title: Political violence

text: In 2013 and 2014, the perpetrators responsible for the most terrorist attacks were ISIS, the Taliban, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, and Maoists. Fifty-five percent of the targets were either private citizens, private property, or police. 66% of attacks in Nigeria and 41% of attacks in Iraq targeted private citizens and property.


title: Political violence

text: The Global Terrorism Database estimates that  that between 2004 and 2013, about 50% of all terrorist attacks, and 60% of fatalities due to terrorist attacks, took place in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.


title: Political violence

text: Social conflict theory is a Marxist-based social theory which states that social systems reflect the vested interests of those who own and control resources. The people in power use the political and economic institutions to exploit groups with less power. This causes the rest of society to become alienated or psychologically separated from the people in power. Revolutions occur to break down the social and economic separation between the people in power and the exploited people and "to achieve equity and social unity".


title: Political violence

text: War's inefficiency puzzle explains why states go to war even though war is costly. In James Fearon’s "Rationalist Explanations for War", he asserts war is costly and that creates an incentive to bargain with the other side. However, states do not bargain and instead go to war because of private information on the capability to fight and the incentives to misrepresent this information.


title: Political violence

text: Functionalism sees society as "an organism whose entire system has to be in good working order for systemic equilibrium to be maintained." However, when there is a shock to the system, society becomes disorientated allowing for collective violence.


title: Political violence

text: Mass society argues that violent social movements come from people who are isolated socially and from political institutions. People who are alienated are easily convinced to join radical or extremist movements.


title: Political violence

text: Resource mobilization is a theory on social movement that emphasizes the capacity of competing groups to organize and use adequate resources to achieve their goals. The resources can be time, money, organizational skills, and certain social or political opportunities. Political violence occurs when individuals are able to mobilize sufficient resources to take action.


title: Political violence

text: Primordialism is an explanation of ethnic violence and ethnic conflict. "Interethnic differences based on racial, language, religious, regional characteristics, and other visible markers produce interethnic conflicts because members of that same group emotionally identify with their in-group, but feel no such identify with those outside their ethnic group."


title: Political violence

text: Instrumentalism is an explanation of ethnic violence and ethnic conflict. Ethnicity is not inherent in human nature. Conflict occurs when leaders manipulate ethnicity for the sake of political power or economic gain.


title: Political violence

text: Constructivist is an explanation of ethnic violence and ethnic conflict. Ethnic and national identities are socially constructed and are formed through social, economic and political processes, like colonization and conquest. Ethnic conflict is a product of the factors shaping ethnic identity and not from ethnicity itself.


title: Political violence

text: A youth bulge occurs when there is disproportionate percentage of a state population being between the ages of 15 and 24 years old. It occurs when infant mortality rates decrease and fertility rate increase. This youth bulge increases the working-age population; however, it does not translate to more jobs being available, which leads to severe unemployment. This will cause the young adult male population to "prolong dependency on parents, diminish self-esteem and fuel frustrations". This leads the youth to "seek social and economic advancement by alternative, extralegal means", which means that the opportunity costs to join armed movements are low.


title: Political violence

text: Rational choice theory is a decision-making approach in which the decisions makers compare the expected utility of competing options and select the option that produces the most favorable outcome. Political violence occurs when the benefits in participating in political violence outweighs the costs.


title: Political violence

text: In "Why Men Rebel", Ted Robert Gurr uses relative deprivation theory to explain why men commit acts of violence. As Gurr explains, relative deprivation "is defined as actors' perception of discrepancy between their value expectations and their value capabilities." In other words, relative deprivation is the gap between the wants and needs people feel they deserve versus what they are capable of "getting and keeping." The collective discontent, the gap between the expected and achieved welfare, leads people to resort to violence.


title: Political violence

text: Collective action theory explains why people participate in rebellions. A person decides to participate or not participate in a rebellion based on the benefits and costs. Generally, people decide to be free riders and not to participate in the rebellion. These people will still receive the benefits of the rebellion since the benefits are a public good. However, if people are expected to receive private goods, like material rewards or power, then that person is expected to rebel.


title: Political violence

text: Greed versus grievance provides two lines of explanations as to why individuals will fight. Individuals are said to be motivated by greed when they decide to join a conflict in an effort to better their situation and find that benefits of joining a rebellion or any kind of collective violence is greater than not joining. Individuals are said to be motivated by grievance when they fight over "high inequality, a lack of political rights or ethnic and religious divisions in society." In "Greed and Grievance in Civil War", Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler argue that greed is a better predictor of participating in violence than grievance.


title: Political violence

text: In the aftermath of political violence, there are many changes that occur within the state, society, and the individual.


title: Political violence

text: Social science literature that examines how political violence affects the region, state, nation, and society.


title: Political violence

text: Charles Tilly argues that "war making", eliminating rivals outside a territory, "state making", eliminating rivals within a territory, "protection", protecting subjects within a territory, and "extraction", extracting resources to "[carry] out the first three activities", are what defines a state. All four actives depend on the state's ability to use and monopolize violence. In other words, politically and non-politically motivated violence is necessary in state-building and building fiscal capacity.


title: Political violence

text: There are a growing number of social science studies that examine how political violence affects individuals and households. It is important to keep in mind that what happens at the individual and household level can affect what happens at the macro level. For example, political violence effects an individual's income, health, and education attainment, but these individual consequences combined can effect a state or nation's economic growth. In other words, the macro and micro consequences of political violence do not occur in a vacuum.


title: Political violence

text: There are empirical studies that link violence with increases in political participation. One natural experiment examines the effect of being abducted by Joseph Kony's LRA on political participation. An abducted male Ugandan youth, or in other words a former child soldier, had a greater probability of voting for Uganda's 2005 referendum and being a community mobilizer/leader than a male Ugandan youth who wasn't abducted.


title: Political violence

text: However, this effect is not just contained to Uganda. Another natural experiment on the effects of the Sierra Leone civil war found that victimized households, household whose members were killed, injured, maimed, captured, or made refugees, were more likely to register to vote, attend community meetings, and participate in local political and community groups than households that did not experience violence.


title: Political violence

text: A study on the effects of the Sierra Leone civil war found that victimized households, household whose members were killed, injured, maimed, captured, or displaced, did not have long-term impacts on owning assets, child nutrition, consumption expenditures and earnings.


title: Political violence

text: The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) is a project that collates data on political violence and protest in developing countries, from 1997 to the present. As of early 2016, ACLED has recorded over 100,000 individual events, with ongoing data collection focused on Africa and ten countries in South and Southeast Asia. The data can be used for medium- and long-term analysis and mapping of political violence across developing countries through use of historical data from 1997, as well as informing humanitarian and development work in crisis and conflict-affected contexts through real time data updates and reports.


title: Political violence

text: ACLED defines "political violence" as "the use of force by a group with a political purpose or motivation." The database uses this definition to catalog a number of what it refers to as political events across Africa and Southeast Asia. Political events are described as "a single altercation where often force is used by one or more groups for a political end. The data project catalogs nine different types of events.


title: Political violence

text: The Human Security Report Project (HSRP) catalogs global and regional trends in organized violence, their causes and consequences. Research findings and analyses are published in the Human Security Report, Human Security Brief series, and the miniAtlas of Human Security based in Vancouver, Canada.


title: Hotpants

text: Hotpants or hot pants are extremely short shorts. The term was first used by "Women's Wear Daily" in 1970 to describe shorts made in luxury fabrics such as velvet and satin for fashionable wear, rather than their more practical equivalents that had been worn for sports or leisure since the 1930s. The term has since become a generic term for any pair of extremely short shorts. While hotpants were briefly a very popular element of mainstream fashion in the early 1970s, by the mid-1970s they had become associated with the sex industry, which contributed to their fall from fashion. However, hotpants continue to be popular as clubwear well into the 2010s and are often worn within the entertainment industry, particularly as part of cheerleader costumes or for dancers (especially backup dancers). Performers such as Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue have famously worn hotpants as part of their public performances and presentation.


title: Hotpants

text: Whilst the term "hotpants" is used generically to describe extremely short shorts, similar garments had been worn since the 1930s. These garments, however, were designed mainly for sports, beachwear and leisure wear, while hotpants were innovative in that they were made from non-activewear fabrics such as velvet, silk, crochet, fur and leather, and styled explicitly to be worn on the street, for parties, or even as bridal wear. Dorothy Tricario, a fashion curator at the Brooklyn Museum told "The New York Times" in 1971 that hotpants were part of a greater nostalgic revival of 1930s and 1940s fashion, specifically the short posing shorts worn by Hollywood stars like Ruby Keeler, Deanna Durbin, and Betty Grable. However, Tricario also observed that shorts had never before had such widespread acceptance as street or business wear as they did in early 1971.


title: Hotpants

text: According to the fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert, the term "hot pants" was coined by "Women's Wear Daily" ("WWD") in 1970 to describe fashions innovated by the French ready-to-wear company Dorothée Bis. The "WWD" claim to have originated the term is also backed up by 1971 articles in "The New York Times" and the African-American magazine "Jet". "Jet"s fashion editor, Audrey Smaltz, suggested that because hotpants were best suited to Black women, they should be called "Knockout Shorts" as that name was more "relevant to Blacks", expressing the fashionable African-American woman's pride in her "knockout body" as well as paying tribute to Black identity and recent struggles. Other alternative names included "les shorts", "short cuts", "cool pants", and "shortootsies", with "booty shorts" as an early 21st-century term. Today, the term hotpants can be used for casual as well as fashion-wear short-shorts made in any fabric.


title: Hotpants

text: While hotpants were principally marketed to women, men were also targeted, and the term can describe very short men's shorts.


title: Hotpants

text: At the end of the 1960s, the fashion industry had tried unsuccessfully to promote the mid-calf-length or midi skirt as a fashionable replacement for the miniskirt. In contrast to the lukewarm response to the midi, shoppers enthusiastically embraced the idea of short shorts, which were made available at all price levels from haute couture to inexpensive ready-to-wear. Lambert credits Mariuccia Mandelli of the Italian fashion label Krizia with designing the first "hot pants" in 1970. Hotpants are also increasingly credited to Mary Quant, who offered brief shorts in the late 1960s, although these were intended as modesty knickers to wear with matching minidresses rather than standalone fashion garments. Many designers from across the Western world produced their own versions of hotpants at all price levels, including Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino, Halston, and Betsey Johnson. Mass-produced versions were also sold through the Sears mail-order catalogue.


title: Hotpants

text: Hotpants were available for women, men and children, although they were principally worn by women. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis bought a pair for wear while yachting, while other high-profile wearers included Elizabeth Taylor, Raquel Welch, and Jane Fonda. Hotpants were also worn by particularly adventurous men such as David Bowie, Sammy Davis Jr. and Liberace. Hotpants for men were slightly longer than the women's versions, although they were still shorter than usual.


title: Hotpants

text: The James Brown song "Hot Pants (She Got to Use What She Got to Get What She Wants)", released in August 1971, was, according to his trombonist Fred Wesley, inspired by the sight of women of all colours wearing hotpants in a wide range of materials in the Black and White Club, Brussels.


title: Hotpants

text: The historian Valerie Steele noted that hotpants, both as a name, and as a garment, quickly became associated with sexuality and prostitution due to their popularity with male spectators. In January 1971, a Manhattan-based male psychiatrist suggested that the popularity of hotpants lay in how they expressed a "female's new freedom", borrowing his phrasing from the women's liberation movement, but then went on to suggest that the wearer of hotpants wanted to relate to other people by drawing attention through "sexually provocative" dressing as a "prelude to a genuine relationship". By the mid-1970s, extremely short shorts had become shorthand for prostitution, particularly underage prostitution, as exemplified by the 1976 film "Taxi Driver", in which Jodie Foster's child-prostitute character was dressed in a pair of hotpants. Such associations contributed to hotpants becoming unattractive as a part of a woman's everyday wardrobe, although they remained popular wear in entertainment, party-wear and some evening contexts. The controversial associations with hotpants were still an issue in 1999, when Britney Spears posed for a photoshoot in "Rolling Stone" wearing a pink pair. The photographs, taken by David LaChapelle, presented Spears in provocative poses, surrounded by dolls and tricycles, with the word "Baby" rhinestoned across the seat of her hotpants, and led to widespread media debate and public commentary about whether it was appropriate for role models for young girls to present themselves in such a "highly sexualised" manner.


title: Hotpants

text: In 2000, Kylie Minogue notably wore a pair of gold lamé hotpants in her music video for Spinning Around, which led to widespread media focus on the garment and the singer's body within. The hotpants were eventually donated by Minogue to the Performing Arts Collection museum at the Arts Centre, Melbourne, where they are described as "one of the most identifiable items of contemporary popular culture."


title: Hotpants

text: Hotpants, also called booty shorts continue being popular well into the 2010s, and are often seen in particular contexts such as Miami's South Beach and Venice Beach, Los Angeles, whose beach-to-bar environments have unique dress codes.


title: Hotpants

text: Hotpants can also be part of a uniform worn by cheerleaders (as made popular by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders) and performers, or required wear in certain service industries (such as the Hooters restaurant chain). Southwest Airlines became notorious for the hotpants uniform they supplied for their stewardesses (nicknamed "Love Birds") in 1971, as featured in an ad campaign with the slogan "Someone Else Up There Who Loves You." The tangerine-coloured uniforms (designed by Juanice Gunn Muse, the wife of M. Lamar Muse, the Southwest Airlines president) were worn by girls who were chosen for their good looks and friendliness. Lamar Muse boasted that having beautiful attendants in hotpants ensured that male passengers would fight to sit on the aisle rather than by the window. However, feminist organisations such as Stewardesses for Women's Rights protested and lobbied against the uniform. Also in 1971, the Hot Pants Patrol was introduced as an elite corps of female ushers for the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team, with the intention of attracting greater audiences for the games. While the majority of "Fillies" wore white microskirts as part of their uniform, the 36 members of the Hot Pants Patrol wore a red hotpants jumpsuit with white vinyl go-go boots. After pressure from feminist organisations, the Phillies retired the Hot Pants Patrol in 1982.


title: Hotpants

text: Hotpants or booty shorts remain a popular costume for cheerleaders and dancers, particularly hip hop performers, and are frequently worn by backup dancers. The uniform of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders consists of hotpants and midriff tops. In the early 21st century hotpants continue to be part of certain service industry uniforms, particularly where the wearers are likely to serve a predominantly male clientele. One example of this is Hooters, where the servers (or "Hooters Girls") wear orange Dolphin shorts along with a tight tank top, pantyhose and a bra.


title: Hotpants

text: Extremely short shorts have also seen use within military use. Unofficially, members of the Rhodesian and South African armed forces wore extremely short shorts due to fighting in the hot climates there. The Austrian Army also used short shorts for PT wear.


title: Sex and Lucia

text: Sex and Lucia () is a 2001 Spanish drama film written and directed by Julio Medem, and starring Paz Vega and Tristán Ulloa, alongside Najwa Nimri, Daniel Freire, Javier Cámara, Silvia Llanos and Elena Anaya.


title: Sex and Lucia

text: Lucía, a waitress, is talking on the phone with her depressed writer boyfriend Lorenzo after they had a bitter argument and she walked out. Since he has been in a 'funk' for a while, she is worried and goes home to console him. Finding an empty apartment, Lucía is frantic. She receives a phone call from the police while finding a suicide note and is so afraid of bad news that she hangs up, assuming the worst. They call back, but she ignores the ringing phone, packs a bag, and flees. Looking for a new beginning, Lucía travels to the mysterious Balearic Islands that Lorenzo had always talked of, but had recently been very negative about.


title: Sex and Lucia

text: Six years earlier, Lorenzo is having casual sex in the ocean on a bright moon-lit night with a beautiful married woman he had just met named Elena. They part ways, expecting never to see each other again. She discovers she is pregnant with his child, and tries to find him, but is unable to since she knows little about him.


title: Sex and Lucia

text: Later, as Lorenzo talks with his literary agent at a restaurant, discussing his writer's block, Lucía catches his attention as he gets up from his table to get cigarettes. She asks to speak to him and he joins her. She brazenly tells him that ever since she read his latest book, she has been following him and has fallen passionately in love with him. A smitten Lorenzo immediately engages the sexy, passionate Lucía and she moves into Lorenzo's apartment.


title: Sex and Lucia

text: The film then interweaves the past and present, both of the characters in the film, and of the characters in Lorenzo's novel.


title: Sex and Lucia

text: Lorenzo repeatedly stalls for time on his new book with his editor, while his relationship with Lucía deepens. About six years pass. Lorenzo learns he has a daughter as a result of his encounter with Elena and begins to visit the child outside of her school, meeting her babysitter Belén.


title: Sex and Lucia

text: Belén tells Lorenzo her mother is a recently retired porn actress with a new hot boyfriend, and virtually seduces Lorenzo with chatter of sexual context and banter about her fantasies. Lorenzo uses these encounters and his fantasies about Belén and her mother as content for his book, and Lucía reads about it, thinking it fiction. Meanwhile, he does not disclose his fatherhood to Lucía or the child, nor even attempt to contact Elena.


title: Sex and Lucia

text: Belén flirts with Lorenzo and eventually invites him over to Elena's house while she babysits his daughter, Luna. Lorenzo tells Luna a bedtime story, and after she falls asleep, he and Belén begin to have sex. They are interrupted as Luna knocks at the bedroom door, and they watch in horror as the family dog, a large Rotweiler in 'protect mode', kills Luna. Belén is stunned. Lorenzo runs away and falls into a deep depression.


title: Sex and Lucia

text: Lorenzo's writing turns dark, towards depraved sex and death. He anonymously contacts Elena, who has moved to the island to find solace and recall better days and provides her a nice story about a beautiful child that loves to swim in the sea, to cheer her spirits. But his now guilt-ridden and uncommunicative relationship with Lucía begins to collapse.


title: Sex and Lucia

text: Back in the present, Lucía meets a scuba diver on the island, Carlos, and through him, Elena, who runs an inn on the island. Lucía rents a room, and the women bond as friends, not knowing their intimate connection. But when Lucía mentions Lorenzo by name, and his past visit to the island long ago, Elena deduces the connection. Lucía sees a picture of Luna (looking remarkably like her father and remembering the name from Lorenzo's novel) and she makes the connection too.


title: Sex and Lucia

text: Lorenzo's editor visits Lorenzo in the hospital, where he was taken after being in an 'accident', spending several weeks in recovery. When Lorenzo asks about Lucía, the editor tells Lorenzo that Lucía probably thinks he is dead.


title: Sex and Lucia

text: Lorenzo guesses Lucía is on the island and has the editor take him there. After both women discover that Lorenzo isn't dead, the three characters cope with and finally understand the entanglements of their interwoven relationships.


title: Sex and Lucia

text: The film was produced by Sogecine, the production arm of Sogecable. Shooting locations included Fuerteventura and Madrid.


title: Sex and Lucia

text: Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 71% based on 70 reviews, with a weighted average of 6.5/10. The site's consensus states: "Beneath the gratuitous nudity lies a complex and visually striking movie." Metacritic, which uses an average of critics' reviews, gives the film a 65/100 rating, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: God in Hinduism

text: The concept of God in Hinduism varies in its diverse traditions. Hinduism spans a wide range of beliefs such as henotheism, monotheism, polytheism, panentheism, pantheism, pandeism, monism, agnosticism, atheism, and nontheism.


title: God in Hinduism

text: Forms of theism find mention in the "Bhagavad Gita". Emotional or loving devotion ("bhakti") to a primary god such as avatars of Vishnu (Krishna for example), Shiva and Devi (as emerged in the early medieval period ) is now known as Bhakti movement.


title: God in Hinduism

text: Contemporary Hinduism can be categorized into four major traditions: Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism worship Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi — the Divine Mother — as the Supreme respectively, or consider all Hindu deities as aspects of the formless Supreme Reality or Brahman. Other minor sects such as Ganapatya and Saura focus on Ganesha and Surya as the Supreme.


title: God in Hinduism

text: Hindus following Advaita Vedanta consider "Ātman" within every living being to be the same as Vishnu or Shiva or Devi, or alternatively identical to the eternal metaphysical Absolute, called "Brahman" in Hinduism. Such a philosophical system of Advaita or non-dualism as it developed in the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, especially as set out in the Upanishads and popularised by Adi Shankara in the 8th century has been influential on Hinduism.


title: God in Hinduism

text: Hindus following Dvaita Vedanta consider that the individual Self, known as "jīvātmans", and the eternal metaphysical Absolute called "Brahman" in Hinduism exist as independent realities, and that these are distinct. Such a philosophical system of Dvaita or dualism as it developed in the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, especially as set out in the Vedas and popularised by Madhvacharya in the 13th century has been influential on Hinduism. Especially the influence of Madhva's philosophy has been most prominent and pronounced on the Chaitanya school of Bengal Vaishnavism. Madhva says that in the beginning there was only one God and that was Narayana or Vishnu and refused to accept any claims that other Hindu deities, such as Brahma or Shiva, might be equally the highest.


title: God in Hinduism

text: was the term used by scholars such as Max Müller to describe the theology of Vedic religion. Müller noted that the hymns of the "Rigveda", the oldest scripture of Hinduism, mention many deities, but praises them successively as the "one ultimate, supreme God" (called sachidananda in some beliefs), alternatively as "one supreme Goddess", thereby asserting that the essence of the deities was unitary ("ekam"), and the deities were nothing but pluralistic manifestations of the same concept of the divine (God).


title: God in Hinduism

text: The idea that there can be and are plural perspectives for the same divine or spiritual principle repeats in the Vedic texts. For example, other than hymn 1.164 with this teaching, the more ancient hymn 5.3 of the "Rigveda" states:


title: God in Hinduism

text: Related terms to henotheism are monolatrism and kathenotheism. The latter term is an extension of "henotheism", from ("kath' hena theon") — "one god at a time". Henotheism refers to a pluralistic theology wherein different deities are viewed to be of a unitary, equivalent divine essence. Some scholars prefer the term monolatry to henotheism, to discuss religions where a single god is central, but the existence or the position of other gods is not denied. Another term related to henotheism is "equitheism", referring to the belief that all gods are equal.


title: God in Hinduism

text: The Vedic era conceptualization of the divine or the One, states Jeaneane Fowler, is more abstract than a monotheistic God, it is the Reality behind and of the phenomenal universe. The Vedic hymns treat it as "limitless, indescribable, absolute principle", thus the Vedic divine is something of a panentheism rather than simple henotheism.


title: God in Hinduism

text: In late Vedic era, around the start of Upanishadic age (), theosophical speculations emerge that develop concepts which scholars variously call nondualism or monism, as well as forms of non-theism and pantheism. An example of the questioning of the concept of God, in addition to henotheistic hymns found therein, are in later portions of the "Rigveda", such as the Nasadiya Sukta.


title: God in Hinduism

text: Hinduism calls the metaphysical absolute concept as Brahman, incorporating within it the transcendent and immanent reality. Different schools of thought interpret Brahman as either personal, impersonal or transpersonal. Ishwar Chandra Sharma describes it as "Absolute Reality, beyond all dualities of existence and non-existence, light and darkness, and of time, space and cause".


title: God in Hinduism

text: Influential ancient and medieval Hindu philosophers, states philosophy professor Roy Perrett, teach their spiritual ideas with a world created "ex nihilo" and "effectively manage without God altogether". In Hindu philosophy, there are many different schools. Its non-theist traditions such as Samkhya, early Nyaya, Mimamsa and many within Vedanta such as Advaita do not posit the existence of an almighty, omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent God (monotheistic God), while its theistic traditions posit a personal God left to the choice of the Hindu. The major schools of Hindu philosophy explain morality and the nature of existence through the karma and samsara doctrines, as in other Indian religions.


title: God in Hinduism

text: Monotheism is the belief in a single creator God and the lack of belief in any other Creator. Hinduism is not a monolithic faith and different sects may or may not posit or require such a belief. Religion is considered a personal belief in Hinduism and followers are free to choose the different interpretations within the framework of "karma" and "samsara". Many forms of Hinduism believe in a monotheistic God, such as Krishnaism, some schools of Vedanta, and Arya Samaj.


title: God in Hinduism

text: Madhvacharya (1238–1317 CE) developed the Dvaita theology wherein Vishnu was presented as a monotheistic God, similar to major world religions. His writings led some such as George Abraham Grierson to suggest he was influenced by Christianity.


title: God in Hinduism

text: Madhvacharya was misperceived and misrepresented by both Christian missionaries and Hindu writers during the colonial era scholarship. The similarities in the primacy of one God, dualism and distinction between man and God, devotion to God, the son of God as the intermediary, predestination, the role of grace in salvation, as well as the similarities in the legends of miracles in Christianity and Madhvacharya's Dvaita tradition fed these stories. Among Christian writers, G. A. Grierson creatively asserted that Madhva's ideas evidently were "borrowed from Christianity, quite possibly promulgated as a rival to the central doctrine of that faith". Among Hindu writers, according to Sarma, S. C. Vasu creatively translated Madhvacharya's works to identify Madhvacharya with Christ, rather than compare their ideas.


title: God in Hinduism

text: Modern scholarship rules out the influence of Christianity on Madhvacharya, as there is no evidence that there ever was a Christian settlement where Madhvacharya grew up and lived, or that there was a sharing or discussion of ideas between someone with knowledge of the Bible and Christian narratives, and him. Furthermore, many adherents consider the similarities to be superficial and insubstantial; for example, Madhvacharya postulates three co-eternal fundamental realities, consisting of Supreme Being (Vishnu or paramathma), individual Self (jīvātman), and inanimate matter.


title: God in Hinduism

text: Many traditions within Hinduism share the Vedic idea of a metaphysical ultimate reality and truth called "Brahman". According to Jan Gonda, "Brahman" denoted the "power immanent in the sound, words, verses and formulas of Vedas" in the earliest Vedic texts. The early Vedic religious understanding of Brahman underwent a series of abstractions in the Hindu scriptures that followed the Vedic scriptures. These scriptures would reveal a vast body of insights into the nature of Brahman as originally revealed in the Vedas. These Hindu traditions that emerged from or identified with the Vedic scriptures and that maintained the notion of a metaphysical ultimate reality would identify that ultimate reality as Brahman. Hindu adherents to these traditions within Hinduism revere Hindu deities and, indeed, all of existence, as aspects of the Brahman. The deities in Hinduism are not considered to be almighty, omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent, and spirituality is considered to be seeking the ultimate truth that is possible by a number of paths. Like other Indian religions, in Hinduism, deities are born, they live and they die in every kalpa (eon, cycle of existence).


title: God in Hinduism

text: In Hinduism, Brahman connotes the highest Universal Principle, the Ultimate Reality in the universe. In major schools of Hindu philosophy, it is the material, efficient, formal and final cause of all that exists. It is the pervasive, genderless, infinite, eternal truth and bliss which does not change, yet is the cause of all changes. Brahman as a metaphysical concept is the single binding unity behind the diversity in all that exists in the universe.


title: God in Hinduism

text: Brahman is a Vedic Sanskrit word, and it is conceptualized in Hinduism, states Paul Deussen, as the "creative principle which lies realized in the whole world". Brahman is a key concept found in the Vedas, and it is extensively discussed in the early Upanishads. The Vedas conceptualize Brahman as the Cosmic Principle. In the Upanishads, it has been variously described as "Sat-cit-ānanda" (truth-consciousness-bliss) and as the unchanging, permanent, highest reality.


title: God in Hinduism

text: Brahman is discussed in Hindu texts with the concept of Atman (Self), personal, impersonal or Para Brahman, or in various combinations of these qualities depending on the philosophical school. In dualistic schools of Hinduism such as the theistic Dvaita Vedanta, Brahman is different from Atman (Self) in each being, and therein it shares conceptual framework of God in major world religions. In non-dual schools of Hinduism such as the monist Advaita Vedanta, Brahman is identical to the Atman, Brahman is everywhere and inside each living being, and there is connected spiritual oneness in all existence.


title: God in Hinduism

text: While Hinduism sub-schools such as Advaita Vedanta emphasize the complete equivalence of "Brahman" and "Atman", they also expound on Brahman as "saguna Brahman"—the Brahman with attributes, and "nirguna Brahman"—the Brahman without attributes. The "nirguna Brahman" is the Brahman as it really is, however, the "saguna Brahman" is posited as a means to realizing "nirguna Brahman", but the Hinduism schools declare "saguna Brahman" to be ultimately illusory. The concept of the "saguna Brahman", such as in the form of avatars, is considered in these schools of Hinduism to be a useful symbolism, path and tool for those who are still on their spiritual journey, but the concept is finally cast aside by the fully enlightened.


title: God in Hinduism

text: The Bhakti movement of Hinduism built its theosophy around two concepts of Brahman—"Nirguna" and "Saguna". "Nirguna" Brahman was the concept of the Ultimate Reality as formless, without attributes or quality. "Saguna" Brahman, in contrast, was envisioned and developed as with form, attributes and quality. The two had parallels in the ancient pantheistic unmanifest and theistic manifest traditions, respectively, and traceable to Arjuna-Krishna dialogue in the Bhagavad Gita. It is the same Brahman, but viewed from two perspectives: one from "Nirguni" knowledge-focus and other from "Saguni" love-focus, united as Krishna in the Gita. "Nirguna" bhakta's poetry were "Jnana-shrayi", or had roots in knowledge. "Saguna" bhakta's poetry were "Prema-shrayi", or with roots in love. In Bhakti, the emphasis is reciprocal love and devotion, where the devotee loves God, and God loves the devotee.


title: God in Hinduism

text: "Nirguna" and "Saguna" Brahman concepts of the Bhakti movement has been a baffling one to scholars, particularly the "Nirguni" tradition because it offers, states David Lorenzen, "heart-felt devotion to a God without attributes, without even any definable personality". Yet given the "mountains of "Nirguni" bhakti literature", adds Lorenzen, bhakti for "Nirguna Brahman" has been a part of the reality of the Hindu tradition along with the bhakti for "Saguna Brahman". These were two alternate ways of imagining God during the bhakti movement.


title: God in Hinduism

text: The Yogasutras of Patanjali use the term "Ishvara" in 11 verses: I.23 through I.29, II.1, II.2, II.32 and II.45. Ever since the Sutra's release, Hindu scholars have debated and commented on who or what is "Isvara"? These commentaries range from defining "Isvara" from a "personal god" to "special self" to "anything that has spiritual significance to the individual". Whicher explains that while Patanjali's terse verses can be interpreted both as theistic or non-theistic, Patanjali's concept of "Isvara" in Yoga philosophy functions as a "transformative catalyst or guide for aiding the yogin on the path to spiritual emancipation".


title: God in Hinduism

text: Patanjali defines "Isvara" (Sanskrit: ईश्वर) in verse 24 of Book 1, as "a special Self (पुरुषविशेष, "puruṣa-viśeṣa")",


title: God in Hinduism

text: This sutra of Yoga philosophy of Hinduism adds the characteristics of "Isvara" as that special Self which is unaffected (अपरामृष्ट, "aparamrsta") by one's obstacles/hardships (क्लेश, "klesha"), one's circumstances created by past or one's current actions (कर्म, "karma"), one's life fruits (विपाक, "vipâka"), and one's psychological dispositions/intentions (आशय, ashaya).


title: God in Hinduism

text: Among various Bhakti path practicing sects of Hinduism, which built upon the Yoga school of Hinduism, Isvara can also mean a specific deity such as Vishnu, Krishna, Rama, Shiva, Lakshmi, Parvati and others.


title: God in Hinduism

text: "Svayam Bhagavan", a Sanskrit theological term, is the concept of absolute representation of the monotheistic God as "Bhagavan" himself within Hinduism. The theological interpretation of "" differs with each tradition and the translated from the Sanskrit language, the term literary means "Bhagavan Himself" or "directly Bhagavan." Earlier commentators such as Madhvacharya translated the term "Svayam Bhagavan" as "he who has "bhagavatta""; meaning "he who has the quality of possessing all good qualities". The term is seldom used to refer to other forms of Krishna and Vishnu within the context of certain religious texts such as the Bhagavata Purana, and also within other sects of Vaishnavism.


title: God in Hinduism

text: The theological interpretation of "" differs with each tradition and the literal translation of the term has been understood in several distinct ways. Translated from the Sanskrit language, the term literary means "Bhagavan Himself" or "directly Bhagavan". Others have translated it simply as "the Lord Himself".


title: God in Hinduism

text: Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition often translates it within its perspective as "primeval Lord" or "original Personality of Godhead", but also considers the terms such as "Supreme Personality of Godhead" and "Supreme God" as an equivalent to the term "Svayam Bhagavan", and may also choose to apply these terms to Vishnu, Narayana and many of their associated Avatars. It should be however noted that although it is usual to speak of Vishnu as the source of the avatars, this is only one of the names of god of Vaishnavism, who is also known as Narayana, Vasudeva and Krishna and behind each of those names there is a divine figure with attributed supremacy in Vaishnavism.


title: God in Hinduism

text: Within Hinduism, Krishna is worshiped from a variety of perspectives. Krishnaism is a tradition related to Vaishnavism wherein Krishna is considered "Svayam Bhagavan", meaning 'God Himself', and this title is used exclusively to designate Krishna as the Supreme God. Krishnaite traditions of Hinduism consider him to be the source of all avatars, and the source of Vishnu himself, or to be the same as Narayana. As such, he is therefore regarded as "Svayam Bhagavan".


title: God in Hinduism

text: In Gaudiya Vaishnava Krishna-centered theology, the title "Svayam Bhagavan" is used exclusively to designate Krishna. Krishna is recognized to be "Svayam Bhagavan" in the belief of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and Dvaita sub-school of Hindu philosophy, the Pushtimarg tradition, in the Nimbarka Sampradaya, where Krishna is accepted to be the source of all other avatars, and the source of Vishnu himself. Gaudiya Vaishnavas and followers of the Pushtimarg tradition and Nimbarka Sampradaya use the Gopala Tapani Upanishad, and the Bhagavata Purana, to support their view that Krishna is indeed the "Svayam Bhagavan". This belief was summarized by the 16th century author Jiva Goswami in some of his works, such as "Krishna-sandarbha".


title: God in Hinduism

text: In other sub-traditions of Vaishnavism, Krishna is one of many aspects and avatars of Vishnu (Rama is another, for example), recognized and understood from an eclectic assortment of perspectives and viewpoints. Vaishnavism is one of the earliest single God focussed traditions that derives its heritage from the Vedas.


title: God in Hinduism

text: When followers of Vishnu-centered sampradayas of Vaishnavism describe Krishna as ""Svayam Bhagavan"" it refers to their belief that Krishna is among the highest and fullest of all "Avatars" and is considered to be the ""paripurna Avatara"", complete in all respects and the same as the original. According to them Krishna is described in the Bhagavata Purana as the "Purnavatara" (or complete manifestation) of the Bhagavan, while other incarnations are called partial.


title: God in Hinduism

text: In Sri Vaishnavism, Krishna is viewed as one of the many "avatar"s of Narayana or Vishnu. The Sri Vaishnavism sub-tradition reveres goddess Lakshmi with god Vishnu as equivalent, and traces it roots its roots to the ancient Vedas and Pancaratra texts in Sanskrit.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: Hiatus Kaiyote () is an Australian jazz/funk band formed in Melbourne in 2011, made up of singer/guitarist Nai Palm, bassist Paul Bender, keyboardist Simon Mavin, and drummer Perrin Moss.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: In 2010, Nai Palm (born Naomi Saalfield) performed a solo show in Melbourne that was witnessed by Paul Bender. After the show, Bender approached Palm and suggested a collaboration. After working as a duo for a short time, they recruited Perrin Moss and Simon Mavin in 2011 and formed Hiatus Kaiyote. Mavin was then a member of The Bamboos but left that band to focus on Hiatus Kaiyote.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: Hiatus Kaiyote played their first gig at the 2011 Bohemian Masquerade Ball among sword swallowers, fire twirlers, and gypsy death core bands. In February 2012, the band opened for Taylor McFerrin in Melbourne. McFerrin was so impressed with them that he introduced their music to influential broadcaster and record label owner DJ Gilles Peterson.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: The band released their debut album "Tawk Tomahawk" independently in April 2012. It was noticed by numerous musicians including Animal Collective and Dirty Projectors, and the band later received public endorsements from Erykah Badu, Questlove, and Prince, who urged their social media followers to explore the band's music. In early 2013, Gilles Peterson named them the Breakthrough Artists of the Year at his Worldwide Music Awards in London, and shortly thereafter they were introduced to Salaam Remi who had just started working as an A&R executive at Sony Music. Sony gave Remi the opportunity to start his own label, Flying Buddha, and his first signing was Hiatus Kaiyote. The band licensed "Tawk Tomahawk" to the label, adding an updated version of the song "Nakamarra" featuring Q-Tip. Following this release, the band toured internationally, and in 2014 were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance for "Nakamarra." They were the first Australian act to be nominated for a Grammy in an R&B category.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: In 2014, the band began working on their second album, "Choose Your Weapon", which was released on 1 May 2015. The review aggregator Metacritic gave the album a normalized rating of 87 out of 100, based on 6 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". On 9 May 2015, "Choose Your Weapon" debuted at number 22 on the Australian albums chart. Nai Palm described the album as an "extension" of their debut, and stated that she and the band had no intention to make a one-genre body of work. Many of the songs on the album started with Saalfield's original ideas and were later fleshed out by the band collectively. During the recording the band wanted to pay tribute to the mixtape format, so they incorporated interludes.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: "Choose Your Weapon" became the band's first release to chart in the US, reaching #127 on the "Billboard" 200, and #11 on the "Billboard" Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The song "Breathing Underwater" from the album was nominated for a Best R&B Performance at the 58th Grammy Awards.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: Starting in 2016, prominent rap and R&B artists began sampling Hiatus Kaiyote songs, starting with Anderson .Paak's sample of "Molasses" in "Without You" on his album "Malibu". The following year, Kendrick Lamar sampled "Atari" in "Duckworth" from his album "Damn," and Drake sampled "Building a Ladder" on the song "Free Smoke" from his playlist "More Life". In 2018, Beyonce and Jay-Z sampled "The World It Softly Lulls" in "713" from their album "Everything Is Love".


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: In 2017, Nai Palm released her debut solo album "Needle Paw". In June 2018, Palm was featured on "Scorpion" by Drake, who has spoken highly of both her and the band. She sang a cover of "More Than a Woman" by Aaliyah, which appears at the end of Drake's song "Is There More?". On 18 October 2018, Palm revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. While recuperating in the hospital following a mastectomy, Palm and Bender performed a cover of Curtis Mayfield's "The Makings of You" which was released online. Palm announced in 2019 that she was cancer-free.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: During Palm's recovery period, the other members of Hiatus Kaiyote formed several side projects. Perrin Moss, under the name Clever Austin, released the solo album "Pareidolia" in 2019. Simon Mavin formed a band called The Putbacks, and produced the album "Control" by Natalie Slade in 2020. Paul Bender formed an act called The Sweet Enoughs and released the album "Marshmallow" in 2020. Bender has also produced albums for Jaala, Vulture St. Tape Gang, and Laneous. Bender, Mavin, and Moss also released an all-instrumental album called "Improvised Music 2015-17" in 2020, under the name Swooping (formerly Swooping Duck).


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: Hiatus Kaiyote reconvened in 2020 and signed a global publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music. They began work on a new album inspired by Palm's health crisis and her loss of a beloved pet, as well as the social difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The song "Get Sun" was arranged and conducted by Brazilian musician Arthur Verocai. The album "Mood Valiant" was released on 25 June 2021, and reached the Top Ten on the Australian albums chart. The album was nominated for a Grammy in 2022 for Best Progressive R&B Album.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: The APRA Awards are held in Australia and New Zealand by the Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: The Australian Music Prize (the AMP) is an annual award of $30,000 given to an Australian band or solo artist in recognition of the merit of an album released during the year of award. It commenced in 2005.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: The Grammy Awards is an award presented by The Recording Academy to recognise achievement in the music industry.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: The J Awards are an annual series of Australian music awards that were established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J. They commenced in 2005.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: The Music Victoria Awards, are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. They commenced in 2005.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: The National Live Music Awards (NLMAs) are a broad recognition of Australia's diverse live industry, celebrating the success of the Australian live scene. The awards commenced in 2016.


title: Hiatus Kaiyote

text: The Rolling Stone Australia Awards are awarded annually in January or February by the Australian edition of "Rolling Stone" magazine for outstanding contributions to popular culture in the previous year.


title: Nayantara Sahgal

text: Nayantara Sahgal (born 10 May 1927) is an Indian writer who writes in English. She is a member of the Nehru–Gandhi family, the second of the three daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.


title: Nayantara Sahgal

text: Sahgal's father Ranjit Sitaram Pandit was a barrister from Kathiawad. Pandit was also a classical scholar who had translated Kalhana's epic history "Rajatarangini" into English from Sanskrit. He was arrested for his support of Indian independence and died in Lucknow prison jail in 1944, leaving behind his wife (Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit) and their three daughters Chandralekha Mehta, Nayantara Sehgal and Rita Dar.


title: Nayantara Sahgal

text: Sahgal's mother, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, was the daughter of Motilal Nehru and sister of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Vijaya Lakshmi had been active in the Indian freedom struggle, had been to jail for this cause and in 1946, was part of the first team representing newly formed India that went to the then newly formed United Nations, along with M.C.Chagla. After India achieved independence, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit served as a member of India's Constituent Assembly, the governor of several Indian states, and as India's ambassador to the Soviet Union, the United States, Mexico, the Court of St. James, Ireland, and the United Nations.


title: Nayantara Sahgal

text: Sahgal attended a number of schools as a girl, given the turmoil in the Nehru family during the last years (1935–47) of the Indian freedom struggle. Ultimately, she graduated from Woodstock School in the Himalayan hill station of Landour in 1943 and later in the United States from Wellesley College (BA, 1947), which she attended along with her sister Chandralekha, who graduated 2 years earlier in 1945. She has made her home for decades in Dehradun, a town close to Landour where she had attended boarding school (at Woodstock).


title: Nayantara Sahgal

text: Sahgal has been married twice, first to Gautam Sehgal and later to E.N. Mangat Rai, a Punjabi Christian who was an Indian Civil Service officer. Though part of the Nehru family, Sahgal developed a reputation for maintaining her independent critical sense. Her independent tone, and her mother's, led to both falling out with her cousin Indira Gandhi during the most autocratic phases of the latter's time in office in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Gandhi cancelled Sahgal's scheduled appointment as India's Ambassador to Italy within days of her return to power. Not one to be intimidated, Sahgal in 1982 wrote a scathing, insightful account of Gandhi's rise to power.


title: Nayantara Sahgal

text: Gita Sahgal, the writer and journalist on issues of feminism, fundamentalism, and racism, director of prize-winning documentary films, and human rights activist, is her daughter.


title: Nayantara Sahgal

text: On 6 October 2015, Sahgal returned her Sahitya Akademi Award to protest what she called "increasing intolerance and supporting right to dissent in the country", following the murders of rationalists Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar and M. M. Kalburgi, and the Dadri mob lynching incident; for this she was praised in 2017 by Karima Bennoune, United Nations monitor for cultural rights. In September 2018 she was elected as a Vice President of PEN International.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948) was a Swedish nobleman and diplomat. In World War II he negotiated the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps, including 450 Danish Jews from the Theresienstadt camp. They were released on 14 April 1945. In 1945 he received a German surrender offer from Heinrich Himmler, though the offer was ultimately rejected.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: After the war, Bernadotte was unanimously chosen to be the United Nations Security Council mediator in the Arab–Israeli conflict of 1947–1948. He was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1948 by the paramilitary Zionist group Lehi while pursuing his official duties. Upon his death, Ralph Bunche took up his work at the UN, successfully mediating the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and Egypt.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Folke Bernadotte was born in Stockholm into the House of Bernadotte, the Swedish royal family. His father, Prince Oscar Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (formerly Prince Oscar of Sweden, Duke of Gotland), was the second son of King Oscar II of Sweden; his mother, Ebba Munck af Fulkila, had been a lady in waiting to Victoria of Baden, the wife of Crown Prince Gustaf. Oscar had married Ebba without the consent of the King, and so was forced to renounce his Swedish titles; in 1892, he was granted the titles of Prince Bernadotte and Count of Wisborg by his uncle, Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Bernadotte attended school in Stockholm, after which he entered training to become a cavalry officer at the Royal Military Academy. He took the officer's exam in 1915, was commissioned a lieutenant in 1918, and subsequently was promoted to the rank of major.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Bernadotte represented Sweden in 1933 at the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition, and later served as Swedish commissioner general at the New York World's Fair in 1939–40. Bernadotte had long been involved with the Swedish Boy Scouts (Sveriges Scoutförbund), and took over as director of the organization in 1937. At the outbreak of World War II, Bernadotte worked to integrate the scouts into Sweden's defense plan, training them in anti-aircraft work and as medical assistants. Bernadotte was appointed Vice Chairman of the Swedish Red Cross in 1943.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: During the autumns of 1943 and 1944, he organized prisoner exchanges which brought home 11,000 prisoners from Germany via Sweden. While Vice-President of the Swedish Red Cross in 1945, Bernadotte attempted to negotiate an armistice between Germany and the Allies. He also led several rescue missions in Germany for the Red Cross. In April 1945, Heinrich Himmler asked Bernadotte to convey a peace proposal to Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Harry S. Truman without the knowledge of Adolf Hitler. The main point of the proposal was that Germany would surrender only to the Western Allies (the United Kingdom and the United States), but would be allowed to continue resisting the Soviet Union. According to Bernadotte, he told Himmler that the proposal had no chance of acceptance, but nevertheless he passed it on to the Swedish government and the Western Allies. It had no lasting effect.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Upon the initiative of the Norwegian diplomat Niels Christian Ditleff in the final months of the war, Bernadotte acted as the negotiator for a rescue operation transporting interned Norwegians, Danes and other western European inmates from German concentration camps to hospitals in Sweden.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: In the spring of 1945, Bernadotte was in Germany when he met Heinrich Himmler, who was briefly appointed commander of an entire German army following the assassination attempt on Hitler the year before. Bernadotte had originally been assigned to retrieve Norwegian and Danish POWs in Germany. He returned on 1 May 1945, the day after Hitler's death. Following an interview, the Swedish newspaper "Svenska Dagbladet" wrote that Bernadotte succeeded in rescuing 15,000 people from German concentration camps, including about 8,000 Danes and Norwegians and 7,000 women of French, Polish, Czech, British, American, Argentinian, and Chinese nationalities. The missions took around two months, and exposed the Swedish Red Cross staff to significant danger, both due to political difficulties and by taking them through areas under Allied bombing.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: The mission became known for its buses, painted entirely white except for the Red Cross emblem on the side, so that they would not be mistaken for military targets. In total it included 308 personnel (about 20 medics and the rest volunteer soldiers), 36 hospital buses, 19 trucks, seven passenger cars, seven motorcycles, a tow truck, a field kitchen, and full supplies for the entire trip, including food and gasoline, none of which was permitted to be obtained in Germany. A count of 21,000 people rescued included 8,000 Danes and Norwegians, 5,911 Poles, 2,629 French, 1,615 Jews, and 1,124 Germans.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: After Germany's surrender, the White Buses mission continued in May and June and about 10,000 additional liberated prisoners were thus evacuated.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Bernadotte recounted the White Buses mission in his book "The End. My Humanitarian Negotiations in Germany in 1945 and Their Political Consequences", published on June 15, 1945 in Swedish.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Following the war, some controversies arose regarding Bernadotte's leadership of the White Buses expedition, some personal and some as to the mission itself. One aspect involved a long-standing feud between Bernadotte and Himmler's personal masseur, Felix Kersten, who had played some role in facilitating Bernadotte's access to Himmler, but whom Bernadotte resisted crediting after the war. The resulting feud between Bernadotte and Kersten came to public attention through British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper. In 1953, Trevor-Roper published an article based on an interview and documents originating with Kersten. The article stated that Bernadotte's role in the rescue operations was that of "transport officer, no more". Kersten was quoted as saying that, according to Himmler, Bernadotte was opposed to the rescue of Jews and understood "the necessity of our fight against World Jewry".


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Shortly following the publication of his article, Trevor-Roper began to retreat from these charges. At the time of his article, Kersten had just been nominated by the Dutch government for the Nobel Peace Prize for thwarting a Nazi plan to deport the entire Dutch population, based primarily on Kersten's own claims to this effect. A later investigation by Dutch historian Louis de Jong concluded that no such plan had existed, however, and that Kersten's documents were partly fabricated. Following these revelations and others, Trevor-Roper told journalist Barbara Amiel in 1995 that he was no longer certain about the allegations, and that Bernadotte may merely have been following his orders to rescue Danish and Norwegian prisoners. A number of other historians have also questioned Kersten's account, concluding that the accusations were based on a forgery or a distortion devised by Kersten.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Some controversy regarding the White Buses trip has also arisen in Scandinavia, particularly regarding the priority given to Scandinavian prisoners. Political scientist Sune Persson judged these doubts to be contradicted by the documentary evidence. He concluded, "The accusations against Count Bernadotte ... to the effect that he refused to save Jews from the concentration camps are obvious lies" and listed many prominent eyewitnesses who testified on Bernadotte's behalf, including the World Jewish Congress representative in Stockholm in 1945.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: On 20 May 1948, Folke Bernadotte was appointed "United Nations Mediator in Palestine", in accordance with UN-resolution 186 of 14 May 1948.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: It was the first official mediation in the UN's history. This was necessitated by the immediate violence that followed the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the subsequent unilateral Israeli Declaration of Independence. In this capacity, he succeeded in achieving an initial truce during the subsequent 1948 Arab–Israeli War and laid the groundwork for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The specific proposals showed the influence of the previously responsible British government, and to a lesser extent the U.S. government.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Bernadotte wrote that: "in putting forward any proposal for the solution of the Palestine problem, one must bear in mind the aspirations of the Jews, the political difficulties and differences of opinion of the Arab leaders, the strategic interests of Great Britain, the financial commitment of the United States and the Soviet Union, the outcome of the war, and finally the authority and prestige of the United Nations."


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: After Bernadotte's assassination, his assistant American mediator Ralph Bunche was appointed to replace him. Bunche eventually negotiated a ceasefire, signed on the Greek island of Rhodes. See 1949 Armistice Agreements.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Bernadotte was assassinated on Friday 17 September 1948 by members of the group Lehi, a Zionist terrorist organization, commonly known in the West as the Stern Gang. Immediately after Bernadotte was pronounced dead, his body was moved to the YMCA, after which it was taken to Haifa and flown back to Sweden. Bernadotte was granted a state funeral, Abba Eban attended on behalf of Israel. Bernadotte was survived by a widow and two sons, a 12-year-old and a 17-year-old. He was buried in Prince Oscar Bernadotte's family tomb at the Northern Cemetery in Stockholm.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: The Stern Gang saw Bernadotte as a stooge of the British and the Arabs and therefore a serious threat to the emerging State of Israel. Most immediately, a truce was in force, and Lehi feared that the Israeli leadership would agree to Bernadotte's peace proposals, which they considered disastrous. They were unaware the Israeli government had already decided to reject Bernadotte's plan and to take the military option.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: The killing was approved by the three-man 'center' of Lehi: Yitzhak Yezernitsky (the future Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Shamir), Nathan Friedmann (also called Natan Yellin-Mor) and Yisrael Eldad (also known as Scheib). A fourth leader, Emmanuel Strassberg (Hanegbi) was also suspected by the Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion of being part of the group that ordered the assassination.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: A four-man team, consisting of Yehoshua Cohen, Yitzhak Ben-Moshe (Markovitz), Avraham Steinberg, and Meshulam Makover, ambushed Bernadotte's motorcade in Jerusalem's Katamon neighborhood. The team left a Lehi base in a Jeep and set up a makeshift roadblock at Ben Zion Guini Square, off Hapalmach Street, and waited in the jeep. When Bernadotte's motorcade approached, Cohen, Ben-Moshe, and Steinberg got out and approached it, while Makover, the driver, remained in the jeep. Captain Moshe Hillman, the motorcade's Israeli liaison officer, who was sitting in the leading UN vehicle, called out in Hebrew to let them through, but was ignored. Cohen came up to Bernadotte's sedan and fired through an open window, pumping 6 shots into Bernadotte's chest, throat and arms and 18 into Colonel André Serot who was seated to his left, killing both. Serot had swapped places in the motorcade to join Bernadotte and thank him personally for having saved his wife's life in a German concentration camp. Ben-Moshe and Steinberg shot at the tires of the UN vehicles, while Cohen finished the magazine by firing at the radiator. The driver of the sedan, Colonel Begley, got out and tried to grapple with Cohen as he fired his last shots, but was burned in the face by the gun flashes. Ben-Moshe and Steinberg then rushed back and mounted the jeep, which quickly accelerated down a side road, while Cohen ran away from the scene across a roadside field.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Following the shooting, Bernadotte's car sped to Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital, despite damage to the radiator; the lead vehicle followed as its tires came apart. At the hospital, Bernadotte was pronounced dead. General Åge Lundström, who was in the UN vehicle, described the incident as follows:


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: In the Katamon quarter, we were held up by a Jewish Army type jeep placed in a road block and filled with men in Jewish Army uniforms. At the same moment, I saw an armed man coming from this jeep. I took little notice of this because I merely thought it was another checkpoint. However, he put a Tommy gun through the open window on my side of the car, and fired point blank at Count Bernadotte and Colonel Serot. I also heard shots fired from other points, and there was considerable confusion... Colonel Serot fell in the seat in back of me, and I saw at once that he was dead. Count Bernadotte bent forward, and I thought at the time he was trying to get cover. I asked him: 'Are you wounded?' He nodded, and fell back... When we arrived [at the Hadassah hospital]... I carried the Count inside and laid him on the bed... I took off the Count's jacket and tore away his shirt and undervest. I saw that he was wounded around the heart and that there was also a considerable quantity of blood on his clothes about it. When the doctor arrived, I asked if anything could be done, but he replied that it was too late.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: All four members of the hit team made it to the religious community of Shaarei Pina, where they hid with local Haredi sympathizers. After a few days in hiding, they fled to Tel Aviv in the back of a furniture truck.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Lehi leaders initially denied responsibility for the attack. Only later did Lehi take responsibility for the killings in the name of "Hazit Hamoledet" (the Homeland Front), a name they copied from a war-time Bulgarian resistance group.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Lehi was forcibly disarmed and many members were arrested, but nobody was charged with the killings. The Israel Police, along with the military police and security services, investigated the assassination, but failed to identify any of the participants in the assassination, and the case was eventually closed without any of the participants having been identified. It has been suggested that the reasons for the failure of the investigation were poor coordination between these bodies, which resulted in information that may have assisted the police not being turned over to them, and the lack of proficiency among police officers and investigators in the early days of the Israel Police. The murder case was identified as "148/48" in Israeli police records.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Yellin-Mor and another Lehi member, Mattityahu Shmulevitz, were charged with belonging to a terrorist organization. They were found guilty but immediately released and pardoned. Yellin-Mor had meanwhile been elected to the first Knesset. Betty Knut-Lazarus, a Lehi militant, and the granddaughter of composer Alexander Scriabin, was also imprisoned for being allegedly involved in the killing, before being subsequently released.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Years later, Cohen's role was uncovered by David Ben-Gurion's biographer Michael Bar Zohar, while Cohen was working as Ben-Gurion's personal bodyguard. The first public admission of Lehi's role in the killing was made on the anniversary of the assassination in 1977. The statute of limitations for the murder had expired in 1971. In 1988, two years after Cohen's death, Zettler and Makover publicly confessed their role in the assassination and confirmed that Cohen had killed Bernadotte.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: The weapon which was used in the assassination (an MP 40, serial number 2581) was lost, and was only found again in 2018 during an inventory check in the , when an unidentified box was found to contain an MP 40 machine pistol and the curator, Shlomi Shitrit, decided to identify the history of the weapon. Prior to finding it, it was believed to have been destroyed.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: The day after the murders, the United Nations Security Council condemned the killing of Bernadotte as "a cowardly act which appears to have been committed by a criminal group of terrorists in Jerusalem while the United Nations representative was fulfilling his peace-seeking mission in the Holy Land."


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: The Swedish government believed that Bernadotte had been assassinated by Israeli government agents. They publicly attacked the inadequacy of the Israeli investigation, and campaigned unsuccessfully to delay Israel's admission to the United Nations. In 1950, Sweden recognized Israel, but relations remained frosty despite Israeli attempts to mollify Sweden, such as through the planting of a Bernadotte Forest by the Jewish National Fund in Israel. At a ceremony in Tel Aviv in May 1995, attended by the Swedish deputy prime minister, Israeli Foreign Minister and Labor Party member Shimon Peres issued a "condemnation of terror, thanks for the rescue of the Jews and regret that Bernadotte was murdered in a terrorist way", adding that "We hope this ceremony will help in healing the wound."


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Ralph Bunche, Bernadotte's American deputy, succeeded him as U.N. mediator. Bunche was successful in bringing about the signing of the 1949 Armistice Agreements, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: In 1998, Bernadotte was posthumously awarded one of the first three Dag Hammarskjöld Medals, given to UN peacekeepers who are killed in the line of duty.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: In 1928 in Pleasantville, New York, Folke Bernadotte married Estelle Romaine Manville (1904–1984), whose family had founded part of the Johns-Manville Corporation.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: Seven grandchildren were all born after Folke Bernadotte's death. His widow Estelle Bernadotte remarried in 1973.


title: Folke Bernadotte

text: In September 2008, it became official that before his marriage Bernadotte had a daughter with actress Lillie Ericson-Udde (Lillie Christina Ericson, 1892–1981):


title: Ari Fleischer

text: Lawrence Ari Fleischer (born October 13, 1960) is an American media consultant and political aide who served as the 23rd White House Press Secretary, for President George W. Bush, from January 2001 to July 2003.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: As press secretary in the Bush administration, Fleischer was a prominent advocate for the invasion of Iraq. Since leaving the White House, he has worked as a media consultant and commentator. He joined Fox News as a contributor in July 2017.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: Fleischer was born in 1960 in New York City, the son of Martha and Alan A. Fleischer. His mother was a database coordinator and his father was owner of an executive recruiting company. His parents were Jewish; his mother is a Hungarian immigrant who lost much of her family in the Holocaust. Both parents were Democrats who were "horrified" when Fleischer became a Republican, he told an interviewer in 2003: "While I lived at home and when I started college, I was a liberal Democrat. In a sense, it was President Carter who drove me out of the Democratic Party and it was President Reagan who welcomed me into the Republican Party." He graduated from Fox Lane High School in Bedford, New York, in 1978, and graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1982.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: Upon his graduation from Middlebury, Fleischer worked as press secretary for Jon S. Fossel, a Republican candidate for a New York congressional seat. Later Fleischer worked as press secretary for Norman Lent. From 1985 to 1988, he was field director for the National Republican Congressional Committee. He went back to being a press secretary in 1988, working for congressman Joseph DioGuardi.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: Fleischer served as U.S. Senator Pete Domenici's press secretary from 1989 to 1994 and as spokesman for the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee for five years. He worked as deputy communications director for George H. W. Bush's 1992 reelection campaign.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: Although Fleischer served as communications director for Elizabeth Dole during her presidential run in the 2000 election campaign, he joined George W. Bush's presidential campaign after Dole dropped out of the race. When Bush became the President in 2001, he tapped Fleischer to become the first press secretary of his administration.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: Fleischer is credited with having been the first to introduce the phrase "homicide bombing" to describe what has also been called suicide bombing, in April 2002, to emphasize the terrorist connotations of the tactic:


title: Ari Fleischer

text: On May 19, 2003, he announced that he would resign during the summer, citing a desire to spend more time with his wife and to work in the private sector. He was replaced by deputy press secretary Scott McClellan on July 15, 2003.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: As press secretary in the Bush administration, Fleischer was a prominent advocate for the Invasion of Iraq. He made numerous exaggerated and misleading claims about Iraq in the lead-up to the Iraq War, in particular about Iraq's purported WMD program (it did not have one) and the Saddam Hussein regime's purported relationship with al-Qaeda (they did not have an operational relationship). In January 2003, after UN weapons inspectors said they had "not found any smoking gun" evidence of an active WMD program, Fleischer said, "The problem with guns that are hidden is you can't see their smoke... We know for a fact that there are weapons there." (there were not) On the issue of whether the Saddam Hussein regime had sought to obtain uranium from Niger, Fleischer said that it was "an issue that very well may be true. We don’t know if it’s true—but nobody, but nobody, can say it is wrong." In his press conferences, he repeatedly insisted that the burden of proof for the non-existence of the Hussein regime's WMD program fell on Saddam Hussein, not on the Bush administration to prove that he did have an active WMD program. On one occasion Fleischer said that Hussein "has to indicate whether or not he has weapons. . . . If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world. . . . If Saddam Hussein indicates that he has weapons of mass destruction and that he is violating United Nations resolutions, then we will know that Saddam Hussein again deceived the world."


title: Ari Fleischer

text: In 2019, Fleischer said, "It’s a myth that Bush lied" about Iraq, resulting in backlash. Fleischer claimed that he and Bush "faithfully and accurately reported" the assessments of the Intelligence community. """", a covert CIA operation to buy up WMD's in Iraq, did secure over 400 missiles and rockets containing chemical weapons, mostly Sarin nerve-gas, between 2005 and 2006. In some cases the missile's toxicity was over 25%, much higher than expected. Some details of the classified operation were revealed by the NY Times in 2015. Additionally, hundreds and possibly thousands of US troops were exposed to various chemical weapons during cleanup operations when about 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs were located and demolished in Iraq. Some of the cases of exposure were hushed up at the time, as the military did not want to reveal that there were chemical agents around lest they be used by terrorists in conjunction with IEDs.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: In 2003, Fleischer said, "The standard for any type of interrogation of somebody in American custody is to be humane and to follow all international laws and accords dealing with this type subject. That is precisely what has been happening and exactly what will happen." The administration used waterboarding, sleep deprivation and forced nudity against suspected combatants and suspected terrorists.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: In 2009, when the Department of Justice of the Obama administration launched a probe into alleged CIA interrogation abuses, Fleischer described the decision as "disgusting." Fleischer said if he were subpoenaed in an investigation of alleged interrogation abuses, "I'll be proud to testify... I'm proud of what we did to protect this country."


title: Ari Fleischer

text: Fleischer became an important figure in the CIA leak case; he testified that Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, told him that Valerie Plame was a covert agent weeks before Libby had claimed to have been informed of Plame's status by a reporter.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: On July 7, 2003, at The James S. Brady Briefing Room, Fleischer was asked about Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador who had recently written an editorial for "The New York Times" criticizing the intelligence information the Bush administration had relied upon to make its case for invading the nation of Iraq. Specifically, Fleischer was asked to respond to Mr. Wilson's assertion that he had been sent to Niger to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein had sought yellowcake uranium and found no evidence that such events had ever occurred.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: Fleischer testified in open court on January 29, 2007, that Libby told him on July 7, 2003, at lunch, about Plame, who is Wilson's wife. MSNBC correspondent David Shuster summarized Fleisher's testimony on "Hardball with Chris Matthews":


title: Ari Fleischer

text: Fleischer also testified to the fact that Dan Bartlett, the president's communications adviser, told him the same thing on Air Force One days later on the way to Niger with President Bush. Fleischer had then relayed this information to "Time" correspondent John Dickerson and NBC's David Gregory in Uganda during the African trip.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: Dickerson denied that such a conversation ever took place. Fleischer gave his final "Press Briefing" on July 14, 2003.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: On July 18, 2005, "Bloomberg" reported that in his sworn testimony before the grand jury investigating the leak, Fleischer denied having seen a memo circulating in Air Force One on July 7, 2003, which named Plame in connection to Wilson's mission and which identified her as a "CIA" covert agent. However, a former Bush Administration official also on the plane testified to having seen Fleischer perusing the document.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: Columnist Robert Novak, who published Plame's name on July 14, 2003, made a call to Fleischer on July 7, 2003, before Fleischer's trip to Africa with President Bush. It is unclear whether Fleischer returned Novak's call. However, Fleischer is mentioned in Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's indictment of Libby. The indictment states that Libby told Fleischer (referred to as the White House press secretary in the indictment) that Plame worked for the "CIA" and that this fact was not well known.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: After receiving an immunity agreement, Fleischer testified that he had revealed Plame's identity to reporters after learning it from Libby. However, in the end it was discovered that Richard Armitage first leaked Plame's identity, not Libby or Cheney.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: In his book "Suppression, Deception, Snobbery, and Bias: Why the Press Gets So Much Wrong ― and Just Doesn't Care", Fleischer argues that "there's a younger generation of journalists … who think their job is to be subjective" and that "They don't believe in objectivity. They don't believe in two sides. They believe that their side, particularly on social issues and on racial matters, is the only right side."


title: Ari Fleischer

text: Today he works as a media consultant for various corporations and sports organizations and players through his company, Ari Fleischer Communications. He has consulted for former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, Mark McGwire, the Washington Redskins, Tiger Woods and the Green Bay Packers.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: Fleischer published a memoir, "Taking Heat: The President, the Press and My Years in the White House", in 2005. Michiko Kakutani wrote in "The New York Times," "[T]his book does not provide any new insights into the workings of the current White House. It does not present compelling portraits of cabinet members or members of the White House supporting cast. And it does not shed new light on the president or his methods of governance." She found the book "insular, defensive and wholly predictable." In Salon.com, Eric Boehlert declared that despite "a few curious nuggets," the book is "long on praise for his boss and criticism of the 'liberal' media, and short on revelations."


title: Ari Fleischer

text: In November 2002, Fleischer married Rebecca Elizabeth Davis, an employee in the Office of Management and Budget, in an interfaith ceremony. Rabbi Harold S. White officiated the ceremony, with the participation of Rev. Michael J. Kelley, a Roman Catholic priest. They reside in New York with their son and daughter. They have been raising their children Jewish and are members of a synagogue in Westchester, New York. Fleischer's brother, Michael, worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: He enjoys playing baseball and is a member of the two-time President's Cup champion Ridgefield Rockers.


title: Ari Fleischer

text: Fleischer is portrayed by Rob Corddry in Oliver Stone's "W.", a biographical movie about George W. Bush.


title: Bikini variants

text: The bikini has spawned many stylistic variations. A regular bikini is a two-piece swimsuit that together covers the wearer's crotch, buttocks, and breasts. Some bikini designs cover larger portions of the wearer's body while other designs provide minimal coverage. Topless variants are still sometimes considered bikinis, although they are technically not a two-piece swimsuit.


title: Bikini variants

text: While the name bikini was applied to the skimpy fashion that first revealed the wearer's navel, the fashion industry considers any two-piece swimsuit a bikini. Modern bikini fashions today are characterized by a simple, brief design: two triangles of fabric that form a bra and cover the woman's breasts and two triangles of fabric on the bottom forming a panty cut below the navel that cover the groin in front and the buttocks in back. The amount of coverage can vary widely, from a string bikini with very little coverage to a full design with maximum coverage. A topless swimsuit may still be considered a bikini, although naturally it is no longer a two-piece swimsuit.


title: Bikini variants

text: These derivations of the word "bikini" were created through inappropriate analogy with words like "bilingual", "bifocal" and "bilateral", which contain the Latin prefix "bi-" (meaning "two" in Latin), the word "bikini" was first back-derived as consisting of two parts, ["bi" + "kini"] by Rudi Gernreich when he designed the "mono"kini in 1964. Later swimsuit designs like the "tan"kini and "tri"kini were also named based on the erroneous assumption that the "bi-" in "bikini" denotes a two-piece swimsuit. These new coinages falsely presumed that the back-formation ["bi" + "kini"] was purposeful.


title: Bikini variants

text: The ""-kini" family" (as dubbed by author William Safire), including the ""-ini" sisters" (as dubbed by designer Anne Cole) has grown to include a large number of subsequent variations, often with a hilarious lexicon. Major stylistic variations and an array of spinoff styles include "string bikini", "monokini" or "numokini" (single, top part missing), "tankini" (tank top, bikini bottom), camikini (camisole top and bikini bottom), hikini or hipkini, thong, "slingshot" or "sling bikini" (actually a one-piece swimsuit), minimini, teardrop, seekini (transparent bikini), "microkini" and granny bikini (bikini top and boy shorts bottom). In just one major fashion show in 1985, there were two-piece suits with cropped tank tops instead of the usual skimpy bandeaux, suits that are bikinis in front and one-piece behind, suspender straps, ruffles, and daring, navel-baring cutouts.


title: Bikini variants

text: A string bikini or stringkini is scantier and more revealing than a regular bikini. It gets its name from the string characteristics of its design. It consists of two triangular shaped pieces connected at the groin but not at the sides, where a thin "string" wraps around the waist connecting the two parts. String bikini tops are similar and are tied in place by the attached "string" pieces. String pieces can either be continuous or tied. A string bikini bottom can have minimal to a maximum coverage of a woman's backside.


title: Bikini variants

text: It is claimed that Brazilian fashion model created the first string bikini when she had to sew one with insufficient fabric available to her for a photo shoot. The first formal presentation of string bikini was done by Glen Tortorich, a public relations agent, and his wife Brandi Perret-DuJon, a fashion model, for the opening of Le Petite Centre, a shopping area in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana in 1974. Inspired by a picture of a Rio de Janeiro fashion model in an issue of "Women's Wear Daily", they had local fashion designer Lapin create a string bikini for the event. Models recruited by talent agent Peter Dasigner presented it by removing fur coats by Alberto Lemon on stage. The presentation was covered by local television stations and the "New Orleans Times-Picayune" newspaper and was sent out via the wire news services of the Associated Press and United Press International.


title: Bikini variants

text: String bikinis are one of the most popular variations of bikinis. Bikinis are also worn at the hips, but the fabric at the sides is narrower. In the string bikini, it disappears altogether to leave the waistband as a "string". The rear coverage of the bikini is not as full as with the brief. Bikini is the most widely worn style among women worldwide.


title: Bikini variants

text: A monokini, more commonly referred to as a topless swimsuit and sometimes referred to as a unikini, is a women's one-piece swimsuit equivalent to the lower half of a bikini. In 1964, Rudi Gernreich, an Austrian fashion designer, designed the original monokini in the US. Gernreich also invented its name, and the word monokini is first recorded in English that year. Gernreich's monokini looked like a one-piece swimsuit suspended from two halter straps in the cleavage of bared breasts. It had only two small straps over the shoulders, leaving the breasts bare. Despite the reaction of fashion critics and church officials, shoppers purchased the monokini in record numbers that summer, though very few monokinis were ever worn in public. By the end of the season, Gernreich had sold 3000 swimsuits at $24 apiece, which meant a tidy profit for such a minuscule amount of fabric. Monokini usage is uncommon in the USA, where Americans have never accepted it for the beach. Many women who wanted to sunbathe topless simply wore the bottom part of a bikini. Manufacturers and retailers quickly adapted to selling tops and bottoms separately. Gernreich later created the lesser known pubikini.


title: Bikini variants

text: Peggy Moffitt modelled the suit for Gernreich. She said it was a logical evolution of Gernreich's avant-garde ideas in swimwear design as much as a scandalous symbol of the permissive society. In the 1960s, the monokini led the way into the sexual revolution by emphasizing a woman's personal freedom of dress, even when her attire was provocative and exposed more skin than had been the norm during the more conservative 1950s. Like all swimsuits, the monokini bottom portion of the swimsuit can vary in cut. Some have g-string style backs, while others provide full coverage of the rear. The bottom of the monokini may be high cut, reaching to the waist, with high cut legs, or may be a much lower cut, exposing the belly button. The modern monokini, which is less racy than Gernreich's original design, takes its design from the bikini, and is also described as "more of a cut-out one-piece swimsuit," with designers using fabric, mesh, chain, or other materials to link the top and bottom sections together, though the appearance may not be functional, but rather only aesthetic. In recent years, the term has come into use for topless bathing by women: where the bikini has two parts, the monokini is the lower part. Where monokinis are in use, the word "bikini" may jokingly refer to a two-piece outfit consisting of a monokini and a sun hat. The original monokini is still sold by Victoria's Secret as a "half-kini".


title: Bikini variants

text: A microkini (or micro bikini) is an extremely minimalist bikini covering little more than the nipples and pubic hair. In 1995 fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld created a micro bikini for Chanel’s spring 1996 collection. It resembled a string bikini except that the top's triangles were replaced with two small circles resembling nipple pasties. The designs for both women and men typically use only enough fabric to cover the genitals, so it is often considered necessary to remove or trim the pubic hair. Any additional straps are merely to keep the garment attached to the wearer's body. Some variations of the microkini use adhesive or wire to hold the fabric in place over the genitals. These designs do not require any additional side straps to keep the garment in place. The most radical variations of the microkini are simply thin straps that cover little or none of the wearer's body. The term "microkini" was coined in 1995 in an online community dedicated to enthusiasts of extreme designs. See-through material is sometimes used for the straps to create the illusion that the triangles of fabric are taped to the body. Microkinis keep the wearer just within legal limits of decency and fill a niche between nudism and conservative swimwear. In Europe the wearing of microkinis at beaches or hotels or public pools is often allowed but it may be considered culturally inappropriate in more conservative societies.


title: Bikini variants

text: The tankini is a swimsuit combining a tank top, mostly made of spandex-and-cotton or Lycra-and-nylon, and a bikini bottom introduced in the late 1990s. According to author William Safire, "The most recent evolution of the "-kini" family is the tankini, a cropped tank top supported by spaghetti-like strings." The tankini is distinguished from the classic bikini by the difference in tops, the top of the tankini essentially being a tank top. The tankini top extends downward to somewhere between just above the navel and the top of the hips. The word is a neologism combining the tank of tank top with the end of the word bikini. This go-between nature of tankini has rendered its name to things ranging from a lemonade-based martini ("Tankini Martini") to server architecture ("Tankini HipThread"). This type of swimwear is considered by some to provide modesty closer to that of a one piece suit but with the convenience of a two piece suit, such as not needing to remove the entire suit in order to use a lavatory.


title: Bikini variants

text: Designer Anne Cole, described as a godmother of swimwear in the USA, was originator of this style. She scored what would be her biggest hit in 1998 when her label introduced the tankini. A two-piece suit with a top half that covered more of the wearer's torso than a standard bikini top, the suit was an instant hit with customers. Variations of the tankini, made of spandex-and-cotton or Lycra-and-nylon, have been named camkini, with spaghetti straps instead of tank-shaped straps over a bikini bottom, and even bandeaukini, with a bandeau worn as the top. Tankinis come in a variety of styles, colors and shapes, some include features such as integrated push-up bras. It is particularly popular as children's beachwear, and athletic outfit good enough for a triathlon. According to Katherine Betts, "Vogue's" fashion-news director, this amphibious sportswear for sand or sea lets the user go rafting, playing volleyball and swimming without worrying about losing their top.


title: Bikini variants

text: The trikini appeared briefly in 1967, defined as "a handkerchief and two small saucers." It reappeared a few years ago as a bikini bottom with a stringed halter of two triangular pieces of cloth covering the breasts. The trikini top comes essentially in two separate parts. The name of this woman's bathing suit is formed from bikini, replacing "bi-", meaning "two", with "tri-", meaning "three". Writer William Safire wrote in "The New York Times": "Stripping to essentials, if the trikini is three pieces, the bikini two and the monokini one, when will we see the zerokini?" Dolce & Gabbana designed trikinis for Summer 2005 as three pieces of scintillating fabric that barely cover the wearer. A variation on the bikini in which three pieces are sold together, such as a bikini with a tank top or a bikini with a one-piece suit is also sometimes called a trikini, including a conventional two-piece with a glitzy band of rhinestones round the waist. Israeli designer Gideon Oberson, known for his artistically inspired bathing suits, calls a two-piece suit but looks like a tank top that can be worn with a skirt or a pair of shorts designed by him a trikini. Brazilian designer Amir Slama calls two scraps of silk connected with string he designed for skinny women a trikini. A variation called a strapless bikini or a no string bikini by various manufacturers, this swimwear is often a combination of pasties with a matching "maebari"-style bottom.


title: Bikini variants

text: The sling bikini is also known as a "suspender bikini", "suspender thong", "slingshot bikini" or just "slingshot". It is a one-piece suit that provides as little or even less, coverage (or as much exposure) as a traditional bikini. Usually, a slingshot resembles a bikini bottom, but rather than the straps going around the hips or waist, the side straps extend upwards to cover the breasts and go over the shoulders, leaving the entire sides of the torso uncovered, but the nipples and pubic area covered. Behind the neck, the straps join and reach down the back to become a thong. The variation of sling bikinis that has the straps simply encircle the neck and another set of straps pass around the midriff, instead of the straps passing over the neck and down the back, is called a pretzel bikini. Corresponding to the advent of Lycra, these bikinis first emerged in the early 1990s, and is more popular on the beaches of Europe including Saint-Tropez, Marabella and Ibiza. Suspender-like straps that running between the breasts and around the neck held the suit up were introduced in the mainstream in 1994. News reports said that within a week of putting the suit on their racks, New York's major stores had sold 150. San Francisco women ignored clergymen's warnings that "nakedness and paganism go hand in hand" so at season's end, more than 3000 were sold at $24 each.


title: Bikini variants

text: A bandeaukini, alternatively called a bandini, bandkini or bandikini, is a bandeau top, with no straps going over the shoulders, worn with any bikini bottom. The appeal of the bandeau grew fast among young women, with bandeau tops edging into the sales of the classic tankini. Sometimes the same design has been called a bandeaukini and a tankini.


title: Bikini variants

text: A bandeau may be fastened in the front or back or be sufficiently elastic so as not to need a fastener at all. A bandeau may come with a detachable halter strap, for extra support. A strapless bandeau, or tube top, was also worn as casual wear and sports wear starting in the 1970s, and is sometimes worn as part of a sportswear ensemble. Actress Halle Berry wore a skimpy pink bikini top with matching pants to the 2000 MTV Movie Awards, fueling the trend of wearing a bandeau top as an out-of-home dress.


title: Bikini variants

text: The skirtini, which features a bikini top and a small, skirted bottom, is an innovation for bikini-style clothes with more coverage. In 2007, skirtinis by Juicy Couture were dubbed as one of the top new trends. In 2011, "The Daily Telegraph" identified the skirted bikini as one of the top 10 swimwear design of the season.


title: Bikini variants

text: According to Anne-Marie Blondeau, marketing and communications coordinator for swimwear company Maillot Baltex, "There was a lot of swimsuits that looked like dresses and skirts, so when you think about skirtinis in that sense, yes it seems old... but the skirtini is a bit shorter than the average skirt." Pre-bikini two piece beachwear used aprons, skirts or draped panels to conceal "private areas". Two-piece swimsuits with usual skirt panels were popular the US before the government ordered a 10% reduction in fabric used in woman's swimwear in 1943 as wartime rationing. "Playsuits" were a beachwear popular in the 1950s that featured a "modesty skirt" and a bandeau top.