The Rings of Power are fictional magical artefacts appearing in Tolkien's legendarium. Featured in his epic high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, these magic rings are depicted as the titular objects essential in the Dark Lord Sauron's conquest to rule over Middle-earth as the namesake "Lord of the Rings". Consisting of twenty bands in total, all but one were created by the Noldorin Elven-smiths of Eregion, led by their ruler Celebrimbor under the deception of Sauron, who came in disguise as a fair-looking emissary named Annatar; when worn, each Ring can give its bearer a power to govern their respective race—Three Rings were given to the remaining Elf leaders in Middle-earth, Seven Rings were sent to the Dwarf-lords, Nine Rings to several leaders of Men. All Rings of Power are bound to a master ring, the One, which the Dark Lord had forged alone in secret at Mount Doom to control all the other wearers ruling a dominion over Middle-earth. Sauron waged an assault upon the Elves, he captured all but the Three, which remained hidden from him.
Though the Seven only fueled the greed of the Dwarves, the Nine corrupted the men, whose desire for power made them fall under his dominance and become the Nazgûl, his chief servants. Numerous characters in the novel had taken possession of the Rings, most the One Ring, found by the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who bequeathed it to his heir Frodo, who took on a quest to destroy it. Though the One Ring had appeared in Tolkien's children's fantasy novel The Hobbit in 1937, all the twenty Rings of Power were documented in The Lord of the Rings, which focuses on the assembly of the Fellowship from all of races of Middle-earth tasked to aid Frodo in destroying it whilst evading Sauron's attempts to recover it. According to Tolkien, the purpose of the Rings was to give their respective wearers "wealth and dominion over others", though Three Rings were made to "heal and preserve" the Elvendom in Middle-earth, its primary power was "the prevention and slowing of decay of time" by granting its wearer an unnatural long life and rendering things invisible or visible.
This power appealed the most to the Elves, whose gift of immortality had left them to desire for a physical world of Middle-earth to remain unchanged and delay the inevitable Dominion of Men. Tolkien's subsequent posthumous works such as The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth offer a more detailed account on the history of the Rings of Power; the Rings of Power were forged by the Elven-smiths of the Noldorin settlement of Eregion. They were led by the grandson of Fëanor and a friend of the dwarf-smith Narvi. In the year 1200 of the Second Age, the Dark Lord Sauron, disguised as a fair-looking emissary of the Valar named Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, persuaded Celebrimbor to help him. Humiliated by the fall of his master Morgoth, Sauron had evaded the summons in Valinor to surrender and face judgment, opting instead to remain in Middle-earth and seek dominion over the Elves and the men of Númenór, he was shunned by the Elven leaders Gil-galad, Círdan and Galadriel, but was successful in persuading Celebrimbor.
Teaching him and his fellow smiths the craft of forging magic rings, they were able to create sets of Seven and Nine rings. While Celebrimbor created a set of Three alone, Sauron left for Mordor in the year 1500 and forged a master ring, the One, in the fires of Mount Doom, to control all the others. Once the One was made using the Black Speech, the Elves became aware of Sauron's motives and hid the Three. Despite Galadriel's advice to destroy all the rings, Celebrimbor can not bear to ruin them, he instead entrusted one of the Three to her, sent the other two to Gil-galad and Círdan. In an attempt to seize all the Rings of Power for himself, Sauron waged an assault upon the Elves. Desolating Eregion, he was successful in capturing the Nine and Celebrimbor, who died revealing the Seven but failed to reveal the Three, he launched an invasion of Eriador, but Gil-galad victoriously defended the region by the aid of the Númenóreans, who took Sauron as their prisoner. Sauron dared what he could not achieve by force to accomplish by cunning corrupting the men of Númenor which led to its downfall.
The exiled Númenóreans who survived its fall led by Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion established the realms of Arnor and Gondor. Together with Elves of Lindon, they formed a last alliance against Sauron, who fell in the hands of Elendil and Gil-galad. Isildur took the One Ring for his own and was lost for centuries. During this time, the Elves were able to use the Three Rings while the Nine, which Sauron had gave to several leaders of Men, corrupted them, became the Nazgûl; the Seven, failed to succumb directly to Sauron's will, but ignited a sense of avarice within them. Over the years, Sauron sought to recapture the Rings the One, but was only successful in recovering the Nine and three out the Seven. During the Third Age, The One was found by Bilbo Baggins and a Fellowship was formed to destroy it, led by Bilbo's nephew Frodo. Following the destruction of the One Ring and the ultimate fall of Sauron, the power of the rings faded. While the Nine were destroyed, the Three were carried out to the Sea at the end of the Third Age, giving the rise to the Dominion of Men.
Celebrimbor forged the Three Rings in Eregion without Sauron's direct assistance, which made them
Caesar is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of the Roman dictator; the change from being a familial name to a title adopted by the Roman Emperors can be dated to about 68/69 AD, the so-called "Year of the Four Emperors". For political and personal reasons, Octavian chose to emphasize his relationship with Julius Caesar by styling himself "Imperator Caesar", without any of the other elements of his full name, his successor as emperor, his stepson Tiberius bore the name as a matter of course. The precedent was set: the Emperor designated his successor by adopting him and giving him the name "Caesar"; the fourth Emperor, was the first to assume the name "Caesar" upon accession, without having been adopted by the previous emperor. Claudius in turn adopted his stepson and grand-nephew Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, giving him the name "Caesar" in the traditional way; the first emperor to assume the position and the name without any real claim to either was the usurper Servius Sulpicius Galba, who took the imperial throne under the name "Servius Galba Imperator Caesar" following the death of the last of the Julio-Claudians, Nero, in 68 AD.
Galba helped solidify "Caesar" as the title of the designated heir by giving it to his own adopted heir, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Licinianus. Galba's reign did not last long and he was soon deposed by Marcus Otho. Otho did not at first use the title "Caesar" and used the title "Nero" as emperor, but adopted the title "Caesar" as well. Otho was defeated by Aulus Vitellius, who acceded with the name "Aulus Vitellius Germanicus Imperator Augustus". Vitellius did not adopt the cognomen "Caesar" as part of his name and may have intended to replace it with "Germanicus". Caesar had become such an integral part of the imperial dignity that its place was restored by Titus Flavius Vespasianus, whose defeat of Vitellius in 69 AD put an end to the period of instability and began the Flavian dynasty. Vespasian's son, Titus Flavius Vespasianus became "Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus". By this point the status of "Caesar" had been regularised into that of a title given to the Emperor-designate and retained by him upon accession to the throne.
After some variation among the earliest emperors, the style of the Emperor-designate on coins was Nobilissimus Caesar "Most Noble Caesar", though Caesar on its own was used. The popularity of using the title Caesar to designate heirs-apparent increased throughout the third century. Many of the soldier emperors during the Crisis of the Third Century attempted to strengthen their legitimacy by naming heirs, including Maximinus Thrax, Philip the Arab, Trebonianus Gallus and Gallienus; some of these were promoted to the rank of Augustus within their father's lifetime, for example Philippus II. The same title would be used in the Gallic Empire, which operated autonomously from the rest of the Roman Empire from 260 to 274, with the final Gallic emperor Tetricus I appointing his heir Tetricus II Caesar and his consular colleague for 274. Despite the best efforts of these emperors, the granting of this title does not seem to have made succession in this chaotic period any more stable. All Caesars would be killed before or alongside their fathers, or at best outlive them for a matter of months, as in the case of Hostilian.
The sole Caesar to obtain the rank of Augustus and rule for some time in his own right was Gordian III, he was controlled by his court. On 1 March 293, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus established the Tetrarchy, a system of rule by two senior Emperors and two junior sub-Emperors; the two coequal senior emperors were styled identically to previous Emperors, as Imperator Caesar NN. Pius Felix Invictus Augustus and were called the Augusti, while the two junior sub-Emperors were styled identically to previous Emperors-designate, as Nobilissimus Caesar; the junior sub-Emperors retained the title "Caesar" upon accession to the senior position. The Tetrarchy was abandoned as a system in favour of two equal, territorial emperors, the previous system of Emperors and Emperors-designate was restored, both in the Latin-speaking West and the Greek-speaking East; the title of Caesar remained in use throughout the Constantinian period, with both Constantine I and his co-emperor and rival Licinius utilising it to mark their heirs.
In the case of Constantine, this meant that by the time he died, he had four Caesars: Constantius II, Constantine II, Constans and his nephew Dalmatius, with his eldest son Crispus having been executed in mysterious circumstances earlier in his reign. In the event, Constantine would
A Perfect Getaway is a 2009 American thriller film written and directed by David Twohy and starring Timothy Olyphant, Milla Jovovich, Kiele Sanchez, Steve Zahn. Olyphant, Jovovich and Zahn portray a group of vacationing couples in Hawaii who find their lives in danger when murders begin to occur on the island, leading to suspicions over one of the couples being the killers. Shot in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, A Perfect Getaway was released on August 7, 2009, in the United States, it received positive reviews from critics and grossed nearly $23 million on a $14 million budget. For their honeymoon, newlyweds Cliff and Cydney travel to Hawaii. Hiking towards a remote beach, the two encounter fellow couple Cleo and Kale before being befriended by tourist Nick and his girlfriend Gina. Nick and Gina accompany Cliff and Cydney in their journey, but tensions begin to arise in the group when a double homicide of an unidentified couple is reported in the area, with a man and woman being suspected as the killers.
The tensions, die down after Kale and Cleo are arrested for the murders. Arriving at their destination, Cliff convinces Nick to explore a marine cave with him while Cydney and Gina wait behind on the beach. Once alone with Cliff in the cave, Nick realizes, it is revealed that the real Cliff and Cydney were the unidentified victims of the double homicide, murdered by their impostors. The impostor Cliff is Rocky, the high school boyfriend of the imposter Cydney, the two have been committing the murders to assume the identities of their victims. Gina, who has realized the truth about the couple, witnesses Rocky shoot Nick and attempts to escape. With Gina aware of their true nature, Rocky tells his girlfriend to mislead the police about the transpiring events while he chases after Gina. Rocky's pursuit of Gina is stopped by the emergence of Nick, who survived the gunshot due to metal plates in his head. Nick gains the upper hand and holds Rocky at gunpoint, but a police helicopter contacted by Rocky's girlfriend arrives on the scene, warning Nick that he will be shot if he does not release Rocky.
As Rocky tries to goad Nick into killing him, Gina gets Nick to back down. Realizing that Gina and Nick love each other, Rocky's girlfriend admits that Rocky is the murderer, prompting the police to shoot him when he tries to retrieve his gun. Travelling back on a helicopter, Nick proposes to Gina. Gina accepts and the two mutually agree not to go on a honeymoon. Steve Zahn as Cliff / Rocky Timothy Olyphant as Nick Milla Jovovich as Cydney Kiele Sanchez as Gina Marley Shelton as Cleo Chris Hemsworth as KaleAdditionally, Anthony Ruivivar plays Chronic, a guide, Dale Dickey and Peter Tuiasosopo appear as convenience store employees Earth Momma and Supply Guy. Holt McCallany and Isaac Santiago portray the police lieutenant and the police shooter, while Tory Kittles plays Sherman, one of the kayakers; the real Cliff and Cydney, referred to in the credits as "Groom" and "Bride", are portrayed by Ryan Gessell and Evelyn Lopez. "Hey, Hey" — Tracy Adams "Paradise" — RooHub "Need Your Love" — Aswad "Boom Chic Boom Chic" — Tracy Adams "Red Dress Baby Doll" — Tracy Adams "Ghetto Chronic" — Tracy Adams "The Wretched" — Nine Inch Nails "I'm Yours" — Jason Mraz The film was promoted with several videos posted to YouTube.
The reports, attributed to the fictional news agency Global Digital News created by Universal Pictures, detailed a string of homicides targeting honeymooning couples. They were posted to a YouTube channel designed to look like a local news station; the film was released in the United States on August 7, 2009 and grossed $5,948,555 in its opening weekend. The film made £418,703 in its first week in the United Kingdom and reached number 10 at the UK box office. Worldwide, it grossed $22,852,638; the unrated director's cut DVD and Blu-ray were released on December 29, 2009. The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Based on an average of 22 reviews, Metacritic gave the film 63 out of 100. A Perfect Getaway averaged 61% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 133 reviews; the New York Times referred to the film as a "genuinely satisfying cheap thrill". More mixed reviews include the Times Online, which gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, adding that it is a "smart" thriller but is a "little too tricky for its own good".
Additionally, The Guardian rated the film 60% and said that the film is a "flawed but entertaining thriller". Michael Phillips gave the film 2 1/2 stars and stated that A Perfect Getaway "has the fortitude to venture off the beaten path of formula."Timothy Olyphant was the first runner-up for Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor. Fear Island A Perfect Getaway on IMDb A Perfect Getaway at Rotten Tomatoes "Interview with composer Boris Elkis". Scorenotes.com. Archived from the original on December 31, 2009
Bloodrock is the self-titled debut from the Fort Worth, rock band Bloodrock, released under Capitol Records in March 1970. The cover art was designed by producer Terry Knight; the song "Gotta Find a Way" contains the backmasked message, "Anyone, stupid enough to play this record backwards deserves what he is about to hear," followed by an excerpt from the poem "Jabberwocky". Lee Pickens — lead guitar, backing vocals Nick Taylor — rhythm guitar, backing vocals Stephen Hill — keyboards, backing vocals Ed Grundy — bass guitar, backing vocals Jim Rutledge — drums, lead vocals
Sushmita Banerjee known as Sushmita Bandhopadhyay and Sayeda Kamala, was a writer and activist from India. Her works include the memoir Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou based on her experience of marrying an Afghan and her time in Afghanistan during Taliban rule; the story was used as the basis for the Bollywood film Escape from Taliban. At the age of 49, she was killed by suspected Taliban militants during the evening of 4 September or in the early morning hours of 5 September 2013, outside her home in Paktika Province, Afghanistan. Sushmita Banerjee was born in Calcutta West Bengal to a middle-class Bengali Brahmin family, her father worked in her mother, a homemaker. She was the only sister to her three brothers, she first met her future husband Janbaz Khan, an Afghan businessman, at a theatre rehearsal in Calcutta. She married him on 2 July 1988; the marriage took place secretly in Kolkata, as she feared her parents would object to the inter-religious marriage. When her parents tried to get them divorced, she fled to Afghanistan with Khan.
She discovered that her husband had a first wife, when she found them in bed together. Although shocked, she continued to live in Khan's ancestral house in Patiya village, with her three brothers-in-law, their wives, with Gulguti and Gulguti's children. Khan returned to Kolkata to continue his business, but Banerjee could not return. Sayeda, a trained nurse in gynaecology, opened a clinic to help the women of the village. With the burgeoning Taliban power in Afghanistan, Banerjee witnessed fundamentalist changes occurring in the country. In a 2003 interview, she said. Women were banned from talking with men other than family members, they were not allowed outside home. Schools and hospitals were shut down. Taliban men discovered her clinic and beat her in May 1995. Banerjee made two abortive attempts to flee Afghanistan, she was kept in house arrest in the village. A fatwa was issued against her and she was scheduled to die on 22 July 1995. With the help of the village headman, she fled from the village, in the process killing three Taliban men with an AK-47 rifle.
She reached Kabul, took a flight back to Kolkata on 12 August 1995. She lived in India until 2013, published several books. After returning to Afghanistan, she worked as a health worker in Paktika Province in southeastern Afghanistan, began filming the lives of local women. According to Afghan police, suspected Taliban terrorists forced entry into her house in Paktika on the night of 4 September 2013, they absconded with her. Her corpse was found early the next day beside a madrasa in the outskirts of the provincial capital Sharana; the body had 20 bullet hole marks. Police surmised she might have been targeted for murder for various reasons, including her book, her social work in the region, or the fact that she was an Indian woman, or according to others for not wearing a burqa, for which she was sentenced to death two decades earlier, under the Taliban regime; the Taliban denied involvement in this attack. A spokesman for renegade Taliban militia known as The Suicide Group of the Islamic Movement of Afghanistan announced it had killed Banerjee.
The group, led by Mullah Najibullah, explained that they had kidnapped and murdered Banerjee because they believed she was "an Indian spy". Although some of her neighbours reflected that her death may have been caused by her not following local Afghan traditions regarding the wearing of a burqa outside the home. Sushmita Banerjee wrote Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou in 1995, it recounted the tale of her love marriage to an Afghan businessman, Jaanbaz Khan, her moving to Afghanistan in 1989, the adversities she faced in Talibani Afghanistan, her eventual escape back to Kolkata. In 2003, Escape from Taliban, a Bollywood film, starring Manisha Koirala was made based on the book, she authored Talibani Atyachar—Deshe o Bideshe, Mullah Omar, Taliban O Ami, Ek Borno Mithya Noi and Sabhyatar Sesh Punyabani. Biography of Sushmita Banerjee
The Battle of Caen on 26 July 1346 was the assault on the French-held town by elements of an invading English army under King Edward III as a part of the Hundred Years' War. The English army numbered 12,000–15,000, part of it, nominally commanded by the Earls of Warwick and Northampton, prematurely attacked the town. Caen was garrisoned by 1,000–1,500 soldiers and an unknown, but large, number of armed townsmen, commanded by Raoul, the Count of Eu, the Grand Constable of France; the town was captured in the first assault. The town was sacked for five days; the assault was part of the Chevauchée of Edward III, which had started a month earlier when the English landed in Normandy. The French failed to intercept the English transports at sea and were taken by surprise, with their main army of more than 15,000 men in Gascony; the English were unopposed and devastated much of Normandy before assaulting Caen. Five days after storming the city the English marched to the River Seine. By 12 August they were 20 miles from Paris.
After turning north they defeated the French at the Battle of Crécy on 26 August. Subsequently, the English commenced the successful siege of Calais, which had a significant effect on the remainder of the war. Since the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, English monarchs had held titles and lands within France, the possession of which made them vassals of the kings of France; the status of the English king's French fiefs was a major source of conflict between the two monarchies throughout the Middle Ages. Following a series of disagreements between Philip VI of France and Edward III of England, on 24 May 1337 Philip's Great Council in Paris agreed that the Duchy of Aquitaine Gascony, should be taken back into Philip's hands on the grounds that Edward was in breach of his obligations as a vassal; this marked the start of the Hundred Years' War, to last 116 years. Although Gascony was the cause of the war, Edward was able to spare few resources for it and when an English army had campaigned on the continent it had operated in northern France.
Edward determined early in 1345 to attack France on three fronts: a small force would sail for Brittany. In early 1345 the French decided to stand on the defensive in the south west, their intelligence had uncovered the English plan for offensives in the three theatres, but they did not have the money to raise a significant army in each. They anticipated that the English planned to make their main effort in northern France, thus they directed what resources they had to there, planning to assemble their main army at Arras on 22 July. South western France was encouraged to rely on its own resources. Edward III's main army sailed on 29 June 1345, it anchored off Sluys in Flanders until 22 July. When it sailed intending to land in Normandy, it was scattered by a storm and the ships found their way to several English ports over the following week. After more than five weeks on board ship the men and horses had to be disembarked. There was a further week's delay while the King and his council debated what to do, by which time it proved impossible to take any action with the main English army before winter.
Aware of this, Philip VI despatched reinforcements to Gascony. During 1345, Derby led a whirlwind campaign through Gascony at the head of an Anglo-Gascon army, he smashed two large French armies at the battles of Bergerac and Auberoche, captured more than a hundred French towns and fortifications in Périgord and Agenais and gave the English possessions in Gascony strategic depth. Late in the year he captured the strategically and logistically important town of Aiguillon, "the key to Gascony". John, Duke of Normandy, the son and heir of Philip VI, was placed in charge of all French forces in south west France, as he had been the previous autumn. In March 1346 a French army numbering between 15,000 and 20,000, enormously superior to any force the Anglo-Gascons could field, marched on Aiguillon and besieged it on 1 April. On 2 April the arrière-ban, the formal call to arms for all able-bodied males, was announced for the south of France. French financial and manpower efforts were focused on this offensive.
The French were aware of Edward III's efforts, but given the extreme difficulty of disembarking an army other than at a port, the recent ambivalence of Edward's erstwhile allies in Flanders, the French assumed that Edward would sail for one of the friendly ports of Brittany or Gascony—probably the latter, to relieve Aiguillon. To guard against any possibility of an English landing in northern France, Philip VI relied on his powerful navy; this reliance was misplaced given the naval technology of the time and the French were unable to prevent Edward III crossing the Channel. The campaign began on 11 July 1346 when Edward's fleet of more than 700 vessels, the largest assembled by the English to that date, departed the south of England and landed the next day at St. Vaast la Hogue, 20 miles from Cherbourg; the English army was estimated to be between 12,000 and 15,000 strong and consisted of English and Welsh soldiers as well as some German and Breton mercenaries and allies. It included several Norman barons who were unhappy with the rule of Philip VI.
The English marched south. Edward's aim was to conduct a chevauchée, a large-scale raid, across French territory to reduce his opponent's morale and wealth, his soldiers razed every t