title: Norwegian Elkhound

text: The AKC breed name "Norwegian Elkhound" is a mistranslation from its original Norwegian name , meaning "Norwegian moose dog". In Norwegian "elg" means "moose" and "hund" means "dog," as it does in many other Germanic languages. It is Spitz breed, not a "hound" dog. The breed's object in the hunt is to independently track down and hold the moose at bay—jumping in and out toward the moose, distracting its attention, while signaling to the hunters by barking very loudly—until the hunter who follows the sound can arrive to shoot it. The dog will only bark while the moose is stationary, but it can also slowly drive the moose towards shooters lying in wait. The Norwegian Elkhound is also used on a leash. In this mode of hunting, the dog leads the hunter in the direction of the moose while keeping quiet.


title: Norwegian Elkhound

text: The breed falls under the mitochondrial DNA sub-clade referred to as d1 that is only found in northern Scandinavia. It is the result of a female wolf-male dog hybridization that occurred post-domestication. Subclade d1 originated 4,800–3,000 years ago and includes all Sami-related breeds: Finnish Lapphund, Swedish Lapphund, Lapponian Herder, Jämthund, Norwegian Elkhound and Hällefors Elkhound. The maternal wolf sequence that contributed to these breeds has not been matched across Eurasia"


title: Norwegian Elkhound

text: According to The Kennel Club breed standard ideally the dog stands about high and weighs up to . Its grey, white, and black coat is made up of two layers: an underlying dense smooth coat ranging from black at the muzzle, ears, and tip of its tail to silvery grey on its legs, tail, and underbody and an overlying black-tipped protective guard coat. An ideal Elkhound has a tightly curled tail. The Elkhound is a medium-sized dog and extremely hardy.


title: Norwegian Elkhound

text: Norwegian Elkhounds are bred for hunting large game, such as wolf, bear and moose. Although the breed is strong and hardy, the dogs typically have an inseparable bond with their masters and are quite loyal. All Elkhounds have a sharp loud bark which makes them suitable as watchdogs.


title: Norwegian Elkhound

text: Norwegian Elkhounds are loyal to their "pack" and make excellent family dogs given proper attention. They are bold, playful, independent, alert, extremely intelligent, and, at times, a bit boisterous. They rank 54th in Stanley Coren's "The Intelligence of Dogs", being of above average working/obedience intelligence.


title: Norwegian Elkhound

text: Norwegian Elkhounds sometimes carry a genetic predisposition to suffer from progressive retinal atrophy, or, like many medium and large breeds, hip dysplasia, renal problems, and cysts, particularly in later life; they are also prone to thyroid problems. Overall, however, they are a hardy breed with few health problems.


title: Norwegian Elkhound

text: They have a lifespan of 12–16 years. There have been reports of elkhounds living to be 18 years old and older.


title: Norwegian Elkhound

text: In Medieval times, it was known as a , meaning "animal-dog" in Norwegian, and was highly prized as a hunting dog but rarely seen or bred outside of Norway until its appearance in England in the 19th century. It was officially recognized by The Kennel Club in 1901.


title: Fingerprints of the Gods

text: Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization is a 1995 pseudoarcheology book by British writer Graham Hancock, which contends that an advanced civilization existed in prehistory, one which served as the common progenitor civilization to all subsequent known ancient historical ones. The author proposes that sometime around the end of the last ice age this civilization ended in cataclysm, but passed on to its inheritors profound knowledge of such things as astronomy, architecture and mathematics.


title: Fingerprints of the Gods

text: Hancock's views are based on the idea that mainstream interpretations of archaeological evidence are flawed or incomplete. His book has been compared to Ignatius Donnelly's "" (1882).


title: Fingerprints of the Gods

text: Hancock argues for a civilisation centered on Antarctica (which lay farther from the South Pole than today) that supposedly left evidence (the "fingerprints" of the title) in Ancient Egypt and American civilisations such as the Olmec, Aztec and Maya.


title: Fingerprints of the Gods

text: Hancock suggests that in 10,450 BC, a major pole shift took place. Before then, Antarctica lay farther from the South Pole than today, and after then, it shifted to its present location. The pole-shift hypothesis hinges on Charles Hapgood's theory of Earth Crustal Displacement. Hapgood had a fascination with the story of Atlantis and suggested that crustal displacement may have caused its destruction. His theories have few supporters in the geological community compared to the more widely accepted model of plate tectonics, but they were adopted by Rand and Rose Flem-Ath's "When the Sky Fell: in Search of Atlantis" (1995/2009) in which they expand the evidence for Charles Hapgood's theory of earth-crust displacement and propose Antarctica as the site of Atlantis.


title: Fingerprints of the Gods

text: Members of the scholarly and scientific community have described the proposals put forward in the book as pseudoscience and pseudoarchaeology.


title: Fingerprints of the Gods

text: Canadian author Heather Pringle has placed "Fingerprints" specifically within a pseudo-scientific tradition going back through the writings of H.S. Bellamy and Denis Saurat to the work of Heinrich Himmler's notorious racial research institute, the "Ahnenerbe," and the "crackpot theories" of Nazi archaeologist Edmund Kiss. Pringle draws attention to "Fingerprints"' "wild speculations" on the origins of Tiwanaku and describes Hancock as a "fabulist".


title: Fingerprints of the Gods

text: "Fingerprints of the Gods" has been translated into 27 languages and is estimated to have sold five million copies around the world.


title: Fingerprints of the Gods

text: Hancock responded to some of his critics with an updated edition of the book published in 2001 with a new introduction and new appendices, "Fingerprints of the Gods: The Quest Continues".


title: Fingerprints of the Gods

text: "Fingerprints of the Gods" was cited as an inspiration for the 2009 disaster film "2012". In a November 2009 interview with the London magazine "Time Out", the film's director Roland Emmerich states: "I always wanted to do a biblical flood movie, but I never felt I had the hook. I first read about the Earth's crust displacement theory in Graham Hancock's "Fingerprints of the Gods"."


title: Fingerprints of the Gods

text: In the extras of the Blu-ray "10,000 BC", the director Emmerich and his co-writer Harald Kloser said that they had found inspiration in the same book.


title: The Notorious B.I.G. discography

text: The discography of the Notorious B.I.G., an American rapper, consists of two studio albums, three posthumous albums, two compilation albums, one soundtrack and 27 singles (including 17 as a featured artist).


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Kyle Rayner (), one of the characters known as Green Lantern, is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character is depicted as being associated with the Green Lantern Corps, an extraterrestrial police force of which he has been a member.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Created by writer Ron Marz and artist Darryl Banks, and named after a character from James Cameron's film "The Terminator", Kyle Rayner first appeared in "Green Lantern" vol. 3, #48 (1994), as part of the "Emerald Twilight" storyline, in which DC Comics replaced Green Lantern Hal Jordan with Rayner, who was the sole Green Lantern for years until the late 1990s. He was DC's star Green Lantern into the mid-2000s. During this period he was also briefly known as Ion.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Following Jordan’s return to Green Lantern status in the 2004–2005 limited series "", and the 2005 crossover storyline "Infinite Crisis", Rayner returned to his alias of Ion. After the events of the "Sinestro Corps War", Rayner returned to his original role as a Green Lantern officer, along with a promotion to Honor Guard Illustres of the Corps. Later on, he becomes a White Lantern following the mastery of all seven lantern rings. After DC Rebirth, Rayner again returns as Green Lantern, along with his original Corps uniform.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Before he acquired a Green Lantern power ring, Kyle Rayner was a struggling-but-gifted freelance comic book artist who was raised in North Hollywood and lived and worked in Los Angeles. Kyle was raised by his Irish mother as an only child; his father abandoned his mother when she was pregnant. It was later revealed that his father was a Mexican-American CIA agent named Gabriel Vasquez and that Aaron Rayner was merely an alias. Kyle and his mother lived a very modest lifestyle until he reached adulthood. After Hal Jordan, grief-stricken over the destruction of his home town of Coast City, went on a mad rampage killing various members of the Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians of the Universe, Rayner was found by the last surviving Guardian of the Universe, Ganthet. Ganthet gave Kyle the last working Green Lantern power ring that would allow him to conjure any form of matter or energy through sheer force of will. Ganthet's reasons for choosing Kyle to bear the ring have never been made completely apparent, aside from Rayner having been in the right place at the right time: prior to bequeathing the ring upon Rayner, Ganthet simply utters, "You will have to do." Ganthet later revealed that humans make great Green Lanterns (before Hal Jordan's mental breakdown he was the Corps' greatest Green Lantern, and John Stewart became the first mortal Guardian of the Universe). Several sources, however, imply that Ganthet was following a deeper reason: Kyle Rayner was not chosen because he was fearless but because he was able to feel and overcome fear, thus making him, and all the future Lanterns, less susceptible to Parallax's influence. The "New Guardians" retelling goes so far as to replace the scowling "You will have to do" with a smiling "It would seem I chose well."


title: Kyle Rayner

text: At first, Kyle took possession of the ring very lightly. His girlfriend, Alexandra DeWitt, encouraged him to be more responsible, create his own version of the Green Lantern uniform, and helped him train for his new role as a superhero, but she was later murdered and stuffed in a refrigerator by the supervillain Major Force. The guilt over this event drove Rayner to take his role more seriously, and as a result, he strove to be the best Green Lantern he could be in honor of Alex's memory. Rayner then moved to New York City, since Los Angeles reminded him of Alex and he needed a fresh start.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Rayner grew up enamored with Superman and Batman, though he had only a passing knowledge of Earth's various Green Lanterns. This soon changed, and he found that the Green Lantern ring was the ultimate expression of his fertile imagination. While in battle, he often used the ring's power to create constructs of just about anything his artistic mind could imagine: other superheroes, anime characters, mystical characters, mechas, futuristic weapons, and original characters from his comic books. While other members of the Green Lantern Corps questioned the practicality of those constructs, they often made Rayner an unpredictable and formidable opponent.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: After relocating to New York City, Rayner joined the superhero group the Titans for a brief time, during which he dated Donna Troy, but eventually became a member of the Justice League (JLA). He initially clashed with the Flash (Wally West) early in his career. West had worked with Jordan since childhood and had reservations about Kyle as the new Green Lantern, but he eventually became one of Rayner's best friends and biggest supporters. Surprisingly, another of Kyle's biggest supporters amongst the League was Batman, who often treated him with more respect than he showed certain other League members (including his predecessors as Green Lantern—Jordan, Gardner, and Stewart), most likely due to the fact that Kyle was willing to learn from others where other Lanterns focused on their rings and pre-existing skills. Rayner also entered a romantic relationship with Jade and formed friendships with the Golden Age Green Lantern (Jade's father, Alan Scott), Green Arrow (Connor Hawke), Arsenal (Roy Harper), Warrior (Guy Gardner), and John Stewart (who at the time was a former Green Lantern).


title: Kyle Rayner

text: During his superhero career, Rayner accumulated a rogues gallery that included characters from his predecessors' pasts such as Dr. Polaris and Dr. Light.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: During the Fifth-week event "Circle of Fire", it is discovered that a cosmic entity named Oblivion is coming to Earth after he attacked the planet Rann. This shocked Rayner because the villain is strikingly identical to the character of a story Rayner made when he was seven during his period of struggling with his fear and anger of growing up without a father, as a nemesis to the adventurer the Cannoneer. The Justice League tries to stop Oblivion, and during the battle, Kyle is sent back to Earth to get reinforcements, but the League is captured. On Earth, Kyle recruits Power Girl, the Atom, Firestorm, Adam Strange, and the Circle of Fire — a group of Green Lanterns from alternate realities and different time periods. The Circle of Fire consists of Rayner's late girlfriend Alexandra DeWitt from an alternate timeline (where she had received the power ring instead of Rayner); Hunter and Forest Rayner, cousins descended from Rayner who share one power ring; Ali Rayner-West, Green Lightning, a future descendant of Wally West and Kyle Rayner who possesses both the Flash and Green Lantern's powers but could only use one of those powers at a time; a reprogrammed Manhunter robot model G.L.7177.6; and Pel Tavin, the Emerald Knight, a Daxamite Green Lantern from the Middle Ages.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Finding himself in a role as a leader, Rayner split this group up to handle different crises caused by Oblivion, or in some cases to search for a way to defeat him. Eventually, in a confrontation, Oblivion reveals that he is a distillation of Rayner's doubts and darker impulses, made manifest through the power of the ring. The villain also reveals that Rayner has subconsciously created the Circle of Fire based on his positive aspects because he needed help; Alex is an embodiment of Rayner's capability for love, while Tavin represents his bravery, Ali represents hope, G.L.7177.6 represents logic, and Hunter and Forest represent his imagination. When they realize this, they decide that the created Green Lanterns should return to Rayner's mind. Doing so allows him to unlock more powers from the ring that had been previously unavailable to him and also discovers an inner strength he never knew he possesses after his positive aspects return to him. Facing up to this, Rayner is able to defeat Oblivion in New York City, imprison the entity within his own mind, and free the Justice League.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: For a brief period, Rayner achieved godhood as Ion after absorbing the energy Hal Jordan had left in Earth's Sun during "The Final Night" storyline, which had merged and grown with energies released after Oblivion's defeat. With his new powers, Rayner could bend time, space, and reality, allowing himself, for a good example, to be in many places at once. The drawback of being one with everything was that Rayner could no longer sleep or separate himself from the overwhelming responsibilities these abilities imposed upon him. Rather than sacrifice his humanity, Rayner abandoned omnipotence, bleeding off the vast power, recharging the Central Power Battery on the Guardians' home planet and headquarters, Oa, and helping to create a new group of Guardians in the process. Before he purged all of the power, though, he modified his ring and conjured a new Corps uniform to reflect his new maturity. Once again limited only by his willpower and imagination, Rayner's ring could still affect yellow and would always harbor a lifeline of power without a time limit on its power, is keyed directly to him, and would always return to him, though it still required charging to reach full power.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: After the brutal gay bashing of his young assistant and friend Terry Berg, Rayner went on a lengthy self-imposed exile into space. Before leaving, he placed John Stewart, recently recovered from his paraplegia and given a new power ring, into his spot in the Justice League. On his return, he discovered that Jade had begun seeing someone new and was doing so in his own apartment. He left New York and spent some time trying once again to find his place on Earth and ended up staying with his mother for a brief time.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: After being tricked into believing his mother had been murdered by Major Force, Rayner fights with the villain, eventually dealing with the immortal by decapitating him and shooting his head into space. Feeling that he is a danger to those he cares for, Rayner once again leaves for the far reaches of space. During the events of the miniseries "", he returns with Jordan's corpse and the discovery of the true nature of Parallax, which is revealed to actually be an alien parasitic entity, the non-corporeal embodiment of fear, that possessed Jordan and committed crimes in his name. Subsequent to this, Rayner is given special status amongst the Guardians, who consider him the "Torch-Bearer", the Green Lantern who carried the legacy through the Corps' darkest period.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: In "Infinite Crisis", Alexander Luthor reveals that had the Multiverse continued to exist if the event of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" hadn't occurred, Rayner would have been a native of Earth-Eight. When Jade dies during the Infinite Crisis Rann/Thanagar War Special, she transfers her power to Rayner, catalyzing his transformation into Ion.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: In the series "Ion: Guardian of the Universe", Ion seemingly destroys a fleet of starships and violently attacks two Green Lanterns, but Kyle has no memory of the destruction and only learns of his possible role in it after being attacked by a bounty hunter. Upon visiting the fleet's wreckage, Rayner loses control and finds himself near the sentient planet Mogo, also a Green Lantern, who uses his Lantern abilities to help convalescing Lanterns gain insight into their problems through the use of constructs conjured by the Lantern's own subconscious. On Mogo, Rayner converses with images of Alex, Donna, and Jade and fights Major Force. Rayner realizes that as Ion, he is able to channel the green energy of both the Starheart and the Central Power Battery. This new energy is called the "Ion Power".


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Later, Jordan finds Ion destroying a planet but discovers that this is in fact Alexander Nero, who claims that his connection with Kyle and new powers are the result of a third party's interference. Jordan and Rayner then discover that the Guardians had placed Rayner through these events as a test of whether he could handle his power, in anticipation of their granting him an honored position among Green Lanterns as their Torchbearer, now that he harbors the ability to revive the Corps should it ever be destroyed again. They explain that he will not patrol a sector as other Lanterns do but will be called upon for aid in situations that the Corps cannot handle alone. They also reveal that some unforeseen enemy manipulated Nero, who unleashes a massive amount of energy that Kyle dissipates into what is presumed to be a pocket universe. Rayner later learns that he was hunted by enemies such as Effigy, who was subliminally instructed to attack Rayner by Nero. After clearing his reputation on the planet that was scorched by Nero while using Rayner's identity, Rayner learns his mother is dying of an unknown cause. After being attacked by the Tangent Comics version of the Atom and the Flash, and being transported to the interdimensional realm known as the "Bleed", where he encounters Captain Atom, he returns home to attempt to reanimate his now-dead mother's corpse with newly acquired powers, but after a tearful farewell, she declines resurrection, asking Rayner to allow her to die, a request that the grief-stricken Rayner grants.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Sinestro abducts Rayner from Oa through one of his new yellow power rings. At the Sinestro Corps' base on Qward, he reveals to Kyle that he was responsible for his mother's death and infected her with the sentient virus Despotellis to kill her in a plot to break Rayner's will so that he could serve as Parallax's new host. Sinestro also reveals that Ion is actually a benevolent energy entity, similar to Parallax, that thrives on willpower and that Rayner was unknowingly its current host.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: The Sinestro Corps confront Kyle, who has his powers drained out of him by Sinestro himself and is immediately taken over by Parallax. Parallax then clothes itself in a new uniform, which appears as a combination of the Sinestro Corps' uniform, Kyle's original Green Lantern costume, and the armor Hal Jordan wore as Parallax. Parallax's possession also turns the hair on top of Kyle's head gray, just as it turned the hair on Hal Jordan's temples. Parallax returns to Qward with the Sinestro Corps and is inducted into their ranks, becoming one of the Anti-Monitor's heralds.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: In Kyle's body, Parallax captured Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, and John Stewart and brought them to Qward. Before bringing them, Parallax made Hal relive the only time he ever experienced fear: when his father died. Parallax also elaborated that since invading Kyle's mind, he now has nearly infinite creativity to call upon in his deeds. During the battle with the Green Lantern Corps, who arrive at Qward to rescue the captured Lanterns, Parallax murders Jack T. Chance and crushes his Power Ring before it can find a replacement. During his fight with the Earth Green Lanterns, Parallax revealed that Kyle Rayner's "twisted desire" was to be the last Green Lantern again and thus "special". He is stopped from murdering Guy Gardner by the intervention of the surviving Lost Lanterns and the Ion entity. The Embodiment of Fear then led an advance group of the Sinestro Corps, readying to attack Coast City. It is also suggested by the Guardians of the Universe that Kyle is no longer destined to be Ion following his being taken over by Parallax.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: As seen in the one-shot "Parallax" (September 2007) Kyle was trapped within his own mind. He is able to witness all that Parallax says and does from a third-person perspective but is unable to stop it. Kyle's personality watches Parallax's actions from inside the prison that his own imagination has constructed: his mother's empty house. The only fixture in the house is an old painting of uncertain origin and authorship that had belonged to Kyle's mother. As Kyle watches Parallax battle Hal Jordan and the Lost Lanterns a manifestation of the fear entity comes to pay him a visit. In the realm of his imagination, Kyle is able to "transform" into Ion and engage the parasite in battle. After being blasted back by Parallax and losing his Ion form, Kyle forms a power ring, places it on his finger, and appears in his original costume. Although he puts up a valiant fight, Parallax is too much for him, and Kyle is defeated. Parallax taunts Kyle with his deepest fear: failing the people who depend on him, especially the women in his life. Many of the women in Kyle's life have died or come to harm because of their association with him, and this causes Kyle to struggle with feelings of guilt and responsibility. The latest to die was Kyle's mother, killed by the sentient virus Despotellis on the orders of Sinestro. It was the grief and guilt that this revelation caused Kyle that allowed the Parallax entity to possess him. Sneering, Parallax mocks Kyle's helplessness and turns to depart, but the enraged artist grabs a pencil and stabs the creature in the eye with it. Parallax, unfazed and unhurt, taunts Kyle once more with the hopelessness of his position and disappears. Left alone, Kyle is about to smash the painting in frustration when he notices his mother's signature in the bottom corner and realizes that she secretly painted it years ago. This deep and unexpected connection with his mother gives Kyle hope, the very thing he most needs to overcome his fear. With renewed faith in himself, Kyle walks into the painting and ends up in a field walking toward a bright, green star.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: After threatening Hal's brother and family in Coast City, Parallax is confronted by Hal Jordan, who is enraged by the entity's attempt to take James Jordan's life as well as possession of Kyle. Surprisingly, Jordan actually manages to beat Parallax consistently in fury but loses the charge in his ring before he's able to defeat him completely. While visibly weakened, Jordan becomes absorbed by Parallax in addition to Rayner, and Parallax takes a new physical form with a bright yellow costume, a sign that he is a creature capable of inducing great fear.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Meanwhile, fellow Lantern John Stewart orders Honor Guard Lantern Guy Gardner to retrieve the painting (Kyle had discussed the painting in the "Sinestro Corps Special", as well as the "Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Parallax" one-shot) of a little boy in a field, which was hanging in Kyle's dead mother's house. As Guy returns and shows the painting to Parallax, it visibly shifts his demeanor. Jordan, the beacon of green light that had come to Kyle inside his mind, assists Rayner in fighting Parallax exhaustively until they finally break free from the fear embodiment's grip.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Just as the now-separated Parallax creature counterattacks the Lanterns, ousted Guardians Ganthet and Sayd arrive with four Lantern Power Batteries, and they proceed to entrap Parallax within them all. Ganthet explains that his final act as a Guardian is to give Rayner his power ring. The Guardian asks Rayner if he is willing to downgrade himself to a regulation Green Lantern after serving as host to Ion for so long. Kyle quickly agrees, and the four officers then take their batteries, recite the oath, and recharge their rings.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: The four Green Lanterns then split in two directions; Hal returns to Coast City in order prevent it from being destroyed again with Kyle by his side, and John and Guy head to New York City to battle the Anti-Monitor, Superboy-Prime, and the Cyborg Superman. As Hal and Kyle battle Sinestro, Sinestro momentarily gains the upper hand after one of the Manhunters absorbs their power ring's energies. After the Green Lantern Corps defeat the Cyborg Superman, the Manhunters immediately deactivate, with Hal able to take one of the robots' skulls to absorb Sinestro's power. With three of them powerless, Hal and Kyle immediately engage Sinestro in combat, with the two Lanterns emerging as the victors against the despotic Korugarian.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: After the war, he is assigned to the Honor Guard as Guy Gardner's partner and sent to counsel Sodam Yat, the new Ion. Kyle and Guy decide to move to Oa, giving them better access to performing their duties. Kyle places his mother's painting on the wall of his new Oan apartment. The Ion is now stated as unrelated to the Starheart Power given to him by Jade: Such sudden spike in powers enabled the Guardians to temporarily bond the Ion entity with Kyle. With the loss of the Ion entity, Rayner again has the powers and abilities of a standard Green Lantern.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Since his promotion to Honor Guard, Rayner has acted as a troubleshooter for the Corps, participating in actions such as the defeat of Sinestro Corps member Mongul and the capture of Sinestro Corps member Krybb. Following this, Rayner and Lantern Soranik Natu began a romantic relationship.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: In "Countdown", Weeks 49-47, Kyle Rayner is among those "anomalies" listed by the Monitors as being dangerous to the Universe, so he is on their list for termination. Also on the list are Duela Dent, Donna Troy, and Jason Todd.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Rayner briefly appears in "All-New Atom" #15, once again carrying a Green Lantern ring (through his narration, Rayner makes it clear that he is no longer Ion, stating that he "[has] to change [his] business cards"). He now joins Donna Troy, Jason Todd, Bob the Monitor, and the Jokester in the "Countdown Presents the Search for Ray Palmer". This story takes place after the events of the "Sinestro Corps War", though it was started while the war was still ongoing in the "Green Lantern" and "Green Lantern Corps" series. Rayner's new uniform is an amalgamation of his previous Lantern uniforms and elements of the traditional version, as well as his original mask.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: When the challengers finally locate Ray Palmer (on Earth-51) Bob attacks him, revealing his acts of assistance to be a ruse. Kyle escapes with Ray, who reveals that it was the deceased Earth-51 Ray Palmer who was meant to stop the great disaster, not him. The two are then attacked by Power Ring and evil versions of Booster Gold and Supergirl. While the battle between Monarch and Superboy-Prime rages, the hand of the Source urges the Challengers to go to Apokolips. With the help of Earth-51's Monitor, Nix Uotan, the group manages to leave before Superboy-Prime tears open Monarch's armor, obliterating that entire universe.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: After Darkseid's defeat, Rayner joins Donna, Ray, and Forager in becoming border guards to the Multiverse.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Continuing his duties as a Green Lantern Honor Guard member, Rayner moved to Oa, running a new version of the Warriors Bar with Guy Gardner and continuing his relationship with Soranik Natu, secretly breaking one of the ten new laws in the book of Oa unveiled by the Guardians: No relationships between Green Lanterns. He had been involved in the lead-up to "The Blackest Night", being one of the first to deal with a new Star Sapphires member, and fought on Oa after the Guardian Scar caused a mass prison break of Sinestro Corpsmen.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: After the prison break, the Alpha Lanterns were ordered by the Guardians to execute all Sinestro Corps members and all other prisoners. Rayner and Guy opposed this, cautioning the Alphas and the Guardians to avoid the dark path to which such actions would lead, but the Guardians ignored this, reassigning Rayner and Guy to Earth for their opposition to their decree. After briefly returning to Earth, the two Lanterns returned to Oa, encountering an immense swarm of black rings, which reanimated all the deceased Lanterns in Oa's crypts, bringing Kyle face to face with the reanimated corpse of Jade. Having learned that these Black Lanterns are not truly the deceased persons they once were but grotesque mockeries, Rayner tries to destroy them, but the false Jade torments Rayner with images of people he has failed in the past. The false Jade is destroyed by Natu.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: During the Black Lanterns' attack upon the Central Power Battery on Oa, Alpha Lantern Chaselon's internal power battery was breached. Anticipating its detonation, and after professing his love for Natu, Kyle sacrificed himself by grabbing it and using it to destroy as many Black Lanterns as he could. Black rings attempt to resurrect Rayner as a Black Lantern, but they are destroyed by the Corps, Munk of the Indigo Tribe, and Miri Riam of the Star Sapphires, whose power embodies love. Having sensed the love between Kyle and Soranik in jeopardy, she uses her power to connect Kyle's heart to Natu's and restores Rayner to life. Journeying to Earth, Rayner battles a Black Lantern version of Alexandra DeWitt, where he helps defeat the Black Lantern Corps leader, Nekron. In the aftermath, some of the Black Lanterns are restored to life, including Jade.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: When the rogue Guardian Krona attacks Oa, he places Parallax back inside the Central Power Battery, enabling him to control the Green Lanterns through fear. Due to his past experiences with Parallax, Kyle is able to resist the effects but is forced to remove his ring to prevent himself from losing control. Tasked by Ganthet to flee, Kyle and John Stewart make their way into Oa's underground. While there, they encounter Guy and Hal, who has the rings of the other Corps leaders. Kyle, taking Ganthet's earlier declaration that he was putting his "hopes" in him to heart, chooses Saint Walker's ring, while Hal chooses Sinestro's, Guy chooses Atrocitus's, and John chooses Indigo-1's. However, the blue ring has the effect of supercharging the attacking Green Lanterns' rings, severely impeding the Earthmen's defense. While Hal and Guy go to remove Parallax from the Central Power Battery, Kyle and John attempt to free Mogo from Krona's control. On the way, Kyle discovers the blue ring's ability to show a person their greatest hope can free the Lanterns from Krona's control. Unfortunately, it does not work on Mogo, due to the residual Black Lantern energy in his core. Kyle can only watch in horror as John absorbs the Black Lantern energy, along with all the Green Lantern energy, and uses it to destroy Mogo. In the fallout, the two regroup with Hal, Guy, and Ganthet, using the full power of the emotional spectrum to crack open the Battery and release Parallax. Their job done, the Lanterns regain their original green rings, in preparation for the final confrontation with Krona. In the final battle, Hal takes Kyle to the Book of the Black and makes him draw a picture of Sinestro, Carol Ferris, and the others Lanterns trapped in the Book, which effectively frees them from their prison.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: In the aftermath of the war, Kyle and Soranik are forced to deal with their relationship issues. Kyle talks with Tomar-Tu about his problems with Soranik, but they, along with Soranik, are teleported into an alien world ravaged by Star Sapphire Miri Riam. The Lanterns subdue Miri, who reveals to them that she did not kill anyone on the planet and she only damaged property to force Kyle and Soranik to reunite and solve their problems, reminding them of the time when she used her crystal to reveal to them their respective true loves. However, Kyle reveals that when Miri showed him his true love, he saw Jade, not Soranik. He justified himself saying that although Jade was the love of his life, she was dead and he needed to move on. Angered, Soranik breaks up with Kyle, telling him not to enter her sector.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: After the "War of the Green Lanterns", Kyle resumes his functions on Earth, using his signature creative constructs to save construction workers caught in a construction accident. Elsewhere in the universe, yellow, red, violet, and indigo power ring bearers are decommissioned, and their rings set out for Sector 2814 (Earth). After saving the construction workers, the four rings approach Kyle, each claiming him as their new bearer. Confused by the appearance of the rings, Kyle is soon ambushed by the decommissioned bearers' peers (consisting of Arkillo, Bleez, Fatality, and Munk), who have tracked the rings to Kyle and have come to retrieve them.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: As Kyle fights the four lanterns, a blue ring appears, claiming Kyle as its bearer. Soon afterward, Saint Walker appears, having tracked the ring's trajectory, and helps Kyle reach Oa to try to understand what is happening. On their way an orange ring reaches Kyle, with Saint Walker claiming if the orange ring had come to Kyle, and since only one orange ring exists, it means that its former bearer must be dead. On Oa, Kyle tries to talk to Ganthet, only to discover that the Guardians have removed all emotion from him, and Ganthet now acts just like all the other Guardians of the Universe. When the Guardians try to capture Kyle and forcibly discover what turned the Green Lantern into a magnet for the different Corps' rings, the six rings impose themselves on Kyle, turning him into the first entity to bear all seven Lantern Corps' rings. Despite some initial success, Kyle's body is eventually unable to keep up the strain of wielding all of his new rings, with five of the new rings destroyed after a few moments, leaving just the orange ring along with his green ring. Ganthet attempts to remove Kyle's green ring and dismiss him from the Corps, but the ring itself reacts violently to this attempt to remove it. The orange ring is revealed to be a construct of Glomulus, who asks Kyle for help, with the other ring-bearers arriving to either assist or attack Kyle. When the Guardians forcefully strike down the lanterns save for Glomulus, Larfleeze himself shows up and attacks the Guardians. Accompanied by Sayd, Larfleeze attacks the Guardians, but when Kyle hears Sayd imply that there is a way to restore Ganthet to normal, he joins forces with the other ring-wielders and flees the Guardians, essentially resigning from the Corps while retaining his ring. Talking with Larfleeze, they learn that the rings were drawn to Kyle due to the actions of a mysterious spaceship that has just entered this universe. Larfleeze sent Glommulus to investigate it since he was able to resist the "compulsion" of the source that tried to remove his ring due to his prolonged contact with it, and the new team resolved to investigate this new threat. When they are attacked by the mysterious and powerful Archangel Invictus, who claims that all who wield the rings are evil, Kyle sends out a message to the other ring-wielders by convincing his ring to tap into his own emotions of hope, fear, and compassion to "tune in" to the appropriate "wavelength". Learning of Invictus's past history with Larfleeze, Kyle is able to trick him into letting the ring-bearers go by claiming that they will kill Larfleeze for him. With his ring low on power, Kyle returns to Earth with Bleez to recharge his ring, Bleez suggesting that Kyle will need protection from the Guardians after his expulsion while retaining his ring. Although he fails to reach the Blue Lanterns in time to save them from the invading Reach, Kyle is able to lead the New Guardians to fight Larfleeze and Invictus, subsequently learning that Sayd was responsible for turning him into a "ring magnet" in the hope that he would be able to bring the seven Corps together to save Ganthet, as both the only person who loved Ganthet as much as her and the only person able to wield all the powers of the emotional spectrum. Despite learning the truth about their origins, the New Guardians split up since they feel that the circumstances of their origin have tainted the team from the beginning regardless of Sayd's motives.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Attempting to track down Hal, Kyle meets Carol Ferris just as they witness a news report about Hal and Sinestro's fight with Black Hand, prompting Carol to re-don her Sapphire ring to help Kyle battle the Black Lanterns, only to find nothing but "conventional" zombies. Although Kyle's ring states that Hal was apparently dead, Carol rejects this idea as the link between her heart and Hal's, which she is aware of although her ring is still intact. Through a vision from her ring, Carol realizes that Kyle must unite the powers of all seven Corps to stop this latest threat, despite Kyle's uncertainty about his ability to channel the powers of rage or avarice even if he has already accessed the powers of hope and fear. Carol is able to contact Atrocitus to help train Kyle to harness the red ring of rage by arguing that Kyle will use that power against the Guardians. He attempts to provoke Kyle's rage by reminding him of the death of his girlfriend Alex after he got the ring, but when this fails, Kyle instead feeling grief rather than anger, he takes Kyle to witness a group of people being threatened and executed in another country, Kyle's anger at this provoking the activation of the red power within him, also turning him disturbingly cold toward the desecration of Alex's grave. Although Arkillo and Larfleeze are able to help him harness the powers of fear and greed, it takes a confrontation with Ganthet to help Kyle harness the power of love since Kyle accepts his refusal to harm Ganthet despite what he has become due to his fatherly regard for Ganthet. With his powers at their peak, Kyle resolves to lead the Guardians in the confrontation against the Third Army.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: When the villainous First Lantern is freed, he began to drain all the Lantern Corps of their emotions, minds, and memories of the various beings present with the intention of seeing how their life choices had changed them. Kyle failed to fight off the First Lantern, which also has the powers of the white light and drains his emotions. The First Lantern teleports him back to his old home, leaving him weak. Later, Carol locates Kyle, who resists from his critical weak state, while Kyle and Carol arrive at the planet Korugar's grave when Sinestro rages to attack them, blaming everyone for his home planet being destroyed. Sinestro demands Kyle revive Korugar with the White Lantern ring's abilities, but Kyle is unable to do so. Sinestro flies off vowing to kill the First Lantern, while Kyle and Carol later team-up with Green Lanterns Simon Baz and B'dg.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: In the final battle, Kyle and the reserve Lantern Corps attack the First Lantern, and he is finally destroyed. Afterwards, Kyle travels to Earth and helps other people with the White Lantern's miracle power on his own. However, he is confronted by Saint Walker, who convinces him that he has to visit his own father, considering that Kyle has not seen him since the First Lantern's attack. Later, Kyle arrives in Arizona and reunites with his father in his filling station.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: After the events of the "Lights Out" storyline, in which Relic destroys Oa and the emotional spectrum, Rayner is believed dead after sacrificing his life to kill Relic. It is later revealed that he is in fact alive, and his survival will not be revealed to the Green Lantern Corps. Soon enough Kyle discovered that when he went past the Source Wall with the purpose to deliver the emotional entities there so that the reservoir could be refilled he also saw the instructions that shape the Universe, and he somehow changed the operating codes. Without even realizing it, Kyle created Oblivion from everything that gnawed deep in the corners of his mind—the anxiety, the endless wants, the fears, and the anger given form. Realizing that his power has grown too great for him to keep it all under control, Kyle subconsciously creates the Oblivion entity to destroy himself so that he cannot endanger anyone else. However, various other ring-wielders, including Carol and the repowered Saint Walker, band together and convince him to have hope, resulting in Kyle working with the Templar Guardians into defeating Oblivion. In doing so, Kyle seems to be destroyed, but in fact, teleported to a dead planet. He revives the dead world, to find that it's a world like Mogo. The world speaks saying it was destroyed by its brother for killing its own populace. After stating that it doesn't like lanterns, it attacks Kyle in an attempt to kill him. He takes back the life that he bestowed on the dead planet.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Recognizing that the white light is too powerful for him to control full-time, Kyle decides to split his ring between himself and six other allies, allowing the option of the rings recombining into one if Kyle is faced with a serious threat.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Subsequently, in "DC Rebirth", Kyle Rayner is one of the several individuals who feel the tremors of the green light of willpower when Hal Jordan forges a Green Power Ring for himself. When Hal is left badly wounded and in a realm between life and death after a confrontation with Sinestro, his ring travels to Ganthet and Sayd, who summon Kyle to help save Hal's life. Kyle uses the power of his white ring and the former Guardians' power to open a doorway to Emerald Space in the afterlife, and manages to bring Hal back to the realm of the living. After the new truce between the Sinestro and Green Lantern Corps, Kyle attempts to use his ring to help Saint Walker bring the rest of the Blue Lantern Corps back to life, but some external force prevents Kyle channeling his power to that extent, resulting in him 'downgrading' back to a conventional Green Lantern ring as the strain he had subjected his ring to causes it to 'break up' back into the seven differently-colored rings, with Kyle retaining his original Green Lantern ring while the other six flies off to find new wielders. Kyle begins to initiate another relationship with Soranik. During the fight against the Prism Beasts, Kyle learns from the future Green Power Ring that Rip Hunter possessed, that Sarko is Kyle's and Soranik's future son. After Sarko's death, Kyle is left demoralized and makes him more persistent to bring Soranik back to the Green Lantern Corp. Eventually she finds out about Kyle killing Sarko and falls under the influence of the Yellow Lantern and brands Kyle. She then attacks the Green Lanterns after finding out about one of their own killing a Yellow Lantern and later finds out the Power Battery had a fail-safe that prevents them from using it if they were to turn on them which makes her even more furious and retreats with her Corp.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Later the Green Lantern Corp's intergalactic homeworld and safe haven of Oa suffered a devasting attack from unidentified assailants which brought considerable losses to the Green Lanterns themselves when the mysterious force successfully rendered the Green Central Power Battery completely extinguished and irrevocably scattered several Lanterns across space with John Stewart, the newly instated councilor Sojourner Mullein, former Red Lantern liaison Simon Baz and Mullein's rambunctious but courageous young sidekick Keli Quintela a.k.a. Teen Lantern as the only available Green Lanterns with the remaining Lanterns either dead, injured or missing. Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner are soon eventually reported to be missing in action.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: As a Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner is semi-invulnerable, capable of projecting hard-light constructions, flight, and utilizing various other abilities through his power ring which are only limited by his imagination and willpower. Kyle's constructs are much more elaborate than those of any other Green Lanterns, often fading into view like a sketch refined into an illustration. Eventually, he is able to utilize his skill as an artist to manipulate the pigments and dimensions within his constructs, making them appear so realistic that even Alan Scott was amazed at what Kyle could do with his ring's creations.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Rayner's ring was constructed from what remained of Hal Jordan's ring by Ganthet. It is keyed to Rayner and Hal Jordan's DNA, making it only accessible to Rayner, Jordan, and anyone who is closely related to them unless the bearer willed the ring to another individual. This is done by Ganthet to prevent the last ring from being stolen, as there would be no other lantern to send to retrieve it. Unlike most of the Green Lanterns' rings, Kyle's did not require a twenty-four-hour period of recharge, only when the ring's capacity was depleted; and it was not necessary to recite the Corps' oath when recharged. Rayner is the first Lantern not to suffer from a weakness to items colored yellow. Both Mongul and Superman are very surprised at this upon first encountering him. Kyle states that he didn't know about the weakness and never had any trouble with it. Originally, this was explained as his ring being a "new model", which also explained why it had slightly different abilities than those seen previously. Later, this was retconned with the explanation that rings can affect yellow if the user faces and overcomes their fear; as an artist, Kyle had faced his fear of rejection every time he showed his work, and this extended to his constructs, which he considered part of his artwork.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: When bonded with the benevolent Ion symbiont, Rayner was capable of much more elaborate usage of his imagination which can extend to the manipulation of reality. In possession of the more sinister Parallax entity, Rayner was theoretically capable of similar feats.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: During his relationship with Donna Troy, Rayner engaged in combat training with his then-girlfriend. During his first battle with Fatality, he proved to be a formidable fighter and was able to defeat her when his ring was drained. In nearly every encounter with Fatality since that incident, Kyle would use his combat skills to defeat her rather than his ring in order to maintain an element of surprise (she expected him to use his ring) or when his ring is drained or absent during battles. As a member of the Justice League, Kyle occasionally would train in the League's combat training systems on the Watchtower and under the tutelage of combat-experienced Leaguers, such as Batman. Even though Rayner is now a skilled hand-to-hand combatant, having been trained by the Dark Knight himself, he is not an expert in hand-to-hand; for example, while he initially held his own in a hand-to-hand fight with Sinestro, the villain proved to be a better fighter due to his greater experience.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: As an Honor Guard Illustres, Rayner ranks only below Salaak, who holds the rank of Clarissi, and the Guardians in the new Corps chain of command.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: During a brief period where he was turned into a 'magnet' for all rings, Kyle could briefly wield the power of the entire emotional spectrum, but the strain of doing so meant that the other six rings disintegrated after only a few moments, leaving him feeling significantly weakened by the effort. Despite all of the rings barring his own turning to dust, a measure of each ring's power resides in Kyle which he is able to channel in a combined burst of multicolored lights, Sayd noting that Kyle is the only being she knows capable of bringing together the powers of all of the branches of the emotional spectrum. The ability to use any emotion spectrum light appears to be permanent, as Kyle is learning from different members of each Corps on how to use each power individually with limited success; he harnessed the power of Hope with relative ease, but required a brutal training session with Atrocitus to master Rage, while he only harnessed the power of Love during his fight with Ganthet.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: After learning to master Avarice from a reluctant Larfleeze, Fear from Arkillo, and Compassion from Indigo-1 Kyle has learned how to harness the entire emotional spectrum and as a result became a White Lantern. As a White Lantern Kyle can heal injuries and ailments although by his own admission he can't resurrect the dead. His ring is more powerful than a standard power ring and can replicate the abilities of any ring in the spectrum (except black) though the full extent of its abilities is yet to be revealed.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Kyle was later revealed to possess the Life Equation as a result of being inside the Source Wall. With the Equation, Kyle could manipulate reality itself. However, Kyle was unable to control this level of power and was dying because of it. As a result, Kyle divided the Life Equation by creating seven additional White Lantern power rings and gave them to the most worthy candidates. He swore to never unite the rings unless absolutely necessary. In the "Rebirth" storyline, when Kyle attempted to use the white ring to resurrect the Blue Lantern Corps, some unspecified force resisted his efforts, causing his ring to 'break' into seven different rings of the seven Corps, the other six rings flying off to find new wielders while Kyle retained his original Green Lantern ring.


title: Kyle Rayner

text: Kyle Rayner is also featured in the Justice League of America book series by Dennis O'Neil called "Hero's Quest", published by Pocket Star Books in 2005. The story takes place outside of both the JLA book series and the mainstream DCU storyline. It retells how Rayner came across the ring, changing the events surrounding it, and the origins of superheroes on Earth. Rather than Hal destroying the Corps, it was instead the Guardians abandoning the Corps to remake the Universe, and Rayner is chosen by Ganthet to be the one to stop them as the new Green Lantern.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: Pallacanestro Olimpia Milano, commonly known as Olimpia Milano or as EA7 Emporio Armani Milan after its title sponsor, is an LBA Italian professional basketball team, based in Milan, Italy. Its colors are white and red, and the team is sometimes referred as "Scarpette Rosse" (Little Red Shoes) because team officials imported red Converse All-Star shoes for players from the United States. The tag line stuck, and the nickname is still used by many fans today.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: As per custom in the Italian league, sponsorship has kept the team name changing frequently. From 1930 until 1955, it was called Borletti Milano. From 1956 to 1973, it was renamed Simmenthal. Other famous sponsorship names were Billy, Simac, Tracer, and Philips, in the 1980s. For past club sponsorship names, see the list below.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: Olimpia is the most successful basketball club in Italy and one of the most successful in Europe, having won 29 Italian League Championships, 8 Italian National Cups, 4 Italian Super Cups, 3 EuroLeague, 1 FIBA Intercontinental Cup, 3 FIBA Saporta Cups, 2 FIBA Korać Cups and many junior titles.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: The birth of Pallacanestro Olimpia Milano is traditionally dated 1936, year of the first Italian League Championship title. Actually it was founded 6 years earlier (in 1930) as "Dopolavoro Borletti" by Fratelli Borletti managers. Borletti team won 4 consecutive Italian League Championships from 1936 to 1939.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: In 1947, Milan businessman Adolfo Bogoncelli merged Pallacanestro Como and Borletti to form a new society, commonly known as "Borolimpia". "Borletti" brand was the main sponsor of the team, becoming the first sponsor in the history of Italian sport.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: The team regularly won the Italian League Championship in the 1950s and the 1960s, with players including Gabriele Vianello, Sandro Riminucci, Gianfranco Pieri, and Bill Bradley. In 1966, Olimpia won its first FIBA European Champions Cup.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: In the 1970s, three teams were fighting across Europe for supremacy: Olimpia Milano, Ignis Varese, and Real Madrid. Pallacanestro Varese and Olimpia Milano were arch-rivals, as the two cities are 25 miles (40 km) apart. While Milano was a frequent Italian League champion, they were unable to win again the prestigious FIBA European Champions Cup. Late in the 1970s, the quality of the club declined, but Olimpia Milano still managed to win a FIBA Cup Winners' Cup.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: In the 1970s through the 1980s, the team acquired several notable players, including the Boselli twins (Franco and Dino), Mike Sylvester, Chas Menatti, Dino Meneghin, Mike D'Antoni, John Gianelli, Roberto Premier. Bob McAdoo, Joe Barry Carroll, Russ Schoene, Antoine Carr, and Mike Brown. American head coach Dan Peterson led the team back to prominence.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: In the 1980s, the team was sold to the Gabetti family. After this, they qualified for nine Serie A championships finals, winning five, with the 1987 team winning the Serie A title, the 1986–87 FIBA European Champions Cup (won also in 1988: both finals were won against Maccabi Tel Aviv), the Italian Cup and the 1987 FIBA Club World Cup. This gave the club the coveted "Triple Crown" and the even rarer "Quadruple Crown".


title: Olimpia Milano

text: Led by point guard Sasha Djordjević, the team won another FIBA Korać Cup in 1993. Bepi Stefanel purchased the team franchise in 1994, and signed-up notable European players like Dejan Bodiroga, Gregor Fučka, Sandro De Pol, and Nando Gentile. In 1996, the team won the Italian Cup and its 25th Italian National Championship, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the club.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: Team management was inconsistent, as ownership groups from 1998 to 2004. Players of the team included Warren Kidd, Hugo Sconochini, Claudio Coldebella and Petar Naumoski. In 2005, owner Corbelli, which bought the club in 2002, from Sergio Tacchini, was flanked by Adriano Galliani (managing director of Italian Football club A.C. Milan), Massimo Moratti (President of rival club Internazionale), NBA star Kobe Bryant, and stylist Giorgio Armani, as sponsor with the Armani Jeans brand. After difficult years, led by coach Lino Lardo, Olimpia reached the national championship Finals, finally being beaten by Climamio Bologna.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: On January 25, 2006, in the midst of a disappointing season in the EuroLeague and domestically, Djordjevic was named as the team's new coach. He left as coach after the 2006–07 season, but not before securing Olimpia a berth in the 2007–08 Euroleague.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: In 2008, Giorgio Armani bought the team from Giorgio Corbelli, standing as the only owner, entirely changing the management structure, naming Livio Proli as president, and Lucio Zanca as general manager. Piero Bucchi was chosen to coach the new team, leading Olimpia twice to second place in LEGA Basket, being defeated by Montepaschi Siena in both cases.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: In January 2011, after 23 years, coach Dan Peterson came back from retirement to replace Piero Bucchi as head coach. However, his stint at Olimpia Milano this time was quite short: after failing to reach the championship Finals, on June 9, Olimpia Milano announced Sergio Scariolo as new head coach for the 2011–12 season. The first player signed for the 2011–12 season was Omar Cook, an American-born play maker, who had played the previous season with Power Electronics Valencia. Owing to the NBA lockout, Danilo Gallinari went back to his alma mater, playing 15 games (8 in the Italian League, 7 in EuroLeague): he left the team in December.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: Sergio Scariolo was replaced by Luca Banchi at the beginning of the 2013–14 season, and the team brought from Montepaschi Siena: David Moss, Kristjan Kangur, and Daniel Hackett.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: The team reached the quarterfinals of EuroLeague, 16 years after its last appearance, but the team lost against the eventual league champions, Maccabi Tel Aviv. The team finished in the 1st position the LEGA Basket regular season, and in the 7th game of the playoff's finals, Olimpia won its 26th Italian League championship title, its first after 18 years. Alessandro Gentile, the captain of Olimpia, was named MVP of the finals.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: On June 29, 2017, Simone Pianigiani was hired as the new head coach and on June 15, 2018, Milano went to win his 28th title by beating Dolomiti Energia Trento in game 6 of the 2018 LBA Finals.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: On June 11, 2019, legend Ettore Messina signed a deal as the new head coach of the club and president of all basketball operations for the following three seasons.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: Olimpia Milano used the OND Borletti outdoor court of Via Costanza for almost 20 years. In the mid-1940s, they moved to the Palazzo dello Sport della Fiera, which had a seating capacity of 18,000 people, and was then the largest indoor sports arena in Europe, and second only to the Madison Square Garden in New York City. In 1960, the Palazzo dello Sport della Fiera was abandoned, and Olimpia moved into the original structure of the PalaLido, which then had a smaller seating capacity of 3,500, but because of lack of security measures at the time, often was filled with up to 10,000 people.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: At the end of the 1970s, Olimpia moved into the newly built Palasport di San Siro, a multi-purpose facility built next to the Meazza Stadium, that was able to hold about 15,000 spectators. In 1985, the roof of the Palasport di San Siro collapsed and Olimpia returned to PalaLido for a season, waiting for the construction of a provisional arena. In 1986, they moved into the recently built 10,045 seat PalaTrussardi, where they played through the early 1990s.


title: Olimpia Milano

text: The club then moved into its current home arena, the Mediolanum Forum, which has a seating capacity of 12,700. The club has also played some home games at the 6,700 seat PalaDesio. Recently, the club considered moving back to the newly rebuilt and modernized PalaLido (named Allianz Cloud), after it was remodeled, and had its seating capacity expanded. However, the club ultimately decided to continue using the Mediolanum Forum as its home arena, due to its much larger seating capacity, as compared to the new Allianz Cloud. However, the new arena is used when Mediolanum Forum is unavailable.


title: Community (season 6)

text: The sixth and final season of the television comedy series "Community" premiered on Yahoo! Screen on March 17, 2015, with a two-episode premiere, and concluded on June 2, 2015. The season consists of 13 episodes released weekly via Yahoo! Screen on Tuesdays. Yahoo! announced in June 2014 that it had picked up the series for a sixth season after NBC had canceled the series in May 2014.


title: Community (season 6)

text: On May 9, 2014, NBC announced that it had canceled "Community". For several years prior to its cancelation, fans adopted the slogan "six seasons and a movie", a line from the episode "Paradigms of Human Memory" regarding Abed's hopeful legacy of NBC's short-lived series "The Cape". Sony Pictures Television, the show's primary producer, was reported to have shopped the show to other networks and online distribution outlets, including Hulu and Comedy Central. "Deadline Hollywood" reported the low chance of such an outcome, with a revival deal from one unnamed suitor not likely to happen and creator Dan Harmon's enthusiasm for continuing on the show uncertain. On May 28, Deadline.com reported that Hulu was in talks with Sony Pictures TV to produce a new season of "Community", with Harmon having a change of heart about the revival, saying, "I'm not going to be the guy that re-cancels cancelled "Community"." On June 24, TVLine reported that Hulu had ended talks with Sony Pictures TV, although The Wrap stated the report was incorrect. On June 30, the day the cast's contracts were due to expire, Yahoo! announced it had ordered a 13-episode sixth season to stream on Yahoo! Screen. The main cast return along with executive producers Dan Harmon, Chris McKenna, Russ Krasnoff and Gary Foster. Harmon said, "I am very pleased that "Community" will be returning for its predestined sixth season on Yahoo ... I look forward to bringing our beloved NBC sitcom to a larger audience by moving it online." For season six, the series moved shooting locations from Paramount Studios to CBS Radford, which is twice the size of the previous shooting set.


title: Community (season 6)

text: In August 2014, it was announced that the Russo brothers would direct the season premiere, however, this did not come to fruition. Writing began in September 2014, and filming began in November 2014. Unlike most streaming programs, the sixth season were released weekly, as opposed to being released all at once. In September 2014, it was announced that Yvette Nicole Brown, who plays Shirley, would not return for season six due to a family emergency; however, Brown returned in guest appearances in "Ladders" and "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television". Paget Brewster and Keith David (Brewster previously guest-starred on the series as a different character and David provided a voice-over role) were cast as regulars for the season in November 2014; Brewster plays Francesca "Frankie" Dart, a consultant to help improve Greendale, and David plays Elroy Patashnik, a retired inventor who now searches to reinvent himself at Greendale. In November 2014, it was announced that Martin Mull and Lesley Ann Warren would guest star as Britta's parents, George and Deb Perry, in the second episode of the season. The cast and crew celebrated the making of their 100th episode on December 8, 2014.


title: Community (season 6)

text: In February 2015, Dan Harmon announced that Steve Guttenberg would guest star in an episode. In February 2015, it was confirmed that Billy Zane would play "a mysterious, nameless man scouting Britta for a unique talent" and that Travis Schuldt would return as Subway/Rick. In March 2015, the trailer for season 6 was released, and parodies the "" trailer in its logo, theme and coloring.


title: Community (season 6)

text: On March 15, 2015, it was announced that the series began filming a new "paintball" episode, "Modern Espionage", following the season one episode "Modern Warfare" and season two episodes "A Fistful of Paintballs" and "For a Few Paintballs More". Filming for season six ended on March 27, 2015.


title: Community (season 6)

text: On July 30, 2015, Joel McHale stated that Yahoo! "wanted to [make more seasons of "Community"], but all of [the actor's] contracts were up after six years." McHale later clarified his statement via Twitter, saying ""Community" is not canceled." Yahoo released a statement: "We've seen tremendous value in our partnership with Sony and are continuing to discuss future opportunities for "Community"." Harmon said he "could have said yes immediately" to season seven, but "given the actors' velocity and trajectory" decided in favor of "getting [the cast] back together for an awesome movie." On October 21, 2015, Yahoo CFO Ken Goldman announced during a Q3 earnings phone call that their original programming lineup last spring resulted in a $42 million dollar writeoff, including "Sin City Saints" and "Other Space". On January 4, 2016, Yahoo announced it had shut down its Yahoo Screen service, with season 6 episodes being moved to Yahoo TV for continued public viewing.


title: Community (season 6)

text: Episodes were available to stream via Yahoo! Screen and Hulu in the U.S., Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.


title: Community (season 6)

text: In the United Kingdom, the show aired on Sony Entertainment Television starting March 18, 2015. In Australia, the sixth season was available on Stan beginning March 17, 2015.


title: Community (season 6)

text: On September 9, 2015, Yahoo! Screen released "Communitary", an extra version of season six with commentary by series creator Dan Harmon.


title: Community (season 6)

text: The sixth season was released on DVD in region 1 on March 8, 2016. Special features included deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the finale, trivia with the cast and crew, and a gag reel.


title: Community (season 6)

text: As of April 1, 2020, all six seasons became available on Netflix in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.


title: Community (season 6)

text: The sixth season has received positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic, it has a score of 78 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, season 6 holds an 89% approval rating from 37 critics with an average rating of 8 out of 10. The consensus reads, "Despite cast and broadcast changes, "Community" manages to remain at the top of its quirky class."


title: Community (season 6)

text: On April 1, 2015, three weeks into the sixth season's run, Harmon detailed the series viewership on Yahoo! Screen. Exclaiming "Everybody in the world watches "Community", now we know, now that we're not being measured by Nielsen [...] Surprise surprise you know, Yahoo knows how to count the clicks, and guess what? Holy shit! Jesus christ! Like you always knew!" Harmon stated he couldn't give specific numbers, saying "They have data, I'm not really asking, and they're not telling, but you know lips were loose at the drunken wrap party, enough for me to go 'holy shit. That's what I always would've guessed, times two or three'. I always knew there was like way more people watching this shit than what ever that .9 represented."


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: Silver Bullet is a 1985 American horror thriller film based on the 1983 Stephen King novella "Cycle of the Werewolf". It stars Gary Busey, Everett McGill, and Corey Haim, with Megan Follows, Terry O'Quinn, Lawrence Tierney, Bill Smitrovich, Kent Broadhurst, David Hart, and James Gammon in supporting roles. The film is directed by Dan Attias, written by King and produced by Martha De Laurentiis. The film is now considered a cult classic.


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: The rocky relationship between Jane Coslaw, the film's narrator, and her paraplegic younger brother Marty changes after a series of murders in their small rural town of Tarker's Mills, Maine, starting in the spring of 1976.


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: Railroad worker Arnie Westrum is decapitated by an unseen attacker, pregnant Stella Randolph prepares to kill herself but is brutally murdered in her own bedroom, an abusive father is killed in his greenhouse, and Marty's best friend, Brady Kincaid, is also killed. After Brady's death, citizens form a vigilante justice group. Although local Sheriff Joe Haller attempts to stop the citizens, he relents after Brady's father Herb berates him. Reverend Lester Lowe fails to dissuade the townsfolk from causing further bloodshed.


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: While the vigilantes hunt for the killer in the nearby woods, three are attacked and killed. The survivorsespecially Andy Fairtonlater deny seeing anything unusual. Afterwards, Reverend Lowe dreams that he is presiding over a mass funeral when his congregationincluding the bodies in the casketsbegins to transform into werewolves before his eyes and attack him. He awakens screaming and asks God to "let it end."


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: Because of the mounting unsolved murders, curfews are put in place, canceling the town’s Fourth of July celebration. The Coslaws decide to have their own backyard party and invite their mother Nan's alcoholic brother, Red. Red gives Marty a custom-built wheelchair/motorcycle, which he nicknames the "Silver Bullet," as well as a pile of fireworks so he can have his own celebration. Marty uses the Silver Bullet to go out in the middle of the night to a bridge where he lights the fireworks. The fireworks get the werewolf's attention, and it confronts him, but he escapes after launching a rocket into the creature's eye.


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: Marty enlists Jane's help to look for someone with a newly injured or missing eye. She discovers that Reverend Lowe is missing his left eye. Realizing that no adult would believe his story, Marty begins sending anonymous notes to Reverend Lowe telling him that he knows who he is, what he is, and that he should commit suicide in order to stop the killings. Lowe tries to run Marty off the road with his car. When Marty is trapped under a closed covered bridge, Lowe, whose condition has fractured his sanity, tries to rationalize the murders he has committed as doing God's work. Lowe apologizes and moves in for the kill until Marty calls for help from a passerby.


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: The siblings manage to convince Red that Lowe is connected to the murders and attempted to kill Marty. Red persuades Sheriff Haller to investigate. That night, Haller, still skeptical but desperate to find the killer, goes to Lowe's house and finds Lowe has locked himself in his garage to restrain himself from further killings. Before Haller can arrest him, Lowe transforms and bludgeons Haller to death with a baseball bat.


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: Knowing the werewolf is coming for them next, Marty and Jane convince Red to take Jane's silver cross and Marty's silver medallion to the gunsmith, who melts them down into a silver bullet.


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: On the night of the full moon, they wait for the werewolf, who cuts the power to the house and smashes its way inside, attacking Red. The bullet is nearly lost in the melee, but Marty is able to retrieve it and shoots the werewolf in the right eye. The corpse turns back into Lowe before dying. As the trio recover, Marty and Jane say they love each other and embrace, and Jane narrates that although she hadn't always been able to say it, she was able to say it from then on.


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: In addition, Joe Wright plays Brady Kincaid, Marty's best friend, while Tovah Feldshuh provides the narration as the voice of the adult Jane.


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: The film was shot around Wilmington, North Carolina. Filming began in October 1984 and took about months to complete, finishing shortly before Christmas. In the novella, the werewolf was said to snarl in nearly human words and the werewolf was supposed to speak in the original screenplay, although this was eliminated after a rewrite. Gary Busey felt a certain kinship with the Uncle Red character and was allowed to ad lib all of his lines in certain takes of each scene in which he appeared. Although he read the lines as scripted in most of the takes, Stephen King and Daniel Attias liked the ad lib scenes better and decided to include most of Busey's ad lib scenes in the final cut of the film.


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: King asked for the werewolf to be plain, and hard to see, in contrast to the hulking monsters seen in other werewolf films and books in the early to mid-1980s, with the end result being a creature which looked more like a black bear than anything else and did not really have any identifying characteristics. After seeing Carlo Rambaldi's design, per King's request, producer Dino de Laurentiis was very unhappy and demanded a change, which both King and Rambaldi refused. Eventually pre-production fell behind schedule and director Don Coscarelli opted to start filming the non-werewolf scenes without knowing what would happen with the werewolf suit. After completing the non-werewolf scenes and not having any clear picture about what would happen with the film Coscarelli resigned as director and was replaced with Attias. When pressured to either cancel the film or accept the design de Laurentiis relented and allowed filming to continue with Rambaldi's werewolf suit. A modern dance actor was hired to perform the stunts inside the suit but de Laurentiis was also unhappy with his performance and demanded a change. As a result, Everett McGill, who played Reverend Lester Lowe in human form, wound up acting out most of the scenes in the werewolf suit and was credited with a dual role.


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: "Silver Bullet" was released theatrically in the United States by Paramount Pictures in October 1985. It grossed $12,361,866 at the box office.


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: The film was released on DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment in 2002, on Blu-ray in Germany on September 14, 2017, under the name "Der Werwolf von Tarker-Mills".


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: Then on Blu-ray in Australia on January 3, 2018 by Umbrella Entertainment, and on Blu-ray from Scream Factory on December 17, 2019.


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "Silver Bullet" holds an approval rating of 45% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 5.20/10. Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four. Ebert admitted that he thought that the film was a parody of the novella and of King's work in general, but said that he enjoyed the film. Conversely, Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" dismissed the film as "very low-grade Stephen King fiction" and thought the werewolf "looks less like a wolf than Smokey Bear with a terrible hangover." "Variety" wrote, "'Silver Bullet' is a Stephen King filmette from his scriptette from his novelette which may sell some tickettes but not without regrettes ... the kids have a silver bullet, the only known power that will stop a werewolf. Unfortunately, there's no known power that will stop films like this." Rick Kogan of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film one star out of four and called it "a limp retelling of the werewolf legend that is about as frightening as a rubbery Richard Nixon mask." Michael Wilmington of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote, "The human drama gives 'Silver Bullet' an extra warmth—and Marty's handicap and ingenuity make him a more attractive hero. But, with the exception of one startling dream sequence (a church congregation in mass vulpine metamorphosis), 'Silver Bullet' never really surprises you." Paul Attanasio of "The Washington Post" remarked that the plot "is about as suspenseful as looking at your watch to see which minute will pop up next," but Gary Busey's lively performance "almost makes the movie bearable."


title: Silver Bullet (film)

text: In a retrospective review, Felix Vasquez Jr. of "Film Threat" and "Cinema Crazed" wrote, "'Silver Bullet' features one of the best climaxes in a horror film thanks to director Daniel Attias, and garners a very entertaining and creepy story that develops beyond a typical werewolf movie. When I think of great horror films, when I think of great werewolf films, and when I think of a great King film, I think of this."


title: T. Rowe Price

text: T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. is an American publicly owned global investment management firm that offers funds, subadvisory services, separate account management, and retirement plans and services for individuals, institutions, and financial intermediaries.<ref>


title: Vikram Gokhale

text: Vikram Gokhale (14 November 1946 – 26 November 2022) was an Indian film, television and stage actor, noted for his roles in Marathi theatre, Hindi films and television. He was the son of the Veteran Marathi theater and film actor, Chandrakant Gokhale.


title: Vikram Gokhale

text: Gokhale made his directorial debut in 2010, with the Marathi film "Aaghaat". Produced by Sprint Arts Creation in 2013, he won the National Film Award for Best Actor category for his Marathi film "Anumati".


title: Vikram Gokhale

text: Gokhale was born in Pune, Bombay Presidency on 14 November 1946. His great grandmother, Durgabai Kamat, was the first female actor of the Indian screen, while his grandmother Kamlabai Gokhale (Kamlabai Kamat at that time) was the first female child actor of Indian cinema. His father Chandrakant Gokhale was a veteran Marathi film and stage artist and has acted in over 70 Marathi and Hindi films.


title: Vikram Gokhale

text: Gokhale ran a real estate firm called Sujata Farms in Pune. He was also a social activist. His family's charitable foundation provides financial support for disabled soldiers, Children of lepers, and education of orphan children.


title: Vikram Gokhale

text: In February 2016, due to a throat ailment, Gokhale retired from stage activities, though he continued film work.


title: Vikram Gokhale

text: He was admitted to Deenanath Mangeshkar hospital on 5 November 2022 in Pune, where he died due to multiple organ failure on 26 November 2022, at the age of 76.


title: Najaf

text: Najaf () or An-Najaf al-Ashraf (), also known as Baniqia (), is a city in central Iraq about 160 km (100 mi) south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2013 was 1,000,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate. It is widely considered amongst the holiest cities of Shia Islam and one of its spiritual capitals, whilst also remaining the center of Shia political power in Iraq.


title: Najaf

text: According to Ibn al-Manzur, the word, "najaf" (), literally means a high and rectangular place around which water is accumulated, although the water does not go above its level. Al-Shaykh al-Saduq appeals to a hadith from Imam al-Sadiq (a), claiming that "Najaf" comes from the phrase, "nay jaff" which means "the nay sea has dried" which gradually changed into "Najaf".


title: Najaf

text: "Najaf" is usually accompanied with the adjective, "al-Ashraf" (dignified). According to the author of "al-Hawza al-'ilmiyya fi l-Najaf al-ashraf", this is because Imam 'Ali (a), one of the most dignified persons, is buried in the city.


title: Najaf

text: Al-Ghari or al-Ghariyyan, Hadd al-'Adhra', al-Hiwar, al-Judi, Wadi l-Salam, al-Zahr, Zahr al-Kufa (behind Kufa), al-Rabwa, Baniqiya, and Mashhad are other names for this land.


title: Najaf

text: The area of An-Najaf is located 30 km (19 mi) south of the ancient city of Babylon, and 400 km (248 mi) north of the ancient city of Ur. The city itself was founded in 791 [AD], by the Abbasid Caliph Harūn ar-Rashīd, as a shrine to ‘Alī bin Abī Ṭālib.


title: Najaf

text: Archaeological discoveries show the existence of a populace dating back to the 1st century BC. Najaf possesses one of the largest burial grounds in the vicinity for Christians. The centuries following have proven this to also be a city with a multicultural and religious people. Mohammed al-Mayali, director of Inspectorate Effects of the province of Najaf, states "the excavation on the graves, which we have been working on for years, confirm that "Najaf" contains the largest Christian cemetery in Iraq, with a cemetery area of 1416 acres. We have found indications of Christianity on the graves through representations of crosses and stones with Christ-like engravings. There are also relics that date back to the Sassanid period. Also discovered in the excavation was proof of a thriving glass industry. Pots were decorated with the cross. as well as Hebrew writings, indicating a community of religious coexistence."


title: Najaf

text: Wadi-us-Salaam in Najaf was a holy cemetery for Jewish and was Najaf called at that time Baniqia, and could be this is the first name of Najaf area.


title: Najaf

text: The name Baniqia also was found in some texts which tell that in one day Abraham visited this village and stayed couple of days, then he continued in his journey from Mesopotamia to Arabia.


title: Najaf

text: In Islam, the city is considered to have started with Hazrat Ali who instructed that his burial place should remain a secret, as he had many enemies and he feared that his body might be subjected to some indignity. According to legend, the body of Ali was placed on a camel which was driven from Kufah. The camel stopped a few miles west of the city where the body was secretly buried. No tomb was raised and nobody knew of the burial place except for a few trusted people. It is narrated that more than a hundred years later the Abbasid Caliph, Harun al-Rashid, went deer hunting outside Kufah, and the deer sought sanctuary at a place where the hounds would not pursue it. On inquiry as to why the place was a sanctuary Harūn ar-Rashīd, he was told that it was the burial place of ‘Ali. Harūn ar-Rashīd ordered a mausoleum to be built on the spot and in due course the town of Najaf grew around the mausoleum.


title: Najaf

text: In early 14th century Sheikh Ibn Battuta visited the burial site of Ali ibn Abi Talib during his travels in Iraq after his pilgrimage to Mecca. During this period Najaf was called Meshhed Ali. As Translated by Samuel Lee, Ibn Battuta in his Arabic "Rihla" relates:


title: Najaf

text: In the 16th century, Najaf was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The Safavid dynasty of Iran maintained continuous interest to this Shia site. During the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–1639), they were twice able to capture the city, but lost it again to the Ottomans in 1638.


title: Najaf

text: Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Najaf experienced severe difficulties as the result of repeated raids by Arab desert tribes and the Persian army with acute water shortages causing lack of a reliable water supply. The number of inhabited houses in the city had plummeted from 3,000 to just 30 by the start of the 16th century.


title: Najaf

text: When the Portuguese traveller Pedro Texeira passed through Najaf in 1604, he found the city in ruins, inhabited by little more than 500 people. This was largely the result of a change in the course of the Euphrates river eastwards in the direction of Hilla, leaving Najaf and Kufa high and dry, leading to the destruction of the local formerly rich agriculture, demise of the palm groves and orchards, followed by the salinization of the underground water due to evaporation.


title: Najaf

text: During the 18th century the scholarly life of Najaf came to be dominated by Farsi-speaking ‘Ulema’ (, Scholars) from Iran.


title: Najaf

text: The water shortages were finally resolved in 1803 when the Euphrates made its way to the city once again. The shift in the river's flow was the product of a century-long effort by the Ottomans to shift the flow of the river, so as to deprive marsh-dwelling tribes like the Khaza'il of the watery environment that allowed them to evade state control. These long-term efforts rendered successful the construction of the Hindiyya Canal in 1793, which further shifted the flow of the Euphrates. These hydrological shifts were to have religious implications. Most notable was the consolidation and spread of Shi'ism. As the shrine city of Najaf gained access to water again, its notables and holy men began to wield considerable power in the area. In 1811, the last city wall was rebuilt.


title: Najaf

text: The Ottomans were expelled in an uprising in 1915, following which the city fell under the rule of the British Empire. The sheikhs of Najaf rebelled in 1918, killing the British governor of the city, Sayyed Mahdi Al-Awadi, and cutting off grain supplies to the Anazzah, a tribe allied with the British. In retaliation the British besieged the city and cut off its water supply. The rebellion was put down and the rule of the sheikhs was forcibly ended. A great number of the Shi‘i ‘Ulema’ were expelled into Persia, where they set the foundations for the rise of the city of Qom as the center of the Shi‘ite learning and authority, in lieu of Najaf. Najaf lost its religious primacy to Qom, and was not to regain it until the 21st century, during the establishment of a Shī‘ī-majority government in Iraq after 2003.


title: Najaf

text: In the 20th century, much of the Old City was rebuilt in a series of modernization initiatives. Beginning in the 1950s, many historic buildings and monuments, including those adjoining the shrine, were demolished for the construction of Sadeq, Zainulabidin, Rasool and Tousi streets. In 1958, the city wall was torn down and replaced with a ring road. In the 1980s, the entire area between the shrine and the city's western edge was demolished, and the residents resettled outside the city, in what locals perceived as a government reprisal for the Shia uprising under the leadership of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, who was based in the neighborhood.


title: Najaf

text: During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Najaf was a key target of the invading United States Forces. The city was encircled during heavy fighting on 26 March 2003 and was captured on 3 April 2003 (Battle of Najaf).


title: Najaf

text: The clerical authorities of the Shī‘ī enclave of Sadr City in Baghdad, which claimed autonomy in April 2003, after the fall of Baghdad, claimed to be taking their orders from senior clerics in Najaf.


title: Najaf

text: On 4 April 2004, the Mahdi Army attacked the Spanish-Salvadoran-ALARNG base (Camp Golf, later renamed Camp Baker) in An Najaf, part of a coordinated uprising across central and southern Iraq in an apparent attempt to seize control of the country ahead of the 30 June 2004 handover of power to a new Iraqi government. This uprising led to the American troops arriving in the city in the wake of the Spanish withdrawal. In August 2004, heavy fighting broke out again between US forces and Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. The battle lasted three weeks and ended when senior Iraqi cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani negotiated an end to the fighting.


title: Najaf

text: The fall of the Baathist regime ended restrictions on Shi'ite pilgrimage, which led to a pilgrimage boom in Najaf and increased demand for facilities and infrastructure. In 2006, the government sponsored redevelopment of the previously demolished western area of the city as the City of Pilgrims project.


title: Najaf

text: On 6 March 2021, Pope Francis visited the city during his historic papal visit to Iraq and held an interfaith dialogue with al-Sistani, where he expressed a message of peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Christians in the country.


title: Najaf

text: An-Najaf is considered sacred by Shi'a Muslims. An-Najaf is renowned as the site of the burial place of Muhammad's son in law and cousin, Imam ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib. The city is now a center of pilgrimage throughout the Shi'ite Islamic world. It is estimated that only Mecca and Medina receive more Muslim pilgrims. As the burial site of Shi'a Islam's second most important figure, the Imam Ali Mosque is considered by Shiites as the third holiest Islamic site.


title: Najaf

text: The Imam ‘Ali Mosque is housed in a grand structure with a gold gilded dome and many precious objects in the walls. Nearby is the Wadi-us-Salaam cemetery, the largest in the world. It contains the tombs of several prophets and many of the devout from around the world aspire to be buried there, to be raised from the dead with Imām ‘Alī on Judgement Day. Over the centuries, numerous hospices, schools, libraries and convents were built around the shrine to make the city the center of Shīʻa learning and theology.


title: Najaf

text: The An-Najaf seminary is one of the most important teaching centres in the Islamic world. Ayatollah Khomeini lectured there from 1964 to 1978.


title: Najaf

text: Many of the leading figures of the new Islamic movement that emerged in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon in the 1970s had studied at Najaf.


title: Najaf

text: Najaf, alongside Karbala, is considered a thriving pilgrimage destination for Shia Muslims and the pilgrimage industry in the city boomed after the end of Saddam Hussein's rule. However, due to the U.S. sanctions on Iran, the number of Iranian pilgrims dropped significantly.


title: Najaf

text: Najaf has a hot desert climate, "BWh" in the Köppen climate classification, with long, very hot summers and mild winters. The average annual temperature is 23.6 °C (74.5° F). The rainfall averages 69 mm (2.71 in).


title: Ty Segall

text: Ty Garrett Segall (born June 8, 1987) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his solo career during which he has released fourteen studio albums, alongside various EPs, singles, and collaborative albums. Segall is also a member of the bands Fuzz, Broken Bat, the CIA, GØGGS, and Wasted Shirt. He is a former member of the Traditional Fools, Epsilons, Party Fowl, Sic Alps, and the Perverts.


title: Ty Segall

text: During live performances, Segall is currently backed by the Freedom Band, consisting of regular collaborators Mikal Cronin (bass), Charles Moothart (drums), and Emmett Kelly (guitar), playing alongside Ben Boye (piano) and Shannon Lay. His previous backing bands have been the Ty Segall Band, consisting of Cronin (bass), Moothart (guitar), and Emily Rose Epstein (drums), the Muggers, a high concept band formed in 2016 and consisting of Cronin (bass, sax), Kelly (guitar), Kyle Thomas (guitar) and Wand's Cory Hanson (keyboards, guitar) and Evan Burrows (drums), and the Sleeper Band, consisting of Sean Paul (guitar), Andrew Luttrell (bass) and Moothart (drums).


title: Ty Segall

text: Segall is the adopted son of a Laguna Beach, California family; his father is a lawyer and his mother is an artist. Segall began surfing at age ten, although he was in high school when he became interested in music. He describes his teenage self as emotionally unstable, a "very existential eighteen-year-old drinker," whose instability was temporarily mended by the escapism music provided him. During Segall's last two years at Laguna Beach High School, MTV filmed the reality series "" there. Segall blamed the show for driving away his hometown's unique culture of hippies, artists and surfers because "they can’t afford to live there now. And you can’t get any of that rad, grimy shit back." Segall and his high school friend, Mikal Cronin parodied the TV show in a 2007 music video by their grunge band, Episilons. After high school, Segall attended the University of San Francisco where he received a degree in Media Studies. After graduating, he worked eight months constructing grow boxes for cannabis plants, but since then has been focused entirely on music.


title: Ty Segall

text: Segall began his recording career as a part-time musician in various underground bands in Orange County and the San Francisco Bay Area including Epsilons and Evil Robots, before beginning a solo career in 2008. Segall's first solo release was the cassette "Horn The Unicorn" released on the Wizard Mountain label (later re-released by HBSP-2X on vinyl record). Around the same time, Wizard Mountain also released a split cassette featuring Segall and the band Superstitions entitled "Halfnonagon".


title: Ty Segall

text: After Segall befriended John Dwyer, of Thee Oh Sees and Coachwhips, Dwyer offered to release Segall's debut solo album, "Ty Segall" (2008), on his label, Castle Face Records. The two became firm friends, with Segall noting: "The music community is amazing here, super-tight, and John Dwyer's like the Mayor of San Francisco. Come down here, you'll see him riding his bike, drinking a beer, and he'll probably take you out to get a taco. He's the nicest guy in the world.". In a recent interview, Larry Hardy, creator of In The Red Records, talked about the possibility of a band with Segall and Dwyer.


title: Ty Segall

text: "Ty Segall" was followed by a string of limited 7" singles and a split LP with the band Black Time. In 2009, "Lemons" was released by Goner Records to positive reviews. This release was followed by another string of successful and limited 7" singles and the LP "Reverse Shark Attack", an album with longtime collaborator Mikal Cronin. The studio albums "Melted" and "Goodbye Bread" followed in 2010 and 2011 respectively.


title: Ty Segall

text: 2012 saw the release of three full-length albums by Segall: "Hair", with White Fence, released in April; "Slaughterhouse", recorded with his touring band and released June 26; as well as one solo album, "Twins", released on October 9. This last album spawned two singles: "The Hill" and "Would You Be My Love?" When questioned about his LP "Twins", Segall stated; "I want to do a total glam Stooges-meets-Hawkwind or Sabbath, something like that. I think that would be super fun. I want to throw people off. I want to make a really heavy record: evil, evil space rock. Put a little Satan in space and you got the sound."


title: Ty Segall

text: In 2013, Segall, bandmate Charles Moothart and Roland Cosio formed a new hard rock outfit called Fuzz, releasing three 7" singles. A full-length album, titled "Fuzz", was recorded in May and released on October 1, 2013. Previous to this release, Segall released a primarily acoustic solo album, "Sleeper", in August. Largely influenced by the death of his father and subsequent estrangement from his mother, "Sleeper" received positive reviews from such media outlets as "Pitchfork" and "Consequence of Sound". In November/December 2013, Segall performed at the final "holiday camp" edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Camber Sands, England, UK.


title: Ty Segall

text: In 2014, Segall released "Manipulator", his first double LP, as well as his first to integrate some psych music. Segall toured in support of the release, with support from Wand, whom he had signed to his label


title: Ty Segall

text: In 2015, Segall produced the debut album by Peacers, featuring his former Sic Alps bandmate Mike Donovan. A new EP, "Mr. Face", was released on Famous Class, and a second Fuzz album, "II", was released in October 2015.


title: Ty Segall

text: In November 2015, Segall announced a new studio album, "Emotional Mugger", by sending a VHS tape to "Pitchfork".


title: Ty Segall

text: Subsequently a website was also created, www.emotionalmugger.com, that would feature a short video of Segall explaining the concept of emotional mugging and a video of Segall and his band wearing baby masks and playing a live version of a song from the new album. This latter video also offered a hotline number to call. The number, 1-800-281-2968, features a brief message from Segall. The video also introduces The Muggers, which, upon the album's release, Segall formed as a backing band. The band consisted of Mikal Cronin (bass, sax), Kyle Thomas (guitar), Emmett Kelly (guitar), and Wand's Cory Hanson (keyboards, guitar) and Evan Burrows (drums). During live performances, Segall adopted the name of Sloppo while wearing a baby mask. "Still in Rock" described this LP as being Segall's first experimental rock album.


title: Ty Segall

text: In November 2016, Segall announced the release of his ninth studio album, "Ty Segall". The album was to be his second self-titled release, following the release of his eponymously titled debut album in 2008. It was preceded by the release of the single "Orange Color Queen" in November 2016. Later, the song "Break A Guitar" was released to streaming platforms on January 19, 2017. Also following the album's release, Segall began touring with the backing band that recorded the album, which was now named The Freedom Band.


title: Ty Segall

text: In the album, Segall displays his ability to play the full repertoire of rock; in one album he goes from T. Rex style glam rock, to Bob Dylan-esque country rock, to the breadth and social commentary of Pink Floyd, to hardcore punk, to a jam band sound. Segall describes the record as a "song album"—one without a singular concept or sound. The ten-minute-long centerpiece of the album is "Warm Hands (Freedom Returned)", which starts with Segall's characteristic punk-inspired thrashing guitar, but becomes open and spacey around the five-minute mark, before reprising the melody from "Freedom" (the second track on the album). Comparisons have been drawn between this most recent album and Segall's 2012 release "Twins", which was also a compilation of Segall's various influences and styles up to that point in his career. Segall released the album "Freedom's Goblin" on January 26, 2018.