title: Sticky Fingaz

text: Fredro Starr, Big DS and Suave (also known as Sonny Seeza) met Jam Master Jay in a traffic jam at The Jones Beach GreekFest Festival on July 13, 1991. Jay give them about two months to get a demo, but Suave and Big DS didn't make it to the studio because they were stranded in Connecticut. So Jeff Harris, the manager of Onyx, asked Fredro to come to the studio with his cousin, Kirk Jones, who at the time was doing a solo career under the name Trop and working in the barbershop. Fredro and Sticky Fingaz made two records, "Stik 'N' Muve" and "Exercise".


title: Sticky Fingaz

text: In 1993, Onyx released their debut album entitled "Bacdafucup". It proved to be a commercial success and eventually went multi-platinum, largely due to the well known single "Slam". Then Onyx released on JMJ Records another two albums: All We Got Iz Us and Shut 'Em Down. JMJ Records as well as Onyx was officially removed from Def Jam on "Black Thursday" – January 21, 1999 – because the label PolyGram, who in 1994 purchased 50% of Sony's Def Jam, was sold to Seagram on December 10, 1998.


title: Sticky Fingaz

text: Only four years earlier, Onyx were "saving Def Jam", as Sticky Fingaz put it, but now they were hoping the label would save them. Their third—and what would become their final—album on Def Jam, "Shut 'Em Down", barely went gold.


title: Sticky Fingaz

text: Jones released his debut solo album in 2001 which was titled "", a concept album that followed the (fictionalized) life of Kirk Jones in a story line fashion as he is released from prison and then ultimately his death. The album was a critical success being noted as very creative with substantial content, though it didn't gain much commercial recognition despite featuring well-known artists such as Eminem, Raekwon, Redman and Canibus.


title: Sticky Fingaz

text: In 2003, he released his second album, "Decade "...but wait it gets worse"", which was less well received by critics and gained even less mainstream acknowledgement, featuring on this album were performances from Fredro Starr & Omar Epps.


title: Sticky Fingaz

text: In 2019, Fingaz released his third album, "It's About T.I.M.E." The album was released as a "digital album movie" and is accompanied by musical film, which tells about the life of an American rapper Sticky Fingaz, starting from his birth to the entry into Onyx. The album is available only on Sticky's own website.


title: Sticky Fingaz

text: Jones was a regular on the short-lived UPN series "Platinum" as Grady Rhames. He also played the part of Pvt. Maurice "Smoke" Williams in the FX television series "Over There", which depicts life as an American soldier in Iraq. He played Tyrone in "Next Friday". Jones also played a recurring role as Kern Little, a gang leader and hiphop musician/producer on the FX series "The Shield". He has also appeared in the direct-to-video and Sci-Fi Channel release "House of the Dead 2".


title: Sticky Fingaz

text: Starting in 2006, Jones was cast as the half-human/half-vampire Blade in "", a continuation of the Blade film series starring Wesley Snipes, with the show airing on Spike TV. The series was cancelled on September 29, 2006 through a press release from Spike. He has completed his work on a movie titled "Karma, Confessions and Holi" where he plays the character Rich Smooth. Jones was a major character in the remake of the movie "Flight of the Phoenix". In the video game "" he supplied his own voice and is one of the main antagonists throughout the story. He also has an appearance in the sequel, "", under the name Wink. Fingaz wrote, co-produced, co-directed and starred in the movie "A Day in the Life".


title: Sticky Fingaz

text: Fingaz released a movie "It's About T.I.M.E." through his production company Major Independents on February 14, 2019. Sticky Fingaz not only wrote the script for this film, but also presented himself as a director, cinematographer and producer of the film, and also he played a role in it. A feature of this film is the format in which it was released – "Digital Album Movie", created by the rapper.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Evgenia Armanovna Medvedeva (alt. spelling: Yevgenia Medvedeva; ; born 19 November 1999), is a competitive Russian figure skater. She is a two-time Olympic silver medalist (2018 ladies' singles, 2018 team event), a two-time world champion (2016, 2017), a two-time European champion (2016, 2017), a two-time Grand Prix Final champion (2015, 2016), a two-time Russian national champion (2016, 2017), silver medalist at the 2018 European Figure Skating Championships and bronze medalist at the 2019 World Championships. Earlier in her career, she won the 2015 World Junior Championships, the 2014 Junior Grand Prix Final, and the 2015 Russian Junior Championships.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva is the first ladies' singles skater to win senior Worlds the year after winning Junior Worlds, and the first ladies' singles skater to win two consecutive senior Worlds the year after winning Junior Worlds. At the 2017 World Championships, she became the first female skater to win back-to-back world titles in 16 years since Michelle Kwan did so in 2000 and 2001, and the first Russian woman ever to successfully defend her world title. She became one of only four ladies to achieve a "Grand Slam" (winning all the main competitions of the same season), and the first skater (all disciplines included) to complete two "Grand Slams" in a row (2015–2016; 2016–2017).


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Under the ISU Judging System, she has set the world record score 13 times and is the first female skater to surpass the 80-point short program mark, the 160-point free skating mark, and the 230-point and the 240-point total mark.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Evgenia's mother, Zhanna Medvedeva (maiden name — Devyatova), a former Russian figure skater who quit the sport aged 14, and father Arman Babasyan, an Armenian businessman, are divorced. Both of her parents wanted her to practice figure skating to improve her figure. She competes under the surname Medvedeva, which was the maiden name of her maternal grandmother. Her birth surname is Babasyan. In 2017, she commenced her university studies and enrolled at the Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism. Since September 1, 2021 she is a student of Moscow State University.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva has stated that she has lepidopterophobia (fear of moths and butterflies). Her figure skating idols are Evgeni Plushenko and Yuna Kim. She is known to friends as "Zhenya" and "Janny". Evgenia speaks English in addition to Russian, as well as basic Japanese.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: She relocated to Toronto, Canada in mid-2018 and trained at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club until September 2020 when she rejoined her old coach in Russia, Eteri Tutberidze.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: On the ice from the age of three, Medvedeva was taught initially by Elena Proskurina, Lubov Yakovleva, and Elena Selivanova. Around 2007, she joined Eteri Tutberidze at the Olympic Reserve Sports School no. 37, renamed Sambo 70.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva made her senior national debut at the 2012 Russian Championships, finishing eighth, and then placed sixth on the junior level. She sustained an injury at the start of the following season and did not qualify for the senior Russian Nationals. She finished fourth behind Maria Sotskova at the 2013 Russian Junior Championships.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva's international debut came in the 2013–2014 season. Competing on the ISU Junior Grand Prix series, she won gold first in Riga, Latvia, and then in Gdańsk, Poland. She qualified to the JGP Final in Fukuoka, Japan, where she won the bronze medal behind Sotskova and Serafima Sakhanovich. At the 2014 Russian Championships, she finished seventh in her second senior appearance and then fourth on the junior level. Medvedeva was assigned to replace the injured Sotskova at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. Placing third in both segments, she won the bronze medal while Elena Radionova and Sakhanovich took gold and silver respectively, producing Russia's second consecutive sweep of the World Junior ladies' podium.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva's first assignment of the 2014 JGP season was in Courchevel, France, where she won the gold medal by a margin of 21 points over silver medalist Rin Nitaya of Japan. At her second event, in Ostrava, Czech Republic, she placed second in both segments and edged Japan's Wakaba Higuchi for the gold by 1.44 points. She qualified for the Junior Grand Prix Final in Barcelona, Spain, where she won gold, placing first in both the short program and free skate.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: At the 2015 Russian Championships, she placed third in both segments and won the bronze medal, her first senior national medal, behind Elena Radionova and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva. She then took gold at the 2015 Russian Junior Championships, finishing almost 20 points ahead of silver medalist Maria Sotskova.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: At the 2015 World Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, Medvedeva placed first after the short program and set a new world record of 68.48 points for junior ladies' short program. In the free program, she placed first again and won gold. She had no falls on the ice throughout the season in international events.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva became age-eligible to compete at the senior international level for the 2015–2016 season. She started her season with a gold medal at the 2015 Ondrej Nepela Trophy, an ISU Challenger Series (CS) event in early October. Later that month, she competed at her first senior Grand Prix event – 2015 Skate America. Finishing first in the short program and second in the free skate, she won the gold medal ahead of Gracie Gold of the United States. Medvedeva won silver at her next Grand Prix assignment, the 2015 Rostelecom Cup, behind compatriot Elena Radionova.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: In December, at the Grand Prix Final in Barcelona, Spain, Medvedeva placed first in both segments on her way to the gold medal, ahead of Satoko Miyahara, and became the fifth-youngest Grand Prix Final champion, at age 16. At the end of the month, she won gold at the 2016 Russian Championships, ahead of silver medalist Radionova.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: In January 2016, Medvedeva competed at her first senior-level ISU Championships, the 2016 European Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia. Finishing first in both short and free, she won the gold medal while her teammates Radionova (−5.46) and Anna Pogorilaya (−28.40) took silver and bronze respectively, producing the second consecutive Russian sweep of the podium.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: In March 2016, Medvedeva won the gold medal at the 2016 World Championships in Boston, United States. After finishing third in the short program, Medvedeva clinched the gold medal by winning the free skate with a world record score of 150.10, surpassing Yuna Kim's 150.06 mark. Her overall score of 223.86 was a new personal best and was 8.47 points ahead of silver medalist Ashley Wagner. Having won the Junior World title in 2015, 16-year-old Medvedeva became the first ladies' singles skater to have ever won back-to-back Junior World Championships and senior World Championships. She matched Kimmie Meissner's feat in becoming the second skater in 23 years to win in her debut at the world championships, and is the youngest world figure skating champion (16 years, 4 months) under modern rules (since Tara Lipinski in 1997, not yet 15 at the time). Medvedeva also became the second ladies skater to win the Grand Prix Final, Europeans, Worlds and her country's national championships all in one season (the other was countrywoman Irina Slutskaya).


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva ranked first in both segments at the 2016 Team Challenge Cup in Spokane, Washington. Team Europe finished in third place in the head-to-head competition and in second place in the main event. In addition to the two team medals, Medvedeva received prize money for the top ladies' short program score.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva began her Grand Prix season at the 2016 Skate Canada International. Ranked first in both segments, she won the gold medal ahead of Kaetlyn Osmond and Satoko Miyahara. She then placed first in both segments at the 2016 Trophée de France on her way to another GP title. She scored 78.52 points in the short program, the second highest score for a lady and just 0.14 from a world record held by Mao Asada. She collected 15 points from both events and qualified for the Grand Prix Final with maximum points.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: At the Final in Marseille, France, Medvedeva became the world record holder for the ladies' short program score (79.21) previously held by Mao Asada. She also won the title with an overall score 9.33 points ahead of silver medalist Satoko Miyahara.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: With the win, Medvedeva joined Irina Slutskaya, Tara Lipinski, Yuna Kim, and Mao Asada as the only ladies to win back-to-back Grand Prix Final titles.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: In December 2016, Medvedeva defended her national title at the 2017 Russian Championships, despite the third jump of her 3S-3T-3T combination receiving no points. She stated, "Previously, the entire element would have received zero points, but now only the third triple toe would be discarded and I thought since I can do it, why not try?". In January 2017, she competed at the European Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Finishing first in both the short program and the free skate, she won the gold medal while her teammates Pogorilaya (−18.32) and Sotskova (−37.19) took silver and fourth place respectively. She also reset the free skate world record (previously held by herself) with a score of 150.79 and became the current world record holder for the ladies' combined total score (229.71), which was previously held by Yuna Kim.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: In March 2017, she competed at the World Championships, held in Helsinki, Finland. Ranked first in both segments, she set the world for record points in the free skate (154.40 points) and combined score (233.41 points), becoming the first female skater to break the 230-point mark in the combined total score. Her overall score was 15.28 points higher than silver medalist Kaetlyn Osmond. Medvedeva was the only skater in the competition to receive 10.00s in performance as part of the component score. She became the first female skater to win back-to-back world titles in 16 years (since Michelle Kwan in 2000 and 2001), and the first Russian woman ever to successfully defend her world title.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: In April 2017, Medvedeva competed on Team Russia at the 2017 World Team Trophy held in Tokyo, Japan. She placed first in the short program with a new world record score of 80.85, becoming the first female skater to break the 80-point mark for the ladies' short program score. She placed first again in the free skate with another world record score of 160.46, becoming the first female skater to break the 160-point mark for the ladies' free skating score. Medvedeva contributed the maximum 24 points and helped Team Russia win their second consecutive silver medal while Team Japan and Team USA won gold and bronze respectively. Even though the combined total score was not given at the event, ISU later ratified her combined world record total score of 241.31; thus, Medvedeva became the first female skater to break the 240-point mark in the combined total score. She stated, "I went out on the ice absolutely calm, there was no shadow of a doubt or lack of confidence in me.”


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva continued her winning streak with a gold medal at the 2017 CS Ondrej Nepela Trophy in Bratislava, Slovakia. However, after this competition she decided to change her long program to Anna Karenina, which debuted at the Japan Open. In mid-October, a few days before the 2017 Rostelecom Cup, she was diagnosed with a crack in the metatarsal bone in her right foot. She won her Grand Prix event in Russia as well as the 2017 NHK Trophy, held a month later in Osaka, Japan. However, her foot injury forced her to withdraw from the Grand Prix Final and the Russian National Championship, and could not defend her title at either event.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: At the 2018 Europeans, held in Moscow, Medvedeva finished second to teammate Alina Zagitova. On the next day, Sunday, January 21, she was named for the Russian Olympic team together with Zagitova and Sotskova.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: During Medvedeva's first performance of the 2018 Winter Olympics, at the ladies short program of the team event, she placed first with a record score of 81.06, a personal best and world record for ladies' short program. The 10 points for the first place in the ladies' short program helped Russia to a silver medal in the team figure skating competition.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: In the individual event, Medvedeva ranked second in the short program with a score of 81.61, breaking another world record before it was surpassed by her teammate, Alina Zagitova. She then scored 156.65 points in the free skating program for a total of 238.26 points, putting her in second place behind Zagitova, who also scored 156.65 points in the free skating program for a total score of 239.57, and earning her an Olympic silver medal.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: On 7 May 2018, Medvedeva announced in a statement that she was ending her partnership with longtime coach Eteri Tutberidze and relocating to Toronto to train under coach Brian Orser. She would continue to represent Russia and her current club (Sambo 70) while training in Canada.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva stated the reason for ending her partnership with former coach, Tutberidze, in an Instagram Live. She said that she 'left to work together with a coach like friends' and that the move was not motivated by her wanting better results. She then went on to explain that whilst she did not exactly see herself as friends with her coach, she saw herself as working on same level as Orser and that mainly she left 'to hear, and to be heard.'


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva began her first season with her new coaches at Autumn Classic International where she placed first in the short program and second in the free, finishing in second place overall, behind Bradie Tennell and ahead of Maé-Bérénice Méité.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: In October, Medvedeva began competing on that year's Grand Prix circuit. At the 2018 Skate Canada, she fell on a downgraded triple flip in the short program, missing her combination as a result and placing seventh. She placed first in the free skate to win the bronze medal behind Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Mako Yamashita. She placed fourth at the 2018 Internationaux de France in November after several falls and under-rotations in both programs. It was the first time Medvedeva finished off an international podium in both her junior and senior career.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Following the disappointment in France, Medvedeva replaced her original "Orange Colored Sky" short program with a new one choreographed by friend Misha Ge to selections from Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca". Skating next at the 2019 Russian Championships, her first public performance of the new program went poorly, underrotating the first part of a combination, popping the second jump, and falling on her closing double Axel. Despite this, she said she felt better than after the French Grand Prix. In fourteenth place going into the free skate, she performed much better, despite a fall, placing fourth in the free to finish seventh overall, losing not just to junior competitors (who swept the podium), but also to seniors Stanislava Konstantinova, Alina Zagitova and Sofia Samodurova. Speaking afterward she said "even though I made a mistake, I am pleased with today’s performance."


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: She was named the second alternate for the European Championships and first alternate for the Winter Universiade; she was called up for the Winter Universiade after Elizaveta Tuktamysheva withdrew, but Medvedeva also withdrew and Maria Sotskova replaced Medvedeva. In February, at the 2019 Russian Cup Final, she won gold after placing first in the short program and second in the free. Medvedeva was selected for the 2019 World Figure Skating Championships team.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: At the 2019 World Championships, Medvedeva skated despite sustaining an injury in her thigh. She placed fourth in the short program after underrotating the second part of her combination jump. She performed a clean free skate apart from an underrotated double Axel, placing third in that segment, and won the bronze medal. She declined an invitation to the World Team Trophy, to recover from her injury.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva began the season with Autumn Classic International, where she finished second in both programs, winning the silver medal behind Rika Kihira. At the Shanghai Trophy, she competed despite not having fully recovered from a high fever that had forced her to miss a week of training before the event. She nonetheless placed first in the short program and second in the free skate to place first overall over Elizabet Tursynbaeva and Lim Eun-soo, winning her first international gold medal with coach Brian Orser and the first international gold medal since the NHK Trophy in 2017.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Beginning on the Grand Prix, Medvedeva placed sixth in the short program at Skate Canada after an unsuccessful short program where she underrotated the second part of her triple flip-triple toe loop combination, stepped out of her double Axel, and fell on an underrotated triple Lutz. She came back strongly the next day, placing third in the free skate after Alexandra Trusova and Kihira. Her score of 146.73 was a season's best, moving her up to fifth place overall.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: At the Rostelecom Cup in her hometown of Moscow, Medvedeva won the short program with a score of 76.93 points, a personal best under the new scoring system. She skated a clean free skate, apart from an edge call on her Lutz, placing second in that segment and taking the silver medal behind Trusova with a new personal best total score of 225.76.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: At the 2020 Russian Championships, during early practices, one of Medvedeva's boots broke. Unable to find a substitute pair, she skated the short program on a broken boot and scored 71.08, finishing fifth behind Alena Kostornaia, Anna Shcherbakova, Trusova and Tuktamysheva. After experimenting to skate again with her broken boot during free skating practices, she and Brian Orser decided to withdraw from the competition and start preparing for the upcoming season.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: In April, Medvedeva travelled to Japan in preparation for her "Sailor Moon" show, which was eventually cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unable to return to her Canadian training base due to travel restrictions, she returned to Moscow in June, where she trained at the CSKA rink with Tatiana Tarasova. At the time, Medvedeva was communicating with Orser via Skype and intended to return to Toronto when travel restrictions were eased.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: In early September, Medvedeva presented her new programs set to "Masquerade Waltz" and "Alegría" at the Russian test skates. She made mistakes in both programs and it was later revealed that she had sustained a chronic back injury.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: On 16 September 2020, Medvedeva announced that she would return to train under her former coaches, Eteri Tutberidze, Sergei Dudakov, and Daniil Gleikhengauz. She and Orser parted ways on good terms. According to Orser, Medvedeva possibly could have returned to Canada from Japan, but she was unwilling to travel back without her mother, who had a different visa than her and would not have been able to gain entry.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva was assigned to the first and second stages of the Russian Cup series, the qualifying series for the 2021 Russian Championships. However, she withdrew from both competitions and also did not compete at any of the later Russian Cup stages because of chronic back pain. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all Grand Prix assignments were mostly domestic ones made based on training location and/or nationality. As a result, Medvedeva was assigned to the 2020 Rostelecom Cup, but later withdrew due to inflammation of her back injury.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: In November, Medvedeva reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 after experiencing symptoms. She was admitted to the hospital with severe lung damage. Medvedeva spent most of November and part of December recovering. She returned to training on 8 December and doctors advised her that she could not adequately prepare in two weeks for the 2021 Russian Championships at the end of the month, leading her to withdraw from Nationals. However, she was healthy enough to attend and watch Nationals, and also performed during the exhibition gala.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: In June, Medvedeva was not assigned any events on the 2021–22 Grand Prix series. On 5 August, she announced her intention to skip the upcoming season, thus ending her bid for a second Olympic team. On 1 December 2021, Medvedeva announced that she'd ended her competitive skating career due to a chronic back injury.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva commonly performs almost all of her jumps with an arm over her head, a technique called the "Tano" variation, first popularized by Brian Boitano as part of his triple Lutz jump. She performs several jump combinations ending with a triple toe loop, such as the 3F-3T, 3S-3T, 3Lo-3T and 2A-3T. She is also known for practicing various triple-triple-triple and triple-triple-triple-triple jump combinations. In the 2016–2017 season, Medvedeva also frequently utilized the "Rippon" variation which involves doing jumps with both arms over the head. In the 2018–19 season, Medvedeva also started including the triple loop jump on the end of a combination such as the 3S-3Lo. She has also performed 2A-3Lo, 3Lo-3Lo and 3F-3Lo in practices. She also commonly performs a cross grab I-position spiral towards the centre of the rink near the end of her programs.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva appeared on the front cover of the May 2017 issue of Russian Tatler, as well as the July 2017 issue of "Elle Girl Russia". She was also on the cover of the March 2018 issue of Top Beauty Russia. She was included in the 2017 "SportsPro" 50 Most Marketable Athletes List, ranked 46. She was the second figure skater to be featured after the British sports magazine previously listed Yuna Kim in 2013. Medvedeva was also included in "Business Insider" 2017 list of the world's 50 most dominant athletes, ranked 14, and in the "Forbes" '30 under 30 Europe' list of 2017 as one of the most successful young people in Europe.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Medvedeva is sponsored by John Wilson, her "Gold Seal" blade manufacturer, Edea, her skating boot manufacturer, and Nike. In 2018, John Wilson presented her with custom 24K rose gold engraved blades designed by fellow figure skater Misha Ge. Her other endorsements include being named a brand ambassador for Pantene in 2018. In 2019, Medvedeva appeared in a TV advertisement for the Japanese game "Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Gaiden" with Russian teammate Alina Zagitova. She has also made cooperations with Japanese brands Rivaland and Aniplex. In February 2021, Medvedeva became one of Ozon's ambassador, also in March 2021, she became a Nestle brand ambassador. In April 2022, she appeared on the cover of the April issue of the men's magazine Maxim Russia.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Note: Because of the introduction of the new +5 / -5 GOE (Grade of Execution) system which replaced the previous +3 / -3 GOE system, ISU has decided that all statistics starts from zero starting from season 2018–19 and all previous statistics are historical.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Small medals for short program and free skating awarded only at ISU Championships. At team events, medals awarded for team results only.


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: Previous ISU world best highlighted in bold. Historical ISU world best highlighted in bold with a * mark. Current personal bests highlighted in "italic".


title: Evgenia Medvedeva

text: ! colspan="3" style="border-top: 5px solid #78FF78;" |Historical World Record Holders (before season 2018–19)


title: Madras Cafe

text: Madras Cafe is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language political action thriller film directed by Shoojit Sircar and starring John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri with newcomer Raashi Khanna in lead roles. The film is set in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the time of Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war and assassination of Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. The film deals with an Indian Army special officer who is appointed by the intelligence agency R&AW to head covert operations in Jaffna shortly after Indian peace-keeping force was forced to withdraw.


title: Madras Cafe

text: "Madras Cafe" was released on 23 August 2013. Box Office India stated the film did above average business. The film won the National Film Award for Best Audiography for "Nihar Ranjan Samal" (location sound recording) and "Bishwadeep Chatterjee" (sound design) at the 61st National Film Awards.


title: Madras Cafe

text: As per John Abraham, ""Madras Cafe" brings us closer to what changed the political history of India." The film, set in India and Sri Lanka, is a political spy thriller with the backdrop of the Sri Lankan Civil War. Major Vikram Singh (John Abraham) is an Indian Army Special Forces officer who is appointed by the intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing to head covert operations in Jaffna shortly after the Indian peace-keeping force was forced to withdraw. As he journeys to Sri Lanka with the intention of disrupting the LTTE militants, he becomes entangled military & politics. There he meets a British journalist Jaya Sahni (Nargis Fakhri) who wants to reveal the truth about the civil war, and in the process he uncovers a conspiracy to assassinate "a former Indian prime minister", through the use of plastic explosives. Although Vikram tries, at 10:10 pm, an LTTE suicide bomber kills the ex-PM while bowing down to put a garland on his neck.


title: Madras Cafe

text: The plot opens in Jaffna, where a bus full of passengers is stopped by armed men and all are massacred.


title: Madras Cafe

text: The film then moves to a bearded man in Kasauli, revealed to be Vikram Singh. He sees on TV that the Sri Lankan President has been killed by a suicide bomber. He purchases a bottle of liquor and goes to a nearby church. The priest of that church, who seems to have known him for the past three years, asks him about his "conspiracy" when he says, "Our Prime Minister could have been saved from the conspiracy". Vikram starts narrating his story to the priest.


title: Madras Cafe

text: The film then moves five years back, when the continuous battle between the majority Sri Lanka Sinhalese and minority Tamils had reached a dangerous level. The Tamil youth have taken weapons and joined the Liberation Tamil Front (LTF) leader Anna Bhaskaran (a character based on the real-life LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran). The Indian Prime Minister (Sanjay Gurubaxani) decides to sign a peace accord with Sri Lankan Government and said that the elections should happen there peacefully before Diwali. However, Anna refuses to accept the accord, and the Indian Peace Keeping Forces are forced to withdraw from the island. A heated meeting in New Delhi between the Indian officials leads Robin Dutt, aka RD, the R&AW chief, to call upon his best man, Maj. Vikram Singh.


title: Madras Cafe

text: After meeting and discussing the strategy with RD and his deputy Swaroop (Avijit Dutt), Vikram travels to Sri Lanka and meets a war correspondent Jaya Sahni and tries to find out a way to stop the rebels. After reporting to his senior Balakrishnan (based on real-life person K V Unnikrishnan), he tries to find someone who may help to find Shri, the only man who can withstand and oppose Anna. After meeting with an informer called Narayanan, Vikram manages to visit Shri. Vikram promises Shri to help him rise against Anna by providing him with arms. The arms deal date is decided at 6 July. However, the deal goes terribly wrong, and one of Vikram's associates is killed in a surprise attack by LTF, who do away with the weapons consignment. An angry Balakrishnan tells Vikram to go to Colombo Safehouse. Vikram meets Jaya to seek her help. Jaya tells him that they know his next step even before he can implement it. However, she tells him that "a foreign agency guy met with an Indian official" before her arrival on the island. The next day, Vasu, Balakrishnan's associate, meets a man and gives him a photo of Vikram, telling him "to keep him alive".


title: Madras Cafe

text: Meanwhile, RD and his team are shocked to learn on TV that Vikram is kidnapped by LTF. The Indian government sends forces and rescues Vikram, who is badly injured. Balakrishnan tells him to leave Sri Lanka as he is on the hit-list of both camps. Vikram feels suspicious about Balakrishnan. He calls SP, one of his associates, and tells him to report all activities of Balakrishnan to him. Vikram, posing as a war correspondent, manages to reach Mallayya (based on real-life LTTE member Gopalaswamy Mahendraraja), second-in-command of Anna and persuades him to meet RD in Colombo. RD tells him that the only way this war could be won is by a political solution. He instigates Mallaya to stand up as the only champion of his people, thus dividing the LTF in two. Vikram and Indian forces then launch a massive attack on the LTF base camp where Anna and his men (minus Mallayya) were discussing strategy. A devastating gun battle begins, and Vikram returns home. However, Anna survives and later kills Malaya and Shri. In the light of the resurfaced violence, the Indian Prime Minister resigns. Some months later, SP later tracks some discussion of Anna over the phone and tells Balakrishnan about this, but Bala tells him to ignore them, causing SP to believe that Balakrishnan might be a mole. He escapes with the intercepts and files of the case. Balakrishnan finds about it and burns the remaining papers, later telling someone over the phone that SP and Vikram are in Kochi and he should send some men there. Vikram later receives a call from SP, who tells him to meet him. After meeting with SP, Vikram comes home to find Ruby, his wife, murdered. Vikram's associate in Kochi, Kush, tells him that Vasu has been tracked. He nabs Vasu from a theatre and asks him what he knows. Vasu tells him that indeed Balakrishnan was a leak, and he was helping him along with a person named Reed from Singapore. Vikram calls Jaya and requests her to use her sources. She agrees to help and later consoles Vikram about his wife.


title: Madras Cafe

text: As told by Jaya, Vikram reaches Bangkok, where a source of Jaya (Dibang) tells him that he has a tape. Vikram is shocked to see that Balakrishnan was honey-trapped, forcing him to divulge all the information about their movements. Balakrishnan later commits suicide by shooting himself. Back in Delhi, R&AW had decoded the intercepts and had also found out about Balakrishnan's fake passports and unknown bank accounts. RD realizes that this might be a Code Red, to assassinate the ex-Prime Minister. He asks Vikram to take care of this and tells his team to seal the coastline. A massive manhunt begins, and hundreds of LTF associates are nabbed by Indian security forces and local cops. In the Madras R&AW office, Arjun, an officer, tracks down the conversation of Vijayan Joseph, a bombmaker, and Anna and tells this to Rishi (Tarun Bali). Rishi tells this to Vikram and further says that Kannan Kanan, an associate of Anna's man Kanda, is in Madurai Jail and might be helpful. Kannan reveals that some suspicious refugees came from the island to Tamil Nadu. After a short but important meeting with Jaya, Vikram sees X on a clock at the Airport and deduces that the LTF is going to assassinate the ex-PM on the same day at X PM (10 PM). RD then calls the ex-PM to cancel his rally, but he replies that he'll be alright. Vikram then manages to catch Vijayan from his hideout, who tells that the refugees are going to assassinate the ex-PM with plastic explosives, which are untraceable to metal detectors.


title: Madras Cafe

text: Vikram rushes to the place where the ex-PM is taking part in the rally. He reaches there nearly on time, but the suicide bomber manages to put the wreath on the neck of the ex-PM, and while bowing down, she pulls the trigger and kills him along with herself and many others. Vikram manages to recover but sits there dejected and defeated. Later, Vikram submits his report on the assassination to the investigation committee, who considers his report. A few days later, RD too resigns, and Vikram, after taking voluntary retirement, comes to Kasauli.


title: Madras Cafe

text: The film comes back to the present, where the priest asks Vikram who won the battle. Vikram says he doesn't know, but in this battle, the Indians lost their Prime Minister, and the Sri Lankans lost their future. He later walks away, reciting the lines of "Where the mind is without fear". He completes another report and sends it to Jaya in London, who starts her work on that report; in Kasauli, Vikram moves out of the house he was living in.


title: Madras Cafe

text: An epilogue tells that the civil war continued for 27 years, killing more than 40 thousand Sri Lankan subjects, 30 thousand Tamil militants, 21 thousand Sri Lankan forces and 1200 Indian forces, and still thousands of Lankan Tamils are homeless. In 2009, Sri Lankan forces launched a brutal aerial and land attack, finishing the rebels along with their leader.


title: Madras Cafe

text: “If I would have gone with this script to anyone else, they would have rejected it because of the kind of sensitivity the subject has. I don't want to name them, but three of them have already done it. Nobody was ready to produce the film... it's very daring of John Abraham and Viacom 18 Motion Pictures to back up this project," director Sircar told the press after the release of the film. John Abraham said that director Shoojit Sircar narrated the script of "Madras Cafe" to him in 2006 but could not get around to begin it. "After our last film together, we decided to get back to doing where we started off from. That's the story behind "Madras Cafe"," he said.


title: Madras Cafe

text: Sircar stated, "The film is a work of fiction, but it is based on research into real events, it has a resemblance to actual political events, dealing with civil war and the ideology of a militant group."


title: Madras Cafe

text: The film was initially titled "Jaffna" after the northern Sri Lankan city. It was renamed "Madras Cafe", as the plot to kill Gandhi was hatched at the café. The original location of the café is not specified in the film.


title: Madras Cafe

text: John Abraham, the lead actor and one of the producers of the film, plays the main lead, Vikram Singh, a military officer who is sent to Jaffna to head RAW's covert operations. "I had to lose a lot of muscle because these officers look like regular people. When they are in a crowd, they are completely inconspicuous," says Abraham. Commenting on remarks comparing his look to Tom Hanks in "Cast Away", he said: "Deciding on my look for the movie was quite challenging. It took a lot of brain storming and we finalized this messy look, which apparently you think is inspired by Tom Hanks, but actually, it's not."


title: Madras Cafe

text: American model-turned-actress Nargis Fakhri was cast to play Jaya Sahni, a British journalist in Jaffna. For the role of the foreign war correspondent, Fakhri was chosen because the director required "a girl who looked Indian but had an [English] accent". Thus this was the first film where her voice was not dubbed. Initially, American-based actress Freida Pinto was chosen to portray Jaya Sahni, but due to prior commitments she withdrew from the project.


title: Madras Cafe

text: Shoojit Sircar contacted model Sheetal Mallar for the film, but as things did not work out, newcomer Rashi Khanna was signed for the role, marking her debut. The cast also included a number of non-professional actors, such as quiz master Siddharth Basu, filmmaker Prakash Belawadi and journalist Dibang.


title: Madras Cafe

text: "Madras Cafe" was shot in Malaysia, Thailand, London and India. The Sri Lankan scenes of the film were shot in India, where the city of Jaffna and large parts of inner Sri Lanka were recreated. "We knew we couldn't shoot this in Sri Lanka, so we shot most of it in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and converted it into a war zone. The second part of the film is based in India, which is the politics part," said Sircar. The first schedule of the film was shot extensively in southern India. The second schedule was shot in Mumbai, outside India and in and around south India. Several civil war scenes were shot in Bangkok as light machine gun fire was not permitted in India. Real AK-47s, 9mm Berettas and M60s were used, for which special permission was obtained from the local authorities.


title: Madras Cafe

text: The film was released on 23 August in India, the United States and United Arab Emirates. However, it was not released in the United Kingdom and Canada as planned owing to the protests by Tamil diaspora in regards to its depiction of the Tamil militants, nor in Tamil Nadu where exhibitors feared its release was not worth the risk in regards to the controversy.


title: Madras Cafe

text: The film was critically acclaimed. "The Times of India" called the film political, tense and explosive. The daily praised the film's research, story and "remarkable" cinematography, remarking ""Madras Cafe" dives boldly into terrain Bollywood hasn't touched before. It highlights India's ambiguous role, moving sensitively, taking no sides, except those of relationships involving respect – but no romance – between Vikram Singh and Jaya Sahni, duty, victory and loss." Reviewing for the "Hindustan Times", Anupama Chopra wrote ""Madras Café" works as an effective portrait of the futility of war. Shoojit Sircar and his writers, Shubhendu Bhattacharya and Somnath Dey, ably illustrate why there are no winners here. Ideologies are marred by corruption and brutality. Death is inevitable and victories, pyrrhic." "The Hindu" praised director Sircar, saying, "For long, Hindi films made us believe that it is only Pakistan that we have to deal with. Shoojit Sircar touches base with Sri Lanka and unravels the complex 'Tamil problem' as many living North of the Vindhyas call it. Keeping the jingoistic flavour aside, he plays the game of shadows as it is played with all its muck and grime. His hint at a larger conspiracy of a syndicate with business interests in the region echoes what "Agent Vinod" also hinted at, but Sriram Raghavan got carried away with the demands of the box office. Sircar chooses to keep it closer to reality." Baradwaj Rangan later wrote in "The Hindu", ""Madras Café" is not a comforting fantasy. It is the journey of any Indian operative who got wind of the fact that Rajiv Gandhi was going to be assassinated and did his damnedest to prevent it. The journalist in this film, for instance, is not the kind of cardboard cut-out we find in Madhur Bhandarkar and Prakash Jha films, but someone who has to decide between naming a source (and going against the ethics of her profession) and aiding an investigation."


title: Madras Cafe

text: Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN also praised Sircar, opining, "Unlike, in the West, it's hard to make films on real-life historical events in India. Political pressures and sensitive groups invariably throw a spanner in the works. Which is why it's commendable what director Shoojit Sircar has undertaken with "Madras Café"."


title: Madras Cafe

text: The Pakistani newspaper "Dawn" gave the film a positive review by saying, "Shoojit Sircar's human-drama of politics, rebellion, genocide and spy-games adapts Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination plot, and the Sri Lankan civil war with sweaty palms and a gawky breakneck pace. And yet, for all its clumsy footing, at times, half-intelligent writing, it is engaging". The daily concludes that "For all its speed and embedded seriousness about global conflict, the nature of war, consequences and international trade, "Madras Café's" lack of braves turns it into mellow spy-thriller. And trust me, the words "mellow" and "spy-thriller" do not gel."


title: Madras Cafe

text: Sircar garnered rave reviews for his story and direction. "Watching Nargis Fakhri embodying the cliché of a writer hammering away at a typewriter with a cigarette stuck between her lips is a visual joke for the ages." "The Hindu" wrote in a later analysis, "The Tamil spoken in the film isn't Sri Lankan Tamil but the language you hear on the streets of Chennai – an odd gaffe for a film filled with so much research."


title: Madras Cafe

text: "Madras Cafe" finished its theatrical run at the box office with average numbers. The film, which ruled the box office in its first week, saw a fall in business in its second week due to the release of "Satyagraha". However, the film still fetched in its second week, taking the grand total to .


title: Madras Cafe

text: "Madras Cafe" has not fared well in terms of overseas box office collections. In the US and Australia, it has grossed around 56 million INR.


title: Madras Cafe

text: In September 2013, Abraham's role as a RAW agent won him the "Pride of the Nation" award, given by the Anti-Terrorist Front, for "his attempt to raise the sensitive issue of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination". The film was given Ramnath Goenka Memorial Award at 20th Screen Awards in January 2014. At the 6th Mirchi Music Awards, Shantanu Moitra won Background Score of the Year award.


title: Madras Cafe

text: The film's soundtrack is composed by Shantanu Moitra, and lyrics are written by Ali hayat, Zebunissa Bangash and Manoj Tapadia


title: Madras Cafe

text: The film's alleged negative depiction of rebels in the Sri Lankan civil war raised concerns. After the release of the trailer, Tamil political parties Naam Tamilar besides Pattali Makkal Katchi called for a ban on the film, citing that it depicts the members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as terrorists. Seeman stated the heart of the movie is anti-Tamil and Prabhakaran is portrayed as villainous, also remarking that they would stop screenings of the film after a special preview was arranged for pro-Tamil outfits. MDMK party chief Vaiko sought a ban on the movie from the centre. DMK party chief M Karunanidhi asked the Tamil Nadu government to enquire if the film portrayed Sri Lankan Tamils in a poor light and if so, to take proper action. Replying to the ban demands, John Abraham said while he respects the opinions of everyone, no one is above the Censor board and creativity should not be held at gun point. Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar said "the film is an effort to glorify a particular political party and its leaders by demeaning [an]other sect of people. This cannot be permitted", and threatened to stall the release of the film in Mumbai.


title: Madras Cafe

text: The Madurai bench of Madras High Court dismissed a petition to ban the film, although it accepted a similar petition to ban the film in Tamil Nadu—to cancel the clearance certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and send notices to the director and producers of the film, Tamil Nadu Director General of Police, the chairman of the CBFC. The hearing was posted on 21 August. The petition also claimed that Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa secretly financed the film to justify the human rights violations during the final stages of the war. Upon hearing the arguments, the court refused to grant an interim injunction to prevent the release of the Hindi version, while noting the Tamil version should not be released without the CBFC's clearance, which was later obtained. It also issued notices to DGP, producer to give a detailed reply on charges by 3 September. John Abraham has already refuted claims about Rajapaksa financing the film earlier during a promotional event.


title: Madras Cafe

text: Following protests by the Tamil diaspora in the United Kingdom and negative feedback alleging that the film promoted anti-Tamil prejudices, several theatres in the state chose not to screen the film.


title: Amniote

text: Amniotes are a clade of tetrapod vertebrates that comprises sauropsids (including all reptiles and birds, and extinct parareptiles and non-avian dinosaurs) and synapsids (including pelycosaurs and therapsids such as mammals). They are distinguished from the other tetrapod clade — the amphibians — by the development of three extraembryonic membranes (amnion for embryoic protection, chorion for gas exchange, and allantois for metabolic waste disposal or storage), thicker and more keratinized skin, and costal respiration (breathing by expanding/constricting the rib cage).


title: Amniote

text: All three main features listed above, namely the presence of an amniotic buffer, water-impermeable cutes and a robust respiratory system, are very important for amniotes to live on land as true terrestrial animals – the ability to reproduce in locations away from water bodies, better homeostasis in drier environments, and more efficient air respiration to power terrestrial locomotions, although they might still require regular access to drinking water for rehydration like the semiaquatic amphibians do. Because the amnion and the fluid it secretes shields the embryo from environmental fluctuations, amniotes can reproduce on dry land by either laying shelled eggs (reptiles, birds and monotremes) or nurturing fertilized eggs within the mother (marsupial and placental mammals), unlike anamniotes (fish and amphibians) that have to spawn in or closely adjacent to aquatic environments. Additional unique features are the presence of adrenocortical and chromaffin tissues as a discrete pair of glands near their kidneys, which are more complex, the presence of an astragalus for better extremity range of motion, and the complete loss of metamorphosis (which includes an egg and aquatic larval stage), gill and skin breathing, and any lateral line system.


title: Amniote

text: The first amniotes, referred to as "basal amniotes", resembled small lizards and evolved from the amphibious reptiliomorphs about 312 million years ago, in the Carboniferous geologic period. Amniotes spread around Earth's land and became the dominant land vertebrates. They soon diverged into two clades, the synapsids and sauropsids, whose lineages both still persist today. The oldest known fossil synapsid is "Protoclepsydrops" from about 312 million years ago, while the oldest known sauropsid are probably "Hylonomus" and "Paleothyris", in the order Captorhinida, from the Middle Pennsylvanian epoch (c. 306–312 million years ago). Older sources, particularly before the 20th century, may refer to amniotes as "higher vertebrates" and anamniotes as "lower vertebrates", based on the antiquated idea of the evolutionary great chain of being.


title: Amniote

text: The term "amniote" comes from the amnion, which derives from Greek ἀμνίον ("amnion"), meaning "membrane surrounding the fetus". The term originally meant "bowl in which the blood of sacrificed animals was caught", which derived from ἀμνός ("amnos"), meaning "lamb".


title: Amniote

text: Zoologists characterize amniotes in part by embryonic development that includes the formation of several extensive membranes, the amnion, chorion, and allantois. Amniotes develop directly into a (typically) terrestrial form with limbs and a thick stratified epithelium (rather than first entering a feeding larval tadpole stage followed by metamorphosis, as amphibians do). In amniotes, the transition from a two-layered periderm to a cornified epithelium is triggered by thyroid hormone during embryonic development, rather than by metamorphosis. The unique embryonic features of amniotes may reflect specializations for eggs to survive drier environments; or the increase in size and yolk content of eggs may have permitted, and coevolved with, direct development of the embryo to a large size.


title: Amniote

text: Features of amniotes evolved for survival on land include a sturdy but porous leathery or hard eggshell and an allantois that facilitates respiration while providing a reservoir for disposal of wastes. Their kidneys (metanephros) and large intestines are also well-suited to water retention. Most mammals do not lay eggs, but corresponding structures develop inside the placenta.


title: Amniote

text: The ancestors of true amniotes, such as "Casineria kiddi", which lived about 340 million years ago, evolved from amphibian reptiliomorphs and resembled small lizards. At the late Devonian mass extinction (360 million years ago), all known tetrapods were essentially aquatic and fish-like. Because the reptiliomorphs were already established 20 million years later when all their fishlike relatives were extinct, it appears they separated from the other tetrapods somewhere during Romer's gap, when the adult tetrapods became fully terrestrial (some forms would later become secondarily aquatic). The modest-sized ancestors of the amniotes laid their eggs in moist places, such as depressions under fallen logs or other suitable places in the Carboniferous swamps and forests; and dry conditions probably do not account for the emergence of the soft shell. Indeed, many modern-day amniotes require moisture to keep their eggs from desiccating. Although some modern amphibians lay eggs on land, all amphibians lack advanced traits like an amnion. The amniotic egg formed through a series of evolutionary steps. After internal fertilization and the habit of laying eggs in terrestrial environments became a reproduction strategy amongst the amniote ancestors, the next major breakthrough appears to have involved a gradual replacement of the gelatinous coating covering the amphibian egg with a fibrous shell membrane. This allowed the egg to increase both its size and in the rate of gas exchange, permitting a larger, metabolically more active embryo to reach full development before hatching. Further developments, like extraembryonic membranes (amnion, chorion, and allantois) and a calcified shell, were not essential and probably evolved later. It has been suggested that shelled terrestrial eggs without extraembryonic membranes could still not have been more than about 1 cm (0.4-inch) in diameter because of diffusion problems, like the inability to get rid of carbon dioxide if the egg was larger. The combination of small eggs and the absence of a larval stage, where posthatching growth occurs in anamniotic tetrapods before turning into juveniles, would limit the size of the adults. This is supported by the fact that extant squamate species that lay eggs less than 1 cm in diameter have adults whose snout-vent length is less than 10 cm. The only way for the eggs to increase in size would be to develop new internal structures specialized for respiration and for waste products. As this happened, it would also affect how much the juveniles could grow before they reached adulthood.


title: Amniote

text: A similar pattern can be seen in modern amphibians. Frogs that have evolved terrestrial reproduction and direct development have both smaller adults and fewer and larger eggs compared to their relatives that still reproduce in water.


title: Amniote

text: Fish and amphibian eggs have only one inner membrane, the embryonic membrane. Evolution of the amniote egg required increased exchange of gases and wastes between the embryo and the atmosphere. Structures to permit these traits allowed further adaption that increased the feasible size of amniote eggs and enabled breeding in progressively drier habitats. The increased size of eggs permitted increase in size of offspring and consequently of adults. Further growth for the latter, however, was limited by their position in the terrestrial food-chain, which was restricted to level three and below, with only invertebrates occupying level two. Amniotes would eventually experience adaptive radiations when some species evolved the ability to digest plants and new ecological niches opened up, permitting larger body-size for herbivores, omnivores and predators.


title: Amniote

text: While the early amniotes resembled their amphibian ancestors in many respects, a key difference was the lack of an otic notch at the back margin of the skull roof. In their ancestors, this notch held a spiracle, an unnecessary structure in an animal without an aquatic larval stage. There are three main lines of amniotes, which may be distinguished by the structure of the skull and in particular the number of temporal fenestrae (openings) behind each eye. In anapsids, the ancestral condition, there are none, in synapsids (mammals and their extinct relatives) there is one, and most diapsids (including birds, crocodilians, squamates, and tuataras), have two. Turtles were traditionally classified as anapsids because they lack fenestrae, but molecular testing firmly places them in the diapsid line of descent – they therefore secondarily lost their fenestrae.


title: Amniote

text: Post-cranial remains of amniotes can be identified from their Labyrinthodont ancestors by their having at least two pairs of sacral ribs, a sternum in the pectoral girdle (some amniotes have lost it) and an astragalus bone in the ankle.


title: Amniote

text: Amniota was first formally described by the embryologist Ernst Haeckel in 1866 on the presence of the amnion, hence the name. A problem with this definition is that the trait (apomorphy) in question does not fossilize, and the status of fossil forms has to be inferred from other traits.


title: Amniote

text: Classifications of the amniotes have traditionally recognised three classes based on major traits and physiology:


title: Amniote

text: This rather orderly scheme is the one most commonly found in popular and basic scientific works. It has come under critique from cladistics, as the class Reptilia is paraphyletic—it has given rise to two other classes not included in Reptilia.


title: Amniote

text: A different approach is adopted by writers who reject paraphyletic groupings. One such classification, by Michael Benton, is presented in simplified form below.


title: Amniote

text: With the advent of cladistics, other researchers have attempted to establish new classes, based on phylogeny, but disregarding the physiological and anatomical unity of the groups. Unlike Benton, for example, Jacques Gauthier and colleagues forwarded a definition of Amniota in 1988 as "the most recent common ancestor of extant mammals and reptiles, and all its descendants". As Gauthier makes use of a crown group definition, Amniota has a slightly different content than the biological amniotes as defined by an apomorphy. Though traditionally considered reptiliomorphs, some recent research has recovered diadectomorphs as the sister group to Synapsida within Amniota, based on inner ear anatomy.


title: Amniote

text: The cladogram presented here illustrates the phylogeny (family tree) of amniotes, and follows a simplified version of the relationships found by Laurin & Reisz (1995), with the exception of turtles, which more recent morphological and molecular phylogenetic studies placed firmly within diapsids. The cladogram covers the group as defined under Gauthier's definition.


title: 78th Academy Awards

text: The 78th Academy Awards presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:00 p.m. PST / 8:00 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled one week later than usual to avoid a clash with the 2006 Winter Olympics. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories honoring films released in 2005. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actor Jon Stewart hosted the show for the first time. Two weeks earlier in a ceremony at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California held on February 18, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Rachel McAdams.


title: 78th Academy Awards

text: "Crash" won three awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included "Brokeback Mountain", "King Kong", and "Memoirs of a Geisha" with three awards and "Capote", "", "The Constant Gardener", "Hustle & Flow", "March of the Penguins", "", "", "Six Shooter", "Syriana", "Tsotsi", "Walk the Line", and "" with one. The telecast garnered nearly 39 million viewers in the United States.


title: 78th Academy Awards

text: The nominees for the 78th Academy Awards were announced on January 31, 2006, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in the Academy's Beverly Hills headquarters by Sid Ganis, president of the Academy, and actress Mira Sorvino. "Brokeback Mountain" earned the most nominations with eight total; "Crash", "Good Night, and Good Luck", and "Memoirs of a Geisha" tied for second with six nominations each. All five Best Picture nominees received corresponding Best Director nominations (the fourth occurrence in Oscar history since the Best Picture nominees roster was limited to five films).


title: 78th Academy Awards

text: The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on March 5, 2006. Several notable achievements by multiple individuals and films occurred during the ceremony. "Crash" was the first Best Picture winner since 1976's "Rocky" to win only three Oscars. Best Director winner Ang Lee became the first non-Caucasian winner of that category. For this first time since the 34th ceremony held in 1962, all four acting winners were first-time nominees. At age 20, Keira Knightley was the second-youngest Best Actress nominee for her performance as Elizabeth Bennet in "Pride & Prejudice". Best Supporting Actor winner George Clooney was the fifth person to receive acting, directing, and screenwriting nominations in the same year and the first person to achieve this feat for two different films. By virtue of his nominations for both "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "Munich", composer John Williams earned a total of 45 nominations tying him with Alfred Newman as the second most nominated individual in Oscar history. "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp" became the second rap song to win Best Original Song and the first such song to be performed at an Oscars ceremony.


title: 78th Academy Awards

text: Despite the negative reception from the preceding year's ceremony, the Academy rehired Gilbert Cates to oversee production of the awards gala. However, in an article published in "The New York Times", it was stated that 2005 host Chris Rock would not return to host the show. According to a statement released by his publicist, "He didn't want to do it in perpetuity, He'd like to do it again down the road." Furthermore, many media outlets speculated that several AMPAS members felt uncomfortable with Rock's disparaging comments about Colin Farrell, Jude Law, and Tobey Maguire. Initially, Cates sought actor and veteran Oscar host Billy Crystal to host the ceremony again. However, Crystal declined the offer citing his commitment to his one-man comedy show "700 Sundays".


title: 78th Academy Awards

text: In January 2006, Cates announced that actor, comedian, and talk show host Jon Stewart, who had previously hosted two consecutive Grammy Awards ceremonies in 2001 and 2002, was chosen as host of the 2006 telecast. Cates explained the decision to hire him saying, "My wife and I watch him every night. Jon is the epitome of a perfect host — smart, engaging, irreverent and funny." In a statement, Stewart expressed that he was honored to be selected to emcee the program, jokingly adding, "Although, as an avid watcher of the Oscars, I can't help but be a little disappointed with the choice. It appears to be another sad attempt to smoke out Billy Crystal."


title: 78th Academy Awards

text: Several other people and companies participated in the production of the ceremony. Bill Conti served as musical supervisor for the telecast. Media firm The Ant Farm produced a thirty-second trailer promoting the broadcast featuring clips highlighting past Oscar winners to the tune of the song "Our Lives" by The Calling. Previous Oscar hosts such as Whoopi Goldberg and Steve Martin, and actors Mel Gibson, George Clooney, Halle Berry appeared in an opening comedic sketch. Actor Tom Hanks participated in a pre-taped comedic sketch lampooning Oscar speeches. Stephen Colbert (host of "The Colbert Report", the sister program of Stewart's "The Daily Show") narrated two different mock attack ads lampooning both the intense campaigning and lobbying during Oscar season put forth by film studios and political advertising during elections. Violinist Itzhak Perlman performed excerpts from the five nominees for Best Original Score.


title: 78th Academy Awards

text: When the nominations were announced on January 31, the field of major nominees favored independent, low-budget films over blockbusters. The combined gross of the five Best Picture nominees when the Oscars were announced was $186 million with an average gross of $37.3 million per film. "Crash" was the highest earner among the Best Picture nominees with $53.4 million in domestic box office receipts. The film was followed by "Brokeback Mountain" ($51.7 million), "Munich" ($40.8 million), "Good Night and Good Luck" ($25.2 million), and finally "Capote" ($15.4 million).


title: 78th Academy Awards

text: Of the top 50 grossing movies of the year, 35 nominations went to 13 films on the list. Only " Walk the Line" (19th), "Cinderella Man" (41st), "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (45th), and "Crash" (48th) were nominated for Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, or any of the directing, acting, or screenwriting. The other top 50 box office hits that earned nominations were "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" (1st), "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2nd), "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" (3rd), "War of the Worlds" (4th), "King Kong" (5th), "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (7th), "Batman Begins" (8th), "March of the Penguins", (26th), and "Memoirs of a Geisha" (47th).


title: 78th Academy Awards

text: Some media outlets received the broadcast positively. "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" television critic Gail Pennington praised Stewart's performance as host writing that he "did the Oscars proud Sunday night, turning in a four-star hosting performance that unfortunately made the rest of the show seem sluggish by comparison." Film critic Roger Ebert said that Stewart was "on target, topical and funny," and added, "He was as relaxed, amusing and at home as Johnny Carson." Columnist Ray Richmond of "The Hollywood Reporter" commented, "He seemed at times nervous and self-conscious, but on the whole, Stewart delivered with just the right balance of reverence and smugness."


title: 78th Academy Awards

text: Others media publications were more critical of the show. Television critic Rob Owen of the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" wrote that Stewart was more "amusing than funny". He added, "Many of his jokes fell flat with the stars in the Kodak Theatre, and his tendency to bow down before celebrities quickly grew tiresome." Tom Shales from "The Washington Post" commented, "It's hard to believe that professional entertainers could have put together a show less entertaining than this year's Oscars, hosted with a smug humorlessness by comic Jon Stewart, a sad and pale shadow of great hosts gone by." Moreover, he derided the "piles and piles and miles and miles of clips from films present and past" writing that it "squandered the visual luster" of the ceremony. Associated Press television critic Frazier Moore remarked, "Stewart, usually a very funny guy, displayed a lack of beginner's luck as first-time host...His usually impeccable blend of puckishness and self-effacement fell flat in the service of Oscar." He also criticized the decision to play music over the winner's acceptance speeches calling it "distracting and obnoxious."


title: 78th Academy Awards

text: The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 38.94 million people over its length, which was an 8% decrease from the previous year's ceremony. Additionally, the show earned lower Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 23.0% of households watching over a 35 share. Furthermore, it garnered a lower 1849 demo rating with a 13.9 rating among viewers in that demographic.


title: 78th Academy Awards

text: In July 2006, the ceremony presentation received nine nominations at the 58th Primetime Emmys. The following month, the ceremony won four of those nominations for Outstanding Art Direction (Roy Christopher and Jeff Richman), Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Program (Louis J. Horvitz), Outstanding Main Title Design (Renato Grgic, Alen Petkovic, Kristijan Petrovic, and Jon Teschner), and Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Variety, Music, or Animation Series or Special (Patrick Baltzell, Robert Douglass, Edward J. Greene, Jamie Santos, and Tom Vicari).


title: 78th Academy Awards

text: The annual "In Memoriam" tribute was presented by actor George Clooney. The montage featured an excerpt of the theme from "Now, Voyager" composed by Max Steiner.


title: 1979–80 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: The highlight of the Los Angeles Lakers season of 1979–80 was the 20-year old rookie Magic Johnson leading the Lakers to their seventh NBA Championship (second in Los Angeles), defeating the Philadelphia 76ers led by Julius Erving in six games in the NBA Finals. This was also the team's first season under the ownership of Jerry Buss. Magic's season represented the birth of the Showtime Lakers.


title: 1979–80 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: Having won everything possible at the college level, Johnson decided to leave college two years early and declared himself eligible for the 1979 NBA draft. The New Orleans Jazz originally had the first draft pick, but they had traded the pick to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for NBA star Gail Goodrich. As a result, the Lakers drafted Johnson with the first overall pick, signing him for a sizable salary of US$600,000 a year.


title: 1979–80 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: Johnson joined a franchise which had gone through major changes. The Lakers featured a new coach in Jack McKinney, a new owner in Jerry Buss, and several new players. However, Johnson was most excited about the prospect of playing with his personal idol, the 7–2 center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who would go on to become the leading scorer in NBA history. From the first game, Johnson displayed his trademark enthusiasm for the game. When Abdul-Jabbar hit a last-second free throw line hook shot to win against the San Diego Clippers, Johnson ran around the court, high-fiving and hugging everybody, causing concern that the "Buck" (as Johnson was called by Lakers announcer Chick Hearn for his youth) would burn himself out. However, in that 1979–80 NBA season, the rookie proved them wrong. Johnson introduced an uptempo style of basketball which the NBA described as a mix of "no-look passes off the fastbreak, pinpoint alley-oops from halfcourt, spinning feeds and overhand bullets under the basket through triple teams". Fellow Lakers guard Michael Cooper even stated that: "There have been times when he [Johnson] has thrown passes and I wasn't sure where he was going. Then one of our guys catches the ball and scores, and I run back up the floor convinced that he must've thrown it through somebody." This style of basketball became known as "Showtime". Given Johnson was also a prolific scorer and rebounder, he soon led the league in triple-doubles, racking up 10-points-10-rebounds-10-assists games in a rate only second to NBA Hall-of-Famer Oscar Robertson. In addition, he expressed a raw, childlike enthusiasm which further endeared him to the fans.


title: 1979–80 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: Johnson's average of 18.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game was enough to make the All-Rookie Team and become a starter on the All-Star Team, even though the NBA Rookie of the Year Award went to his rival Larry Bird, who had joined the Boston Celtics. The Lakers compiled a 60–22 win–loss record, and with Paul Westhead replacing coach McKinney as a coach after a serious bicycle accident 13 games into the season, the Lakers reached the 1980 NBA Finals against the Philadelphia 76ers. Against the fierce resistance of Sixers Hall-of-Fame forward Julius "Doctor J" Erving and Darryl Dawkins, the Lakers took a 3–2 lead before Abdul-Jabbar went down with a sprained ankle. Coach Westhead decided to put point guard Johnson at pivot instead, and on the Sixers' home court, the rookie dominated with 42 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists and three steals, lifting the Lakers to a 123–107 win and winning the NBA Finals MVP award. The NBA regards Johnson's clutch performance as one of the finest individual games ever. Although only twenty years old, he had already won every trophy at the high school, college and professional levels. Johnson also became one of only four players to win NCAA and NBA championships in consecutive years.


title: Cyrinda Foxe

text: Cyrinda Foxe (born Kathleen Victoria Hetzekian; February 22, 1952 – September 7, 2002) was an American actress, model and publicist, best known for her role in "Andy Warhol's Bad" (1977). She was married to both David Johansen of the proto-punk band New York Dolls and Steven Tyler of the hard rock band Aerosmith. She is the mother of Mia Tyler.


title: Cyrinda Foxe

text: Foxe was born Kathleen Victoria Hetzekian in Santa Monica, California, to an Armenian family. She grew up as an army brat in an abusive household. After graduating high school, she lived in Texas briefly before settling in New York City, where she got a job working as an assistant to Greta Garbo. She later changed her name and began frequenting Max's Kansas City, a popular Manhattan nightclub, and appeared in Andy Warhol's film "Andy Warhol's Bad" (1977).


title: Cyrinda Foxe

text: Foxe had relationships with David Bowie and James Williamson of The Stooges while working under Tony Defries as a publicist for MainMan, Bowie's management company. She also appeared in the music video for Bowie's 1973 single, "The Jean Genie." Bowie wanted the video to depict "Ziggy as a kind of Hollywood street-rat" with a "consort of the Marilyn brand". This led to Foxe's casting, and she flew from New York to San Francisco especially for the shoot. Bowie said of the song "I wrote it for her amusement in her apartment. Sexy girl." Foxe records in her memoir that Bowie said to her "I want to write you a song. What do you want?", to which Foxe replied "something like the Yardbirds". Foxe in later years maintained a fondness for Bowie referring to him as a "great lover" and stating that she "really cherish[ed her] time" with Bowie.


title: Cyrinda Foxe

text: In his memoir, Arthur Kane characterized Foxe as being "bright [and] very magnetic" and having "an effervescence about her" as "[she was] very much a character of her own creation."


title: Cyrinda Foxe

text: Having grown up idolizing the Rolling Stones, Foxe became closely associated with the New York Dolls. In 1977, after years of dating, she married David Johansen, the band's lead singer. It was while Foxe was married to Johansen that she met Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven Tyler.


title: Cyrinda Foxe

text: After less than a year of marriage to Johansen, Foxe left him for Steven Tyler. Foxe and Tyler married and had a daughter, Mia, but the marriage was troubled by drug addiction, extramarital affairs, and physical and emotional abuse. Foxe and Tyler divorced shortly before Aerosmith made a comeback in the late 1980s. She raised Mia in Sunapee, New Hampshire and New York City.


title: Cyrinda Foxe

text: In 1997, Foxe's memoir, "Dream On: Livin' on the Edge with Steven Tyler and Aerosmith", co-written with Danny Fields, was published. Not long after the book was released, Foxe announced that the paperback edition of "Dream On" would include nude photos of Steven Tyler, but Tyler won a lawsuit in 1999, preventing Foxe from publishing the photos. In 2000, she launched a web site in which she was selling nude pictures of Tyler, but the site closed by the end of the year.


title: Cyrinda Foxe

text: In 2001, Foxe had a mild stroke. She received Medicaid and food stamps, but she had no apartment or place to live. Myra Freidman organized a benefit at CBGB to raise money for Foxe. Steven Tyler, who also paid her hospital bills, donated a signed Aerosmith guitar to the benefit, which sold for $5000. David Bowie also donated an acoustic guitar. Tyler agreed to pay for a room for Foxe at the Gramercy Park Hotel where, on August 28, 2002, she married musician Keith Waa.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: Zecharia Sitchin (July 11, 1920 – October 9, 2010) was an author of a number of books proposing an explanation for human origins involving ancient astronauts. Sitchin attributed the creation of the ancient Sumerian culture to the "Anunnaki", which he stated was a race of extraterrestrials from a planet beyond Neptune called "Nibiru". He asserted that Sumerian mythology suggests that this hypothetical planet of Nibiru is in an elongated, 3,600-year-long elliptical orbit around the Sun. Sitchin's books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into more than 25 languages.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: Sitchin's ideas have been resoundingly rejected by scientists, academics, historians (including Sumerologists, Orientalists and Assyriologists) and anthropologists who dismiss his work as pseudoscience and pseudohistory. His work has been criticized for flawed methodology, ignoring archaeological and historical evidence, and mistranslations of ancient texts as well as for incorrect astronomical and scientific claims.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: Sitchin was born to a Jewish family in Baku, the capital of then Soviet Azerbaijan, and raised in Mandatory Palestine (which in 1948 became the modern state of Israel). He received a degree in economics from the University of London, and was an editor and journalist in Israel before moving to New York in 1952. While working as an executive for a shipping company, he taught himself Sumerian cuneiform and visited several archaeological sites.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: Similar to earlier authors such as Immanuel Velikovsky and Erich von Däniken, Sitchin advocated hypotheses in which extraterrestrial events supposedly played a significant role in ancient human history.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: According to Sitchin's interpretation of Mesopotamian iconography and symbolism, outlined in his 1976 book "The 12th Planet" and its sequels, there is an undiscovered planet beyond Neptune that follows a long, elliptical orbit, reaching the solar system roughly every 3,600 years. This planet is called Nibiru (although Jupiter was the planet associated with the god Marduk in Babylonian cosmology). According to Sitchin, Nibiru (whose name was replaced with MARDUK in original legends by the Babylonian ruler of the same name in an attempt to co-opt the creation for himself) collided catastrophically with Tiamat (a goddess in the Babylonian creation myth the "Enûma Eliš"), which he considers to be another planet once located between Mars and Jupiter. This collision supposedly formed the planet Earth, the asteroid belt, and the comets. Sitchin states that when struck by one of planet Nibiru's moons, Tiamat split in two, and then on a second pass Nibiru itself struck the broken fragments and one half of Tiamat became the asteroid belt. The second half, struck again by one of Nibiru's moons, was pushed into a new orbit and became today's planet Earth. Sitchin also speculated that Pluto (which he identifies as both Gaga and Isimud) was originally a satellite of Saturn but Nibiru's gravity perturbed it, sending it to the outer Solar System and giving the body its peculiar orbital path, intersecting the orbit of Neptune.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: According to Sitchin, Nibiru (called "the twelfth planet" because, Sitchin claimed, the Sumerians' gods-given conception of the Solar System counted all eight planets, plus Pluto, the Sun and the Moon) was the home of a technologically advanced human-like extraterrestrial race called the "Anunnaki" in Sumerian myth, who Sitchin states are called the "Nephilim" in Genesis. He wrote that they evolved after Nibiru entered the inner solar system, and they first arrived on Earth probably 450,000 years ago, looking for minerals, especially gold, which they found and mined in Africa. Sitchin states that these "gods" were the rank-and-file workers of the colonial expedition to Earth from planet Nibiru.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: According to Sitchin, Enki (the Sumerian god of water and human culture) suggested that to relieve the Anunnaki, who had mutinied over their dissatisfaction with their working conditions, that primitive workers ("Homo sapiens") be created by genetic engineering as slaves to replace them in the gold mines by crossing extraterrestrial genes with those of "Homo erectus". According to Sitchin, ancient inscriptions report that the human civilization in Sumer, Mesopotamia, was set up under the guidance of these "gods", and human kingship was inaugurated to provide intermediaries between mankind and the Anunnaki (creating the "divine right of kings" doctrine). Sitchin believes that fallout from nuclear weapons, used during a war between factions of the extraterrestrials, is the "evil wind" described in the Lament for Ur that destroyed Ur around 2000 BC. Sitchin states the exact year is 2024 BC. Sitchin says that his research coincides with many biblical texts, and that biblical texts come originally from Sumerian writings.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: Since the release of his first book "The 12th Planet" in 1976, Sitchin has written seven other books as part of his "Earth Chronicles" series, as well as six other companion books. Sitchin's books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been published in more than 25 languages. "New York Times" reporter Corey Kilgannon has noted that despite academic dismissal of his work, Sitchin has "a devoted following of readers".


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: Critic Michael S. Heiser has called Sitchin "arguably the most important proponent of the ancient astronaut hypothesis over the last several decades". Sitchin was a frequent guest on the Coast to Coast AM radio show, which in 2010 presented Sitchin with a lifetime achievement award. "Gods of the New Millennium" author Alan F. Alford admits he initially became "infatuated" with Sitchin's hypotheses but later became a critic of Sitchin's interpretations of myth.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: According to some writers, Sitchin's ideas, along with those of Erich von Däniken may have influenced the beliefs of the religious sect of Raëlism, and writer Mark Pilkington sees the mythology of Japan's Pana Wave religious group as rooted in Sitchin's "The 12th Planet" and its sequels.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: The 1994 movie "Stargate", directed by Roland Emmerich, and the 2009 video game "The Conduit" drew some conceptual inspiration from Sitchin's ideas, while screenwriter Roberto Orci says the villains of the film "Cowboys & Aliens" were inspired by Sitchin's conceptualization of the Anunnaki as gold-mining aliens.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: In 2000, Lorin Morgan-Richards' theatrical performance of "ENKI", based on the writings of Zecharia Sitchin, premiered in Cleveland, Ohio under the choreography of Michael Medcalf.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: In 2016, Kazem Finjan, the Iraqi Minister of Transport, claimed at a press conference that Sumerians had built and used an airport in the Dhi Qar Governorate to launch spaceships 5000 years ago. He cited the work of Sitchin and others to support his assertion.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: Criticism of Sitchin's work falls primarily into three categories: translations and interpretations of ancient texts, astronomical and scientific observations, and literalism of myth.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: When Sitchin wrote his books, only specialists could read the Sumerian language. However, sources such as the 2006 book "Sumerian Lexicon" have made the language more accessible to non-experts.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: American biblical scholar Michael S. Heiser states he has found many inaccuracies in Sitchin's translations and challenges interested parties to use this book to check their validity. Prof. Ronald H. Fritze, author of the book "Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-religions", mentions the example of Sitchin's claim that the Sumerian sign "DIĜIR" means "pure ones of the blazing rockets", adding that "Sitchin's assignment of meanings to ancient words is tendentious and frequently strained." Fritze also commented on Sitchin's methodology, writing that "When critics have checked Sitchin's references, they have found that he frequently quotes out of context or truncates his quotes in a way that distorts evidence in order to prove his contentions. Evidence is presented selectively and contradictory evidence is ignored."


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: Sitchin bases his arguments on his personal interpretations of Egyptian and Sumerian texts, and the seal VA 243. Sitchin wrote that these ancient civilizations knew of a twelfth planet, when in fact they only knew five. Hundreds of Sumerian astronomical seals and calendars have been decoded and recorded, and the total count of planets on each seal has been five. Seal VA 243 has 12 dots that Sitchin identifies as planets. When translated, seal VA 243 reads "You're his Servant" which is now thought to be a message from a nobleman to a servant. According to Heiser, the so-called sun on Seal VA 243 is not the Sumerian symbol for the sun but is a star, and the dots are also stars. The symbol on seal VA 243 has no resemblance to the hundreds of documented Sumerian sun symbols.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: In a 1979 review of "The Twelfth Planet", Roger W. Wescott, Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, noted Sitchin's amateurishness with respect to the primacy of the Sumerian language:


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: Sitchin's "planetary collision" hypothesis does superficially resemble one suggested by modern astronomers—the giant impact hypothesis of the Moon's formation about 4.5 billion years ago by a body impacting with the newly formed Earth. However, Sitchin's proposed series of rogue planetary collisions differ in both details and timing. As with Immanuel Velikovsky's earlier "Worlds in Collision" thesis, Sitchin states that he has found evidence of ancient human knowledge of rogue celestial motions in a variety of mythological accounts. In Velikovsky's case, these interplanetary collisions were supposed to have taken place within the span of human existence, whereas for Sitchin these occurred during the early stages of planetary formation, but entered the mythological account passed down via the alien race which purportedly evolved on Nibiru after these encounters.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: According to former Immanuel Velikovsky assistant turned prolific critic, C. Leroy Ellenberger, "[Sitchin states that] from an equal start, the Nephilim evolved on Nibiru 45 million years ahead of comparable development on Earth with its decidedly more favorable environment. Such an outcome is unlikely, to say the least, since Nibiru would spend over 99% of its time beyond Pluto. Sitchin's explanation that heat from radioactive decay and a thick atmosphere keep Nibiru warm is absurd and does not address the problem of darkness in deep space. Also unexplained is how the Nephilim, who evolved long after Nibiru arrived, knew what happened when Nibiru first entered the solar system."


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: The scenario outlined by Sitchin, with Nibiru returning to the inner solar system regularly every 3,600 years,


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: ... implies an orbit with a semi-major axis of 235 astronomical units, extending from the asteroid belt to twelve times farther beyond the sun than Pluto. Elementary perturbation theory indicates that, under the most favorable circumstances of avoiding close encounters with other planets, no body with such an eccentric orbit would keep the same period for two consecutive passages. Within twelve orbits the object would be either ejected or converted to a short period object. Thus, the failed search for a trans-Plutonian planet by T.C. Van Flandern, of the U.S. Naval Observatory, which Sitchin uses to bolster his thesis, is no support at all.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: Sitchin in "the case of Adam's alien genes" states that 223 genes found by the Human Genome Sequencing Consortium are without the required predecessors on the genomic evolutionary tree. Later researchers have argued that the conclusion from the Human Genome Sequencing Consortium cannot be drawn due to a lack of a comprehensive gene database for comparison. An analysis by Salzberg identified 40 potential genes laterally transferred into the genome from prokaryotic organisms. Salzberg also argues that gene loss combined with sample size effects and evolutionary rate variation provide an alternative, more biologically plausible explanation.


title: Zecharia Sitchin

text: Peter James, co-author of the controversial book "Centuries of Darkness", has criticized Sitchin both for ignoring the world outside Mesopotamia and more specifically for wholly misunderstanding Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian literature:


title: Climate change denial

text: Climate change denial, or global warming denial, is denial, dismissal, or doubt that contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its effects on nature and human society, or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions. Many who deny, dismiss, or hold doubt about the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming self-label as "climate change skeptics", which several scientists have noted is an inaccurate description. Climate change denial can also be implicit when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action. Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denial or denialism, pseudoscience, or propaganda.


title: Climate change denial

text: The campaign to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a "denial machine" organized by industrial, political and ideological interests, and supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers to manufacture uncertainty about global warming.


title: Climate change denial

text: The politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial and the political global warming controversy, undermining the efforts to act on climate change or adapting to the warming climate. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none.


title: Climate change denial

text: Organized campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions. Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby, the Koch brothers, industry advocates and conservative think tanks, often in the United States. More than 90% of papers skeptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks.


title: Climate change denial

text: As recently as the 1970s, oil companies were publishing research which broadly concurred with the scientific community's view on global warming. Despite this, oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades, a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by the tobacco industry, and often even carried out by the same individuals who previously spread the tobacco industry's denialist propaganda.


title: Climate change denial

text: "Climate change skepticism" and "climate change denial" refer to denial, dismissal or doubt of the scientific consensus on the rate and extent of global warming, its significance, or its connection to human behavior, in whole or in part. Though there is a distinction between skepticism which indicates doubting the truth of an assertion and outright denial of the truth of an assertion, in the public debate phrases such as "climate skepticism" have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism or contrarianism.


title: Climate change denial

text: The terminology emerged in the 1990s. Even though all scientists adhere to scientific skepticism as an inherent part of the process, by mid November 1995 the word "skeptic" was being used specifically for the minority who publicized views contrary to the scientific consensus. This small group of scientists presented their views in public statements and the media, rather than to the scientific community. This usage continued. In his December 1995 article "The Heat is On: The warming of the world's climate sparks a blaze of denial", Ross Gelbspan said industry had engaged "a small band of skeptics" to confuse public opinion in a "persistent and well-funded campaign of denial". His 1997 book "The Heat is On" may have been the first to concentrate specifically on the topic. In it, Gelbspan discussed a "pervasive denial of global warming" in a "persistent campaign of denial and suppression" involving "undisclosed funding of these 'greenhouse skeptics' " with "the climate skeptics" confusing the public and influencing decision makers.


title: Climate change denial

text: A November 2006 CBC Television documentary on the campaign was titled "The Denial Machine". In 2007 journalist Sharon Begley reported on the "denial machine", a phrase subsequently used by academics.


title: Climate change denial

text: In addition to "explicit denial", social groups have shown "implicit denial" by accepting the scientific consensus, but failing to "translate their acceptance into action". This was exemplified in Kari Norgaard's study of a village in Norway affected by climate change, where residents diverted their attention to other issues.


title: Climate change denial

text: The terminology is debated: most of those actively rejecting the scientific consensus use the terms "skeptic" and "climate change skepticism", and only a few have expressed preference for being described as deniers, but the word "skepticism" is incorrectly used, as scientific skepticism is an intrinsic part of scientific methodology. The term "contrarian" is more specific, but used less frequently. In academic literature and journalism, the terms "climate change denial" and "climate change deniers" have well-established usage as descriptive terms without any pejorative intent. Both the National Center for Science Education and historian Spencer R. Weart recognize that either option is problematic, but have decided to use "climate change denial" rather than "skepticism".


title: Climate change denial

text: Terms related to "denialism" have been criticized for introducing a moralistic tone, and potentially implying a link with Holocaust denial. There have been claims that this link is intentional, which academics have strongly disputed. The usage of "denial" long predates the Holocaust, and is commonly applied in other areas such as HIV/AIDS denialism: the claim is described by John Timmer of "Ars Technica" as itself being a form of denial.


title: Climate change denial

text: In December 2014, an open letter from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry called on the media to stop using the term "skepticism" when referring to climate change denial. They contrasted scientific skepticism—which is "foundational to the scientific method"—with denial—"the a priori rejection of ideas without objective consideration"—and the behavior of those involved in political attempts to undermine climate science. They said "Not all individuals who call themselves climate change skeptics are deniers. But virtually all deniers have falsely branded themselves as skeptics. By perpetrating this misnomer, journalists have granted undeserved credibility to those who reject science and scientific inquiry." In June 2015 Media Matters for America were told by "The New York Times" public editor that the newspaper was increasingly tending to use "denier" when "someone is challenging established science", but assessing this on an individual basis with no fixed policy, and would not use the term when someone was "kind of wishy-washy on the subject or in the middle." The executive director of the Society of Environmental Journalists said that while there was reasonable skepticism about specific issues, she felt that denier was "the most accurate term when someone claims there is no such thing as global warming, or agrees that it exists but denies that it has any cause we could understand or any impact that could be measured."


title: Climate change denial

text: The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry letter inspired a petition by climatetruth.org in which signers were asked to "Tell the Associated Press: Establish a rule in the AP StyleBook ruling out the use of 'skeptic' to describe those who deny scientific facts." On 22 September 2015, the Associated Press announced "an addition to "AP Stylebook" entry on global warming" which advised, "to describe those who don't accept climate science or dispute the world is warming from human-made forces, use climate change doubters or those who reject mainstream climate science. Avoid use of skeptics or deniers." On 17 May 2019, The Guardian also rejected use of the term "climate skeptic" in favor of "climate science denier".