user: IN: Konidela Siva Sankara Vara Prasad (born 22 August 1955), better known by his stage name Chiranjeevi, is an Indian film actor and politician. He was the Minister of State with independent charge for the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Prior to politics, Chiranjeevi has attended the Madras Film Institute, and had worked primarily in Telugu cinema, in addition to Tamil, Kannada and Hindi films. He made his acting debut in 1978, with the film Punadhirallu.

In 2008, Chiranjeevi started Praja Rajyam, a political party in the state of Andhra Pradesh. At the launch, he stated that social justice was the main agenda of his party. In the 2009 general elections, the party won 18 of the 295 seats in the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly. He was elected a Member of the State Assembly from Tirupati.  He contested from both Tirupati and Palakollu Constituencies for MLA in the 2009 general elections, winning in Tirupati but losing out in Palakollu, in West-Godavari district.  On 6 February 2011, Chiranjeevi merged the 30-month-old Praja Rajyam Party with the Indian National Congress, after two weeks of talks with Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress, which feared the no confidence motion in the state assembly in the wake of the emergence of Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSR Congress Party and the stronghold of Telangana agitation. After more than one year of merging his party into Congress, he was nominated to Rajya Sabha on 29 March 2012. He got elected and took the oath as a Rajya Sabha member on 3 April 2012. On 28 October 2012, he was sworn in as the Union Minister of State (Independent charge), Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.  After the Indian National Congress split the state of Andhra pradesh leaving the residuary state with huge debt and little revenue in June 2014, most members of the Andhra Pradesh wing of Indian National Congress party left in protest. Chiranjeevi, however, remained with Indian National Congress and did campaign for Indian National Congress as chairman of election campaign committee for 2014 parliamentary and assembly elections in residuary state of Andhra Pradesh, however, he refrained from contesting in elections. There was also criticism that he did not campaign whole heartedly due to the one sided decision taken to split Andhra Pradesh. His youngest brother Pawan Kalyan, a former Praja Rajyam Party youth wing leader, launched his own political party Jana Sena and campaigned vigorously against Indian National Congress and in favor of Telugu Desham Party and Bharatiya Janata Party. Due to the strong anti-Indian National Congress sentiment prevailing in Andhra Pradesh, its candidates were defeated in all parliamentary and state assembly seats Andhra Pradesh with 165 out of 175 candidates losing deposit [obtaining less than 10% of vote share]. Since the 2014 elections, he has maintained distance from active politics and will also end his tenure as Rajya Sabha member in April , 2018. He has not attended any sessions of Indian National Congress either.

Does it say why he is leaving?

OUT: Due to the strong anti-Indian National Congress sentiment prevailing in Andhra Pradesh, its candidates were defeated in all parliamentary and state assembly seats


IN: Mastodon is an American heavy metal band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 2000. The group is composed of bassist Troy Sanders, guitarists Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher, and drummer Brann Dailor, all of whom perform vocals in studio (with the exception of Bill Kelliher). They all perform vocals at live shows. Their musical style features progressive concepts and unique instrumentation.

The band's second full-length album, Leviathan, was released in 2004. It is a concept album loosely based on Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. The band received critical acclaim for Leviathan and the record was named album of the year by Kerrang! and Terrorizer. "Blood and Thunder" which featured Clutch vocalist Neil Fallon was chosen as one of the most important recordings of the decade by National Public Radio in November 2009, and that the entire album epitomizes " a phenomenal decade for metal". Leviathan also ranked second in a list by Metal Hammer of the best albums of 2004.  The band went on tour in support of the album, playing throughout North America and Europe in The Unholy Alliance tour along with Slayer and Lamb of God and later on with Slipknot.  "Iron Tusk", the fifth track on the album, can be found on the soundtrack of the skateboarding video game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland and in 2K Sports video game NHL 2K9. "Blood and Thunder" is featured in the video games Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Project Gotham Racing 3, and Saints Row. "Blood and Thunder" was added as a playable track on all instruments in Guitar Hero: Metallica and was featured in Japanese music games Drummania V2 and Guitarfreaks V2. It has also been released as downloadable content for Rock Band 3, with Pro Guitar support also available at extra cost.  Leviathan was followed by the 2006 release of Call of the Mastodon, a remastered collection of the band's first nine songs, and a DVD of interviews and concert footage called The Workhorse Chronicles that includes material from the band's early days as a five-piece. The band has stated that "Call of the Mastodon" is their third studio album even though the album is a compilation album. These two releases were the band's last for Relapse Records, as they would later go on to sign with Warner Bros. Mastodon also recorded a cover version of Metallica's "Orion" for a 2006 Kerrang! tribute album marking the twentieth anniversary of the release of Master of Puppets.

What record company was the band with during this period?

OUT: These two releases were the band's last for Relapse Records,


IN: Krakauer was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, as the third of five children of Carol Ann (nee Jones) and Lewis Joseph Krakauer. His father was Jewish and his mother was a Unitarian, of Scandinavian descent. He was raised in Corvallis, Oregon, from the age of two. His father introduced the young Krakauer to mountaineering at the age of eight.

In 2003, Under the Banner of Heaven became Krakauer's third non-fiction bestseller. The book examines extremes of religious belief, specifically fundamentalist offshoots of Mormonism. Krakauer looks at the practice of polygamy in these offshoots and scrutinizes it in the context of the Latter Day Saints religion throughout history. Much of the focus of the book is on the Lafferty brothers, who murdered in the name of their fundamentalist faith.  In 2006, Tom Elliott and Pawel Gula produced a documentary inspired by the book, Damned to Heaven.  Robert Millet, Professor of Religious Understanding at Brigham Young University, an LDS institution, reviewed the book and described it as confusing, poorly organized, misleading, erroneous, prejudicial and insulting. Mike Otterson, Director of Media Relations for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), told the Associated Press, "This book is not history, and Krakauer is no historian. He is a storyteller who cuts corners to make the story sound good. His basic thesis appears to be that people who are religious are irrational, and that irrational people do strange things."  In response, Krakauer criticized the LDS Church hierarchy, citing the opinion of D. Michael Quinn, a historian who was excommunicated in 1993, who wrote that "The tragic reality is that there have been occasions when Church leaders, teachers, and writers have not told the truth they knew about difficulties of the Mormon past, but have offered to the Saints instead a mixture of platitudes, half-truths, omissions, and plausible denials". Krakauer wrote, "I happen to share Dr. Quinn's perspective".

Did Krakauer write other books?

OUT:

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