title: Q (Star Trek)

text: Q returns in of "". In the episode "The Star Gazer", the ship "Stargazer" is attacked and nearly assimilated by a Borg Queen, forcing Picard to activate the ship's self-destruct mechanism. Just as the ship explodes, Picard abruptly wakes up in a different version of his home. Q appears, initially looking like his younger self before turning himself into an old man to match Picard's age. Q says the trial of humanity is not over, so he's altered history to show Picard "the end of the road not taken."


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: In the next episode, "Penance", Q acts unusually agitated while claiming this dark, totalitarian future is all Picard's fault, even striking Picard when he complains. This prompts Picard to wonder if Q is unwell. Q admits to saving Picard and his crew from the explosion of the "Stargazer" and making sure they all remembered the original timeline to give them a chance to change it back. After Q departs, Picard meets his crew and they work with a captured Borg Queen, who can detect temporal anomalies and says this future was caused by a change in Los Angeles in the year 2024.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: In the next episode, "Assimilation", Q briefly appears to taunt Picard about how everything was lost because of his fears before disappearing.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: In the next episode, "Watcher", Q appears in Los Angeles in 2024, observing a woman working on a planned spaceflight to Europa. He is then surprised to find his powers do not work.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: In the next episode, "Fly Me to the Moon", the woman is revealed to be Jean-Luc Picard's ancestor, Renee Picard. Undaunted by the loss of his powers, Q poses as Renee's psychiatrist and tries to convince her to cancel her spaceflight to Europa. When Picard and his crew find out about this, they speculate that this is the change that causes the dark future. Q also meets Dr. Adam Soong and provides him a temporary cure for his daughter Kore's life-threatening illness. Desperate for a permanent cure, Soong agrees to assist Q.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: In the next episode, "Two of One", Q instructs Soong to stop Renee from going on her spaceflight, which he attempts by trying to hit her with his car. However, Picard pushes her out of the way and is hit instead and hospitalized by his injuries.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: Q is mentioned in the next episode, "Monsters". After recovering, Picard asks Guinan to summon Q to their location so he can question him, remembering Q's unusual behavior in their previous encounter. Guinan reveals that the Q Continuum and her race, the El-Aurians, went to war in the past before making a peace treaty. However, her ritual to summon Q fails.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: In the next episode, "Mercy", after Picard and Guinan have been arrested by an FBI agent, Q visits Guinan disguised as an agent, revealing that he is dying and that this whole scenario was just an attempt to give his life meaning. He leaves after saying humans are always stuck in the past, giving Picard inspiration to pry into the agent's past to persuade him to let them go. Q later visits Kore and gives her the permanent cure even though Soong did not fulfill his end of the bargain, allowing her to leave her home and escape her controlling father. The Borg Queen reveals the change that caused the dark future: In the original timeline, Renee found an alien life form on Europa, paving the way for the formation of the Federation. If Renee's flight is prevented, Dr. Adam Soong will eventually rise in power and become ruler of the world.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: In "Farewell," after the original timeline is restored, Picard leaves the skeleton key behind a loose brick in the wall for his younger self to find, then encounters Q in his home. Q notes that Picard had the chance to potentially save his mother and change his own future, but instead he chose to accept himself as he is and absolve himself of his guilt. Because Picard has chosen himself, perhaps now he will finally believe himself worthy of being chosen by someone else, and may even give himself the chance to be loved. Q repeats his earlier statement that this was about forgiveness: Picard's own forgiveness of himself. Q reminds Picard that all of the deaths caused by Q's alteration of the timeline have been fixed, apart from Tallinn and Elnor. However, Tallinn was always destined to die in every timeline, but thanks to Picard's intervention, Tallinn had been able to meet Renée in this one. Picard asks why Q had taken such an interest in him for over thirty years, and Q explains that he is dying alone and doesn't want that for Picard. As such, he had set it up so Picard could travel back in time and become unshackled from his past ("As I leave, I leave you free.") For once, Q had not been acting for some grander design, but simply because he cared about Picard and genuinely wanted to help his friend.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: Gathering outside, Q prepares to use the last of his power to send Picard and his friends back to their own timeline, an action that will kill Q in his weakened state. When Rios chooses to stay in 2024, Q tells Picard that he now has an unexpected surplus of energy, which he will use to give Picard a final surprise gift. Stating that Q doesn't have to die alone, Picard hugs him, and an emotional Q promises to "See you out there." He then snaps his fingers one last time, sending Picard, Raffi and Seven back to 2401 moments before the "Stargazer's" destruction, allowing Picard the chance to change his future. Shortly thereafter, the group discovers Q's final gift: Q has resurrected Elnor and returned him to the "Excelsior".


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: The Q were also mentioned in of "" as the possible creators of the Dark Matter Anomaly threatening the Alpha Quadrant, but were dismissed as being such by the Federation due to neither Q or his fellow Q being heard from since the late 26th century.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: The similarity between Q and Trelane, the alien encountered in the "Star Trek" episode "The Squire of Gothos", inspired writer Peter David to establish in his 1994 novel "Q-Squared" that Trelane is a member of the Continuum, and that Q is his godfather (with it being all-but-explicitly stated that Q is actually Trelane's biological father, although the truth of this is kept an official secret).


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: Q's past is expanded on in the trilogy "", which has Q and Picard travel through Q's past, witnessing Q's first encounter with the being that inspired his interest in testing other races. This being, known as 0, is similar to Q in power and abilities (although an injury of some sort prevents 0 travelling faster than light under his own power, even if he can still teleport short distances), but whereas Q has been shown to be more of a "merry prankster" throughout "Star Trek" canon, 0 is malevolent in his desires, using 'tests' as just an excuse to torture other races by changing the rules of his games so that the subjects will inevitably lose. Q ends up bringing him into the Milky Way galaxy through the Guardian of Forever, and 0 assembles other seemingly omnipotent beings from the original "Star Trek", including Gorgan (the entity who turned children against their parents in "And the Children Shall Lead"), The One (the being who impersonated God in "") and (*) (the entity from "Day of the Dove", which thrived on violent conflict). However, although intrigued at 0's words about testing lesser races, Q loses his taste for 0's methods when 0's group provoke the Tkon Empire- an advanced civilisation millennia in the past- into decades of civil war and then blows up their sun just as they were about to exchange their dying old sun for a younger, fresher one, having completed their Great Endeavour despite the war. 0's group was later defeated in a battle with the Q Continuum, though the dinosaurs were left extinct as a result when Q diverted an asteroid from one of the combatants so that it would strike Earth instead. With Q having abstained from most of the conflict, he was thus put in charge of watching over Earth and its inhabitants as a possible rehabilitation project, while (*) and Gorgan escaped, The One was trapped at the heart of the galaxy having been reduced to just his head, and 0 was banished to just outside our galaxy and the galactic barrier erected to keep him out; as Picard observes, with 0's crippled state preventing him travelling faster than light, 0 was essentially reduced to a shipwrecked survivor cut off from the nearest inhabitable land and millennia away from anywhere else. 0 later returned from his banishment beyond the galaxy and sought revenge on Q, having manipulated a dying scientist to complete an artificial wormhole experiment, but was defeated when Picard was able to convince one of 0's old enemies to join forces with Q so that their combined powers could stop his former mentor.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: The novel "The Buried Age" which explores Picard's life between the destruction of the "Stargazer" and his appointment to the position of captain of the "Enterprise"-D ends with a cameo appearance by Q as he meets an alien woman who recently met Picard before she chose to ascend to a higher plane of existence, her tales of Picard inspiring Q's own interest in humanity. This novel also establishes why Q chose his name, as he wanted something that would be simple for humans to remember, reasoning that, if he was ever asked why he was called 'Q', he could reply "Because U will always be behind me".


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: In the "Voyager" novel "The Eternal Tide", Q's son sacrifices himself to save the universe, inspired by the example of the resurrected Kathryn Janeway, prompting Q to declare himself her enemy. However, he swiftly gets over this hostility 'off-screen', and by the later novel "A Pocket Full of Lies", it is revealed that he acted to save the life of an alternate Janeway created during the events of "".


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: In the "Star Trek" comic series based on the alternate timeline established in the 2009 film "Star Trek", Q visits that reality to take the crew of the "Enterprise" into their future. This allows them to interact with characters from the original timeline in the new history created by Spock's trip to the past. It also helps Q deal with a threat to the Continuum in the form of the Pah-Wraiths, which have all but destroyed the Bajoran Prophets in this timeline, the "Enterprise" crew retrieving a tablet containing the last Prophet and allowing it to merge with Q to defeat the Pah-Wraiths.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: The 1996 computer game "" was primarily made up of live action segments directed by James L. Conway and featured John de Lancie as Q.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: Q also appears during holiday events in the massively multiplayer online game "Star Trek Online" including the creation of a Christmas village that player characters can be teleported to.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: In , S02E05 "", Q sends Dr. Adam Soong his business card via his 3D printer. The number on it was (323) 634-5667. This is a functional phone number intended for the viewers to call. Typically, phone numbers use the "555" prefix in movies or TV episodes. That prefix is reserved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for "dud" phone numbers that go nowhere. This is a small treat for diligent viewers; a small, out-of-universe Easter egg with a short message from John de Lancie's portrayal of Q. As of November 2022, this phone number is still active.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: In 2017, Space.com rated Q as one of the "15 of the Most Bizarre Alien Species" of the "Star Trek" franchise.


title: Q (Star Trek)

text: In 2018, "The Wrap" said that Q would be at the top of the list if he was included with ranking 39 main cast characters of the "Star Trek" franchise prior to "".


title: Moscow mule

text: A Moscow mule is a cocktail made with vodka, ginger beer and lime juice, garnished with a slice or wedge of lime. The drink is a type of buck and is sometimes called a vodka buck.


title: Moscow mule

text: The Moscow mule is popularly served in a copper mug, which takes on the cold temperature of the liquid. Some public health advisories recommend copper mugs be plated with nickel or stainless steel on the inside and the lip, but it has been disputed whether the time and acidity involved in the drinking of a Moscow mule would be enough to leach out the 30 milligrams of copper per litre needed to cause copper toxicity.


title: Moscow mule

text: Due to the popularity of the Moscow mule, other buck cocktails with different liquors have been labeled with the "mule" name in recent years. Variations with the name changed accordingly:


title: Moscow mule

text: George Sinclair's 2007 article on the origin of the drink quotes the "New York Herald Tribune" from 1948: The mule was born in Manhattan but "stalled" on the West Coast for the duration. The birthplace of "Little Moscow" was in New York's Chatham Hotel. That was back in 1941 when the first carload of Jack Morgan's Cock 'n' Bull ginger beer was railing over the plains to give New Yorkers a happy surprise…The Violette Family helped. Three friends were in the Chatham bar, one John A. Morgan, known as Jack, president of Cock 'n' Bull Products and owner of the Hollywood Cock 'n' Bull Restaurant; one was John G. Martin, president of G.F. Heublein Brothers Inc. of Hartford, Conn., and the third was Rudolph Kunett, president of the Pierre Smirnoff, Heublein's vodka division. As Jack Morgan tells it, "We three were quaffing a slug, nibbling an hors d'oeuvre and shoving toward inventive genius". Martin and Kunett had their minds on their vodka and wondered what would happen if a two-ounce shot joined with Morgan's ginger beer and the squeeze of a lemon. Ice was ordered, lemons procured, mugs ushered in and the concoction put together. Cups were raised, the men counted five and down went the first taste. It was good. It lifted the spirit to adventure. Four or five days later the mixture was christened the Moscow mule...


title: Moscow mule

text: Mayo Methot's husband, Percy T. Morgan, an oil tycoon, was a co-owner of the Cock n' Bull restaurant.


title: Moscow mule

text: This story was well known for years, however in 2007, a new version of the invention of the Moscow mule cocktail was published. In this story the cocktail's inventor was Wes Price, getting the idea from Hudes Potache, Morgan's head bartender and the drink was born out of a need to clear the bar's cellar, packed with unsold inventory, including vodka and ginger beer.


title: Moscow mule

text: Eric Felten quotes Wes Price in an article that was published in 2007 in "The Wall Street Journal" "I just wanted to clean out the basement," Price would say of creating the Moscow mule. "I was trying to get rid of a lot of dead stock." The first one he mixed he served to the actor Broderick Crawford. "It caught on like wildfire," Price bragged."


title: Moscow mule

text: The Moscow mule is often served in a copper mug. The popularity of this drinking vessel is attributable to Martin, who went around the United States to sell Smirnoff vodka and popularize the Moscow mule. Martin asked bartenders to pose with a specialty copper mug and a bottle of Smirnoff vodka, and took Polaroid photographs of them. He took two photos, leaving one with the bartender for display. The other photo was put into a collection and used as proof to the next bar Martin visited of the popularity of the Moscow mule. The copper mug remains, to this day, a popular serving vessel for the Moscow mule.


title: Moscow mule

text: According to a 1942 "Insider Hollywood" article, the Moscow mule was most popular in Los Angeles, where it originated. "The Nevada State Journal" (October 12, 1943) reinforced the mule's popularity in reporting: "Already the mule is climbing up into the exclusive handful of most-popular mixed drinks". It became known as a favorite drink of Reno casino owner William F. Harrah. In his book "Beat the Dealer" (1964), Edward O. Thorp did not name the Tahoe casino where he thought he had been poorly treated as a card counter. Instead, he wrote, "Immediately I had a Moscow mule", subtly hinting that the location was Harrah's Lake Tahoe, due to Harrah's then well-known proclivity for the drink.


title: Moscow mule

text: In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, some American and Canadian bars began to refer to the drink as a "Kyiv mule" – referring to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv – in protest of the invasion.


title: Moscow mule

text: The ingredients in Moscow mule cocktails are acidic, and the resulting beverage has a pH well below 6.0. This creates a problem when using traditional copper mugs, as copper can start dissolving into acidic solutions. Copper in solution is considered toxic at concentrations above 1 mg/L.


title: Moscow mule

text: On July 28, 2017, the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division issued a statement that pure copper vessels should not be used to serve acidic drinks, but that "copper mugs lined on the interior with another metal, such as nickel or stainless steel, are allowed to be used and are widely available". The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 2013 Food Code states that copper and copper alloys such as brass "may not be used in contact with a food that has a pH below 6 such as vinegar, fruit juice, or wine or for a fitting or tubing installed between a backflow prevention device and a carbonator."


title: Moscow mule

text: The FDA’s Model Food Code specifically prohibits copper from "coming into direct contact with foods that have a pH below 6.0.” The advisory relates only to solid copper mugs. Copper mugs that are lined with stainless steel or other food-safe materials are exempt from the advisory.


title: Qigong

text: Qigong (), qi gong, chi kung, chi 'ung, or chi gung () is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial-arts training. With roots in Chinese medicine, philosophy, and martial arts, "qigong" is traditionally viewed by the Chinese and throughout Asia as a practice to cultivate and balance "qi" (pronounced approximately as "chee"), translated as "life energy".


title: Qigong

text: "Qigong" practice typically involves moving meditation, coordinating slow-flowing movement, deep rhythmic breathing, and a calm meditative state of mind. People practice "qigong" throughout China and worldwide for recreation, exercise, relaxation, preventive medicine, self-healing, alternative medicine, meditation, self-cultivation, and training for martial arts.


title: Qigong

text: "Qigong" (Pinyin), "ch'i kung" (Wade-Giles), and "chi gung" (Yale) are Romanized words for two Chinese characters: qì ('／') and gōng ().


title: Qigong

text: "Qi" (or "chi") primarily means air, gas or breath but is often translated as a metaphysical concept of 'vital energy', referring to a supposed energy circulating through the body; though a more general definition is universal energy, including heat, light, and electromagnetic energy; and definitions often involve breath, air, gas, or the relationship between matter, energy, and spirit. "Qi" is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts. "Gong" (or "kung") is often translated as cultivation or work, and definitions include practice, skill, mastery, merit, achievement, service, result, or accomplishment, and is often used to mean gongfu (kung fu) in the traditional sense of achievement through great effort. The two words are combined to describe systems to cultivate and balance life energy, especially for health and wellbeing.


title: Qigong

text: The term "qigong" as currently used was promoted in the late 1940s through the 1950s to refer to a broad range of Chinese self-cultivation exercises, and to emphasize health and scientific approaches, while de-emphasizing spiritual practices, mysticism, and elite lineages.


title: Qigong

text: With roots in ancient Chinese culture dating back more than 2,000 years, a wide variety of "qigong" forms have developed within different segments of Chinese society: in traditional Chinese medicine for preventive and curative functions; in Confucianism to promote longevity and improve moral character; in Taoism and Buddhism as part of meditative practice; and in Chinese martial arts to enhance self defending abilities. Contemporary "qigong" blends diverse and sometimes disparate traditions, in particular the Taoist meditative practice of "internal alchemy" (Neidan ), the ancient meditative practices of "circulating "qi"" (Xing qi ) and "standing meditation" (Zhan zhuang ), and the slow gymnastic breathing exercise of "guiding and pulling" (Daoyin ). Traditionally, "qigong" was taught by master to students through training and oral transmission, with an emphasis on meditative practice by scholars and gymnastic or dynamic practice by the working masses.


title: Qigong

text: Starting in the late 1940s and the 1950s, the mainland Chinese government tried to integrate disparate "qigong" approaches into one coherent system, with the intention of establishing a firm scientific basis for "qigong" practice. In 1949, Liu Guizhen established the name "Qigong" to refer to the system of life-preserving practices that he and his associates developed, based on Dao yin and other philosophical traditions. This attempt is considered by some sinologists as the start of the modern or scientific interpretation of "qigong". During the Great Leap Forward (1958–1963) and the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), "qigong", along with other traditional Chinese medicine, was under tight control with limited access among the general public, but was encouraged in state-run rehabilitation centers and spread to universities and hospitals. After the Cultural Revolution, "qigong", along with t'ai chi, was popularized as daily morning exercise practiced en masse throughout China.


title: Qigong

text: Popularity of "qigong" grew rapidly during the Deng and Jiang eras after Mao Zedong's death in 1976 through the 1990s, with estimates of between 60 and 200 million practitioners throughout China. Along with popularity and state sanction came controversy and problems: claims of extraordinary abilities bordering on the supernatural, pseudoscience explanations to build credibility, a mental condition labeled "qigong" deviation, formation of cults, and exaggeration of claims by masters for personal benefit. In 1985, the state-run National Qigong Science and Research Organization was established to regulate the nation's "qigong" denominations. In 1999, in response to widespread revival of old traditions of spirituality, morality, and mysticism, and perceived challenges to State control, the Chinese government took measures to enforce control of public "qigong" practice, including shutting down "qigong" clinics and hospitals, and banning groups such as Zhong Gong and Falun Gong.


title: Qigong

text: Since the 1999 crackdown, "qigong" research and practice have only been officially supported in the context of health and traditional Chinese medicine. The Chinese Health Qigong Association, established in 2000, strictly regulates public "qigong" practice, with limitation of public gatherings, requirement of state approved training and certification of instructors, and restriction of practice to state-approved forms.


title: Qigong

text: Through the forces of migration of the Chinese diaspora, tourism in China, and globalization, the practice of "qigong" spread from the Chinese community to the world. Today, millions of people around the world practice "qigong" and believe in the benefits of "qigong" to varying degrees. Similar to its historical origin, those interested in qigong come from diverse backgrounds and practice it for different reasons, including for recreation, exercise, relaxation, preventive medicine, self-healing, alternative medicine, self-cultivation, meditation, spirituality, and martial arts training.


title: Qigong

text: "Qigong" comprises a diverse set of practices that coordinate body (), breath (), and mind () based on Chinese philosophy. Practices include moving and still meditation, massage, chanting, sound meditation, and non-contact treatments, performed in a broad array of body postures. "Qigong" is commonly classified into two foundational categories: 1) dynamic or active "qigong" ("dong gong"), with slow flowing movement; and 2) meditative or passive "qigong" ("jing gong"), with still positions and inner movement of the breath. From a therapeutic perspective, "qigong" can be classified into two systems:


title: Qigong

text: As moving meditation, "qigong" practice typically coordinates slow stylized movement, deep diaphragmatic breathing, and calm mental focus, with visualization of guiding "qi" through the body. While implementation details vary, generally "qigong" forms can be characterized as a mix of four types of practice: dynamic, static, meditative, and activities requiring external aids.


title: Qigong

text: There are numerous "qigong" forms. 75 ancient forms that can be found in ancient literature and also 56 common or contemporary forms have been described in a "qigong" compendium. The list is by no means exhaustive. Many contemporary forms were developed by people who had recovered from their illness after "qigong" practice.


title: Qigong

text: In 1995, there was Qigong Talent Bank, an organization of Science Research of Chinese Qigong, functioning as network system of the senior Chinese qigong talents in China. In order to promote "qigong" exercises in a standardised and effective way with a scientific approach, The Chinese Health Qigong Association (CHQA) appointed panels of Qigong experts, Chinese medicine doctors and sport science professors from different hospitals, universities and "qigong "lineage across China to research and develop new sets of "qigong" exercises. In 2003 the CHQA officially promoted a new system called "health "qigong"", which consisted of four newly developed health "qigong" forms:


title: Qigong

text: In 2010, the Chinese Health Qigong Association officially introduced five additional health "qigong" forms:


title: Qigong

text: Whether viewed from the perspective of exercise, health, philosophy, or martial arts training, several main principles emerge concerning the practice of qigong:


title: Qigong

text: Over time, five distinct traditions or schools of "qigong" developed in China, each with its own theories and characteristics: Chinese Medical Qigong, Taoist Qigong, Buddhist Qigong, Confucian Qigong, and Martial Qigong. All of these "qigong" traditions include practices intended to cultivate and balance "qi".


title: Qigong

text: The theories of ancient Chinese "qigong" include the Yin-Yang and Five Phases Theory, Essence-"Qi"-Spirit Theory, Zang-Xiang Theory, and Meridians and "Qi"-Blood Theory, which have been synthesized as part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). TCM focuses on tracing and correcting underlying disharmony, in terms of deficiency and excess, using the complementary and opposing forces of yin and yang (), to create a balanced flow of "qi". "Qi" is believed to be cultivated and stored in three main dantian energy centers and to travel through the body along twelve main meridians (Jīng Luò ), with numerous smaller branches and tributaries. The main meridians correspond to twelve main organs ) (Zàng fǔ ). "Qi" is balanced in terms of yin and yang in the context of the traditional system of Five Phases (Wu xing ). A person is believed to become ill or die when "qi" becomes diminished or unbalanced. Health is believed to be returned by rebuilding "qi", eliminating "qi" blockages, and correcting "qi" imbalances. These TCM concepts do not translate readily to modern science and medicine.


title: Qigong

text: In Taoism, various practices now known as Daoist "qigong" are claimed to provide a way to achieve longevity and spiritual enlightenment, as well as a closer connection with the natural world. For instance, the Ming dynasty compendium "Chifeng sui", written by a Taoist ascetic, lists various "qigong"-based "longevity methods".


title: Qigong

text: In Buddhism meditative practices now known as Buddhist "qigong" are part of a spiritual path that leads to spiritual enlightenment or Buddhahood.


title: Qigong

text: In Confucianism practices now known as Confucian "qigong" provide a means to become a Junzi () through awareness of morality.


title: Qigong

text: In contemporary China, the emphasis of "qigong" practice has shifted away from traditional philosophy, spiritual attainment, and folklore, and increasingly to health benefits, traditional medicine and martial arts applications, and a scientific perspective. "Qigong" is now practiced by millions worldwide, primarily for its health benefits, though many practitioners have also adopted traditional philosophical, medical, or martial arts perspectives, and even use the long history of "qigong" as evidence of its effectiveness.


title: Qigong

text: "Qigong" has been recognized as a "standard medical technique" in China since 1989, and is sometimes included in the medical curriculum of major universities in China. The 2013 English translation of the official Chinese Medical Qigong textbook used in China defines CMQ as "the skill of body-mind exercise that integrates body, breath, and mind adjustments into one" and emphasizes that "qigong" is based on "adjustment" (tiao , also translated as "regulation", "tuning", or "alignment") of body, breath, and mind. As such, "qigong" is viewed by practitioners as being more than common physical exercise, because "qigong" combines postural, breathing, and mental training in one to produce a particular psychophysiological state of being. While CMQ is still based on traditional and classical theory, modern practitioners also emphasize the importance of a strong scientific basis. According to the 2013 CMQ textbook, physiological effects of "qigong" are numerous, and include improvement of respiratory and cardiovascular function, and possibly neurophysiological function.


title: Qigong

text: Especially since the 1990s, conventional or mainstream Western medicine often strives to heed the model of evidence-based medicine, EBM, which demotes medical theory, clinical experience, and physiological data to prioritize the results of controlled, and especially randomized, clinical trials of the treatment itself. Although some clinical trials support qigong's effectiveness in treating conditions diagnosed in Western medicine, the quality of these studies is mostly low and, overall, their results are mixed.


title: Qigong

text: Integrative medicine (IM) refers to "the blending of conventional and complementary medicines and therapies with the aim of using the most appropriate of either or both modalities to care for the patient as a whole", whereas complementary is using a non-mainstream approach together with conventional medicine, while alternative is using a non-mainstream approach in place of conventional medicine. "Qigong" is used by integrative medicine practitioners to complement conventional medical treatment, based on complementary and alternative medicine interpretations of the effectiveness and safety of "qigong".


title: Qigong

text: Scientists interested in "qigong" have sought to describe or verify the effects of "qigong", to explore mechanisms of effects, to form scientific theory with respect to "qigong", and to identify appropriate research methodology for further study. In terms of traditional theory, the existence of "qi" has not been independently verified in an experimental setting. In any case, some researches have reported effects on pathophysiological parameters of biomedical interest.


title: Qigong

text: People practice "qigong" for many different reasons, including for recreation, exercise and relaxation, preventive medicine and self-healing, meditation and self-cultivation, and training for martial arts. Practitioners range from athletes to people with disabilities. Because it is low impact and can be done lying, sitting, or standing, "qigong" is accessible for people with disabilities, seniors, and people recovering from injuries.


title: Qigong

text: Therapeutic use of "qigong" is directed by TCM, CAM, integrative medicine, and other health practitioners. In China, where it is considered a "standard medical technique", "qigong" is commonly prescribed to treat a wide variety of conditions, and clinical applications include hypertension, coronary artery disease, peptic ulcers, chronic liver diseases, diabetes mellitus, obesity, menopause syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, insomnia, tumors and cancer, lower back and leg pain, cervical spondylosis, and myopia. Outside China "qigong" is used in integrative medicine to complement or supplement accepted medical treatments, including for relaxation, fitness, rehabilitation, and treatment of specific conditions. However, there is no high-quality evidence that "qigong" is actually effective for these conditions. Based on systematic reviews of clinical research, there is insufficient evidence for the effectiveness of using "qigong" as a therapy for any medical condition.


title: Qigong

text: "Qigong" is generally viewed as safe. No adverse effects have been observed in clinical trials, such that "qigong" is considered safe for use across diverse populations. Cost for self-care is minimal, and cost efficiencies are high for group delivered care. Typically the cautions associated with "qigong" are the same as those associated with any physical activity, including risk of muscle strains or sprains, advisability of stretching to prevent injury, general safety for use alongside conventional medical treatments, and consulting with a physician when combining with conventional treatment.


title: Qigong

text: Although there is ongoing clinical research examining the potential health effects of "qigong", there is little financial or medical incentive to support high-quality research, and still only a limited number of studies meet accepted medical and scientific standards of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Clinical research concerning "qigong" has been conducted for a wide range of medical conditions, including bone density, cardiopulmonary effects, physical function, falls and related risk factors, quality of life, immune function, inflammation, hypertension, pain, and cancer treatment.


title: Qigong

text: A 2009 systematic review on the effect of "qigong" exercises on reducing pain concluded that "the existing trial evidence is not convincing enough to suggest that internal qigong is an effective modality for pain management."


title: Qigong

text: A 2010 systematic review of the effect of "qigong" exercises on cancer treatment concluded "the effectiveness of qigong in cancer care is not yet supported by the evidence from rigorous clinical trials." A separate systematic review that looked at the effects of qigong exercises on various physiological or psychological outcomes found that the available studies were poorly designed, with a high risk of bias in the results. Therefore, the authors concluded, "Due to limited number of RCTs in the field and methodological problems and high risk of bias in the included studies, it is still too early to reach a conclusion about the efficacy and the effectiveness of qigong exercise as a form of health practice adopted by the cancer patients during their curative, palliative, and rehabilitative phases of the cancer journey."


title: Qigong

text: A 2011 overview of systematic reviews of controlled clinical trials, Lee et al. concluded that "the effectiveness of qigong is based mostly on poor quality research" and "therefore, it would be unwise to draw firm conclusions at this stage." Although a 2010 comprehensive literature review found 77 peer-reviewed RCTs, Lee et al.'s overview of systematic reviews as to particular health conditions found problems like sample size, lack of proper control groups, with lack of blinding associated with high risk of bias.


title: Qigong

text: A 2015 systematic review of the effect of "qigong" exercises on cardiovascular diseases and hypertension found no conclusive evidence for effect. Also in 2015, a systemic review into the effects on hypertension suggested that it may be effective, but that the evidence was not conclusive because of the poor quality of the trials it included, and advised more rigorous research in the future. Another 2015 systematic review of "qigong" on biomarkers of cardiovascular disease concluded that some trials showed favorable effects, but concludes, "Most of the trials included in this review are likely to be at high risk of bias, so we have very low confidence in the validity of the results.


title: Qigong

text: Many claims have been made that "qigong" can benefit or ameliorate mental health conditions, including improved mood, decreased stress reaction, and decreased anxiety and depression. Most medical studies have only examined psychological factors as secondary goals, although various studies have shown decreases in cortisol levels, a chemical hormone produced by the body in response to stress.


title: Qigong

text: Basic and clinical research in China during the 1980s was mostly descriptive, and few results were reported in peer-reviewed English-language journals. "Qigong" became known outside China in the 1990s, and clinical randomized controlled trials investigating the effectiveness of "qigong" on health and mental conditions began to be published worldwide, along with systematic reviews.


title: Qigong

text: Most existing clinical trials have small sample sizes and many have inadequate controls. Of particular concern is the impracticality of double blinding using appropriate sham treatments, and the difficulty of placebo control, such that benefits often cannot be distinguished from the placebo effect. Also of concern is the choice of which "qigong" form to use and how to standardize the treatment or amount with respect to the skill of the practitioner leading or administering treatment, the tradition of individualization of treatments, and the treatment length, intensity, and frequency.


title: Qigong

text: "Qigong" is practiced for meditation and self-cultivation as part of various philosophical and spiritual traditions. As meditation, "qigong" is a means to still the mind and enter a state of consciousness that brings serenity, clarity, and bliss. Many practitioners find "qigong", with its gentle focused movement, to be more accessible than seated meditation.


title: Qigong

text: "Qigong" for self-cultivation can be classified in terms of traditional Chinese philosophy: Taoist, Buddhist, and Confucian.


title: Qigong

text: The practice of "qigong" is an important component in both internal and external style Chinese martial arts. Focus on "qi" is considered to be a source of power as well as the foundation of the internal style of martial arts (Neijia). T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Xing Yi Quan, and Baguazhang are representative of the types of Chinese martial arts that rely on the concept of "qi" as the foundation. Extraordinary feats of martial arts prowess, such as the ability to withstand heavy strikes (Iron Shirt, ) and the ability to break hard objects (Iron Palm, ) are abilities attributed to "qigong" training.


title: Qigong

text: "T'ai Chi Ch'uan" (Taijiquan) is a widely practiced Chinese internal martial style based on the theory of taiji, closely associated with "qigong", and typically involving more complex choreographed movement coordinated with breath, done slowly for health and training, or quickly for self-defense. Many scholars consider t'ai chi ch'uan to be a type of "qigong", traced back to an origin in the seventeenth century. In modern practice, "qigong" typically focuses more on health and meditation rather than martial applications, and plays an important role in training for t'ai chi ch'uan, in particular used to build strength, develop breath control, and increase vitality ("life energy").


title: Toby Fox

text: Robert F. Fox (born October 11, 1991), known professionally as Toby Fox (previously Toby "Radiation" Fox), is an American video game developer and video game composer. He is known for developing the role-playing video games "Undertale" and "Deltarune" for which the former garnered acclaim and he received nominations for a British Academy Game Award and three Game Awards.


title: Toby Fox

text: Fox's early work consisted primarily of composing music, notably doing so for the webcomic "Homestuck", and, following the success of "Undertale", he went on to compose music for a number of other independent video games. Other notable works include contributing to the soundtracks of "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" and multiple "Pokémon" video games.


title: Toby Fox

text: Toby Fox's earliest well-known work is his "EarthBound Halloween Hack", a Halloween-themed ROM hack of the 1994 Super NES game "EarthBound" released in 2008. He then moved onto composing a variety of music for Andrew Hussie's 2009 webcomic "Homestuck" during his senior year of high school. Though he did not initially respond when Hussie started a "Music Contribution Team" in April 2009 and put up a news post asking composers to participate, Hussie took note of his work when Fox started uploading piano covers of the webcomic's music on the "MS Paint Adventures" forums. Fox has composed music for the 2017 "Homestuck" video game "Hiveswap", "Undertale" artist Temmie Chang's short narrative game "Escaped Chasm", and Game Freak's 2019 RPG "Little Town Hero", the last of which was arranged by "Pokémon" composer Hitomi Sato. He also composed a track for "Pokémon Sword" and "Shield", a vocal song for Itoki Hana's "PRAY" album, and multiple tracks for "Pokémon Scarlet" and "Violet".


title: Toby Fox

text: Fox's most well-known work is the 2015 role-playing video game "Undertale", which he also composed the soundtrack for. The game sold more than 1 million copies, becoming a "breakout hit" and "pop-culture phenomenon". Fox worked on the entire game independently, besides the art assets—which he asked Temmie (Tuyoki) Chang to help with—to avoid relying on others. He had some experience in game development before "Undertale", using RPG Maker 2000 with his three brothers to make role-playing games and "EarthBound" ROM hacks in high school, the most notable of which was "Earthbound: The Halloween Hack". He thought of the character designs and ideas for "Undertale" while in college, where he drew them in his notebook.


title: Toby Fox

text: Following its release, "Undertale" garnered an extensive fanbase. Fox commented that he did not mind if people stated that they did not like the game, saying that it was "not for everyone". Despite "Undertale"s awards and widespread acclaim, Fox wrote that his personal opinion was that the game was still "niche" and deserved an "8/10" review score.


title: Toby Fox

text: In 2016, Fox released a number of unused musical tracks from "Undertale". He also became a contributor to the "A Profound Waste of Time" magazine. Fox was then chosen to be part of the 2018 Games "Forbes" 30 Under 30 list for his role in creating "Undertale".


title: Toby Fox

text: The success of "Undertale", especially in Japan, afforded Fox the opportunity to visit "Super Smash Bros." creator Masahiro Sakurai at his home, where they discussed the series and played "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" against each other, and the two reportedly had a very similar skill level, trading wins and losses equally. Sans, a character from "Undertale", was later included in "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" as a Mii costume available through downloadable content, along with his signature weapon, dubbed the “Gaster Blaster”, and instrumental composition "MEGALOVANIA", for which Fox provided a new arrangement.


title: Toby Fox

text: On October 30, 2018, Fox tweeted a request for fans of "Undertale" to check the game's official Twitter account in 24 hours. The following day, Fox released the first chapter of the followup to "Undertale," named "Deltarune", for free under the guise of a "survey""." On November 1, Fox shared more details regarding the game, including that the rest of the chapters were expected to release simultaneously, but work had not yet started, and there was no estimated timeframe for completion. Fox also stated that he had been working on the project since 2012, and that the idea for "Undertale" developed from "Deltarune" during production. On June 12, 2019, as only the first chapter of "Deltarune" had been playable for several months, Fox expressed on his Twitter account he had hope he would complete the rest of "Deltarune", saying: "Slowly I'm writing and drawing it all out." He stated that he has written "about 50 songs past Chapter 1".


title: Toby Fox

text: On September 17, 2021, Fox released the second chapter of "Deltarune" for free since "the world has been really tough for everybody recently", referring to the struggles of the COVID-19 pandemic. He plans to release the next three chapters simultaneously with a price greater than "Undertale", but without any projected release date.


title: Toby Fox

text: He has chronic wrist and hand pain that regularly disables him from programming and composing; Fox cited a flareup of this pain as a factor in the delayed development of "Deltarune" second chapter.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (; born 6 March 1937) is an engineer, member of the Russian State Duma, and former Soviet cosmonaut. She is known for being the first and youngest woman in space, having flown a solo mission on the Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. She orbited the Earth 48 times, spent almost three days in space, and remains the only woman to have been on a solo space mission.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Before her selection for the Soviet space program, Tereshkova was a textile factory worker and an amateur skydiver. She joined the Air Force as part of the Cosmonaut Corps and was commissioned as an officer after completing her training. After the dissolution of the first group of female cosmonauts in 1969, Tereshkova remained in the space program as a cosmonaut instructor. She later graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy and re-qualified for spaceflight but never went to space again. She retired from the Air Force in 1997 having attained the rank of major general.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Tereshkova was a prominent member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, holding various political offices including being a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1974 to 1989. She remained politically active following the collapse of the Soviet Union but twice lost elections to the national State Duma in 1995 and 2003. Tereshkova was later elected in 2008 to her regional parliament, the Yaroslavl Oblast Duma. In 2011, she was elected to the national State Duma as a member of the United Russia party and was re-elected in 2016 and 2021.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Valentina Tereshkova was born on 6 March in 1937 in the Bolshoye Maslennikovo, a village on the Volga River northeast of Moscow and part of the Yaroslavl Oblast in central Russia. Her parents had migrated from Belarus. Her father, Vladimir Tereshkov, was a former tractor driver and a sergeant in command of a tank in the Soviet Army. He died in the Finnish Winter War during World War II when Tereshkova was two years of age. He and her mother Elena Fyodorovna Tereshkova had three children. After her father's death, her mother moved the family to Yaroslavl, seeking better employment opportunity, and became employed at the Krasny Perekop cotton mill.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Tereshkova was first enrolled in school at age 10 and graduated at 17. She began working at a tyre factory, and later at a textile mill, but continued her education by taking correspondence courses and graduated from the Light Industry Technical School in 1960. Tereshkova also became interested from a young age in parachuting, and trained in skydiving at the local Aeroclub, making her first jump at age 22, on 21 May 1959. While still employed as a textile worker, she trained as a competitive parachutist, keeping this a secret from her family. Tereshkova also joined the local Komsomol (Communist Youth League) in Yaroslavl, serving as the secretary of the organisation in 1960 and 1961. She became a member of the Communist Party in 1962.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Tereshkova had not had any desire to go into space before being recruited. Rather, her experience at skydiving contributed to her selection as a cosmonaut. After the flight of Yuri Gagarin in 1961, Nikolai Kamanin, director of cosmonaut training, read in the American media that female pilots were training to be astronauts. In his diary, he wrote, "We cannot allow that the first woman in space will be American. This would be an insult to the patriotic feelings of Soviet women." Approval was granted to place five female cosmonauts in the next group, which would begin training in 1963. To increase the odds of sending a Soviet woman into space first, the women cosmonauts began their training before the men. The rules required that the potential cosmonaut be a parachutist under 30 years of age, less than in height, no more than in weight. By January 1962, the All-Union Voluntary Society for Assistance to the Army, Air Force and Navy (DOSAAF) had selected 400 candidates for consideration. After the initial screening, 58 of those candidates met the requirements, which Kamanin reduced to 23. On 16 February 1962, Tereshkova was selected, along with four other candidates, to join the female cosmonaut corps.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Since they had no military experience, they started with the rank of private in the Soviet Air Forces. Training included isolation tests, centrifuge tests, thermo-chamber tests, decompression chamber testing, and pilot training in MiG-15UTI jet fighters. Tereshkova underwent water recovery training at sea, as part of which several motorboats were used to agitate the water, in order to simulate the rough conditions of space travel. She also began studying at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy and graduated a few years after her flight. The group spent several months in basic training and, after they finished their training and passed an examination, Kamanin offered them the option to be commissioned as regular Air Force officers. With advice from the male cosmonauts, they chose to accept Kamanin's offer, as it would make it harder for the program to get rid of them after the first flight. All five women became junior lieutenants in the Air Force in December 1962. Tatyana Kuznetsova became ineligible for the first flight due to illness, and Zhanna Yorkina was performing poorly in training, leaving Tereshkova, Irina Solovyova, and Valentina Ponomaryova as the leading candidates.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Originally, a joint mission profile was developed that would involve launching two women into space, on solo Vostok flights, on consecutive days in March or April 1963. It was intended that Tereshkova would launch first, in Vostok 5, while Ponomaryova would follow her into orbit in Vostok 6. However, this flight plan was altered in March 1963. Vostok 5 would now carry a male cosmonaut, Valery Bykovsky, flying alongside a woman aboard Vostok 6, both to be launched in June 1963. The State Space Commission, at their meeting on 21 May, nominated Tereshkova to pilot Vostok 6. Kamanin called her "Gagarin in a skirt." Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was happy with the propaganda potential of her selection, since she was the daughter of a collective farm worker who had died in the Winter War; he confirmed her selection. Solovyova was appointed as her first backup. Tereshkova was promoted to lieutenant before her flight and to captain mid-flight.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: After the successful launch of Vostok 5 on 14 June, Tereshkova began final preparations for her own flight. On the morning of 16 June 1963, Tereshkova and her backup Solovyova were both dressed in spacesuits and taken to the launch pad by bus. Following the tradition set by Gagarin, Tereshkova also urinated on the bus tire, becoming the first woman to do so. After completing her communication- and life-support checks, she was sealed inside the Vostok. After a two-hour countdown, Vostok 6 launched faultlessly, and Tereshkova became the first woman in space; she remains the only woman to have flown into space solo, and, at 26 years of age, the youngest. Her call sign on this flight was "Chaika" (); in commemoration, this name was later bestowed on an asteroid, 1671 Chaika. After her launch, she radioed down:


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Vostok 6 was the final Vostok flight and was launched two days after Vostok 5 which carried Bykovsky into a five-day mission. The two vessels spent three days in orbital planes 30° apart and, during Tereshkova's first orbit, approached each other to within . Although they were able to communicate by radio, neither could be sure if they saw each other. Cameras placed inside both the spacecraft transmitted live footage that was broadcast on Soviet state television. Tereshkova also maintained a flight log and took photographs of the horizon, which were later used to identify aerosol layers within the atmosphere.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: In this single flight, she logged more flight time than the combined times of all American astronauts who had flown before that date. Her mission was used to continue the medical studies on humans in spaceflight and offered comparative data about the effects of space travel on women. Although Tereshkova experienced nausea and physical discomfort for much of the flight, she orbited the earth 48 times and spent 2 days, 22 hours, and 50 minutes in space. Among her other firsts, Tereshkova can also claim having made the first bowel movement in space, which occurred on the second day of her flight.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: As planned in all Vostok missions, Tereshkova ejected from the capsule during its descent at about four miles above the Earth and made a parachute landing north-east of Karaganda, Kazakhstan at 8:20 am UTC on 19 June. Bykovsky landed three hours after her.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Later on, Tereshkova revealed that she had difficulty controlling the parachute due to strong winds. However, she landed safely but received a bruise on her nose, then she had dinner with some local villagers in the Altai Krai who helped her to get out of her spacesuit.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: According to the Russian newspaper "Pravda", one million flowers were brought in to celebrate the success of the dual flights and greet the cosmonauts in Moscow. On 22 June 1963, Khrushchev greeted Bykovsky dressed in his uniform who saluted while Khrushchev hugged and kissed Tereshkova who was dressed in civilian attire. In front of the thousands in attendance, the Premier also announced that both the cosmonauts were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal. All three made speeches from atop Lenin's Tomb on the Red Square; Tereshkova said, "my father perished defending our country and my mother brought up her three children. We know the bitterness of that war. We don't need war," referring to the anniversary of the German invasion of Russia that began 22 years ago that day. Sometime after her mission, she was reportedly asked how the Soviet Union should thank her for her service to the country; Tereshkova requested that the government search for and publish the location of where her father was killed in action. This was done, and a monument was erected at the site in the Lemetti, Karelia—now on the Russian side of the border. The evening of 22 June, a reception was held in the Kremlin in which both Bykovsky and Tereshkova were awarded the Order of Lenin.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Less than a week after her return from space, Moscow hosted the International Women's Congress on 24 June where Tereshkova and Bykovsky were greeted by a gathering of about 2,000 women from 119 countries. Of all the Russian cosmonauts, Tereshkova received the most requests to visit foreign nations. Her trips in particular required pre-approval from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, and the KGB and were ultimately authorized by the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the highest political bureau in the Soviet Union.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: All the Vostok cosmonauts toured extensively, but Tereshkova most of all; she made 42 trips abroad between 1963 and 1970. On 1 October 1963, Tereshkova arrived in Havana, Cuba, and met Fidel Castro. She toured the country which at the time was dealing with effects of Hurricane Flora. The following month she presented a silver cup, which went to the team from the Soviet Union who won gold in all five boat classes, at the women's 1963 European Rowing Championships held in Khimki near Moscow. By February 1964, Tereshkova was pregnant when she visited Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom who was also pregnant at the time. Except for a few-months break that year, Tereshkova went on a continuous and exhausting world tour, returning to her public duties only two months after the birth of her daughter.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: After her spaceflight, Tereshkova became a national and international role model. She received "congratulatory telegrams and letters... from around the world." These telegrams express the impact that Tereshkova had on other countries, outside the Soviet Union. Women were particularly excited about her flight. For example, in New Delhi, Tereshkova was a "feminist standard bearer bringing a message of hope for 'enslaved' Indian womanhood."


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Tereshkova was a well-known representative of the Soviet Union abroad. She became a member of the World Peace Council in 1966 and a member of the Yaroslavl Soviet in 1967. She was also the Soviet representative to the UN Conference for the International Women's Year in Mexico City in 1975. She led the Soviet delegation to the World Conference on Women in Copenhagen and was "interested in socialist internationalism and women's roles in guaranteeing world peace". Tereshkova was also chosen for several political positions; she was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (1966–1974), a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (1969–1991), and a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1974–1989). She was appointed vice president of the International Woman's Democratic Federation and president of the Soviet-Algerian Friendship Society.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Although she desired to continue pursuing a career as a cosmonaut and engineer, her superiors had a different plan for her in politics. Following Gagarin's death, the Soviet space program was not willing to risk losing another hero. Against her wishes, she was appointed as the leader of the Committee for Soviet Women in 1968. A few months after she graduated with honours from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy in October 1969, the team of women cosmonauts was disbanded and a woman would not go to space again until Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: By 1976, Tereshkova was a colonel in the Soviet Air Forces. In April 1977, she earned a doctorate in aeronautical engineering and underwent the medical examinations to qualify for spaceflight when selection of a new class of women cosmonauts was announced in 1978. Although she did not go to space again, she remained an instructor at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: She remained politically active following the collapse of the Soviet Union but lost elections to the national State Duma during 1995. In the year 1995, Tereshkova was promoted to an honorary rank of major general. On 28 April 1997, she left the Russian Air Force due to reaching the age of compulsory retirement at 60 years old. In 2003, Tereshkova ran again for a seat in the State Duma. In 2007, Tereshkova was invited to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's residence in Novo-Ogaryovo for the celebration of her 70th birthday anniversary. While there she said that she would like to fly to Mars, even if it meant that it was a one-way trip. She was later elected during 2008 to her regional parliament, the Yaroslavl Oblast Duma.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: On 4 December 2011, Tereshkova was elected to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian legislature, as a representative of the Yaroslavl Oblast and a member of the United Russia party. In the 6th State Duma, together with Yelena Mizulina, Irina Yarovaya and Andrey Skoch, she was a member of the inter-factional committee for the protection of Christian values. In this capacity, she supported the introduction of amendments to the preamble of Constitution of Russia, to add that "Orthodoxy is the basis of Russia's national and cultural identity".


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: On 18 September 2016, Tereshkova was re-elected to the 7th State Duma. She serves as deputy chairperson of the Committee on the Federal Structure and Local Government.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: During the drafting process for the 2020 amendments to the Constitution of Russia, she proposed to lift the term limits for president Putin.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury added Tereshkova to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List on 30 September 2022, which results in her assets being frozen and U.S. persons being prohibited from dealing with her.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Valentina married cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev on 3 November 1963 at the Moscow Wedding Palace with Khrushchev presiding at the wedding party together with top government and space programme leaders. The marriage was encouraged by the Soviet space authorities as a "fairy-tale message to the country". General Kamanin, head of the space program, described it as "probably useful for politics and science". On 8 June 1964, nearly one year after her space flight, she gave birth to their daughter Elena Andrianovna Nikolaeva-Tereshkova, the first person with both a mother and father who had travelled into space.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Later in their marriage, the couple grew apart and refused to even stand next to each other in photographs. Tereshkova told the biographer Lady Lothian that the marriage ended in 1977; she and Nikolayev divorced in 1982 and Tereshkova married Yuli Shaposhnikov, a surgeon she had met during her medical examinations to re-qualify as a cosmonaut. They remained married until Shaposhnikov's death in 1999.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: In 1967, created a sculpture of Tereshkova for Cosmonaut Alley in Moscow. There is a monument in Bayevsky District of Altai Territory, Siberia, close to her landing place of 53°N, 80°E. In August 1970, Tereshkova was among the first group of living people to have a lunar crater named after them. Tereshkova crater is located on the far side of the Moon.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: None of the other four in Tereshkova's early group flew and, in October 1969, the pioneering female cosmonaut group was dissolved. Even though there were plans for further flights by women, it took 19 years until the second woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, flew into space.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: In 1997, London-based electronic pop group Komputer released a song entitled "Valentina" which gives a more-or-less direct account of her career as a cosmonaut. It was released as a single and appears on their album "The World of Tomorrow". The 2000 album "Vostok 6" by Kurt Swinghammer is a concept album about Tereshkova. The 2015 album "The Race for Space by" Public Service Broadcasting also has a song featuring the Smoke Fairies entitled "Valentina". In the same year, Findlay Napier's album "" included a song "Valentina", written in her honour by Napier and Boo Hewerdine. In 2015, a short film entitled "Valentina's Dream" was released by Meat Bingo Productions. The film stars Rebecca Front as Tereshkova and is based on an interview by the former cosmonaut where she expressed a desire to journey to Mars.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: The Cosmos Museum was opened 25 January 1975 near Yaroslavl. Among its exhibits is a replica of her childhood home. The city library was named after her in 2013. The school she attended as a child was renamed for her. A planetarium in Yaroslavl was built and named for her in 2011. The International Women of the Year association named her as the "greatest woman achiever of the 20th century". Tereshkova was a torchbearer of the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay in Saint Petersburg and the 2014 Winter Olympics torch relay in Sochi.


title: Valentina Tereshkova

text: Streets in Ukraine that bore Tereshkova's name have been renamed due to her support of Russia's military actions against Ukraine and it was done in accordance with the country's 2015 decommunisation law. A proposal was also brought forward in 2015 to move a monument to Tereshkova in Lviv, Ukraine to the Territory of Terror Memorial Museum. Monuments of communist leaders are removed from the public and placed in the museum as a part of decommunization efforts. In January 2021, 24 Ukrainian streets were still named after Tereshkova; including a street in Busk, located in the same province as Lviv.


title: Nile crocodile

text: The Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) is a large crocodilian native to freshwater habitats in Africa, where it is present in 26 countries. It is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, occurring mostly in the central, eastern, and southern regions of the continent, and lives in different types of aquatic environments such as lakes, rivers, swamps, and marshlands. In West Africa, it occurs along with two other crocodilians. Although capable of living in saline environments, this species is rarely found in saltwater, but occasionally inhabits deltas and brackish lakes. The range of this species once stretched northward throughout the Nile, as far north as the Nile Delta. On average, the adult male Nile crocodile is between in length and weighs including stomach stones. However, specimens exceeding in length and weighing up to have been recorded. It is the largest freshwater predator in Africa, and may be considered the second-largest extant reptile in the world, after the saltwater crocodile ("Crocodylus porosus"). Size is sexually dimorphic, with females usually about 30% smaller than males. The crocodile has thick, scaly, heavily armoured skin.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Nile crocodiles are opportunistic apex predators; a very aggressive crocodile, they are capable of taking almost any animal within their range. They are generalists, taking a variety of prey. Their diet consists mostly of different species of fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals. They are ambush predators that can wait for hours, days, and even weeks for the suitable moment to attack. They are agile predators and wait for the opportunity for a prey item to come well within attack range. Even swift prey are not immune to attack. Like other crocodiles, Nile crocodiles have a powerful bite that is unique among all animals, and sharp, conical teeth that sink into flesh, allowing a grip that is almost impossible to loosen. They can apply high force for extended periods of time, a great advantage for holding down large prey underwater to drown.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Nile crocodiles are relatively social. They share basking spots and large food sources, such as schools of fish and big carcasses. Their strict hierarchy is determined by size. Large, old males are at the top of this hierarchy and have first access to food and the best basking spots. Crocodiles tend to respect this order; when it is infringed, the results are often violent and sometimes fatal. Like most other reptiles, Nile crocodiles lay eggs; these are guarded by the females. The hatchlings are also protected for a period of time, but hunt by themselves and are not fed by the parents.


title: Nile crocodile

text: The Nile crocodile is one of the most dangerous species of crocodile and is responsible for hundreds of human deaths every year. It is common and is not endangered, despite some regional declines or extirpations.


title: Nile crocodile

text: The binomial name "Crocodylus niloticus" is derived from the Greek κρόκη, "kroke" ("pebble"), δρῖλος, "drilos" ("worm"), referring to its rough skin; and "niloticus", meaning "from the Nile River". The Nile crocodile is called "timsah al-nil" in Arabic, "mamba" in Swahili, "garwe" in Shona, "ngwenya" in Ndebele, "ngwena" in Venda, "kwena" in Sotho and Tswana, and "tanin ha-yeor" in Hebrew. It also sometimes referred to as the African crocodile, Ethiopian crocodile, and common crocodile.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Although no subspecies are currently formally recognized, as many as seven have been proposed, mostly due to variations in appearance and size noted in various populations throughout Africa. These have consisted of "C. n. africanus" (informally named the East African Nile crocodile), "C. n. chamses" (the West African Nile crocodile), "C. n. cowiei" (the South African Nile crocodile), "C. n. madagascariensis" (the Malagasy or Madagascar Nile crocodile, regionally also known as the "croco Mada", which translates to Malagasy crocodile), "C. n. niloticus" (the Ethiopian Nile crocodile; this would be the nominate subspecies), "C. n. pauciscutatus" (the Kenyan Nile crocodile) and "C. (n.) suchus" (now widely considered a separate species).


title: Nile crocodile

text: In a study of the morphology of the various populations, including "C. (n.) suchus", the appearance of the Nile crocodile "sensu lato" was found to be more variable than that of any other currently recognized crocodile species, and at least some of these variations were related to locality. For example, a study on Lake Turkana in Kenya (informally this population would be placed in "C. n. pauciscutatus") found that the local crocodiles have more osteoderms in their ventral surface than other known populations, and thus are of lesser value in leather trading, accounting for an exceptionally large (possibly overpopulated) local population there in the late 20th century. The segregation of the West African crocodile ("C. suchus") from the Nile crocodile has been supported by morphological characteristics, studies of genetic materials and habitat preferences. The separation of the two is not recognized by the IUCN as their last evaluations of the group was in 2008 and 2009, years before the primary publications supporting the distinctiveness of the West African crocodiles.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Although originally thought to be the same species as the West African crocodile, genetic studies using DNA sequencing have revealed that the Nile crocodile is actually more closely related to the crocodiles of the Americas, namely the American ("C. acutus"), Cuban ("C. rhombifer"), Morelet's ("C. moreletii"), and Orinoco crocodiles ("C. intermedius"). The fossil species "C. checchiai" from the Miocene in Kenya was about the same size as the modern Nile crocodiles and shared similar physical characteristics to the modern species, and analysis of "C. checchiai" supports their close relationship and the theory of the Nile crocodile being the base of the evolutionary radiation of the New World crocodiles. Dispersal across the Atlantic from Africa is thought to have occurred 5 to 6 million years ago.


title: Nile crocodile

text: At one time, the fossil species "Rimasuchus lloydi" was thought to be the ancestor of the Nile crocodile, but more recent research has indicated that "Rimasuchus", despite its very large size (about 20–30% bigger than a Nile crocodile with a skull length estimated up to ), is more closely related to the dwarf crocodile ("Osteolaemus tetraspis") among living species. Two other fossil species from Africa retained in the genus "Crocodylus" appear to be closely related to the Nile crocodile: "C. anthropophagus" from Plio-Pleistocene Tanzania and "C. thorbjarnarsoni" from Plio-Pleistocene Kenya. "C. anthropophagus" and "C. thorbjarnarsoni" were both somewhat larger, with projected total lengths up to . As well as being larger, "C. anthropophagus" and "C. thorbjarnarsoni", as well as "Rimasuchus" spp., were all relatively broad-snouted, indicating a specialization at hunting sizeable prey, such as large mammals and freshwater turtles, the latter much larger than any in present-day Africa. Studies have since shown these other African crocodiles to be only more distantly related to the Nile crocodile.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Below is a cladogram based on a 2018 tip dating study by Lee & Yates simultaneously using morphological, molecular (DNA sequencing), and stratigraphic (fossil age) data, as revised by the 2021 Hekkala "et al." paleogenomics study using DNA extracted from the extinct "Voay".


title: Nile crocodile

text: Adult Nile crocodiles have a dark bronze colouration above, with faded blackish spots and stripes variably appearing across the back and a dingy off-yellow on the belly, although mud can often obscure the crocodile's actual colour. The flanks, which are yellowish-green in colour, have dark patches arranged in oblique stripes in highly variable patterns. Some variation occurs relative to environment; specimens from swift-flowing waters tend to be lighter in colour than those dwelling in murkier lakes or swamps, which provides camouflage that suits their environment, an example of clinal variation. Nile crocodiles have green eyes. The colouration also helps to camouflage them; juveniles are grey, multicoloured, or brown, with dark cross-bands on the tail and body. The underbelly of young crocodiles is yellowish green. As they mature, Nile crocodiles become darker and the cross-bands fade, especially those on the upper-body. A similar tendency in coloration change during maturation has been noted in most crocodile species.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Most morphological attributes of Nile crocodiles are typical of crocodilians as a whole. Like all crocodilians, for example, the Nile crocodile is a quadruped with four short, splayed legs, a long, powerful tail, a scaly hide with rows of ossified scutes running down its back and tail, and powerful, elongated jaws. Their skin has a number of poorly understood integumentary sense organs that may react to changes in water pressure, presumably allowing them to track prey movements in the water. The Nile crocodile has fewer osteoderms on the belly, which are much more conspicuous on some of the more modestly sized crocodilians. The species, however, also has small, oval osteoderms on the sides of the body, as well as the throat. The Nile crocodile shares with all crocodilians a nictitating membrane to protect the eyes and lachrymal glands to cleanse its eyes with tears. The nostrils, eyes, and ears are situated on the top of the head, so the rest of the body can remain concealed under water. They have a four-chambered heart, although modified for their ectothermic nature due to an elongated cardiac septum, physiologically similar to the heart of a bird, which is especially efficient at oxygenating their blood. As in all crocodilians, Nile crocodiles have exceptionally high levels of lactic acid in their blood, which allows them to sit motionless in water for up to 2 hours. Levels of lactic acid as high as they are in a crocodile would kill most vertebrates. However, exertion by crocodilians can lead to death due to increasing lactic acid to lethal levels, which in turn leads to failure of the animal's internal organs. This is rarely recorded in wild crocodiles, normally having been observed in cases where humans have mishandled crocodiles and put them through overly extended periods of physical struggling and stress.


title: Nile crocodile

text: The mouths of Nile crocodiles are filled with 64 to 68 sharply pointed, cone-shaped teeth (about a dozen less than alligators have). For most of a crocodile's life, broken teeth can be replaced. On each side of the mouth, five teeth are in the front of the upper jaw (premaxilla), 13 or 14 are in the rest of the upper jaw (maxilla), and 14 or 15 are on either side of the lower jaw (mandible). The enlarged fourth lower tooth fits into the notch on the upper jaw and is visible when the jaws are closed, as is the case with all true crocodiles. Hatchlings quickly lose a hardened piece of skin on the top of their mouths called the egg tooth, which they use to break through their eggshells at hatching. Among crocodilians, the Nile crocodile possesses a relatively long snout, which is about 1.6 to 2.0 times as long as broad at the level of the front corners of the eyes. As is the saltwater crocodile, the Nile crocodile is considered a species with medium-width snout relative to other extant crocodilian species.


title: Nile crocodile

text: In a search for the largest crocodilian skulls in museums, the largest verifiable Nile crocodile skulls found were several housed in Arba Minch, Ethiopia, sourced from nearby Lake Chamo, which apparently included several specimens with a skull length more than , with the largest one being in length with a mandibular length of . Nile crocodiles with skulls this size are likely to measure in the range of , which is also the length of the animals according to the museum where they were found. However, larger skulls may exist, as this study largely focused on crocodilians from Asia. The detached head of an exceptionally large Nile crocodile (killed in 1968 and measuring in length) was found to have weighed , including the large tendons used to shut the jaw.


title: Nile crocodile

text: The bite force exerted by an adult Nile crocodile has been shown by Brady Barr to measure . However, the muscles responsible for "opening" the mouth are exceptionally weak, allowing a person to easily hold them shut, and even larger crocodiles can be brought under control by the use of duct tape to bind the jaws together. The broadest snouted modern crocodilians are alligators and larger caimans. For example, a black caiman ("Melanosuchus niger") was found to have a notably broader and heavier skull than that of a Nile crocodile measuring . However, despite their robust skulls, alligators and caimans appear to be proportionately equal in biting force to true crocodiles, as the muscular tendons used to shut the jaws are similar in proportional size. Only the gharial ("Gavialis gangeticus") (and perhaps some of the few very thin-snouted crocodilians) is likely to have noticeably diminished bite force compared to other living species due to its exceptionally narrow, fragile snout. More or less, the size of the tendons used to impart bite force increases with body size and the larger the crocodilian gets, the stronger its bite is likely to be. Therefore, a male saltwater crocodile, which had attained a length around , was found to have the most powerful biting force ever tested in a lab setting for any type of animal.


title: Nile crocodile

text: The Nile crocodile is the largest crocodilian in Africa, and is generally considered the second-largest crocodilian after the saltwater crocodile. Typical size has been reported to be as much as , but this is excessive for actual average size per most studies and represents the upper limit of sizes attained by the largest animals in a majority of populations. Alexander and Marais (2007) give the typical mature size as ; Garrick and Lang (1977) put it at from . According to Cott (1961), the average length and weight of Nile crocodiles from Uganda and Zambia in breeding maturity was and . Per Graham (1968), the average length and weight of a large sample of adult crocodiles from Lake Turkana (formerly known as Lake Rudolf), Kenya was and body mass of . Similarly, adult crocodiles from Kruger National Park reportedly average in length. In comparison, the saltwater crocodile and gharial reportedly both average around , so are about longer on average, and the false gharial ("Tomistoma schlegelii") may average about , so may be slightly longer, as well. However, compared to the narrow-snouted, streamlined gharial and false gharial, the Nile crocodile is more robust and ranks second to the saltwater crocodile in total average body mass among living crocodilians, and is considered to be the second-largest extant reptile. The largest accurately measured male, shot near Mwanza, Tanzania, measured and weighed about .


title: Nile crocodile

text: Like all crocodiles, they are sexually dimorphic, with the males up to 30% larger than the females, though the difference is considerably less compared to some species, like the saltwater crocodile. Male Nile crocodiles are about longer on average at sexual maturity and grow more so than females after becoming sexually mature, especially expanding in bulk after exceeding in length. Adult male Nile crocodiles usually range in length from long; at these lengths, an average sized male may weigh from . Very old, mature ones can grow to or more in length (all specimens over from 1900 onward are cataloged later). Mature female Nile crocodiles typically measure , at which lengths the average female specimen would weigh .


title: Nile crocodile

text: The bulk and mass of individual crocodiles can be fairly variable, some animals being relatively slender, while others being very robust; females are often bulkier than males of a similar length. As an example of the body mass increase undergone by mature crocodiles, one of the larger crocodiles handled firsthand by Cott (1961) was and weighed , while the largest specimen measured by Graham and Beard (1973) was and weighed more than . In attempts to parse the mean male and female lengths across the species, the mean adult length was estimated to be reportedly in males, at which males would average about in weight, while that of the female is , at which females would average about . This gives the Nile crocodile somewhat of a size advantage over the next largest non-marine predator on the African continent, the lion ("Panthera leo"), which averages in males and in females, and attains a maximum known weight of , far less than that of large male crocodiles.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Nile crocodiles from cooler climates, like the southern tip of Africa, may be smaller, reaching maximum lengths of only . A crocodile population from Mali, the Sahara Desert, and elsewhere in West Africa reaches only in length, but it is now largely recognized as a separate species, the West African crocodile.


title: Nile crocodile

text: The Nile crocodile is presently the most common crocodilian in Africa, and is distributed throughout much of the continent. Among crocodilians today, only the saltwater crocodile occurs over a broader geographic area, although other species, especially the spectacled caiman ("Caiman crocodilus") (due to its small size and extreme adaptability in habitat and flexibility in diet), seem to actually be more abundant. This species’ historic range, however, was even wider. They were found as far north as the Mediterranean coast in the Nile Delta and across the Red Sea in Israel, Palestine and Syria. The Nile crocodile has historically been recorded in areas where they are now regionally extinct. For example, Herodotus recorded the species inhabiting Lake Moeris in Egypt. They are thought to have become extinct in the Seychelles in the early 19th century (1810–1820). Today, Nile crocodiles are widely found in, among others, Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Egypt, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Gabon, Angola, South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Sudan, South Sudan, Botswana, and Cameroon. The Nile crocodile's current range of distribution extends from the regional tributaries of the Nile in Sudan and Lake Nasser in Egypt to the Cunene of Angola, the Okavango Delta of Botswana, and the Olifants River in South Africa.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Isolated populations also exist in Madagascar, which likely colonized the island after the extinction of the endemic crocodile "Voay". In Madagascar, crocodiles occur in the western and southern parts from Sambirano to Tôlanaro. They have been spotted in Zanzibar and the Comoros in modern times, but occur very rarely.


title: Nile crocodile

text: The species was previously thought to extend in range into the whole of West and Central Africa, but these populations are now typically recognized as a distinct species, the West African (or desert) crocodile. The distributional boundaries between these species were poorly understood, but following several studies, they are now better known. West African crocodiles are found throughout much of West and Central Africa, ranging east to South Sudan and Uganda where the species may come into contact with the Nile crocodile. Nile crocodiles are absent from most of West and Central Africa, but range into the latter region in eastern and southern Democratic Republic of Congo, and along the Central African coastal Atlantic region (as far north to Cameroon). Likely a level of habitat segregation occurs between the two species, but this remains to be confirmed.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Nile crocodiles may be able to tolerate an extremely broad range of habitat types, including small brackish streams, fast-flowing rivers, swamps, dams, and tidal lakes and estuaries. In East Africa, they are found mostly in rivers, lakes, marshes, and dams, favoring open, broad bodies of water over smaller ones. They are often found in waters adjacent to various open habitats such as savanna or even semi-desert but can also acclimate to well-wooded swamps, extensively wooded riparian zones, waterways of other woodlands and the perimeter of forests. In Madagascar, the remnant population of Nile crocodiles has adapted to living within caves. Nile crocodiles may make use of ephemeral watering holes on occasion. Although not a regular sea-going species as is the American crocodile, and especially the saltwater crocodile, the Nile crocodile possesses salt glands like all true crocodiles (i.e., excluding alligators and caimans), and does on occasion enter coastal and even marine waters. They have been known to enter the sea in some areas, with one specimen having been recorded off St. Lucia Bay in 1917.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Nile crocodiles have been recently captured in South Florida, though no signs that the population is reproducing in the wild have been found. Genetic studies of Nile crocodiles captured in the wild in Florida have revealed that the specimens are all closely related to each other, suggesting a single source of the introduction. This source remains unclear, as their genetics do not match samples collected from captives at various zoos and theme parks in Florida. When compared to Nile crocodiles from their native Africa, the Florida wild specimens are most closely related to South African Nile crocodiles. It is unknown how many Nile crocodiles are currently at large in Florida. The animals likely were either brought there to be released or are escapees.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Generally, Nile crocodiles are relatively inert creatures, as are most crocodilians and other large, cold-blooded creatures. More than half of the crocodiles observed by Cott (1961), if not disturbed, spent the hours from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. continuously basking with their jaws open if conditions were sunny. If their jaws are bound together in the extreme midday heat, Nile crocodiles may easily die from overheating. Although they can remain practically motionless for hours on end, whether basking or sitting in shallows, Nile crocodiles are said to be constantly aware of their surroundings and aware of the presence of other animals. However, mouth-gaping (while essential to thermoregulation) may also serve as a threat display to other crocodiles. For example, some specimens have been observed mouth-gaping at night, when overheating is not a risk. In Lake Turkana, crocodiles rarely bask at all through the day, unlike crocodiles from most other areas, for unknown reasons, usually sitting motionless partially exposed at the surface in shallows, with no apparent ill effects from the lack of basking on land.


title: Nile crocodile

text: In South Africa, Nile crocodiles are more easily observed in winter because of the extensive amount of time they spend basking at this time of year. More time is spent in water on overcast, rainy, or misty days. In the southern reaches of their range, as a response to dry, cool conditions that they cannot survive externally, crocodiles may dig and take refuge in tunnels and engage in aestivation. Pooley found in Royal Natal National Park that during aestivation, young crocodiles of total length would dig tunnels around in depth for most, with some tunnels measuring more than , the longest there being . Crocodiles in aestivation are lethargic, entering a state similar to animals that hibernate. Only the largest individuals engaging in aestivation leave the burrow to sun on the warmest days; otherwise, these crocodiles rarely left their burrows. Aestivation has been recorded from May to August.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Nile crocodiles usually dive for only a few minutes at a time, but can swim under water up to 30 minutes if threatened. If they remain fully inactive, they can hold their breath for up to 2 hours (which, as aforementioned, is due to the high levels of lactic acid in their blood). They have a rich vocal range and good hearing. Nile crocodiles normally crawl along on their bellies, but they can also "high walk" with their trunks raised above the ground. Smaller specimens can gallop, and even larger individuals are capable of occasional, surprising bursts of speed, briefly reaching up to . They can swim much faster, moving their bodies and tails in a sinuous fashion, and they can sustain this form of movement much longer than on land, with a maximum known swimming speed of , more than three times faster than any human.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Nile crocodiles have been widely known to have gastroliths in their stomachs, which are stones swallowed by animals for various purposes. Although this is clearly a deliberate behaviour for the species, the purpose is not definitively known. Gastroliths are not present in hatchlings, but increase quickly in presence within most crocodiles examined at and yet normally become extremely rare again in very large specimens, meaning that some animals may eventually expel them. However, large specimens can have a large number of gastroliths. One crocodile measuring and weighing had of stones in its stomach, perhaps a record gastrolith weight for a crocodile. Specimens shot near Mpondwe on the Semliki River had gastroliths in their stomach despite being shot miles away from any sources for the stones; the same holds true for specimens from Kafue Flats, Upper Zambesi and Bangweulu Swamp, all of which often had stones inside them despite being nowhere near stony regions. Cott (1961) felt that gastroliths were most likely serving as ballast to provide stability and additional weight to sink in water, this bearing great probability over the theories that they assist in digestion and staving off hunger. However, Alderton (1998) stated that a study using radiology found that gastroliths were seen to internally aid the grinding of food during digestion for a small Nile crocodile.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Herodotus claimed that Nile crocodiles have a symbiotic relationship with certain birds, such as the Egyptian plover ("Pluvianus aegyptius"), which enter the crocodile's mouth and pick leeches feeding on the crocodile's blood, but no evidence of this interaction actually occurring in any crocodile species has been found, and it is most likely mythical or allegorical fiction. However, Guggisberg (1972) had seen examples of birds picking scraps of meat from the teeth of basking crocodiles (without entering the mouth) and prey from soil very near basking crocodiles, so felt it was not impossible that a bold, hungry bird may occasionally nearly enter a crocodile's mouth, but not likely as a habitual behaviour.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Nile crocodiles are apex predators throughout their range. In the water, this species is an agile and rapid hunter relying on both movement and pressure sensors to catch any prey unfortunate enough to present itself inside or near the waterfront. Out of water, however, the Nile crocodile can only rely on its limbs, as it gallops on solid ground, to chase prey. No matter where they attack prey, this and other crocodilians take practically all of their food by ambush, needing to grab their prey in a matter of seconds to succeed. They have an ectothermic metabolism, so can survive for long periods between meals. However, for such large animals, their stomachs are relatively small, not much larger than a basketball in an average-sized adult, so as a rule, they are anything but voracious eaters. Young crocodiles feed more actively than their elders, according to studies in Uganda and Zambia. In general, at the smallest sizes (), Nile crocodiles were most likely to have full stomachs (17.4% full per Cott); adults at in length were most likely to have empty stomachs (20.2%). In the largest size range studied by Cott, , they were the second most likely to either have full stomachs (10%) or empty stomachs (20%). Other studies have also shown a large number of adult Nile crocodiles with empty stomachs. For example, in Lake Turkana, Kenya, 48.4% of crocodiles had empty stomachs. The stomachs of brooding females are always empty, meaning that they can survive several months without food.


title: Nile crocodile

text: The Nile crocodile mostly hunts within the confines of waterways, attacking aquatic prey or terrestrial animals when they come to the water to drink or to cross. The crocodile mainly hunts land animals by almost fully submerging its body under water. Occasionally, a crocodile quietly surfaces so that only its eyes (to check positioning) and nostrils are visible, and swims quietly and stealthily toward its mark. The attack is sudden and unpredictable. The crocodile lunges its body out of water and grasps its prey. On other occasions, more of its head and upper body is visible, especially when the terrestrial prey animal is on higher ground, to get a sense of the direction of the prey item at the top of an embankment or on a tree branch. Crocodile teeth are not used for tearing up flesh, but to sink deep into it and hold on to the prey item. The immense bite force, which may be as high as in large adults, ensures that the prey item cannot escape the grip. Prey taken is often much smaller than the crocodile itself, and such prey can be overpowered and swallowed with ease. When it comes to larger prey, success depends on the crocodile's body power and weight to pull the prey item back into the water, where it is either drowned or killed by sudden thrashes of the head or by tearing it into pieces with the help of other crocodiles.


title: Nile crocodile

text: Subadult and smaller adult Nile crocodiles use their bodies and tails to herd groups of fish toward a bank, and eat them with quick sideways jerks of their heads. Some crocodiles of the species may habitually use their tails to sweep terrestrial prey off balance, sometimes forcing the prey specimen into the water, where it can be more easily drowned. They also cooperate, blocking migrating fish by forming a semicircle across the river. The most dominant crocodile eats first. Their ability to lie concealed with most of their bodies under water, combined with their speed over short distances, makes them effective opportunistic hunters of larger prey. They grab such prey in their powerful jaws, drag it into the water, and hold it underneath until it drowns. They also scavenge or steal kills from other predators, such as lions and leopards ("Panthera pardus"). Groups of Nile crocodiles may travel hundreds of meters from a waterway to feast on a carcass. They also feed on dead hippopotamuses ("Hippopotamus amphibius") as a group (sometimes including three or four dozen crocodiles), tolerating each other. Much of the food from crocodile stomachs may come from scavenging carrion, and the crocodiles could be viewed as performing a similar function at times as do vultures or hyenas on land. Once their prey is dead, they rip off and swallow chunks of flesh. When groups are sharing a kill, they use each other for leverage, biting down hard and then twisting their bodies to tear off large pieces of meat in a "death roll". They may also get the necessary leverage by lodging their prey under branches or stones, before rolling and ripping.


title: Nile crocodile

text: The Nile crocodile possesses unique predation behavior characterized by the ability of preying both within water, where it is best adapted, and out of it, which often results in unpredictable attacks on almost any other animal up to twice its size. Most hunting on land is done at night by lying in ambush near forest trails or roadsides, up to 50 m (170 ft) from the water's edge. Since their speed and agility on land is rather outmatched by most terrestrial animals, they must use obscuring vegetation or terrain to have a chance of succeeding during land-based hunts. In one case, an adult crocodile charged from the water up a bank to kill a bushbuck ("Tragelaphus scriptus") and instead of dragging it into the water, was observed to pull the kill further on land into the cover of the bush. Two subadult crocodiles were once seen carrying the carcass of a nyala ("Tragelaphus angasii") across land in unison. In South Africa, a game warden far from water sources in a savannah-scrub area reported that he saw a crocodile jump up and grab a donkey by the neck and then drag the prey off. Small carnivores are readily taken opportunistically, including African clawless otters ("Aonyx capensis")