title: Massu Engira Masilamani

text: The soundtrack received positive reviews from critics. Behindwoods rated the soundtrack 3.25 out of 5 and said "The successful combination of Venkat Prabhu & Yuvan Shankar Raja strike again, this time with more experimentation and vivacity!" Indiaglitz gave it 3 out of 5 and said, "To quote YSR, the album is 'completely wacky'. Promise of surprise element – check, tribute to Michael Jackson – check, high energy – check... This album is a reviving, soulful and definitely a chart-topper material". Bollywoodlife gave the soundtrack 3 stars out of 5 stating "Yuvan's album has one or two standout numbers like Therikkudhu Masss and Piravi which will stay with you even after a while you are done listening. As for the rest, the songs are not so special or different that would make for an interesting album." Milliblog commented "Masss is the weakest soundtrack among all Venkat Prabhu-Yuvan combos." Moviecrow gave 2.75 out of 5 to the album and stated This album provides the right amount of coolness one would expect from a Yuvan Shankar Raja-Venkat Prabhu collaboration, but it just doesn't pull off the "awe" that these two have been providing all over the years. Not the powerhouse we wanted, but definitely the fun we needed."


title: Massu Engira Masilamani

text: The film was initially scheduled to release in March 2015. However the makers officially announced that the film would be released on 1 May 2015. Later, the makers have postponed the release to avoid clash with Kamal Haasan's "Uttama Villain". On mid-April 2015, the makers confirmed that the film would be released on 15 May 2015. However, to avoid clash with Jyothika's "36 Vayadhinile", which was also produced by Suriya, the makers pushed the release to 29 May 2015.


title: Massu Engira Masilamani

text: The film was released in around 1900 screens worldwide, including 425 screens in Tamil Nadu, 570 screens in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 143 screens in Kerala, 100 screens in Karnataka, 140 screens in North India and nearly 600 plus screens in overseas territories, thus becoming the biggest release in Suriya's career.


title: Massu Engira Masilamani

text: The worldwide distribution rights of "Masss" were sold to Eros International for approximately . Dream Factory, a subsidiary of Studio Green was confirmed to distribute the film in Tamil Nadu. Sopnam Films bought the Kerala distribution rights for "Masss" as well as two other Studio Green productions, "Komban" and "Darling". The rights to Karnataka region were sold to distributor Srikanth.


title: Massu Engira Masilamani

text: The first poster of "Masss" was released on 22 October 2014, coinciding with the Deepavali festival. The official teaser was released on 25 April 2015 after midnight.


title: Massu Engira Masilamani

text: Upon release, "Behindwoods" gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5 and said, "It has the expected Venkat Prabhu elements, the crowd-pleasing supernatural factors treated in a slightly different way and of course, Suriya in all his glory." "International Business Times" also awarded the film 3.5 stars and said, "One thing obvious throughout the film is the effort taken by the director to make his movie watchable for audience of all age groups. It has romance, some spooky elements, comedy, witty one-liners, action, songs and dance." "Oneindia" rated it 3 stars as well and wrote, "Thanks to Suriya's brilliant performance and Venkat Prabhu's intriguing story telling ability, "Masss" will surely be enjoyed by the masses albeit poor VFX hindering the quality of the movie." "Indiaglitz" gave 3 stars out of 5 too and stated, "Venkat Prabhu has been stereotyped as the director who loves party hard movies, a bit of adult humor and all that, but in "Masss" he has steered clear of those elements and has given a wholesome family entertainer with an interesting storyline." "The Times of India" also rated the film 3 out of 5 and added, "The film lacks the raciness of "Biriyani" or "Mankatha", but there is enough inventiveness and "joie de vivre" to the scenes to keep us entertained.""Sify" rated 3.5 out of 5 and described "Massu Engira Masilamani" as "a no-holds-barred entertainer with all the essential ingredients." "Rediff" gave the film 3.5 stars on a scale of 5 and commented, "There is non-stop excitement, with all the characters in the film being on some kind of high, literally bursting with energy." "Deccan Chronicle" rated the film 3.5 out of 5 as well, saying that "the film drives up to an intersection where one sign says horror and another, entertainment, and firmly decides on the latter while paying just a passing reference to the former." "The Economic Times" also gave the film 3.5 stars and wrote, "The paranormal twist in "Massu..." is what keeps you interested but there are too many twists; some predictable and some good." Writing for "The Hindu", Baradwaj Rangan stated, "The idea behind the supernaturally themed "Massu" is terrific, even it feels like a mashup of many spirit-driven films...the thing with Venkat Prabhu's films these days...(is)...they're all ideas and no follow-through...It's only in the last hour or so that "Massu" begins to score." Malini Mannath from "The New Indian Express" wrote, "Not very funny, not very scary, and not very original, Venkat Prabhu's attempt at crafting his first supernatural-comic-vendetta flick, turns out to be a disappointing and a boring affair...The director weaves in a hotchpotch of situations, the screenplay is sloppy and narration is jerky. The characters are one too many and the genuinely appreciative moments are few and far between."


title: Massu Engira Masilamani

text: "Masss" collected 16.5 crores on its first day in Tamil Nadu alone, where the collection of next two days were 4.90 crore and 75 crore taking its first weekend gross to 95 crore in Tamil Nadu and collected nearly 30 crores in Kerala on its first weekend. It collected 1 crore from Bangalore alone on its first day, the Telugu version "Rakshasudu" collected nearly 40 crore on its first two days in AP-Nizam centres.


title: Massu Engira Masilamani

text: The film grossed around worldwide in its opening weekend, including net in Tamil Nadu alone with 18.4 million from Chennai alone. From the overseas markets, it reportedly earned in its first three days. The film has grossed approximately worldwide from both Tamil and Telugu versions in its lifetime, not adding the entertainment tax in India.


title: Andy Irons

text: Philip Andrew Irons (July 24, 1978November 2, 2010) was an American professional surfer. Irons began surfing with his brother Bruce on the shallow and dangerous waves of Kauai, Hawaii, before being spotted by a local surfboard brand and flown to North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii, to compete and develop his skill.


title: Andy Irons

text: Over the course of his professional career, he won three world titles (2002, 2003, 2004), three Quiksilver Pro France titles (2003, 2004, 2005), two Rip Curl Pro Search titles (2006 and 2007), and 20 elite-tour victories, including the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing four times from 2002 to 2006. He has won at nearly every venue on the ASP calendar, only missing Gold Coast, Brazil, and Portugal.


title: Andy Irons

text: His younger brother, Bruce Irons, is a former competitor on the World Championship Tour of Surfing. During his childhood, Andy regularly lost to Bruce in contests, but that changed once he entered the World Championship Tour. During his professional career, he won three world titles (2002, 2003, 2004), three Quiksilver Pro France titles (2003, 2004, 2005), two Rip Curl Pro Search titles (2006 and 2007) and 20 elite-tour victories, including the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing four times from 2002 to 2006. On September 3, 2010, he won the Billabong Pro Teahupoo in Tahiti.


title: Andy Irons

text: In 2009, Irons withdrew from doing the full ASP World Tour season for personal reasons, though he did participate in a few events. He requested a wildcard entry for the 2010 ASP World Tour season, which was granted by ASP President Wayne Bartholomew. As a result, Irons did not have to re-qualify in 2010 via the World Qualifying Series (WQS). Irons won the Billabong Pro Tahiti 2010.


title: Andy Irons

text: He was inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach, California, in 2008. The Governor of Hawaii declared February 13 forever "Andy Irons Day". He was the only surfer to have won a title at every venue on the ASP calendar.


title: Andy Irons

text: Irons died on November 2, 2010. He was found lying in bed on his back with the sheets pulled up to his chin by two hotel staff after he had failed to respond to knocks on the door and they went in to investigate.


title: Andy Irons

text: The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office concludes that Irons died from a cardiac arrest due to a severe blockage of a main artery of the heart. The official autopsy report lists also a second cause of death as "acute mixed drug ingestion", listing alprazolam, methadone, benzoylecgonine (a metabolite of cocaine), and traces of methamphetamine as the drugs found in Andy's body at the time of his death. Initial press releases cited Dengue fever as the cause of Irons' death; however, the autopsy report conducted by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's office were negative for Dengue and other flavivirus. It is unclear why rumors that Dengue fever contributed to Irons' death proliferated.


title: Andy Irons

text: In response to Irons' death, a World Championship Tour event in Puerto Rico was postponed for two days with competitors holding a "paddle out" memorial service for Irons. Irons had withdrawn from the event citing ill health and was flying back to his home in Hawaii during a stopover in Grapevine, Texas, near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. He had reportedly stopped in Miami after leaving Puerto Rico, and early reports said he was put on a saline drip. He was reported to have been vomiting on the Hawaii-bound plane before being removed prior to takeoff. In the days immediately following his death, it was reported that in Dallas, an extremely ill Irons had attempted to board his connecting flight to Honolulu at 11:30 a.m. but was turned away at an American Airlines gate—a claim the company denies.


title: Andy Irons

text: A memorial service was held November 14, 2010, in Hanalei Bay, Kauai. His wife, Lyndie, and brother, Bruce, scattered his ashes outside Hanalei Bay, where thousands of family, friends, and admirers said their last goodbyes.


title: Andy Irons

text: Friend and rival surfer Kelly Slater dedicated his November 6, 2010, victory to Irons. "I just want to send my condolences to Andy's family," Slater said:


title: Andy Irons

text: Slater also wrote a candid remembrance honoring the life of Andy Irons on the anniversary of his death; it was also the same day that Slater claimed his 11th ASP World Title in San Francisco.


title: Andy Irons

text: Irons married Lyndie Dupuis on November 25, 2007, in Princeville, Kauai. She was seven months pregnant with their first child at the time of his death. Lyndie gave birth to their son, Andy Axel Irons, in Kauai on the opening day of the Pipeline Masters in Memory of Andy Irons on December 8, 2010. Lyndie and Axel continue to live on Kauai, where she and Andy shared a home.


title: Andy Irons

text: The 2018 movie "Andy Irons: Kissed by God" (directed by adventure-sport documentarians Steve and Todd Jones) is about the three-time world champion who died at 32 after a lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder and addiction. The film features in-depth interviews with Andy's brother Bruce Irons, his wife Lyndie Irons, Joel Parkinson, Nathan Fletcher, Sunny Garcia, and Kelly Slater.


title: Andy Irons

text: The 2005 movie "Blue Horizon" (directed by surfing filmmaker Jack McCoy) paralleled his life on the WCT tour with that of free surfer David Rastovich. The film also touched on his long-time rivalry with 11-time world champion Kelly Slater. Although the film was created in a documentary-like style, there has been some debate over whether or not the film offered an accurate and fair portrayal of Irons' surfing lifestyle.


title: Andy Irons

text: In addition to "Blue Horizon", Irons was also a subject of many other surf films, including his screen appearance in"Trilogy", which starred himself, Joel Parkinson, and Taj Burrow.


title: Andy Irons

text: Irons had a much-publicized, and, according to him, overhyped, rivalry with fellow professional surfer Kelly Slater. In an interview, Irons said:


title: Andy Irons

text: For me, just being affiliated with Kelly--to be next to him--I mean, that's awesome. He's the ultimate surfer. He's the best surfer in the world. Ever. Best competitive, best free surfer, you name it, and to have my name put next to his everywhere really is flattering. He's the Michael Jordan of our sport. Kelly knows how I feel about him. Despite all the media hype that comes out of a rivalry there's a lot of respect given both ways. People don't realize there are times when we hang out. We'll go check the waves together. We talk about boards. He invited me personally to his contest on Tavarua. There's a ton of respect there.


title: Andy Irons

text: Andy was an absolutely gifted individual. I’m lucky to have known him and had the times we had together. I feel blessed that we worked through the differences we had and I was able to learn what I’m made of because of Andy. I got to know a happy, funny, innocent kid who was happy to live every second with the people he loved. I’m so sad. My thoughts are with Bruce and Lyndie and their parents and all of his many friends around the world. It’s a huge and far too premature loss for all of us. He was the most intense competitor I’ve ever known and one of the most sensitive people. He had so much life left in him and it hurts to think about. We look forward to his memory living on with our memories of him and his child on the way. There are a lot of uncles awaiting his arrival. I really miss Andy. He had a really good heart.


title: Andy Irons

text: A 2018 documentary titled "Andy Irons: Kissed by God" chronicled Irons' surfing career and his struggles with bipolar disorder and substance abuse.


title: Andy Irons

text: Irons' family runs the Andy Irons Foundation in his memory which focuses on community programs for youth struggling with mental illness. In 2019, Metallica and Billabong released the "Metallica x AI Forever" collection, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Andy Irons Foundation. Irons had previously collaborated with Metallica and Billabong for a clothing collection in 2007.


title: Funeral director

text: A funeral director, also known as an undertaker (British English) or mortician (American English), is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as well as the arrangements for the funeral ceremony (although not the directing and conducting of the funeral itself unless clergy are not present). Funeral directors may at times be asked to perform tasks such as dressing (in garments usually suitable for daily wear), casketing (placing the corpse in the coffin), and (applying any sort of cosmetic or substance to the best viewable areas of the corpse for the purpose of enhancing its appearance). A funeral director may work at a funeral home or be an independent employee.


title: Funeral director

text: The term mortician is derived from the Roman word "mort-" (“death”) + "-ician". In 1895, the trade magazine "The Embalmers' Monthly" put out a call for a new name for the profession in the US to distance itself from the title "undertaker", a term that was then perceived to have been tarnished by its association with death. The term "Mortician" was the winning entry.


title: Funeral director

text: As the societal need to account for the dead and their survivors is as ancient as civilization itself, death care is among the world's oldest professions. Ancient Egypt is a probable pioneer in supporting full-time morticians; intentional mummification began 2600 BC, with the best-preserved mummies dating to 1570 to 1075 BC. Specialized priests spent 70 full days on a single corpse. Only royalty, nobility and wealthy commoners could afford the service, considered an essential part of accessing eternal life.


title: Funeral director

text: Across successive cultures, religion remained a prime motive for securing a body against decay and/or arranging burial in a planned manner; some considered the fate of departed souls to be fixed and unchangeable (e.g., ancient Mesopotamia) and considered care for a grave to be more important than the actual burial.


title: Funeral director

text: In ancient Rome, wealthy individuals trusted family to care for their corpse, but funeral rites would feature professional mourners: most often actresses who would announce the presence of the funeral procession by wailing loudly. Other paid actors would don the masks of ancestors and recreate their personalities, dramatizing the exploits of their departed scion. These purely ceremonial undertakers of the day nonetheless had great religious and societal impact; a larger number of actors indicated greater power and wealth for the deceased and their family.


title: Funeral director

text: Modern ideas about proper preservation of the dead for the benefit of the living arose in the European Age of Enlightenment. Dutch scientist Frederik Ruysch's work attracted the attention of royalty and legitimized postmortem anatomy. Most importantly, Ruysch developed injected substances and waxes that could penetrate the smallest vessels of the body and seal them against decay.


title: Funeral director

text: Historically, from ancient Egypt to Greece and Rome to the early United States, women typically did all of the preparation of dead bodies. They were called "Layers out of the dead". Mid nineteenth century, gender roles within funeral service in the United States began to change. Late nineteenth century it became a male dominated industry with the development of Funeral Directors, which changed the funeral industry both locally and nationally.


title: Funeral director

text: As recently as 2003, 15 percent of corporately owned funeral homes are owned by one of three corporations. The majority of morticians work in small, independent family-run funeral homes. The owner usually hires two or three other morticians to help them. Often, this hired help is in the family, perpetuating the family's ownership. Other firms that were family-owned have been acquired and are operated by large corporations such as Service Corporation International, though such homes usually trade under their pre-acquisition names.


title: Funeral director

text: Most funeral homes have one or more viewing rooms, a preparation room for embalming, a chapel, and a casket selection room. They usually have a hearse for transportation of bodies, a flower car, and limousines. They also normally sell caskets and urns.


title: Funeral director

text: Licensing requirements in the US are determined at the state level. . Most require a combination of post-secondary education (typically an associate's degree), passage of a National Board Examination, passage of a state board examination, and one to two years' work as an apprentice.


title: Funeral director

text: The role that a funeral director will play in the UK includes most of the administrative duties and arrangement of funeral service, including flower arrangements, meeting with family members, overseeing the funeral and burial service. This does not include embalming or cremation of the body until further training is completed.


title: Funeral director

text: There are national organizations such as the British Institute of Funeral Directors (BIFD), the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) and the Society of Allied and Independent Funeral directors (SAIF)


title: Funeral director

text: The BIFD offers a licence to funeral directors who have obtained a diploma-level qualification - these diplomas are offered by both the BIFD and NAFD.


title: Funeral director

text: All of the national organizations offer voluntary membership of "best practice" standards schemes, which includes regular premises inspection and adherence to a specific 'code of conduct'


title: Funeral director

text: These organizations help funeral directors demonstrate that they are committed to continual personal development and they have no issue with regulation should it become a legal requirement [13].


title: Funeral director

text: The role of a funeral director in Canada can include embalming, sales, oversight of funeral services as well as other aspects of needed funeral services.


title: Funeral director

text: A funeral director in Canada will assume many responsibilities after proper education and licensing. Courses will include science and biology, ethics, and practical techniques of embalming. There are a number of organizations available to Canadian funeral directors.


title: Culture of Iran

text: The culture of Iran () or culture of Persia is among the most influential in the world. Iran, also known as Persia, is widely considered to be one of the cradles of civilization. Due to its dominant geopolitical position in the world, it has heavily influenced peoples and cultures situated as far away as Southern Europe and Eastern Europe to the west; Central Asia to the north; the Arabian Peninsula to the south; and South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia to the east. Iranian history has had a significant impact on the world through art, architecture, poetry, science and technology, medicine, philosophy, and engineering.


title: Culture of Iran

text: An eclectic cultural elasticity has been said to be one of the key defining characteristics of the Iranian identity and a clue to its historical longevity. Richard N. Frye, a prominent Iranologist, stresses the high-level historical impact of Iranian culture in his 2005 book "Greater Iran: A 20th-century Odyssey":


title: Culture of Iran

text: Furthermore, Iran's culture has manifested itself in several facets throughout the history of the Iranian Plateau as well as of the South Caucasus, Central Asia, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Iran has one of the oldest, richest and most influential art heritages in the world which encompasses many disciplines including literature, music, dance, architecture, painting, weaving, pottery, calligraphy, metalworking and stonemasonry.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Iranian art has gone through numerous phases, which is evident from the unique aesthetics of Iran. From the Elamite Chogha Zanbil to the Median and Achaemenid reliefs of Persepolis to the mosaics of Bishapur.


title: Culture of Iran

text: The Islamic Golden Age brought drastic changes to the styles and practice of the arts. However, each Iranian dynasty had its own particular foci, building upon the previous dynasty's, all of which during their times were heavily influential in shaping the cultures of the world then and today.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Several languages are spoken throughout Iran. Languages from the Iranian, Turkic, and Semitic language families are spoken across Iran. According to the CIA Factbook, 78% of Iranians speaks an Iranian language as their native tongue, 18% speak a Turkic language as their native tongue and 2% speak a Semitic language as their native tongue while the remaining 2% speak languages from various other groups. Although the Azerbaijanis speak a Turkic language, due to their culture, history and genetics, they are often associated with the Iranian peoples.


title: Culture of Iran

text: The predominant language and national language of Iran is Persian, which is spoken fluently across the country. Azerbaijani is spoken primarily and widely in the northwest, Kurdish and Luri are spoken primarily in the west, Mazandarani and Gilaki spoken in the regions along the Caspian Sea, Arabic primarily in the Persian Gulf coastal regions, Balochi primarily in the southeast, and Turkmen primarily in northern border regions. Smaller languages spread in other regions notably include Talysh, Georgian, Armenian, Assyrian, and Circassian, amongst others.


title: Culture of Iran

text: "Ethnologue" estimates that there are 86 Iranian languages, the largest among them being Persian, Pashto, and the Kurdish dialect continuum with an estimated 150-200 million native speakers of the Iranian languages worldwide. Dialects of Persian are sporadically spoken throughout the region from China to Syria to Russia, though mainly in the Iranian Plateau.


title: Culture of Iran

text: The literature of Iran is one of the world's oldest and most celebrated literatures, spanning over 2500 years from the many Achaemenid inscriptions, such as the Behistun inscription, to the celebrated Iranian poets of the Islamic Golden Age and Modern Iran. Iranian literature has been described as one of the great literature's of humanity and one of the four main bodies of world literature. Distinguished Professor L.P. Elwell-Sutton described the literature of the Persian language as "one of the richest poetic literatures of the world".


title: Culture of Iran

text: Very few literary works of Pre-Islamic Iran have survived, due partly to the destruction of the libraries of Persepolis by Alexander of Macedon during the era of the Achaemenids and subsequent invasion of Iran by the Arabs in 641, who sought to eradicate all non-Quranic texts. This resulted in all Iranian libraries being destroyed, books either being burnt or thrown into rivers. The only way that Iranians could protect these books was to bury them but many of the texts were forgotten over time. As soon as circumstances permitted, the Iranians wrote books and assembled libraries.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Iranian literature encompasses a variety of literature in the languages used in Iran. Modern Iranian literature includes Persian literature, Azerbaijani literature, Kurdish literature and the literature of the remaining minority languages. Persian is the predominant and official language of Iran and throughout Iran's history, it has been the nation's most influential literary language. The Persian language has been often dubbed as the most worthy language of the world to serve as a conduit for poetry. Azerbaijani literature has also had a profound effect on Iran's literature with it being developed highly after Iran's first reunification in 800 years under the Safavid Empire, whose rulers themselves wrote poetry. There remain a few literary works of the extinct Iranian language of Old Azeri that was used in Azerbaijan prior to the linguistic Turkification of the people of the region. Kurdish literature has also had a profound impact on the literature of Iran with it incorporating the various Kurdish dialects that are spoken throughout the Middle East. The earliest works of Kurdish literature are those of the 16th-century poet Malaye Jaziri.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Some notable greats of Iranian poetry which have had major global influence include the likes of Ferdowsi, Sa'di, Hafiz, Attar, Nezami, Rumi and Omar Khayyam. These poets have inspired the likes of Goethe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and many others.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Contemporary Iranian literature has been influenced by classical Persian poetry, but also reflects the particularities of modern-day Iran, through writers such as Houshang Moradi-Kermani, the most translated modern Iranian author, and poet Ahmad Shamlou.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Iranian music has directly influenced the cultures of West Asia, Central Asia, Europe and South Asia. It has mainly influenced and built up much of the musical terminology of the neighboring Turkic and Arabic cultures, and reached India through the 16th-century Persianate Mughal Empire, whose court promoted new musical forms by bringing Iranian musicians.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Iran is the place of origin of complex instruments, with the instruments dating back to the third millennium BC. A number of trumpets made of silver, gold, and copper were found in eastern Iran that are attributed to the Oxus civilization and date back between 2200 and 1750 BC. The use of both vertical and horizontal angular harps have been documented at the archaeological sites of Madaktu (650 BC) and Kul-e Fara (900–600 BC), with the largest collection of Elamite instruments documented at Kul-e Fara. Multiple depictions of horizontal harps were also sculpted in Assyrian palaces, dating back between 865 and 650 BC.


title: Culture of Iran

text: The reign of Sassanian ruler Khosrow II is regarded as a "golden age" for Iranian music. Sassanid music is where many the many music cultures of the world trace their distant origins to. The court of Khosrow II hosted a number of prominent musicians, including Azad, Bamshad, Barbad, Nagisa, Ramtin, and Sarkash. Among these attested names, Barbad is remembered in many documents and has been named as remarkably high skilled. He was a poet-musician who developed modal music, may have invented the lute and the musical tradition that was to transform into the forms of dastgah and maqam. He has been credited to have organized a musical system consisting of seven "royal modes" ("xosrovāni"), 30 derived modes ("navā"), and 360 melodies ("dāstān").


title: Culture of Iran

text: The academic classical music of Iran, in addition to preserving melody types that are often attributed to Sassanian musicians, is based on the theories of sonic aesthetics as expounded by the likes of Iranian musical theorists in the early centuries of after the Muslim conquest of the Sasanian Empire, most notably Avicenna, Farabi, Qotb-ed-Din Shirazi, and Safi-ed-Din Urmawi.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Iran has a rich and ancient dance culture which extends to the sixth millennium BC. Dances from ancient artifacts, excavated at the archaeological pre-historic sites of Iran, portray a vibrant culture that mixes different forms of dances for all occasions. In conjunction with music, the artifacts depicted actors, dancers and ordinary people dancing in plays, dramas, celebrations, mourning and religious rituals with equipment such as costumes of animals or plants, masks and surrounding objects. As time progressed, this culture of dance began to develop and flourish.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Iran is a multi-ethnic nation. Although the cultures of its ethnic groups are very similar and in most areas near identical, each has their own distinct and specific dance style. Iran possesses four categories of dance with these being: group dances, solo improvisational dance, war or combat dances and spiritual dances.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Typically, the group dances are often unique and named after the region or the ethnic groups with which they are associated with. These dances can be chain dances involving a group or the more common group dances mainly performed at festive occasions like weddings and Noruz celebrations which focus less on communal line or circle dances and more on solo improvisational forms, with each dancer interpreting the music in her own special way but within a specific range of dance vocabulary sometimes blending other dance styles or elements.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Solo dances are usually reconstructions of the historical and court dances of the various Iranian dynasties throughout history, with the most common types being that of the Safavid and Qajar dynasties due to them being relatively newer. These often are improvisational dances and utilize delicate, graceful movements of the hands and arms, such as wrist circles.


title: Culture of Iran

text: War or Combat dances, imitate combat or help to train the warrior. It could be argued that men from the Zurkhaneh ("House of Strength") and their ritualized, wrestling-training movements are known as a type of dance called "Raghs-e-Pa" with the dances and actions done in the Zurkhaneh also resembling that of a martial art.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Spiritual dances in Iran are known as "sama". There are various types of these spiritual dances which are used for spiritual purposes such as ridding the body of ill omens and evil spirits. These dances involve trance, music and complex movements. An example of such dance is that of the Balochi's called "le'b gowati", which is performed to rid a supposedly possessed person of the possessing spirit. In the Balochi language, the term "gowati" refers to psychologically ill patients who have recovered through music and dance.


title: Culture of Iran

text: The earliest researched dances from Iran is a dance worshiping Mithra, the Zoroastrian angelic divinity of covenant, light, and oath, which was used commonly by the Roman Cult of Mithra. One of the cult's ceremonies involved the sacrifice of a bull followed by a dance that promoted vigor in life. The Cult of Mithra were active from the 1st Century CE to the 4th Century CE and worshiped a mystery religion inspired by the Iranian worship of Mithra. It was a rival of Christianity in the Roman Empire and was eventually suppressed in the 4th Century CE by Roman authorities in favor of Christianity. This was done in order to counter the greater Iranian cultural influence that was expanding throughout the Roman empire. The cult was highly adhered and respected throughout the Roman Empire with it center in Rome, and was popular throughout the western half of the empire, as far south as Roman Africa and Numidia, as far north as Roman Britain, and to a lesser extent in Roman Syria in the east.


title: Culture of Iran

text: The history of Iranian architecture dates back to at least 5,000 BC with characteristic examples distributed over a vast area from Turkey and Iraq to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to the South Caucasus and Zanzibar. Currently, there are 19 UNESCO designated World Heritage Sites that were designed and constructed by Iranians, with 11 of them being located outside of Iran. Iranian architecture displays a great variety of both structure and aesthetics and despite the repeated trauma of destructive invasions and cultural shocks, the Iranian zeal and identity has always triumphed and flourished. In turn, it has greatly influenced the architecture of its invaders from the Greeks to the Arabs to the Turks.


title: Culture of Iran

text: The traditional theme of Iranian architecture is cosmic symbolism, which depicts the communication and participation of man with the powers of heaven. This theme has not only given continuity and longevity to the architecture of Iran, but has been a primary source of its emotional character of the nation as well. Iranian architecture ranges from simple structures to "some of the most majestic structures the world has ever seen".


title: Culture of Iran

text: Iranian architectural style is the combination of intensity and simplicity to form immediacy, while ornament and, often, subtle proportions reward sustained observation. Iranian architecture makes use of abundant symbolic geometry, using pure forms such as the circle and square, and plans are based on often symmetrical layouts featuring rectangular courtyards and halls. The paramount virtues of Iranian architecture are: "a marked feeling for form and scale; structural inventiveness, especially in vault and dome construction; a genius for decoration with a freedom and success not rivaled in any other architecture".


title: Culture of Iran

text: The traditional architecture of Iran throughout the ages is categorized into 2 families and six following classes or styles. The two categories are Zoroastrian and Islamic, which references the eras of Pre-Islamic and Post-Islamic Iran, and the six styles, in order of their era, are: Parsian, Parthian Khorasani, Razi, Azari, Esfahani. The pre-Islamic styles draw on 3000 to 4000 years of architectural development from the various civilizations of the Iranian plateau. The post-Islamic architecture of Iran in turn, draws ideas from its pre-Islamic predecessor, and has geometrical and repetitive forms, as well as surfaces that are richly decorated with glazed tiles, carved stucco, patterned brickwork, floral motifs, and calligraphy.


title: Culture of Iran

text: In addition to historic gates, palaces, bridges, buildings and religious sites which highlight the highly developed supremacy of the Iranian art of architecture, Iranian gardens are also an example of Iran's cosmic symbolism and unique style of combining intensity and simplicity for form immediacy. There are currently 14 Iranian gardens that are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, with 5 of them being located outside of Iran. The traditional style of Iranian gardens are to represent an earthly paradise or a heaven on Earth. From the time of the Achaemenid Empire, the idea of an earthly paradise spread through Iranian literature to other cultures, with the word for paradise in the Iranian languages of Avestan, Old Persian and Median, spreading to languages across the world. The style and design of the Iranian garden greatly influenced the garden styles of countries from Spain to Italy and Greece to India, with some notable examples of such gardens being the gardens of the Alhambra in Spain, Humayun's Tomb and the Taj Mahal in India, the Hellenistic gardens of the Seleucid Empire and the Ptolemies in Alexandria.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Zoroastrianism was the national faith of Iran for more than a millennium before the Arab conquest. It has had an immense influence on Iranian philosophy, culture and art after the people of Iran converted to Islam. The Persian Samanid dynasty made great attempts to spread the Islamic faith in the 9th and 10th century while promoting a Persian cultural revival. Until the 16th century, Iran was majority Sunni ushering a golden age of the arts and sciences. In 1501 the Safavid dynasty took control of Iran and made Shia Islam the state religion, with this being one of the most important events in Islamic history.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Today of the 98% of Muslims living in Iran, around 89% are Shi'a and only around 9% are Sunni. This is quite the opposite trend of the percentage distribution of Shi'a to Sunni Islam followers in the rest of the Muslim population from state to state (primarily in the Middle East) and throughout the rest of the world.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Followers of the Baháʼí Faith form the largest non-Muslim minority in Iran. Baháʼís are scattered throughout small communities in Iran, although there seems to be a large population of Baháʼís in Tehran. The Iranian government actively pursues the persecution of Baháʼís.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Followers of the Christian faith consist of around 250,000 Armenians, around 32,000 Assyrians, and a small number of Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant Iranians that have been converted by missionaries in earlier centuries. Thus, Christians that live in Iran are primarily descendants of indigenous Christians that were converted during the 19th and 20th centuries. Judaism is an officially recognized faith in Iran, and in spite of the hostilities between Iran and Israel over the Palestinian issue, the millennia-old Jewish community in Iran enjoys the right to practice their religion freely as well as a dedicated seat in parliament to a representative member of their faith. In addition to Christianity and Judaism, Zoroastrianism is another officially recognized religion in Iran, although followers of this faith do not hold a large population in Iran. In addition, although there have been isolated incidences of prejudice against Zoroastrians, most followers of this faith have not been persecuted for being followers of this faith.


title: Culture of Iran

text: The Persian year begins in the vernal equinox: if the astronomical vernal equinox comes before noon, then the present day is the first day of the Persian year. If the equinox falls after noon, then the next day is the official first day of the Persian year. The Persian Calendar, which is the official calendar of Iran, is a solar calendar with a starting point that is the same as the Islamic calendar. According to the Iran Labor Code, Friday is the weekly day of rest. Government official working hours are from Saturday to Wednesday (from 8 am to 4 pm).


title: Culture of Iran

text: Although the date of certain holidays in Iran are not exact (due to the calendar system they use, most of these holidays are around the same time), some of the major public holidays in Iran include Oil Nationalization Day (20 March). Yalda (which is the longest night of the year) (21 December), Nowrooz—which is the Iranian equivalent of New Years (20 March), the Prophet's Birthday and Imam Sadeq (4 June), and the Death of Imam Khomeini (5 June). Additional holidays include The Anniversary of the Uprising Against the Shah (30 January), Ashoura (11 February), Victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution (20 January), Sizdah-Bedar—Public Outing Day to end Nowrooz (1 April), and Islamic Republic Day (2 April).


title: Culture of Iran

text: There are two stages in a typical wedding ritual in Iran. Usually, both phases take place in one day. The first stage is known as "Aghd", which is basically the legal component of marriage in Iran. In this process, the bride and groom, as well as their respective guardians, sign a marriage contract. This phase usually takes place in the bride's home. After this legal process is over, the second phase, "Jashn-e Aroosi" takes place. In this step, which is basically the wedding reception, where actual feasts and celebrations are held, typically lasts from about 3–7 days. The ceremony takes place in a decorated room with flowers and a beautifully decorated spread on the floor. This spread is typically passed down from mother to daughter and is composed of very nice fabric such as "Termeh" (cashmere), "Atlas" (gold embroidered satin), or "Abrisham" (silk).


title: Culture of Iran

text: Items are placed on this spread: a Mirror (of fate), two Candelabras (representing the bride and groom and their bright future), a tray of seven multi-colored herbs and spices (including poppy seeds, wild rice, angelica, salt, nigella seeds, black tea, and frankincense). These herbs and spices play specific roles ranging from breaking spells and witchcraft, to blinding the evil eye, to burning evil spirits. In addition to these herbs/spices, a special baked and decorated flatbread, a basket of decorated eggs, decorated almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts (in their shell to represent fertility), a basket of pomegranates/apples (for a joyous future as these fruits are considered divine), a cup of rose water (from special Persian roses)—which helps perfume the air, a bowl made out of sugar (apparently to sweeten life for the newlywed couple), and a brazier holding burning coals and sprinkled with wild rue (as a way to keep the evil eye away and to purify the wedding ritual) are placed on the spread as well. Finally, there are additional items that must be placed on the spread, including a bowl of gold coins (to represent wealth and prosperity), a scarf/shawl made of silk/fine fabric (to be held over the bride and groom's head at certain points in the ceremony), two sugar cones—which are ground above the bride and groom's head, thus symbolizing sweetness/happiness, a cup of honey (to sweeten life), a needle and seven strands of colored thread (the shawl that is held above the bride and groom's head is sewn together with the string throughout the ceremony), and a copy of the couple's Holy Book (other religions require different texts); but all of these books symbolize God's blessing for the couple.


title: Culture of Iran

text: An early age in marriage—especially for brides—is a long documented feature of marriage in Iran. While the people of Iran have been trying to legally change this practice by implementing a higher minimum in marriage, there have been countless blocks to such an attempt. Although the average age of women being married has increased by about five years in the past couple decades, young girls being married is still common feature of marriage in Iran—even though there is an article in the Iranian Civil Code that forbid the marriage of women younger than 15 years of age and males younger than 18 years of age.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Iranians were some of the first people in history to weave carpets. First deriving from the notion of basic need, the Persian rug started out as a simple/pure weave of fabric that helped nomadic people living in ancient Iran stay warm from the cold, damp ground. As time progressed, the complexity and beauty of rugs increased to a point where rugs are now bought as decorative pieces.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Because of the long history of fine silk and wool rug weaving in Iran, Persian rugs are world-renowned as some of the most beautiful, intricately designed rugs available. Around various places in Iran, rugs seem to be some of the most prized possessions of the local people. Iran currently produces more rugs and carpets than all other countries in the world put together.


title: Culture of Iran

text: With 300 international awards in the past 10 years, Iranian films continue to be celebrated worldwide. The best known Persian directors are Abbas Kiarostami, Majid Majidi, Jafar Panahi and Asghar Farhadi.


title: Culture of Iran

text: There is a resurgence of interest in Iranian contemporary artists and in artists from the larger Iranian diaspora. Key notables include Shirin Aliabadi, Mohammed Ehsai, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, Golnaz Fathi, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Parastou Forouhar, Pouran Jinchi, Farhad Moshiri, Shirin Neshat, Parviz Tanavoli, Y. Z. Kami, and Charles Hossein Zenderoudi.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Cuisine in Iran is considered to be one of the most ancient forms of cuisine around the world. Bread is arguably the most important food in Iran, with a large variety of different bread, some of the most popular of which include: nan and hamir, which are baked in large clay ovens (also called "tenurs"). In Iranian cuisine, there are many dishes that are made from dairy products. One of the most popular of which includes yoghurt ("mast")—which has a specific fermentation process that is widely put to use amongst most Iranians. In addition, mast is used to make soup and is vital in the production of oil. In addition to these dairy products, Iranian cuisine involves a lot of dishes cooked from rice. Some popular rice dishes include boiled rice with a variety of ingredients such as meats, vegetables, and seasonings ("plov") including dishes like chelo-horesh, shish kebab with rice, chelo-kebab, rice with lamb, meatballs with rice, and kofte (plain boiled rice). In addition, Iranian cuisine is famous for its sweets. One of the most famous of which includes "baklava" with almonds, cardamom, and egg yolks. Iranian sweets typically involve the use of honey, cinnamon, lime juice, and sprouted wheat grain. One very popular dessert drink in Iran, "sherbet sharbat-portagal", is made from a mixture of orange peel and orange juice boiled in thin sugar syrup and diluted with rose water. Just like the people of many Middle Eastern countries the most preferred drink of the people of Iran is tea (without milk) or "kakhve-khana".


title: Culture of Iran

text: Since the 1979 Revolution, Iranian women have lost almost all their rights that was gained in 1962 under the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Many restrictive and legal measures are imposed since 1979, including mandatory Hijab. By law, women's testimony in court are half of the men under the rule of the Islamic Regime, the age of marriage is 9, and marital rape is legal. Women cannot leave the country without the formal permission of their guardians (father or husband). They cannot run for presidency or become a judge. This is a striking change from the full and equal rights that women enjoyed during the Pahlavi era. The Iranian women who had gained confidence and higher education during the Pahlavi era participated in demonstrations against the Shah to topple the monarchy. The culture of education for women was very strongly established by the time of revolution so that even after the revolution, large numbers of women entered civil service and higher education. Even though Islamic Republic pushed back hard on women's rights, Iranian women have been at the forefront of progress, education and battle for freedom. In 1996 fourteen women were elected to the Islamic Consultative Assembly. In 2003, Iran's first female judge during the Pahlavi era, Shirin Ebadi, won the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts in promoting human rights.


title: Culture of Iran

text: According to a UNESCO world survey, at the primary level of enrolment Iran has the highest female to male ratio in the world among sovereign nations, with a female to male ratio of 1.22 : 1.00. By 1999, Iran had 140 female publishers, enough to hold an exhibition of books and magazines published by women. As of 2005, 65% of Iran's university students and 43% of its salaried workers were women. and as of early 2007 nearly 70% of Iran's science and engineering students are women. This has led to many female school and university graduates being under-utilized. This is beginning to have an effect on Iranian society and was a contributing factor to protests by Iranian youth in various times over the past few decades.


title: Culture of Iran

text: During recent decades, Iranian women have had significant presence in Iran's scientific movement, art movement, literary new wave and contemporary Iranian cinema. Women account for 60% of all students in the natural sciences, including one in five PhD students.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Iranians celebrate the following days based on a solar calendar, in addition to important religious days of Islamic and Shia calendars, which are based on a lunar calendar.


title: Culture of Iran

text: Like the Persian carpet that exhibits numerous colors and forms in a dazzling display of warmth and creativity, Persian culture is the glue that bonds the peoples of western and central Asia. The South Caucasus and Central Asia "occupy an important place in the historical geography of Persian civilization." Much of the region was included in the Pre-Islamic Persian empires, and many of its ancient peoples either belonged to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European peoples (e.g. Medes and Soghdians), or were in close cultural contact with them (e.g. the Armenians). In the words of Iranologist Richard Nelson Frye:


title: Culture of Iran

text: The Culture of Persia has thus developed over several thousand years. But historically, the peoples of what are now Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Eastern Georgia, and Afghanistan are related to one another as part of the larger group of peoples of the Greater Iranian cultural and historical sphere. The Northern Caucasus is well within the sphere of influence of Persian culture as well, as can be seen from the many remaining relics, ruins, and works of literature from that region.(e.g. 1) (e.g. 2)


title: Culture of Iran

text: From the humble brick, to the windmill, Persians have mixed creativity with art and offered the world numerous contributions. What follows is a list of just a few examples of the cultural contributions of Greater Iran.


title: Delta Works

text: The Delta Works () is a series of construction projects in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land around the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta from the sea. Constructed between 1954 and 1997, the works consist of dams, sluices, locks, dykes, levees, and storm surge barriers located in the provinces of South Holland and Zeeland.


title: Delta Works

text: The aim of the dams, sluices, and storm surge barriers was to shorten the Dutch coastline, thus reducing the number of dikes that had to be raised. Along with the Zuiderzee Works, the Delta Works have been declared one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.


title: Delta Works

text: The estuaries of the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Schelde have been subject to flooding over the centuries. After building the Afsluitdijk (19271932), the Dutch started studying the damming of the Rhine-Meuse Delta. Plans were developed to shorten the coastline and turn the delta into a group of freshwater coastal lakes. By shortening the coastline, fewer dikes would have to be reinforced.


title: Delta Works

text: Due to indecision and the Second World War, little action was taken. In 1950 two small estuary mouths, the Brielse Gat near Brielle and the Botlek near Vlaardingen were dammed. After the North Sea flood of 1953, a Delta Works Commission was installed to research the causes and develop measures to prevent such disasters in future. They revised some of the old plans and came up with the "Deltaplan".


title: Delta Works

text: Unlike the Zuiderzee Works, the Delta Plan's purpose is largely defensive and not for land reclamation. The Delta Plan is a national programme and demands collaboration between the national government, provincial authorities, municipal authorities and the water boards. The plan consisted of blocking the estuary mouths of the Oosterschelde, the Haringvliet and the Grevelingen. This reduced the length of the dikes exposed to the sea by . The mouths of the Nieuwe Waterweg and the Westerschelde were to remain open because of the important shipping routes to the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. The dikes along these waterways were to be heightened and strengthened. The works would be combined with road and waterway infrastructure to stimulate the economy of the province of Zeeland and improve the connection between the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp.


title: Delta Works

text: An important part of this project was fundamental research to come up with long term solutions, protecting the Netherlands against future floods. Instead of analysing past floods and building protection sufficient to deal with those, the Delta Works commission pioneered a conceptual framework to use as norm for investment in flood defences.


title: Delta Works

text: The most important "dike ring area" is the South Holland coast region. It is home to four million people, most of whom live below normal sea level. The loss of human life in a catastrophic flood here can be very large because there is typically little warning time with North Sea storms. Comprehensive evacuation is not a realistic option for the Holland coastal region.


title: Delta Works

text: The commission initially set the acceptable risk for complete failure of every "dike ring" in the country at 1 in 125,000 years. But, it found that the cost of building to this level of protection could not be supported. It set "acceptable" risks by region as follows:


title: Delta Works

text: River flooding causes less damage than salt water flooding, which causes long-term damage to agricultural lands. Areas at risk from river flooding were assigned a higher acceptable risk. River flooding also has a longer warning time, producing a lower estimated death toll per event.


title: Delta Works

text: These acceptable risks were enshrined in the Delta Law (Dutch: "Deltawet"). This required the government to keep risks of catastrophic flooding within these limits and to upgrade defences should new insights into risks require this. The limits have also been incorporated into the new Water Law ("Waterwet"), effective from 22 December 2009.


title: Delta Works

text: The Delta Project (of which the Delta Works are a part) has been designed with these guidelines in mind. All other primary defences have been upgraded to meet the norm. New data elevating the risk assessment on expected sea level rise due to global warming has identified ten 'weak points.' These have been upgraded to meet future demands. The latest upgrades are made under the High Water Protection Program.


title: Delta Works

text: During the execution of the works, changes were made in response to public pressure. In the Nieuwe Waterweg, the heightening and the associated widening of the dikes proved very difficult because of public opposition to the planned destruction of important historic buildings to achieve this. The plan was changed to the construction of a storm surge barrier (the Maeslantkering) and dikes were only partly built up.


title: Delta Works

text: The Delta Plan originally intended to create a large freshwater lake, the "" (Zeeland Lake). This would have caused major environmental destruction in Oosterschelde, with the total loss of the saltwater ecosystem and, consequently, the harvesting of oysters. Environmentalists and fishermen combined their efforts to prevent the closure; they persuaded parliament to amend the original plan. Instead of completely damming the estuary, the government agreed to build a storm surge barrier. This essentially is a long collection of very large valves that can be closed against storm surges.


title: Delta Works

text: The storm surge barrier closes only when the sea-level is expected to rise 3 metres above mean sea level. Under normal conditions, the estuary's mouth is open, and salt water flows in and out with the tide. As a result of the change, the weak dikes along the Oosterschelde needed to be strengthened. Over 200 km of the dike needed new revetments. The connections between the Eastern Scheldt and the neighboring Haringvliet had to be dammed to limit the effect of the salt water. Extra dams and locks were needed at the east part of the Oosterschelde to create a shipping route between the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. Since operating the barrier has an effect on the environment, fisheries and the water management system, decisions made on opening or closing the gate are carefully considered. Also the safety of the surrounding dykes are affected by barrier operations.


title: Delta Works

text: In an attempt to restore and preserve the natural system surrounded by the dykes and storm-surge barrier, the concept 'building with nature' was introduced in revised Delta Program updates after 2008. The new integrated water management plan not only takes into account protection against flooding, but also covers water quality, leisure industry, economic activities, shipping, environment and nature. Whenever possible, existing engineering constructions would be replaced by more 'nature friendly' options in an attempt to restore natural estuary and tides, while still protecting against flooding. In addition, building components of the reinforcements are designed in a way that they support formation of entire ecosystems. As part of the revision, the Room for the River projects, enabled nature to occupy space by lowering or widening the river bed. In order to establish this, agricultural flood plains are turned into natural parks, excavated farmland is used for wild vegetation and newly excavated lakes and bypasses create habitats for fish and birds. Along the coast, natural sand is added each year to allow sand to blow freely through the dunes instead of having the dunes held in place by planted vegetation or revetments. Although the new plan brought along additional cost, it was received favourably. The re-considerations of the Delta Project indicated the growing importance of integrate environmental impact assessments in policy-making.


title: Delta Works

text: The Delta Project of which the Delta Works are part of was originally designed in a period of time when environmental awareness and ecological effects of engineering projects were barely taken into consideration. Although the level of awareness for the environment grew throughout the years, the Delta Project has caused numerous irreversible effects on the environment in the past. Blocking the estuary mouths did reduce the length of dykes that otherwise would have to be built to protect against floods, but it also led to major changes in the water systems. For example, the tides disappeared, which resulted in a less smooth transition from sea water into fresh water. Flora and fauna suffered from this noticeable change. In addition, rivers got covered up by polluted sludge, since there was no longer an open passage to the sea.


title: Delta Works

text: The projects of the Delta Plan are financed with the Delta Fund. In 1958, when the Delta law was accepted under the Delta Works Commission, the total costs were estimated at 3.3 billion guilder. This was at that time equal to 20% of national GDP. This amount was spread out over the 25 years that it would take to complete the massive engineering project. The Delta works were mostly financed by the national budget, with a contribution of the Marshall Plan of 400 million guilder. In addition, the Dutch natural gas discovery contributed massively to the finance of the project. At completion in 1997, costs were set on 8.2 billion guilder. Nevertheless, in 2012 the total costs were already set on around $13 billion.


title: Delta Works

text: The original plan was completed by the Europoortkering which required the construction of the Maeslantkering in the Nieuwe Waterweg between Maassluis and Hook of Holland and the Hartelkering in the Hartel Canal near Spijkenisse. The works were declared finished after almost forty years in 1997.


title: Delta Works

text: Due to climate change and relative sea-level rise, the dikes will eventually have to be made higher and wider. This is a long term uphill battle against the sea. The needed level of flood protection and the resulting costs are a recurring subject of debate, and involve a complicated decision-making process. In 1995 it was agreed in the Delta Plan Large Rivers and Room for the River projects that about 500 kilometres of insufficient dyke revetments were reinforced and replaced along the Oosterschelde and Westerschelde between 1995 and 2015. After 2015, under the High Water Protection Program, additional upgrades are made.


title: Delta Works

text: In September 2008, the Delta Commission presided by politician Cees Veerman advised in a report that the Netherlands would need a massive new building program to strengthen the country's water defenses against the anticipated effects of global warming for the next 190 years. The plans included drawing up worst-case scenarios for evacuations and included more than €100 billion, or $144 billion, in new spending through the year 2100 for measures, such as broadening coastal dunes and strengthening sea and river dikes.


title: Delta Works

text: The commission said the country must plan for a rise in the North Sea of 1.3 meters by 2100 and 4 meters by 2200.


title: Delta Works

text: The works that are part of the Delta Works are listed in chronological order with their year of completion:


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke (April 24, 1941 – December 13, 2010) was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world (Asia from 1977 to 1981 and Europe from 1994 to 1996).


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: From 1993 to 1994, he was U.S. Ambassador to Germany. He was long well-known among journalists and in diplomatic circles. Holbrooke became familiar to the wider public in 1995 when, with former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, they brokered a peace agreement among the warring factions in Bosnia leading to the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords. Holbrooke was a prime contender to succeed Warren Christopher as Secretary of State but was passed over in 1996 as President Bill Clinton chose Madeleine Albright instead. From 1999 to 2001, Holbrooke served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: He was an adviser to the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry in 2004. Holbrooke then joined the presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton and became a top foreign policy adviser. Holbrooke was considered a likely candidate for Secretary of State had Kerry or Hillary Clinton been elected president. In January 2009, Holbrooke was appointed as a special adviser on Pakistan and Afghanistan, working under President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. During his career, Holbrooke worked to improve the lives of refugees, particularly the Hmong of Indochina. On December 13, 2010, Holbrooke died from complications of an aortic dissection.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke's unfulfilled ambition was to become Secretary of State; he, along with George Kennan and Chip Bohlen, were considered among the most influential U.S. diplomats who never achieved that position. Several considered Holbrooke's role in the Dayton Accords to merit the Nobel Peace Prize.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke was born on April 24, 1941, in New York City, to Dan Holbrooke, a doctor, and Trudi Kearl (née Moos), a potter; brother, Andrew, survives him. Holbrooke's mother, whose Jewish family fled Hamburg in 1933 for Buenos Aires before coming to New York, took him to Quaker meetings on Sundays. She stated: "I was an atheist, his father was an atheist... We never thought of giving Richard a Jewish upbringing. The Quaker meetings seemed interesting."


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke's father, who died of colon cancer when Richard was 15 years old, was born of Polish Jewish parents in Warsaw and took the name Holbrooke after migrating to the United States in 1939. The original family name was Goldbrajch. During his teens, Holbrooke spent more time at the house of his friend David Rusk than his own home. David's father was Dean Rusk who became President Kennedy's Secretary of State in 1960. Rusk inspired Holbrooke; however, he did not give him any special treatment during his career.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: After Scarsdale High School, Holbrooke earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from Brown University in 1962, attending on a full-tuition scholarship. He was later a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, leaving in 1970.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: President John F. Kennedy's call to service inspired Holbrooke to enter government work. A few weeks after college graduation, Holbrooke entered the Foreign Service where he underwent Vietnamese language training. He served for six years in Vietnam, first in the Mekong Delta, as a civilian representative for the Agency for International Development working on the rural Pacification Program, a program supporting the South Vietnam government with economic development and enacting local political reforms. Holbrooke later became a staff assistant to Ambassadors Maxwell Taylor and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., by securing the position from his best friend, Anthony Lake.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: During this time, he served with many other young diplomats who would play a major role in American foreign policy in the decades ahead, including John Negroponte, Frank G. Wisner, Les Aspin and Peter Tarnoff. When Holbrooke was 24, he joined a team of experts, formed by President Lyndon Johnson that was separate from the National Security Council.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Following his time in the White House, Holbrooke served as a special assistant to Under Secretaries of State (then the number-two position in the State Department) Nicholas Katzenbach and Elliot Richardson. In 1968, Holbrooke was asked to be part of the American delegation to the 1968 Paris peace talks, which was led by former New York Governor Averell Harriman and Deputy Secretary of Defense Cyrus Vance. He also drafted a volume of the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret report on the government's decision-making in Vietnam. Following these assignments, Holbrooke spent a year as a mid-career fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In 1970, at his own request, Holbrooke was assigned to be the Peace Corps Director in Morocco. Holbrooke initially rejected an offer to become the editor of the magazine "Foreign Policy" instead recommending his friend, John Campbell. After two years, he left the Foreign Service to become the managing editor of the magazine after Campbell died of thyroid cancer. Holbrooke held the position from 1972–1976. During his tenure, the magazine ran investigative reports on Vietnam and the Middle East which disturbed some members of the foreign policy community. At the same time (1974–75), he was a consultant to the President's Commission on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy and was a contributing editor to "Newsweek International".


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In the summer of 1976, Holbrooke left "Foreign Policy" to serve as campaign coordinator for national security affairs to Governor Jimmy Carter (D-GA) in his bid for the White House. During the campaign, Holbrooke helped Carter prepare for his foreign policy debates with President Gerald Ford. After Carter's victory, Holbrooke followed in the footsteps of such diplomatic mentors as Philip Habib, Dean Rusk and Averell Harriman and, on March 31, 1977, became Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, making him the youngest person ever to hold that position, a post he held until 1981. While at State, he was a top adviser to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. During his service, he feuded with Carter's National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, although they both held similar positions on policy. Holbrooke oversaw a warming with Cold War adversaries in the region, culminating in the normalization of relations with China in December 1978. He was also deeply involved in bringing hundreds of thousands of Indochinese refugees to the United States, thus beginning a lifelong involvement with the refugee issue.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In August 1977, then Assistant Secretary of State, Holbrooke traveled to Indonesia to meet with President Suharto in the midst of Indonesia's occupation of East Timor, in which over 100,000 East Timorese were ultimately killed or starved to death. According to Brad Simpson, director of the Indonesia and East Timor Documentation Project at the National Security Archives, Holbrooke had visited officially to press for human rights reform but, after meeting Suharto, had instead praised him for Indonesia's human rights improvements, for the steps that Indonesia had taken to open East Timor to the West, and for allowing a delegation of congressmen to enter the territory under strict military guard, where they were greeted by staged celebrations welcoming the Indonesian armed forces.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In January 1981, Holbrooke left government and became both senior advisor to Lehman Brothers and vice president of Public Strategies, a consulting firm he formed with James A. Johnson, a former top aide to Walter Mondale. From 1985 until 1993, Holbrooke served as managing director of Lehman Brothers. During this time, he co-authored "Counsel to the President", "The New York Times" best-selling memoirs of legendary Democratic wise man and Defense Secretary Clark Clifford, published in 1991. He was a top policy adviser to then-Senator Al Gore (D-TN) during his 1988 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. And four years later he advised Bill Clinton, in his quest for the White House.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke also remained deeply engaged in prominent foreign policy issues. He visited Bosnia twice in 1992 as a private citizen and a member of the board of Refugees International, witnessing firsthand the damage and devastating human costs of the conflict. This experience committed Holbrooke to pursuing a more aggressive policy in the Balkans and, in a memo to his colleagues, he urged that "Bosnia will be the key test of American policy in Europe. We must therefore succeed in whatever we attempt."


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In 1993, after Bill Clinton became President, Holbrooke was initially slated to be Ambassador to Japan due to his depth of knowledge and long experience in Asian affairs. However, this appointment eventually went to former Vice President Walter Mondale, and Holbrooke unexpectedly was appointed Ambassador to Germany. In 1992, Holbrooke was also a member of the Carnegie Commission on America and a Changing World and Chairman and principal author of the bipartisan Commission on Government and Renewal, sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation and the Peterson Institute. He was Chairman and principal author of the "Memo to the President-Elect: Harnessing Process to Purpose," a blue-ribbon Commission report sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Institute for International Economics.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke served in Germany during a dramatic moment: only a few years after German reunification, he helped shape U.S. relations with a new Germany. A highlight of his tenure was President Bill Clinton's visit to Berlin in July 1994, when thousands of Germans crammed the streets to welcome the American leader. While in Germany, Holbrooke also was a key figure in shaping the U.S. policy to promote NATO enlargement, as well as its approach to the war in Bosnia.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In 1994, while serving as U.S. Ambassador to Germany, he conceived the idea of a cultural exchange center between the people of Berlin and Americans. With Richard von Weizsäcker, former President of Germany, and Henry A. Kissinger as co-Chairman, this institution—The American Academy in Berlin—was announced on September 9, 1994, the day after the U.S. Army Berlin Brigade left Berlin. The American Academy in Berlin opened three years later in a villa on the Wannsee once owned by the German-Jewish banker Hans Arnhold. It is now one of the most important links between Germany and the United States. Its Fellows have included writers (including Pulitzer Prize winning authors Arthur Miller and Jeffrey Eugenides), economists, government officials, and public policy experts such as Dennis Ross and former U.S. Ambassador to The People's Republic of China, J. Stapleton Roy. In 2008, The American Academy in Berlin awarded its annual Henry A. Kissinger Award for Transatlantic Relations to George H. W. Bush. In 2007, the Award's first recipient was former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In 1994, Holbrooke returned to Washington to become the assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, a position he held until 1996, when he resigned for personal reasons (he had recently married the author Kati Marton and wished to return to New York). While assistant secretary, Holbrooke led the effort to implement the policy to enlarge NATO and had the distinction of leading the negotiation team charged with resolving the Balkans crisis.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: On August 19, an Armoured personnel carrier following the Humvee Holbrooke was riding in fell off the side of Mt. Igman near Sarajevo. Three of Holbrooke's five-man delegation team perished in the incident. In Holbrooke's telling of the incident, he portrayed himself and the other surviving member of his delegation, General Clark, as active participants in the rescue mission. However, Holbrooke's biographer George Packer, discredited Holbrooke's story, stating that another man traveling with the delegation, Colonel Banky, was in fact the person who searched for the APC while Holbrooke and Clark waited near the Humvee. A report on the incident stated that the driver of the APC was going too fast.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In Paris in December 1995, Holbrooke was the chief architect of the Dayton Peace Accords which ended the three-and-a-half-year-long war in Bosnia. In 1996, he was awarded the Manfred Wörner Medal, awarded by the German Ministry of Defense for public figures who have rendered "special meritorious service to peace and freedom in Europe."


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Upon leaving the State Department, Holbrooke was asked by President Clinton to become, as a private citizen, a special envoy to the Balkans given his distinguished service in the region. In 1997, Holbrooke became a special envoy to Cyprus and the Balkans on a pro-bono basis as a private citizen. During 1998 and 1999, in his capacity as special presidential envoy, Holbrooke worked to end the conflict between the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who were fighting for an independent Kosovo in the Kosovo War. Holbrooke returned to Bosnia two years later to the city of Sarajevo. In March 1999 he traveled to Belgrade to deliver the ultimatum to Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević before the NATO attack began. Holbrooke wrote numerous articles about his experiences in the Balkans, and in 1998, published the widely acclaimed book, "To End a War", a memoir of his time as the chief negotiator of the Dayton Peace Accords, ending the Bosnian civil war. "The New York Times" ranked the book as one of the eleven best books of the year in 1998.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: According to Radovan Karadžić and Muhamed Sacirbey, ex-Bosnian Foreign Minister, Holbrooke signed an agreement with Karadžić that if the latter withdrew from politics he would not be sent to the Hague tribunal. Holbrooke denied these terms, saying Karadžić's statement was "a flat-out lie."


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke and Bildt were considered candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize as a result of the Dayton Peace Accords. However, Holbrooke's personal lobbying for the award may have been detrimental to their chances.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In August 1999, Holbrooke was sworn-in as the 22nd U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, replacing Bill Richardson. Holbrooke initially had issues passing the Senate because of perceived abuses of authority while as Clinton's Balkan envoy. During his tenure, Holbrooke was known for innovation and for achieving diplomatic breakthroughs that settled a series of longstanding tensions in the United States' relationship with the UN. His highest-profile accomplishment was negotiating a historic deal between the United States and the UN's then 188-Member States to settle the bulk of arrears owed by the United States to the United Nations. The deal, achieved with the agreement of the UN's entire membership in late December 2000, lowered the rate of UN dues paid by the United States to the UN, fulfilling the terms of a U.S. law championed by Senators Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Joseph Biden (D-DE). In return for the reduction, the United States paid the UN over $900 million in back dues. During his time as ambassador Hobrooke forgo the official ambassador's residence at the Waldorf Astoria hotel instead letting his chief of staff temporarily use the residence.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke secured a reduction in U.S. dues to the UN despite a booming American economy by enfolding the U.S. position within a broad push to update the UN's long-outdated financial system. As negotiations reached a critical phase in the fall of 2000, Holbrooke bridged a gap between what the United States was legally permitted to pay and the amounts the rest of the UN membership were willing to shoulder by securing an unprecedented contribution by billionaire Ted Turner, founder of the UN Foundation. Holbrooke and his team received a standing ovation in the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee when the terms of the deal were presented.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke's other achievements as UN Ambassador included getting the United Nations Security Council to debate and pass a resolution on HIV/AIDS, the first time that body had treated public health as a matter of global security. In January 2000, Holbrooke used the United States' presidency of the UN Security Council to spotlight a series of crises in Africa, holding six consecutive UN debates that brought together leaders from the region and the across the globe, including former South African President Nelson Mandela and then U.S. Vice President Al Gore, to catalyze more effective UN interventions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, and elsewhere. Holbrooke decried a "double standard" whereby African conflicts received insufficient global attention.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In 2000, Holbrooke led a UN Security Council delegation in a series of diplomatic negotiations throughout Africa, including to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and Uganda. Holbrooke also secured membership for Israel in the UN's Western European and Others regional group, ending Israel's historic exclusion from regional group deliberations and allowing it to, for the first time, stand for election to leadership positions in UN sub-bodies. During the final weeks of his term, Holbrooke secured consultative status at the United Nations for Hadassah, the Jewish women's service organization, overcoming strenuous objections from certain Arab delegations.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In January 2000, when the United States was in the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, Ambassador Holbrooke held an unprecedented meeting of the Security Council to discuss AIDS in Africa. No Security Council session in the history of the UN had ever been devoted to a health issue prior to this historic meeting. Vice President Al Gore presided over the Security Council and declared that AIDS was a security threat to all nations.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Upon leaving the UN a year later, Holbrooke took over a nearly moribund NGO that was intended to mobilize businesses and corporations in the fight against AIDS. At the time, it had 17 members. Over the next six years, Holbrooke turned this organization—originally called the Global Business Council on HIV/AIDS—into a worldwide organization with over 225 members. It expanded to include malaria and tuberculosis, becoming the "Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria" in 2006. In 2011, the organization became GBCHealth and expanded its mandate to include an array of health issues. GBCHealth is the official focal point for mobilizing the business community in support of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and has grown into an important part of the ongoing war against these three diseases.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke was Clinton's lead foreign policy advisor in her 2008 campaign for president and was believed to be her preferred choice for Secretary of State. When Obama defeated Clinton and selected her as Secretary of State, Holbrooke was her preferred option for Deputy Secretary of State, but was vetoed by Obama.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In January 2009, Holbrooke was appointed by President Obama as special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP). Holbrooke was never in serious contention to become Obama's secretary of state although he interviewed for the position. After Hillary Clinton became secretary of state she requested that Holbrooke become SRAP, a newly created role which he had previously advocated for. Holbrooke's tenure as SRAP has been considered lackluster. Holbrooke's relationship with President Obama was minimal and his relationship was even worse with Joe Biden. He became unpopular in the administration when he attempted to aid Afghan President Hamid Karzai's political opponents during his reelection bid. Holbrooke was well-liked in Pakistan by civilians because he actively sought to build a relationship with their country. In that position, he also helped kill an initiative to "back the creation of a new UN special envoy empowered to pursue peace talks with the Taliban." He also asserted that:


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: one of the most cost-effective steps Washington could take would be to boost the agriculture sector of Afghanistan, which in years past had been a productive and profitable source of exports. Replicate the past success, he said, and Afghans would have money and jobs—and that, in turn, would create stability in the country. He called for 'a complete rethink' of the drug problem in Afghanistan, suggesting that draconian eradication programs were bound to fail.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: However, according to David Corn, "Holbrooke's skill set did not lead to much accomplishment in Afghanistan. He never worked out a productive relationship with Afghan President Hamid Karzai … He butted heads with other administration officials and was dismissed by European colleagues. He brokered no breakthroughs."


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke was the vice chairman of Perseus LLC, a leading private equity firm. From February 2001 until July 2008, Holbrooke was a member of the Board of Directors of American International Group. He was a member of the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and formerly served on the Advisory Board of the National Security Network. Holbrooke was also a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Citizens Committee for New York City, and the Economic Club of New York. He was a member of the Trilateral Commission, and he has been listed on their membership roster as one of their "Former Members in Public Service".


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke was the Founding Chairman of the American Academy in Berlin; President and CEO of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, the business alliance against HIV/AIDS, until his appointment as a special envoy by President Barack Obama; and Chairman of the Asia Society. Holbrooke's other board memberships included the American Museum of Natural History, Malaria No More (a New York-based nonprofit that was launched at the 2006 White House Summit with the goal of ending all deaths caused by malaria), Partnership for a Secure America, and the National Endowment for Democracy. Holbrooke was also an honorary trustee of the Dayton International Peace Museum, as well as professor-at-large at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, his alma mater. Additionally, Holbrooke was an Advisory Board member for the Partnership for a Secure America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreating the bipartisan center in American national security and foreign policy.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke also served as vice chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston, managing director of Lehman Brothers, managing editor of "Foreign Policy", and director of the Peace Corps in Morocco.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: He wrote numerous articles and two books: "To End a War", and the co-author of "Counsel to the President", and one volume of "The Pentagon Papers". He received more than a dozen honorary degrees, including an LL.D. from Bates College in 1999. He wrote a monthly column for "The Washington Post" and Project Syndicate.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: On March 20, 2007, he appeared on "The Colbert Report" to mediate in what Stephen Colbert (or rather, his television alter-ego) saw as Willie Nelson infringing on his ice cream flavor time. Holbrooke was the 'ambassador on call' and after a short mediation process the two parties agreed to taste each other's Ben and Jerry's ice cream to make amends. He subsequently sang "On the Road Again" in a trio with Colbert and Nelson.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In June 2008, Conde Nast Portfolio reported that Holbrooke and his son allegedly got multiple below-rate loans at Countrywide Financial because the corporation considered them "FOA's"—"Friends of Angelo" (Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo).


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: A documentary titled "The Diplomat" centered on the legacy of Holbrooke's career appeared on HBO in the fall of 2015. The documentary was directed by his son, David Holbrooke, and features notes from Holbrooke's "secret audio diary" which "he dictated on a near daily basis from August 2010 until his death".


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: He was a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group and participated in every conference between 1995 and 2010.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In January 2001, Holbrooke said that "Iraq will be one of the major issues facing the incoming Bush administration at the United Nations." Further, "Saddam Hussein's activities continue to be unacceptable and, in my view, dangerous to the region and, indeed, to the world, not only because he possesses the potential for weapons of mass destruction but because of the very nature of his regime. His willingness to be cruel internally is not unique in the world, but the combination of that and his willingness to export his problems makes him a clear and present danger at all times."


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: On February 24, 2007, Holbrooke delivered the Democratic Party's weekly radio address and called for "a new strategy in Iraq", involving "a careful, phased redeployment of U.S. troops" and a "new diplomatic offensive in the Gulf region to help stabilize Iraq."


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: During the 2008 South Ossetia war between Russia and Georgia, Holbrooke said during a CNN interview that he had predicted the conflict in early 2008.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke was married three times. His first wife was Larrine Sullivan, whom he married in 1964; they had two sons, David and Anthony, before Holbrooke and Sullivan divorced in 1972. He later married Blythe Babyak, a reporter for "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour", on January 1, 1977; they divorced in 1978. He was married to Kati Marton from 1995 until his death. Before he married Marton, he was involved in a longstanding relationship with the broadcast journalist Diane Sawyer and lived with her for seven years.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke had been good friends with diplomat Anthony Lake whom he met in Vietnam in the early 1960s while both of them were in the foreign service. They frequently visited each other and Lake aided Holbrooke throughout the early years of his career. They grew apart when Holbrooke had an affair with Lake's wife, eventually rarely speaking, and by the time Lake became Bill Clinton's National Security Advisor, their friendship was over.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: On December 11, 2010, Holbrooke was admitted to George Washington University Hospital in Washington after falling ill at the State Department's headquarters. While there, he underwent twenty hours of surgery to fix an aortic dissection, a rare condition.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Holbrooke died on December 13, 2010, from complications of the torn aorta. Holbrooke's last words before being sedated for surgery, which have been clarified to have been a comical interchange with his doctor, were: "You've got to end this war in Afghanistan." He is interred at Oakland Cemetery in Sag Harbor, New York.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: Frank Rich of "The New York Times" wrote: "His premature death—while heroically bearing the crushing burdens of Afghanistan and Pakistan—is tragic in more ways than many Americans yet realize." President Obama memorialized Holbrooke, stating "few have left such a towering legacy as a face of America to the world as Richard Holbrooke".


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: On January 14, 2011, Holbrooke's memorial service was held at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In 2015, Holbrooke's son David directed a documentary, "The Diplomat", which chronicled his father's professional life and achievements.


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: A street in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, is named after Holbrooke, albeit in Albanian transliteration, "Riçard Holbruk".


title: Richard Holbrooke

text: In 2011, President Obama created the Richard C. Holbrooke Award for Diplomacy to be awarded annually to up to five individuals or groups the Secretary of State has determined have made “especially meritorious contributions to diplomacy.”


title: Mortal Kombat: Deception

text: Mortal Kombat: Deception is a 2004 fighting video game developed and published by Midway and it is the sixth main installment in the "Mortal Kombat" franchise and a sequel to 2002's "". It was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in October 2004, for the GameCube in March 2005 and later ported for the PlayStation Portable under the title Mortal Kombat: Unchained in November 2006. "Mortal Kombat: Deception" follows the storyline from the fifth installment, "". Its story centers on the revival of the Dragon King Onaga, who attempts to conquer the realms featured in the series after defeating the sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung, the main antagonists in the previous game, and the Thunder God Raiden, defender of Earthrealm. The surviving warriors from the previous titles join forces to confront Onaga.


title: Mortal Kombat: Deception

text: Twenty-six characters are available to play in the game, with nine making their first appearance in the series. "Deception" contains several new features in the series, such as chess and puzzle games with the "MK" characters and an online mode. The Konquest Mode returns from "Deadly Alliance", but follows the life of Shujinko, a warrior who is deceived by Onaga to search for artifacts to give Onaga more powers. "Deception's" Konquest Mode differs greatly from the Konquest Mode of "Deadly Alliance", however, containing elements of open-world exploration in between story progression, rather than the Kombat Tower of "Deadly Alliance."


title: Mortal Kombat: Deception

text: Series co-creator Ed Boon designed "Deception" to be an unpredictable fighting game, and included new features such as the minigames as surprises. Several parts from "Deadly Alliance" such as combos and arenas were redesigned to be more realistic as well as more interactive. "Deception" has been well-received by video game reviewers, who praised the fights and the new features. The Konquest Mode, however, received criticism for poor voice acting. Several publications have called "Deception" the best fighting game of 2004.


title: Mortal Kombat: Deception

text: The game's arenas are similar to those in "", but include new features. Some have weapons which may be picked up and used. Others are now branching, meaning that you can knock the opponent out of the fighting area in certain locations, and then continue the fight in a new area. Most levels now have deathtraps, which instantly kill any player that gets knocked into them. The game also introduces the "Combo Breaker", a system which allows players to interrupt combos up to three times per match. In contrast to "Deadly Alliance", in which characters had only one Fatality, the "Deception" characters have two Fatalities and a hara-kiri suicide move. The latter is used when the phrase "Finish Him/Her" is shown on the screen and the player is about to lose.


title: Mortal Kombat: Deception

text: "Deception" introduces two minigames that use "MK" characters, "Chess Kombat" and "Puzzle Kombat". The Konquest mode returns, but has been expanded into a roaming adventure game with its own plot.


title: Mortal Kombat: Deception

text: The "Krypt" returns from "Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance" and serves as an interface to access extra content hidden in (actual coffins named with the series' trademark misspelling). In "Deception", the size of the Krypt was reduced from 676 to 400 . Some also have locks that require keys which can only be found in the Konquest mode. The Krypt in "Mortal Kombat: Deception" includes twelve bonus characters (which was cut down to six characters in the GameCube version).


title: Mortal Kombat: Deception

text: "Deadly Alliance"s action role-playing game-style training mode — called "Konquest" — returns in "Deception" and is greatly expanded from the previous version. Set before the events of the main game, "Deception"s Konquest mode explores the history of Shujinko, starting prior to his training with Bo' Rai Cho and ending with the beginning of "Deception"s main story. While mostly an adventure game, the combat elements take place in the normal "Deception" fighting mode. Mastering each character's moves are now minor missions, and it is not necessary to beat all of them to beat the game mode. In Konquest, a young Shujinko meets Damashi, a being who requests his assistance in collecting six powerful items, the Kamidogu, to send to the Elder Gods. By the time he collects the six Kamidogu, Shujinko is an old man, having spent forty-six years on his mission. However, Damashi is then revealed to be the Dragon King Onaga, who deceived Shujinko to obtain the six Kamidogu. Players seeking to unlock much of the bonus content in "Deception" are required to play through the Konquest mode. Even after completing the mode, players can continue exploring the worlds for additional items to unlock.


title: Mortal Kombat: Deception

text: "Chess Kombat" is minigame similar to classical chess. Each piece type is represented by a character of the player's choosing. As with regular chess, the quantity and movement of each piece is determined by their rank. The game can only end when one player takes the other team's 'Champion' (or King in traditional chess). The biggest difference is that all attempts to take a square are literally contested. Players will engage in one round of combat, with the winner taking the square.


title: Mortal Kombat: Deception

text: All unlocked characters can be used in this minigame. The health and offensive strength of pieces in combat situations are determined by their rank. There are two designated squares which enhance the abilities of the entire team while occupied. Both teams can discretely turn one square into a deathtrap, which instantly kills any opponent piece that steps on it. Both teams have two 'Sorcerers' that can cast a spell instead of moving. The spells can resurrect, move, or kill lower-ranked characters. Each spell can only be used once.


title: Mortal Kombat: Deception

text: "Puzzle Kombat" is a puzzle game similar to "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo". It features super deformed versions of the "MK" characters that attack each other once a player gains an advantage in the game. Players must win two rounds to win. The single player game had a ladder format like in Arcade mode.


title: Mortal Kombat: Deception

text: The players supervise a grid which is constantly filled with blocks. The blocks drop in pairs, and can be rotated and moved by the player until they land. A player loses if the blocks reach the top of their grid. If a colored logo touches a block of the same color, then all connected blocks of the same color disappear. Bombs will remove all blocks of the same color as the one they touch. Removing blocks will cause the same number to be added to the opponent's grid, but their colors will be varied.