title: Fertilisation

text: After finding the egg, the sperm penetrates the jelly coat through a process called sperm activation. In another ligand/receptor interaction, an oligosaccharide component of the egg binds and activates a receptor on the sperm and causes the acrosomal reaction. The acrosomal vesicles of the sperm fuse with the plasma membrane and are released. In this process, molecules bound to the acrosomal vesicle membrane, such as bindin, are exposed on the surface of the sperm. These contents digest the jelly coat and eventually the vitelline membrane. In addition to the release of acrosomal vesicles, there is explosive polymerisation of actin to form a thin spike at the head of the sperm called the acrosomal process.


title: Fertilisation

text: The sperm binds to the egg through another ligand reaction between receptors on the vitelline membrane. The sperm surface protein bindin, binds to a receptor on the vitelline membrane identified as EBR1.


title: Fertilisation

text: Fusion of the plasma membranes of the sperm and egg are likely mediated by bindin. At the site of contact, fusion causes the formation of a fertilisation cone.


title: Fertilisation

text: Mammals internally fertilise through copulation. After a male ejaculates, many sperm move to the upper vagina (via contractions from the vagina) through the cervix and across the length of the uterus to meet the ovum. In cases where fertilisation occurs, the female usually ovulates during a period that extends from hours before copulation to a few days after; therefore, in most mammals it is more common for ejaculation to precede ovulation than vice versa.


title: Fertilisation

text: When sperm are deposited into the anterior vagina, they are not capable of fertilisation (i.e., non-capacitated) and are characterized by slow linear motility patterns. This motility, combined with muscular contractions enables sperm transport towards the uterus and fallopian tubes. There is a pH gradient within the micro-environment of the female reproductive tract such that the pH near the vaginal opening is lower (approximately 5) than the fallopian tubes (approximately 8). The sperm-specific pH-sensitive calcium transport protein called CatSper increases the sperm cell permeability to calcium as it moves further into the reproductive tract. Intracellular calcium influx contributes to sperm capacitation and hyperactivation, causing a more violent and rapid non-linear motility pattern as sperm approach the oocyte. The capacitated spermatozoon and the oocyte meet and interact in the "ampulla" of the fallopian tube. Rheotaxis, thermotaxis and chemotaxis are known mechanisms that guide sperm towards the egg during the final stage of sperm migration. Spermatozoa respond (see Sperm thermotaxis) to the temperature gradient of ~2 °C between the oviduct and the ampulla, and chemotactic gradients of progesterone have been confirmed as the signal emanating from the cumulus oophorus cells surrounding rabbit and human oocytes. Capacitated and hyperactivated sperm respond to these gradients by changing their behaviour and moving towards the cumulus-oocyte complex. Other chemotactic signals such as formyl Met-Leu-Phe (fMLF) may also guide spermatozoa.


title: Fertilisation

text: The zona pellucida, a thick layer of extracellular matrix that surrounds the egg and is similar to the role of the vitelline membrane in sea urchins, binds the sperm. Unlike sea urchins, the sperm binds to the egg before the acrosomal reaction. ZP3, a glycoprotein in the zona pellucida, is responsible for egg/sperm adhesion in humans. The receptor galactosyltransferase (GalT) binds to the N-acetylglucosamine residues on the ZP3 and is important for binding with the sperm and activating the acrosome reaction. ZP3 is sufficient though unnecessary for sperm/egg binding. Two additional sperm receptors exist: a 250kD protein that binds to an oviduct secreted protein, and SED1, which independently binds to the zona. After the acrosome reaction, the sperm is believed to remain bound to the zona pellucida through exposed ZP2 receptors. These receptors are unknown in mice but have been identified in guinea pigs.


title: Fertilisation

text: In mammals, the binding of the spermatozoon to the GalT initiates the acrosome reaction. This process releases the hyaluronidase that digests the matrix of hyaluronic acid in the vestments around the oocyte. Additionally, heparin-like glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are released near the oocyte that promote the acrosome reaction. Fusion between the oocyte plasma membranes and sperm follows and allows the sperm nucleus, the typical centriole, and atypical centriole that is attached to the flagellum, but not the mitochondria, to enter the oocyte. The protein CD9 likely mediates this fusion in mice (the binding homolog). The egg "activates" itself upon fusing with a single sperm cell and thereby changes its cell membrane to prevent fusion with other sperm. Zinc atoms are released during this activation.


title: Fertilisation

text: This process ultimately leads to the formation of a diploid cell called a zygote. The zygote divides to form a blastocyst and, upon entering the uterus, implants in the endometrium, beginning pregnancy. Embryonic implantation not in the uterine wall results in an ectopic pregnancy that can kill the mother.


title: Fertilisation

text: In such animals as rabbits, coitus induces ovulation by stimulating the release of the pituitary hormone gonadotropin; this release greatly increases the likelihood of pregnancy.


title: Fertilisation

text: Fertilisation in humans is the union of a human egg and sperm, usually occurring in the ampulla of the fallopian tube, producing a zygote, or fertilised egg, initiating embryonic development. Scientists discovered the dynamics of human fertilisation in the nineteenth century.


title: Fertilisation

text: The term "conception" commonly refers to "the process of becoming pregnant involving fertilization or implantation or both". Its use makes it a subject of semantic arguments about the beginning of pregnancy, typically in the context of the abortion debate.


title: Fertilisation

text: Upon gastrulation, which occurs around 16 days after fertilisation, the implanted blastocyst develops three germ layers, the endoderm, the ectoderm and the mesoderm, and the genetic code of the father becomes fully involved in the development of the embryo; later twinning is impossible. Additionally, interspecies hybrids survive only until gastrulation and cannot further develop.


title: Fertilisation

text: However, some human developmental biology literature refers to the "conceptus" and such medical literature refers to the "products of conception" as the post-implantation embryo and its surrounding membranes. The term "conception" is not usually used in scientific literature because of its variable definition and connotation.


title: Fertilisation

text: Insects in different groups, including the Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and the Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps) practise delayed fertilisation. Among the Odonata, females may mate with multiple males, and store sperm until the eggs are laid. The male may hover above the female during egg-laying (oviposition) to prevent her from mating with other males and replacing his sperm; in some groups such as the darters, the male continues to grasp the female with his claspers during egg-laying, the pair flying around in tandem. Among social Hymenoptera, honeybee queens mate only on mating flights, in a short period lasting some days; a queen may mate with eight or more drones. She then stores the sperm for the rest of her life, perhaps for five years or more.


title: Fertilisation

text: In many fungi (except chytrids), as in some protists, fertilisation is a two step process. First, the cytoplasms of the two gamete cells fuse (called plasmogamy), producing a dikaryotic or heterokaryotic cell with multiple nuclei. This cell may then divide to produce dikaryotic or heterokaryotic hyphae. The second step of fertilisation is karyogamy, the fusion of the nuclei to form a diploid zygote.


title: Fertilisation

text: In chytrid fungi, fertilisation occurs in a single step with the fusion of gametes, as in animals and plants.


title: Fertilisation

text: Fertilisation in algae occurs by binary fission. The pseudopodia is first withdrawn and the nucleus starts dividing. When the cytoplasm is divided, the cytoplasm is also divided into two equal parts for each daughter cell. Two daughter cells are produced by one parent cell. It involves the process of mitosis.


title: Fertilisation

text: Algae, like some land plants, undergo alternation of generations. Some algae are isomorphic, where both the sporophyte (2n) and gameteophyte (n) are the same morphologically. When algae reproduction is described as oogamous, the male and female gametes are different morphologically, where there is a large non-motile egg for female gametes, and the male gamete are uniflagellate (motile). Via the process of syngamy, these will form a new zygote, regenerating the sporophyte generation again.


title: Fertilisation

text: Fertilisation in fungi. In many fungi (except chytrids), as in some protists, fertilisation is a two step process. ... In chytrid fungi, fertilisation occurs in a single step with the fusion of gametes, as in animals and plants.


title: Fertilisation

text: Meiosis results in a random segregation of the genes that each parent contributes. Each parent organism is usually identical save for a fraction of their genes; each gamete is therefore genetically unique. At fertilisation, parental chromosomes combine. In humans, (2²²)² = 17.6x10 chromosomally different zygotes are possible for the non-sex chromosomes, even assuming no chromosomal crossover. If crossover occurs once, then on average (4²²)² = 309x10 genetically different zygotes are possible for every couple, not considering that crossover events can take place at most points along each chromosome. The X and Y chromosomes undergo no crossover events and are therefore excluded from the calculation. The mitochondrial DNA is only inherited from the maternal parent.


title: Fertilisation

text: Shortly after the sperm fuse with the egg, the two sperm centrioles form the embryo first centrosome and microtubule aster. The sperm centriole, found near the male pronucleus, recruit egg Pericentriolar material proteins forming the zygote first centrosome. This centrosome nucleates microtubules in the shape of stars called astral microtubules. The microtubules span the whole valium of the egg, allowing the egg pronucleus to use the cables to get to the male pronucleus. As the male and female pronuclei approach each other, the single centrosome split into two centrosomes located in the interphase between the pronuclei. Then the centrosome via the astral microtubules polarizes the genome inside the pronuclei.


title: Fertilisation

text: Organisms that normally reproduce sexually can also reproduce via parthenogenesis, wherein an unfertilised female gamete produces viable offspring. These offspring may be clones of the mother, or in some cases genetically differ from her but inherit only part of her DNA. Parthenogenesis occurs in many plants and animals and may be induced in others through a chemical or electrical stimulus to the egg cell. In 2004, Japanese researchers led by Tomohiro Kono succeeded after 457 attempts to merge the ova of two mice by blocking certain proteins that would normally prevent the possibility; the resulting embryo normally developed into a mouse.


title: Fertilisation

text: Allogamy, which is also known as cross-fertilisation, refers to the fertilisation of an egg cell from one individual with the male gamete of another.


title: Fertilisation

text: Autogamy which is also known as self-fertilisation, occurs in such hermaphroditic organisms as plants and flatworms; therein, two gametes from one individual fuse.


title: Fertilisation

text: Gynogenesis: A sperm stimulates the egg to develop without fertilisation or syngamy. The sperm may enter the egg.


title: Fertilisation

text: Canina meiosis: (sometimes called "permanent odd polyploidy") one genome is transmitted in the Mendelian fashion, others are transmitted clonally.


title: Fertilisation

text: The major benefit of cross-fertilisation is generally thought to be the avoidance of inbreeding depression. Charles Darwin, in his 1876 book "The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom" (pages 466-467) summed up his findings in the following way.


title: Fertilisation

text: "It has been shown in the present volume that the offspring from the union of two distinct individuals, especially if their progenitors have been subjected to very different conditions, have an immense advantage in height, weight, constitutional vigour and fertility over the self-fertilised offspring from one of the same parents. And this fact is amply sufficient to account for the development of the sexual elements, that is, for the genesis of the two sexes."


title: Fertilisation

text: In addition, it is thought by some, that a long-term advantage of out-crossing in nature is increased genetic variability that promotes adaptation or avoidance of extinction (see Genetic variability).


title: Spamalot

text: Spamalot (also known as Monty Python's Spamalot) is a musical comedy with music by John Du Prez and Eric Idle, and lyrics and book by Idle. It is adapted from the 1975 film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".


title: Spamalot

text: Like the motion picture, it is a highly irreverent parody of the Arthurian legend, but it differs from the film in many ways. The original 2005 Broadway production, directed by Mike Nichols, received 14 Tony Awards nominations, winning in three categories, including Best Musical. During its initial run of 1,575 performances, it was seen by more than two million people and grossed over $175 million. Tim Curry starred as King Arthur in the original Broadway and West End productions. It was one of eight UK musicals commemorated on Royal Mail stamps, issued in February 2011.


title: Spamalot

text: A Paramount Pictures film adaptation, directed by Casey Nicholaw in his directorial debut from a script by Idle, was in pre-production as of 2021.


title: Spamalot

text: A recording encourages members of the audience to "let your cellphones and pagers ring willy-nilly," and comments that they should "be aware there are heavily armed knights on stage that may drag you on stage and impale you." This was recorded by Eric Idle.


title: Spamalot

text: A historian narrates a brief overview of medieval England. In a miscommunication between the actors and the narrator, the actors sing an introductory song about Finland ("Fisch Schlapping Song"). The Historian returns, irritated, and tells the frolicking Finns that he was talking about England, not Finland. The scene immediately changes to a dreary, dark village with penitent monks in hooded robes chanting Latin and hitting themselves with books. King Arthur travels the land with his servant Patsy, who follows him around banging two coconut shells together to make the sound of a horse's hooves as Arthur "rides" before him, trying to recruit Knights of the Round Table to join him in Camelot. He encounters a pair of sentries who are more interested in debating whether two swallows could successfully carry a coconut than in listening to the king.


title: Spamalot

text: Sir Robin, a collector of plague victims, and Lancelot, a large, handsome and incredibly violent man, meet as Lancelot attempts to dispose of the sickly Not Dead Fred. Although a plague victim, the man insists that he is not dead yet and he can dance and sing. He completes a dance number, but is soon hit over the head with a shovel and killed by an impatient Lancelot ("He Is Not Dead Yet"). They agree to become Knights of the Round Table together, Lancelot for the fighting, and Robin for the singing and the dancing.


title: Spamalot

text: Arthur attempts to convince a peasant named Dennis Galahad that he, Arthur, is King of England because the Lady of the Lake gave him Excalibur, the sword given only to the man fit to rule England. However, Dennis and his mother, Mrs Galahad, are political radicals and deny that any king who has not been elected by the people has any legitimate right to rule over them. To settle the issue, Arthur has the Lady of the Lake and her Laker Girls appear to turn Dennis into a knight ("Come with Me"). Cheered on by the girls ("Laker Girls Cheer"), the Lady of the Lake turns Dennis into Sir Galahad and together, they sing a generic Broadway love song ("The Song That Goes Like This"), complete with chandelier. They are joined by Sir Robin and Sir Lancelot, and together with Sir Bedevere and the "aptly named" Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Show (a knight resembling Don Quixote, who promptly apologises and leaves), they make up the Knights of the Round Table ("All for One").


title: Spamalot

text: The five knights gather in Camelot, a deliberately anachronistic place resembling Las Vegas's Camelot-inspired Excalibur resort, complete with showgirls, oversized dice and the Lady of the Lake headlining the castle in full Liza Minnelli get-up ("Knights of the Round Table" / "The Song That Goes Like This (Reprise)"). In the midst of their revelry, they are contacted by God (a recording voiced by John Cleese of the original Monty Python troupe and Eric Idle in the version that toured the UK) who tells them to locate the Holy Grail. Urged on by the Lady of the Lake ("Find Your Grail"), the Knights set off. They travel throughout the land until they reach a castle, only to be viciously taunted by lewd French soldiers. They attempt to retaliate by sending them a large wooden rabbit in the style of the Trojan horse; however, they realise after the fact that it was not as simple as leaving the rabbit and walking away – they should have hidden inside it. Defeated, they leave in a hurry when the French begin taunting them again, sending cancan dancers after them and throwing barnyard animals including cows at them ("Run Away!"). Arthur and his followers manage to run into the safety of the wings before the French catapult the Trojan rabbit at them.


title: Spamalot

text: Sir Robin and his minstrels follow King Arthur and Patsy into a "dark and very expensive forest" (Arthur later says they're in a "dark and "extremely" expensive forest), where they are separated. King Arthur meets the terrifying but silly Knights Who Say Ni, who demand a shrubbery. King Arthur despairs of finding one, but Patsy cheers him up ("Always Look on the Bright Side of Life") and they find a shrubbery shortly after.


title: Spamalot

text: Sir Robin, after wandering the forest for some time with his minstrels ("Brave Sir Robin"), encounters the Black Knight, who scares him off, but King Arthur, who happens on the scene, more or less defeats him by cutting off both his arms and legs, impaling his still-alive torso on a door, and leaving to give the Knights their shrubbery. The Knights accept it, but next demand that King Arthur put on a musical and bring it to Broadway (in the United Kingdom, this became a West End musical; on the tour, they must put on a "Broadway musical"), implying that it need only be Broadway-style, "but not an Andrew Lloyd Webber". The mere mention of his name causes everyone to cover their ears and scream in pain. Sir Robin, who has found Arthur by this point, insists that it would be impossible for them to accomplish this next task, since you need Jews for a successful Broadway (or West End) musical ("You Won't Succeed on Broadway"), and proves his point in a wild production number filled with "Fiddler on the Roof" parodies, including a bottle dance with Grails instead of bottles. King Arthur and Patsy promptly set off in search of Jews.


title: Spamalot

text: While the Lady of the Lake laments her lack of stage time ("Whatever Happened to My Part?"), Sir Lancelot receives a letter from what he assumes is a young damsel in distress. He is very surprised to find that the "damsel" is actually an effeminate young man named Prince Herbert ("Where Are You?" / "Here Are You") whose overbearing, music-hating father, the King of Swamp Castle, is forcing him into an arranged marriage. As Herbert is asking Lancelot to help him escape, the King of Swamp Castle cuts the rope that he is using to climb out of the window, and Herbert falls to his apparent death. Lancelot is a bit puzzled at the king's actions, but it is revealed that Herbert was saved at the last minute by Lancelot's sidekick, Concorde. The King asks his son how he was saved, exactly, to which Herbert replies happily with a song. But the king charges at his son with a spear, preparing to kill him. Lancelot steps in to save him, then gives a tearful, heartfelt speech about sensitivity to the king on Herbert's behalf, and Lancelot is outed as homosexual in the process, an announcement celebrated in a wild disco number ("His Name Is Lancelot").


title: Spamalot

text: King Arthur begins to give up hope of ever putting on the Broadway musical and laments that he is alone, even though Patsy has been with him the entire time ("I'm All Alone"). The Lady of the Lake appears and tells Arthur that he and the Knights have been in a Broadway musical all along (in some productions she also points out Patsy's presence, to which Arthur claims that he sees Patsy as "family" and thus doesn't always consider him a separate person). Patsy also reveals he is half Jewish, but didn't want to say anything to Arthur because "that's not really the sort of thing you say to a heavily armed Christian." All that's left is for King Arthur to find the Grail and marry someone. After picking up on some not-too-subtle hints, Arthur decides to marry the Lady of the Lake after he finds the Grail ("Twice in Every Show").


title: Spamalot

text: Reunited with his Knights, Arthur meets Tim the Enchanter who warns them of the danger of a killer rabbit. When the rabbit bites a knight's head off, Arthur uses the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch against it, knocking down a nearby hill and revealing that the "evil rabbit" was actually a puppet controlled by a surprised puppeteer. A large stone block showing a combination of letters and numbers is also revealed. (The letters are based on the seat numbering system used by each theatre. They are changed from performance to performance to discourage audience members from intentionally booking any of the possible seats. The seat is typically on the aisle in one of the first few rows nearest the orchestra. In the Broadway production and on the tour it is either A101, B101, C101 or D101; i.e., Seat 101 – which is house right of the center aisle – of Rows A, B, C, or D. In the West End production a word is revealed – DONE, CONE or BONE, referring to D1, C1 and B1 respectively.) After pondering the final clue, Arthur admits that they're "a bit stumped with the clue thing" and asks God to "give them a hand". A large hand points to the audience and Arthur realises that the letters and numbers refer to a seat number in the audience. The grail is "found" (with some sleight of hand) under the seat and the person sitting in the seat is rewarded with a small trophy and a polaroid photo ("The Holy Grail"). Arthur marries the Lady of the Lake, who reveals that her name is Guinevere; Lancelot marries Herbert (who finally has a chance to sing); and Sir Robin decides to pursue a career in musical theatre. Herbert's father attempts to interrupt the finale and stop all of the "bloody singing", but is hit over the head with a shovel by Lancelot, a nod to "He Is Not Yet Dead" ("Act 2 Finale / Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Company Bow)").


title: Spamalot

text: Eric Idle wrote the musical's book and lyrics and collaborated with John Du Prez on the music, except for "Finland", which was written by Michael Palin for "Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album"; "Knights of the Round Table" and "Brave Sir Robin", which were composed by Neil Innes for "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"; and "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", which was originally written by Idle for the film "Monty Python's Life of Brian".


title: Spamalot

text: ‡ The song "You Won't Succeed on Broadway" was changed to "You Won't Succeed in Showbiz" for the London production and later replaced with the "Star Song" in the UK tour.


title: Spamalot

text: In tribute to the film, where six actors played the majority of the male parts (and a few female ones), several actors play multiple roles; the only major characters not doubling are Arthur and the Lady of the Lake. In the Broadway production, the following doubling is used:


title: Spamalot

text: Sara Ramirez doubled as a witch and a cow in the Chicago previews, but both parts were cut during the pre-Broadway run. Several pairs of characters originally played by the same Monty Python member were reduced to one: the Dead Collector and Sir Robin (Idle), the Large Man with a Dead Body and Sir Lancelot (Cleese), and Dennis the Active Peasant and Sir Galahad (Michael Palin).


title: Spamalot

text: Notable West End cast replacements have included Peter Davison and Bill Ward in 2007 and Marin Mazzie, in early 2008. Sanjeev Bhaskar (King Arthur), Michael Xavier (Sir Galahad) and Nina Söderquist (Lady of the Lake) were part of the closing cast.


title: Spamalot

text: Previews of the show began in Chicago's Shubert Theatre (now the CIBC Theatre) on 21 December 2004; the show officially opened there on 9 January 2005.


title: Spamalot

text: Two musical numbers were dropped from Act One while the production was still in Chicago. During the scene set in the "Witch Village", the torch song "Burn Her!" was originally performed by Sir Bedevere, The Witch, Sir Robin, Lancelot and Villagers. At the French Castle, "The Cow Song", in a parody of a stereotypical film noir/cabaret style, was performed by The Cow and French Citizens. Before the two songs were cut in Chicago, the lead vocals in both songs were sung by Sara Ramirez. This gave the Lady of the Lake six songs in Act One, but no further appearances until scene five in Act Two, for "The Diva's Lament".


title: Spamalot

text: The musical previewed on Broadway, at New York's Shubert Theatre, beginning 14 February 2005, ahead of an official opening on 17 March. Mike Nichols directed, and Casey Nicholaw choreographed. The production won the Tony Award for Best Musical and was nominated for 14 Tony Awards. The show played its final performance on 11 January 2009 after 35 previews and 1,575 performances; it was seen by more than two million people and grossed over $175 million, recouping its initial production costs in under six months.


title: Spamalot

text: The original Broadway cast included Tim Curry as King Arthur, Michael McGrath as Patsy, David Hyde Pierce as Sir Robin, Hank Azaria as Sir Lancelot and other roles (e.g., the French Taunter, Knight of Ni, and Tim the Enchanter), Christopher Sieber as Sir Galahad and other roles (e.g., the Black Knight and Prince Herbert's Father), and Sara Ramirez as the Lady of the Lake. It also included Christian Borle as Prince Herbert and other roles (e.g., the Historian and Not Dead Fred), Steve Rosen as Sir Bedevere and other roles (e.g., Concorde and Dennis's Mother) and John Cleese as the (recorded) Voice of God.


title: Spamalot

text: A North American tour commenced in spring 2006, and the cast included Michael Siberry as King Arthur, Jeff Dumas as Patsy, Richard Holmes as Lancelot, Bradley Dean as Galahad and Tom Deckman as The Historian. The tour won three 2007 Touring Broadway Awards, including Best New Musical. Richard Chamberlain later joined the tour as King Arthur. The tour continued through the summer 2009, and played its final performances at the Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa where it closed on 18 October 2009.


title: Spamalot

text: A second North American tour launched on 24 September 2010 from Waterbury, Connecticut, and ended 26 June 2011 in Dallas, Texas. This tour featured a non-Equity cast that included Caroline Bowman as the Lady of the Lake. Another non-Equity North American tour was undertaken in 2013.


title: Spamalot

text: A three evening performance at the Hollywood Bowl was undertaken in 2015, with Eric Idle appearing in the role of The Historian, and other cast members including Christian Slater, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Craig Robinson, Merle Dandridge, Warwick Davis, Kevin Chamberlin and Rick Holmes. The script was updated and included many Los Angeles specific jokes.


title: Spamalot

text: A London production opened at the Palace Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the West End, commencing 30 September 2006 (London premiere 17 October). Tim Curry and Christopher Sieber reprised their roles from the Broadway production. They were joined by Hannah Waddingham as the Lady of the Lake, Tom Goodman-Hill as Sir Lancelot, Robert Hands as Sir Robin, David Birell as Patsy, Tony Timberlake as Sir Bedevere and Darren Southworth as Prince Herbert. The London production closed on 3 January 2009.


title: Spamalot

text: A UK tour scheduled for later in 2009 was initially postponed, the producers commenting "Due to unforeseen circumstances the UK Tour of Spamalot will not be taking place as scheduled in 2009", but eventually started at the New Wimbledon Theatre on 29 May – 5 June 2010. Phill Jupitus played King Arthur in the UK tour.


title: Spamalot

text: Todd Carty played Patsy, assistant to King Arthur for the duration of the tour. Marcus Brigstocke made his musical theatre debut as King Arthur following Jupitus' departure. Jodie Prenger, Hayley Tamaddon, Amy Nuttall and Jessica Martin shared the role of The Lady of the Lake.


title: Spamalot

text: The UK tour also featured for the first time a re-working of the song "You Won't Succeed on Broadway" which has been renamed "You Won't Succeed in Showbiz". The theme of the song has been changed from poking fun at the need for Jewish input into Broadway productions and instead mocks the cross over of celebrities in musicals and reality television competitions such as "The X Factor". It notably pokes fun at reality TV celebrities including Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole and Susan Boyle (who is shot by Sir Robin when she begins to sing).


title: Spamalot

text: The touring production played a limited seven-week run in the West End during the summer of 2012 at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Marcus Brigstocke shared the role of King Arthur with Jon Culshaw for those seven weeks, with Bonnie Langford playing Lady of the Lake. The production moved to the Playhouse Theatre on 14 November 2012, and ran until 12 April 2014. During 2013 a number of celebrities each played the part of God for a week in aid of charity, including Professor Brian Cox, Gary Lineker, Barbara Windsor, Brian May and Michael Palin.


title: Spamalot

text: Other notable cast members during the run of the West End revival included Stephen Tompkinson, Joe Pasquale, Les Dennis and Richard McCourt as King Arthur, Anna-Jane Casey and Carley Stenson as Lady of the Lake, Warwick Davis and Dominic Wood as Patsy, Daniel Boys as Sir Lancelot and Jon Robyns as Sir Galahad.


title: Spamalot

text: A production in April 2015 at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley starred Joe Pasquale, Todd Carty and Sarah Earnshaw.


title: Spamalot

text: A production of the musical began Las Vegas, Nevada, previewed on 8 March 2007 and opened on 31 March 2007 at the Wynn Las Vegas in the newly renamed Grail Theater. As with other Las Vegas transfers of Broadway musicals, including "The Phantom of the Opera", "Spamalot" was condensed to run in ninety minutes without an intermission. Among the cuts were the song "All For One", most of the song "Run Away", the Knights of Ni receiving their shrubbery, and the "Make sure he doesn't leave" scene with Prince Herbert's guards.


title: Spamalot

text: Actor John O'Hurley starred as King Arthur, with J Anthony Crane playing Lancelot. Due to the Las Vegas production, the North American touring company would not perform in California, Arizona, or Nevada. Although initially contracted to run for up to ten years its final performance was on 18 July 2008.


title: Spamalot

text: A new Australian production started in Melbourne in November 2007 at Her Majesty's Theatre, with the official premiere on 1 December. The cast featured Bille Brown as King Arthur, Ben Lewis as Sir Galahad, Stephen Hall as Sir Lancelot and Mark Conaghan as Prince Herbert The Australian production closed on 5 April 2008, due to lack of ticket sales and no tour followed. In October 2014, Harvest Rain Theatre Company under the direction of producer Tim O'Connor staged a production of "Spamalot" with a cast list including Jon English as King Arthur, Simon Gallaher as Patsy, Julie Anthony as the Lady of the Lake, Frank Woodley as Sir Robin, Chris Kellett as Sir Lancelot, and Stephen Hirst as Galahad. The production was presented in The Concert Hall at QPAC in Brisbane.


title: Spamalot

text: The first translated production, in Spanish, ran at Teatre Victoria, Barcelona from 9 September 2008 to 10 May 2009. Directed by Catalan Comedy Group Tricicle and choreographed by Francesc Abós, the cast included Jordi Bosch as King Arthur and Marta Ribera as the Lady of the Lake. The production moved to Madrid in September 2009 A German production premiered in January 2009 at the Musical Dome in Cologne. The Hungarian production in Madach Theatre, Budapest premiered on 29 September 2009 with three casts, each actor taking up multiple roles. The Swedish production opened on the Malmö Nöjesteater in Malmö on 24 September 2010, with a cast including Johan Wester as King Arthur and Johan Glans as Sir Robin. The production moved to Oscarsteatern in Stockholm on 15 September 2011 where it played through 29 April 2012. Nina Söderquist, who starred as Lady of the Lake in the West End production was thought to reprise her role, but became pregnant. She joined the show when it moved to Stockholm, along with Henrik Hjelt as Sir Belvedere. In May 2011, the original UK touring production played at Politeama Rossetti in Trieste. Eric Idle attended the opening night on 24 May.


title: Spamalot

text: The Mexican premiere of the show was in July 2011 in Mexico City. The show ran for over 500 performances across the country. The Japanese production ran from 9 to 22 January 2012 at the Akasaka Blitz theater in Tokyo before playing Morinomiya Piloti Hall in Osaka from 2 February to February to 6 February. The production featured Yūsuke Santamaria as King Arthus, Aya Hirano as Lady of the Lake, Magy as Patsy, Yuya Matsushita as Sir Galahad and Tsuyoshi Muro as Prince Herbert. The South Korean production was presented by OD Musical Company, and CJ Entertainment's Performing Arts division (now a part of CJ E&M); incidentally, CJ CheilJedang, the sister company of CJ Group's entertainment business, manufactures Spam products under license since 1987. It played from 1 October to 28 December 2010, with Yesung of Super Junior and Park In-bae rotating as Sir Galahad. A Norwegian production ran from September to December 2012, with a cast featuring Atle Antonsen as King Arthur, Trond Espen Seim as Sir Lancelot, Anders Baasmo Christiansen as Sir Robin, Espen Beranek Holm as Sir Belvedere and Trond Fausa Aurvåg as Prince Herbert. A Serbian production at Sava Centar in Belgrade had a cast including Nikola Kojo as King Arthur, Nikola Đuričko as Sir Lancelot and Gordan Kičić as Sir Robin.


title: Spamalot

text: Terry Gilliam, in an audio interview, describes it as "Python-lite". He later told the BBC News, "It helps with the pension fund, and it helps keep Python alive. As much as we'd like to pull the plug on the whole thing it carries on – it's got a life of its own."


title: Spamalot

text: Terry Jones – who co-directed the original film with Gilliam – expressed his opinions forthrightly in May 2005: ""Spamalot" is utterly pointless. It's full of air … Regurgitating Python is not high on my list of priorities." However, when asked whether he liked "Spamalot" during an interview with Dennis Daniel on 98.5 WBON-FM "The Bone" shortly after the musical's opening on Broadway, Jones said, "Well, I thought it was terrific good fun. It's great to see the audience loving it. I suppose I had reservations as far as … well … the idea of doing scenes from a film on stage. I just don’t get the point of it. They do them terribly well … I mean, they really are good … but I just quite don’t understand what that's about. It isn’t really 'Python.' It is very much Eric." Jones went on to say, "I think the best parts of the musical are the new things. For instance, when they do the Andrew Lloyd Webber take-off and this girl comes in and sings 'Whatever Happened to My Part' since she hasn’t appeared since the opening number and she's really furious! That is one of the great moments where the show really comes alive for me."


title: Spamalot

text: In an October 2006 interview, Michael Palin said, "We’re all hugely delighted that "Spamalot" is doing so well. Because we’re all beneficiaries! It's a great show. It's not 'Python' as we would have written it. But then, none of us would get together and write a 'Python' stage show. Eric eventually ran out of patience and said, 'Well, I’ll do it myself then.' He sent us bits and songs and all that and we said, 'Yeah, that's all right, have a go.' But its success is so enormous that it took us all by surprise, including Eric, and now we’re just proud to be associated with it, rather pathetically."


title: Spamalot

text: When asked by a "Las Vegas Review-Journal" reporter in 2008 if he had to be persuaded to provide the recorded voice of God in the musical, John Cleese said, "Yeah, that's right. And in the end I think "Spamalot" turned out splendidly. It's had a tremendous run. I defy anyone to go and not have a really fun evening. It's the silliest thing I’ve ever seen and I think Eric did a great job."


title: Spamalot

text: The last verse of the "Finland"/"Fisch Slapping Dance" was incorporated into Spam sketch for the 2014 reunion show "Monty Python Live (Mostly)".


title: Spamalot

text: The original production has been both a financial and critical success. "Variety" reported advance ticket sales of $18 million, with ticket prices ranging from $36 to $179. The advance made Broadway box office history.


title: Spamalot

text: The show proved to be an early success when moving to London's West End. After high advance ticket sales the show's run was extended by four weeks, four months before the run commenced.


title: Spamalot

text: The play makes many references to the film and other material in the Python canon, including a line from "The Lumberjack Song", nods to "Ministry of Silly Walks", the "Election Night Special" and "Dead Parrot sketch" routines, a bar from "Spam" worked into "Knights of the Round Table", a rendition of the song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from the film "Monty Python's Life of Brian" (1979), and the "Fisch Schlapping Song" which is a reference to both "The Fish-Slapping Dance" and the song "Finland". Another reference is actually part of the "Playbill" of the show; there are several gag pages about a musical entitled "Dik Od Triaanenen Fol (Finns Ain't What They Used To Be)". This gag programme was written by Palin, and echoes the "faux"-Swedish subtitles in the credits of the original "Grail" Python film.


title: Spamalot

text: Broadway musical fans appreciate its references to other musicals and musical theatre in general, such as: "The Song That Goes Like This" (a spoof of Andrew Lloyd Webber productions and many other Broadway power ballads); "Whatever Happened To My Part" reminiscent of "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" from "Dreamgirls", the knights doing a dance reminiscent of "Fiddler on the Roof", and another reminiscent of "West Side Story" (including the music); Sir Lancelot's mimicking of Peter Allen in "His Name Is Lancelot"; the character of Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Show being "Man of La Mancha"'s Don Quixote; a member of the French "army" dressed as Eponine from "Les Misérables"; and a line pulled from "Another Hundred People" from Stephen Sondheim's "Company" by the "damsel" Herbert. The song "You Won't Succeed (On Broadway)" also parodies "The Producers" and "Yentl".


title: Spamalot

text: "Python was formed in reaction to exactly the kind of lazy comedy represented by "Spamalot" — what Michael Palin once described as the 'easy, catch-phrase reaction' the members had all been forced to pander in their previous writing jobs... "Spamalot" is the gaudy climax of a long, unfunny tradition of post-Python exploitation – books, actions figures, video games – that treats the old material as a series of slogans to be referenced without doing any of the work that made the lines so original in the first place."


title: Spamalot

text: The West End version opened to rave reviews. "It's a wonderful night, and I fart in the general direction of anyone who says otherwise", wrote Charles Spencer in the "Daily Telegraph" (echoing a joke from the show). According to Paul Taylor in the "Independent", "it leaves you that high and weak with laughter, thanks not just to the Python provenance of the basic material but to the phenomenal speed, wit, cheek and showbiz knowingness of the direction, which is by the great veteran, Mike Nichols". Michael Billington in the "Guardian" was less enthusiastic, though, stating "while I'm happy to see musicals spoofed, the show's New York origins are clearly exposed in a would-be outre number which announces "we won't succeed in show business if we don't have any Jews": a Broadway in-joke that has little purchase this side of the Atlantic." Billington adds, "With hand on heart, I'd much rather watch Lerner and Loewe's "Camelot" than Eric Idle's smart-arsed "Spamalot"."


title: Spamalot

text: On 22 March 2006, to mark the first anniversary of the official Broadway opening, the "World's Largest Coconut Orchestra", 1,789 people clapping together half coconut shells, performed in Shubert Alley, outside the theatre. The claim was officially recognised by the "Guinness Book of World Records". This record was broken by 5,877 people in Trafalgar Square at 7 pm on 23 April 2007, led by the cast from the London production, along with Jones and Gilliam, with the coconuts used in place of the whistles in "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". This formed part of London's St George's Day celebrations that year and was followed by a screening of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".


title: Spamalot

text: On 10 March 2007, "Spamalot" partnered with HP Sauce (the classic British brown sauce, now made in the Netherlands following a contentious decision to close its factory in Birmingham, England) to produce 1,075 limited edition bottles featuring a unique "Spamalot" take on the classic HP design. The bottles were available exclusively via Selfridges, London and came in a presentation box with a numbered certificate. 1,075 was chosen to celebrate, absurdly, "1,075 years of the show running in London".


title: Spamalot

text: In July 2007 it was announced that the London production would solve the problem of replacing Hannah Waddingham as the Lady of the Lake through a TV talent show in Sweden. The programme, called West End Star, which began airing on TV3 on 8 December 2007, announced Nina Söderquist as the winner on 2 February 2008. Söderquist took up the role of the Lady of the Lake, with a standing ovation, on 11 February 2008.


title: Spamalot

text: Portions of the "Spamalot" original cast recording were featured (with accompanying Flash animation) as a special feature in the 2006 "Extraordinarily Deluxe Two-Disc Edition" DVD re-release of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".


title: Spamalot

text: In the original Broadway production, Sara Ramirez sang the line, "I've no Grammy, no reward/I've no Tony Award." Ironically, the show's original cast album won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album in 2006 and Ramirez won the Tony for Best Featured Actress in 2005. The two awards led to a minor change to the song "The Diva's Lament". Initially, the line became "My Tony Award/won't keep me out of Betty Ford's". When Lauren Kennedy took over for Sara Ramirez, it became "My predecessor won awards/and now she's in Betty Ford's" but was later changed to, "All our Tony Awards/won't keep me out of Betty Ford's." In the touring production, Pia Glenn sings "All our "goddamn" awards/won't keep me out of Betty Ford's." For a change, Hannah Waddingham in the London production sings "I'm as depressed as I can be/ I've got constant PMT".


title: Spamalot

text: The touring production has garnered Boston's Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Visiting Production.


title: Spamalot

text: A special edition of "The South Bank Show" was a television documentary on the history of "Spamalot". It features numerous segments with Eric Idle and John Du Prez explaining the process of writing the songs, plus interviews with UK and US cast members. It included scenes from the rehearsal of the West End show, and was first broadcast on 15 October 2006.


title: Spamalot

text: In May 2018, 20th Century Fox announced a film adaptation was in the works with Idle writing the script and Casey Nicholaw attached to direct. The film was reportedly fast tracked with casting announced soon with shooting to begin in early 2019. The next month it was reported that the studio was looking to cast Benedict Cumberbatch as King Arthur, Peter Dinklage as his servant Patsy and Tiffany Haddish as the Lady of the Lake. Cumberbatch was taken out of consideration due to his involvement in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" where he plays the title character.


title: Spamalot

text: At the time of the release of his memoir "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography" in December 2019, Idle said in an interview with the "Los Angeles Times" that "(the movie is) all ready to go" and that it "is not very expensive". He cited the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney as a factor to the film's delay, saying it caused "everything (to come) to a grinding halt". He also stated in an interview around the same time with WBUR-FM that Haddish is still being offered the role of the Lady of the Lake, and that the script has "mostly been solved".


title: Spamalot

text: On 6 January 2021, it was announced that the project will move to Paramount Pictures and that it is set to begin pre-production, with Nicholaw officially confirmed to direct from Idle's script and Dan Jinks joining as a producer.


title: Spamalot

text: In 2013, the Pythons lost a legal case to Mark Forstater, the producer of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", over royalties for "Spamalot". He was paid 1/14 of the portion of the profits paid to the Pythons. The court ruled that he was a full Python partner and was to be paid 1/7 of the portion paid to the Pythons. They owed a combined £800,000 in legal fees and back royalties to Forstater, prompting them to produce "Monty Python Live (Mostly)".


title: Navassa Island

text: Navassa Island (; ; , sometimes ) is a small uninhabited island in the Caribbean Sea. Located northeast of Jamaica, south of Cuba, and west of Jérémie on the Tiburon Peninsula of Haiti, it is subject to an ongoing territorial dispute between Haiti and the United States, which administers the island through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.


title: Navassa Island

text: The U.S. has claimed the island, as an appurtenance, since 1857, based on the Guano Islands Act of 1856. Haiti's claim over Navassa goes back to the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 that established French possessions on mainland Hispaniola from Spain, as well as other specifically named nearby islands. However, there was no mention of Navassa in the treaty detailing terms. Haiti's claimed several nearby islands by name, among which Navassa was not listed, but also laid claim to "other adjacent islands", which Haiti maintains included Navassa. The U.S. claim to the island, first made in 1857, asserts that Navassa was not included among the unnamed “other adjacent islands” in the Haitian Constitution of 1801. Since the Haitian Constitution of 1874, Haiti has explicitly named "la Navase" as one of the territories it claims, and maintains that it has been claimed as part of Haiti continuously since 1801. Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, who was a member of the French Parliament best known for his publications on Saint-Domingue, referred to "la Navasse" as a "small island between Saint-Domingue and Jamaica" in 1798.


title: Navassa Island

text: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) code for the island, as part of the US Minor Outlying Islands, is .


title: Navassa Island

text: What has become a territorial dispute can be seen as contradiction and confusion and created by the concept of property ownership, from the United States position, to being an integral sovereignty part of other Caribbean states, especially Haiti.


title: Navassa Island

text: In 1504, Christopher Columbus, stranded on Jamaica during his fourth voyage, sent some crew members by canoe to Hispaniola for help. En route, they landed on the island, but it had no water. They called it Navaza (from "nava-" meaning plain, or field), and it was avoided by mariners for the next 350 years.


title: Navassa Island

text: From 1801 to 1867, the successive constitutions of Haiti claimed sovereignty over adjacent islands, both named and unnamed, although Navassa was not specifically enumerated until 1874. Navassa Island was also claimed for the United States on September 19, 1857, by Peter Duncan, an American sea captain, under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, for the rich guano deposits found on the island, and for not being within the lawful jurisdiction of any other government, nor occupied by another government's citizens.


title: Navassa Island

text: Haiti protested the annexation, but on July 7, 1858, U.S. President James Buchanan issued an Executive Order upholding the American claim, which also called for military action to enforce it. Navassa Island has since been maintained by the United States as an unincorporated territory (according to the Insular Cases). The United States Supreme Court on November 24, 1890, in "Jones v. United States", , Id. at 224, found that Navassa Island must be considered as appertaining to the United States, creating a legal history for the island under U.S. law unlike many other islands originally claimed under the Guano Islands Act. As listed in its 1987 constitution, Haiti maintains its claim to the island, which is considered part of the department of Grand'Anse.


title: Navassa Island

text: Guano phosphate is a superior organic fertilizer that became a mainstay of American agriculture in the mid-19th century. In November 1857, Duncan transferred his discoverer's rights to his employer, an American guano trader in Jamaica, who sold them to the newly formed Navassa Phosphate Company of Baltimore. After an interruption for the American Civil War, the company built larger mining facilities on Navassa with barrack housing for 140 black contract laborers from Maryland, houses for white supervisors, a blacksmith shop, warehouses, and a church.


title: Navassa Island

text: Mining began in 1865. The workers dug out the guano by dynamite and pick-axe and hauled it in rail cars to the landing point at Lulu Bay, where it was put into sacks and lowered onto boats for transfer to the Company barque, the S.S. "Romance". The living quarters at Lulu Bay were referred to as 'Lulu Town', as appears on old maps. Railway tracks eventually extended inland.


title: Navassa Island

text: Hauling guano by muscle-power in the fierce tropical heat, combined with general disgruntlement with conditions on the island, eventually provoked a rebellion in 1889, in which five supervisors died. A U.S. warship returned 18 of the workers to Baltimore for three separate trials on murder charges. A black fraternal society, the Order of Galilean Fishermen, raised money to defend the miners in federal court, and the defense built its case on the contention that the men acted in self-defense or in the heat of passion, and that the United States did not have jurisdiction over the island. E. J. Waring, the first black lawyer to pass the Maryland bar, was a part of the defense's legal team.


title: Navassa Island

text: The cases, including "Jones v. United States", went to the U.S. Supreme Court in October 1890, which ruled the Guano Act constitutional, and three of the miners were scheduled for execution in the spring of 1891. A grass-roots petition driven by black churches around the country, also signed by white jurors from the three trials, reached President Benjamin Harrison, who commuted the sentences to imprisonment and mentioned the case in a State of the Union Address. Guano mining resumed on Navassa at a much reduced level.


title: Navassa Island

text: In 1898, during the Spanish–American War, the Phosphate Company had to abandon its operations on Navassa due to the island's proximity to Spanish Cuba and Puerto Rico. Company president John H. Fowler noted that the war made it impossible to find ships to deliver supplies to the island and that he expected to have his workers evacuated by June. Maryland senator Arthur Pue Gorman called for a naval warship to escort supply ships to island to help evacuate workers. In July 1898, abrogating an agreement with Haitian Naval Admiral Hammerton Killick that would have allowed the Phosphate Company to withdraw equipment and supplies left on Navassa, a group of Haitians occupied the island. The Navassa Phosphate Company went bankrupt and the island was sold at auction in September 1900. A dispute over the sale hampered efforts to restart mining on the island and left four contract workers virtually abandoned on Navassa from December 1900 to May 1901. Between 1857 and 1898, approximately of phosphate deposits were removed from the island.


title: Navassa Island

text: In 1905, the U.S. Lighthouse Service identified Navassa Island as a good location for a new lighthouse. However, plans for the light moved slowly. With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, shipping between the American eastern seaboard and the Canal through the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti increased in the area of Navassa, which proved a hazard to navigation. The Lighthouse Service finally built Navassa Island Light, a tower on the island in 1917, above sea level. At the same time, a wireless telegraphy station was established on the island. A keeper and two assistants were assigned to live there until the Lighthouse Service installed an automatic beacon in 1929.


title: Navassa Island

text: After absorbing the Lighthouse Service in 1939, the U.S. Coast Guard serviced the light twice each year. The U.S. Navy set up an observation post for the duration of World War II. The island has been uninhabited since then. Fishermen, mainly from Haiti, fish the waters around Navassa.


title: Navassa Island

text: A scientific expedition from Harvard University studied the land and marine life of the island in 1930. After World War II amateur radio operators occasionally visited to operate from the territory, which is accorded "entity" (country) status by the American Radio Relay League. The callsign prefix is KP1. From 1903 to 1917, Navassa was a dependency of the U.S. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and from 1917 to 1996, it was under United States Coast Guard administration.


title: Navassa Island

text: In 1996, the Coast Guard dismantled the light on Navassa, which ended its interest in the island. Consequently, the Department of the Interior assumed responsibility for the civil administration of the area, and placed the island under its Office of Insular Affairs. For statistical purposes, Navassa was grouped with the now-obsolete term United States Miscellaneous Caribbean Islands and is now grouped with other islands claimed by the U.S. under the Guano Islands Act as the United States Minor Outlying Islands.


title: Navassa Island

text: In 1997, an American salvager, Bill Warren, made a claim to Navassa to the Department of State based on the Guano Islands Act. On March 27, 1997, the Department of the Interior rejected the claim on the basis that the Guano Islands Act applies only to islands which, at the time of the claim, are not "appertaining to" the United States. The department's opinion said that Navassa is and remains a U.S. possession "appertaining to" the United States and is "unavailable to be claimed" under the Guano Islands Act.


title: Navassa Island

text: A 1998 scientific expedition led by the Center for Marine Conservation in Washington, D.C., described Navassa as "a unique preserve of Caribbean biodiversity." Aside from a few extinctions covered below, the island's land and offshore ecosystems have mostly survived the 20th century.


title: Navassa Island

text: In September 1999, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service established the Navassa Island National Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses of land and a 12 nautical mile (22.2 km) radius of marine habitat around the island. Later that year, full administrative responsibility for Navassa was transferred from the Office of Insular Affairs to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.


title: Navassa Island

text: The National Wildlife Refuge protects coral reef ecosystems, native wildlife and plants and provides opportunities for scientific research on and around Navassa Island. Navassa Island features large seabird colonies including over 5,000 nesting red-footed booby ("Sula sula"). Navassa is home to four endemic lizard species. Two other endemic lizards – "Cyclura cornuta onchiopsis" and "Leiocephalus eremitus," are extinct.


title: Navassa Island

text: Navassa Island NWR is administered as part of the Caribbean Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Due to hazardous coastal conditions and for preservation of species habitat, the refuge is closed to the general public, and visitors need permission from the Fish and Wildlife Service to enter its territorial waters or land.


title: Navassa Island

text: Since it became a National Wildlife Refuge, amateur radio operators have repeatedly been denied entry. In October 2014, permission was granted for a two-week DX-pedition in February 2015. The operation made 138,409 contacts.


title: Navassa Island

text: Navassa Island is about in area. It is located west of Haiti's southwest peninsula, south of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and about one-quarter of the way from mainland Haiti to Jamaica in the Jamaica Channel.


title: Navassa Island

text: Navassa reaches an elevation of at Dunning Hill south of the lighthouse, Navassa Island Light. This location is from the southwestern coast or east of Lulu Bay.


title: Navassa Island

text: The terrain of Navassa Island consists mostly of exposed coral and limestone, the island being ringed by vertical white cliffs high, but with enough grassland to support goat herds. The island is covered in a forest of four tree species: short-leaf fig ("Ficus populnea" var. "brevifolia"), pigeon plum ("Coccoloba diversifolia"), mastic ("Sideroxylon foetidissimum"), and poisonwood ("Metopium brownei").


title: Navassa Island

text: Navassa Island's topography, ecology, and modern history are similar to that of Mona Island, a small limestone island located in the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, which were once centers of guano mining, and are nature reserves for the United States.


title: Navassa Island

text: Transient Haitian fishermen and others camp on Navassa Island, but it is otherwise uninhabited. Navassa has no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages, and its only natural resource is guano. Economic activity consists of subsistence fishing and commercial trawling activities. A 2009 survey of fishermen in southwestern Haiti estimated some 300 fishermen, primarily from Anse d'Hainault Arrondissement, regularly fished near the island.


title: Navassa Island

text: There were eight species of native reptiles, all of which are believed to be, or to have been, endemic to Navassa Island: "Comptus badius" (an anguid lizard), "Aristelliger cochranae" (a gecko), "Sphaerodactylus becki" (a gecko), "Anolis longiceps" (an anole), "Cyclura cornuta onchiopsis" (an endemic subspecies of the rhinoceros iguana), "Leiocephalus eremitus" (a curly-tailed lizard), "Tropidophis bucculentus" (a dwarf boa), and "Typhlops sulcatus" (a tiny snake). Of these, the first four remain common, with the next three likely extinct, and the last being possibly extirpated due to feral cats, dogs and pigs inhabiting the island.


title: Navassa Island

text: In 2012, a rare coral species, "Acropora palmata" (elkhorn coral), was found underwater near the island. The remaining coral was found to be in good condition.


title: Navassa Island

text: The island, with its surrounding marine waters, has been recognized as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports breeding colonies of red-footed boobies and magnificent frigatebirds, as well as hundreds of white-crowned pigeons.


title: Navassa Island

text: This dispute has prevented the definitive delimitation of the maritime zones of neighbouring states (Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti). The island was disregarded for the purposes of determining equidistant boundary calculation with Cuba during the signing of the Cuba–Haiti Maritime Boundary Agreement in 1977.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: Lage Raho Munna Bhai (; ) is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language satirical comedy drama film written, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who co-wrote the screenplay with Abhijat Joshi and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It is the follow-up to the 2003 film "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S." with Sanjay Dutt reprising his role as Munna Bhai, a Mumbai underworld don. In "Lage Raho Munna Bhai", the eponymous lead character starts to see the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi. Through his interactions with Gandhi, he begins to practice what he refers to as "Gandhigiri" (a neologism for Gandhism) to help ordinary people solve their problems.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: Only Dutt and Arshad Warsi reprise their roles from the first film. The film also features some other actors from the first film (notably Jimmy Sheirgill and Boman Irani) but in new roles.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" released on 1 September 2006, It received widespread critical acclaim for its direction, story, screenplay, dialogues, performances of the cast and its social message and themes. The film proved to be a major box-office success, referred "blockbuster" grossing over worldwide. It was second highest grossing film of the year.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: At the 54th National Film Awards, "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" won 4 awards, including Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and Best Supporting Actor (Dilip Prabhavalkar). At the 52nd Filmfare Awards, the film received 12 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director (Hirani) and Best Actor (Dutt), and won 4 awards, including Best Film (Critics) and Best Comedian (Warsi).


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" also had a number of prominent screenings. It was the first Hindi film to be shown at the United Nations, and was screened at the "Tous Les Cinema du Monde" section of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. The film popularized the term "Gandhigiri". Vidhu Vinod Chopra submitted the film as an independent entry for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. It was later remade in Telugu as "Shankar Dada Zindabad" (2007).


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: Murliprasad Sharma a.k.a. Munna Bhai, a street-wise Bombay Hindi-speaking gangster in Mumbai, is smitten with the voice of Janvi Sahni, a radio jockey. When she announces a contest on the life and beliefs of Mahatma Gandhi set for 2 October—Gandhi's birthday, with an interview with her as the prize, he is determined to win. Through the assistance of his sidekick Sarkeshwar "Circuit" Sharma, who kidnaps and bribes a group of professors, and his goons, who jam the phone lines, Munna succeeds and meets Janvi in person. During the interview, he lies that he is a history professor specializing in Gandhi and living by his principles. Having difficulty speaking formal Hindi, Munna uses much colloquial language and calls his version of Gandhism "Gandhigiri" (). Despite this, Janvi is impressed asks him to host a lecture on Gandhi in her home, which she has repurposed into a senior citizen community called "Second Innings House". Realizing he can't use his old tricks, Munna crams in a library to study the life and works of Gandhi in five days.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: Gandhi, who Munna refers to by his nickname Bapu ("father"), starts to appear at this time and offers help and advice to Munna, who is the only person that can see him. Gandhi continues to appear each time Munna sings "Raghupathi Raghava Rajaram" (a song often sung in Gandhi's memory). Initially, Munna believes he is going mad, but later comes to get used to Gandhi's presence. With Gandhi's help, Munna delivers a chaotic but well-received lecture about Gandhism being only used in the name and not in practice. He then helps the seniors solve their problems through his connections and rowdyism. Lucky Singh, an unscrupulous businessman who employed Circuit and Munna to conduct "underworld" activities for him, learns that Munna is in love with Janvi and offers to help him propose to her by funding a trip to Goa for all the senior citizens. During the trip, Munna tries to confess his love to Janvi, however, they discover the trip was a ruse for Lucky to occupy the house. It turns out that Lucky's daughter, Simran, is engaged to marry Sunny, the son of Khurana, a powerful businessman. Khurana is superstitious and his activities are controlled by his astrologer, Batuk Maharaj. Maharaj's particular use of numerology led Khurana to add an extra "k" to his name and further convinced him that "Second Innings House" would be the most auspicious place for the new couple to live, hence the seizure. Further, Batuk initially advised Khurana to not go through with the wedding since Simran is a manglik. But Lucky, not wanting to lose such an alliance, covers this up by saying that there is a mistake at the time of Simran's birth and hence the alliance progresses.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: With the authorities and lawyers not willing to confront Lucky, Munna, Circuit, Janvi, and the senior citizens of "Second Innings House" launch a non-violent satyagraha outside Lucky's home. After a fight with Lucky's security guards, Munna and Circuit are arrested. Janvi later bails them out and invites Munna to her radio show to publicize the issue. They host a new program called "Bapu ka magic", where they offer Gandhigiri-style advice to listeners' problems, only asking that the listeners send Lucky flowers to help him recover from the "disease of dishonesty" in exchange for a unique, non-violent protest. After Munna gets his first caller, Victor D'Souza, who works as a taxi driver to repay his father's money lost in bad investments, the show gains popularity and pressure builds on Lucky, who tries and fails to offer Khurana other properties. Later, on Gandhi's insistence, Munna gives a letter to Janvi; thinking it is a love letter, Janvi instead learns the truth about Munna and leaves heartbroken, causing the protests to falter. Janvi also refuses to host the radio show with Munna. Despite this, Munna meets Lucky and assures him that he will not give up the fight. Since the radio show has gained popularity, he continues to host it on his own, offering increasingly out-of-the-box but successful solutions to listeners, much to Janvi's chagrin.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: The pressure on Lucky from Khurana reaches boiling point. Lucky then tricks Munna into revealing his conversations with Gandhi before a public audience, making him seem insane. On the day of Simran's wedding, she learns the truth about her father's deception of Khurana and runs away, ending up in Victor's cab. Meanwhile, a dejected Munna and Circuit are leaving the city. However, in a drunken stupor, Munna decides not to give up on Janvi. They go to the radio station where Munna has Circuit hold the studio hostage, in an attempt to apologize to Janvi through the program. Simultaneously, Victor connects Simran to Munna, where she reveals that although she loves Sunny, she is a manglik and thus is unlucky to marry. She is also devastated by her father's wrongdoings and has always looked up to him. With Lucky, Janvi, and the senior citizens listening in, Munna convinces her to go back and tell the truth, reasoning that Khurana's belief in numerology is irrational. Simran does so and Khurana rejects her. Munna and Circuit go to the wedding and use some of their old tricks to successfully dispel Maharaj's superstitions. When Khurana still remains unmoved, Sunny refuses to listen to his father and marries Simran anyway. Munna and Circuit are arrested again.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: In jail, Janvi returns and reconciles with Munna and a grateful Lucky apologizes, promising to reform, and returns the house keys. In the end, Gandhi narrates what happens to all the other characters. Munna and Janvi got married and continued their show. Circuit is adopted by Bomi and Tina, a newly married old couple living at the house who adopt his mannerisms. Victor achieved success, finally earning enough money to buy a taxi of his own, making his father proud. Sunny and Simran remained happily married, and have a child, prompting Khurana to renounce his belief in numerology and fire Batuk.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: The film ends with a reformed Lucky sitting in the very same library in which Munna sat, reading up on Gandhi, and Gandhi begins to appear to him too.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: The "Munna Bhai" series began after Vidhu Vinod Chopra agreed to produce Rajkumar Hirani's 2003 film "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S." when no one else would (Hirani had worked as an editor on Chopra's 2000 film "Mission Kashmir"). They also collaborated on the script. "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S." was a runaway success that prompted the duo to contemplate a sequel. The sequel was initially known as "Munna Bhai Meets Mahatma Gandhi" and was later titled "Munna Bhai: 2nd Innings" before the title "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" was finalized.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: In an interview, Hirani admitted that he felt the burden of expectation while writing the screenplay for "Lage Raho Munna Bhai", as he had to create "something to match" the first film. Initially, there was some effort to incorporate scenes or characteristics of the first film into the sequel (such as the idiosyncratic laugh of Asthana, portrayed by Boman Irani in the first installment), but the risks of repetition were consciously averted.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: One of Hirani's goals in making the film was to revive an interest in Mahatma Gandhi, a figure who he felt had been forgotten in contemporary India. To highlight this fact, Hirani recounted (during an interview) an incident with a "chaiwala" boy (who brings tea to the crew) during production:


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: The other screenwriter, Abhijat Joshi (who teaches in the department of English at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio), stated that he had been conducting extensive research on Gandhi, which inspired producer Chopra to involve Joshi in the creation of the second "Munna Bhai" screenplay.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: While writing the screenplay, Hirani and Joshi stayed together for more than 4 months. They developed scenes by going out for a walk and discussing the scene. They would not return home until they had created a scene that would make them laugh, cry, or have some provocative thought. While there was a shortage of resources during the shooting of "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.", the crew did not encounter a financial crisis during the filming of "Lage Raho Munna Bhai", as the team managed to receive whatever was deemed necessary (including a Jimmy Jib, a specific kind of camera crane, just for a single crane shot). The film was shot on location in and around Mumbai, with Goa as a backdrop for the "Aane Charaane" song.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: Only 2 characters—those of Munna Bhai (portrayed by Sanjay Dutt) and Circuit (portrayed by Arshad Warsi)—were retained from "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S." Several actors from "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.", appeared in "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" as different characters. Vidya Balan was chosen to play the leading lady Jahnavi as her voice was thought to be appropriate for that of a radio jockey.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: The actors used several techniques to develop their characters. Warsi encountered some initial problems reviving his character from the first film. Hirani recalled that on the first day of the shoot when Warsi said his first line, "he didn't sound like Circuit at all. He sounded like Arshad Warsi speaking with an accent." Warsi admitted that he had "forgotten" the character of Circuit and had to watch the DVD of "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S." 3 times before being able to film the scene correctly. Dutt also confessed that he had to watch the first film 8 to 9 times to recapture the "persona" of Munna Bhai. In addition, Dutt stated in an interview that he did not read Gandhi's autobiography "The Story of My Experiments with Truth" as a preparation for "Lage Raho Munna Bhai". Rather, he comments, his father, Sunil Dutt (who portrayed Munna Bhai's father in "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.") and his mother (the late actress Nargis) were his role models as they "were basically Gandhians. We were brought up with those values."


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: Dilip Prabhavalkar, who portrays Gandhi, read Gandhi's works "once again" to prepare for his role. Boman Irani prepared for the role of Lucky Singh by spending time with Sardarjis (male Sikhs) in auto spare parts shops to research his role. Vidya Balan met with a couple of radio jockeys and watched them at work.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: Each film in the "Munna Bhai series" features Munna and Circuit in a story that is comprehensive unto itself and is not continued or referred to in another in the series. Director Hirani has compared this format to the films of Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy, as well as to the James Bond series. Others have also likened the series to the work of Laurel and Hardy. Some, however, have negated this comparison, stating that the series is more akin to the "Road to..." "buddy films" of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Hirani stated that his work was deeply inspired by the films of Hrishikesh Mukherjee.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: The interaction between the central characters of Mahatma Gandhi and Munna Bhai highlights concepts and ideas that draw upon the period of Colonial India and the Indian independence movement. Gandhi was a leader in this movement, challenging the British Empire's presence in India through the use of "Satyagraha" (non-violence). In the film, Jahnavi and Munna Bhai's non-violent protest against Lucky Singh serves as a metaphor for the Indian independence movement and the battle against the British Raj.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: The thematic attention to Gandhi's theories in "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" revived an interest in "Gandhism" in India under the new term "Gandhigiri" and "made Gandhi suddenly hip" with Indians "staging non-violent protests, starting websites, handing out roses to enemies and putting on peaked white caps from the Gandhi era." Arunabha Ghosh, in December 2006, noted in "The Economic and Political Weekly" that, "Gandhi, the man, was once the message. In the India of the post-liberalization brand, Gandhigiri is the message." Amelia Gentleman of "New York Times" stated in September 2006 that:


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: Mark Sappenfield of "The Christian Science Monitor" argued in 2006 that the film was appealing because, "Gandhi gets his hands dirty. He appears as an apparition only visible to the wayward gangster, counselling him on how to help others deal with everyday problems." Swati Gauri Sharma suggested in "The Boston Globe" that what the United States "needs is a film that encourages people to take up Gandhigiri, Kinggiri, or Kennedygiri. If it worked for Bollywood, it could work for Hollywood."


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: After the release of the film, Gandhigiri-style protests began to take place in India. In 2006, farmers staged a protest with flowers in the Vidarbha region, and people who organised a protest in Lucknow claimed to have been inspired by "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" to use roses to convey their message. In Lucknow, students claimed to have been inspired by "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" to do volunteer work, planting trees "to conserve nature which is bound to benefit public health." Mafia don Babloo Srivastava claimed to have been inspired by "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" to distribute roses as a "message of love and peace". In 2008, Indian Greenpeace activists delivered thousands of roses to Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors, to reconsider his plans of building a port at the nesting grounds of olive ridley sea turtles. The "Send Pramod Muthalik a Valentine's Day card" campaign in 2009 was inspired by the film.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: In the United States during July 2007, Aman Kapoor, founder of the" Immigration Voice" forum, initiated a Gandhigiri protest inspired by "Lage Raho Munna Bhai." Over a three-day period, hundreds of flower bouquets were sent to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office by Indians who were legally in the US but caught in a green card backlog. On 17 July, the USCIS reversed the decision that led to the protest.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" revived an interest in books about Gandhi. In particular, demand for Gandhi's autobiography "My Experiments with Truth" increased after the film debuted, including requests from prison inmates. In addition, due to its influence, the film was made tax-free in Mumbai.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: Screened on 10 November 2006 in the United Nations auditorium, "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" was the first Hindi film to be shown at the UN. The film was introduced by Shashi Tharoor, UN Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information. Taran Adarsh of "Bollywood Hungama" observed that, "there was a thunderous applause at the high points of the film, like the pensioner shedding his clothes. The applause at the end of the screening was unending. A vibrant Q&A session followed with director Rajkumar Hirani, writer Abhijat Joshi and actor Boman Irani, who flew to the U.S. for the screening." The "Indo-Asian News Service" (IANS) noted that, "an evening that had started with massive security arrangements in the sombre UN setting, concluded in a festive atmosphere in the lounge of the UN with diplomats from other tables joining in raising a toast for the film." The United Nations General Assembly announced on 15 June 2007 that 2 October, the day of Gandhi's birth (Gandhi Jayanti), was to be "the International Day of Non-Violence."


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: The Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, was given a private screening of "Lage Raho Munna Bhai". After viewing the film, he stated that it "captures Bapu's message about the power of truth and humanism." In a speech during his visit to South Africa, Singh said, "I was heartened to see recently that back home in India the most popular movie this festival season is a film about a young man's discovery of the universal and timeless relevance of the Mahatma's message." Singh announced the creation of a new Public Services Bill to combat corruption in a press release dated 17 November 2006, and cited "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" as one of its influences.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" was further screened at a global judiciary summit in Lucknow in December 2006. After viewing the film, Justice Kenneth Mithyane from South Africa commented, "The movie has re-enlivened the non-violence philosophy practiced by Mahatma Gandhi who continues to remain close to the hearts of the South Africans." Fatima Chouhan, a young member of the South African parliament, noted that, ""Lage Raho Munna Bhai" will be widely appreciated in South Africa. I'm carrying a couple of video discs for my family and friends."


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: It was part of the "Tous Les Cinema du Monde" section of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" was well received as the audience had lined "up in long queues to catch the film that had been strongly recommended in festival reviews [...] not one person who entered the screening left before the end of the 2-hours-30-minutes film." In addition, "the screening of the movie at the festival saw people sitting on the aisles as the theatre was completely packed [...] there was also a big group of French students that clapped till the credits were finished."


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: Several universities held screenings. It was shown on 27 October 2006 at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. The screening was followed by a question and answer session with Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani, and Abhijat Joshi. Filmmaker Gurinder Chadha attended and spoke at the conclusion of the question-and-answer session. The film was screened at Old Dominion University on 20 March 2007 (as a part of Old Dominion University and City of Norfolk OnFilm Festival), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lecture Series Committee on 23 & 24 March 2007, and Harvard Law School on 3 April 2007 (as part of a series on nonviolence).


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: The British DVD of "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" contains a bonus DVD which has a 98-minute 5-part documentary on the making of the film, interviews with members of the cast and crew, and information on the creation of the song and dance numbers. It also has a special feature called "Munna Meets Bapu".


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: "Lage Raho Munna Bhai – The Original Screenplay" was released in December 2009. Published by Om Books International in association with Vinod Chopra Films, it was launched at an event with the original cast and crew. The text includes an introductory note by Abhijat Joshi which details the drafting of the screenplay. It also includes a number of stills from the film as well as character profiles. The film is available on Netflix.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" received critical acclaim upon release. Subhash K. Jha said that "Munna and Circuit, arguably cinema's most adorable and roguish reformists since Laurel and Hardy go about the business of generating humour out of the pathos of the human condition. The sequences, all fiercely and famously path-breaking have us in splits [...] Watch the lovelorn Munna Bhai answer a Gandhian quiz on a phone-in radio quiz with the help of kidnapped professors' it's one of the most comically animated sequences seen in the movies of the new millennium." Taran Adarsh of "Bollywood Hungama" gave the film 4 out 5 stars, describing it as "a sparkling example of qualitative cinema" arguing that it "not only entertains, it also enlightens." Nikhat Kazmi of "The Times of India" observes that "Vidhu Vinod Chopra gives the great Indian family one more let's-go-goodwill-hunting entertainer, even as director Raju Hirani proves that sequels needn't have the been there-done that feel..." Rajeev Masand of "CNN-IBN" gave it 4 out of 5 stars and states: "Like those good old-fashioned Hrishikesh Mukherjee films, it also reinforces the importance of human goodness and basic niceties. Even if you might argue that some of Gandhi's principles seem outdated today, you cannot help but cheer for Munna and his gang as they achieve the impossible with love and kindness. And that is where this film transcends conventional boundaries. It entertains you, yes, but it also makes you yearn for a perfect world. Judge it by any yardstick that you may, "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" emerges a clear winner. Much of that credit must go to its actors who pull out all stops to make it an enjoyable ride." Poonam Joshi of the "BBC" gave 4 out of 5 stars stating that, "everything about this film works [...] It's rare to see a film that bounces between humour and sentiment so seamlessly. And it is rarer still to see characters become etched in the memory so enduringly that audiences become almost protective of them. It's testimony both to the quality of the writing and the performances, that Munna and Circuit have taken on a life of their own." Vinayak Chakravorty of "The Hindustan Times" gave 4 out of 5 stars stating that it "cleverly works its way around the obvious hurdle that almost all sequels face: The film recreates an original milieu without a hint of the déjà-vu downer. And that precisely ranks "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" as one of the best entertainers this year." He commended it for showing "the heights Hindi cinema can scale despite staying within its masala parameters. Lage raho, guys!" Phelim O'Neill of "The Guardian" gave the film 4 out of 5 stars noting that, "as western romantic comedies become more vapid and even stalkerish, this delivers a credible message of peace, while never forgetting to be magnificent entertainment." Shastri Ramachandaran of "The Tribune" wrote, "True, there have been memorable films on Mahatma Gandhi by distinguished directors, namely Richard Attenborough and Shyam Benegal;one offering a respectful cinematic acquaintance and the other being didactic but inspiring. For all their earnestness, neither film stirred the popular imagination like LRM has done now." Vaidyanathan from BBC declared that, ""Lage Raho" is not only as good as MBBS, but much better" calling it "a brilliant emotional roller coaster ride." Jeremy Page of "The Times" discussed its enormous popularity upon release and noted the "serious point [the film made] about the need for tolerance, restraint and self-sacrifice."


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: Other critics offered more negative reviews. Ajit Duara argues in "The Hindu" that "the accomplished cultural sophistication and political genius of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has to be dumbed down to the astoundingly moronic levels of "Lage Raho Munna Bhai."" Filmmaker Jahnu Barua was also critical, stating that "Gandhian philosophy is serious business and "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" is not the right way to show it." Jug Suraiya of "The Times of India" wrote that "thanks to Munna Bhai, at best what exists of Gandhism is Gandhigiri, a watered-down, Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" version of the original."


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: Filmmaker Kabir Khan cited "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" as a model film for him as it "had an issue, but it was never once in your face. Rajkumar Hirani kept it all so subtle and yet conveyed the message so well. It was as commercial as it gets and audiences too were thoroughly entertained. That's the way to make movies because it not just made all parties happy but also had a satisfied director at the end of it all."


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: According to Tushar Gandhi, Gandhi's great-grandson, it introduced the philosophies of Gandhi to a new generation, adding that "Bapu would've spoken the language of Gandhigiri if he were alive today. I really feel this film says something that needs to be told."


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" was the fourth highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2006, earning gross in India alone and was rated a "blockbuster". The film collected a further during 2007 as the film enjoyed a tremendous golden jubilee run playing at a selected 210 cinemas until October of that year, being the only film to achieve this feat since "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" (1995). It was also financially successful overseas, earning gross in the United Kingdom, gross in North America, and gross for the rest of the overseas proceeds, for a total of . Its total worldwide lifetime gross is , the equivalent to just over US$40 million when adjusted for inflation 2016.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" is the recipient of 4 National Film Awards in addition to other awards. Some speculated that it would represent India as an entry for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Although ultimately losing to "Rang De Basanti" as India's official submission, the producers submitted it as an independent entry. However, neither film received an Oscar nomination.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: The music of "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" was composed by Shantanu Moitra and the lyrics were written by Swanand Kirkire. Swanand Kirkire won the National Film Award for Best Lyrics in 2007 for the song "Bande Mein Tha Dum." According to the Indian trade website "Box Office India", with around units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's fourteenth highest-selling.


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: The melody of the track "Pal Pal... Har Pal" was lifted from Cliff Richard and The Shadows song "Theme for a Dream"


title: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

text: Vidhu Vinod Chopra announced on 29 September 2016 that production on the third "Munna Bhai" film starring Dutt in the title role would begin in 2017.


title: Ionosphere

text: The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important role in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere. It has practical importance because, among other functions, it influences radio propagation to distant places on Earth.


title: Ionosphere

text: As early as 1839, the German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss postulated that an electrically conducting region of the atmosphere could account for observed variations of Earth's magnetic field. Sixty years later, Guglielmo Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic radio signal on December 12, 1901, in St. John's, Newfoundland (now in Canada) using a kite-supported antenna for reception. The transmitting station in Poldhu, Cornwall, used a spark-gap transmitter to produce a signal with a frequency of approximately 500 kHz and a power of 100 times more than any radio signal previously produced. The message received was three dits, the Morse code for the letter S. To reach Newfoundland the signal would have to bounce off the ionosphere twice. Dr. Jack Belrose has contested this, however, based on theoretical and experimental work. However, Marconi did achieve transatlantic wireless communications in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, one year later.


title: Ionosphere

text: In 1902, Oliver Heaviside proposed the existence of the Kennelly–Heaviside layer of the ionosphere which bears his name. Heaviside's proposal included means by which radio signals are transmitted around the Earth's curvature. Also in 1902, Arthur Edwin Kennelly discovered some of the ionosphere's radio-electrical properties.


title: Ionosphere

text: In 1912, the U.S. Congress imposed the Radio Act of 1912 on amateur radio operators, limiting their operations to frequencies above 1.5 MHz (wavelength 200 meters or smaller). The government thought those frequencies were useless. This led to the discovery of HF radio propagation via the ionosphere in 1923.


title: Ionosphere

text: In 1926, Scottish physicist Robert Watson-Watt introduced the term "ionosphere" in a letter published only in 1969 in "Nature":


title: Ionosphere

text: In the early 1930s, test transmissions of Radio Luxembourg inadvertently provided evidence of the first radio modification of the ionosphere; HAARP ran a series of experiments in 2017 using the eponymous Luxembourg Effect.


title: Ionosphere

text: Edward V. Appleton was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1947 for his confirmation in 1927 of the existence of the ionosphere. Lloyd Berkner first measured the height and density of the ionosphere. This permitted the first complete theory of short-wave radio propagation. Maurice V. Wilkes and J. A. Ratcliffe researched the topic of radio propagation of very long radio waves in the ionosphere. Vitaly Ginzburg has developed a theory of electromagnetic wave propagation in plasmas such as the ionosphere.


title: Ionosphere

text: In 1962, the Canadian satellite Alouette 1 was launched to study the ionosphere. Following its success were Alouette 2 in 1965 and the two ISIS satellites in 1969 and 1971, further AEROS-A and -B in 1972 and 1975, all for measuring the ionosphere.


title: Ionosphere

text: On July 26, 1963 the first operational geosynchronous satellite Syncom 2 was launched. On board radio beacons on this satellite (and its successors) enabled – for the first time – the measurement of total electron content (TEC) variation along a radio beam from geostationary orbit to an earth receiver. (The rotation of the plane of polarization directly measures TEC along the path.) Australian geophysicist Elizabeth Essex-Cohen from 1969 onwards was using this technique to monitor the atmosphere above Australia and Antarctica.


title: Ionosphere

text: The ionosphere is a shell of electrons and electrically charged atoms and molecules that surrounds the Earth, stretching from a height of about to more than . It exists primarily due to ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.


title: Ionosphere

text: The lowest part of the Earth's atmosphere, the troposphere extends from the surface to about . Above that is the stratosphere, followed by the mesosphere. In the stratosphere incoming solar radiation creates the ozone layer. At heights of above , in the thermosphere, the atmosphere is so thin that free electrons can exist for short periods of time before they are captured by a nearby positive ion. The number of these free electrons is sufficient to affect radio propagation. This portion of the atmosphere is partially "ionized" and contains a plasma which is referred to as the ionosphere.


title: Ionosphere

text: Ultraviolet (UV), X-ray and shorter wavelengths of solar radiation are "ionizing," since photons at these frequencies contain sufficient energy to dislodge an electron from a neutral gas atom or molecule upon absorption. In this process the light electron obtains a high velocity so that the temperature of the created electronic gas is much higher (of the order of thousand K) than the one of ions and neutrals. The reverse process to ionization is recombination, in which a free electron is "captured" by a positive ion. Recombination occurs spontaneously, and causes the emission of a photon carrying away the energy produced upon recombination. As gas density increases at lower altitudes, the recombination process prevails, since the gas molecules and ions are closer together. The balance between these two processes determines the quantity of ionization present.


title: Ionosphere

text: Ionization depends primarily on the Sun and its Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) and X-ray irradiance which varies strongly with solar activity. The more magnetically active the Sun is, the more sunspot active regions there are on the Sun at any one time. Sunspot active regions are the source of increased coronal heating and accompanying increases in EUV and X-ray irradiance, particularly during episodic magnetic eruptions that include solar flares that increase ionization on the sunlit side of the Earth and solar energetic particle events that can increase ionization in the polar regions. Thus the degree of ionization in the ionosphere follows both a diurnal (time of day) cycle and the 11-year solar cycle. There is also a seasonal dependence in ionization degree since the local winter hemisphere is tipped away from the Sun, thus there is less received solar radiation. Radiation received also varies with geographical location (polar, auroral zones, mid-latitudes, and equatorial regions). There are also mechanisms that disturb the ionosphere and decrease the ionization.


title: Ionosphere

text: At night the F layer is the only layer of significant ionization present, while the ionization in the E and D layers is extremely low. During the day, the D and E layers become much more heavily ionized, as does the F layer, which develops an additional, weaker region of ionisation known as the F layer. The F layer persists by day and night and is the main region responsible for the refraction and reflection of radio waves.


title: Ionosphere

text: The D layer is the innermost layer, to above the surface of the Earth. Ionization here is due to Lyman series-alpha hydrogen radiation at a wavelength of 121.6 nanometre (nm) ionizing nitric oxide (NO). In addition, solar flares can generate hard X-rays (wavelength ) that ionize N and O. Recombination rates are high in the D layer, so there are many more neutral air molecules than ions.


title: Ionosphere

text: Medium frequency (MF) and lower high frequency (HF) radio waves are significantly attenuated within the D layer, as the passing radio waves cause electrons to move, which then collide with the neutral molecules, giving up their energy. Lower frequencies experience greater absorption because they move the electrons farther, leading to greater chance of collisions. This is the main reason for absorption of HF radio waves, particularly at 10 MHz and below, with progressively less absorption at higher frequencies. This effect peaks around noon and is reduced at night due to a decrease in the D layer's thickness; only a small part remains due to cosmic rays. A common example of the D layer in action is the disappearance of distant AM broadcast band stations in the daytime.


title: Ionosphere

text: During solar proton events, ionization can reach unusually high levels in the D-region over high and polar latitudes. Such very rare events are known as Polar Cap Absorption (or PCA) events, because the increased ionization significantly enhances the absorption of radio signals passing through the region. In fact, absorption levels can increase by many tens of dB during intense events, which is enough to absorb most (if not all) transpolar HF radio signal transmissions. Such events typically last less than 24 to 48 hours.