. He is highly in favor of affirmative action and supports setting aside funds for women and minorities. Although he voted in favor of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, Kohl rejected the proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman and has supported measures that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. Kohl has consistently voted against the flag desecration amendment and in recent years has voted against restrictions on travel to Cuba and funding for TV Martí. In 2005, he secured a victory for one of his main causes: requiring handguns to be sold with child safety locks. The amendment was attached to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, with every Democrat and many Republicans voting in favor of the amendment. Earlier in his career, he helped push the Gun-Free Schools Act which the U.S. Supreme Court overturned in 1995 and has submitted many amendments to that effect. He is a strong supporter of public education and has rejected school vouchers. Kohl has voted in favor of allowing for the establishment of educational savings accounts.


title: Herb Kohl

text: Kohl has voted against many free trade agreements including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and more recently the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and voted against the Freedom to Farm Act in 1996. However, he has also supported fast-tracking trade normalization with China and establishing free trade with some smaller countries of the developing world. He voted against authorizing the Gulf War in 1990; however, he voted in 2002 to authorize military force in Iraq. Kohl has voted on a number of occasions with more liberal Democrats to reduce military spending, voting against 1996 defense appropriations increases and supporting a veto of funding new military projects. Despite having been among the 98 U.S. senators who voted for the PATRIOT Act, Kohl subsequently opposed this legislation and has voted to require warrants for wiretapping or the detention of prisoners.


title: Herb Kohl

text: Kohl won election to the U.S. Senate in 1988 with his trademark catchphrase "Nobody's Senator But Yours". He was re-elected in 1994, 2000 and 2006. He did not seek re-election in 2012.


title: Herb Kohl

text: Kohl is the wealthiest resident of Milwaukee, the richest Jewish American from Wisconsin, and was one of the wealthiest U.S. senators. In 2016, "Forbes" estimated Kohl's net worth to be around $630 million to $1.5 billion.


title: Herb Kohl

text: On May 13, 2011, Kohl announced he would not run for re-election in 2012, saying, "The office doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the people of Wisconsin, and there is something to be said for not staying in office too long."


title: Herb Kohl

text: Kohl purchased the Milwaukee Bucks from Jim Fitzgerald in 1985 for $18 million to ensure the team remained in Milwaukee. In 2003, he considered an offer to sell the team to former NBA superstar Michael Jordan, but decided to retain ownership. On April 16, 2014, Kohl agreed to sell the Bucks for $550 million to New York-based billionaires Wesley Edens and Marc Lasry. Kohl was elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007. On July 22, 2021, Kohl was the key figure of the lead car in the Milwaukee Bucks NBA Championship parade. On the event, he said "This is one of the big days of my life." Kohl attended the Bucks' 2021-22 season opener at Fiserv Forum and was presented with a Bucks championship ring for his efforts in keeping the Bucks in Milwaukee.


title: Herb Kohl

text: Kohl donated $25 million to the University of Wisconsin–Madison for construction of its new sports arena, which was named the Kohl Center. In 1990, Kohl established the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Achievement Award Program, which provides annual grants totaling $400,000 to 200 graduating seniors, 100 teachers and 100 schools throughout Wisconsin. In 2016, he gave $1.5 million to the La Follette School of Public Affairs to create the Herb Kohl Public Service Research Competition, promoting public policy research.


title: Sycamore

text: Sycamore is a name which has been applied to several types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. The name derives from the ancient Greek "" ("sūkomoros") meaning "fig-mulberry".


title: Dusk (video game)

text: Dusk (stylized in all caps) is a 2018 retro-styled first-person shooter created by American developer David Szymanski and published by New Blood Interactive for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, and Nintendo Switch. The game is produced by Dave Oshry, who previously co-directed the 2013 remake of "Rise of the Triad".


title: Dusk (video game)

text: "Dusk" takes place in and around the fictitious rural town of Dusk, Pennsylvania. A huge network of "Lovecraftian ruins" is discovered underneath a section of farmland, which attracts the attention of the government. Military personnel and scientists establish research labs and factories in the town in an attempt to harness the magic of the ruins. Much of the research team soon fall victim to a series of demonic possessions and industrial disasters, which force the remnants of the team out of the town. A large perimeter wall is built around the town, sealing it off from the outside world. The player takes the role of a nameless treasure hunter ("DuskDude" or "The Intruder"), who has heard rumors that hidden riches exist within the sealed town. The treasure hunter is apprehended by the town's denizens, brought to a secluded farmhouse, and impaled onto a meathook.


title: Dusk (video game)

text: "The Foothills", the first episode, is largely set in the country outskirts around Dusk's perimeter wall. After the protagonist escapes from the farmhouse, he travels across a variety of rural environments such as swamps, barnyards, cornfields, and sawmills. After breaching the perimeter wall and entering the town, the protagonist uncovers an underground passageway, which ultimately leads him to an industrial zone on the outskirts of the city.


title: Dusk (video game)

text: In the second episode, "The Facilities", the player must fight through the remnants of the possessed military and science personnel, who guard an array of occult machines within the industrial zone. In the penultimate level of the episode, it is revealed that the machines extract power from the minced remains of slaughtered humans. Deep in the ruins of the industrial complex, the protagonist finds an otherworldly portal, which he activates and walks through.


title: Dusk (video game)

text: In the third and final episode, "The Nameless City", the protagonist finds himself in an alternate reality. After passing through a cathedral, he travels through various locations, with him being forced into a trial that takes place within a corrupted version of his own memories. In the end, the protagonist confronts and defeats the cult's leader, named Jakob, who in turn is killed by his followers. The protagonist is then confronted by the godlike being responsible for the events taking place in the town, referred to as Nyarlathotep, and defeats it. However, before the protagonist is able to deal the killing blow, Nyarlathotep deems him to be "worthy" and gives him an unknown power, presumably corrupting him in the process and taking Jakob's place as leader of the cult. Nyarlathotep then places the protagonist in a kind of stasis "until [Nyarlathotep] has need of [him] again".


title: Dusk (video game)

text: The object of "Dusk"'s gameplay is to reach the exit of the level, while surviving all hazards on the way. Such hazards include hostile enemies such as robed cultists, demonic livestock, sentient scarecrows, and possessed soldiers. The player has access to a variety of weapons, including dual-wielded sickles, dual pistols, single and double-barrel shotguns, an assault rifle, a hunting rifle, a magic crossbow, a mortar, a magic sword, and a weapon called the "Riveter" that shoots exploding rivets. A unique mechanic of "Dusk" is the unlocked rotational-axis, allowing the player an additional degree of rotation whilst in midair, which grants the ability to perform front and back-flips.


title: Dusk (video game)

text: The multiplayer component of "Dusk", titled "DuskWorld", features an online deathmatch mode which supports up to 16 players.


title: Dusk (video game)

text: "Dusk" inherits many design staples from 1990s first-person shooters, such as non-regenerating health, greater emphasis on movement and speed, and the ability to carry a large number of weapons at once.


title: Dusk (video game)

text: The earliest concepts for what would eventually become "Dusk" were conceived in the mid 2000s by lead developer David Szymanski. At the time, Szymanski only had access to computers with low-end hardware, which precluded him from playing recent video game releases; instead, he played older first-person shooters such as "Half-Life" and "Doom". These games would ultimately become major inspirations for "Dusk"'s gameplay.


title: Dusk (video game)

text: "Dusk"s development began in 2015, stemming from a series of tests Szymanski created in the Unity game engine. In an attempt to emulate the visual style of "Quake", Szymanski modeled a low-polygon shotgun and fixed it to a camera; from that point, development on "Dusk" began in earnest. The artistic direction of "Dusk" drew inspiration from several sources. The rural farmhouse setting of Episode 1 was inspired by the film "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", the video game "Redneck Rampage", and Szymanski's own experiences of living in rural Pennsylvania. The abandoned factories of Episode 2 were inspired by the world of the "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." series of video games, which takes place in an alternative reality version of Ukraine; Szymanski said that "Dusk" was initially to be set in Ukraine as a nod to "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.", prior to settling on the game's rural Pennsylvania locale. In designing "Dusk"'s levels, Szymanski took cues from John Romero's level design in both "Doom" and "Quake", emphasizing non-linearity and abstract geometry.


title: Dusk (video game)

text: The visuals of "Dusk" were crafted to be evocative of 1990s first-person shooters. Through deliberate design, textures are low-resolution and have a limited palette, and both models and map geometry feature a lower amount of polygons than contemporary 3D games. Szymanski initially experienced difficulties adhering to the graphic limitations of 1990s shooters, as Unity engine continually introduced undesirable visual improvements throughout development: "[The] biggest challenge is just convincing Unity to stop doing things that make the game look better," Szymanski commented. Szymanski's next project, the 2022 video game "Iron Lung", features a similar short-form horror experience with lower detail graphics as "Dusk".


title: Dusk (video game)

text: In January 2019, after the initial PC release of "Dusk", Dave Oshry announced that the game would be receiving console ports, a physical PC release and more free content including a co-op mode, New Game + and mod support.


title: Dusk (video game)

text: Pre-orders for "Dusk" opened in August 2017. In a nod to the episodic shareware releases of 1990s first person shooters like "Doom" and "Quake", pre-orderers gained immediate access to the first episode of "Dusk", "The Foothills", in advance of the full game's release. A closed beta for "DuskWorld", "Dusk"'s multiplayer component, opened in December 2017 to selected volunteering participants.


title: Dusk (video game)

text: "Dusk" released into early access on January 11, 2018, containing both "DuskWorld" and the first two episodes of the singleplayer campaign. On June 12, 2018, New Blood Interactive announced that "Dusk" will be released for the Nintendo Switch.


title: Dusk (video game)

text: "Dusk" fully released out of early access on December 10, 2018, on the 25th anniversary of its inspiration, "Doom".


title: Dusk (video game)

text: On April 1, 2021, New Blood Interactive released a seeming April Fools joke in the form of screenshots of a 2D roguelike version of Dusk. The screenshots were soon revealed to be genuine previews of a real game.


title: Dusk (video game)

text: Dusk '82 ULTIMATE EDITION was released on October 22 for Halloween 2021. The game is an action/puzzler similar to Chip's Challenge, though with thematic and story elements of Dusk, and features chiptune versions of the Dusk soundtrack by Andrew Hulshult.


title: Dusk (video game)

text: The early access release of "Dusk" received generally positive reviews. Significant praise was directed towards the authenticity of "Dusk"s gameplay in relation to its 1990s progenitors, with "Rock Paper Shotgun" saying that the game "manages to avoid being the retro game equivalent of an observational comedy stand-up, hoping that simply jogging your memory will provide sufficient entertainment ... "Dusk" has too much energy to fall into that trap."


title: Dusk (video game)

text: "PC Gamer" praised the level design of "Dusk", stating that the game "is both an ode to and evolution of the greatest era of FPS level design." Following a gameplay preview of "Dusk"s third episode, "Destructoid" commented: "if the level design trend exhibited in this early state is any indication, DUSK could be in the running for one of the best FPS games ever made."


title: Dusk (video game)

text: The Switch port was praised as a faithful conversion and "a nigh-on flawless iteration of an excellent game".


title: The Strain

text: The Strain is a 2009 vampire horror novel by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It is the first installment in "The Strain Trilogy", and was followed by "The Fall" (2010) and "The Night Eternal" (2011).


title: The Strain

text: A Boeing 777 arrives at John F. Kennedy International Airport and is taxiing its way across the tarmac when it suddenly stops. All window shades are closed except one, the lights are out, and communication channels have gone silent. An alert is sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Ephraim "Eph" Goodweather, head of the CDC's Canary Project, a rapid-response team that handles biological threats, is sent to investigate. Goodweather and Dr. Nora Martinez board the plane, finding everyone except four people dead.


title: The Strain

text: In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, former history professor and Holocaust survivor Abraham Setrakian knows something terrible has happened and that an unnatural war is brewing. So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected the passengers begins spilling out onto New York City's streets. Dr. Goodweather, who is joined by Setrakian and a small band of fighters, desperately tries to stop the contagion to save the city, and also his wife and son.


title: The Strain

text: Head of the CDC's rapid-response team, the Canary Project, Eph is a newly-divorced father attempting to balance the custody battle over his son Zack with his duties as an epidemiologist. He and his Canary team are the first response team to the Boeing 777 disaster, and are tasked with solving the mystery of the mass casualties. Unable to reconcile the symptoms of the newly-infected airline passengers with standard disease pathology, Eph is convinced of the reality of vampires by Abraham Setrakian. Discredited at the CDC by the vampires' human conspirators, Eph finds himself a fugitive from both the human authorities and the undead. The need to protect his son drives Eph's every action.


title: The Strain

text: A skilled epidemiologist, Nora is second-in-command of the Canary Project. She and Eph have been attempting an office romance with mixed success, complicated by their high-stress medical careers and Goodweather's lingering melancholy over his looming divorce. Nora quickly dedicates herself to uncovering the vampire conspiracy, and is determined not to be relegated to doing the "woman's work."