title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: Gamal Abdel Nasser traveled to Jeddah on the Freedom ship in August 1965, marking his first visit to Saudi Arabia since 1954, when he came to perform Hajj. Faisal greeted Nasser warmly when he arrived. Despite their differences, the two countries' relations were restored. Both men came to an agreement on the following (known as the Jeddah Agreement) within 48 hours:


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: Sami Sharaf, an Egyptian official, recognized that implementing the agreement would be difficult because it had been rejected by all Yemeni parties. Republican chairman Abdullah al-Sallal stated, "The agreement is a blatant interference in the independence of the Yemen Arab Republic, and a blatant attack on its sovereignty for all International laws." The royalists, on the other hand, backed the agreement at first before rejecting any attempt to terminate the war with the republicans.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: The Haradh conference was conducted on November 23, 1965, under the auspices of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to put the Saudi-Egyptian declaration between the two parties of the Yemeni conflict into effect. Judge Abd al-Rahman al-Iryani led the republican delegation, while Ahmed Muhammad al-Shami, the royalists' foreign minister, led the royal delegation. The conflicting parties, however, were unable to strike a compromise, which resulted in further bloodshed between republicans and royalists.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: Egypt indicated its willingness to stop the war in Yemen as part of the Khartoum Resolution of August 1967. Egyptian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Riad suggested that Egypt and Saudi Arabia renew their 1965 Jeddah Agreement. Faisal was pleased with Nasser's offer, and Imam al-Badr pledged to deploy his troops to fight alongside Egypt against Israel if Nasser kept his word. Nasser and Faisal signed a deal in which Nasser agreed to withdraw his 20,000 troops from Yemen, Faisal agreed to stop delivering weapons to al-Badr, and three neutral Arab states agreed to send in observers. Al-Sallal felt that Nasser had betrayed him. Nasser unfroze approximately $100 million in Saudi assets in Egypt, and Faisal denationalized two Egyptian-owned banks he had taken over earlier that year. Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Kuwait agreed to give Egypt a $266 million annual subsidy, with Saudi Arabia contributing $154 million.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: During the Six-Day War, Faisal ordered the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces to be on alert, canceling all vacations and mobilizing forces in the Kingdom's north. Following that, orders were issued for a force of 20,000 Saudi soldiers to travel to Jordan to participate alongside the Arab forces. After the war, he directed that a Saudi force be stationed inside Jordanian territory to provide support and assistance as needed for ten years.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: Furthermore, at the Khartoum Conference, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Kuwait agreed to establish a fund worth $378 million to be distributed among countries affected by the June 1967 War. Saudi Arabia would contribute $140 million.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: Faisal's grandson, Prince Amr bin Mohammed Al-Faisal, said "I am told by my relatives, my other relatives, after 1967 and the fall of Jerusalem to the Israelis, that was a turning point in his life. He never smiled again, according to them. I didn't see him smile much, and he became very quiet and contemplative, and mostly he would spend his time listening rather than speaking himself."


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: After President Nasser of Egypt died in 1970, Faisal drew closer to Nasser's successor, Anwar Sadat, who himself was planning a break with the Soviet Union and a move towards the pro-American camp. After Sadat launched the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, Faisal withdrew Saudi oil from world markets and was the primary force behind the 1973 oil crisis, in protest over Western support for Israel during the conflict. The embargo was initially imposed on Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States, but it was later extended to Portugal, Rhodesia, and South Africa. The price of oil had risen about 300 percent by the conclusion of the embargo in March 1974, from US to nearly globally; US prices were much higher. The embargo triggered an oil crisis, or "shock", with numerous short- and long-term implications for world politics and the economy. This was regarded as the defining act of Faisal's career, and gained him lasting prestige among many Arabs and Muslims worldwide.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: In 1974 Faisal was named "Time" magazine's Man of the Year, and the financial windfall generated by the crisis fueled the economic boom that occurred in Saudi Arabia after his death. The new oil revenue also allowed Faisal to greatly increase the aid and subsidies begun following the 1967 Six-Day War to Egypt, Syria, and the Palestine Liberation Organization.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: It is a commonly-held belief in Saudi Arabia, and the wider Arab world, that Faisal's oil embargo was the real cause of his assassination, via a Western conspiracy.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: Faisal married many times concurrently. His spouses were from powerful families: Al Kabir, Al Sudairi, Al Jiluwi and Al Thunayan. His wives were:


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: Faisal's children were well educated and had prominent roles in Saudi society and government. His daughters were educated abroad and they went on to graduate from a variety of schools and universities around the world. His sons were likewise educated abroad. Comparatively, only six of the 108 children of King Saud graduated from high school. Faisal's son Turki received formal education at prestigious schools in New Jersey, and he later attended Georgetown University, while another son, Saud, was an alumnus of Princeton University. Faisal's sons held important positions in the Saudi government. His eldest son, Abdullah, held governmental positions for a while. Faisal's son Khalid was the governor of Asir Province in southwestern Saudi Arabia for more than three decades before becoming governor of Makkah Province in 2007. Prince Saud was the Saudi foreign minister between 1975 and 2015. Prince Turki served as head of Saudi Intelligence, ambassador to the United Kingdom, and later ambassador to the United States. One of Faisal's sons, Abdul Rahman, was a graduate of Sandhurst Military Academy, and he died in March 2014. Faisal's sons Mohammed and Saad died in 2017. Prince Mohammed was a businessman. Faisal's daughters also held important roles in Saudi society. From 2013 to 2016, his daughter Sara served in the Shura Council. She is also a prominent activist for women's education and other social issues in Saudi Arabia, and so are her sisters Lolowah, Latifa, and Haifa.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: Faisal's daughter Haifa is married to Prince Bandar, son of Faisal's half-brother Sultan by a concubine. The marriage of Princess Haifa and Prince Bandar forced Prince Sultan to recognize Bandar as a legitimate prince. Another daughter of Faisal, Lolowah, is a prominent activist for women's education in Saudi Arabia. In 1962 his daughter Sara founded one of the first charitable organizations, Al Nahda, which won the first Chaillot prize for human rights organisations in the Gulf in 2009. Her spouse was Prince Muhammed, one of King Saud's sons. Faisal's daughter Mishail died at the age of 72 in October 2011. His granddaughter Reem bint Mohammed is a photographer and gallery owner based in Jeddah, while another of his granddaughters, Reema bint Bandar, is Saudi Arabia's first female ambassador.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: Unlike most of his half-brothers, Faisal spoke fluent English and French. However, he preferred to speak in Arabic. When his translators made errors, Faisal would correct them.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: Faisal was known for his integrity, extreme humility, kindness, and tact with everyone. As a result, he was ascetic, avoiding displays of extravagance and luxury. He had many hobbies, some of which were falconry, hunting, literature, reading, and poetry. He was also a big admirer of the yearly Najdi festivals and celebrations. Faisal chose to work long hours and set aside some of his interests after assuming power and becoming preoccupied with state affairs.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: After coming to power in 1964, Faisal quickly caught the attention of the international public. "The New York Times" stated that Faisal looked like "someone out of a poem by Rudyard Kipling or a casting office in Hollywood." He was around six feet tall, above average height, but not quite as tall as his father Abdulaziz and his brother Saud. Compared to other Muslim rulers such as Shah Mohammad Reza of Iran who almost exclusively wore European-styled outfits, Faisal was known to have dressed modestly, as he was most often seen wearing a traditional Saudi thawb, even in the presence of foreign dignitaries.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: On 25 March 1975, the King was shot point-blank and killed by Faisal bin Musaid, son of his half-brother Musaid bin Abdulaziz. He had just come back from the United States. The murder occurred at a "majlis" (literally 'a place for sitting'), an event where the king or leader opens up his residence to the citizens to enter and petition him.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: In the waiting room, Prince Faisal talked to Kuwaiti representatives who were also waiting to meet King Faisal. When the prince went to embrace him, King Faisal leaned to kiss his nephew in accordance with Saudi custom. At that instant, Prince Faisal took out a pistol and shot him. The first shot hit the King's chin and the second one went through his ear. A bodyguard hit Prince Faisal with a sheathed sword. Oil minister Zaki Yamani yelled repeatedly not to kill the prince.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: King Faisal was quickly taken to a hospital. He was still alive as doctors massaged his heart and gave him a blood transfusion. Their efforts were unsuccessful, and he died shortly afterward. Both before and after the attack the assassin was reported to be calm. Following the killing, Riyadh had three days of mourning during which all government activities were suspended. The funeral service for King Faisal was performed in 'Id mosque in Riyadh, and he was buried in Al Oud cemetery on 26 March 1975. During the funeral, the newly ascended King Khalid wept over his murdered brother's body.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: One theory for the King's murder was avenging the death of Prince Khalid bin Musaid, the brother of Prince Faisal bin Musaid. King Faisal instituted secular reforms that led to the installation of television, which provoked violent protests. Prince Khalid led an attack on a television station in 1966, and he was shot dead by a policeman.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: According to claims by King Faisal's family and friends, Prince Faisal bin Musaid had informed his mother Watfa bint Muhammad Al Rashid of his assassination plans. Wafta then informed the King, who said "if it is Allah's will, then it would happen." In a documentary entitled "Faisal, Legacy of a King", Faisal's grandson Amr bin Mohammed bin Faisal claims that the King had distanced himself from the world days before his death. Zaki Yamani claimed that King Faisal told his own relatives and friends about a dream he had in which his father, the late King Abdulaziz, was traveling in a car and asked him to get in. Yamani went on to say that if a dead person takes a living person in a dream, the living person will most likely die within a short amount of time according to Islamic beliefs.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: Prince Faisal bin Musaid was captured directly after the attack. He was at first officially declared insane, but following the trial a panel of Saudi medical experts decided that he was sane when he shot the King. The nation's high religious court convicted him of regicide and sentenced him to execution. He was publicly beheaded in Deera Square in Riyadh.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: After his death, Faisal's sons established an international philanthropic organisation, the King Faisal Foundation, in his honour. Faisal was eulogized by lyricist Robert Hunter in the title track of the Grateful Dead's 1975 album "Blues for Allah".


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: Gerald de Gaury published a biography of Faisal entitled "Faisal: King of Saudi Arabia". In 2013 Russian Arabist Alexei Vassiliev published another biography, "King Faisal of Saudi Arabia: Personality, Faith and Times". A movie directed by Agustí Villaronga in 2019 entitled "Born a King" is about the visit of Faisal to London in 1919 when he was thirteen years old.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: In October 1976 King Khalid initiated the construction of Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan. Lyallpur, the third largest city of Pakistan, was renamed Faisalabad (literally, "City of Faisal") in 1979 in Faisal's honour. One of the two major Pakistan Air Force bases in Karachi, the largest city in Sindh province, is named "PAF Base Faisal" in Faisal's honour.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: Faisal held pro-Palestinian views. Throughout his career, he supported the Palestinian cause, and he was noted for his criticism of Israel. He was also anti-communist, and Saudi Arabia under Faisal continued to be allied with the United States against the Soviet Union. Faisal also supported pan-Islamism, and he sought to establish unity among Muslims. Nevertheless, he reduced the power of the Islamic clergy during his reign.


title: Faisal of Saudi Arabia

text: Faisal has received numerous honours from the countries he visited both before and after assuming power. In 1983, the King Faisal Foundation established the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh. The honours and awards given to Faisal are displayed there. The awards are as follows:


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: The Mason–Dixon line, also called the Mason and Dixon line or Mason's and Dixon's line, is a demarcation line separating four U.S. states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia (part of Virginia until 1863). It was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon as part of the resolution of a border dispute involving Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware in colonial America. The dispute had its origins almost a century earlier in the somewhat confusing proprietary grants by King Charles I to Lord Baltimore (Maryland) and by King Charles II to William Penn (Pennsylvania and Delaware).


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: The largest, east-west portion of the Mason–Dixon line along the southern Pennsylvania border later became known, informally, as the boundary between the Southern slave states and Northern free states. This usage came to prominence during the debate around the Missouri Compromise of 1820, when drawing boundaries between slave and free territory was an issue, and resurfaced during the American Civil War, with border states also coming into play. The Confederate States of America claimed the Virginia portion of the line as part of its northern border, although it never exercised meaningful control that far northespecially after West Virginia separated from Virginia and joined the Union as a separate state in 1863. It is still used today in the figurative sense of a line that separates the Northeast and South culturally, politically, and socially (see Dixie).


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: Maryland's charter of 1632 granted Cecil Calvert land north of the entire length of the Potomac River up to the 40th parallel. A problem arose when Charles II granted a charter for Pennsylvania in 1681. The grant defined Pennsylvania's southern border as identical to Maryland's northern border, but described it differently, as Charles relied on an inaccurate map. The terms of the grant clearly indicate that Charles II and William Penn believed the 40th parallel would intersect the Twelve-Mile Circle around New Castle, Delaware, when in fact it falls north of the original boundaries of the City of Philadelphia, the site of which Penn had already selected for his colony's capital city. Negotiations ensued after the problem was discovered in 1681. A compromise proposed by Charles II in 1682, which might have resolved the issue, was undermined by Penn receiving the additional grant of the "Three Lower Counties" along Delaware Bay, which later became the Delaware Colony, a satellite of Pennsylvania. Maryland considered these lands part of its original grant.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: The conflict became more of an issue when settlement extended into the interior of the colonies. In 1732 the Proprietary Governor of Maryland, Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, signed a provisional agreement with William Penn's sons, which drew a line somewhere in between and renounced the Calvert claim to Delaware. But later, Lord Baltimore claimed that the document he had signed did not contain the terms he had agreed to, and refused to put the agreement into effect. Beginning in the mid-1730s, violence erupted between settlers claiming various loyalties to Maryland and Pennsylvania. The border conflict would be known as Cresap's War.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: Progress was made after a Court of Chancery ruling affirming the 1732 agreement, but the issue remained unresolved until Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore ceased contesting the claims on the Maryland side and accepted the earlier agreements. Maryland's border with Delaware was to be based on the Transpeninsular Line and the Twelve-Mile Circle around New Castle. The Pennsylvania–Maryland border was defined as the line of latitude south of the southernmost house in Philadelphia (on what is today South Street). As part of the settlement, the Penns and Calverts commissioned the English team of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon to survey the newly established boundaries between the Province of Pennsylvania, the Province of Maryland, and Delaware Colony.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: In 1779, Pennsylvania and Virginia agreed "To extend Mason's and Dixon's line, due west, five degrees of longitude, to be computed from the river Delaware, for the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and that a meridian, drawn from the western extremity thereof to the northern limit of the said state, be the western boundary of Pennsylvania for ever."


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: After Pennsylvania abolished slavery in 1781, the east-west part of this line and the Ohio River became a border between slave and free states, with Delaware retaining slavery until the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: Mason and Dixon's actual survey line began to the south of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and extended from a benchmark east to the Delaware River and west to what was then the boundary with western Virginia.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: The surveyors also fixed the boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania and the approximately north–south portion of the boundary between Delaware and Maryland. Most of the Delaware–Pennsylvania boundary is an arc, and the Delaware–Maryland boundary does not run truly north–south because it was intended to bisect the Delmarva Peninsula rather than follow a meridian.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: The Maryland–Pennsylvania boundary is an east–west line with an approximate mean latitude of 39°43′20″ N (Datum WGS 84). In reality, the east-west Mason–Dixon line is not a true line in the geometric sense, but is instead a series of many adjoining line segments, following a path between latitude 39°43′15″ N and 39°43′23″ N.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: The surveyors also extended the boundary line west of Maryland's western boundary, into territory that was still in dispute between Pennsylvania and Virginia, though this was contrary to their original charter. Mason and Dixon's survey was finished on October 9, 1767, about east of what is now Pennsylvania's southwest corner.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: In 1774, commissioners from Pennsylvania and Virginia met to negotiate their boundary, which at the time involved Pennsylvania's southern border west of Maryland and its entire western border. Both sides agreed that Pennsylvania's grant made its western border a tracing of the course of the Delaware River, displaced five degrees (approximately 265 miles) to the west. And both sides thought this would place Fort Pitt in Virginia territory (in fact it would not have). With that in mind, the governor of Pennsylvania argued that, despite the agreement reached with Maryland, Pennsylvania's southern border west of Maryland was still the 39th parallel, about south of the Mason–Dixon line. Negotiations continued for five years, with a series of proposed lines. In the end, a compromise was reached: the Mason–Dixon line would be extended west to a point five degrees west of the Delaware River. To compensate Pennsylvania for the claimed territory lost, its western boundary would be run due north rather than copying the course of the Delaware River.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: The Mason–Dixon line was marked by stones every mile and "crownstones" every , using stone shipped from England. The Maryland side says "(M)" and the Delaware and Pennsylvania sides say "(P)". Crownstones include the two coats of arms. Today, while a number of the original stones are missing or buried, many are still visible, resting on public land and protected by iron cages.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: Mason and Dixon confirmed earlier survey work, which delineated Delaware's southern boundary from the Atlantic Ocean to the "Middle Point" stone (along what is today known as the Transpeninsular Line). They proceeded nearly due north from this to the Pennsylvania border.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: Later, the line was marked in places by additional benchmarks and survey markers. The lines have been resurveyed several times over the centuries without substantive changes to Mason's and Dixon's work. The stones may be a few, to a few hundred, feet east or west of the point Mason and Dixon thought they were: in any event, the line drawn from stone to stone forms the legal boundary.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: The line was established to end a boundary dispute between the British colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania/Delaware. Maryland had been granted the territory north of the Potomac River up to the 40th parallel. Pennsylvania's grant defined the colony's southern boundary as following a 12-mile (radius) circle () counter-clockwise from the Delaware River until it hit "the beginning of the fortieth degree of Northern latitude." From there the boundary was to follow the 40th parallel due west for five degrees of longitude. But the 40th parallel does not, in fact, intersect the 12-mile circle, instead lying significantly farther north. Thus Pennsylvania's southern boundary as defined in its charter was contradictory and unclear. The most serious problem was that the Maryland claim would put Philadelphia, the major city in Pennsylvania, within Maryland.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: The disputants engaged an expert British team, astronomer Charles Mason and surveyor Jeremiah Dixon, to survey what became known as the Mason–Dixon line. It cost the Calverts of Maryland and the Penns of Pennsylvania £3,512 9/ – () to have surveyed with such accuracy. To them the money was well spent, for in a new country there was no other way of establishing ownership.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: The most difficult task was fixing the tangent line, as they had to confirm the accuracy of the transpeninsular line midpoint and the 12-mile circle, determine the tangent point along the circle, and then actually survey and monument the border. They then surveyed the north and arc lines. They did this work between 1763 and 1767. This actually left a small wedge of land in dispute between Delaware and Pennsylvania until 1921.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: In April 1765, Mason and Dixon began their survey of the more famous Maryland–Pennsylvania line. They were commissioned to run it for a distance of five degrees of longitude west from the Delaware River, fixing the western boundary of Pennsylvania (see the entry for Yohogania County). However, in October 1767, at Dunkard Creek near Mount Morris, Pennsylvania, nearly west of the Delaware, their Iroquois guides refused to go any further, having reached the border of their lands with the Lenape, with whom they were engaged in hostilities. As a result, the group was forced to quit, and on October 11, they made their final observations, from their starting point.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: In 1784, surveyors David Rittenhouse and Andrew Ellicott and their crew completed the survey of the Mason–Dixon line to the southwest corner of Pennsylvania, five degrees from the Delaware River. Other surveyors continued west to the Ohio River. The section of the line between the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania and the river is the county line between Marshall and Wetzel counties, West Virginia.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: As the 20th century moved along and modern roadways came to northeastern Maryland and Delaware, the old boundary line was noted by construction crews, newspaper columnists, and the traveling public. When contractors started working on a section of Route 40, a modern dual highway between Elkton and Glasgow, they discovered a time and weather battered original Mason Dixon Marker. It was relocated to northside of the highway and when the governors of Delaware and Maryland dedicated the highway on June 26, 1941, newspaper reporters took note of the ancient old relic.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: Although greatly mangled by traffic in the second half of the twentieth century, it still stands today. But long before bulldozers and other heavy equipment started moving earth for the dual highway before World War II, there were concerns about the preservation of this monument. In 1885, the Cecil Democrat reported that after 119-years, the stone on the road from Elkton to Glasgow had "yielded to the action of the elements and fell over." The editor urged the Cecil County Commissioners, Commissioner of the Land Office, Governor or some public minded citizen to preserve this "old time-honored, moss-covered relic of a generation, which has passed away. . . "


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: On November 14, 1963, during the bicentennial of the Mason–Dixon line, U.S. President John F. Kennedy opened a newly completed section of Interstate 95 where it crossed the Maryland–Delaware border. After the president, flanked by the governors of Delaware and Maryland, cut a ribbon opening the Interstate, they moved to the grassy median strip where a replica Mason and Dixon Marker had been placed for the bicentennial. There President Kennedy and the governors unveiled a limestone replica. It was one of his last public appearances before his assassination in Dallas, Texas. The Delaware Turnpike and the Maryland portion of the new road were later designated as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: Mason and Dixon could only do the work as accurately as they did due to the work of Nevil Maskelyne, some of whose instruments they used. There was keen interest in their work and much communication between the surveyors, Maskelyne and other members of the British Scientific establishment in the Royal Society in Britain, notably Henry Cavendish.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: During such survey work, it is normal to survey from point to point along the line and then survey back to the starting point, where if there were no errors the origin and re-surveyed position would coincide. Normally the return errors would be randomi.e. the return survey errors compared to the intermediate points back to the start point would be spatially randomly distributed around the start point. Mason and Dixon found that there were larger than expected systematic errors, i.e. non-random errors, that led the return survey consistently being in one direction away from the starting point.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: When this information got back to the Royal Society members, Henry Cavendish realised that this may have been due to the gravitational pull of the Allegheny Mountains deflecting the theodolite plumb-bobs and spirit levels. Maskelyne then proposed measuring the gravitational force causing this deflection induced by the pull of a nearby mountain upon a plumb-bob in 1772 and sent Mason (who had returned to Britain) on a site survey through central England and Scotland to find a suitable location during the summer of 1773. Mason selected Schiehallion at which to conduct what became known as the Schiehallion experiment, which was carried out primarily by Maskelyne and determined the density of the Scottish mountain. Several years later Cavendish used a very sensitive torsion balance to carry out the Cavendish experiment and determine the average density of Earth.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: It is unlikely that Mason and Dixon ever heard the phrase "Mason–Dixon line". The official report on the survey, issued in 1768, did not even mention their names. While the term was used occasionally in the decades following the survey, it came into popular use when the Missouri Compromise of 1820 named "Mason and Dixon's line" as part of the boundary between slave territory and free territory.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: In popular usage to people from the northern United States, the Mason–Dixon line symbolizes a cultural boundary between the North and the South (Dixie). Originally "Mason and Dixon's Line" referred to the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland. After Pennsylvania abolished slavery, it served as a demarcation line for the legality of slavery. That demarcation did not extend beyond Pennsylvania because Delaware, then a slave state, extended north and east of the boundary. Also lying north and east of the boundary was New Jersey, where slavery was formally abolished in 1846, but former slaves continued to be "apprenticed" to their masters until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: The Missouri Compromise line (Parallel 36°30′ north) had a much clearer geographic connection to slavery in the United States leading up to the Civil War.


title: Mason–Dixon line

text: Popular culture contains a multitude of references to the Mason–Dixon line as a general geographic division, or character names evoking it, although a minority of those specifically relate to the line itself.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: Eduardo "Lalo" Salamanca is a fictional character on the AMC television series "Better Call Saul", a prequel of "Breaking Bad". Introduced in the fourth season, he is portrayed by Tony Dalton and was created by Peter Gould and screenwriter Gordon Smith. Dialogue that introduces Saul Goodman in the "Breaking Bad" episode "Better Call Saul" mentions Lalo and Nacho Varga, though neither appear in "Breaking Bad".


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: Lalo is one of many nephews of Hector Salamanca, an enforcer of Don Eladio Vuente's drug cartel. After Hector suffers a stroke, Lalo arrives from Mexico to help run the family drug operation in Albuquerque and takes a greater interest in the day-to-day details than Hector did. Because of the rivalry between Gus Fring and Hector, Lalo becomes dedicated to disrupting Gus' legitimate restaurant business as well as his reputation with the cartel.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: Showrunners gave Dalton freedom to diverge from cartel stereotypes and portrayals of the other members of the Salamanca family. Series co-creator Vince Gilligan held himself responsible for delaying Lalo's introduction, as Gould had wanted to introduce Lalo as early as season one. Unlike most other members of his family, Lalo is charismatic and often cheerful; but like them, he can also be brutally and remorselessly vicious. Dalton's portrayal has been critically acclaimed, with some critics deeming Lalo to be one of the best villains on television.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: In July 2018, Tony Dalton joined "Better Call Saul" in the role of Lalo Salamanca, first appearing in the season four episode "Coushatta". The "Breaking Bad" season two episode "Better Call Saul" mentions Lalo; it also introduces Saul Goodman (Jimmy McGill's business name) and mentions "Ignacio" (Nacho Varga). In an interview before "Better Call Saul" aired, Vince Gilligan said that the writers had envisioned Lalo as a major character and as with "Breaking Bad", must "keep close tabs on what our characters have done in the past and make good use of it here in the present and the future". However, Gilligan and Peter Gould had trouble figuring out how to introduce the character properly. They considered him a bogeyman around the second season of "Breaking Bad", but had not figured out his personality or motivations. Gilligan held himself responsible for delaying Lalo's introduction, as Gould had wanted to introduce Lalo as early as season one. Gould saw that Lalo needed to be different from the other members of the Salamanca family and a foil equal to Gus Fring. He credited their casting directors Sherry Thomas and Sharon Bialy for selecting Dalton for the role, adding that Dalton had "the charm, and the joy, and the threat" needed for the character and "all the charm of a '40s movie star". Gould said Lalo was named after the composer Lalo Schifrin.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: The episode "Wiedersehen", written by Gennifer Hutchison, fleshes out Lalo further. Hutchison said that while just as "scary" as the other Salamancas, he is "a little more circumspect about things". She explained that the producers wanted him to be "a little charming", in contrast to the other Salamancas, who have she felt had few qualities beyond fearsomeness. Dalton said that the season five finale, "Something Unforgivable", provides a breadth not seen in prior episodes. Lalo first appears as a charismatic person his extended family and cartel leaders welcome but shows a vicious and vengeful side after his family comes under attack. Dalton said that Lalo's unbridled anger in season six is what differentiates him from his laidback personality in season five. Michael Mando, who portrays Nacho, described Lalo as "a Salamanca in every way, just like Tuco and Hector had their own flavors to the erratic Salamancas". Gilligan and Gould gave Dalton the freedom to take Lalo's personality as he saw fit, just as they had allowed Jonathan Banks to develop Mike Ehrmantraut during "Breaking Bad", though they also told Dalton to think of Lalo as something of a "Prince of the Narcos". Dalton considers Lalo to be in juxtaposition to Gus due to Lalo's laidback attitude and "loose body language" that contrasts with Gus being constantly anxious about decisions and having a "tight body language".


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: According to Dalton, Lalo was not originally meant to be very charming; he felt the series needed someone "kind of smiling and carefree and a little bit mischievous" like Jimmy but "in the bad guy's part". Dalton took inspiration from Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules Winnfield from "Pulp Fiction" to create this "[k]ind of this smart ass, sort of scary but kind of carefree, kind of cool guy", as well as the negative characters portrayed by Jack Nicholson. He also sought to move away from his role in the TV series "Sr. Ávila" as a hitman who he felt had "zero personality". Instead, he took inspiration from Geoffrey Rush's character in "Elizabeth" who smiles while killing. Dalton toned down Lalo's Mexican accent because of his belief that the character, given his wealth, was educated in a "good school" in the United States. Instead, he went for an accent that he had developed from growing up around Laredo, Texas. Dalton gave Lalo a more upbeat personality to show the character's normally easy take on life and distance him from the typical portrayal of cartel members as serious about their work. Lalo is killed by Gus in the season six episode "Point and Shoot". Gordon Smith said it was considered for Mike to kill Lalo, but this idea was discarded in order to let the "biggest big bads" in the series – Gus and Lalo – come face to face.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: Eduardo "Lalo" Salamanca is one of many nephews of Hector Salamanca, an enforcer of Don Eladio Vuente's drug cartel. After Hector suffers a stroke that confines him to a wheelchair and leaves him unable to speak, Lalo moves from Mexico to Albuquerque to help run the Salamanca family's drug operation. He takes a greater interest in the day-to-day details than Hector did. Nacho Varga, Hector's subordinate, is secretly responsible for Hector's stroke and acts as a mole for Hector's rival Gus Fring, so Lalo's arrival leaves him uneasy. Lalo visits Hector in the nursing home and gives him a front desk call bell, a souvenir from when Hector killed a hotelier and burned down the hotel after its owner disrespected him. Lalo attaches the bell to Hector's wheelchair so Hector can communicate by ringing it with his right index finger, the only body part he can move following his stroke. Lalo arrives at Los Pollos Hermanos (Gus' restaurant front for his drug operation) and introduces himself to Gus. Lalo thanks Gus for giving Hector first aid and paying for his care but surveils Gus' underlings to learn their regular activities.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: While staking out Gus' Los Pollos Hermanos chicken farm, Lalo observes activity related to Werner Ziegler's escape. He follows Mike Ehrmantraut as Mike tracks Werner, which leads him to a Travelwire store. Mike updates Gus on Werner's actions and persuades Gus to let him retrieve Werner instead of sending hitmen after him. After Mike and Gus leave, Lalo enters and tries to learn what Mike knows, but the clerk, Fred Whalen, refuses to tell him. Lalo kills Fred, reviews the security footage Mike saw, and sets fire to the store on his way out. Lalo calls resorts until he finds Werner; he then pretends to work for Gus and tricks Werner into revealing some details about the construction of the meth lab under Gus' industrial laundry Lavandería Brillante. Mike arrives at Werner's location and ends the call but realizes Lalo knows some information about the construction. Mike reports to Gus, who realizes Werner will have to be killed to prevent Lalo from learning more; Mike accepts responsibility and kills Werner himself.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: Gus draws Lalo to a meeting by "stepping on" the Salamancas' share of the cartel's cocaine. With Juan Bolsa present, Gus tells Lalo that Werner was constructing a chiller and fled after stealing cocaine. He claims he then attempted to cover for the loss by replacing the cocaine with local, inferior meth. Since the cover story explains events Lalo knows about, he accepts Gus' explanation and apology. Bolsa tells Lalo that Gus enjoys Eladio's trust, so Lalo should consider the matter closed. Because of Lalo's presence in Albuquerque, Gus stops work on the meth lab. Lalo tells Hector he does not believe Gus' cover story; Hector confirms that the cartel tolerates Gus only because he earns well.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: When Krazy-8 is arrested outside a Salamanca stash house, Nacho climbs over rooftops to sneak in and recover the drugs before police enter. Lalo is impressed and takes Nacho into his confidence. Nacho brings Jimmy to Lalo, who knows of Jimmy from Tuco. Lalo asks Jimmy to free Krazy-8 by using him to feed the DEA information on Gus' dead drops. Nacho informs Gus, who accepts the loss of cash from the dead drops to protect Nacho's role as his informant. Jimmy secures Krazy-8's release and makes him a confidential informant for DEA agent Hank Schrader, giving Lalo a way to feed the DEA more information about Gus' operation. Lalo congratulates Jimmy, but Nacho warns him that once he begins working for drug dealers, there is no turning back.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: While posing as a private investigator for Fred's family, Mike persuades a witness to Fred's murder to provide police details about Lalo's car, leading to Lalo's arrest. Lalo, detained under the alias Jorge de Guzmán, is initially denied bail and suspicious of how the police came to pursue his car. While in jail, he instructs Nacho to burn down one of Gus' restaurants. Gus realizes Lalo will continue to be a problem but decides killing him will create tension with the cartel, so Gus and Nacho again protect Nacho's role as Gus' informant by burning down the restaurant. Gus then orchestrates Lalo's release by having Mike provide Jimmy with details of Mike's investigation. Jimmy uses the information to accuse police of witness tampering, and the judge grants bail, which is set at $7 million cash.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: Lalo's cousins Leonel and Marco deliver the money to Jimmy at a remote desert location. On his return trip, gunmen stop Jimmy, take the cash, and prepare to kill him. Mike was following Jimmy for Gus and kills all but one gunman. They continue the trip back to Albuquerque with the money, but Jimmy's car breaks down. They push it off the side of the road, take the cash, and walk for two days. On the second day, they kill the remaining gunman, then make their way back to Albuquerque.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: Jimmy posts Lalo's bail and hides Mike's involvement by claiming he was alone and walked after his car broke down. Mike reports to Gus, who realizes Bolsa sent the gunmen in the belief that he was protecting Gus' business by keeping Lalo imprisoned. Lalo prepares to return to Mexico to avoid trial, but his suspicions lead him to search for Jimmy's car. He confronts Jimmy and Kim Wexler at her apartment and reveals he found it, and that it had several bullet holes. Kim tells Lalo that a passerby probably shot at it for fun and berates him for not trusting Jimmy. Lalo leaves for Mexico with Nacho.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: At Lalo's Chihuahua home, friends and family greet him and Nacho. Lalo introduces Nacho to Eladio, who blesses the plan for Nacho to oversee the Salamanca drug business in Lalo's absence. Gus sends assassins to Lalo's home, and Nacho receives a call instructing him to leave Lalo's back gate open at 3 am. Lalo is still awake at the appointed hour, so Nacho sets a kitchen fire to distract him and opens the gate. Nacho flees as the assassins enter and kill most of Lalo's family and guards. Lalo kills all but one assassin and forces the survivor to report his death to the middleman who arranged the attack. Lalo then realizes that Nacho is missing and angrily strides away from his house.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: Lalo murders a man that he had groomed as his body double along with his wife and moves the man's body to his home, leading the police and cartel to assume he is dead. Lalo then intends to cross into the U.S. to get revenge on Gus, but instead follows up on the information from Werner to get the proof he needs related to Gus's yet-completed meth lab. Meanwhile, Gus is suspicious of Lalo's death, and has Mike arrange for around-the-clock guards at his home and nearby decoy home, at the laundry, and at Jimmy and Kim's apartment to stop Lalo. Arriving in Germany, Lalo befriends Werner's widow Margarethe, discovering a Lucite sculpture given to Werner by his crew. He uses the sculpture's crafter to track down Casper, one of Werner's crew, and after overpowering him, Lalo coerces Casper for more information, learning of the lab's location under Gus's industrial laundry.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: Lalo returns to Albuquerque, discovers Gus's guards, and starts to stake out the laundry from a sewer drain, intending to get video footage to Eladio. Seeing the facility well-guarded, Lalo tricks Gus by calling Hector and claiming he will attack Gus at his home. Mike, overhearing the call, draws men from other targets to Gus's home, but leaves some still to guard the laundry. Still unable to enter, Lalo comes up with another plan, and goes to Jimmy and Kim's apartment, where Howard Hamlin already is. Lalo enters the apartment, and as Howard tries to ask who he is (Lalo introducing himself as "nobody") while Kim futilely implores Howard to leave, Lalo shoots Howard dead.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: Lalo instructs Jimmy to go to Gus' home to kill him while he would stay with Kim to assure the job is done, but Jimmy instead convinces Lalo to have Kim go instead. After Kim leaves, Lalo ties up Jimmy and tells him about the attack on his compound, believing that Jimmy had something to do with it due to his prior connections to Nacho. Jimmy strongly denies this claiming he barely knows Nacho and that it was all his doing, but Lalo refuses to listen and returns to the laundry after threatening to interrogate Jimmy upon his return. Kim's failed attempt to kill Gus has drawn the rest of the guards away, leaving the laundry defenseless. Lalo enters and searches for the lab, while Gus, having learned from Kim what happened, goes to the laundry himself. Lalo kills Gus's guards and then forces Gus to show him the unfinished lab while he videotapes it. In the lab, Lalo then prepares to shoot Gus, but Gus knocks out the lights and kills Lalo with a gun he had hidden there earlier. Mike buries Lalo along with Howard in the ground below the lab and tells a very shaken Jimmy and Kim they will not see Lalo again, though Jimmy is not entirely convinced.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: Some years later, when Walter White and Jesse Pinkman kidnap and hold Saul at gunpoint before a newly dug grave in the desert to coerce him into representing Badger, who has been arrested for selling meth, a terrified Saul believes Lalo sent them, and says, "It wasn't me, it was Ignacio! He's the one!". Saul is relieved when Walter and Jesse's confusion confirms they have no connection to Lalo. Inside their RV, while waiting for the engine to cool down so they can drive away, Jesse asks Saul who Lalo is, never having heard their name on the street. Unsettled, Saul tells Jesse he is "nobody." After the massacre at Eladio's compound, during which Jesse kills Lalo's cousin Joaquin Salamanca, Gus tells Hector that all of the other Salamancas are dead, partly referencing Lalo's death at his hands. Lalo's death is later avenged by Hector, who, with the aid of Walter, suicide-bombs Gus and Tyrus Kitt, killing them and himself. By 2010, Saul is still not entirely convinced Lalo is dead.


title: Lalo Salamanca

text: The character of Lalo Salamanca and Tony Dalton's performance have received critical acclaim, with some critics deeming him as one of the best villains on television. Reviewing the episode that introduces Lalo, Alan Sepinwall of "Rolling Stone" said Dalton "makes a solid first impression in the role" and hoped for "more than filling in a blank most viewers had long since forgotten existed". Sepinwall calls the final scene in "Bad Choice Road", in which Lalo confronts Jimmy and Kim, one of the best in the series. He praises the lead actors' performances, particularly Rhea Seehorn as Kim and Dalton as Lalo. Steve Greene of "IndieWire", after comparing Lalo to Anton Chigurh, noted he has "the unpredictability of his impulsive, petulant brother combined with the faux geniality of his chicken CEO rival" and praised Dalton's performance: "Dalton makes that poisonous, affected smile work, especially when it's coupled with Lalo's blatant disregard for bodily harm". Brian Grubb of "Uproxx" wrote in his review of the season five finale, "It is almost unreasonable how good a character Lalo is. To pull this off after five seasons of this show and the full run of "Breaking Bad", to just up and introduce someone this charming and evil and perfect, is basically showing off".


title: Josh Homme

text: Joshua Michael Homme ( ;) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the founder, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the rock band Queens of the Stone Age, which he formed in 1996 and in which he sings lead vocals and plays guitar, as well as occasionally playing bass and drums in the band's early days. He also provides backing vocals and plays various instruments (primarily drums) in the rock band Eagles of Death Metal, which he in 1998.


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme began his career as the and guitarist of the rock band Kyuss, with whom he performed from from 1987 to 1995. He then served as a touring guitarist for the rock band Screaming Trees from 1996 to 1998, leaving to start Queens of the Stone Age. He has also overseen a musical improv project with other musicians (mostly from the Palm Desert Scene) known as The Desert Sessions since 1997. He formed the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures alongside Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones in 2009, releasing their eponymous debut album later that year. In 2016, he produced, , and performed on the Iggy Pop album "Post Pop Depression". He has also been involved with acts such as Royal Blood, Foo Fighters, Run the Jewels, and Arctic Monkeys.


title: Josh Homme

text: Joshua Michael Homme grew up in a family in and around Palm Desert, California. His paternal grandfather, Clancy "Cap" Homme, moved to the area from North Dakota and was an early settler of the Valley. Cap has a private street named after him in Rancho Mirage, marking the original road to the Homme ranch, as well as a park named after him in an exclusive enclave of the Valley. Homme moved with his family on a regular basis due to his father's work, residing in many towns around the Valley. He later discussed having to "create [his] own fun" as a child growing up in the desert, stating that he did not start playing music to "get girls or make money" and that he assumed he would grow up to be a contractor like his father.


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme also has ties in Idaho and has talked about his formative experiences there, such as seeing Carl Perkins perform at the Sandpoint Music Festival and the first time purchasing his own electric guitar (an Ovation Ultra GP) in a Sandpoint music store. He began playing guitar at the age of nine, after his parents denied his wishes for a drum kit. He took guitar lessons for the next few years but his teacher mostly focused on polka, so he supposedly did not learn of a barre chord or a pick until his third year of lessons, lending to his unique playing style. He joined his first band, Autocracy, in 1985 at the age of 12. Despite his musical success, he continued to work on his grandfather's farm until releasing the first Queens of the Stone Age album at the age of 25, because he "didn't want to lose [his] grip on reality".


title: Josh Homme

text: In 1987, when he was 14 years old, Homme formed a punk rock-influenced heavy metal band in Palm Desert High School called Katzenjammer with schoolmates John Garcia, Brant Bjork, Nick Oliveri and Chris Cockrell. Homme was the band's guitarist. After changing their name a few times, first to Sons of Kyuss (they released an EP of the same name), they finally shortened it to Kyuss. The band garnered a cult following by the early 1990s, often driving for hours to isolated locations in the desert and plugging into generators to perform. These events, known as "generator parties", became urban legend among rock subculture. The band became both famous for their heavy, down tuned, groove oriented music, and infamous for their backstage fights with local LA bands when they traveled into town to play gigs. This soon brought the attention of Chris Goss, who became the band's mentor, helping the band sign to a label and eventually producing them exclusively in an effort to preserve their sound. Due to Homme being younger than 18 at the time of the band's signing, his parents signed the contract on his behalf. Kyuss released four albums ("Wretch", "Blues for the Red Sun", "Welcome to Sky Valley", and "...And the Circus Leaves Town"), of which the final three Goss-produced efforts are often cited as cornerstones to the development of the stoner rock genre in the 1990s. Kyuss partially reformed in 2010 under the name Vista Chino, but Homme opted out of the reunion.


title: Josh Homme

text: When Kyuss split up in 1995, Homme moved to Seattle, Washington, briefly abandoning his desire for a music career and attending the University of Washington to study business. During this time, he fell back in with old musician friends such as Ben Shepherd and Mike Johnson, and eventually agreed to join the Screaming Trees as a rhythm guitarist on the summer Lollapalooza tour in 1996, a replacement for Johnson, and that continued into the following year. Homme and vocalist Mark Lanegan became close friends during this time but, disliking the rest of the band's continual disharmony, began considering forming his own band. He founded Gamma Ray, a group more centered on his unique style and tastes, in 1996. After a cease and desist from a band of the same name, this band became Queens of the Stone Age. The first release under the new name would be the "Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age" compilation EP featuring tracks from both Kyuss and songs recorded from the "Gamma Ray" EP sessions from 1996, released in late 1997. Queens of the Stone Age released their eponymous debut album in 1998. Initially, the band consisted of various friends of Homme's from the Seattle area. Homme had asked a number of singers, including Lanegan, to perform as lead vocalist for Queens of the Stone Age, but by the time of recording the band's debut album, he had moved back to Palm Desert and the band was pared down to just Homme and ex-Kyuss drummer Alfredo Hernandez. Homme was left to cover every other instrument and ended up singing for the first time in his career. Shortly after recording, Homme and Hernandez were joined by bassist and vocalist Nick Oliveri and guitarist, keyboardist, and lapsteel player Dave Catching, the band was now composed entirely of ex-Kyuss members and roadies.


title: Josh Homme

text: Following their debut album, by which time Hernandez left the group, Queens of the Stone Age released the next album, "Rated R", during which the band used a wider range of instruments to achieve a more relaxed, spacious and psychedelic sound. Though it differed from the band's debut, "Rated R" became Queens of the Stone Age's first mainstream hit. The next release, 2002's "Songs for the Deaf", however, would gain even more buzz from the music community and fans alike. In "Songs for the Deaf", Homme continued his filtering of stoner rock and hard rock. The album centers on Homme's memories of uncomfortable rides through the California desert, where he had performed in his days with Kyuss, and where there was little to do but listen to Spanish radio stations.


title: Josh Homme

text: During this time, Homme had a falling out with Oliveri. Following the release of "Songs for the Deaf", their relationship deteriorated until Homme fired Oliveri from the band in 2004. Homme reportedly strongly considered breaking up the band at this point.


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme began writing the band's next album, "Lullabies to Paralyze", named after a lyric from the "Songs for the Deaf" hidden track "Mosquito Song". "Lullabies to Paralyze", created with "Songs for the Deaf" touring recruits Troy Van Leeuwen and Joey Castillo and collaborators and future recruits Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider of Eleven, was a critical and commercial success, debuting at number five on the "Billboard" 200, QOTSA's best charting album on the "Billboard" 200 to date.


title: Josh Homme

text: Queens of the Stone Age's fifth album, "Era Vulgaris", was released in early June 2007 and received generally positive reviews from critics. Following the album's touring cycle, the band took a break to focus on individual projects, during which Homme continued to produce and create more records outside the band. This break would unintentionally turn into a six-year gap between albums.


title: Josh Homme

text: In 2010, following his work with rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, Homme began performing more live shows with QOTSA. Following a deluxe reissue of "Rated R", a 2011 re-release of their debut album and corresponding tour followed, featuring the album played front to back in the style in which it was recorded. This was the first time many of the songs had been performed live since the album's original release.


title: Josh Homme

text: On June 4, 2013, after a tumultuous writing and recording process, Queens of the Stone Age released their sixth album, "...Like Clockwork", receiving high praise from critics as well as topping the Billboard 200 charts. "...Like Clockwork" highlights Homme's collaborative recording process and features guests such as Elton John, Dave Grohl, Alex Turner, Jake Shears, Trent Reznor, Mark Lanegan, Nick Oliveri, and Homme's wife Brody Dalle.


title: Josh Homme

text: Their seventh album, "Villains", was released on August 25, 2017. Conversely, "Villains" contains no collaborations, but was produced by Mark Ronson.


title: Josh Homme

text: In 2018, the band was featured on "Revamp", a cover album containing various renditions of Elton John songs, on which they performed "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road".


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme founded The Desert Sessions in 1997 at the Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree, California, describing it as a musical collective series "that cannot be defined". He stated, "At Desert Sessions, you play for the sake of music. That's why it's good for musicians. If someday that's not enough anymore, or that's not the reason behind you doing it – that's not your "raison d'être" – then a quick reminder like Desert Sessions can do so much for you, it's amazing. It's easy to forget that this all starts from playing in your garage and loving it."


title: Josh Homme

text: The recordings are done "on the spot" in a matter of hours, and the line-up constantly changes, with new contributors being added for each new recording. Artists such as PJ Harvey, Twiggy Ramirez, Dave Catching, Nick Oliveri, Mark Lanegan, Ben Shepherd, John McBain, Josh Freese, Chris Goss, Alain Johannes, Dean Ween, and many others from the Palm Desert Scene have contributed to The Desert Sessions recordings.


title: Josh Homme

text: After 11 years of inactivity, Homme revealed in October 2014 that he would start working on more Desert Sessions material the following year. However, things remained silent until May 2019, when Homme posted an image on Instagram with the hashtags "#Desert, #Sessions, #11, #12". In September, it was announced that "Desert Sessions Volumes 11 & 12" will be released on October 25, 2019.


title: Josh Homme

text: In 1998, Homme formed Eagles of Death Metal with friend Jesse Hughes as a joke band in the context of the Desert Sessions. Recordings from the band first appeared on "Volumes 3 & 4", released that year. Over the next few years, Hughes settled into family life while Homme focused on Queens of the Stone Age. However, after Hughes' separation from his wife in 2003 and a spurt in creativity that resulted in dozens of songs, Homme convinced Hughes to pursue a full-time music career. Hughes writes, sings, and plays rhythm guitar, while Homme produces, arranges, and plays drums, bass, and various other instruments. So far, the band has released four albums: "Peace, Love, Death Metal" in 2004, "Death by Sexy" in 2006, "Heart On" in 2008, and most recently "Zipper Down" in 2015. Due to his commitments with Queens of the Stone Age and other projects, Homme does not regularly tour with Eagles of Death Metal, but occasionally makes appearances during live performances. In an October 2008 interview, he re-affirmed his commitment to the band saying, "This isn't a side project for me. I'm in two bands. I have musical schizophrenia, and this is one of those personalities."


title: Josh Homme

text: In July 2009, it was revealed that Homme, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones were recording together for a musical project named Them Crooked Vultures.


title: Josh Homme

text: Though initially conceived as solely a studio project, the trio performed their first show together on August 9, 2009 in Chicago at The Metro to a crowd of approximately 1,100 ticketholders with additional live rhythm guitarist/auxiliary man Alain Johannes. Their album, "Them Crooked Vultures", was released by Interscope Records in the United States on November 17, 2009, and by Sony Music internationally. The band launched a world tour including performing on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest on February 6, 2010, and at Austin City Limits on October 2, 2009 as well as many festivals through 2010. Them Crooked Vultures won the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 53rd Grammy Awards on February 13, 2011. Though the band has been inactive for an extended period due to the schedules of members other projects, Homme, Grohl, and Jones have all expressed interest in returning to the project.


title: Josh Homme

text: On September 3, 2022, Them Crooked Vultures reunited for a performance at Wembley Stadium in honour of Foo Fighters' late drummer Taylor Hawkins and again on September 27, 2022 at the KIA Forum for the second tribute show. The band covered Elton John "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and Queens Of The Stone Age "Long Slow Goodbye", and also played their songs "Gunman" (September 3) and "Dead End Friends" (September 27).


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme has collaborated with acts such as Mondo Generator, Foo Fighters, PJ Harvey, Fatso Jetson, Mark Lanegan Band, Trent Reznor, Masters of Reality, Millionaire, Wellwater Conspiracy, Unkle, Primal Scream, Melissa Auf der Maur, Paz Lenchantin, Run the Jewels, Death from Above 1979, Earthlings?, Mastodon, Peaches, Lady Gaga, The Strokes, Local H, Biffy Clyro, Royal Blood, and Arctic Monkeys.


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme, Nick Oliveri, and Brad Wilk contributed to the soundtrack for the 2002 film "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys". Homme and Alain Johannes were originally meant to develop a score for the video game "Spec Ops" in 2005, however the project was cancelled before it later became "" in 2012. His work on the game would go unused. Homme was also set to provide music, including a cover of Joe Walsh's "In the City", for the 2005 video game adaption of the film "The Warriors". This also went unused.


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme has been featured on compilation albums. He appeared on "" for a cover of the song "Stone Cold Crazy" alongside Eleven, as well as "" and the Turbonegro tribute "Alpha Motherfuckers" as part of QOTSA covering the song "Back to Dungaree High". The very first use of the QOTSA name was on the compilation album "Burn One Up! Music For Stoners" featuring a one-off lineup of Homme and Dave Catching with Beaver members Milo Beenhakker and Eva Nahon, recording the song "18 A.D."


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme and frequent collaborator Chris Goss performed as The 5:15ers at the inaugural ArthurBall, an offshoot of the ArthurFest festival, in Los Angeles on January 26, 2006. The two were later credited as "The Fififf Teeners" when they co-produced QOTSA's second album "Rated R" and fifth album "Era Vulgaris".


title: Josh Homme

text: In August 2009, Homme collaborated with The Prodigy's Liam Howlett for a remix of the Prodigy track "Take Me to the Hospital". It was re-titled "Take Me to the Hospital (Josh Homme and Liam H.'s Wreckage Remix)". That same year, he produced most of the Arctic Monkeys album "Humbug". He later provided backing vocals on "All My Own Stunts" from their 2011 album "Suck It and See", and vocals for the tracks "One For the Road" and "Knee Socks" on their 2013 album "AM". Homme went on to appear at multiple Arctic Monkeys concerts in the USA including Austin City Limits and The Wiltern.


title: Josh Homme

text: In June 2010, Homme appeared on the Comedy Central series "Tosh.0" to do an unplugged duet version of the hit viral song "What What" with Samwell. He also provided the theme song to "Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1", formerly known as "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", and collaborated with Mark Lanegan to provide the theme music for Anthony Bourdain's travel show "".


title: Josh Homme

text: In May 2012, it was revealed on Dean Delray's comedy podcast "Let There Be Talk" that Homme would make a guest appearance on the album by Oliveri's project Mondo Generator called "Hell Comes To Your Heart". The album was recorded over three days at Homme's Pink Duck Studios in Burbank, California, and features Homme playing guitar on the album's final track, "The Last Train". This marked the first time Homme and Oliveri collaborated since their public falling out in 2004. "The Last Train" also features fellow former Kyuss bandmate John Garcia providing vocals, which was recorded shortly before Homme's lawsuit with Garcia regarding the Kyuss Lives! band name; it was the first time Homme had collaborated with Garcia since 1997.


title: Josh Homme

text: In June 2012, it was revealed that Homme would be starring in the music video for the song "A Better Place" from Glen Campbell's final album "Ghost on the Canvas". In the video, Homme plays a bartender who shows Campbell a photo album of his life, from his early childhood through his music career to the present day. The video marked the end of Campbell's musical career and was a retrospect on his life following his decision to retire after his diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. In July, he had a very brief cameo at the end of Jack White's music video for "Freedom at 21", playing a police officer who intercepts White at a roadblock following White's escapades throughout the video. In September, he contributed the song "Nobody to Love" to the soundtrack of the action-drama film "End of Watch".


title: Josh Homme

text: In early 2013, Homme and fellow Queens contributors Alain Johannes and Chris Goss added three tracks each to the soundtrack of Dave Grohl's documentary "Sound City: Real to Reel". Homme was interviewed for the documentary and is notably included in a scene where he collaborates with Grohl and Trent Reznor, under the name Sound City Players, to come up with a song called "Mantra". Homme played bass and provided backing vocals on the track.


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme has appeared in a number of television comedies. In December 2014, Homme made an appearance on Channel 4 sitcom "Toast of London". The star of the show, Matt Berry, had been working alongside Morgana Robinson (the half-sister of Homme's wife Brody Dalle) in the BBC sitcom "House of Fools", in which both had prominent roles. Earlier in the year, Homme had also made appearances on IFC's "Comedy Bang! Bang!" and "Portlandia".


title: Josh Homme

text: In July 2015, Homme began hosting a weekly hour-long show called "The Alligator Hour with Joshua Homme" on Apple Music's 24-hour streaming internet radio station Beats 1. The show features a highly eclectic selection of songs personally selected by Homme, interspersed with his own wry introductions of (and commentary on) the various tracks on that particular week's playlist. The show's musical selections typically have some sort of thematic, stream-of-consciousness-type relationship to each other.


title: Josh Homme

text: In March 2016, Homme released a surprise album with Iggy Pop titled "Post Pop Depression". The nine-track album was recorded at Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree, California, as well as Homme's Pink Duck Studios. Their backing band included guitarist and keyboardist Dean Fertita and drummer Matt Helders; the two joined Pop and Homme on tour, along with Troy Van Leeuwen on guitar and Matt Sweeney on bass. The band made their debut on January 21, 2016 on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert", announcing the album, and proceeded on a North American and European theater tour that March, culminating in a performance at the Royal Albert Hall, filmed and released as a concert DVD. The album's recording was also filmed and compiled into the 2017 documentary "American Valhalla". In October 2016, Homme produced "New Skin", the debut album from Nick Valensi's new band CRX.


title: Josh Homme

text: In 2017, Homme composed the score for Fatih Akin's German-language drama "In the Fade", named after the Queens of the Stone Age song.


title: Josh Homme

text: In 2018, Homme sang a song written by Daniel Lanois called "Cruel, Cruel World" for the soundtrack of the Rockstar action-adventure video game "Red Dead Redemption 2". The game features two versions of the song, with Homme's version playing over the end credits and Willie Nelson's version playing during the epilogue.


title: Josh Homme

text: In 2020, Homme featured alongside Mavis Staples on the Run the Jewels song "Pulling the Pin" from their fourth album "RTJ4". Later that year, he and Staples joined Run the Jewels (via separate pre-recorded performances displayed on giant screens due to the COVID-19 pandemic) to play the song during the group's voter encouragement performance "Holy Calamavote", broadcast on YouTube.


title: Josh Homme

text: In 2021, Homme produced the songs "Boilermaker", "Space", and "King" from Royal Blood's album "Typhoons". "Boilermaker" was included on the standard album release, while "Space" and "King" were only available on the deluxe edition.


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme's work is usually described as alternative rock, desert rock, hard rock, and stoner rock. He has been evasive about the equipment he uses in the past, choosing to either change the subject or even lie when asked about his setup in interviews, as well as objecting to official photos of his pedalboard. He explained in June 2007, "I don't [share secrets] only because my sound is important to me and I've spent a lot of years just working it over with little tricks here and there, I almost feel like if you reveal too much of that you give away something that's near and dear to you. It's like you put it up on the altar and say, 'Here, everyone take a slice.'"


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme relaxed his secretive approach to the subject in the 2010s, though much of his known equipment has been compiled through amateur photos and screenshots of him performing live and in the studio. In choosing his equipment, he tends to look for the odd or unique, opting to stay away from the typical choices of other guitar players. In an interview about guitars in 2008, he claimed at the time to own close to 35 guitars, and said that only three of them were "really good". He has said that he purposely does not use famous guitars such as Stratocasters or Les Pauls, but that he is always in search of intriguing and unique guitars which are not always generally accepted as high-quality. He said that he tends to buy "weird Japanese guitars" or guitars that are "scarred" and have an interesting story.


title: Josh Homme

text: In 2013, Homme co-founded the Sweet Stuff Foundation, a charity which aims to give assistance to musicians, recording engineers, and their families struggling with illness and disability.


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme met Australian singer and musician Brody Dalle at Lollapalooza in 1996, when he was 23 and she was 17; he was there to perform with Screaming Trees, while she was there to see her then-boyfriend Tim Armstrong's band Rancid. They reconnected seven years later in 2003, during her separation from Armstrong, and began dating. Homme claimed to have received multiple death threats from fans of Armstrong and Rancid. The two were married on December 3, 2005. They have a daughter named Camille Harley Joan Homme (born January 17, 2006) and two sons named Orrin Ryder Homme (born August 12, 2011) and Wolf Dillon Reece Homme (born February 13, 2016). Dalle filed for legal separation in November 2019 and divorce a month later, citing Homme's alcoholism and drug abuse; he subsequently entered rehab, but he and Dalle would accuse each other of domestic violence and have mutual restraining orders filed over the following months. Dalle requested that restraining orders be filed against him on behalf of their sons in September 2021, alleging physical and emotional abuse, but was denied by two judges.


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme once described himself as financially conservative but socially liberal, considering himself a "fallen libertarian". He said that he dislikes the idea of using his influence to tell people how to vote, and often likens his music to an "ice cream parlour or arcade" where people can simply have fun. Despite this, he referred to then-president Donald Trump as a "retarded human being" in June 2017, and began collaborating more with notably liberal artists such as Run the Jewels in the late 2010s. He owns several guns, including a classic Winchester rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, and a Beretta 9 mm target pistol. He owns a few motorcycles, including a custom Falcon and a Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic. He drives a silver 1967 Chevrolet Camaro, which he was given as a gift when he was 14 years old; it is the only car he has ever owned. In June 2017, he revealed on Steve Jones' radio show that he had recently tried to quit his decades-long smoking habit via hypnotherapy, but claimed that it failed because he was unable to relax enough to be fully influenced by the hypnotherapist.


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme has adopted multiple pseudonyms over the years. He used the name "Carlo Von Sexron" to credit his bass, keyboard, piano, and drums playing on albums such as "The Desert Sessions Volumes 3 & 4", "Queens of the Stone Age", and "Peace, Love, Death Metal". Homme is known as "(King) Baby Duck" to Dalle and the members of Eagles of Death Metal. He is also referred to as "J.Ho." and "The Ginger Elvis". Nick Oliveri referred to him as "Mr. Lucky".


title: Josh Homme

text: After years of heavy touring and drug abuse severely weakened his immune system, Homme contracted an MRSA infection during a routine knee surgery. In an attempt to restart his immune system, surgeons used a breathing tube that became stuck in his throat, choking him and leading to cardiac arrest. They eventually used a defibrillator to revive him. The experience left him physically and mentally weakened with a severely compromised immune system, and doctors confined him to bed rest with no human contact for three months. He became depressed and considered quitting music, eventually finding himself unable to produce any new music at all for almost two years. He has said that this experience greatly contributed to the making of the 2013 album "...Like Clockwork". He credits Transcendental Meditation with helping him recover.<ref name="Rolling Stone 10/13"></ref>


title: Josh Homme

text: Homme has over 20 tattoos. On his knuckles, he has his grandparents' nicknames ("Cam" for "Camille" on the left and "Cap" on the right) with hearts and his two sons' names ("ORH" for "Orrin Ryder Homme" and "Wolf"). He has his daughter's name, also Camille, tattooed over his heart. His left arm has a switchblade with "Stay Sharp" underneath, while his inner right arm has a straight razor with "Born to Win" inscribed; underneath, his nickname, "Baby Duck", is a shared tattoo with his Eagles of Death Metal bandmate Jesse Hughes, who has his nickname "Boots Electric" in the same location. Homme also shares a tattoo that says "Freitag 4:15" with former Queens of the Stone Age bandmates Nick Oliveri and Mark Lanegan and their sound engineer Hutch, commemorating their "worst show ever" at the 2001 Rock Am Ring Festival in Germany on a Friday at 4:15 p.m. All were tattooed on their ribs so that it would hurt the most and serve as a reminder.


title: Josh Homme

text: In 2004, Homme was arrested for assaulting Dwarves frontman Blag Dahlia and Karl Doyle at the Dragonfly club in Los Angeles. Pleading no contest, he was ordered to remain at least 100 yards away from Dahlia and the club, sentenced to three years' probation with community service, and forced to enter a rehab program for 60 days.


title: Josh Homme

text: In June 2008, at the Norwegian Wood Festival in Oslo, Homme drew criticism for his reaction to an audience member who had thrown a shoe at him. He called the audience member a "chicken-shit fucking faggot" and "a 12-year-old dickless fucking turd". The incident drew accusations of homophobia from several blogs, which were later picked up by the mainstream media. Homme eventually responded in a public letter in which he denied all accusations of homophobia. Reaction to his apology was mixed, with music journalist Tim Jonze stating, "Attempting to prove his pro-gay stance, Homme points out in his letter that he also called the guy a pussy and threatened to have anal sex with him. OK, so it's a fuzzy kind of logic we're talking about here." In an interview 10 years later, Homme revealed that he had often been beaten up during his youth while trying to defend his gay older brother from homophobic bullying.


title: Josh Homme

text: Following a September 2013 performance at Jay-Z's Made in America Festival, Homme made comments about Jay-Z during a radio interview with CBC Radio 2's "Strombo Show". He explained that his band was frisked by the event's security team prior to the performance and referred to Jay-Z's personal interaction with the band as a marketing stunt: "[Jay-Z] has his security frisking the bands on the way in. I just told them, 'If you open up my bag I'm not playing, so I guess it's up to you whether we are playing or not.' [...] He also gave us some champagne and wanted us to take a photo with it. And I thought, 'That's not a gift, that is a marketing tool.' So I destroyed it."


title: Josh Homme

text: In September 2017, Royal Blood frontman Mike Kerr discussed Homme's drinking habits and told Radio X interviewer Gordon Smart, "I can't go anywhere near [Homme] without having an unbelievable amount of tequila in my body. I did hide from him once [while touring together] because I could hear him coming and I was like, 'Oh no, I'm gonna have to do more tequila,' so I hid in the toilets of the dressing room."


title: Josh Homme

text: In December 2017, Homme was captured on video kicking the camera of Shutterstock photographer Chelsea Lauren into her face during KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas concert in Los Angeles. After staying through the show and photographing subsequent bands, Lauren went to Cedars-Sinai for treatment. In a statement, Homme claimed that he had been kicking over lighting equipment and was unaware that he had kicked Lauren until he was informed of it the next day. Lauren disputed this, stating that he had made eye contact with her before kicking her. Homme later issued a video response in which he admitted to kicking Lauren and apologized to her.


title: Miguel Ferrer

text: Miguel José Ferrer (February 7, 1955 – January 19, 2017) was an American actor. His breakthrough role was as Bob Morton in the 1987 film "RoboCop". Other film roles include Quigley in "Blank Check" (1994), Harbinger in "Hot Shots! Part Deux" (1993), Shan Yu in "Mulan" (1998), Eduardo Ruiz in "Traffic" (2000) and Vice President Rodriguez in "Iron Man 3" (2013). Ferrer's notable television roles include FBI Agent Albert Rosenfield on "Twin Peaks" (1990–1991, 2017), Tarakudo on "Jackie Chan Adventures" (2000–2005), Dr. Garret Macy on "Crossing Jordan" (2001–2007) and NCIS Assistant Director Owen Granger on "" (2012–2017).


title: Miguel Ferrer

text: Ferrer was born on February 7, 1955, in Santa Monica, California, the oldest of five children of Academy Award-winning Puerto Rican actor José Ferrer and singer Rosemary Clooney, who was of English, Irish and German descent. Ferrer's siblings were sisters Maria and Monsita, and brothers Gabriel (later the husband of singer Debby Boone) and actor Rafael. He also had an older half-sister, Letty (Leticia) Ferrer, from his father José's prior marriage to Uta Hagen. He was the cousin of actor George Clooney and the nephew of journalist Nick Clooney. Ferrer was raised in Hollywood and Beverly Hills and attended Beverly Hills High School. As a teenager, his interests tended toward music; he played the drums on Keith Moon's "Two Sides of the Moon". After high school, Ferrer studied acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.


title: Miguel Ferrer

text: Ferrer's friend Bill Mumy cast him as a drummer in the series "Sunshine", his first television role. Ferrer was also Mumy's bandmate in Seduction of the Innocent, a band that also consisted of Steve Leialoha, and Max Allan Collins. Sharing a love of comics Ferrer and Mumy co-created Comet Man and Trypto the Acid Dog plus co-wrote the Marvel Graphic Novel "The Dreamwalker".


title: Miguel Ferrer

text: Ferrer began his acting career in the early 1980s, making guest appearances on episodic television. He played the younger version of his father's character on "Magnum, P.I." in 1981. In 1983, he was given a small part as a waiter in "The Man Who Wasn't There". He also had a minor role in "" (1984) as the "U.S.S. Excelsior" helm officer. In 1984, he directed the Mark Medoff play “When Ya Coming Back, Red Ryder?” at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Florida. He had a major role in the 1987 action movie "RoboCop" as the corporate executive Bob Morton, the young, ambitious executive of Omni Consumer Products' Security Concepts and project leader of the RoboCop program. Ferrer's notable later roles include a sinister biker in "Valentino Returns," an overzealous engineer in "DeepStar Six" (1989), a resourceful vigilante in "Revenge" (1990), Commander Arvid Harbinger in the comedy "Hot Shots! Part Deux" (1993), Lloyd Henreid in the Stephen King miniseries "The Stand" (1994), and a drug informant in "Traffic" (2000). He occasionally took on lead parts as well, such as "The Harvest" and "The Night Flier."


title: Miguel Ferrer

text: In the early 1990s, Ferrer appeared on three primetime TV series simultaneously: as D.A. Todd Spurrier in "Shannon's Deal" (1989–1991), as Cajun cop Beau Jack Bowman in "Broken Badges" (1990–1991), and as cynical, wittily abrasive FBI forensics specialist Albert Rosenfield in "Twin Peaks" (1990–91). Ferrer reprised the role of Rosenfield in the movie "" (1992). Ferrer played a super-villain called "The Weatherman" in the failed 1997 TV pilot, "Justice League of America". Later in the same year, he provided the voice for a similar character, the Weather Wizard, in the "" episode "." In 1999, Ferrer voiced Aquaman in another "Superman: Animated" episode, "A Fish Story." The same year, at the 41st Grammy Awards, Ferrer was nominated for "Best Spoken Word Album for Children" in Disney's "The Lion King II", "Simba's Pride Read-Along." He was also the protagonist of the American rock band Toto's music video for the song I Will Remember, appearing alongside actor Edward James Olmos.


title: Miguel Ferrer

text: Ferrer again played a medical examiner on the small screen, Dr. Garret Macy, in the television crime/drama series "Crossing Jordan" (2001–07). In August 2003, Ferrer made his New York stage debut in the off-Broadway production of "The Exonerated". In 2004, Ferrer performed as the voice of the Heretic leader in the video game "Halo 2". Ferrer took voice-over roles in the TV series "Robot Chicken" (2006) and "American Dad!" (2007). He played Jonas Bledsoe on NBC's "Bionic Woman" series and in 2009 also starred in another NBC series, "Kings," as a military commander of Gath.


title: Miguel Ferrer

text: Ferrer played Los Angeles Police Lieutenant Felix Valdez in the 2011 Lifetime police procedural drama, "The Protector". Also, in 2011, he had a multiple-episode guest role on the final season of "Desperate Housewives." Signed to a recurring role in "" as Naval Criminal Investigative Service Assistant Director Owen Granger, Ferrer was promoted to a series regular for the fifth season on February 6, 2013. He also appeared in the 2013 film "Iron Man 3" as the Vice President. Ferrer reprised his role of Albert Rosenfield in the 2017 revival of "Twin Peaks".


title: Miguel Ferrer

text: On January 19, 2017, Ferrer died at his Santa Monica home of throat cancer at the age of 61. At the time of his death, Ferrer was married to producer Lori Weintraub. He had two sons and two stepsons. Ferrer is buried at Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery in San Juan, Puerto Rico, next to his father José Ferrer.


title: Miguel Ferrer

text: Miguel O'Hara, the alter ego of the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man 2099, was named after Ferrer by his friend, writer Peter David, who co-created the character.


title: Miguel Ferrer

text: The seventh episode of the third season of "" was dedicated to him. Ferrer had voiced the character Vandal Savage in the first two seasons. As a result of his death, David Kaye took over Ferrer's role as Savage as well as his role as Jonathan Rook/Stretch Monster in "Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters".


title: Miguel Ferrer

text: The "" special "Together Again" was also dedicated to him, as well as Polly Lou Livingston, Michel Lyman and Maureen Mlynarczyk. Ferrer voiced the character Death in the series.


title: Porcupine

text: Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family, Erethizontidae. Both families belong to the infraorder Hystricognathi within the profoundly diverse order Rodentia and display superficially similar coats of rigid or semi-rigid quills, which are modified hairs composed of keratin. Despite this, the two groups are distinct from one another and are not closely related to each other within the Hystricognathi. The largest species of porcupine is the third-largest living rodent in the world, after the capybara and beaver.


title: Porcupine

text: The Old World porcupines (Hystricidae) live in Italy, Asia (western and southern), and most of Africa. They are large, terrestrial, and strictly nocturnal.


title: Porcupine

text: The New World porcupines (Erethizontidae) are indigenous to North America and northern South America. They live in wooded areas and can climb trees, where some species spend their entire lives. They are less strictly nocturnal than their Old World counterparts and generally smaller.


title: Porcupine

text: Most porcupines are about long, with a long tail. Weighing , they are rounded, large, and slow, and use an aposematic strategy of defence. Porcupines' colouration consists of various shades of brown, grey and white. Porcupines' spiny protection resembles that of the only distantly related erinaceomorph hedgehogs and Australian monotreme echidnas as well as tenrecid tenrecs.


title: Porcupine

text: The word "porcupine" comes from Latin "porcus" pig + "spina" spine, quill, via Old Italian (Italian "porcospino", thorn-pig)—Middle French—Middle English. A regional American name for the animal is "quill-pig".


title: Porcupine

text: A baby porcupine is a porcupette. When born, a porcupette's quills are soft hair; they harden within a few days, forming the sharp quills of adults.


title: Porcupine

text: A porcupine is any of 58 species of rodents belonging to the families Erethizontidae (genera: "Coendou", "Erethizon", and "Chaetomys") or Hystricidae (genera: "Atherurus", "Hystrix", and "Trichys"). Porcupines vary in size considerably: Rothschild's porcupine of South America weighs less than a kilogram (2.2 lb); the crested porcupine found in Italy, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa can grow to well over . The two families of porcupines are quite different, and although both belong to the Hystricognathi branch of the vast order Rodentia, they are not closely related.


title: Porcupine

text: The two subfamilies of New World porcupines are mostly smaller (although the North American porcupine reaches about in length and ), have their quills attached singly rather than grouped in clusters, and are excellent climbers, spending much of their time in trees. The New World porcupines evolved their spines independently (through convergent evolution) and are more closely related to several other families of rodents than they are to the Old World porcupines.


title: Porcupine

text: Porcupines have a relatively high longevity and hold the record for being the longest-living rodent, with one individual named Cooper living over 32 years.


title: Porcupine

text: The North American porcupine is a herbivore and often climbs trees for food; it eats leaves, herbs, twigs, and green plants such as clover. In the winter, it may eat bark.


title: Porcupine

text: The African porcupine is not a climber; instead, it forages on the ground. It is mostly nocturnal but will sometimes forage for food in the day, eating bark, roots, fruits, berries, and farm crops. Porcupines have become a pest in Kenya and are eaten as a delicacy.


title: Porcupine

text: Defensive behaviour displays in a porcupine depend on sight, scent, and sound. Often, these displays are shown when a porcupine becomes agitated or annoyed. There are four main displays seen in a porcupine: (in order from least to most aggressive) quill erection, teeth clattering, odor emission, and attack. A porcupine's colouring aids in part of its defence as most of the predators are nocturnal and colour blind. A porcupine's markings are black and white. The dark body and coarse hair of the porcupine are a dark brown/black and when quills are raised, present a white strip down its back mimicking the look of a skunk. This, along with the raising of the sharp quills, deters predators. Along with the raising of the quills, porcupines clatter their teeth to warn predators not to approach. The incisors vibrate against each other, the strike zone shifts back, and the cheek teeth clatter. This behaviour is often paired with body shivering, which is used to further display the dangerous quills. The rattling of quills is aided by the hollow quills at the back end of the porcupine. The use of odor is when the sight and sound have failed. An unpleasant scent is produced from the skin above the tail in times of stress and is often seen with quill erection. If these processes fail, the porcupine will attack by running sideways or backwards into predators. A porcupine's tail can also be swung in the direction of the predator; if contact is made, the quills could be impaled into the predator causing injury or death.


title: Porcupine

text: Porcupines' quills, or spines, take on various forms, depending on the species, but all are modified hairs coated with thick plates of keratin, and embedded in the skin musculature. Old World porcupines have quills embedded in clusters, whereas in New World porcupines, single quills are interspersed with bristles, underfur, and hair.


title: Porcupine

text: Quills are released by contact or may drop out when the porcupine shakes its body. New quills grow to replace lost ones. Despite what is commonly believed, porcupines do not have the ability to launch their quills at range.


title: Porcupine

text: There are some possible antibiotic properties within the quills, specifically associated with the free fatty acids coating the quills. The antibiotic properties are believed to aid a porcupine that has suffered from self-injury.


title: Porcupine

text: Porcupines are seldom eaten in Western culture but are eaten often in Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, where the prominent use of them as a food source has contributed to declines in porcupine populations.


title: Porcupine

text: Naturalist William J. Long reported the taste of the North American porcupine as "vile" and "malodorous" and delightful only to a lover of strong cheese. With regards to a Maine state law that restricted the killing of porcupines to keep them available as emergency game for people lost in the woods, he noted: "It is undoubtedly a good law; but I cannot now imagine any one being grateful for it, unless the stern alternative were death or porcupine."


title: Porcupine

text: More commonly, their quills and guard hairs are used for traditional decorative clothing; for example, their guard hairs are used in the creation of the Native American "porky roach" headdress. The main quills may be dyed, then applied in combination with thread to embellish leather accessories, such as knife sheaths and leather bags. Lakota women would harvest the quills for quillwork by throwing a blanket over a porcupine and retrieving the quills left stuck in the blanket.


title: Porcupine

text: The presence of barbs, acting like anchors, causes increased pain when removing a quill that has pierced the skin. The shape of the barbs makes the quills effective for penetrating the skin and for remaining in place. The quills have inspired research for such applications as the design of hypodermic needles and surgical staples. In contrast to the current design for surgical staples, the porcupine quill and barb design would allow easy and painless insertion, as the staple would stay in the skin using the anchored barb design rather than being bent under the skin like traditional staples.


title: Porcupine

text: The porcupine is often used as a symbol of American libertarianism due to its natural embodiment of defensiveness and the non-aggression principle.


title: Porcupine

text: Porcupines occupy a small range of habitats in tropical and temperate parts of Asia, Southern Europe, Africa, and North and South America. They live in forests and deserts, rocky outcrops, and hillsides. Some New World porcupines live in trees, but Old World porcupines prefer a rocky environment. Porcupines can be found on rocky areas up to high. They are generally nocturnal but are occasionally active during daylight.


title: Porcupine

text: Porcupines are distributed into two evolutionarily independent groups within the suborder Hystricomorpha of the Rodentia.


title: Armadillo

text: Armadillos (meaning "little armored ones" in Spanish) are New World placental mammals in the order Cingulata. The Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae are the only surviving families in the order, which is part of the superorder Xenarthra, along with the anteaters and sloths. Nine extinct genera and 21 extant species of armadillo have been described, some of which are distinguished by the number of bands on their armor. All species are native to the Americas, where they inhabit a variety of different environments.


title: Armadillo

text: Armadillos are characterized by a leathery armor shell and long, sharp claws for digging. They have short legs, but can move quite quickly. The average length of an armadillo is about , including its tail. The giant armadillo grows up to and weighs up to , while the pink fairy armadillo has a length of only . When threatened by a predator, "Tolypeutes" species frequently roll up into a ball; they are the only species of armadillo capable of this.


title: Armadillo

text: The word "armadillo" means "little armored one" in Spanish. The Aztecs called them "āyōtōchtli" , Nahuatl for "turtle-rabbit": "āyōtl" (turtle) and "tōchtli" (rabbit). The Portuguese word for "armadillo" is "tatu" which is derived from the Tupi language. Similar names are also found in other, especially European, languages.


title: Armadillo

text: Below is a recent simplified phylogeny of the xenarthran families, which includes armadillos, based on Slater et al. (2016) and Delsuc et al. (2016). The dagger symbol, "†", denotes extinct groups.


title: Armadillo

text: Recent genetic research suggests that an extinct group of giant armored mammals, the glyptodonts, should be included within the lineage of armadillos, having diverged some 35 million years ago, more recently than previously assumed.


title: Armadillo

text: Like all of the Xenarthra lineages, armadillos originated in South America. Due to the continent's former isolation, they were confined there for most of the Cenozoic. The recent formation of the Isthmus of Panama allowed a few members of the family to migrate northward into southern North America by the early Pleistocene, as part of the Great American Interchange. (Some of their much larger cingulate relatives, the pampatheres and chlamyphorid glyptodonts, made the same journey.)


title: Armadillo

text: Today, all extant armadillo species are still present in South America. They are particularly diverse in Paraguay (where 11 species exist) and surrounding areas. Many species are endangered. Some, including four species of "Dasypus", are widely distributed over the Americas, whereas others, such as Yepes's mulita, are restricted to small ranges. Two species, the northern naked-tailed armadillo and nine-banded armadillo, are found in Central America; the latter has also reached the United States, primarily in the south-central states (notably Texas), but with a range that extends as far east as North Carolina and Florida, and as far north as southern Nebraska and southern Indiana. Their range has consistently expanded in North America over the last century due to a lack of natural predators. Armadillos are increasingly documented in southern Illinois and are tracking northwards due to climate change.


title: Armadillo

text: The smallest species of armadillo, the pink fairy armadillo, weighs around and is in total length. The largest species, the giant armadillo, can weigh up to , and can be long.


title: Armadillo

text: The diets of different armadillo species vary, but consist mainly of insects, grubs, and other invertebrates. Some species, however, feed almost entirely on ants and termites.


title: Armadillo

text: They are prolific diggers. Many species use their sharp claws to dig for food, such as grubs, and to dig dens. The nine-banded armadillo prefers to build burrows in moist soil near the creeks, streams, and arroyos around which it lives and feeds.


title: Armadillo

text: Armadillos have very poor eyesight, and use their keen sense of smell to hunt for food. They use their claws for digging and finding food, as well as for making their homes in burrows. They dig their burrows with their claws, making only a single corridor the width of the animal's body. They have five clawed toes on their hind feet, and three to five toes with heavy digging claws on their fore feet. Armadillos have numerous cheek teeth which are not divided into premolars and molars, but usually have no incisors or canines. The dentition of the nine-banded armadillo is P 7/7, M 1/1 = 32.


title: Armadillo

text: In common with other xenarthrans, armadillos, in general, have low body temperatures of and low basal metabolic rates (40–60% of that expected in placental mammals of their mass). This is particularly true of types that specialize in using termites as their primary food source (for example, "Priodontes" and "Tolypeutes").