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[IndiGhosh]

Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, is a Syrian politician and former rebel commander who is currently serving as the president of Syria since January 2025. He previously served as the country's de facto leader from December 2024 until his appointment as president.

[Creeperopolis]

Barkhale Camp is a Neolithic causewayed enclosure, an archaeological site on Bignor Hill, on the South Downs in West Sussex, England. Causewayed enclosures were built in England from shortly before 3700 BC until at least 3500 BC; they are characterized by the full or partial enclosure of an area with ditches that are interrupted by gaps, or causeways. Their purpose is not known; they may have been settlements, meeting places, or ritual sites. The Barkhale Camp enclosure was first identified in 1929, by John Ryle, and was surveyed the following year by E. Cecil Curwen, who listed it as a possible Neolithic site in a 1930 paper which was the first attempt to list all the causewayed enclosures in England.

A small trench was dug in 1930 by Ryle, and a more extensive excavation was undertaken by Veronica Seton-Williams between 1958 and 1961, which confirmed Curwen's survey and found a characteristically Neolithic assemblage of flints. Peter Leach conducted another excavation before the southern part of the site was cleared of trees in 1978, examining several mounds within the enclosure, and attempting to determine the line of the ditch and bank along the southern boundary. No material suitable for radiocarbon dating was recovered, which meant that dating the site was not possible with any precision, but Leach suggested that the site had been constructed in the earlier Neolithic, between 4000 BC and 3300 BC.

The site is owned by the National Trust. It has been protected as a scheduled monument since 1967.

[Creeperopolis]

Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement until his assassination in 1965. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam (NOI) until 1964 after which he left the movement, he was a vocal advocate for Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the African American community. A controversial figure accused of preaching violence, Malcolm X is also a widely celebrated figure within African American and Muslim communities for his pursuit of racial justice.

Malcolm spent his adolescence living in a series of foster homes or with relatives after his father's death and his mother's hospitalization. He committed various crimes, being sentenced to eight to ten years in prison in 1946 for larceny and burglary. In prison, he joined the Nation of Islam, adopting the name Malcolm X to symbolize his unknown African ancestral surname while discarding "the white slavemaster name of 'Little'", and after his parole in 1952, he quickly became one of the organization's most influential leaders. He was the public face of the organization for 12 years, advocating Black empowerment and separation of Black and White Americans, and criticizing Martin Luther King Jr. and the mainstream civil rights movement for its emphasis on non-violence and racial integration. Malcolm X also expressed pride in some of the Nation's social welfare achievements, such as its free drug rehabilitation program. From the 1950s onward, Malcolm X was subjected to surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

In the 1960s, Malcolm X began to grow disillusioned with the Nation of Islam, as well as with its leader, Elijah Muhammad. He subsequently embraced Sunni Islam and the civil rights movement after completing the Hajj to Mecca and became known as "el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz", which roughly translates to "The Pilgrim Malcolm the Patriarch". After a brief period of travel across Africa, he publicly renounced the Nation of Islam and founded the Islamic Muslim Mosque, Inc. (MMI) and the Pan-African Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Throughout 1964, his conflict with the Nation of Islam intensified, and he was repeatedly sent death threats. On February 21, 1965, he was assassinated in New York City. Three Nation members were charged with the murder and given indeterminate life sentences. In 2021, two of the convictions were vacated. Speculation about the assassination and whether it was conceived or aided by leading or additional members of the Nation, or with law enforcement agencies, has persisted for decades.

He was posthumously honored with Malcolm X Day, on which he is commemorated in various cities across the United States. Hundreds of streets and schools in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor, while the Audubon Ballroom, the site of his assassination, was partly redeveloped in 2005 to accommodate the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. A posthumous autobiography, on which he collaborated with Alex Haley, was published in 1965.

[TruncateVirus99]

Hatari (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈhaːtarɪ]; lit. 'Hater') are an Icelandic techno, industrial and punk rock band and performance art group from Reykjavík. Their public image incorporates elements of anti-capitalism and BDSM attire. The band currently consists of Klemens Hannigan, Einar Stefánsson and Davíð Katrínarson, the latter of whom replacing original member Matthías Haraldsson in 2023. They have released an album and an extended play, encompassing several singles. Hatari represented Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with their song "Hatrið mun sigra", finishing tenth.

[Creeperopolis]

Cher[b] (/ʃɛər/ ⓘ SHAIR; born Cheryl Sarkisian;[a] May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television star. Dubbed the "Goddess of Pop", she is known for her androgynous contralto voice, bold visual presentation and multifaceted career, while cultivating a screen persona that mirrors her public image by often portraying strong-willed and outspoken women. An influential figure in popular culture, her continual reinvention has fueled multiple comebacks over a career spanning more than six decades.

Cher gained fame in 1965 as part of the folk rock duo Sonny & Cher, early exponents of 1960s counterculture, while also scoring solo top-ten singles such as "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)". In the 1970s, she topped the US Billboard Hot 100 with narrative pop songs "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", "Half-Breed" and "Dark Lady". After focusing on acting, she reemerged in a hair metal style with the albums Cher (1987), Heart of Stone (1989) and Love Hurts (1991), producing international number-one singles "If I Could Turn Back Time" and "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)". At 52, she reached a commercial peak with the dance-pop album Believe (1998), which introduced the "Cher effect"—a stylized use of Auto-Tune to distort vocals. The title track became 1999's number-one song in the US and the UK's best-selling single by a female artist. In the 21st century, she released her highest-charting US Billboard 200 albums, Closer to the Truth (2013) and Dancing Queen (2018), both of which debuted at number three.

Cher became a TV star in the 1970s with The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and her solo show Cher, both on CBS, attracting over 30 million weekly viewers. She gained critical acclaim after debuting on Broadway and starring in the film adaptation of Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982). Transitioning to film, she earned two Academy Award nominations—for Silkwood (1983) and Moonstruck (1987), winning the Oscar for Best Actress for the latter—and received the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actress Award for Mask (1985). Other starring roles include The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Mermaids (1990), If These Walls Could Talk (1996, her directorial debut), Tea with Mussolini (1999), Burlesque (2010) and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018). Her life and career inspired the 2018 jukebox musical The Cher Show.

Cher is one of the best-selling music artists in history, with estimated global sales of over 100 million records. She is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and the only solo artist with number-one singles on the US Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades (1960s–2020s).[c] Her accolades include an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes, the Billboard Icon Award and the Kennedy Center Honors. Her 2002–2005 Living Proof: The Farewell Tour was the highest-grossing concert tour by a female artist at the time, earning $250 million—about $402 million in 2025. Beyond music and acting, Cher is known for her progressive politics and advocacy for causes including LGBTQ rights and HIV/AIDS awareness.

[Spode]

Creeper singlehandedly testing Forum Monitor daily with this thread ;p

[Creeperopolis]

The red-capped parrot (Purpureicephalus spurius) is a species of broad-tailed parrot native to southwestern Australia. It was described by Heinrich Kuhl in 1820, with no subspecies recognised. It has long been classified in its own genus owing to its distinctive elongated beak, though genetic analysis shows that it lies within the lineage of the Psephotellus parrots and that its closest relative is the mulga parrot (Psephotellus varius). Not easily confused with other parrot species, it has a bright crimson crown, green-yellow cheeks, and a distinctive long bill. The wings, back, and long tail are dark green, and the underparts are purple-blue. The adult female is very similar though sometimes slightly duller than the male; her key distinguishing feature is a white stripe on the wing under-surface. Juveniles are predominantly green.

Found in woodland and open savanna country, the red-capped parrot is predominantly herbivorous, consuming seeds, particularly of eucalypts, as well as flowers and berries, but insects are occasionally eaten. Nesting takes place in tree hollows, generally of older large trees. Although the red-capped parrot has been shot as a pest and has been affected by land clearing, the population is growing and the species is considered of least-concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It has a reputation of being anxious and difficult to breed in captivity.

[Creeperopolis]

Dracunculiasis, also called Guinea-worm disease, is a parasitic infection by the Guinea worm, Dracunculus medinensis. A person becomes infected by drinking water contaminated with Guinea-worm larvae that reside inside copepods (a type of small crustacean). Stomach acid digests the copepod and releases the Guinea worm, which penetrates the digestive tract and escapes into the body. Around a year later, the adult female migrates to an exit site – usually the lower leg – and induces an intensely painful blister on the skin. Eventually, the blister bursts, creating a painful wound from which the worm gradually emerges over several weeks. The wound remains painful throughout the worm's emergence, disabling the affected person for the three to ten weeks it takes the worm to emerge.

There is no medication to treat or prevent dracunculiasis. Instead, the mainstay of treatment is the careful wrapping of the emerging worm around a small stick or gauze to encourage and speed up its exit. Each day, a few more centimeters of the worm emerge, and the stick is turned to maintain gentle tension. Too much tension can break and kill the worm in the wound, causing severe pain and swelling. Dracunculiasis is a disease of extreme poverty, occurring in places with poor access to clean drinking water. Prevention efforts center on filtering drinking water to remove copepods, as well as public education campaigns to discourage people from soaking affected limbs in sources of drinking water, as this allows the worms to spread their larvae.

Accounts consistent with dracunculiasis appear in surviving documents from physicians of Greco-Roman antiquity. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, dracunculiasis was widespread across much of Africa and South Asia, affecting as many as 48 million people per year. The effort to eradicate dracunculiasis began in the 1980s following the successful eradication of smallpox. By 1995, every country with endemic dracunculiasis had established a national eradication program. In the ensuing years, dracunculiasis cases have dropped precipitously, with 14 cases reported worldwide in 2023.[1] Since 1986, 14 previously endemic countries have eradicated dracunculiasis, leaving the disease endemic in six: Angola, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, and South Sudan. If the eradication program succeeds, dracunculiasis will become the second human disease eradicated, after smallpox. D. medinensis can also infect dogs, cats, and baboons, though non-human cases are also falling due to eradication efforts. Other Dracunculus species cause dracunculiasis in reptiles worldwide and in mammals in the Americas.

[TruncateVirus99]

Pero Rodrigues de Palmeira (c. 1160 – after 1225) was a Portuguese troubadour. He belonged to the first generation of lyric poets in Galician-Portuguese. All of his works are lost. He is listed as the author of two songs in the index of the 16th-century Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional. This index was made by Angelo Colocci, but the pages where his songs would be are missing.

Pero's family originated in Palmeira. He was born around 1160 to Rui Nunes de Asturias and Elvira Gonçalves de Palmeira. His brother, Martinho Rodrigues, became the bishop of Porto (r. 1191–1235). Between 1180 and 1183, Pero served as the royal lieutenant in command of Trancoso and Viseu. Thereafter, he cannot be traced in Portuguese documents until 1225, when he made out a document for the monastery of Landim in the presence of his brother. The date of his death is unknown. According to the Livro de Linhagens of Pedro de Barcelos, he "died of love" (morreu de amor) for María Páes, the daughter of Pelayo Curvo.

[Creeperopolis]

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a collaborator in Fascist Italy and the Salò Republic during World War II. His works include Ripostes (1912), Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920), and his 800-page epic poem The Cantos (c. 1917–1962).[1]

Pound's contribution to poetry began in the early 20th century with his role in developing Imagism, a movement stressing precision and economy of language. Working in London as foreign editor of several American literary magazines, he helped discover and shape the work of contemporaries such as H. D., Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, and James Joyce. He was responsible for the 1914 serialization of Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the 1915 publication of Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", and the serialization from 1918 of Joyce's Ulysses. Hemingway wrote in 1932 that, for poets born in the late 19th or early 20th century, not to be influenced by Pound would be "like passing through a great blizzard and not feeling its cold".[a]

Angered by the carnage of World War I, Pound blamed the war on finance capitalism, which he called "usury".[3] He moved to Italy in 1924 and through the 1930s and 1940s promoted an economic theory known as social credit, wrote for publications owned by the British fascist Sir Oswald Mosley, embraced Benito Mussolini's fascism, and expressed support for Adolf Hitler. During World War II, Pound recorded hundreds of paid radio propaganda broadcasts for the fascist Italian government and its later incarnation as a German puppet state, in which he attacked the United States federal government, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great Britain, international finance, munitions makers, arms dealers, Jews, and others, as abettors and prolongers of the war. He also praised both eugenics and the Holocaust in Italy, while urging American GIs to throw down their rifles and surrender. In 1945, Pound was captured by the Italian Resistance and handed over to the U.S. Army's Counterintelligence Corps, who held him pending extradition and prosecution based on an indictment for treason. He spent months in a U.S. military detention camp near Pisa, including three weeks in an outdoor steel cage. Ruled mentally unfit to stand trial, Pound was incarcerated for over 12 years at St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C., whose doctors viewed Pound as a narcissist and a psychopath, but otherwise completely sane.

While in custody in Italy, Pound began work on sections of The Cantos, which were published as The Pisan Cantos (1948), for which he was awarded the Bollingen Prize for Poetry in 1949 by the Library of Congress, causing enormous controversy. After a campaign by his fellow writers, he was released from St. Elizabeth's in 1958 and returned to Italy, where he posed for the press giving the Fascist salute and called the United States "an insane asylum". Pound remained in Italy until his death in 1972. His economic and political views have ensured that his life and literary legacy remain highly controversial.