title: Shyla Stylez

text: On November 9, 2017, Stylez was found unresponsive in her bed at her mother's house in Armstrong. She was pronounced dead shortly after, aged 35.


title: Christian Laettner

text: Christian Donald Laettner (, ; born August 17, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player. His college career for the Duke Blue Devils is widely regarded as one of the best in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) history. He was the star player on the back-to-back Duke National Championship teams of 1991 and 1992, and the NCAA player of the year in his senior year. He is particularly famous for his game-winning shot against Kentucky in the 1992 tournament and for the hatred he received from opposing fans.


title: Christian Laettner

text: Laettner was the only collegian selected for the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team, dubbed the "Dream Team", that won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. As a member of the "Dream Team", Laettner is enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, and FIBA Hall of Fame, while he is enshrined for his individual career in the College Basketball Hall of Fame. He was drafted third overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves, then played 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for six teams, being named as an All-Star in 1997.


title: Christian Laettner

text: Christian Laettner was born and raised in Angola, New York (near Buffalo and Niagara Falls) to a blue-collar Roman Catholic family. His father George, a newspaper press plant printer, was of Polish descent and his grandparents spoke Polish as their first language; his mother Bonnie was a teacher. Christian's older brother Christopher was a strong influence, often bullying young Christian, which helped instill a stern competitive drive. Both boys also frequently worked as farm laborers to supplement their allowance.


title: Christian Laettner

text: Laettner attended the private Nichols School; although he received a financial aid package that paid a substantial part of his tuition, his family had to sacrifice to send him there, and he also did janitorial work at the school to defray some of the cost. During his career he scored over 2,000 points, breaking the school record set by teammate Ron Torgalski, and the team won two state titles and reached another semifinal. He was a much sought-after college recruit.


title: Christian Laettner

text: Laettner attended Duke University and played for the basketball team from 1988 to 1992 under coach Mike Krzyzewski. As the team's star player his final two seasons, he led the Blue Devils to the first two national titles in school history. A four-year starter, he also contributed to their runner-up finish his sophomore year and Final Four appearance in his freshman year. Thus, in total, he played 23 out of a maximum possible 24 NCAA tournament games, winning 21; both are records.


title: Christian Laettner

text: For his career, Laettner averaged 16.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game while making almost half of his three-pointers. He scored 21.5 points per game his senior season, garnering every major national player of the year award; Duke retired his No. 32 jersey later that year. His career is widely regarded among the best in college history, and he is enshrined in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.


title: Christian Laettner

text: Laettner had several clutch performances in the NCAA tournament. His most famous was the 1992 regional final against Kentucky, which was foreshadowed by the 1990 regional final against UConn; in both games Duke trailed by one point with two seconds remaining in overtime before Laettner made a jumper as time expired. He also swished the game-winning free throws against undefeated and heavily favored UNLV in the 1991 semifinal, which avenged UNLV's 30-point victory in the 1990 final. He then led Duke to its first championship, defeating Kansas in the final, and was selected as the tournament's most outstanding player.


title: Christian Laettner

text: In the 1992 East Regional Final, a game many critics rate among the greatest in college basketball history, Laettner hit a game-winning, buzzer-beating turn-around jumper that has since become known as simply The Shot. Over the course of the game, he shot a perfect ten of ten field goals and ten of ten free throws for 31 points. He then finished his college career by leading Duke to its second consecutive national title. The following year ESPN awarded him both "Outstanding Performance Under Pressure" and "College Basketball Play of the Year" for the Kentucky game, also awarding him "Outstanding College Basketball Performer of the Year".


title: Christian Laettner

text: The game-winning shot against Kentucky became a cultural icon, having been frequently televised in college basketball montages. Several companies have also featured it in their commercials. In 2006 "The Best Damn Sports Show Period" ranked it the fifth most memorable moment in sports history.


title: Christian Laettner

text: Laettner was widely reviled by opposing fans throughout his career, to the extent that more than 20 years after graduating from Duke, he was voted the most hated college basketball player in history in an ESPN online poll. This led to ESPN's creation of the 30 for 30 documentary "I Hate Christian Laettner" that explored five factors which the filmmakers believe explain this widespread and persistent hatred: race, privilege, bullying, greatness, and physical appearance. He was particularly resented for stepping on the chest of Kentucky player Aminu Timberlake during the 1992 regional final, which the referees deemed a technical foul; Laettner expressed regret for his misconduct but believed that ejection would have been too harsh a consequence.


title: Christian Laettner

text: Drafted third overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves, Laettner played 13 years in the NBA, from 1992 to 2005, scoring 11,121 points and grabbing 5,806 rebounds. His first six seasons were his best, averaging 16.6 points and 7.9 rebounds per game while starting almost all of them. He also was selected to the All-Rookie First Team in 1993 and the All-Star Game in 1997 while with the Atlanta Hawks. His time on the Hawks was his most successful NBA team experience, twice reaching the second round of the playoffs.


title: Christian Laettner

text: Despite his achievements, Laettner's NBA career was characterized by relative transience. He played for six different teams, was traded six times, and never spent more than three full seasons anywhere. In 2004, he was suspended for several games for using marijuana.


title: Christian Laettner

text: As the national player of the year, Laettner was the only collegian selected for the prestigious "Dream Team" that won the 1992 Olympic gold medal in a dominant fashion. He averaged 4.8 points per game. The team is considered one of the greatest in sports history and was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, FIBA Hall of Fame, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.


title: Christian Laettner

text: Laettner maintains a close friendship with Duke teammate Brian Davis. They have pursued several business ventures together, including real-estate development in Durham, a Major League Soccer team, and an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the Memphis Grizzlies. Some legal problems, primarily regarding unpaid debts, have also occurred. In 2010, Laettner was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of the 1992 Dream Team.


title: Christian Laettner

text: Since 2011 he has operated numerous youth basketball training camps. He also played one season in a semi-pro league and briefly served as an assistant coach in the NBA Development League. For "The Z Team", an Olympic Channel reality show that has former Olympic athletes help struggling sports teams, he worked with the Garinger High School boys basketball team for a week.


title: Maneki-neko

text: The maneki-neko (招き猫, ) is a common Japanese figurine which is often believed to bring good luck to the owner. In modern times, they are usually made of ceramic or plastic. The figurine depicts a cat, traditionally a calico Japanese Bobtail, with a paw raised in a Japanese beckoning gesture. The figurines are often displayed in shops, restaurants, pachinko parlors, dry cleaners, laundromats, bars, casinos, hotels, nightclubs, and other businesses, generally near the entrance. Some "maneki-neko" are equipped with a mechanical paw which slowly moves back and forth.


title: Maneki-neko

text: "Maneki-neko" come in different colors and styles and vary in degrees of detail. Common colors are white, black, red, and gold. In addition to statues, "maneki-neko" can be found in the form of keychains, piggy banks, air fresheners, pots, and numerous other media. "Maneki-neko" are sometimes referred to simply as "lucky cats".


title: Maneki-neko

text: "Maneki-neko" are traditionally depicted seated, holding a koban coin, with one paw raised in a beckoning gesture. To some Westerners (Italians, Spaniards and Greeks are notable exceptions) it may seem as if the "maneki-neko" is waving rather than beckoning. This is due to the difference in gestures and body language recognized by some Westerners and the Japanese. The Japanese beckoning gesture is made by holding up the hand, palm down, and repeatedly folding the fingers down and back, thus the cat's appearance. Some "maneki-neko" made specifically for some Western markets will have the cat's paw facing upwards, in a beckoning gesture that is more familiar to most Westerners.


title: Maneki-neko

text: "Maneki-neko" can be found with either the right or left paw raised (and sometimes both). The significance of the right and left raised paw differs with time and place. A statue with the left paw raised is to get more customers, while the right paw raised is to get more money. Hence it is also said that the one with left paw is for business and the right is for home.


title: Maneki-neko

text: Originally, "maneki-neko" were white, but over the years with the combination of Feng Shui, different color variations were born. The original white color is to get good luck and overall good fortune, while black is to ward off evil, red is for good health, yellow or gold is for wealth, and pink is for romance.


title: Maneki-neko

text: Antique examples of "maneki-neko" may be made of carved wood, stone and metal, handmade porcelain or cast iron.


title: Maneki-neko

text: It is commonly believed that "maneki-neko" originated in Tokyo (then named Edo), while some insist it was Kyoto. "Maneki-neko" first appeared during the later part of the Edo period in Japan. The earliest records of "maneki-neko" appear in the Bukō nenpyō's (a chronology of Edo) entry dated 1852. Utagawa Hiroshige's ukiyo-e "Joruri-machi Hanka no zu," painted also in 1852, depicts the Marushime-neko, a variation of "maneki-neko", being sold at Senso temple, Tokyo. In 1876, during the Meiji era, it was mentioned in a newspaper article, and there is evidence that kimono-clad "maneki-neko" were distributed at a shrine in Osaka during this time. A 1902 advertisement for "maneki-neko" indicates that by the turn of the century they were popular. Beyond this the exact origins of "maneki-neko" are uncertain.


title: Maneki-neko

text: Some have noted the similarities between the "maneki-neko"'s gesture and that of a cat washing its face. There is a Japanese belief that a cat washing its face means a visitor will soon arrive. This belief may in turn be related to an even older Chinese proverb that states that if a cat washes its face, it will rain. Thus, it is possible a belief arose that a figure of a cat washing its face would bring in customers. In his "Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang", China's Tang Dynasty author Duan Chengshi (803?–863) wrote: "If a cat raises its paw over the ears and washes its face, then patrons will come". Statues of cats washing their ears (though very different in style to "maneki-neko") have been found as early as the Northern Wei Dynasty (386 to 534 AD).


title: Maneki-neko

text: According to a folktale, the operator of an impoverished shop (or inn, tavern, temple, etc.) took in a starving stray cat despite barely having enough to feed himself. In gratitude, the cat sat in the front of the store beckoning customers, thus bringing prosperity as a reward to the charitable proprietor. Ever after, the "beckoning cat" has been a symbol of good luck for small business owners.


title: Maneki-neko

text: Because of its popularity in Chinese and Vietnamese communities (including Chinatowns in the United States), the "maneki-neko" is frequently mistaken for being Chinese in origin rather than Japanese, and is therefore sometimes referred to as a "Chinese lucky cat" or "jīnmāo" ("golden cat"). This cat is also prevalent in China domestically, and is usually referred to as .


title: Maneki-neko

text: Netta performed her song "Toy" in front of two walls full of "maneki-neko" at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. She won the competition after collecting 529 points at the final.


title: Maneki-neko

text: Science fiction author Bruce Sterling wrote a short story titled "Maneki Neko," first published in "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction" in May 1998.


title: Selkie

text: In Celtic and Norse mythology, selkies (also spelled ', ', ') or selkie folk () meaning 'seal folk' are mythological beings capable of therianthropy, changing from seal to human form by shedding their skin. They are found in folktales and mythology originating from the Northern Isles of Scotland.


title: Selkie

text: The folktales frequently revolve around female selkies being coerced into relationships with humans by someone stealing and hiding their sealskin, thus exhibiting the tale motif of the swan maiden type.


title: Selkie

text: The Scots language word ' is diminutive for ' which strictly speaking means 'grey seal' ("Halichoerus grypus"). Alternate spellings for the diminutive include: ', ', ', ', ', ', "", etc.


title: Selkie

text: The term "selkie" according to Alan Bruford should be treated as meaning any seal with or without the implication of transformation into human form.


title: Selkie

text: W. Traill Dennison insisted "selkie" was the correct term to be applied to these shapeshifters, to be distinguished from the merfolk, and that Samuel Hibbert committed an error in referring to them as "mermen" and "mermaids". However, when other Norse cultures are examined, Icelandic writers also refer to the seal-wives as merfolk ().


title: Selkie

text: There also seems to be some conflation between the selkie and finfolk. This confounding only existed in Shetland, claimed Dennison, and that in Orkney the selkie are distinguished from the finfolk, and the selkies' abode undersea is not "Finfolk-a-heem"; this notion, although seconded by Ernest Marwick, has been challenged by Bruford.


title: Selkie

text: There is further confusion with the Norse concept of the Finns as shapeshifters, "Finns" (synonymous with "finfolk") being the Shetland dialect name for dwellers of the sea who could remove their seal-skin and transform into humans according to one native correspondent.


title: Selkie

text: In Gaelic stories, specific terms for selkies are rarely used. They are seldom differentiated from mermaids. They are most commonly referred to as in Scottish Gaelic, in Irish, and in Manx ('maiden of the sea' i.e. mermaids) and clearly have the seal-like attributes of selkies. The only term that specifically refers to a selkie but which is only rarely encountered is , or 'seal maiden'.


title: Selkie

text: Many of the folk-tales on selkie folk have been collected from the Northern Isles (Orkney and Shetland).


title: Selkie

text: In Orkney lore, "selkie" is said to denote various seals of greater size than the grey seal; only these large seals are credited with the ability to shapeshift into humans, and are called "selkie folk". The type of large seals that might have been seen on the islands include the Greenland seal (also known as the Harp Seal) and the crested seal (also known as the hooded seal). Something similar is stated in Shetland tradition, that the mermen and mermaids prefer to assume the shape of larger seals, referred to as "Haaf-fish".


title: Selkie

text: A typical folk-tale is that of a man who steals a female selkie's skin, finds her naked on the sea shore, and compels her to become his wife. But the wife will spend her time in captivity longing for the sea, her true home, and will often be seen gazing longingly at the ocean. She may bear several children by her human husband, but once she discovers her skin, she will immediately return to the sea and abandon the children she loved. Sometimes, one of her children discovers or knows the whereabouts of the skin. Sometimes it is revealed she already had a first husband of her own kind. Although in some children's story versions, the selkie revisits her family on land once a year, in the typical folktale she is never seen again by them.


title: Selkie

text: In one version, the selkie wife was never seen again (at least in human form) by the family, but the children would witness a large seal approach them and "greet" them plaintively.


title: Selkie

text: Male selkies are described as being very handsome in their human form, and having great seductive powers over human women. They typically seek those who are dissatisfied with their lives, such as married women waiting for their fishermen husbands. In one popular tattletale version about a certain "Ursilla" of Orkney (a pseudonym), it was rumoured that when she wished to make contact with her male selkie she would shed seven tears into the sea.


title: Selkie

text: Children born between man and seal-folk may have webbed hands, as in the case of the Shetland mermaid whose children had "a sort of web between their fingers", or "Ursilla" rumoured to have children sired by a male selkie, such that the children had to have the webbing between their fingers and toes made of horny material clipped away intermittently. Some of the descendants actually did have these hereditary traits, according to Walter Traill Dennison, who was related to the family.


title: Selkie

text: Some legends say that selkies could turn human every so often when the conditions of the tides were correct, but oral storytellers disagreed as to the time interval. In "Ursilla's rumour", the contacted male selkie promised to visit her at the "seventh stream" or springtide. In the ballad "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry", the seal-husband promised to return in seven years; the number "seven" being commonplace in balladry.


title: Selkie

text: According to one version, the selkie could only assume human form once every seven years because they are bodies that house condemned souls. There is the notion that they are either humans who had committed sinful wrongdoing, or fallen angels.


title: Selkie

text: It was only during hard times that the people of the Scottish Isles would kill seals to make use of their skin and blubber. It was thought that the killing of a seal would result in misfortune for the perpetrator.


title: Selkie

text: Ernest Marwick recounts the tale of crofters who brought their sheep to graze upon a small group of holms within the Orkney Islands. During the summer, a man placed seven sheep on the largest holm. While on his way home from grazing sheep, the man killed a seal. That night, all of the man's sheep disappeared, however, the other crofters, who had not killed a seal, did not lose their sheep.


title: Selkie

text: The selkie-wife tale had its version for practically every island of Orkney according to W. Traill Dennison. In his study, he included a version collected from a resident of North Ronaldsay, in which a "goodman of Wastness", a confirmed bachelor, falls in love with a damsel among the selkie-folk, whose skin he captures. She searches the house in his absence, and finds her seal-skin thanks to her youngest daughter who had once seen it being hidden under the roof.


title: Selkie

text: In "Selkie Wife", a version from Deerness on the Mainland, Orkney, the husband locked away the seal-skin in a sea-kist (chest) and hid the key, but the seal woman is said to have acquiesced to the concealment, saying it was "better tae keep her selkie days oot o' her mind". However, when she discovered her skin, she departed hastily leaving her clothes all scattered about.


title: Selkie

text: A fisherman named Alick supposedly gained a wife by stealing the seal-skin of a selkie, in a tale told by an Orkney skipper. The Alick in the tale is given as a good acquaintance of the father of the storyteller, John Heddle of Stromness.


title: Selkie

text: A version of the tale about the mermaid compelled to become wife to a human who steals her seal-skin, localized in Unst, was published by Samuel Hibbert in 1822. She already had a husband of her own kind in her case.


title: Selkie

text: Some stories from Shetland have selkies luring islanders into the sea at midsummer, the lovelorn humans never returning to dry land.


title: Selkie

text: In Shetland, the sea-folk were believed to revert to human shape and breathed air in the atmosphere in the submarine homeland, but with their sea-dress (seal-skin) they had the ability to transform into seals to make transit from there to the reefs above the sea. However, each skin was unique and irreplaceable.


title: Selkie

text: The shape-shifting nature of selkies within Shetland tradition is detailed in the Scottish ballad "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry":


title: Selkie

text: In the tale of "Gioga's Son", a group of seals resting in the Ve Skerries were ambushed and skinned by Papa Stour fishermen, but as these were actually seal-folk, the spilling of the blood caused a surge in seawater, and one fisherman was left abandoned. The seal-folk victims recovered in human-like form, but lamented the loss of their skin without which they could not return to their submarine home. Ollavitinus was particularly distressed since he was now separated from his wife; however, his mother Gioga struck a bargain with the abandoned seaman, offering to carrying him back to Papa Stour on condition the skin would be returned. In a different telling of the same plot line, the stranded man is called Herman Perk, while the rescuing selkie's name is unidentified.


title: Selkie

text: Tales of the seal bride type has been assigned the number ML 4080 under Reidar Thoralf Christiansen's system of classification of migratory folktales. These stories of selkie-wives are also recognized to be of the swan maiden motif type. There are now hundreds of seal bride type tales that have been found from Ireland to Iceland. Only one specimen was found in Norway by Christiansen.


title: Selkie

text: Seal shapeshifters similar to the selkie exist in the folklore of many cultures. A corresponding creature existed in Swedish legend, and the Chinook people of North America have a similar tale of a boy who changes into a seal.


title: Selkie

text: The folk-tale "" ("The Seal-Skin") published by Jón Árnason offers an Icelandic analogue of the selkie folk tale. The tale relates how a man from Mýrdalur forced a woman transformed from a seal to marry him after taking possession of her seal-skin. She discovers the key to the chest in her husband's usual clothes when he dresses up for a Christmas outing, and the seal woman is reunited with the male seal who was her betrothed partner.


title: Selkie

text: Another such tale was recorded by Jón Guðmundsson the Learned (in 1641), and according to him these seal folk were sea-dwelling elves called (mermen and mermaids). His tale is of a man who comes across the dancing and celebrating of elves within a cave by the ocean. The cave is lined with the sealskins of the dancing elves. As soon as the elves take notice of the man, they rush to don their skins and dive back into the ocean. However, the man is able to steal the smallest of the skins, sliding it underneath his clothes. The owner of the skin tries to retrieve her skin from the man but he quickly takes hold of the young elf and takes her to his home to be his wife. The man and the elf are together for two years, producing two children, a boy and a girl, but the elf harbors no love for the man. During this time, the former elf woman's elf husband swims along the shore by the couple's home. One day, the elf woman finds her skin, and runs away, never to be seen again.


title: Selkie

text: Scientist Fridtjof Nansen reported another Icelandic tale of the seal-woman: a man passes by the sea and hears sounds coming out of a cave. He finds a pile of discarded sealskins nearby and fetches one of them. Later that same day, he returns to the cave and finds a weeping young woman - the owner of the sealskin he took home. The man brings the woman to his house; they marry and have children. One day, while the man is away fishing, the women finds her sealskin, says goodbye to her human family and departs to the sea.


title: Selkie

text: A more distant echo of selkie-type stories may be found in the medieval story of the demonic woman Selkolla (whose name means 'Seal-head').


title: Selkie

text: A famous selkie story from the Faroe Islands is "The Legend of" "," literally meaning 'seal woman.' The story tells of a young farmer from the village of Mikladalur who, after learning about the local legend that seals could come ashore and shed their skins once a year on the Thirteenth Night, goes to see for himself. While laying in wait, the man watches as many seals swim to shore, shedding their skin to reveal their human forms. The farmer takes the skin of a young selkie woman, who, unable to return to the water without her skin, is forced to follow the young man back to his farm and become his wife. The two stay together for many years, even producing several children. The man locks the selkie woman's skin in a chest, keeping the key to the lock on his person at all times, so his wife may never gain access. However, one day the man forgets his key at home, and comes back to his farm to find that his selkie wife has taken her skin and returned to the ocean. Later, when the farmer is out on a hunt, he kills the selkie woman's selkie husband and two selkie sons. Enraged, the selkie woman promises vengeance for her lost kin. She exclaims that "some shall be drowned, some shall fall from cliffs and slopes, and this shall continue, until so many men have been lost that they will be able to link arms around the whole island of Kalsoy." Deaths that occur on the island are thought to be due to the selkie woman's curse.


title: Selkie

text: "Peter Kagan and the Wind" by Gordon Bok tells of the fisherman Kagan who married a seal-woman. Against his wife's wishes he set sail dangerously late in the year, and was trapped battling a terrible storm, unable to return home. His wife shifted to her seal form and saved him, even though this meant she could never return to her human body and hence her happy home. Singer-songwriter Russell Christian immortalized the tale of the Faroese selkie in his song "Kopakonan".


title: Selkie

text: The mermaid in Irish folklore (sometimes called "merrow" in Hiberno-English) has been regarded as a seal-woman in some instances. In a certain collection of lore in County Kerry, there is an onomastic tale in Tralee that claimed the Lee family was descended from a man who took a ('mermaid') for a wife; she later escaped and joined her seal-husband, suggesting she was of the seal-folk kind.


title: Selkie

text: There is also the tradition that the Conneely clan of Connemara was descended from seals, and it was taboo for them to kill the animals lest it bring ill luck. And since "conneely" became a moniker of the animal, many changed their surname to Connolly. It is also mentioned in this connection that there is a Roaninish (, 'seal island') just outside Gweebarra Bay, off the western coastline of County Donegal in Ulster.


title: Selkie

text: In many versions of the selkie myth, the children produced by the coupling of a selkie and a human, are born with certain physical characteristics that set them apart from normal children.


title: Selkie

text: In David Thomson's book "The People of the Sea," which chronicles the extensive legends surrounding the Grey Seal within the folklore of rural Scottish and Irish communities, it is the children of male selkies and human women that have webbed toes and fingers. When the webbing is cut, a rough and rigid growth takes its place.


title: Selkie

text: In "The Folklore of Orkney and Shetland", Ernest Marwick cites a tale of a woman who gives birth to a son with a seal's face after falling in love with a selkie man. A dream later reveals the location of silver for the woman to find after giving birth to her son.


title: Selkie

text: A group of selkie descendants, also mentioned by Marwick, possessed a skin that was greenish, white in color and cracked in certain places upon the body. These cracks exuded a fishy odor.


title: Selkie

text: Before the advent of modern medicine, many physiological conditions were untreatable. When children were born with abnormalities, it was common to blame the fairies. The MacCodrum clan of the Outer Hebrides became known as the "MacCodrums of the seals" as they claimed to be descended from a union between a fisherman and a selkie. This was an explanation for their syndactyly – a hereditary growth of skin between their fingers that made their hands resemble flippers.


title: Selkie

text: Scottish folklorist and antiquarian, David MacRitchie believed that early settlers in Scotland probably encountered, and even married, Finnish and Sami women who were misidentified as selkies because of their sealskin kayaks and clothing. Others have suggested that the traditions concerning the selkies may have been due to misinterpreted sightings of Finn-men (Inuit from the Davis Strait). The Inuit wore clothes and used kayaks that were both made of animal skins. Both the clothes and kayaks would lose buoyancy when saturated and would need to be dried out. It is thought that sightings of Inuit divesting themselves of their clothing or lying next to the skins on the rocks could have led to the belief in their ability to change from a seal to a man.


title: Selkie

text: Another belief is that shipwrecked Spaniards were washed ashore, and their jet-black hair resembled seals. As the anthropologist A. Asbjørn Jøn has recognised, though, there is a strong body of lore that indicates that selkies "are said to be supernaturally formed from the souls of drowned people".


title: Selkie

text: Selkies—or references to them—have appeared in numerous novels, songs and films, though the extent to which these reflect traditional stories varies greatly. Work where selkie lore forms the central theme include:


title: Matthew Koma

text: Matthew Bair (born June 2, 1987), known professionally as Matthew Koma, is an American singer, songwriter, DJ and record producer. Songs written by Koma include "Spectrum" and Grammy Award-winner "Clarity", both performed by Zedd. Koma has collaborated with Hardwell, Zedd, Miriam Bryant, Sebastian Ingrosso, Alesso, Afrojack, Tiësto, Vicetone and Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic.


title: Matthew Koma

text: Koma was born in Brooklyn and raised in Seaford, New York, on Long Island. His father, Gerald D. Bair, was a singer/songwriter and Koma first performed on stage with his father when he was four years old. Koma wrote his first song when he was nine years old and credits Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen for his inspiration at a young age. Koma attended Seaford High School. His older half brother, Kris Mazzarisi, is also a musician.


title: Matthew Koma

text: In June 2011, Jimmy Iovine signed Koma to Interscope Records after watching an acoustic performance of the record "She".


title: Matthew Koma

text: In May 2012, Koma released his first EP, "Parachute", in which he wrote, produced and co-produced all four tracks with collaborators Twice as Nice, Alex da Kid, Sam Watters, Louis Biancaniello, and Ari Levine.


title: Matthew Koma

text: Also in 2012, he performed at the Sorry for Party Rocking Tour with LMFAO and Far East Movement, In the fall of 2012, he toured with Owl City.


title: Matthew Koma

text: In March 2012, Bruce Springsteen released "Rocky Ground", a remix that Koma co-produced with Ron Aniello as a single from his album "Wrecking Ball".


title: Matthew Koma

text: In March 2014, Showtek's "Cannonball (Earthquake)", featuring Koma, was released. In April 2014, Koma appeared on RAC's debut album, featuring on the single "Cheap Sunglasses". In May 2014, Koma was featured on Audien's single "Serotonin". Also in May 2014, Afrojack's album "Forget the World", which featured two songs written and sung by Koma, "Keep our Love Alive" and "Illuminate", was released.


title: Matthew Koma

text: In January 2015, Koma was featured in Kia Motors' online video series "Rediscovered", where he recorded a cover of The Miracles' "The Tracks of My Tears" before Smokey Robinson made a surprise visit in the studio.


title: Matthew Koma

text: Koma collaborated with The Knocks on "I Wish (My Taylor Swift)", which was released as a single in September 2015 and later appeared on the Knocks' 2016 album, "55".


title: Matthew Koma

text: In 2016, he worked with Britney Spears on her album "Glory" producing the song “Swimming in the Stars”, which was released in 2020.


title: Matthew Koma

text: In June 2017, Koma produced several tracks for Shania Twain's fifth studio album "Now", including the lead single "Life's About to Get Good".


title: Matthew Koma

text: In August 2018, he premiered "On the 5", both single and video under his new project, Winnetka Bowling League via RCA Records.


title: Matthew Koma

text: From 2012 until 2015, Koma dated Carly Rae Jepsen, after meeting while they were working on her album "Kiss".


title: Matthew Koma

text: In May 2019, he got engaged to Hilary Duff and they were married in December 2019 at their home in Los Angeles, after three years of dating. They have two daughters, Banks Violet Bair, born in October 2018 and Mae James Bair, born in 2021. He is also a stepfather to Duff's son, Luca, from her previous marriage to ice-hockey player Mike Comrie.


title: Matthew Koma

text: In May 2017, he released "Dear Ana", a song about his anorexia and confessed that the disease almost killed him.


title: Strategic bomber

text: A strategic bomber is a medium- to long-range penetration bomber aircraft designed to drop large amounts of air-to-ground weaponry onto a distant target for the purposes of debilitating the enemy's capacity to wage war. Unlike tactical bombers, penetrators, fighter-bombers, and attack aircraft, which are used in air interdiction operations to attack enemy combatants and military equipment, strategic bombers are designed to fly into enemy territory to destroy strategic targets (e.g., infrastructure, logistics, military installations, factories, etc.). In addition to strategic bombing, strategic bombers can be used for tactical missions. There are currently only three countries that operate strategic bombers: the United States, Russia and China.


title: Strategic bomber

text: The modern strategic bomber role appeared after strategic bombing was widely employed, and atomic bombs were first used in combat during World War II. Nuclear strike missions (i.e., delivering nuclear-armed missiles or bombs) can potentially be carried out by most modern fighter-bombers and strike fighters, even at intercontinental range, with the use of aerial refueling, so any nation possessing this combination of equipment and techniques theoretically has such capability. Primary delivery aircraft for a modern strategic bombing mission need not always necessarily be a heavy bomber type, and any modern aircraft capable of nuclear strikes at long range is equally able to carry out tactical missions with conventional weapons. An example is France's Mirage IV, a small strategic bomber replaced in service by the ASMP-equipped Mirage 2000N fighter-bomber and Rafale multirole fighter.


title: Strategic bomber

text: The first strategic bombing efforts took place during World War I (1914–18), by the Russians with their Sikorsky Ilya Muromets bomber (the first heavy four-engine aircraft), and by the Germans using Zeppelins or long-range multi-engine Gotha aircraft. Zeppelins reached England on bombing raids by 1915, forcing the British to create extensive defense systems including some of the first anti-aircraft guns which were often used with searchlights to highlight the enemy machines overhead. Late in the war, American fliers under the command of Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell were developing multi-aircraft "mass" bombing missions behind German lines, although the Armistice ended full realization of what was being planned.


title: Strategic bomber

text: Study of strategic bombing continued in the interwar years. Many books and articles predicted a fearful prospect for any future war, paced by political fears such as those expressed by British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin who told the House of Commons early in the 1930s that "the bomber will always get through" no matter what defensive systems were undertaken. It was widely believed by the late 1930s that strategic "terror" bombing of cities in any war would quickly result in devastating losses and might decide a conflict in a matter of days or weeks. But theory far exceeded what most air forces could actually put into the air. Germany focused on short-range tactical bombers. Britain's Royal Air Force began developing four-engine long-range bombers only in the late 1930s. The U.S. Army Air Corps ("Army Air Forces" as of mid-1941) was severely limited by small budgets in the late 1930s, and only barely saved the B-17 bomber that would soon be vital. The equally important B-24 first flew in 1939. Both aircraft would constitute the bulk of the American bomber force that made the Allied daylight bombing of Nazi Germany possible in 1943–45.


title: Strategic bomber

text: At the start of World War II, so-called "strategic" bombing was initially carried out by medium bomber aircraft which were typically twin-engined, armed with several defensive guns, but only possessed limited bomb-carrying capacity and range. Both Britain and the US were developing larger two- and four-engined designs, which began to replace or supplement the smaller aircraft by 1941–42. After American entry into the war, late, in 1941, the U.S. 8th Air Force began to develop a daylight bombing capacity using improved B-17 and B-24 four-engine aircraft. In order to assemble the formations to carry out these bombing campaigns, assembly ships were used to quickly form defensive combat boxes. The RAF concentrated its efforts on night bombing. But neither force was able to develop adequate bombsights or tactics to allow for often-bragged "pinpoint" accuracy. The post-war U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey studies supported the overall notion of strategic bombing, but underlined many of its shortcomings as well. Attempts to create pioneering examples of "smart bombs" resulted in the Azon ordnance, deployed in the European Theater and CBI Theater from B-24s.


title: Strategic bomber

text: Following the untimely death of the top German advocate for strategic bombing, "General" Walther Wever in early June 1936, the focus of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe bomber forces, the so-named "Kampfgeschwader" (bomber wings) became the battlefield support of the German Army as part of the general Blitzkrieg form of warfare, carried out with both medium bombers such as the Heinkel He 111, and "Schnellbombers" such as the Junkers Ju 88A. "General" Wever's support of the Ural bomber project before WW II's start dwindled after his passing, with the only aircraft design that could closely match the Allied bomber force's own aircraft – the early November 1937-origin Heinkel He 177A, deployed in its initial form in 1941–42, hampered by a RLM requirement for the He 177A to also perform medium-angle dive bombing, not rescinded until September 1942 – unable to perform either function properly, with a powerplant selection and particular powerplant installation design features on the 30-meter wingspan "Greif", that led to endless problems with engine fires. The March 1942-origin, trans-Atlantic ranged "Amerika Bomber" program sought to ameliorate the lack of a seriously long-ranged bomber for the "Luftwaffe", but resulted with only three Messerschmitt-built and a pair of Junkers-built prototypes ever flown, and no operational "heavy bombers" for strategic use for the Third Reich, outside of the roughly one thousand examples of the He 177 that were built.


title: Strategic bomber

text: By the end of the Second World War in 1945, the "heavy" bomber, epitomized by the British Avro Lancaster and American Boeing B-29 Superfortress used in the Pacific Theater, showed what could be accomplished by area bombing of Japan's cities and the often small and dispersed factories within them. Under Major General Curtis LeMay, the U.S. 20th Air Force, based in the Mariana Islands, undertook low-level incendiary bombing missions, results of which were soon measured in the number of square miles destroyed. The air raids on Japan had withered the nation's ability to continue fighting, although the Japanese government delayed surrender, resulting in the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.


title: Strategic bomber

text: During the Cold War, the United States and United Kingdom on one side and the Soviet Union on the other kept strategic bombers ready to take off on short notice as part of the deterrent strategy of mutually assured destruction (MAD). Most strategic bombers of the two superpowers were designed to deliver nuclear weapons. For a time, some squadrons of Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers were kept in the air around the clock, orbiting some distance away from their fail-safe points near the Soviet border.


title: Strategic bomber

text: The British produced three different types of "V bombers" for the Royal Air Force which were designed and designated to be able to deliver British-made nuclear bombs to targets in European Russia. These bombers would have been able to reach and destroy cities like Kiev or Moscow before American strategic bombers. While they were never used against the Soviet Union or its allies, two types of V bombers, the Avro Vulcan and the Handley Page Victor were used in the Falklands War towards the end of their operational lives.


title: Strategic bomber

text: The Soviet Union produced hundreds of unlicensed, reverse-engineered copies of the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress, which the Soviet Air Forces called the Tupolev Tu-4. The Soviets later developed the jet-powered Tupolev Tu-16 "Badger".


title: Strategic bomber

text: The People's Republic of China produced a version of Tupolev Tu-16 on license from the Soviet Union in the 1960s which they named the Xian H-6.


title: Strategic bomber

text: During the 1960s France produced its Dassault Mirage IV nuclear-armed bomber for the French Air Force as a part of its independent nuclear strike force, the "Force de Frappe", using French-made bombers and IRBMs to deliver French-made nuclear weapons. Mirage IVs served until mid-1996 in the bomber role, and to 2005 as a reconnaissance aircraft.


title: Strategic bomber

text: Today the French Republic has limited its strategic armaments to a squadron of four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, with 16 SLBM tubes apiece. France also maintains an active force of supersonic fighter-bombers carrying stand-off nuclear missiles such as the ASMP, with Mach 3 speed and a range of 500 kilometers. These missiles can be delivered by the Dassault Mirage 2000N and Rafale fighter-bombers; the Rafale is also capable of refueling others in flight using a buddy refueling pod.


title: Strategic bomber

text: Newer strategic bombers such as the Rockwell International B-1B Lancer, the Tupolev Tu-160, and the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit designs incorporate various levels of stealth technology in an effort to avoid detection, especially by radar networks. Despite these advances earlier strategic bombers, for example the B-52 (last produced in 1962) or the Tupolev Tu-95 remain in service and can also deploy the latest air-launched cruise missiles and other "stand-off" or precision guided weapons such as the JASSM and the JDAM.


title: Strategic bomber

text: The Russian Air Force's new Tu-160 strategic bombers are expected to be delivered on a regular basis over the course of 10 to 20 years. In addition, the current Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers will be periodically updated, as was done during the 1990s with the Tu-22M bombers.


title: Strategic bomber

text: Strategic bombers of the Cold War were primarily armed with nuclear weapons. During the post-1940s Indochina Wars, and also since the end of the Cold War, modern bombers originally intended for strategic use have been exclusively employed using non-nuclear, high explosive weapons. During the Vietnam War, Operation Menu, Operation Freedom Deal, Gulf War, military action in Afghanistan, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, American B-52s and B-1s were mostly employed in tactical roles. During the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979–88, Soviet Air Forces Tu-22Ms carried out several mass air raids in various regions of Afghanistan.


title: Strategic bomber

text: Bombers listed below were used in the main or represented a shift in long-range bomber design (Maximum bomb load). In practice, bomb loads carried are dependent on factors such as the distance to target and the individual type, size or weight of bombs used.


title: Strategic bomber

text: Nomenclature for size classification of aircraft types used in strategic bombing varies, particularly since the time of World War II due to sequential technological advancements and changes in aerial warfare strategy and tactics. The B-29, for example was a benchmark aircraft of the heavy bomber type at end of World War II due to its size, range and load carrying ability; as the Cold War began, it became an intercontinental range strategic bomber with the development of new techniques, such as aerial refueling (which also greatly extended the range of other medium- to long-range bombers, fighter-bombers and attack aircraft).


title: Strategic bomber

text: During the 1950s the U.S. Strategic Air Command also briefly brought back the outdated term "medium bomber" to distinguish its Boeing B-47 Stratojets from somewhat larger contemporary Boeing B-52 Stratofortress "heavy bombers" in bombardment wings; older B-29 and B-50 heavy bombers were also redesignated as "medium" during this period. SAC's nomenclature here was purely semantic and bureaucratic, however as both the B-47 and B-52 strategic bombers were much larger and had far greater performance and load-carrying ability than any of the World War II-era heavy or medium bombers.


title: Strategic bomber

text: Other aircraft such as the twin-jet US FB-111, Douglas A-3 Skywarrior and France's Dassault Mirage IV had nominal warloads of less than , and were significantly smaller in size and gross weight compared with their strategic bomber contemporaries, based on which they might be classified as medium bombers. In the nuclear strike role, France would replace its Mirage IVs beginning in the late 1980s with the even smaller, single-engine Mirage 2000N fighter-bomber, a further example of advancing technologies and changing tactics in military aviation and aircraft design. France's newer twin-engine Dassault Rafale multirole fighter also has nuclear strike capability.


title: Transnistria War

text: The Transnistria War (; ) was an armed conflict that broke out on 2 November 1990 in Dubăsari () between pro-Transnistria (Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic [PMR]) forces, including the Transnistrian Republican Guard, militia and neo-Cossack units (which were supported by elements of the Russian 14th Army), and pro-Moldovan forces, including Moldovan troops and police.


title: Transnistria War

text: Fighting intensified on 1 March 1992 and, alternating with "ad hoc" ceasefires, lasted throughout the spring and early summer of 1992 until a ceasefire was declared on 21 July 1992, which has held. The conflict is sometimes known as the Moldo-Russian war () in Moldova and Romania.


title: Transnistria War

text: Before the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina and the creation of the Moldavian SSR in 1940, the Bessarabian part of Moldova, i.e. the part situated to the west of the river Dniester (Nistru), was part of Romania (1918–1940). The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, that led to the events of 1940, was later denounced by present-day Moldova, which declared it "null and void" in its Declaration of Independence in 1991. However, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the territorial changes resulting from it have remained in place.


title: Transnistria War

text: Before the creation of the Moldavian SSR, today's Transnistria was part of the Ukrainian SSR, as an autonomous republic called the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, with Tiraspol as its capital (1924–1940). It represents slightly more than one tenth of Moldova's territory.


title: Transnistria War

text: Under Soviet rule, the Moldavian SSR became subject of policy of Russification, including isolation from the Romanian cultural sphere and the imposition of the Cyrillic alphabet for the Romanian language. During the last years of the 1980s, the political landscape of the Soviet Union was changing due to Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost, which allowed political pluralism at the regional (republican) level. In the Moldavian SSR, as in many other parts of the Soviet Union, national movements became the leading political force. As these movements exhibited increasingly nationalist sentiments and expressed intent to leave the USSR in favor of uniting with Romania, they encountered growing opposition from among the primarily Russian-speaking ethnic minorities living in the republic. This opposition to the new trends and potential future policies was manifested in a more visible way in Transnistria, where, unlike the rest of the MSSR, ethnic Moldovans (39.9%) were outnumbered by the combined figure of Russians and Ukrainians (53.8%) as per the 1989 Census in Transnistria, largely due to higher immigration during the Soviet era.


title: Transnistria War

text: While some believe that the combination of a distinct history (especially 1918–1940) and a fear of discrimination by Moldovans, gave rise to separatist sentiments, others believe that ethnic tensions alone fail to account for the dynamics of the conflict. According to John Mackinlay and Peter Cross, who conducted a study based on casualty reports, significant numbers of both Transnistrians and Moldovans fought together on both sides of the conflict. They suggest that the conflict is more political in nature.


title: Transnistria War

text: On 31 August 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR enacted two laws. One of them made Moldovan the official language, in lieu of Russian, the "de facto" official language of the Soviet Union. It also mentioned a "linguistic Moldo–Romanian identity". The second law stipulated the return to the Latin Romanian alphabet. "Moldovan language" is the term used in the former Soviet Union for a virtually identical dialect of the Romanian language during 1940–1989. On 27 April 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR adopted the traditional tricolour (blue, yellow and red) flag with the Moldavian coat of arms and later changed in 1991 the national anthem to "Deșteaptă-te, române!", the national anthem of Romania since 1990. Later in 1990, the words "Soviet" and "Socialist" were dropped and the name of the country was changed to "Republic of Moldova".


title: Transnistria War

text: These events, including the end of the Ceaușescu regime in neighboring Romania in December 1989 and the partial opening of the border between Romania and Moldova on 6 May 1990, led many in Transnistria and Moldova to believe that a union between Moldova and Romania was inevitable. This possibility caused fears among the Russian-speaking population that it would be excluded from most aspects of public life. From September 1989, there were strong scenes of protests in the region against the central government's ethnic policies. The protests developed into the formation of secessionist movements in Gagauzia and Transnistria, which initially sought autonomy within the Moldavian SSR, in order to retain Russian and Gagauz as official languages. As the nationalist-dominated Moldavian Supreme Soviet outlawed these initiatives, the Gagauz Republic and Transnistria declared independence from Moldova and announced their application to be reattached to the Soviet Union as independent federal republics.


title: Transnistria War

text: The language laws presented a particularly volatile issue as a great proportion of the non-Moldovan population of the Moldavian SSR did not speak Moldovan (Romanian). The problem of the official language in the MSSR had become a Gordian knot, being exaggerated and, perhaps, intentionally politicized. Some described the language laws as "discriminatory" and criticized their rapid implementation. Others, on the contrary, complained the laws were not followed.


title: Transnistria War

text: On 2 September 1990, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed; "Pridnestrovie" being the name for Transnistria in Russian. On 22 December 1990 president Gorbachev signed a decree that declared void the decisions of the Second Congress of People Deputies of Transnistria from 2 September. For two months, Moldovan authorities refrained from taking action against this proclamation. Transnistria became one of the "unrecognized republics" that appeared throughout the USSR, alongside Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh. These self-proclaimed states maintained close ties with each other.


title: Transnistria War

text: One of the first clashes between the Moldovan government and separatists occurred on 2 November 1990 in Dubăsari. Local women stormed the Court and Prosecutor's Office and stayed there for several hours. A police detachment was then dispatched to clear a roadblock placed by the city residents on the bridge over the river Dniester that effectively cut the city off from the central government. After being prevented from clearing the roadblock, policemen opened fire, with three residents of Dubăsari being killed and 13 were wounded, resulting in the first casualties of the conflict.


title: Transnistria War

text: In the aftermath of the failure of the Soviet coup attempt of 1991, on 27 August 1991, the Moldovan parliament adopted the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova. The declaration referred to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact as "null and void" and viewed Moldova's Independence as an act of elimination of "the political and legal consequences of the above", declaring that the establishment of the Moldavian SSR on the territories of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, Hertsa region and the Moldavian ASSR was made in absence of "any real legal basis". The PMR interpreted this as meaning that the 1940-merger of the two sides of the Dniester river was dissolved. Moldova, however, did not agree, as large portions of the territory occupied in 1940 by USSR remain in Ukraine, and almost immediately took steps to assert its sovereignty over the full territory of the former MSSR.


title: Transnistria War

text: At that time, the Republic of Moldova did not have its own army and the first attempts to create one took place in early 1992 in response to the escalating conflict. The newly independent Moldovan parliament asked the government of the USSR "to begin negotiations with the Moldovan government in order to put an end to the illegal occupation of the Republic of Moldova and withdraw Soviet troops from Moldovan territory".


title: Transnistria War

text: When, on 29 August 1991, Transnistria's independence leader Igor Smirnov and three other deputies arrived in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, to meet Ukrainian leader Leonid Kravchuk, Smirnov and Andrei Cheban were arrested by Moldova's police and immediately transported to a prison in Moldova. In protest, the women's strike committee headed by Galina Andreeva blocked the Moscow–Chișinău railway line at a waypoint between Bender (Tighina) and Tiraspol, until the men were freed.


title: Transnistria War

text: By 1992, Moldova had troops under the Ministry of the Interior. On 17 March 1992, they started recruiting troops for the newly created Ministry of Defence. By July 1992, total Moldovan troop strength has been estimated at 25,000–35,000, including called-up police officers, conscripts, reservists and volunteers, especially from the Moldavian localities near the conflict zone.


title: Transnistria War

text: In addition to Soviet weaponry inherited upon independence, Moldova also obtained arms from Romania. Romania also sent military advisors and volunteers to aid Moldova during the conflict.


title: Transnistria War

text: At the same time, the Russian 14th Guards Army in Moldovan territory numbered about 14,000 professional soldiers. The PMR authorities had 9,000 militiamen trained and armed by officers of the 14th Army. The volunteers came from the Russian Federation: a number of Don, Kuban, Orenburg, Sibir and local Transnistrian Black Sea Cossacks joined in to fight alongside the separatists. Due to the irregular makeup of the forces, troop strength of the PMR is in dispute, but it is believed that during March it numbered around 12,000.


title: Transnistria War

text: Forces of the 14th Army (which had owed allegiance to the USSR, CIS and the Russian Federation in turn) stationed in Transnistria, had fought with and on behalf of the PMR forces. A significant portion of the personnel of the Russian 14th Army were local conscripts and officers that had been given local residence. PMR units were able to arm themselves with weapons taken from the stores of the former 14th Army. The Russian troops chose not to oppose the PMR units who had come to help themselves from the Army's stores; on the contrary, in many cases they helped the PMR troops equip themselves by handing over weapons and by opening up the ammunition stores to them.


title: Transnistria War

text: In December 1991, the Moldovan authorities arrested Lieutenant-General Yakovlev in Ukrainian territory, accusing him of helping the PMR forces to arm themselves by using the weapons stocks of the 14th Army. At that time, General Yakovlev has been both Commander of the 14th Army and "Head of the National Defence and Security Department" of the PMR. The government of the Russian Federation interceded with the Moldovan government to obtain the release of General Yakovlev in exchange for 26 policemen detained by PMR forces at the start of the fighting in Dubăsari.


title: Transnistria War

text: On 5 April 1992, Vice President Rutskoy of Russia, in a speech delivered to 5,000 people in Tiraspol, encouraged the Transnistrian people to obtain their independence.


title: Transnistria War

text: The first fatalities in the emerging conflict took place on 2 November 1990, two months after the PMR's 2 September 1990 declaration of independence. Moldovan forces entered Dubăsari in order to separate Transnistria into two halves, but were stopped by the city's inhabitants, who had blocked the bridge over the Dniester, at Lunga. In an attempt to break through the roadblock, Moldovan forces then opened fire. In the course of the confrontation, three Dubăsari locals, Oleg Geletiuk, Vladimir Gotkas and Valerie Mitsuls, were killed by the Moldovan forces and sixteen people wounded.


title: Transnistria War

text: A second Moldovan attempt to cross the Lunga bridge took place on 13 December 1991. As a result of the fighting, 27 PMR troops were taken prisoner and four Moldovan troops (Ghenadie Iablocikin, Gheorghe Cașu, Valentin Mereniuk and Mihai Arnăut) were killed, without Moldova being able to cross the bridge. After this second failed attempt, there was a lull in military activity until 2 March 1992, considered the official start date of the War of Transnistria. This day was the same day when Moldova was admitted as a member of the United Nations, i.e. received full international recognition of its 27 August 1991 declaration of independence. After Transnistrian paramilitary advances Moldova declared the state of emergency on 29 March, the armed conflict culminated in May and June in three areas along the Dniester river, and died down on 19–21 June after the Battle of Tighina (now Bender) where the 14th former Soviet Army intervened and drove the Moldovan army putting an end to the conflict.


title: Transnistria War

text: The first area of military action was on the eastern shore of the Dniester river, from north to south, the villages of Molovata Nouă, Cocieri (approx 6,000 inhabitants), Corjova and the city of Dubăsari (approx 30,000 inhabitants), together forming a contiguous mainly inhabited area 10–12 km (about 7 miles) along the shore. The only connection to the western bank from the three villages is either a ferry, or two bridges in Dubăsari.


title: Transnistria War

text: On 1 March 1992 Igor Shipcenko, the PMR militia chief of Dubăsari, was killed by a teenager and Moldovan police were accused of the killing. Although minor, this incident was a sufficient spark for the already very tense situation to blow up and cause the conflict to escalate.


title: Transnistria War

text: In response, the Cossacks who came from Rostov-on-Don to support the PMR side stormed the police precinct in Dubăsari during the night. Moldovan president Mircea Snegur, afraid of starting an armed conflict, ordered the 26 policemen to surrender to the attacking Cossacks and PMR forces. They were later exchanged for Lieutenant-General Yakovlev. Moldovan policemen loyal to Chișinău from the Dubăsari raion (district), instead of returning to work in the occupied precinct in Dubăsari, now a milice precinct, gathered in Cocieri.


title: Transnistria War

text: On 2 March 1992, locals from Cocieri, after hearing about the situation in Dubăsari, broke into the small local arms depot to arm themselves against the PMR side. Three locals (Alexandru Luchianov from Cocieri, Alexandru Gazea from Molovata and Mihai Nour from Roghi) were killed, but the military unit from Cocieri was defeated by the Moldovans. The officers and their families were forced to leave the village. More policemen were ferried the following days from the western bank of the Dniester. They organized a defense line around the three villages, while PMR forces retained control of Dubăsari. In the following weeks both PMR and Moldovan forces amassed large numbers in the area and fought a trench war, with intermittent ceasefires.


title: Transnistria War

text: A similar development occurred on 13 March in the villages of Coșnița, Pîrîta, Pohrebea and Doroțcaia. A second "bridge-head" was formed on the eastern bank, now south of Dubăsari.


title: Transnistria War

text: In April, Russian Vice President Alexander Rutskoy visited Transnistria and expressed the full support of Transnistrian separatists by Soviet Russia.


title: Transnistria War

text: A ceasefire was in negotiation during June 1992 in the Bender (Tighina) area. However, a full-scale battle erupted after regular Moldovan forces entered the city of Bender in an attempt to reestablish the authority of Moldova there. It has been reported that this action was a response to the stand-off at the police station in Bender on 19 June 1992. On the afternoon of that day, the Moldovan police in Bender arrested the 14th Army's Major Yermakov on suspicion of planned subversion. After his arrest, PMR guards opened fire on the police station. The Moldovan government ordered its troops to enter the city the following morning. Urban warfare ensued between the two sides in the densely populated city, causing civilian casualties. The Moldovan radio said three Soviet Russian T-64 tanks from the 14th Army, some bearing Russian flags, were destroyed when closing in on central Bender, two of them by T-12 antitank guns, and a third by a rocket propelled grenade that set its engine on fire. A fourth tank was disabled when its tracks were struck by a rocket propelled grenade. Russian Army spokesmen said the tanks had been seized from depots by separatists. Russian sources reported "dozens of dead" in the streets.


title: Transnistria War

text: The news of the havoc in Bender reached Tiraspol, only 11 km (7 miles) away, as Moldovan troops were approaching the crucial bridge over the Dniester. At this point, with the support of ROG's tanks, the Transnistrian Republican Guard and Cossack volunteers rushed to confront the Moldovan forces. Russia Vice-president Rutskoy, in a speech delivered on the main channel of the Russian television, called for all Russian forces in Tiraspol to storm Bender. In the course of the following days, parts of the city of Bender, including the center, were retaken by PMR forces.


title: Transnistria War

text: On 22 June 1992, acting on news that troops from the 14th Army were ready to cross the Dniestr and move deep into Moldova, the Moldovan military ordered an airstrike to destroy the bridge between Bender and Tiraspol. A three MiG-29 package took off from Chisinau, two of them armed with six OFAB-250 bombs each. The other aircraft was a MiG-29UB providing cover. No direct hits were achieved on the intended target, but the bridge received some blast and splinter damage from near misses. One of the bombs went astray and fell on a civilian residence, killing a number of people inside. Sources from the 14th Army claimed a second MiG-29 attack on an oil refinery at Tiraspol the following day, in which one aircraft was allegedly shot down by a S-125 Neva/Pechora missile, but this sortie was denied by Moldovan authorities.


title: Transnistria War

text: A ceasefire agreement was signed on 21 July. This official document whose broad lines was established by the Russian side, was signed by the presidents of Russia (Boris Yeltsin) and Moldova (Mircea Snegur). The agreement provided for peacekeeping forces charged with ensuring observance of the ceasefire and security arrangements, composed of five Russian battalions, three Moldovan battalions and two PMR battalions under the orders of a joint military command structure, the Joint Control Commission (JCC).


title: Transnistria War

text: It is estimated that in total nearly one thousand people were killed in the conflict, with the number of wounded approaching 3,000. Unlike many other post-Soviet conflicts, IDP's (internally displaced persons) did not reach large numbers in the war of Transnistria.


title: Transnistria War

text: Days after the truce had been agreed upon, a military confrontation between a local self-defence unit and the Moldovan army, took place in Gîsca (Gyska), a village with an ethnic Russian majority near Bender. At least three villagers were killed. During the combat, civil buildings were damaged or destroyed by artillery fire. Later reports of ceasefire violations have been brought under control with no known loss of human lives.


title: Transnistria War

text: The Russian 14th Army's role in the area was crucial to the outcome of the war. The Moldovan army's position of inferiority prevented it from gaining control of Transnistria. Russia has since disbanded the 14th army and reduced troop strength in Transnistria to a corps of around 1,300 men who form part of the JCC.


title: Transnistria War

text: With the PMR's overwhelming military superiority, Moldova had little chance of achieving victory and the fighting was unpopular with the skeptical Moldovan population.


title: Transnistria War

text: According to a Human Rights Center “Memorial” report, local Bender eyewitnesses on 19 June 1992 saw Moldovan troops in armored vehicles deliberately firing at houses, courtyards and cars with heavy machine guns. The next day, Moldovan troops allegedly shot at civilians that were hiding in houses, trying to escape the city, or helping wounded PMR guardsmen. Other local eyewitnesses testified that in the same day, unarmed men that gathered in the Bender downtown square in request of the PMR Executive Committee, were fired at from machine guns. HRC observers were told by doctors in Bender that as a result of heavy fire from Moldovan positions between 19 and 20 June, they were unable to attend the wounded.


title: Transnistria War

text: From 21 to 22 June, both sides engaged in intense urban street fighting, which employed the use of tanks, artillery and grenade launchers. Officers from both sides admitted that these actions led to an increase in civilian casualties. During this time period, ambulance cars were fired upon, with both sides accusing each other of the attacks. PMR sources stated that in Bender, one doctor was killed and several wounded, while six ambulance personnel were wounded in Kaushany.


title: Transnistria War

text: In the Moldovan city of Chișinău, HRC Memorial observers interviewed 12 Transnistrian prisoners of war. The prisoners stated that while being initially detained and interrogated in Kaushany, they were severely beaten with clubs and gun buttstocks by Moldovan police, as well as being threatened with firing squads. There were also reports of captured Moldovan policemen, soldiers and volunteers being beaten and tortured by PMR forces.


title: Transnistria War

text: Although the Russian Army officially took the position of neutrality and non-involvement, many of its officers were sympathetic towards the fledgling Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR) and some even defected in order to help the PMR side openly. ROG Parcani sapper battalion, under the orders of General Butkevich, went over to the PMR side. This battalion later destroyed the bridges at Dubăsari, Gura Bâcului–Bâcioc and Coșnița. Moldovan forces used aircraft in the village of Parcani (Parkany) and shelled the ROG station there which meant engaging not just PMR but also Russian forces.


title: Transnistria War

text: In 1991, PMR paramilitary forces conducted forays into supply depots of the 14th Guards Army, appropriating an unknown but large amount of equipment. With the commanding officer of the 14th Guards Army, General G. I. Yakovlev, openly supporting the newly created PMR, these forays usually met no resistance from army guards, who never faced punishment. Yakovlev eventually participated in the founding of the PMR, served in the PMR Supreme Soviet and accepted the position as the first chairman of the PMR Department of Defense on 3 December 1991, causing the Commander-in-Chief of the CIS armed forces, Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, to promptly relieve him of his rank and service in the Russian military. Yakovlev's successor, General Yuriy Netkachev has assumed a more neutral stance in the conflict. However, his attempts at mediation between Chișinău and Tiraspol were largely unsuccessful and the situation escalated to an open military engagement by June 1992. On 23 June, in the wake of a coordinated offensive by Moldovan forces, Major General Alexander Lebed arrived at the 14th Army headquarters with standing orders to inspect the army, prevent the theft of armaments from its depots, stop the ongoing conflict with any means available and ensure the unimpeded evacuation of armaments and Army personnel from Moldovan and through Ukrainian territory. After briefly assessing the situation, he assumed command of the army, relieving Netkachev, and ordered his troops to enter the conflict directly. On 3 July at 03:00, a massive artillery strike from 14th Army formations stationed on left bank of the Dniester obliterated the Moldovan force concentrated in Gerbovetskii forest, near Bender, effectively ending the military phase of the conflict. Romanian authors Anatolie Muntean and Nicolae Ciubotaru attribute to Lebed a quote demonstrating his support of the Transnistrian cause: "I am proud that we helped and armed Transnistrian guards against Moldovan fascists". He also called himself as "guarantor" of the "Dniester Republic". However, he bore no goodwill towards the Transnistrian leadership and frequently denounced them as "criminals" and "bandits". Another quote attributed to him describes his stance as follows: "I told the hooligans [separatists] in Tiraspol and the fascists in Chișinău – either you stop killing each other, or else I'll shoot the whole lot of you with my tanks".


title: Transnistria War

text: Volunteers from Russia and Ukraine, including Don and Kuban Cossacks, fought on Transnistria's side. There is no general consensus on the number of volunteers or the military role they played in the conflict. Estimates range from as low as 200 to as high as 3,000.


title: Transnistria War

text: During the Transnistria War, UNA-UNSO members fought alongside Transnistrian separatists against Moldovan government forces in defense of a large ethnic-Ukrainian minority in Transnistria. The incongruous motive of assisting a mostly pro-Russian region was for the "struggle of Slavs over Moldovan-Romanian aggression." Following the war, 50 UNSO members were awarded the PMR "Defender of Transnistria" medal.


title: Transnistria War

text: According to Romanian sources, at least one inmate was released from Bender prison to be enrolled in the Transnistrian Guard.


title: Transnistria War

text: Shortly before the escalation of the conflict in late June 1992, Romania provided military support to Moldova by supplying weaponry, ammunition and armed vehicles, and also by sending military advisers and training Moldovan military and police forces. Volunteers from Romania fought on Moldova's side.


title: Sanjay Khan

text: Sanjay Khan (born Shah Abbas Ali Khan Tanoli, 3 January 1941) is an Indian actor, producer, and director known for his works in Hindi films and television. Sanjay Khan made his debut in Chetan Anand's 1964 film "Haqeeqat", followed by the Rajshri film "Dosti" which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi for that year.


title: Sanjay Khan

text: Khan starred in hit movies like "Dus Lakh" (1966), "Ek Phool Do Mali" (1969), "Intaquam" (1969), "Dhund" (1973), "Mela" (1971) etc. He co-starred with his elder brother Feroz Khan in the films "Upaasna" (1971), "Mela" (1971) and "Nagin" (1976). He later turned producer and director with "Chandi Sona" (1977) and "Abdullah" (1980). In 1990, he starred in and directed the famous historical fiction television series "The Sword of Tipu Sultan".


title: Sanjay Khan

text: Sanjay Khan was born on 3 January, 1941 as Shah Abbas Ali Khan Tanoli in Bangalore, Kingdom of Mysore, British India (now in Karnataka, India) into a Muslim family. Son of an immigrant Afghan Pashtun father of the Tanoli tribe, Sadiq Ali Khan Tanoli from Ghazni and an immigrant Persian mother, Bibi Fatima Begum from Iran, with five brothers and two sisters, Dilshad and Khurshid. His elder brother is Feroz Khan, who was a successful actor and also produced super hit movies like "Dharmatma" and "Qurbani". His younger brothers Sameer and Shahrukh are businessmen, while Akbar Khan has made magnum opus "".


title: Sanjay Khan

text: At the age of 12, Khan was taken to a theatre to see Raj Kapoor's "Awaara" and was mesmerised by the film. Following the film, he decided to visit with the actors. The manager of the theatre took Khan into the projection room and explained to him how the film is made. To Khan, that was a moment of epiphany and he decided to pursue an acting career. He obtained Senior Cambridge through Cambridge School in Daryaganj, New Delhi.


title: Sanjay Khan

text: Deciding not to pursue further education, Khan moved to Mumbai where, before joining Bollywood, he assisted John Guillermin, Hollywood film director for the MGM Production of "Tarzan Goes to India" (1962).


title: Sanjay Khan

text: Khan made his debut in Chetan Anand's 1964 war film "Haqeeqat" in a small role as a soldier. Later that year, he played a pivotal supporting role in the big blockbuster film "Dosti". He went on to star in hit films like "Dus Lakh" (1966), "Ek Phool Do Mali" (1969), "Intaqam" (1969), "Shart" (1969), "Mela" (1971), "Upaasna" (1971), "Dhund" (1973) and "Nagin" (1976). In 1977, he made his directorial debut with "Chandi Sona" starring himself, Parveen Babi and Raj Kapoor. In 1980, he directed and starred in "Abdullah" alongside Raj Kapoor and Zeenat Aman. He made his last film appearance in the 1986 film "Kala Dhanda Goray Log", which was his third and last film as a director.


title: Sanjay Khan

text: He shifted his focus on television in the late 1980s, directing and starring in the big-budget historical television drama series "The Sword of Tipu Sultan". During the making of the series in 1989, a fire broke out on the sets and killed more than 40 crew members and Khan suffered 65% burns to his body. He recovered after 72 surgeries and production on the series resumed later that year with him and his brother Akbar Khan jointly directing episodes of the series. The series first aired on DD National from 1990 to 1991 and lasted 60 episodes. This would have been his final acting role but he went on to produce and direct several other popular television series like "The Great Maratha", "Jai Hanuman" and "1857 Kranti".


title: Sanjay Khan

text: In 1997, he launched his dream project – the five-star deluxe Golden Palms Hotel and Spa in Bangalore. He completed this 150-room hotel with built up area of approximately 300,000 sq ft, with the largest swimming pool ever built in India containing 300,000 litres of water. Golden Palms Hotel and Spa was conceived, designed, constructed was owned by him till 2010; his wife Zarine Khan designed the interiors.


title: Sanjay Khan

text: He is married to Zarine Khan, they have three daughters and a son, elder daughter Farah Khan Ali married to DJ Aqeel, now divorced, second daughter Simone Arora married to Ajay Arora they own D'decor, his youngest daughter Sussanne Khan (formerly married to actor Hrithik Roshan) and son an actor Zayed Khan married to Malaika.


title: Sanjay Khan

text: Sanjay Khan was briefly married to Zeenat Aman, the marriage took place on 30 December 1978 in a private ceremony with two witnesses in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. The relationship lasted less than a year, being annulled on 24 November 1979. The relationship was a difficult one for Zeenat Aman, having suffered domestic abuse including being beaten by Khan in the presence of various guests. It is also believed that the abuse she had to undergo resulted in permanent damage to her right eye.


title: Sanjay Khan

text: A major fire accident took place on 8 February 1989 in the Premier Studios of Mysore where the serial "The Sword of Tipu Sultan" was being shot. Loose wiring and the absence of ventilators were further causes for the fire to spread. Instead of fire-proofing material, the walls had gunny bags and the temperature rose to around 120 °C (248 °F) because of huge lights being used. All these factors contributed to the massive fire, and the final death toll was 52. Khan suffered major burns and had to spend 13 months in hospital and undergo 73 surgeries.


title: Sanjay Khan

text: In 2018, he announced that he signed a deal with Penguin Books to release his autobiography titled "The Best Mistakes of My Life" and same year announced that he will build a theme park in Agra.


title: Iguana

text: Iguana (, ) is a genus of herbivorous lizards that are native to tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. The genus was first described in 1768 by Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in his book "Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis circa Venena". Two species are placed in the genus, the green iguana, which is widespread throughout its range and a popular pet, and the Lesser Antillean iguana, which is native to the Lesser Antilles. Genetic analysis indicates that the green iguana may comprise a complex of multiple species, some of which have been recently described, but the Reptile Database considers all of these as subspecies of the green iguana.


title: Iguana

text: In addition to the two species in the genus "Iguana", several other related genera in the same family have common names of the species including the word "iguana".


title: Iguana

text: The species is a popular quarry for pets, and has been widely introduced beyond its native area, into Ishigaki Island, Florida Peninsula, Hawaii, numerous islands in the Lesser Antilles, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan.


title: Iguana

text: Iguanas can range from in length, including their tails. These lizards possess a dewlap and a row of elongated scales running from the midline of their necks down to their tails. Iguanas have varying types of scales covering different areas of their body, for example, some large, round tuberculate scales are scattered around the lateral region of the neck among smaller, overlapping scales. The scales on the dorsal trunk of their bodies are also thicker and more tightly packed than those on the ventral sides. These scales may be a variety of colors and are not always visible from close distances. They have a large, round scale on their cheeks known as a subtympanic shield.


title: Iguana

text: Iguanas have keen vision and can see shapes, shadows, colors, and movement at long distances. Their visual acuity enables them to navigate through crowded forests and to locate food. They employ visual signals to communicate with other members of the same species.


title: Iguana

text: The tympanum, the iguana's eardrum, is located above the subtympanic shield (or "ear shield") behind each eye.


title: Iguana

text: Iguanas are often hard to spot, as they tend to blend into their surroundings, and their coloration enables them to hide from larger predators.


title: Iguana

text: Like most reptiles, an iguana has a three-chambered heart with two atria, one ventricle, and two aortae with a systemic circulation.


title: Iguana

text: The muscles of an iguana are very light in color due to the high proportion of fast-twitch, glycolytic muscle fibers (type A). These A fibers are not very vascularized and are low in myoglobin, giving them their pale look. This high density of A fibers allows iguanas to move very quickly for a short period of time, which facilitates short bursts of movement, but is inefficient for long duration movement, since cellular respiration in A fibers is anaerobic.


title: Iguana

text: Several species of lizards, including the iguanas, have a pale scale towards the back of their heads marking the parietal eye. This organ is sensitive to changes in illumination and sends signals to the pineal gland noting the change between day and night. A photopigment commonly found in the lamprey, known as parapinopsin, is also found in the iguana, and is sensitive to ultraviolet light and aids in the signaling between day and night.


title: Iguana

text: Iguanas have developed an herbivorous lifestyle, foraging exclusively on vegetation and foliage. To acquire, process, and digest plant matter, herbivorous lizards must have a higher bite force relative to their size in comparison to carnivorous or omnivorous reptiles. The skull of the iguana has undergone modifications resulting in a strong bite force and efficient processing of vegetation, according to one study. To accomplish this biomechanically, herbivorous lizards have taller and wider skulls, shorter snouts, and larger bodies relative to carnivorous and omnivorous reptiles. Increasing the strength of the skull allows for increased muscle presence and increases the ability of the skull to withstand stronger forces.


title: Iguana

text: Furthermore, the teeth of the iguana are acrodontal, meaning that their teeth sit on top of the surface of the jaw bone and project upwards. The teeth themselves are small and serrated - designed to grasp and shear food.


title: Iguana

text: Male iguanas, like other male examples of Squamata, have two hemipenes. During copulation, one hemipenis is inserted into the female's cloacal vent. A female can store sperm from previous mates for several years to continue to fertilize her eggs in case she finds no male within her territory when she is ready to lay again.


title: Iguana

text: Iguanas tend to follow a promiscuous or polygynadrous mating style during the dry season. Mating during the dry season ensures that their offspring will hatch during the wet or rainy season when food will be more plentiful. Females control large territories, where they make several nests. Males compete for the females in an area and mark their won territory with a pheromone secreted from the femoral pores on the dorsal side of their hind limbs. Male behavior during sexual competition involves head bobbing, extending and retracting their dewlap, nuzzling and biting the necks of females, and on occasion, changing color. Once a female chooses a male, he straddles the female and holds her in place by biting onto her shoulder, which sometimes leaves scars on females. After copulation, eggs are laid within several nests and allowed to incubate. This low level of parental intervention with their offspring makes iguanas an example of r-strategy reproduction.


title: Iguana

text: A phylogeny based on nuclear protein-coding genes, reviewed by Vidal and Hedges (2009), suggested that the subclade Iguania is in a group with snakes and anguimorphs (lizards). These groups share an oral gland capable of secreting toxins (a derived trait). The phylogeny based on whole mitochondrial genomes, though, as proposed by Rest et al. (2003), places the green iguana as the closest relative of the mole skink ("Plestiodon egregius"). Lepidosaurs are reptiles with overlapping scales, and within this group both iguanians and tuataras ("Sphenodon") project their tongues to seize prey items instead of using their jaws, which is called tongue prehension. Iguanians are the only lineage within the Squamata that display this trait, meaning that it was gained independently in both iguanians and tuataras. Iguanians are also the only squamates that primarily use their sight to identify and track prey rather than chemoreception or scent, and employ an ambush technique of catching prey instead of active searching.


title: Iguana

text: A study by Breuil "et al." (2020) found the taxonomy of the genus "Iguana" as follows, with "I. delicatissima" being the most basal member of the group. The species are classified as subspecies based on the ReptileDatabase definitions.


title: Iguana

text: The Reptile Database synonymizes "I. rhinolopha" with "I. iguana", only considering it a distinctive population, and recognizes "I. insularis" and "I. melanoderma" as subspecies of "I. iguana". Four subspecies of green iguana are recognized under this treatment: "I. i. insularis" (Saint Vincent & the Grenadines and Grenada), "I. i. sanctaluciae" (Saint Lucia), "I. i. melanoderma" (parts of the northern Lesser Antilles, and potentially coastal Venezuela, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico), and "I. i. iguana" (mainland South America).


title: Iguana

text: The Central American iguana ("I. rhinolopha" or "I. i. rhinolopha"), sometimes considered a distinct species, is largely considered synonymous with "I. iguana", as the presence of horns does not necessarily indicate a new species or subspecies. The two described subspecies of "I. insularis" (the Saint Lucia horned iguana, "I. i. sanctaluciae", and the Grenadines horned iguana, "I. i. insularis") were originally described as subspecies of "I. iguana", although they are genetically very similar and may not be separate subspecies from one another. Recent studies have recovered "I. rhinolopha" and "I. insularis" as distinct species based on genetics, but the Reptile Database disagrees with these conclusions, and classifies "I. rhinolopha" as synonymous with "I. iguana", and "I. insularis" as a subspecies of "I. iguana". The Curaçao population of green iguanas shows major genetic divergence and may also represent an as-of-yet undescribed species or subspecies.


title: Iguana

text: Iguanas have historically featured in the culinary traditions of Mexico and Central America. Iguana meat is also consumed in parts of the United States and Puerto Rico.


title: Iguana

text: Also, the eggs of iguana are consumed in some parts of Latin America, such as Nicaragua and Colombia.


title: Ryan McCartan

text: Ryan Jerome McCartan (born June 14, 1993) is an American actor and singer. As an actor, he is known for playing Jason "J.D." Dean in the original off-Broadway production of "" (2014) and for playing Brad Majors in the 2016 Fox musical television film "". McCartan is also known as half of the former pop duo The Girl and the Dreamcatcher. McCartan played the recurring role of Diggie Smalls on the Disney Channel sitcom "Liv and Maddie". Further Broadway credits include Fiyero in "Wicked" and Hans in "Frozen".


title: Ryan McCartan

text: McCartan was born in Excelsior, Minnesota. His father, Conn McCartan, was the principal at Eden Prairie High School in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, until he retired in 2018.


title: Ryan McCartan

text: McCartan began his career with a minor part in the stage version of "Disney's High School Musical" in 2007. In 2011 he starred in the titular role in Minnesota's first regional production of "The Phantom of The Opera". That same year, he won Best Performance by an Actor at the Jimmy Awards, given out by The Broadway League to the top performers in high school musical productions.


title: Ryan McCartan

text: In 2013 McCartan began playing the recurring role of Diggie on the Disney Channel comedy "Liv and Maddie". In 2015 he starred in the direct-to-video film "". In 2016 McCartan was cast in the lead role of Brad Majors in the 2016 Fox musical television film "".


title: Ryan McCartan

text: In May 2015 Dove Cameron announced that she and McCartan were officially forming a pop duo and would be releasing their first original song. In September 2015, they announced their group's name would be The Girl and the Dreamcatcher, and their first video was released in October 2015.


title: Ryan McCartan

text: On September 11, 2018, McCartan made his Broadway debut as Fiyero in the musical "Wicked". He remained with the show through May 12, 2019.


title: Ryan McCartan

text: He also originated the role of Jason Dean in the original off-Broadway cast of the musical "," which ran from March through August 2014, after playing the role in the Los Angeles tryout in 2013. In mid-2018 he originated the lead role of Eddie Corbin in the new musical "Mutt House" at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, and in August 2019 he played Lt. Cable in "South Pacific" at the Aspen Music Festival.


title: Ryan McCartan

text: He also starred in the role of Mac in the Roundabout Theatre Company's new musical "Scotland PA". In November 2019 he made his solo show debut at Feinstein's/54 Below. He joined the cast of "Frozen" on Broadway as Hans in February 2020. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, all Broadway theatres were closed. Disney later announced, on May 14, 2020, that "Frozen" would not reopen after the lockdown is lifted.


title: Ryan McCartan

text: McCartan has taken part in numerous promotions of new musicals such as Within Earshot and King of Pangaea.


title: Ryan McCartan

text: McCartan is part of the Rodgers and Hammerstein goes Pop! project producing a single version of This Nearly Was Mine.


title: Ryan McCartan

text: In April 2020, he hosted the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS viewing of 25 Years of Disney Broadway.


title: Ryan McCartan

text: He most recently played Hans in the Broadway National tour of Frozen. His final performance was Sunday, September 4th, 2022.


title: Ryan McCartan

text: McCartan began dating actress and singer Dove Cameron who was his "Liv & Maddie" co-star in August 2013. McCartan was 20 years at that time and Dove Cameron was 17 years old. He officially announced that Cameron was his fiancée on April 14, 2016, but the relationship ended in October 2016. Since October 2017, he has been dating Samantha Fekete with whom he runs a YouTube channel called Sam & Ryan.


title: Ryan McCartan

text: On July 29, 2014, McCartan revealed in a tweet that he has had diabetes since age six. In 2019, McCartan stated in an interview that he had been sexually abused by a theatre mentor when he was 12. When asked by a fan on an Instagram live if he would ever have a relationship with a man, McCartan responded, "Fuck yeah I would. ... Love is love. Period. I've been with men."


title: Nyck de Vries

text: Hendrik Johannes Nicasius "Nyck" de Vries (; born 6 February 1995) is a Dutch racing driver who is currently serving as the reserve driver for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. He is confirmed to be driving full-time in Formula 1 at Scuderia AlphaTauri in . He won the 2020–21 Formula E World Championship and the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship, as well as the 2010 and 2011 Karting World Championships. He was signed to the McLaren young driver programme from January 2010 until May 2019 and Audi Sport racing academy from October 2016 until August 2019. De Vries made his Formula One debut in September 2022 for Williams at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix.


title: Nyck de Vries

text: In 2008, De Vries won the WSK World Series for the KF3 category, as well as the German Junior Championship. In 2009 he retained both his German Junior and WSK World Series titles, as well as winning the European KF3 Championship. In September he won the 2010 Karting World Championship. He also won the World Championship in 2011.


title: Nyck de Vries

text: In 2012, De Vries switched to single-seaters, being given a cockpit in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 at R-ace GP. De Vries achieved his first podium finish at his debut race in Alcañiz with a second place, and he managed to repeat this result at the Hungaroring. De Vries finished the season in fifth place, beating all of his teammates. In addition, De Vries took part in several races of the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC, in which he managed a victory at his home track in Assen. He was on the podium four times in eleven starts in the series and ended up tenth in the drivers' standings.


title: Nyck de Vries

text: The following year De Vries switched to Koiranen GP for his second season in the series. He won one race each at the Hungaroring and the Circuit de Catalunya and again ended the season in fifth place in the championship.


title: Nyck de Vries

text: In 2014, De Vries stayed with Koiranen and competed in his third season of the Eurocup. He won six races and finished on the podium in 11 of 14 races. With 254 points to 124, he convincingly beat the runner-up Dennis Olsen in the championship. In addition, he took part in the entire Alpine Formula Renault season. He won 10 out of 14 races and only failed to make the podium twice.


title: Nyck de Vries

text: In 2015, De Vries made the switch to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, racing for DAMS. He was on the podium five times before winning the final race of the season at the Circuito de Jerez, putting him third in the final standings with 160 points, only placing behind Oliver Rowland and Matthieu Vaxivière.


title: Nyck de Vries

text: De Vries took part in the GP3 Series in 2016 in with ART Grand Prix. He scored his first podium at the Red Bull Ring with a third place, then obtained his first pole in Budapest. It wasn't until the second race at Monza that he took his first win, a result he replicated at the Yas Marina Circuit at the end of the season. He finished sixth in the championship, behind his teammates Charles Leclerc and Alexander Albon, who became champion and vice-champion respectively.


title: Nyck de Vries

text: In 2017, De Vries switched to the FIA Formula 2 Championship with Rapax. He achieved his first win in the Monte Carlo sprint race and scored a further three podium finishes before the summer break. Before the round at Spa-Francorchamps De Vries switched to Racing Engineering, with whom he scored a second place at that very round. He ended his season seventh in the championship, placing second-highest of all rookies.


title: Nyck de Vries

text: For the 2018 season, De Vries moved to partner Sean Gelael at Prema Racing. His season started slowly with just two podiums from the opening third of the season putting him a fair way behind his title rivals. De Vries' first victory of the campaign in the sprint race at Le Castellet was followed by a point-less round in Austria and two finishes outside the top five in Silverstone. Following that however the Dutch driver's form improved, winning the feature races in Hungary and Belgium respectively. However, even with his sixth podium of the season in the Sochi feature race, De Vries was unable to finish in the top three in the standings, being beaten by Alex Albon and Lando Norris by ten and 17 points respectively.


title: Nyck de Vries

text: In 2019, De Vries remained in Formula 2, returning to his former team ART Grand Prix alongside 2018 GP3 vice-champion Nikita Mazepin. His season started in strong fashion with a podium in Baku and a sprint race victory in Barcelona. He followed that up with a win from pole position in Monaco and took the championship lead by winning the main race at Le Castellet. A pair of third places at the Red Bull Ring and a podium each in Silverstone and Budapest extended De Vries' advantage, and following another pair of thirds in Monza he had put one hand onto the trophy. After his fourth and final victory of the season, which came at the penultimate round in Sochi, De Vries was mathematically crowned Formula 2 champion.


title: Nyck de Vries

text: On 15 March 2018, De Vries signed at Racing Team Nederland to compete in the LMP2 class. He won the 6 hours of Fuji on 6 October 2019 with this team, their first win in this class. De Vries drove the last stint and put the car over the finish line.


title: Nyck de Vries

text: On 6 July 2020, De Vries was announced as the Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe GmbH test and reserve driver. His roles include testing the Toyota TS050 Hybrid and Toyota's hypercar.


title: Nyck de Vries

text: During the test week prior to the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans the ACO officials prohibited TDS Racing x Vaillante driver Philippe Cimadomo to start. Due to his reserve role for the Toyota Hypercar team, he was already on the circuit and was asked to step in. Because of the bronze status of Philippe Cimadomo and the platinum status of De Vries, the car was moved from Pro/Am to Pro.