Facts and Myths about the Jews in Poland and Russia

Partner:Sixth and I Historic Synagogue

Location: Sixth & I

Washington, DC

Event Date: 02.17.09

Speakers: Antony Polonsky

Summary

Though most European and American Jews can trace their lineage back to Poland or Russia, the history of the experiences of the Jewish people in these two countries is shrouded in mystery, myth, and stereotypes. Drawing on his forthcoming three-volume study, The Jews in Poland and Russia, Dr. Polonsky addresses these common misconceptions and creates a more complete understanding of the Jewish experience in the region. Award-winning author of numerous articles and publications on Polish-Jewish issues, Dr. Antony Polonsky is the Albert Abramson Professor in Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University in Massachusetts and the 2008-2009 Ina Levine Invitational Scholar at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. Co-sponsored with the Jewish Study Center and the Foundation for Jewish Studies.

Bio

Antony Polonsky - Award-winning author of numerous articles and publications on Polish-Jewish issues, Dr. Antony Polonsky is the Albert Abramson Professor in Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University in Massachusetts and the 2008-2009 Ina Levine Invitational Scholar at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies

Facts and Myths about the Jews in Poland and Russia - FORA.tv

Zionism and Herzl: The Antisemitic Side of Zionism

Things are not always as they seem ...

UFOs , Real or not , you decide !

Adult Stem Cell Results & Embryonic Stem Cell Ethics Video

2012

From Aleppo to Hollywood -العقاد A documentary about the great late Arab Director Mustafa Aqaad

The Revolution will not be Televised!

" THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED DIRECTED AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY KIM BARTLEY AND DONNACHA O'BRIAIN IRELAND, 2003 74 MINUTES IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES HUGO CHAVEZ ELECTED PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA IN 1998, IS A COLORFUL, UNPREDICTABLE FOLK HERO, beloved by his nation's working class and a tough-as-nails, quixotic opponent to the power structure that would see him deposed. Two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace on April 11, 2002, when he was forcibly removed from office. They were also present 48 hours later when, remarkably, he returned to power amid cheering aides. Their film records what was probably history's shortest-lived coup d'état. It's a unique document about political muscle and an extraordinary portrait of the man The Wall Street Journal credits with making Venezuela "Washington‚s biggest Latin American headache after the old standby, Cuba."

BBC Documentary - The disappearing Male!

The Disappearing Male "We are conducting a vast toxicological experiment in which our children and our children's children are the experimental subjects." Dr. Herbert Needleman The Disappearing Male is about one of the most important, and least publicized, issues facing the human species: the toxic threat to the male reproductive system. The last few decades have seen steady and dramatic increases in the incidence of boys and young men suffering from genital deformities, low sperm count, sperm abnormalities and testicular cancer. At the same time, boys are now far more at risk of suffering from ADHD, autism, Tourette's syndrome, cerebral palsy, and dyslexia. The Disappearing Male takes a close and disturbing look at what many doctors and researchers now suspect are responsible for many of these problems: a class of common chemicals that are ubiquitous in our world. Found in everything from shampoo, sunglasses, meat and dairy products, carpet, cosmetics and baby bottles, they are called "hormone mimicking" or "endocrine disrupting" chemicals and they may be starting to damage the most basic building blocks of human development.

I hope men fix things before it's too late - Are men becoming extinct?

Evolution is being distorted by pollution, which damages genitals and the ability to father offspring, says new study. Geoffrey Lean reports

Sunday, 7 December 2008

The male gender is in danger, with incalculable consequences for both humans and wildlife, startling scientific research from around the world reveals.

The research – to be detailed tomorrow in the most comprehensive report yet published – shows that a host of common chemicals is feminising males of every class of vertebrate animals, from fish to mammals, including people.

Backed by some of the world's leading scientists, who say that it "waves a red flag" for humanity and shows that evolution itself is being disrupted, the report comes out at a particularly sensitive time for ministers. On Wednesday, Britain will lead opposition to proposed new European controls on pesticides, many of which have been found to have "gender-bending" effects.

It also follows hard on the heels of new American research which shows that baby boys born to women exposed to widespread chemicals in pregnancy are born with smaller penises and feminised genitals.

"This research shows that the basic male tool kit is under threat," says Gwynne Lyons, a former government adviser on the health effects of chemicals, who wrote the report.

Wildlife and people have been exposed to more than 100,000 new chemicals in recent years, and the European Commission has admitted that 99 per cent of them are not adequately regulated. There is not even proper safety information on 85 per cent of them.

Many have been identified as "endocrine disrupters" – or gender-benders – because they interfere with hormones. These include phthalates, used in food wrapping, cosmetics and baby powders among other applications; flame retardants in furniture and electrical goods; PCBs, a now banned group of substances still widespread in food and the environment; and many pesticides.

The report – published by the charity CHEMTrust and drawing on more than 250 scientific studies from around the world – concentrates mainly on wildlife, identifying effects in species ranging from the polar bears of the Arctic to the eland of the South African plains, and from whales in the depths of the oceans to high-flying falcons and eagles.

It concludes: "Males of species from each of the main classes of vertebrate animals (including bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) have been affected by chemicals in the environment.

"Feminisation of the males of numerous vertebrate species is now a widespread occurrence. All vertebrates have similar sex hormone receptors, which have been conserved in evolution. Therefore, observations in one species may serve to highlight pollution issues of concern for other vertebrates, including humans."

Fish, it says, are particularly affected by pollutants as they are immersed in them when they swim in contaminated water, taking them in not just in their food but through their gills and skin. They were among the first to show widespread gender-bending effects.

Half the male fish in British lowland rivers have been found to be developing eggs in their testes; in some stretches all male roaches have been found to be changing sex in this way. Female hormones – largely from the contraceptive pills which pass unaltered through sewage treatment – are partly responsible, while more than three-quarters of sewage works have been found also to be discharging demasculinising man-made chemicals. Feminising effects have now been discovered in a host of freshwater fish species as far away as Japan and Benin, in Africa, and in sea fish in the North Sea, the Mediterranean, Osaka Bay in Japan and Puget Sound on the US west coast.

Research at the University of Florida earlier this year found that 40 per cent of the male cane toads – a species so indestructible that it has become a plague in Australia – had become hermaphrodites in a heavily farmed part of the state, with another 20 per cent undergoing lesser feminisation. A similar link between farming and sex changes in northern leopard frogs has been revealed by Canadian research, adding to suspicions that pesticides may be to blame.

Male alligators exposed to pesticides in Florida have suffered from lower testosterone and higher oestrogen levels, abnormal testes, smaller penises and reproductive failures. Male snapping turtles have been found with female characteristics in the same state and around the Great Lakes, where wildlife has been found to be contaminated with more than 400 different chemicals. Male herring gulls and peregrine falcons have produced the female protein used to make egg yolks, while bald eagles have had difficulty reproducing in areas highly contaminated with chemicals.

Scientists at Cardiff University have found that the brains of male starlings who ate worms contaminated by female hormones at a sewage works in south-west England were subtly changed so that they sang at greater length and with increased virtuosity.

Even more ominously for humanity, mammals have also been found to be widely affected.

Two-thirds of male Sitka black-tailed deer in Alaska have been found to have undescended testes and deformed antler growth, and roughly the same proportion of white-tailed deer in Montana were discovered to have genital abnormalities.

In South Africa, eland have been revealed to have damaged testicles while being contaminated by high levels of gender-bender chemicals, and striped mice from one polluted nature reserved were discovered to be producing no sperm at all.

At the other end of the world, hermaphrodite polar bears – with penises and vaginas – have been discovered and gender-benders have been found to reduce sperm counts and penis lengths in those that remained male. Many of the small, endangered populations of Florida panthers have been found to have abnormal sperm.

Other research has revealed otters from polluted areas with smaller testicles and mink exposed to PCBs with shorter penises. Beluga whales in Canada's St Lawrence estuary and killer whales off its north-west coast – two of the wildlife populations most contaminated by PCBs – are reproducing poorly, as are exposed porpoises, seals and dolphins.

Scientists warned yesterday that the mass of evidence added up to a grave warning for both wildlife and humans. Professor Charles Tyler, an expert on endocrine disrupters at the University of Exeter, says that the evidence in the report "set off alarm bells". Whole wildlife populations could be at risk, he said, because their gene pool would be reduced, making them less able to withstand disease and putting them at risk from hazards such as global warming.

Dr Pete Myers, chief scientist at Environmental Health Sciences, one of the world's foremost authorities on gender-bender chemicals, added: "We have thrown 100, 000 chemicals against a finely balanced hormone system, so it's not surprising that we are seeing some serious results. It is leading to the most rapid pace of evolution in the history of the world.

Professor Lou Gillette of Florida University, one of the most respected academics in the field, warned that the report waved "a large red flag" at humanity. He said: "If we are seeing problems in wildlife, we can be concerned that something similar is happening to a proportion of human males"

Indeed, new research at the University of Rochester in New York state shows that boys born to mothers with raised levels of phthalates were more likely to have smaller penises and undescended testicles. They also had a shorter distance between their anus and genitalia, a classic sign of feminisation. And a study at Rotterdam's Erasmus University showed that boys whose mothers had been exposed to PCBs grew up wanting to play with dolls and tea sets rather than with traditionally male toys.

Communities heavily polluted with gender-benders in Canada, Russia and Italy have given birth to twice as many girls than boys, which may offer a clue to the reason for a mysterious shift in sex ratios worldwide. Normally 106 boys are born for every 100 girls, but the ratio is slipping. It is calculated that 250,000 babies who would have been boys have been born as girls instead in the US and Japan alone.

And sperm counts are dropping precipitously. Studies in more than 20 countries have shown that they have dropped from 150 million per millilitre of sperm fluid to 60 million over 50 years. (Hamsters produce nearly three times as much, at 160 million.) Professor Nil Basu of Michigan University says that this adds up to "pretty compelling evidence for effects in humans".

But Britain has long sought to water down EU attempts to control gender-bender chemicals and has been leading opposition to a new regulation that would ban pesticides shown to have endocrine-disrupting effects. Almost all the other European countries back it, but ministers – backed by their counterparts from Ireland and Romania – are intent on continuing their resistance at a crucial meeting on Wednesday. They say the regulation would cause a collapse of agriculture in the UK, but environmentalists retort that this is nonsense because the regulation has get-out clauses that could be used by British farmers.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/its-official-men-really-are-the-weaker-sex-1055688.html









Are men becoming extinct?




Are males becoming an endangered species? That’s the question scientists and researchers have been pondering since alarming trends in male fertility rates, birth defects and disorders began emerging around the world.





BY THE WINDSOR STARNOVEMBER 5, 2008



Are males becoming an endangered species?

That’s the question scientists and researchers have been pondering since alarming trends in male fertility rates, birth defects and disorders began emerging around the world.

More and more boys are being born with genital defects and are suffering from learning disabilities, autism and Tour-ett’s syndrome, among other disorders.

Male infertility rates are on the rise and the quality of an average man’s sperm is declining, according to some studies.

But perhaps the most disconcerting of all trends is the growing gender imbalance in many parts of heavily industrialized nations, where the births of baby boys have been declining for many years.

What many scientists are calling the most important — and least publicized — issue surrounding the future of the human race will be highlighted in a CBC documentary that features two Windsor researchers who’ve studied the phenomenon.

Titled The Disappearing Male and premiering tonight at 9 on CBC TV, the documentary includes interviews with Jim Brophy and Margaret Keith, adjunct sociology professors at the University of Windsor.

They have been studying the decline in the birth of male children in the Aamjiwnaang First Nation community located next to the infamous Chemical Valley, Canada’s largest concentration of petrochemical plants near Sarnia.

A paper co-authored by Keith and published three years ago in the U.S. journal Environmental Health Perspectives suggests that exposure to various chemicals produced by industrial plants surrounding the Aamjiwnaang reserve land may be skewing the community’s sex ratio.

The researchers looked at the community’s birth records since 1984 and saw “a dramatic drop in the number of boys being born in the last 10 years, particularly in the five-year period between 1998 and 2003,” Brophy said.

Of 132 Aamjiwnaang babies born between 1999 and 2003, only 46 were boys. Typically, about 105 boys are born for every 100 girls in Canada.

High miscarriage rates and a unusually high number of children suffering from asthma were also noted by researchers.

Although the link between pollutants and human reproduction has not been firmly established, there is growing evidence that the birth sex ratio can be altered by exposure to certain chemicals, such as dioxin, PCBs and pesticides. Brophy said studies done in the United States, Japan and Europe seem to support the theory that the so-called endocrine disrupting chemicals have a particular effect on males.

Some of these chemicals are found in commonly used products such as baby bottles and cosmetics. They can also cause miscarriages and a “whole host” of disorders in a male child, Brophy said.

Brophy said soil and water contamination in and around the Aamjiwnaang reserve had been documented before, including in a University of Windsor study that found high levels of PCBs, lead, mercury and various chemicals in the area in the late 1990s. Accidental chemical spills in the area have not been uncommon.

But it wasn’t until the Aamjiwnaang birth ratio study was published that the global science community really took notice.

“It triggered this international set of calls from scientists and researchers from around the world who had been looking at this issue in Europe and the United States,” Brophy said. “Aamjiwnaang became almost the poster child.”

Although Brophy has not seen The Disappearing Male documentary yet, he believes the story of the Aamjiwnaang community will be “the focal point.”

He said the documentary also includes interviews with “some of the foremost experts in the world” on environmental effects on reproductive health.

Brophy and Keith have also studied other occupational and environmental exposures to pollutants, including the link between breast cancer and certain types of jobs in the Windsor-Essex region.

Have scientists discovered a new inhabitable planet Video

New swirled order (crop circle documentary 2009)

"Where does this mysterious crop circle phenomena come from? Is it done by man as a joke? So why do people have extraordinary experiences then? Flying ball of lights were seen in and around crop cirlces. Or is it an alien intelligence which try to communicate with us? The geometry which can be found in crop circles, inculed a lot of mathematics which can be also found in nature.

Our new documentary "New swirled order" deals with these questions and present some very extraordinary Crop circle formations in 2008, like the "Pi"-formation in Barbury Castle or the Crop Circle near Avebury Manor, which showed our solar system with the planetary constellation of December 21 of 2012.: http://www.NuoViso.com"

Discovery Channel: Future Life on Earth

"Discovery Channel presents Next World - Future Life On Earth

43:27 minutes

"Future Life on Earth" unveils technologies that will usher in a whole new way of life: we will live in floating cities, teleport to work and travel the world with a push of a button"

Interesting Documentary about Evangelists in the USA

55:33 minutes

This is a Documentary taken from channel 4 about the evangelists in the USA.

Paradise Now - Award winning Palestinian Film الجنّة الآن

(from Wikipedia)

Paradise Now (Arabic: الجنّة الآن‎) is a 2005 film directed by Hany Abu-Assad about two Palestinian men preparing for a suicide attack in Israel. It won a Golden Globe for best foreign language film and was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category.
"The film is an artistic point of view of that political issue," Abu-Assad said. "The politicians want to see it as black and white, good and evil, and art wants to see it as a human thing."

Production

Hany Abu-Assad and co-writer Bero Beyer started working on the script in 1999, but it took them five years to get the story before cameras. The original script was about one man searching for his friend, who is a suicide bomber, but it evolved into a story of two friends, Said and Khaled.
The filmmakers faced great difficulties making the film on location. A land mine exploded 300 meters away from the set.^[2] While filming in Nablus, Israeli helicopter gunships launched a missile attack on a car near the film's set one day, prompting six crew members to abandon the production indefinitely.^[3] Paradise Now's location manager was kidnapped by a Palestinian faction during the shoot and was not released until Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's office intervened.^[2] In an interview with the Telegraph, Hany Abu-Assad said, "If I could go back in time, I wouldn't do it again. It's not worth endangering your life for a movie."^[4]

Distribution and marketing

The Israel Film Fund is underwriting the film’s distribution in Israel.

Statements by the filmmakers

In Hany Abu-Assad's Golden Globe acceptance speech he made a plea for a Palestinian state, saying he hoped the Golden Globe was “a recognition that the Palestinians deserve their liberty and equality unconditionally."^[5]
In an interview with a Jewish American Tikkun magazine, Hany Abu-Assad was asked "When you look ahead now, what gives you hope?", "The conscience of the Jewish people" he answered. "The Jews have been the conscience of humanity, always, wherever they go. Not all Jews, but part of them. Ethics. Morality. They invented it! I think Hitler wanted to kill the conscience of the Jews, the conscience of humanity. But this conscience is still alive...Maybe a bit weak...But still alive. Thank God."^[6]
Co-producer Amir Harel is a Jewish Israeli, who told reporters that "First and foremost the movie is a good work of art", adding that "If the movie raises awareness or presents a different side of reality, this is an important thing."^[7]

Controversies

Oscars

Paradise Now was the first Palestinian film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. An earlier Palestinian film, Divine Intervention (2002), had controversially failed to gain admission to the competition, allegedly because films nominated for this award must be put forward by the government of their country, and Palestine's status as a sovereign state is disputed.^[8] However, since entities such as Puerto Rico, Hong Kong and Taiwan have been submitting entries for years although they are not sovereign states with full United Nations representation, accusations of a double standard were made.^[9]
Paradise Now was submitted to the Academy and to the Golden Globes as a film from 'Palestine'. It was referred to as such at the Golden Globes. However, Israeli officials, including Consul General Ehud Danoch and Consul for Media and Public Affairs Gilad Millo, tried to extract a guarantee from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that Paradise Now would not be presented in the ceremony as representing the state of Palestine, despite the fact it was introduced as such in the Academy Awards' official website.^[10] The Academy Awards began to refer to the film's country instead as "the Palestinian Authority". This decision angered director-writer Hany Abu-Assad, who said it represented a slap in the face for the Palestinian people and their national identity. The Academy subsequently referred to it as a submission from the "Palestinian Territories".^[11] In a further complication, Israeli writer Irit Linor points out that "according to internationally accepted conventions, the nationality of a film is usually determined by the country that invested in it - and that while the film was categorized by the Academy as representing Palestine, it was produced with European funds, by an Israeli-Arab director."^[12]
On March 1, 2006, a group representing Israeli victims of suicide bombings asked the Oscar organizers to disqualify the film. These protesters claimed that showing the film was immoral and encouraged killing civilians in terror acts.^[13]

Anti Semitic themes

In February 2006, Irit Linur, an Israeli novelist and screenwriter, pointed out to some anti-Semitic themes in the film.^[14][15] Linur argued that the only Jew who has a speaking role in the movie is "Abu Shabab", the moniker of an Israeli Jew who take Said and Khaled to Tel-Aviv. Before they leave his car "Abu Shabab" wishes them "good luck" in Hebrew. "Abu Shabab" is supposed to be paid for transporting the suicide bombers only after the mission is completed. In this, the maker of the movie imply to the notion that Jews are greedy and will aid suicide attacks against other Jews for money, thus reflecting an existing theme inside Palestinian textbooks.^[16]
Linur also drawed attention to another and more forthright example of an anti-Semitic canard, which is to be found in the conversation between Said and a Palestinian cab driver. The driver claims that Jewish settlers poisoned the wells by Nablus in order to harm the quality of Palestinians' semen. This accusation echoes the fib that the Black Plague was caused through poisoning of wells by Jews.^[17] Again this accusation is reflecting an actual theme in Palestinian political discourse.^[18]

Responses

Paradise Now has an 89% rating on the review compendium website Rotten Tomatoes.^[19]
Stephen Holden, in his October 28, 2005 article in the New York Times, applauded the suspense and plot twists in the movie, and the risks involved humanizing suicide bombers, saying "it is easier to see a suicide bomber as a 21st-century Manchurian Candidate - a soulless, robotic shell of a person programmed to wreak destruction - than it is to picture a flesh-and-blood human being doing the damage."^[20]
In February 2006, Irit Linur wrote that the film's use of sophisticated techniques and symbolism was used to present caricatures, recycle anti-Semitic myths and introduce Christological associations in the film.^[21]

Awards

Academy Award

• On January 31, 2006, the film was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

Golden Globe

• Paradise Now won "Best Foreign Language Film" for the 63rd Golden Globe Awards, the first time a Palestinian film was nominated for such an award.

Other awards won

• 2005 Berlin International Film Festival:
  
  
  
  • Amnesty International Film Prize
  • AGICOA 2005 Blue Angel Award
  • Reader Jury of the "Berliner Morgenpost"
    
  
  
  
• 2005 European Film Awards:
  
  
  
  • Best Screenplay
    
  
  
  
• 2005 Independent Spirit Awards:
  
  
  
  • Best Foreign Film
  
  
  
• 2005 National Board of Review Awards (USA) :
  
  
  
  • Best Foreign Language Film
    
  
  
  
• 2005 Netherlands Film Festival:
  
  
  
  • Best Feature Film (Beste Lange Speelfilm)
  • Best Editing (Beste Montage)
  
  
  
• 2005 Durban International Film Festival (South Africa)
  
  
  
  • Best Director^[22]
    
  
  
  
• 2005 Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards
  
  
  
  • Best Foreign Language Film
    
  
  
  
• 2005 Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards
  
  
  
  • Best Foreign Film
    
  
  

Arabic only version - full length

Atheism: Jonathan Miller's Brief History of Disbelief - Shadows of Doubt

"59:03 minutesPart I - Shadows of Doubt Jonathan Miller visits the absent Twin Towers to consider the religious implications of 9/11 and meets Arthur Miller and the philosopher Colin McGinn. He searches for evidence of the first 'unbelievers' in Ancient Greece and examines some of the modern theories around why people have always tended to believe in mythology and magic. --- Uploaded because this needs to be available as a shining light of the historicity of reason midst the depths and oceans of media absurdity and religious propaganda. So few representatives of atheism provide a compelling and earnest account for unbelief, let alone with the lucidity and intellectual vigor of Jonathan Miller. He is sincere and moving in this attempt to explain and understand the origins of the truth of disbelief of religious superstition and faith. --- Should the BBC or the producers find it inappropriate for me to have uploaded this video, I will gladly remove it upon their request." 

Arabs/Muslims contribution to science

Existential chicken wish ..

Superwoman in DC Comics. Who is She? Who are They?

Superwoman is the name given to several fictional characters published over the years by DC Comics, most of them being, like the popular Supergirl, a woman with powers similar to those of DC's highly popular Superman. The name "Superwoman" was originally copyrighted by Detective Comics^[1] in an effort to prevent competitors from using it. As was the practice, an ashcan copy was created with the title of Superwoman. The cover was a reproduction of More Fun Comics^[2] with the interior content reprinting of the third issue.^[3] The first true appearance of Superwoman, which is usually thought to have been one of many trial runs for the future introduction of Kara Zor-El as Supergirl years later, was printed in Action Comics.^[4]

Contents 1 Versions 1.1 Lois Lane 1.2 Luma Lynai 1.3 Crime Syndicate of America 1.3.1 Earth-Three 1.3.2 Antimatter Earth 1.3.3 Earth-3 1.4 Mxyzptlk's Superwoman 1.5 Laurel Kent 1.6 Kristin Wells 1.7 Dana Dearden 1.8 Lucy Lane 2 Other uses 3 In other media 4 Notes and references 5 External links

Lois Lane

Main article: Lois Lane

Lois Lane's first appearance as Superwoman. Art by John Sikela.

The appearance of the name "Superwoman" in a DC comic was a story in Action Comics^[4] where Lois Lane dreams that she has gained superpowers from a blood transfusion from Superman and launches a career as Superwoman.
The theme would be revisited in a 1947 Superman^[5] comic in which a pair of fraudulent magicians cast a "spell" on Lane, making her believe she has superpowers. Superman is forced to play along with the ruse for a time, using super-speed to invisibly intervene in Lane's adventures, supporting the illusion. She briefly sports a costume modeled on Superman's before the spell is "broken". A story from Action Comics has Lois actually gaining superpowers thanks to one of Lex Luthor's inventions, and launches a short-lived career as "Superwoman."^[6]
Later stories would sporadically feature tales in which Lois gained superpowers and functioned as a "Superwoman" of sorts, but all of these were, like the 1951 tale above, only temporary, with the powers wearing off by the end of the story. A typical example of this is "The Turnabout Powers" from Superman Family,^[7] where the Earth-Two Lois Lane gained powers from her husband (the Earth-Two Superman) through the unexpected effect of an exotic extraterrestrial plant Superman had brought into their home. The plant's death reversed the effect. Another example would be in the Batman/Superman: World's Finest mini-series where Mr. Mxyzptlk briefly transformed Lois into a "Superwoman" with costume and powers.
At the end of All-Star Superman #2,^[8] Lois Lane is presented with a formula called "Exo-Genes" created by Superman that allows her to have his powers for 24 hours, and she became Superwoman. During her adventures with her new Kryptonian powers,^[9] she was wooed by two superhumans named "Samson" and "Atlas", and was captured by a time-Ultrasphinx. Her powers faded away at the end of the day. Notably, her costume seemed to be exactly the same as that of the Anti-Matter Universe's Superwoman (see below), but in Superman's colors; both outfits were designed by Frank Quitely.

Luma Lynai

Main article: Luma Lynai

A woman from the distant planet of Staryl, Luma Lynai wins the heart of Superman. Just as Superman derives his powers from a yellow sun, Lumisa derived her gifts of super-strength and flight from an orange sun. Their romance doesn't last, as Luma becomes deathly ill under the rays of a yellow sun, and Superman can't leave Earth undefended. She physically resembles an adult Kara Zor-El, with a similar costume, except instead of being blue-and-red with a pentagonal S shield, Luma's costume is white-and-green with a circular S emblem

Crime Syndicate of America

See also: Alternate versions of Wonder Woman

Earth-Three

In 1964, an evil counterpart of Wonder Woman from a parallel universe named "Superwoman" was introduced. This Superwoman was a member of the Crime Syndicate of America, a villainous counterpart of the Justice League of America from the parallel world of "Earth-Three" (vs. the Justice League's world of "Earth-One"). Superwoman, like Wonder Woman, was an Amazon, and possessed similar powers of super-strength and flight. Unlike most/all other versions, her magic lasso could change shape into any form she desired.^{[volume & issue needed]}
The Pre-Crisis version of Superwoman was killed, along with the rest of the CSA, when they were trying to save Earth-Three from being destroyed by the Anti-Monitor's antimatter wave.^[10]

Antimatter Earth

The Antimatter Earth's Superwoman. Art by Frank Quitely.

In Post-Crisis continuity, as established in the 1998 graphic novel JLA: Earth 2 by Grant Morrison, Superwoman (and the rest of the Crime Syndicate) comes from a parallel world similar to Earth, but located in an antimatter universe (also home to the planet Qward).^[11]
Superwoman continues to make occasional appearances as a member of the Crime Syndicate, most recently appearing in storylines in the Justice League and Superman comics. Unlike her pre-Crisis counterpart, her magic lasso doesn't change shape, but releases the inhibitions of anyone tied with it (just as Wonder Woman's compels victims to tell the truth). She also possesses heat vision, as Superman and Ultraman do.
Taking the alias Lois Lane, Superwoman is an Amazon by birth, and has risen through the ranks to become the chief editor of the Daily Planet in what she calls "Patriarch's World". This disguise resembles Wonder Woman's secret identity of Diana Prince. At the Planet, Superwoman is shown to upset her colleagues; the antimatter-Cat Grant refers to Superwoman as "Queen Bitch",^[12] and negatively alludes to her "friendship" with the antimatter Jimmy Olsen.
Olsen is the only civilian who knows of Superwoman's secret identity. A compliant sexual deviant, he does what she tells him in exchange for the favour of watching when she changes her outfit and receiving pieces of it for his "disguise kit". He is so besotted that he ignores her gibes and insults, even when she taunting refers to him as, "Superwoman's Snitch, Jimmy Olsen," and prints it in the Planet.
Also in the Earth 2 story, her lover Ultraman hates Superwoman's frigidity towards him. Meanwhile, she is carrying on a torrid affair with Owlman, and they sneak trysts whenever they feel Ultraman is not watching. However, from his floating fortress (the antimatter counterpart to the Fortress of Solitude), Ultraman doesn't hesitate to fire warning bursts of heat vision towards them whenever he catches them together.^[11]

Earth-3

In 52 Week 52, a recreation of Earth-3 was shown as a part of the new Multiverse. In the depiction were characters that are altered versions of the original Justice Society of America, including Wonder Woman. The character is not identified in 52,^[13] but later in Countdown to Final Crisis, which identifies her as Superwoman of the Crime Society of America, on an alternative world which is a reversed version of Earth-2. Based on comments by Grant Morrison, this alternate universe is not the pre-Crisis Earth-Three, making this a new character unrelated to previous versions.^[14] Grant Morrison also suggests that the Earth-3 and Antimatter Superwomen both exist post-52.
Like the antimatter iteration of the character, she is indeed both a Lois Lane and Wonder Woman counterpart, despite possessing Kryptonian abilities such as heat vision. In Countdown, she is recruited into the Monarch's army but has her eyes gouged out by Red Robin (Jason Todd) of New Earth, who may or may not have been carrying Kryptonite.

Mxyzptlk's Superwoman

The Superwoman (along with Batwoman and Superlad) from Superman/Batman #24.

In Superman #349,^[15] Superman returns from an interstellar mission to find that everyone on Earth are of opposite sex. Among them are Penny White (a female Perry White), Jenny Olsen (a female Jimmy Olsen), Louis Lane (a male Lois Lane), Batwoman (a female Batman, rather than the actual character), Wonder Warrior (a male Wonder Woman), Black Condor (a male Black Canary), and Superwoman (his female counterpart) herself. Believing he crossed into a parallel universe, Superman flies back to space to find a dimensional portal, but is blocked by an invisible barrier. He notices the parallelism fails when he sees Superwoman and Clara Kent (Superwoman's presumed secret identity) are two separate people.
After a battle with Superwoman, Superlad (a male Supergirl), and Wonder Warrior, Superman figures out that his foe Mr. Mxyzptlk is behind this gender-reversed world. This was partly due to the discrepancy of Clara Kent and Superwoman being different people. However, Mxyzptlk's biggest mistake was being too vain to give himself a reverse-gender counterpart in Superwoman's rogues gallery in The Daily Planet morgue; all of Superwoman's foes were reverse-gender counterparts to Superman's foes - except for Mxyzptlk. Superman discovers as well that he was never in a parallel universe, but rather on Earth, which Mxyzptlk had altered with his magic. After using Wonder Warrior's magic lasso to make Mxyzptlk say his name backwards and thus returning to his native dimension, the effects of Mxyzptlk's magic (including the existence of Superwoman) vanish, returning the Earth to normal.

Laurel Kent

A new Superwoman named "Laurel", apparently a female version of Superman from a parallel Earth (now identified as Earth-11), appeared for the first time in Superman/Batman,^[16] and was featured an issue later.^[17] In Earth 11's alternate universe, much like in the one featured in "The Turnabout Trap!"), reversed-gender characters exist relative to those resident on New Earth: there is a Batwoman (female Batman), Superlad (male Supergirl), and a female Darkseid known as the "Dark Queen". (It is notable that in pre-Crisis continuity, "Laurel Kent" was the name of a 30th century descendant of Superman who occasionally appeared in stories featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes, and was replaced in continuity by Laurel Gand.)
In December 2007, Superwoman and Batwoman were featured in Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Superwoman/Batwoman #1. It features Earth-11 as part of the new DC Multiverse and presents a male version of Wonder Woman called Wonder Man, who originates from a society of male Amazons. It also depicts that world's version of Amazons Attack!

Kristin Wells

Main article: Kristin Wells

Another version of Superwoman, this one a heroic character, came about in the form of Kristin Wells, who was created by Superman comic writer Elliot S! Maggin. Wells first appeared in Maggin's Superman novel Miracle Monday, but he later introduced her in the pages of DC Comics Presents as Superwoman. The character Wells is a 29th-century descendant of Jimmy Olsen. Wells time travels to the 20th century, where the technology she had brought from the future gives her super powers. It is this iteration of the character which appears briefly in Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

Dana Dearden

The Dana Dearden Superwoman.

Obsessed Superman fan Dana Dearden dated Jimmy Olsen to get close to Superman, and when that didn't work she stole mystic artifacts which granted her the strength of Hercules, the speed (and flight) of Hermes, the thunderbolts of Zeus, and the sight of Heimdall. Dana donned a green-and-purple uniform,^[18] with "Superwoman" written down the leggings, and called herself Superwoman, and tried to get Superman to fall in love with her. He rejected her advances, and Jimmy called her Obsession. She vanished attempting to help Superman rescue people from a burning ship. When Superman was split into his Red and Blue energy forms,^[19] Superwoman returned hoping that one of the Supermen would return her feelings, but Maxima intervened, and used her telepathy to convince Superwoman that she would destroy Superman with her love. The telepathic illusion wore off^[20] and she would try to win Superman over again, this time in a red-and blue costume very similar to his, and claimed to be his wife. She died trying to protect him from demons, since she knew he was vulnerable to magic.

Lucy Lane

New Krypton Superwoman.

Main article: Lucy Lane

Lucy Lane first appeared as Superwoman in Supergirl #35, her costume a nod to that of the Bronze Age Superwoman Kristin Wells and containing a containment field that simulated Kryptonian powers. However, Lucy's identity was not revealed until near the story arc's end. During her tenure as Superwoman, she was blackmailed by her father, General Sam Lane, into performing acts of villainy such as killing Agent Liberty, who had been spying on General Lane and Lex Luthor.^[21] (This resulted in her being the focus of the Supergirl Faces of Evil issue.) She later attacked Reactron, which tipped off readers that Superwoman was not Kryptonian (in that that villain's Gold Kryptonite power source had no effect on her^[22]). Supergirl unmasks Superwoman^[23], and accidentally kills her by rupturing the containment field of her suit, causing Lucy's body to contort and explode.^[24] In the Supergirl annual Lucy is brought back to life by the suit as it steals the life of a another person.

Other uses

Various comic stories, pre- and post-Crisis, have offered glimpses of possible futures assuming that one of the various incarnations of Supergirl would eventually change her codename to Superwoman. One example is a 1980 issue of Superman Family,^[25] in which all the stories are set in the then-futuristic 1999 or 2000 (the timeframe is cited only as "the turn of the century") with the characters aged appropriately, including an older Linda Danvers (Kara Zor-El) who divides her time between adventuring as Superwoman and serving as governor of Florida. Alternately, some stories assume one of Superman's female descendants would assume the name "Superwoman", like his daughter Kara and great-granddaughter Lara from the Elseworlds series, Superman & Batman: Generations.

In other media

A version of Superwoman appeared on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in the season three episode, Ultra Woman^[26]. Clark lost his powers when a red kryptonite laser beam hit him and transferred his powers to Lois. Both of them were unaware of the transfer, until Lois pulled down an iron gate with her bare hands. Mrs. Kent made her a costume and Clark introduces her to Metropolis as Ultrawoman.
Gina Torres will voice the Crime Syndicate version of her in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.

Notes and references

1. ^ January 1942
2. ^ Issue #73
3. ^ Action Comics #3 —
4. ^ ^{a b} Issue #60 — May 1943
5. ^ Issue #45, in a story titled "Lois Lane, Superwoman!" — (March-April 1947)
6. ^ Issue #156 — released May 1951
7. ^ Issue #207 (May-June 1981)
8. ^ Issue #2
9. ^ All-Star Superman #3
10. ^ Crisis on Infinite Earths #1
11. ^ ^{a b} Greenberger, Robert (2008), "Crime Syndicate", in Dougall, Alastair, The DC Comics Encyclopedia, New York: Dorling Kindersley, pp. 89, ISBN 0-7566-4119-5, OCLC 213309017 
12. ^ "JLA: Earth 2"
13. ^ 52 (52): 11/3-4 (May 2, 2007), DC Comics
14. ^ Brady, Matt (2007-05-08). ""THE 52 EXIT INTERVIEWS: GRANT MORRISON"". Newsarama. http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=111900. Retrieved 2007-05-12. 
15. ^ Superman, volume 1, #349 (in a story entitled "The Turnabout Trap!")
16. ^ Issue #23 — released November 2005
17. ^ Issue #24
18. ^ Adventures of Superman #538 — September 1996
19. ^ Superman: The Man of Tomorrow, Issue #10
20. ^ Adventures of Superman #574 — released January 2000
21. ^ Action Comics #873
22. ^ Supergirl #38
23. ^ Supergirl #40
24. ^ Supergirl #41
25. ^ #200 — released April 1980
26. ^ November 12, 1995 (Episode 7)

DC Comics Presents Annual #4 Superman and Superwoman (1985)

External links

• Maggin on the Kristin Wells Superwoman's origins
• Supermanica Superwoman entry

Creators	Jerome "Jerry" Siegel · Joseph "Joe" Shuster
Superman Family	Superman (Clark Kent) · Superboy (Kal-El; Kon-El) · Supergirl (Kara Zor-El; Matrix; Linda Danvers; Cir-El) Chris Kent · Eradicator · Krypto · Maxima · Mon-El · Power Girl · Steel · Superwoman (Kristin Wells) · Jor-El · Zor-El · Lara · Alura
Supporting Characters	Bibbo Bibbowski · Cat Grant · Professor Hamilton · Inspector Henderson · Ma and Pa Kent · Lobo · Lois Lane · Lucy Lane · Sam Lane · Lana Lang · Lori Lemaris · Lyla Lerrol · Steve Lombard · Jimmy Olsen · Pete Ross · Maggie Sawyer · Ron Troupe · Dan Turpin · Perry White
Villains	Atomic Skull · Bizarro · Bloodsport · Brainiac · Bruno Mannheim · Conduit · Darkseid · Doomsday · Faora · General Zod · Gog · Hank Henshaw · Imperiex · Intergang · Jax-Ur · Kryptonite Man · Lex Luthor · Livewire · Metallo · Mongul · Morgan Edge · Mr. Mxyzptlk · Parasite · Prankster · Silver Banshee · Superboy-Prime · Terra-Man · Titano · Toyman · Ultra-Humanite · Ultraman
Locations	Daily Planet · Fortress of Solitude · Kandor · Krypton · Metropolis · Phantom Zone · Smallville · Suicide Slum · Vathlo Island · Belle Reve
History and themes	Origin · History of Superman · Symbol · Powers · Kryptonite · Character and cast · Relationship of Clark Kent and Lois Lane
Publications	Current: Action Comics · Adventure Comics (vol. 2) · Superman · Superman/Batman · Superman: World of New Krypton Former: Adventure Comics · All Star Superman · DC Comics Presents · Superman (vol. 2) · Superman: The Man of Steel · World's Finest Comics
Miscellanea	Storylines · Alternate versions · Superman in other media · Supergirl in other media · Lex Luthor in other media · Superman (film series) · Alternate versions of Supergirl · Alternate versions of Lex Luthor · Smallville