title: Discovery Channel

text: Shortly before the 2004 Tour de France, Discovery Channel announced it would become the primary sponsor of a professional bicycling team starting in 2005, featuring the then-seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, whose wins were voided after he was proven to have cheated via doping. After the 2007 victory with the Spaniard Alberto Contador, Discovery Channel discontinued the cycling sponsorship.


title: Discovery Channel

text: Discovery Channel Radio was a radio network whose programming consisted of audio versions of popular programs from the Discovery Communications family of television channels. Discovery Channel Radio was previously carried by XM Satellite Radio, until its removal from the provider in early September 2005. Sirius Satellite Radio dropped Discovery Radio from its lineup on February 21, 2007; it was also carried on both of Canada's major satellite radio services.


title: Discovery Channel

text: Discovery Channel lent its brand to retail stores in malls and other locations across America, and to an online store. The store's specialty products were educational gifts, videos, books, CD-ROMs and educational kits, most of which were manufactured with the Discovery Channel brand name.


title: Discovery Channel

text: The Discovery Channel stores first opened in 1995. By 1997, the chain had 17 US and 1 UK stores. At that time, the chain was building a flagship store in Washington, DC, with three levels themed to various environments—sea and underground, land and outer space, aviation and science—to be opened in February 1998, with another flagship store in San Francisco to be opened in November 1998.


title: Discovery Channel

text: On May 17, 2007, Discovery Communications announced it would close its standalone and mall-based stores. Hudson Group will continue to operate the Discovery Channel Airport Stores, and the website remains in operation.


title: Discovery Channel

text: Discovery Channel funded the construction of the Lowell Discovery Telescope, in partnership with Lowell Observatory.


title: Discovery Channel

text: Discovery.com is the Discovery Channel's official website, which primarily provides information on the channel's programming and additional content, including games, tied to those shows.


title: Discovery Channel

text: The Discovery Channel's first logo was a television screen picturing a map of the world. For two decades, starting in 1987, the channel's logo incorporated the Discovery wordmark rendered in the Aurora Bold Condensed font with a circular shape in front of it. The circle usually took the form of a rising sun, or an animated version of the Vitruvian Man. Discovery Channel's previous slogans had been "Explore Your World" and "There's No Thrill Like Discovery." Keeping with its changing focus away from strictly educational programming toward reality TV, the slogan was changed in the early 2000s to "Entertain Your Brain".


title: Discovery Channel

text: In 1995, the channel's name was simplified to "Discovery Channel", dropping "The" from its name. A globe became a permanent part of the logo, and an underline was added to the bottom of the logo. During this time, the company started expanding and launched several new networks. Many of the sister networks used logo designs similar to the one used by Discovery, often incorporating the globe and using the same typeface. Networks that had logos based on Discovery's included Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Discovery Science, Discovery Wings and Discovery Home & Leisure.


title: Discovery Channel

text: With its shift to reality-driven programming in the 2000s, Discovery introduced the slogan "Let's All Discover", with promos featuring the line being completed with a phrase relevant to the program (such as for "MythBusters", "...why no myth is safe.").


title: Discovery Channel

text: On March 31, 2008, Discovery unveiled a new logo, which took effect on-air on April 15, 2008 (coinciding with the fourth season premiere of "Deadliest Catch"). The new logo was designed by Viewpoint Creative, and integrated Discovery's long-time globe iconography into the "D" lettering of the wordmark, creating a monogram that was usable as a standalone icon. The launch was accompanied by a new advertising campaign, "The World is Just Awesome", which featured scenes of Discovery personalities singing an adapted version of the song "I Love the Mountains". Discovery Channel president John Ford explained that the campaign was intended to "showcase our earned place in the greater pop culture landscape".


title: Discovery Channel

text: In August 2013 (coinciding with "Shark Week"), the aforementioned monogram became the main on-air logo as part of a new imaging campaign, "Grab Life By the Globe", which was designed to emphasize the channel's current focus on personality-driven programming. The logo was portrayed in promos with visual effects relevant to their respective program.


title: Discovery Channel

text: On April 1, 2019, Discovery unveiled a new logo, maintaining a refreshed version of the previous globe and D monogram. The new branding is accompanied by another new imaging campaign, "The World is Ours", which features scenes of Discovery personalities singing the Blue Swede version of "Hooked on a Feeling". The static version of the globe icon uses a non-standard projection that shows all continents, reflecting Discovery's presence as an international brand.


title: Discovery Channel

text: Discovery Channel reaches 431 million homes in 170 countries. Discovery Communications currently offers 29 network brands in 33 languages. In a number of countries, Discovery's channels are available on digital satellite platforms with multiple language soundtracks or subtitles including Spanish, German, Russian, Czech, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Turkish, Greek, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, Arabic, Slovene, Japanese, Korean and Serbian. In 2011, a separate Tamil-language channel was launched. In Bulgaria, Discovery has, since 2000–2001, displayed Bulgarian subtitles by all cable providers and since 2010 – with Bulgarian dubbing for some shows.


title: Discovery Channel

text: The Canadian version of Discovery was established in 1995, and is currently owned by a joint venture between Bell Media (via the subsidiary CTV Specialty Television; ESPN Inc. is a minority partner in this subsidiary due its ties to sports channel TSN) and Discovery Inc.


title: Discovery Channel

text: The channel airs similar programming to its U.S. counterpart, but also airs domestically-produced programs to comply with local broadcasting regulations (which, in the past, included the daily science newsmagazine "Daily Planet" cancelled in 2018). Some of its original series (such as, most prominently, "How It's Made") have been picked up in the U.S. by Discovery's sister networks (such as Science Channel), but others have not necessarily aired on Discovery's networks. Since 2018, the channel has increasingly aired blocks of fiction programming with science- or technology-oriented themes.


title: Discovery Channel

text: In the United Kingdom, Discovery Channel UK airs some common programs as the U.S. version, including "MythBusters", "American Chopper", "How It's Made" and "Deadliest Catch". The channel is carried as a basic subscription channel on the SKYdigital satellite service and digital cable provider Virgin Media. Discovery UK also operates Discovery HD, Discovery Knowledge, Discovery Turbo, Discovery Science, Animal Planet, DMAX, Discovery Real Time, Discovery Home & Health, Discovery Travel & Leisure and Discovery Shed. Many of these channels also have timeshifted versions. In the Republic of Ireland, the UK version of Discovery Channel is available on most cable providers in that country, but with local advertisements.


title: Discovery Channel

text: In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Discovery Channel is part of the Premiere digital network and supplies specific programs to other networks like ZDF and kabel eins. Discovery Communications is also owner of the documentary-channel XXP. The channel was bought in the spring of 2006 from its former shareholders Spiegel TV and "dctp". All programs are dubbed into German. The channel is now known as "DMAX", presumably to associate the channel with Discovery.


title: Discovery Channel

text: In the Netherlands, the Discovery Channel is included on most cable, IPTV and DVB-T providers. Nearly all of the programs are broadcast in their original language, but they are subtitled in Dutch as is the policy of all Dutch television stations. Some programs and most promotions and program announcements have a Dutch voice-over. In Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, a Flemish Discovery Channel launched (previously the Dutch version was available for IPTV, DVB-C and DVB-S) on cable (and digital) television on October 1, 2009.


title: Discovery Channel

text: In Italy, the Discovery Channel (and HD) is distributed via satellite by Sky Italia as part of the documentary pack. In addition, Italy has four Discovery-branded channels: Discovery Science, Discovery Real Time, Discovery Animal Planet and Discovery Travel and Living.


title: Discovery Channel

text: In Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Slovenia, Discovery Channel is carried by most cable television and IPTV providers with all the content subtitled in the respective languages. Additionally, it is also available on digital satellite platforms in Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia (sometimes requiring an additional fee). In Poland, nc+ broadcasts the programs dubbed in Polish and in original English. A few other channels from Discovery are also in offer, like Discovery Historia, launched in cooperation with Polish broadcaster TVN, which later ended.


title: Discovery Channel

text: In Spain, the channel shares a schedule and programs with Portugal and is available on most satellite and cable platforms, making it possible to broadcast both in Spanish and Portuguese. In Spain, all programs are dubbed; whereas in Portugal, most of them are subtitled. In addition, Portugal has three Discovery-branded channels: Discovery Turbo (focusing on motorsports), Discovery Science (focusing on science and technology) and Discovery Civilization (focusing on historical events). These channels follow the same model as the original Discovery Channel, except for the absence of advertising. Spanish advertisements are broadcast on the Portuguese feed, non-subtitled or dubbed.


title: Discovery Channel

text: In Australia, the Discovery Channel is part of a six-channel package (not including timeshifts) on digital subscription television, available on Foxtel, Optus TV and AUSTAR.


title: Discovery Channel

text: In South East Asia, Discovery Channel is available on digital subscription television. Discovery Channel Asia still shows crime programs (such as "Most Evil" and "The FBI Files"). Many programs feature development and society in Asian countries, especially in India and China. Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore have other channels branched from the main Discovery Channel, including Discovery Turbo, Discovery Science, Discovery Home & Health and Discovery Travel & Living.


title: Discovery Channel

text: The Philippines has its own semifeed derived from the Southeast Asian channel, in which offers regional variations with local advertisements during the commercial breaks.


title: Discovery Channel

text: Discovery Channel was launched in 1998 in India broadcasting originally in English and Hindi. In June 2010, a Bengali audio track was added to the channel as well as a Telugu track in October 21 of that same year. On August 15, 2011, a separate Tamil-language channel was launched with an estimate audience of 10 million households.


title: Discovery Channel

text: Discovery recently launched Discovery Plus, a new streaming service for India priced at ₹300 per year, offering content in eight languages—English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi.


title: Discovery Channel

text: In South Africa, Discovery Channel shares a schedule and programming with all of Africa, the Middle East and Turkey. Discovery Channel and sibling channels Discovery World, TLC, Investigation Discovery and Animal Planet are available on the DStv/Multichoice platform.


title: Discovery Channel

text: In August 2008, it was reported by "The Consumerist" that Discovery Channel had preempted an episode of "MythBusters" examining RFID security in regard to its implementation in credit cards before its original broadcast because the episode would upset credit card companies, who are major advertisers on Discovery Channel. It was later determined that the decision not to investigate the issue was made by Beyond Productions, the "MythBusters" production company, and was not made by Discovery Channel or their advertising department.


title: Discovery Channel

text: An ad promoting "Enigmatic Malaysia", a special series on the network meant to highlight the cultural heritages of Malaysia, mistakenly featured Balinese Pendet dancers. This prompted outrage from Balinese dancers, who posted messages demanding that Malaysia apologize over the misinformation, which then sparked a series of street protests. Further demands were made from the local governments, cultural historians and the tourism ministry in Indonesia for Malaysia to clarify the situation. The Malaysian government reportedly offered an apology, which was rejected by the Indonesian tourism minister, since the apology was given informally by phone, the Indonesian tourism minister demanded a written apology to make it more accountable.


title: Discovery Channel

text: In November 2012, the Romanian RCS&RDS, the largest company of its kind on the internal market, interrupted its carriage of Discovery Communications channels, including Discovery Channel. The CEO of Discovery Communications Mark Hollinger sent an open letter in his attempt to counteract the action of RCS&RDS, attracting the attention to the negation of the alleged right of the viewer to choose the viewed channels. In turn, RCS&RDS issued a press statement accusing of hypocrisy Hollinger's discourse attentive at the needs of viewers and attracted attention to the fact that, during negotiations, the main preoccupations of the Discovery representatives was maintaining as high as possible tariffs and monetary gains”.


title: Discovery Channel

text: After 4 years of absence, on December 30, 2016, the Discovery Channel and its sister channel TLC returned to the RCS&RDS CATV, IPTV and DTH networks.


title: Discovery Channel

text: "Eaten Alive" was a television program in which wildlife filmmaker Paul Rosolie was purportedly going to be "eaten alive" by an anaconda. It aired on December 7, 2014. When the special aired, the anaconda attacked Rosolie but did not swallow him, as its title had implied, prompting numerous complaints of a bait and switch.


title: Discovery Channel

text: "Naked and Afraid" is an active series that first premiered on June 23, 2013. One man and one woman are thrown alone into the wild with nothing and left to survive. Though the show blurs some of the bodies of the actors, they are fully naked which sparked a controversy and received critical reception. Focus on the Family's PluggedIn highlighted "that the show's near-constant nudity is simply impossible to ignore". Parents Television Council, One Million Moms, and American Family Association have boycotted the network.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that does not involve the fusion of gametes or change in the number of chromosomes. The offspring that arise by asexual reproduction from either unicellular or multicellular organisms inherit the full set of genes of their single parent and thus the newly created individual is genetically and physically similar to the parent or an exact clone of the parent. Asexual reproduction is the primary form of reproduction for single-celled organisms such as archaea and bacteria. Many eukaryotic organisms including plants, animals, and fungi can also reproduce asexually. In vertebrates, the most common form of asexual reproduction is parthenogenesis, which is typically used as an alternative to sexual reproduction in times when reproductive opportunities are limited. Komodo dragons and some monitor lizards can also reproduce asexually.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: While all prokaryotes reproduce without the formation and fusion of gametes, mechanisms for lateral gene transfer such as conjugation, transformation and transduction can be likened to sexual reproduction in the sense of genetic recombination in meiosis.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Prokaryotes (Archaea and Bacteria) reproduce asexually through binary fission, in which the parent organism divides in two to produce two genetically identical daughter organisms. Eukaryotes (such as protists and unicellular fungi) may reproduce in a functionally similar manner by mitosis; most of these are also capable of sexual reproduction.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Multiple fission at the cellular level occurs in many protists, e.g. sporozoans and algae. The nucleus of the parent cell divides several times by mitosis, producing several nuclei. The cytoplasm then separates, creating multiple daughter cells.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: In apicomplexans, multiple fission, or schizogony appears either as merogony, sporogony or gametogony. Merogony results in merozoites, which are multiple daughter cells, that originate within the same cell membrane, sporogony results in sporozoites, and gametogony results in microgametes.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Some cells divide by budding (for example baker's yeast), resulting in a "mother" and a "daughter" cell that is initially smaller than the parent. Budding is also known on a multicellular level; an animal example is the hydra, which reproduces by budding. The buds grow into fully matured individuals which eventually break away from the parent organism.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Internal budding is a process of asexual reproduction, favoured by parasites such as "Toxoplasma gondii". It involves an unusual process in which two ("endodyogeny") or more ("endopolygeny") daughter cells are produced inside a mother cell, which is then consumed by the offspring prior to their separation.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Also, budding (external or internal) occurs in some worms like "Taenia" or "Echinococcus"; these worms produce cysts and then produce (invaginated or evaginated) protoscolex with budding.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Vegetative propagation is a type of asexual reproduction found in plants where new individuals are formed without the production of seeds or spores and thus without syngamy or meiosis. Examples of vegetative reproduction include the formation of miniaturized plants called plantlets on specialized leaves, for example in kalanchoe ("Bryophyllum daigremontianum") and many produce new plants from rhizomes or stolon (for example in strawberry). Other plants reproduce by forming bulbs or tubers (for example tulip bulbs and "Dahlia" tubers). Some plants produce adventitious shoots and may form a clonal colony. In these examples, all the individuals are clones, and the clonal population may cover a large area.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Many multicellular organisms form spores during their biological life cycle in a process called "sporogenesis". Exceptions are animals and some protists, which undergo "meiosis" immediately followed by fertilization. Plants and many algae on the other hand undergo "sporic meiosis" where meiosis leads to the formation of haploid spores rather than gametes. These spores grow into multicellular individuals (called gametophytes in the case of plants) without a fertilization event. These haploid individuals give rise to gametes through mitosis. Meiosis and gamete formation therefore occur in separate generations or "phases" of the life cycle, referred to as alternation of generations. Since sexual reproduction is often more narrowly defined as the fusion of gametes (fertilization), spore formation in plant sporophytes and algae might be considered a form of asexual reproduction (agamogenesis) despite being the result of meiosis and undergoing a reduction in ploidy. However, both events (spore formation and fertilization) are necessary to complete sexual reproduction in the plant life cycle.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Fungi and some algae can also utilize true asexual spore formation, which involves mitosis giving rise to reproductive cells called mitospores that develop into a new organism after dispersal. This method of reproduction is found for example in conidial fungi and the red algae "Polysiphonia", and involves sporogenesis without meiosis. Thus the chromosome number of the spore cell is the same as that of the parent producing the spores. However, mitotic sporogenesis is an exception and most spores, such as those of plants and many algae, are produced by meiosis.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Fragmentation is a form of asexual reproduction where a new organism grows from a fragment of the parent. Each fragment develops into a mature, fully grown individual. Fragmentation is seen in many organisms. Animals that reproduce asexually include planarians, many annelid worms including polychaetes and some oligochaetes, turbellarians and sea stars. Many fungi and plants reproduce asexually. Some plants have specialized structures for reproduction via fragmentation, such as "gemmae" in liverworts. Most lichens, which are a symbiotic union of a fungus and photosynthetic algae or cyanobacteria, reproduce through fragmentation to ensure that new individuals contain both symbionts. These fragments can take the form of "soredia", dust-like particles consisting of fungal hyphen wrapped around photobiont cells.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Clonal Fragmentation in multicellular or colonial organisms is a form of asexual reproduction or cloning where an organism is split into fragments. Each of these fragments develop into mature, fully grown individuals that are clones of the original organism. In echinoderms, this method of reproduction is usually known as "fissiparity". Due to many environmental and epigenetic differences, clones originating from the same ancestor might actually be genetically and epigenetically different.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Agamogenesis is any form of reproduction that does not involve a male gamete. Examples are parthenogenesis and apomixis.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Parthenogenesis is a form of agamogenesis in which an unfertilized egg develops into a new individual. It has been documented in over 2,000 species. Parthenogenesis occurs in the wild in many invertebrates (e.g. water fleas, rotifers, aphids, stick insects, some ants, bees and parasitic wasps) and vertebrates (mostly reptiles, amphibians, and fish). It has also been documented in domestic birds and in genetically altered lab mice. Plants can engage in parthenogenesis as well through a process called apomixis. However this process is considered by many to not be an independent reproduction method, but instead a breakdown of the mechanisms behind sexual reproduction. Parthenogenetic organisms can be split into two main categories: facultative and obligate.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: In facultative parthenogenesis, females can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Because of the many advantages of sexual reproduction, most facultative parthenotes only reproduce asexually when forced to. This typically occurs in instances when finding a mate becomes difficult. For example, female zebra sharks will reproduce asexually if they are unable to find a mate in their ocean habitats.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Parthenogenesis was previously believed to rarely occur in vertebrates, and only be possible in very small animals. However, it has been discovered in many more species in recent years. Today, the largest species that has been documented reproducing parthenogenically is the Komodo dragon at 10 feet long and over 300 pounds.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Heterogony is a form of facultative parthenogenesis where females alternate between sexual and asexual reproduction at regular intervals (see Alternation between sexual and asexual reproduction). Aphids are one group of organism that engages in this type of reproduction. They use asexual reproduction to reproduce quickly and create winged offspring that can colonize new plants and reproduce sexually in the fall to lay eggs for the next season. However, some aphid species are obligate parthenotes.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: In obligate parthenogenesis, females only reproduce asexually. One example of this is the desert grassland whiptail lizard, a hybrid of two other species. Typically hybrids are infertile but through parthenogenesis this species has been able to develop stable populations.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Gynogenesis is a form of obligate parthenogenesis where a sperm cell is used to initiate reproduction. However, the sperm's genes never get incorporated into the egg cell. The best known example of this is the Amazon molly. Because they are obligate parthenotes, there are no males in their species so they depend on males from a closely related species (the Sailfin molly) for sperm.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Apomixis in plants is the formation of a new sporophyte without fertilization. It is important in ferns and in flowering plants, but is very rare in other seed plants. In flowering plants, the term "apomixis" is now most often used for agamospermy, the formation of seeds without fertilization, but was once used to include vegetative reproduction. An example of an apomictic plant would be the triploid European dandelion. Apomixis mainly occurs in two forms: In gametophytic apomixis, the embryo arises from an unfertilized egg within a diploid embryo sac that was formed without completing meiosis. In nucellar embryony, the embryo is formed from the diploid nucellus tissue surrounding the embryo sac. Nucellar embryony occurs in some citrus seeds. Male apomixis can occur in rare cases, such as the Saharan Cypress "Cupressus dupreziana", where the genetic material of the embryo are derived entirely from pollen.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Some species can alternate between sexual and asexual strategies, an ability known as "heterogamy", depending on many conditions. Alternation is observed in several rotifer species (cyclical parthenogenesis e.g. in Brachionus species) and a few types of insects.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: One example of this is aphids which can engage in heterogony. In this system, females are born pregnant and produce only female offspring. This cycle allows them to reproduce very quickly. However, most species reproduce sexually once a year. This switch is triggered by environmental changes in the fall and causes females to develop eggs instead of embryos. This dynamic reproductive cycle allows them to produce specialized offspring with polyphenism, a type of polymorphism where different phenotypes have evolved to carry out specific tasks.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: The cape bee "Apis mellifera" subsp. "capensis" can reproduce asexually through a process called thelytoky. The freshwater crustacean "Daphnia" reproduces by parthenogenesis in the spring to rapidly populate ponds, then switches to sexual reproduction as the intensity of competition and predation increases. Monogonont rotifers of the genus "Brachionus" reproduce via cyclical parthenogenesis: at low population densities females produce asexually and at higher densities a chemical cue accumulates and induces the transition to sexual reproduction. Many protists and fungi alternate between sexual and asexual reproduction. A few species of amphibians, reptiles, and birds have a similar ability.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: The slime mold "Dictyostelium" undergoes binary fission (mitosis) as single-celled amoebae under favorable conditions. However, when conditions turn unfavorable, the cells aggregate and follow one of two different developmental pathways, depending on conditions. In the social pathway, they form a multi-cellular slug which then forms a fruiting body with asexually generated spores. In the sexual pathway, two cells fuse to form a giant cell that develops into a large cyst. When this macrocyst germinates, it releases hundreds of amoebic cells that are the product of meiotic recombination between the original two cells.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: The hyphae of the common mold ("Rhizopus") are capable of producing both mitotic as well as meiotic spores. Many algae similarly switch between sexual and asexual reproduction. A number of plants use both sexual and asexual means to produce new plants, some species alter their primary modes of reproduction from sexual to asexual under varying environmental conditions.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: In the rotifer "Brachionus calyciflorus" asexual reproduction (obligate parthenogenesis) can be inherited by a recessive allele, which leads to loss of sexual reproduction in homozygous offspring.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Inheritance of asexual reproduction by a single recessive locus has also been found in the parasitoid wasp "Lysiphlebus fabarum".


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Asexual reproduction is found in nearly half of the animal phyla. Parthenogenesis occurs in the hammerhead shark and the blacktip shark. In both cases, the sharks had reached sexual maturity in captivity in the absence of males, and in both cases the offspring were shown to be genetically identical to the mothers. The New Mexico whiptail is another example.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Some reptiles use the ZW sex-determination system, which produces either males (with ZZ sex chromosomes) or females (with ZW or WW sex chromosomes). Until 2010, it was thought that the ZW chromosome system used by reptiles was incapable of producing viable WW offspring, but a (ZW) female boa constrictor was discovered to have produced viable female offspring with WW chromosomes. The female boa could have chosen any number of male partners (and had successfully in the past) but on this occasion she reproduced asexually, creating 22 female babies with WW sex-chromosomes.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Polyembryony is a widespread form of asexual reproduction in animals, whereby the fertilized egg or a later stage of embryonic development splits to form genetically identical clones. Within animals, this phenomenon has been best studied in the parasitic Hymenoptera. In the nine-banded armadillos, this process is obligatory and usually gives rise to genetically identical quadruplets. In other mammals, monozygotic twinning has no apparent genetic basis, though its occurrence is common. There are at least 10 million identical human twins and triplets in the world today.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Bdelloid rotifers reproduce exclusively asexually, and all individuals in the class Bdelloidea are females. Asexuality evolved in these animals millions of years ago and has persisted since. There is evidence to suggest that asexual reproduction has allowed the animals to evolve new proteins through the Meselson effect that have allowed them to survive better in periods of dehydration. Bdelloid rotifers are extraordinarily resistant to damage from ionizing radiation due to the same DNA-preserving adaptations used to survive dormancy. These adaptations include an extremely efficient mechanism for repairing DNA double-strand breaks. This repair mechanism was studied in two Bdelloidea species, "Adineta vaga", and "Philodina roseola". and appears to involve mitotic recombination between homologous DNA regions within each species.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: Molecular evidence strongly suggests that several species of the stick insect genus "Timema" have used only asexual (parthenogenetic) reproduction for millions of years, the longest period known for any insect.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: In the grass thrips genus "Aptinothrips" there have been several transitions to asexuality, likely due to different causes.


title: Asexual reproduction

text: A complete lack of sexual reproduction is relatively rare among multicellular organisms, particularly animals. It is not entirely understood why the ability to reproduce sexually is so common among them. Current hypotheses suggest that asexual reproduction may have short term benefits when rapid population growth is important or in stable environments, while sexual reproduction offers a net advantage by allowing more rapid generation of genetic diversity, allowing adaptation to changing environments. Developmental constraints may underlie why few animals have relinquished sexual reproduction completely in their life-cycles. Almost all asexual modes of reproduction maintain meiosis either in a modified form or as an alternative pathway. Facultatively apomictic plants increase frequencies of sexuality relative to apomixis after abiotic stress. Another constraint on switching from sexual to asexual reproduction would be the concomitant loss of meiosis and the protective recombinational repair of DNA damage afforded as one function of meiosis.


title: = (album)

text: = ("Equals") is the fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. Released on 29 October 2021 by Asylum and Atlantic Records, the album was supported by the singles "Bad Habits", "Shivers", "Overpass Graffiti", "The Joker and the Queen", "2step" and a promotional single, "Visiting Hours".


title: = (album)

text: Upon release, "=" received generally mixed reviews from music critics, who appreciated Sheeran's emerging sonic experimentation while criticising its production. The album reached number one in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.


title: = (album)

text: The Christmas edition of the album was released on 3 December 2021, although it was removed later on. It contains a sole guest appearance from fellow English singer-songwriter Elton John on the song "Merry Christmas", while the standard edition does not have any guest appearances.


title: = (album)

text: The tour edition of the album was released on 27 May 2022. It contains his two songs from the 2019 film "Yesterday", "One Life" and "Penguins", and two new songs, "I Will Remember You" and "Welcome to the World". The reissue also contains the 2020 single "Afterglow", the single version of "The Joker and the Queen" featuring American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, the single version of "2step" featuring American rapper Lil Baby, a remix of "Bad Habits" featuring British rock band Bring Me the Horizon, and his collaboration with Nigerian singer Fireboy DML, "Peru". A second remix of "2step" is also included in the reissue in several countries.


title: = (album)

text: A French version of the album was released on 4 November 2022. This version contains "Peru", a remix of "2step" featuring Leto, "Bam Bam" by Camila Cabello featuring Sheeran, and a new single "Call on Me" by Vianney featuring Sheeran. A limited edition includes a DVD of the FNAC Live 2021 concert.


title: = (album)

text: On 18 August 2021, Sheeran said there would be a "big announcement" the following day. On 19 August, he announced the album and its release date of 29 October on his social media accounts. He described the album as his "coming-of-age" record. To him, the album was a "really personal record and one that means a lot to me", citing changes in his life, including marriage, the birth of his daughter and experienced losses. The promotional single "Visiting Hours" was released alongside the announcement.


title: = (album)

text: In an interview with Capital FM on 27 June 2021, Sheeran also stated that he would like to see the songs he made for the film "Yesterday" appear on a repackaged version of the album before he goes on tour for the record.


title: = (album)

text: "Bad Habits" was released on 25 June 2021 as the album's lead single. "Bad Habits" reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart, and number 2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: = (album)

text: "Shivers" was released on 10 September 2021 as the album's second single. "Shivers" reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart, and number 4 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: = (album)

text: "Overpass Graffiti" was released alongside the album on 29 October 2021 as the third single. "Overpass Graffiti" reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart, and number 41 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Sheeran performed the song for NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series on 26 October.


title: = (album)

text: A remix of "The Joker and the Queen" featuring Taylor Swift was released as the album's fourth single on 11 February 2022. "The Joker and the Queen" reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart, and number 21 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: = (album)

text: A remix of "2step" featuring Lil Baby was released as the album's fifth single on 22 April 2022. "2step" reached number 9 on the UK Singles Chart, and number 48 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: = (album)

text: "Visiting Hours" was released on 19 August 2021 as the sole promotional single. It reached number 5 on the UK Singles Chart and number 75 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: = (album)

text: "=" received mixed reviews from critics. On Metacritic, the album has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: = (album)

text: "Entertainment Weekly" listed it among their three worst albums of 2021, calling it the "cringiest pop album" of the year. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that "Sheeran's melodies are soft yet insistent, and the production glistens with fair borrowed from younger, hipper artists who mine a similar blend of retro new wave and modern R&B, but he knows how to turn this stylish sound into something cozy and reassuring, which therefore "is the surest sign that Ed Sheeran has indeed grown up: he's not chasing trends, he's making music for people who have aged out of the clubs but have yet to wallow in nostalgia". Writing for "Clash", Robin Murray rated the album 6 out of 10, explaining that the album "follows his mathematically minded opening trilogy, and it puts you in mind of completion, resolution, and conclusion. The album itself, however, offers little in the way of those things, thriving instead on a series of dichotomies – between the everyman and the star, the guitarist and the producer, between the humble pop savant and the brash stadium-filling star". David Smyth from "Evening Standard" wrote that "although there are a few quiet songs among the 14 here, and more than a few lyrics about the humble joy of staying home with his wife Cherry and their one-year-old daughter Lyra, this is no Taylor Swift-style slice of lockdown restraint".


title: = (album)

text: "=" debuted at number one in the United Kingdom, selling 139,000 units in its first week, outperforming the rest of the week’s Top 30 combined. It achieved the 3rd biggest opening week for an album of 2021 in the UK and the 2nd fastest selling album of 2021, behind Adele's "30". It later became the second best-selling album of 2021 in the UK with 432,000 sales.


title: = (album)

text: The album debuted atop the "Billboard" 200 chart, becoming Sheeran’s fourth chart-topping album in the United States. It opened with 118,000 album-equivalent units, of which 68,000 were pure sales.


title: Deadpan

text: Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blunt, ironic, laconic, or apparently unintentional.


title: Deadpan

text: The term "deadpan" first emerged early in the 20th century, as a compound word (sometimes spelled as two words) combining "dead" and "pan" (a slang term for the face). It appeared in print as early as 1915, in an article about a former baseball player named Gene Woodburn written by his former manager Roger Bresnahan. Bresnahan described how Woodburn used his skill as a ventriloquist to make his manager and others think they were being heckled from the stands. Woodburn, wrote Bresnahan, "had a trick of what the actors call 'the dead pan.' He never cracked a smile and would be the last man you would suspect was working a trick."


title: Deadpan

text: George M. Cohan, in a 1908 interview, had alluded to dead pans without using the actual term "deadpan". Cohan, after returning from a trip to London, told an interviewer that "the time is ripe for a manager to take over about a dozen American chorus girls and wake up the musical comedy game. The English chorus girls are dead–their pans are cold.”


title: Deadpan

text: The "Oxford English Dictionary" cites a 1928 "New York Times" article as having the first appearance of the term in print. That article, a collection of film slang compiled by writer and theatrical agent Frank J. Wilstach, defines "dead pan" as "playing a role with expressionless face, as, for instance, the work of Buster Keaton." There were several other uses of the term, in theater and in sports, between the 1915 Bresnahan article and the 1928 article in the "Times".


title: Deadpan

text: The usage of deadpan as a verb ("to speak, act, or utter in a deadpan manner; to maintain a dead pan") is recorded at least as far back as 1942.


title: Deadpan

text: Early in his vaudeville days, Buster Keaton developed his deadpan expression. Keaton realised that audiences responded better to his stony expression than when he smiled, and he carried this style into his silent film career. The 1928 Vitaphone short film "The Beau Brummels", with vaudeville comics Al Shaw and Sam Lee, was performed entirely in deadpan. The 1980 film "Airplane!" was performed almost entirely in deadpan; it helped relaunch the career of one of its supporting actors, Leslie Nielsen, who transformed into a prolific deadpan comic after the film. Actor and comedian Bill Murray is known for his deadpan delivery.


title: Deadpan

text: Many popular American sitcoms use deadpan expressions to deliver dry humour, including "Curb Your Enthusiasm", "Arrested Development", and "My Name Is Earl". More recent examples are Andre Braugher as Captain Raymond Holt from the TV show "Brooklyn Nine-Nine", Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing in "Friends", Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson and Aubrey Plaza as April Ludgate in "Parks and Recreation", Jennette McCurdy as Sam Puckett in "iCarly", and Louis C.K. in "Louie". Another example is the comedy of Steven Wright.


title: Deadpan

text: Deadpan delivery runs throughout British humour. In television sitcoms, John Cleese as Basil Fawlty in "Fawlty Towers" and Rowan Atkinson as Edmund Blackadder in "Blackadder" are both frustrated figures who display little facial expression in their put-downs. Atkinson also plays authority figures (especially priests) while speaking absurd lines with a deadpan delivery. Monty Python include it in their work, such as "The Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch. For his deadpan delivery Peter Sellers received a BAFTA for Best Actor for "I'm All Right Jack" (1959). A leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, Peter Cook delivered deadpan monologues in his double act with Dudley Moore. In his various roles Ricky Gervais often draws humour from an exasperated sigh. While in his various guises such as Ali G and Borat, the comedian Sacha Baron Cohen interacts with unsuspecting subjects not realising they have been set up for self-revealing ridicule; on this "The Observer" states, "his career has been built on winding people up, while keeping a deadpan face."


title: Deadpan

text: Dry humour is often confused with highbrow or egghead humour, because the humour in dry humour does not exist in the words or delivery. Instead, the listener must look for humour in the contradiction between words, delivery and context. Failure to include the context or to identify the contradiction results in the listener finding the dry humour unfunny. However, the term "deadpan" itself actually refers only to the method of delivery.


title: Dexter Fletcher

text: Dexter Fletcher (born 31 January 1966) is an English film director and actor. He has appeared in Guy Ritchie's "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", as well as in television shows such as the comedy drama "Hotel Babylon" and the HBO series "Band of Brothers" and, earlier in his career, starred as Spike Thomson in the comedy drama "Press Gang". His earliest acting role was playing Baby Face in the 1976 film "Bugsy Malone".


title: Dexter Fletcher

text: Fletcher made his directorial debut with "Wild Bill" (2011), and also directed "Sunshine on Leith" (2013) and "Eddie the Eagle" (2015). He replaced Bryan Singer as director of "Bohemian Rhapsody", a biopic about the band Queen, released in October 2018; due to DGA rules, he received executive producer credit. In 2019, he directed "Rocketman", a biographical film based on the life and music of performer Elton John.


title: Dexter Fletcher

text: Fletcher trained at the Anna Scher Theatre. His first film part was as Baby Face in "Bugsy Malone" (1976). He made his stage début the following year in a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". As a youth actor he was regularly featured in British productions in the early 1980s, including "The Long Good Friday", "The Elephant Man" and "The Bounty". In 1987 Fletcher was cast in Lionheart. As an adult he appeared on television as the rebellious teenager Spike Thomson in "Press Gang" and in "Murder Most Horrid" (1991) with Dawn French. He has also starred in the films "Caravaggio" (1986), "The Rachel Papers" (1989), "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" (1998), "Layer Cake" (2004), AffirmFilm's "Solomon" as Rehoboam and Universal's "Doom".


title: Dexter Fletcher

text: On television Fletcher has appeared in the major HBO drama, "Band of Brothers" and in a supporting role in the BBC One historical drama "The Virgin Queen" (US PBS 2005, UK 2006). He also appeared in Kylie Minogue's music video for "Some Kind of Bliss" (1997). He starred on BBC One in a series based on Imogen Edwards-Jones's book "Hotel Babylon" that ran for four series before being cancelled in 2009. He also appeared in "The Booby and the Beast", an episode in the second series of the BBC's series "Robin Hood" and in the 2008 radio series "The Way We Live Right Now". He appeared in the "Bo' Selecta!" spinoff "A Bear's Tail" as The Scriptwriter. He played a brief role in the BBC series "New Tricks", in the episode "Final Curtain", as an actor named Tommy Jackson.


title: Dexter Fletcher

text: In 2009, he also appeared in "Misfits" as Nathan Young's dad, reprising the role in 2010 for the second series.


title: Dexter Fletcher

text: Fletcher has been the voice for McDonald's television adverts and (feigning a US accent) is the narrator of "" audio book written by Neil Strauss. He also narrated the Five series "Airforce Afghanistan", as well as the "Chop Shop: London Garage" series on the Discovery Channel. In 1993, he was the voice of Prince Cinders in the short animated comedy of the same name. Also in 1993, he was the uncredited UNIT soldier narrator of the "UNIT Recruiting Film" – a five-minute spoof piece that preceded a BBC1 repeat of the sixth and final episode of "Doctor Who" story "Planet of the Daleks". In 2014 he narrated the BBC1 show "Del Boys and Dealers". In 1998, Fletcher featured on the song "Here Comes the Flood" from the album "Fin de Siecle" by The Divine Comedy.


title: Dexter Fletcher

text: Fletcher's debut as a director for a script he co-wrote, "Wild Bill", which was released on 20 March 2012. His second film as director is a musical film by Stephen Greenhorn, "Sunshine on Leith" based around the popular Proclaimers songs which were released on 4 October 2013. In 2015, he directed the feature film "Eddie the Eagle". On 6 December 2017, Fletcher was announced as Bryan Singer's replacement director on the Queen biopic, "Bohemian Rhapsody". The film was released on 2 November 2018. While Fletcher had helped finish the film, Singer received sole directing credit and he received executive producer credit. Fletcher's latest directing role was on "Rocketman", a biopic about the life of Elton John.


title: Dexter Fletcher

text: Fletcher was born in Enfield, the youngest of three boys, in North London, and grew up with his brothers in Woodford Green and Palmers Green; his parents were teachers.


title: Dexter Fletcher

text: In 1997 he married Lithuanian film and theatre director Dalia Ibelhauptaitė in Westminster. His best man was fellow actor Alan Rickman. Dexter's brothers were also actors; Graham Fletcher-Cook and Steve Fletcher. Fletcher is a dual British and Lithuanian citizen, having been granted Lithuanian citizenship in recognition of his work promoting Lithuanian cultural affairs.


title: Dexter Fletcher

text: On 15 June 1991, Fletcher was running along Mepham Street in London, when he scooped up two bunches of nasturtiums valued at £5 from a flower stall belonging to the Great Train Robber, Buster Edwards. Edwards declined to chase Fletcher for fear of leaving his stall unattended. Fletcher was seen to run onto York Road. Edwards reported the theft to the police, identifying his assailant as being "that lad out of "The Rachel Papers"". Fletcher's timing was unlucky because Edwards had seen the film for the first time only days before. Fletcher was arrested and charged with theft.


title: Dexter Fletcher

text: The following week, Fletcher appeared at Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court and pleaded guilty. He was given a conditional discharge for twelve months and ordered to pay £30 costs. In mitigation, Fletcher said that the flowers were for his girlfriend and "Press Gang" co-star Julia Sawalha, but that he had lost his cash card and was therefore unable to obtain funds. Fletcher subsequently apologised to and compensated Edwards.


title: Chronos

text: Chronos (; , , "time"), also spelled Khronos or Chronus, is a personification of time in pre-Socratic philosophy and later literature.


title: Chronos

text: Chronos is frequently confused with, or perhaps consciously identified with, the Titan Cronus in antiquity due to the similarity in names. The identification became more widespread during the Renaissance, giving rise to the iconography of Father Time wielding the harvesting scythe.


title: Chronos

text: Greco-Roman mosaics depicted Chronos as a man turning the zodiac wheel. He is comparable to the deity Aion as a symbol of cyclical time. He is usually portrayed as an old callous man with a thick grey beard, personifying the destructive and stifling aspects of time.


title: Chronos

text: During antiquity, Chronos was occasionally interpreted as Cronus. According to Plutarch, the Greeks believed that Cronus was an allegorical name for Chronos.


title: Chronos

text: In the Orphic tradition, the unaging Chronos was "engendered" by "earth and water", and produced Aether, Chaos, and an egg. The egg produced the hermaphroditic god Phanes who gave birth to the first generation of gods and is the ultimate creator of the cosmos.


title: Chronos

text: Pherecydes of Syros in his lost (""The seven recesses""), around 6th century BC, claimed that there were three eternal principles: "Chronos", "Zas" (Zeus) and "Chthonie" (the chthonic). The semen of Chronos was placed in the recesses of the Earth and produced the first generation of gods.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: The 2019 AFC Asian Cup was the 17th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in the United Arab Emirates from 5 January to 1 February 2019.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: For the first time, the Asian Cup final tournament was contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format that was used from 2004 to 2015. Under this new format, the finalists would contest a group stage consisting of six groups of four teams, followed by a knockout stage of 16 teams. The host nation qualified for the final tournament automatically, while the remaining 23 places were determined among the other 45 national teams of the AFC through a qualifying competition running from 2015 to 2018, part of which also served as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process for the confederation.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: The tournament was won for the first time by Qatar, who defeated Japan 3–1 in the final. This was also Qatar's first ever top 4 finish in the competition. The defending champions (Australia), were eliminated by the hosts (UAE) at the quarter-finals, who subsequently lost to the eventual champions in the semi-finals.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: The bidding procedure and timeline for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup was approved at the AFC congress on 28 November 2012. The winning bid was originally set to be announced at an AFC congress in June, then November 2014. However, at its 60th Anniversary celebrations at the end of 2014, AFC gave the date of 'summer 2015' to when an announcement would be made.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: In January 2015, AFC general secretary Alex Soosay said that Iran and the United Arab Emirates were the only two remaining bidders for the 2019 Asian Cup, and that the eventual hosts would be announced in March 2015.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: On 9 March 2015, during an AFC Executive Committee meeting in Manama, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates was announced as the host. This was the second time the country hosted the tournament, after the 1996 edition.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: The 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification process determined the 24 participating teams for the tournament. In 2014, a proposal to merge the preliminary qualification rounds of the FIFA World Cup with those of the AFC Asian Cup was ratified by the AFC Competitions Committee. The new qualification structure took place in three stages, with the first two merging with the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification In the first round, the lowest ranked teams played home-and-away over two legs to reduce the total number of teams to 40. In the second round, the 40 teams were divided into eight groups of five to play home-and-away round-robin matches, where the eight group winners and the four best group runners-up qualified for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup finals. In the third round, the next best 24 teams eliminated from second round were divided into six groups of four and competed for the remaining slots of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. The first qualifying round of the qualification took place on 12 March 2015, and the final match of the third round took place on 27 March 2018.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: India, Syria, Thailand, and Turkmenistan qualified for the tournament after being absent in several Asian Cup tournaments spanning from 2004 to 2015. Lebanon and Vietnam both qualified for the first time after hosting the tournaments, in 2000 and 2007 respectively. For Vietnam, this was the first time they qualified for the AFC Asian Cup as a unified nation, having participated as South Vietnam in the first two editions (1956 and 1960), outside of hosting the 2007 edition. This was also the first time Yemen qualified for the AFC Asian Cup as a unified country, due to FIFA and AFC categorizing the participation of South Yemen in the 1976 as a distinct record not related to Yemen, who succeeded North Yemen. In addition to Yemen, Kyrgyzstan and the Philippines also marked this edition as their first times to qualify for an Asian Cup.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: Iran qualified for the Asian Cup for the first time as a CAFA member, having qualified as part of the WAFF before. Afghanistan, along with its fellow CAFA member nation Tajikistan, were the only two countries from the Central Asian zone which failed to qualify for the tournament. Indonesia and Malaysia were the only co-hosts of the 2007 edition that did not qualify for the Asian Cup, as Indonesia was barred from entering the qualification due to tension inside the PSSI which led to FIFA suspension; while Malaysia had ended their campaign in disaster with just one point out of six matches. Kuwait was the only West Asian team not to qualify for the Asian Cup, as they were also barred from completing the qualification due to FIFA's sanction. India remained as the only South Asian team to qualify for the tournament. On 13 November 2018, the Asian Football Confederation warned the Iranian government to stop meddling in the country's football association, otherwise, it would have faced sanctions before the Asian Cup.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: The draw of the final tournament was held on 4 May 2018, 19:30 , at the Armani Hotel in the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The FIFA rankings of April 2018 were used as basis for the seeding. The 12 teams that secured their place in the final tournament by the end of the second round of the qualification process were placed in Pots 1 and 2 while the remaining teams which qualified during the third round were allocated to the remaining pots. As hosts, the United Arab Emirates were seeded into Pot 1. The 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four teams, with the hosts placed in position A1. Four renowned Asian players: Ali Daei, Sun Jihai, Sunil Chhetri, and Phil Younghusband were chosen to draw the teams.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: Teams were drawn consecutively into Group A to F. Teams from each pot were assigned to the positions of their groups following by number orders of group stage, for example Pot 1 team were assigned to A1, and continued.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: Each team had to register a squad with a minimum of 18 players and a maximum of 23 players, at least three of whom must be goalkeepers.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: On 5 December 2018, the AFC announced the list of 30 referees, 30 assistant referees, two stand-by referees and two stand-by assistant referees, including one referee and two assistant referees from CONCACAF for the tournament. Video assistant referees (VAR) would be used from the quarter-finals onwards. In each match, the referee and his assistants were accompanied by two additional assistant referees stationed next to each team's goalpost.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: After being awarded the bid, initially the UAE chose six stadiums to host the tournament. The six stadiums were Zayed Sports City Stadium and Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium and Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain, and Dubai's Al Ahli Stadium and DSC Stadium. Later, two stadiums in Dubai were dropped due to financial problems and were replaced by Al Maktoum Stadium and Rashid Stadium, which were also located in Dubai.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: After the 2015 Asian Cup, the AFC agreed to increase the number of teams from 16 to 24, following the UEFA Euro 2016. Hence, more stadiums were about to be chosen and rebuilt, in which Sharjah and Abu Dhabi won the rights to have more stadiums for the tournament. Sharjah Stadium and Al Nahyan Stadium were chosen aftermath, finalized the number of stadium to eight.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: The eight venues used are Zayed Sports City Stadium, Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium, and Al Nahyan Stadium in Abu Dhabi, Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium and Khalifa Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain, Al Maktoum Stadium and Rashid Stadium in Dubai, and Sharjah Stadium in Sharjah.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: The tournament was expanded to 24 teams from the previous format of 16 teams, which had been used since 2004. Only the hosts will receive an automatic qualification spot, while the other 23 teams will qualify through a qualification tournament. At the finals, the 24 teams will be drawn into six groups of four teams each. The teams in each group play a single round robin. After the group stage, the top two teams and the four best third teams will advance to the knockout stage, beginning with the round of 16. For the first time since a knockout stage was added to the competition in 1972, there will be no third place play-off.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: The AFC announced the official match schedule on 7 May 2018. Zayed Sports City Stadium, one of three stadiums in Abu Dhabi, staged both the opening match and the final. At least five matches were allocated to each venue, with every ground hosting at least one match in the knockout stage. The semi-finals were played on different days in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. No city hosted two matches on the same day – except in the final round of group stage matches when simultaneous kick-off is required.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: Group A saw the opening match of the tournament which was a one-all draw between United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, with Ahmed Khalil getting the equaliser in the 88th minute after going one goal down only ten minutes prior. UAE and Thailand qualified as the top two nations in the group after a 1–1 draw at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, and Bahrain qualified in third place after a 1–0 win over India. India finished last in the group after they recorded their first win in the Asian Cup for 55 years over Thailand in their opening match, before losing their remaining two games.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: Group B saw Jordan qualify on top of the group after defeating the defending champions in the opening match from an Anas Bani Yaseen header. This was followed up by a 2–0 win over Syria which saw Syrian manager Bernd Stange sacked after the match and being replaced by Fajr Ibrahim. Joining them in the round of 16 was Australia, who after losing to Jordan in their opening match, got two wins over Palestine and Syria with that match only being won by a goal from Tom Rogic in injury time.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: Group C saw South Korea and China qualify through as the top two seeds with the game between the two matches seeing South Korea on top of the group after a 2–0 win. This meant that South Korea finished without conceding a goal after previously getting two 1–0 wins over the Philippines and Kyrgyzstan. In the battle for third place, it was between two newcomers to the competition, with Kyrgyzstan getting their first win in an Asian competition with a hat-trick from Vitalij Lux, securing a 3–1 win for the central Asian team despite a late consolation goal from Stephan Schröck, which was the first Philippine goal in the tournament.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: Group D saw Iran and Iraq both qualify through to the round of 16 as the top two teams after both finished the group with seven points following their match finishing in a 0–0 draw at the Al Maktoum Stadium. Iran finished top of the group on goal difference, largely in part to their 5–0 defeat of debutantes Yemen in their first game, which included a double from Mehdi Taremi. A 2–0 win over Vietnam saw the team go through with three clean sheets from three. Iraq had a tougher game in their opener against Vietnam, with only a late 90th-minute goal from Ali Adnan securing them three points. This would later be followed with a 3–0 win over Yemen to qualify with Iran, with Vietnam qualifying in third place after a 2–0 victory over Yemen.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: Group E witnessed Qatar and Saudi Arabia qualify for the round of 16. In the decisive match for first place, Qatar beat Saudi Arabia 2–0, thanks to a brace by Almoez Ali. Qatar began their campaign with a comfortable, albeit controversial, 2–0 win over Lebanon, before beating North Korea 6–0, sealing their place in the knockout stage. Ali was decisive in both games, scoring a goal against Lebanon, and four goals against North Korea. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia opened their account with a 4–0 win over North Korea, before booking a place to the next round by beating Lebanon 2–0. In their last fixture, Lebanon beat North Korea 4–1 with a Hilal El-Helwe brace; the win was Lebanon's first in the competition. However, Lebanon missed out on the next round on fair play points.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: Group F saw Japan and Uzbekistan progressing to the round of 16, with Japan defeating Uzbekistan 2–1 to finish in first place. Japan began their campaign with a 3–2 victory over Turkmenistan, before beating Oman 1–0 to qualify for the knockout stage. Uzbekistan, on the other hand, beat Oman 2–1 thanks to an 85th-minute goal by Eldor Shomurodov, before beating their neighbors Turkmenistan 4–0. Oman qualified for the next round for the first time, after winning 3–1 over Turkmenistan, with Mohammed Al-Musalami scoring a goal in the injury time.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary. A fourth substitution could be made during extra time.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: According to the AFC organization committee, eight players from the winning Qatari team and five players from the runner-up Japanese team were selected in the team of the tournament. Six players from teams which progressed to the semi-finals (Iran and the United Arab Emirates) were also selected. In addition, four players from teams which progressed to the quarter-finals were selected.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: The official logo of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup was unveiled on 23 January 2017 in Abu Dhabi during the drawing ceremony for the third round of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification. The colors used in the logo were derived from the flag of the UAE. The seven hexagons formed by colored ribbons represents the seven emirates of the host country. The interlacing hexagon pattern of the logo was inspired from Islamic art, as well as the old Emirati tradition of using palm leaves, locally known as "saf", in weaving. The outer circle along with the geometric design within it symbolizes the sport of football.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: The slogan, "Bringing Asia Together" (), was unveiled on 5 January 2018, a year before the tournament's kick-off.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: During the final draw on 4 May 2018, two mascots, Mansour and Jarrah, were unveiled. Mansour is a young footballer, while Jarrah is a falcon with . The falcon is an important symbol of the Arab world and also features on the emblem of the United Arab Emirates.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: Also on the drawing day on 4 May 2018, a new trophy made by Thomas Lyte was unveiled. It is 78 centimetres tall, 42 centimetres wide and weighs 15 kilograms of silver. The trophy is modeled over the lotus flower, a symbolic flower of Asia. The five petals of the lotus symbolise the five sub-confederations under the AFC. The winning teams' names are engraved around the trophy base, which is separable from the trophy's main body.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: Total prize money pool for the tournament was US$14,800,000. The champions would receive US$5 million, the runners-up will receive US$3 million, and the losing semi-finalists would receive US$1 million. All 24 participating teams would also receive US$200,000.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: The tournament organizers held a competition where fans got to choose and vote on slogans to be used on the team buses of the 24 participating national teams.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: The tournament was broadcast live by around 80 TV channels covering the whole world. 800 million people were expected to watch matches, with the tournament reaching a potential TV audience of more than 2.5 billion people.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: ESPN5 made a "competitive bid" to broadcast the tournament on free-to-air television in the Philippines, but it was not accepted by the AFC.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: In the Middle East, where Qatar-based BeIN Sports has rights to broadcast the Asian Cup in the region, BeoutQ (allegedly backed by Saudi Arabia) also illegally broadcast the tournament as part of a proxy conflict in a diplomatic crisis between Qatar and various Arab states. The AFC has noted BeoutQ's broadcast and condemned it for "persistent and illegal screening".


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: For the first time since the expulsion of Israel from the Asian Football Confederation, the UAE allowed Israeli TV channel Sport 5 to directly broadcast the tournament. This was seen as a sign of warming relations between Israel and the UAE. Sport 5 officially broadcast the opening match between the UAE and Bahrain, and had remained active until the end of the tournament. A year later in the following tournament, Israel and the United Arab Emirates officially normalised relations.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: At the end of the tournament, AFC announced that the 2019 Asian Cup was the most engaging in history across all social platforms reaching 169.4 million impressions, an increase by more than fifteen times from the 11 million reach from 2015 AFC Asian Cup.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: Many ticket-holding fans were locked out of the Group B match between Palestine and Australia, with management closing a number of Rashid Stadium gates before the start of the match “in the interests of fan safety”. Rashid Stadium was one of the smallest stadiums in the tournament with only 12,000 seats and many non-ticket holding fans attempted to watch the match without buying tickets. The organizing committee issued a statement for the reasons of closure stating “Ahead of kick-off a large crowd of fans with and without tickets had gathered over a short period of time outside the stadium, which resulted in the need to secure the area." They then issued an apology to supporters who were “inconvenienced or left disappointed” and issued an investigative probe to insure it to be an isolated incident.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: As a result of Qatar diplomatic crisis between Qatar and number of its neighbours since 5 June 2017, including the United Arab Emirates as the host country, the UAE suspended all direct flights between the two countries and initially banned Qatari citizens from entering their country, although the Emirati government later announced that it would permit Qatari citizens temporary entry into the country pending approval from Emirati authorities. According to a report, Saoud al-Mohannadi, a Qatari national who is the AFC vice-president and chairman of the organizing committee for the Asian Cup, was unable to enter the UAE two days prior to the tournament's start because Emirati authorities had not yet cleared him. The director of the 2019 AFC Organizing Committee denied reports that Al Mohannadi was refused entry and declared that Al Mohannadi has arrived on Friday morning and was preparing for his meetings. The director stated that there was no evidence that shows he was unable to enter and stated that this news has "political purposes". He stated "We try to keep sports away from politics."


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: The diplomatic crisis prevented many fans from attending Qatar matches in the UAE. This had affected attendance figures in Qatar matches, as little more than 450 people spectated the Group E clash between North Korea and Qatar on 13 January. The UAE government had confirmed previously that Qatari citizens may enter UAE with prior permission obtained directly through a hotline from UAE authorities.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: According to Qatar's Sports Press Committee, five Qatar-based media representatives were denied entry into the UAE despite having entry visas and receiving assurances that they would be allowed to attend and report on the tournament by the AFC. The AFC Media Committee dismissed the Qatari reports and stated that some of the Qatar-based journalists confused visit visas with work visas and advised all journalists to contact them if they encounter any issues with the entry visa type.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: According to Al Jazeera, the final match, which was won by Qatar, was played "almost entirely without" Qatari support from the stands, due to the travel ban. However, according to Qatar-based "The Peninsula" large number of Omani fans supported the Qatari team in the stadium, stating "The large number of fans who supported the Qatari team were wearing the logo of Al Annabi [The Maroons] with the background of the names of various players. Apart from their attendance, they carried flags in the stadium and continued to cheer for Al Annabi [The Maroons] players and sing songs throughout the game."


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: During the semi-final match between Qatar and hosts United Arab Emirates, some UAE supporters threw bottles and footwear into the match after Qatari players scored their second goal; the latter is considered to be highly offensive in the Middle East. One of the Qatari players, Salem Al Hajri, was struck on the head with a shoe after Qatar scored its third goal. This conduct was preceded by booing the Qatari national anthem. The two countries had had a hostile relationship and had cut diplomatic ties due to the ongoing diplomatic crisis. Qatar won 4–0 despite the events, reaching their first Asian Cup final. Afterwards, the AFC declared that it would conduct an investigation into the proceedings.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: On 30 January 2019, soon after the hosts lost to Qatar in the semi-finals, the United Arab Emirates Football Association lodged a formal appeal to the AFC over the eligibility of Sudanese-born Almoez Ali and Iraqi-born Bassam Al-Rawi, claiming that they did not qualify to play for Qatar on residency grounds per Article 7 of the Regulations Governing the Application of the FIFA statutes, which states a player is eligible to play for a representative team if he has "lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant association". It was alleged that Ali and Al-Rawi had not lived continuously in Qatar for at least five years over the age of 18, although the players claimed that their mothers were born in Qatar.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: Only hours prior to the start of the final on 1 February 2019, the AFC Disciplinary and Ethics Committee announced that it had dismissed the protest lodged by the UAEFA.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: A British-Sudanese football fan claimed that he was beaten and arrested for wearing a Qatari shirt to a match in which Qatar were playing and then, after reporting to the police, arrested and accused of wasting police time and making false statements of being assaulted. In an interview with Sky News, he claimed he was beaten, starved, and deprived of sleep by the police for wearing a Qatar shirt. The fan claims were denied by UAE authorities who stated that he was arrested for wasting police time and making false assault claims to the police.


title: 2019 AFC Asian Cup

text: The police claimed that the fan had admitted to making false statements and his offense will be processed through the courts. An official in the UAE embassy in London stated “He was categorically not arrested for wearing a Qatar football shirt. This is instead an instance of a person seeking media attention and wasting police time.”


title: Pandora Papers

text: The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 35 world leaders, including current and former presidents, prime ministers, and heads of state as well as more than 100 billionaires, celebrities, and business leaders. The news organizations of the ICIJ described the document leak as their most expansive exposé of financial secrecy yet, containing documents, images, emails and spreadsheets from 14 financial service companies, in nations including Panama, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, surpassing their previous release of the Panama Papers in 2016, which had 11.5 million confidential documents (2.6 terabytes). At the time of the release of the papers, the ICIJ said it is not identifying its source for the documents.


title: Pandora Papers

text: Estimates by the ICIJ of money held offshore (outside the country where the money was made) range from US$5.6 trillion to US$32 trillion.


title: Pandora Papers

text: In total, 35 current and former national leaders appear in the leak, alongside 400 public officials from nearly 100 countries and more than 100 billionaires. As per laws of tax, some of the activities were legal but could not be justified. Some files were showing the date of 1970, but they were actually created between the years 1996 to 2020. The data included 130 billionaires listed by the Forbes, over 330 politicians, celebrities, members of the royal families and even some religious leaders. Among those names are former British prime minister Tony Blair, Chilean president Sebastián Piñera, former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, Montenegrin president Milo Đukanović, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Qatari emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, United Arab Emirates prime minister and Dubai ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Gabonese president Ali Bongo Ondimba, Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati, Ecuadorian president Guillermo Lasso, family members of former Argentine president Mauricio Macri and his spin-doctor, Ecuadorian Jaime Durán Barba, and Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades. More than 100 billionaires, 29,000 offshore accounts, 30 current and former leaders, and 336 politicians were named in the first leaks on 3 October 2021.


title: Pandora Papers

text: King Abdullah II of Jordan is one of the main figures named in the papers, with documents showing he had invested over US$100 million in property across the UK and the US; they included houses in Malibu, California, Washington, D.C., London and Ascot. A UK company controlled by Cherie Blair was shown to have acquired a £6.45 million property in London by purchasing Romanstone International Limited, a British Virgin Islands company; had the property been acquired directly, £312,000 would have been payable in stamp duty. Tony Blair's name appears in a statement of joint income for the associated mortgage.


title: Pandora Papers

text: The papers also reveal how an office block owned by Azerbaijan's ruling Aliyev family was sold to the Crown Estate, the sovereign's public estate, for £66 million in 2018, netting the Aliyevs a £31 million profit. Another office block worth £33 million was sold to the family in 2009, and was gifted to the son of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, Heydar. According to "Las Vegas Sun", "Members of the inner circle of Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan are accused of hiding millions of dollars in wealth in secret companies or trusts". Supporters of former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko accused his successor Zelensky, who came to power on an anti-corruption campaign, of tax evasion. Elsewhere, close associates of Russian president Vladimir Putin, like Svetlana Krivonogikh and Gennady Timchenko, were revealed to have secret assets in Monaco, and Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš, who had campaigned on promising to crack down on corruption and tax evasion, did not declare the use of an offshore investment company in the purchase of eight properties, including two villas, in Mougins on the French Riviera for £12 million. As a result of the Pandora Papers, more information emerged about Russia-linked, allegedly Kremlin-linked, donations to the Tories. Uhuru Kenyatta was also mentioned, despite being quoted in 2018 as stating, "Every public servant's assets must be declared publicly so that people can question and askwhat is legitimate?" Kenyatta and six members of his family have been linked to 13 offshore companies. The leaked list also includes transnational criminal organization leaders, such as Raffaele Amato, boss of the Amato-Pagano clan, a clan within the Camorra, dedicated to international drug trafficking. Amato used a shell company in the UK to buy land and real estate in Spain.


title: Pandora Papers

text: Other global names mentioned include Shakira, who was incorporating new offshore entities while going on trial for tax evasion; model Claudia Schiffer; Indian cricket player Sachin Tendulkar; Indian billionaire Anil Ambani; fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi’s sister Purvi Modi; Alexandre Cazes, the founder of the dark web site AlphaBay, used to deal in illegal drugs; Pakistani finance minister, Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin, and several of family members of Pakistan's top generals; and the CEO of Channel One Russia, Konstantin Ernst. Miguel Bosé, Pep Guardiola and Julio Iglesias are also named.


title: Pandora Papers

text: The leaked files come from 14 offshore service providers that help clients establish companies in secrecy jurisdictions.


title: Pandora Papers

text: An ICIJ report focused on the Panamanian law firm of Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee, or Alcogal, saying it was the "law firm of the Latin American elite", having created at least 14,000 shell companies and trusts in tax havens. Alcogal was thus mentioned more than any other offshore provider in the leaked documents.


title: Pandora Papers

text: For the uncovering of the papers, the ICIJ worked with journalists from 91 media outlets in 117 countries including news organizations such as "The Washington Post", "L'Espresso", "Le Monde", "El País", "Süddeutsche Zeitung", the PBS program "Frontline", the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, "The Guardian", and the BBC’s "Panorama".


title: Centaur

text: A centaur ( ; ; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse.


title: Centaur

text: Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being as wild as untamed horses, and were said to have inhabited the region of Magnesia and Mount Pelion in Thessaly, the Foloi oak forest in Elis, and the Malean peninsula in southern Laconia. Centaurs are subsequently featured in Roman mythology, and were familiar figures in the medieval bestiary. They remain a staple of modern fantastic literature.


title: Centaur

text: The Greek word "kentauros" is generally regarded as being of obscure origin. The etymology from "ken" + "tauros", 'piercing bull', was a euhemerist suggestion in Palaephatus' rationalizing text on Greek mythology, "On Incredible Tales" (Περὶ ἀπίστων), which included mounted archers from a village called "Nephele" eliminating a herd of bulls that were the scourge of Ixion's kingdom. Another possible related etymology can be "bull-slayer".


title: Centaur

text: The centaurs were usually said to have been born of Ixion and Nephele. As the story goes, Nephele was a cloud made into the likeness of Hera in a plot to trick Ixion into revealing his lust for Hera to Zeus. Ixion seduced Nephele and from that relationship centaurs were created. Another version, however, makes them children of Centaurus, a man who mated with the Magnesian mares. Centaurus was either himself the son of Ixion and Nephele (inserting an additional generation) or of Apollo and the nymph Stilbe. In the latter version of the story, Centaurus's twin brother was Lapithes, ancestor of the Lapiths.


title: Centaur

text: Another tribe of centaurs was said to have lived on Cyprus. According to Nonnus, they were fathered by Zeus, who, in frustration after Aphrodite had eluded him, spilled his seed on the ground of that land. Unlike those of mainland Greece, the Cyprian centaurs were horned.


title: Centaur

text: There were also the Lamian Pheres, twelve rustic daimones (spirits) of the Lamos river. They were set by Zeus to guard the infant Dionysos, protecting him from the machinations of Hera, but the enraged goddess transformed them into ox-horned Centaurs. The Lamian Pheres later accompanied Dionysos in his campaign against the Indians.


title: Centaur

text: The centaur's half-human, half-horse composition has led many writers to treat them as liminal beings, caught between the two natures they embody in contrasting myths; they are both the embodiment of untamed nature, as in their battle with the Lapiths (their kin), and conversely, teachers like Chiron.


title: Centaur

text: The Centaurs are best known for their fight with the Lapiths who, according to one origin myth, would have been cousins to the centaurs. The battle, called the Centauromachy, was caused by the centaurs' attempt to carry off Hippodamia and the rest of the Lapith women on the day of Hippodamia's marriage to Pirithous, who was the king of the Lapithae and a son of Ixion. Theseus, a hero and founder of cities, who happened to be present, threw the balance in favour of the Lapiths by assisting Pirithous in the battle. The Centaurs were driven off or destroyed. Another Lapith hero, Caeneus, who was invulnerable to weapons, was beaten into the earth by Centaurs wielding rocks and the branches of trees. In her article "The Centaur: Its History and Meaning in Human Culture," Elizabeth Lawrence claims that the contests between the centaurs and the Lapiths typify the struggle between civilization and barbarism.


title: Centaur

text: The Centauromachy is most famously portrayed in the Parthenon metopes by Phidias and in a Renaissance-era sculpture by Michelangelo.


title: Centaur

text: The most common theory holds that the idea of centaurs came from the first reaction of a non-riding culture, as in the Minoan Aegean world, to nomads who were mounted on horses. The theory suggests that such riders would appear as half-man, half-animal. Bernal Díaz del Castillo reported that the Aztecs also had this misapprehension about Spanish cavalrymen. The Lapith tribe of Thessaly, who were the kinsmen of the Centaurs in myth, were described as the inventors of horse-riding by Greek writers. The Thessalian tribes also claimed their horse breeds were descended from the centaurs.


title: Centaur

text: Robert Graves (relying on the work of Georges Dumézil, who argued for tracing the centaurs back to the Indian Gandharva), speculated that the centaurs were a dimly remembered, pre-Hellenic fraternal earth cult who had the horse as a totem. A similar theory was incorporated into Mary Renault's "The Bull from the Sea."


title: Centaur

text: Though female centaurs, called centaurides or centauresses, are not mentioned in early Greek literature and art, they do appear occasionally in later antiquity. A Macedonian mosaic of the 4th century BC is one of the earliest examples of the centauress in art. Ovid also mentions a centauress named Hylonome who committed suicide when her husband Cyllarus was killed in the war with the Lapiths.


title: Centaur

text: The Kalibangan cylinder seal, dated to be around 2600-1900 BC, found at the site of Indus-Valley civilization shows a battle between men in the presence of centaur-like creatures. Other sources claim the creatures represented are actually half human and half tigers, later evolving into the Hindu Goddess of War. These seals are also evidence of Indus-Mesopotamia relations in the 3rd millennium BC.


title: Centaur

text: In a popular legend associated with Pazhaya Sreekanteswaram Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, the curse of a saintly Brahmin transformed a handsome Yadava prince into a creature having a horse's body and the prince's head, arms, and torso in place of the head and neck of the horse.


title: Centaur

text: Kinnaras, another half-man, half-horse mythical creature from Indian mythology, appeared in various ancient texts, arts, and sculptures from all around India. It is shown as a horse with the torso of a man where the horse's head would be, and is similar to a Greek centaur.


title: Centaur

text: A centaur-like half-human, half-equine creature called "Polkan" appeared in Russian folk art and lubok prints of the 17th–19th centuries. Polkan is originally based on "Pulicane", a half-dog from Andrea da Barberino's poem "I Reali di Francia", which was once popular in the Slavonic world in prosaic translations.


title: Centaur

text: The extensive Mycenaean pottery found at Ugarit included two fragmentary Mycenaean terracotta figures which have been tentatively identified as centaurs. This finding suggests a Bronze Age origin for these creatures of myth. A painted terracotta centaur was found in the "Hero's tomb" at Lefkandi, and by the Geometric period, centaurs figure among the first representational figures painted on Greek pottery. An often-published Geometric period bronze of a warrior face-to-face with a centaur is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


title: Centaur

text: In Greek art of the Archaic period, centaurs are depicted in three different forms. Some centaurs are depicted with a human torso attached to the body of a horse at the withers, where the horse's neck would be; this form, designated "Class A" by Professor Paul Baur, later became standard. "Class B" centaurs are depicted with a human body and legs joined at the waist to the hindquarters of a horse; in some cases centaurs of both Class A and Class B appear together. A third type, designated "Class C", depicts centaurs with human forelegs terminating in hooves. Baur describes this as an apparent development of Aeolic art, which never became particularly widespread. At a later period, paintings on some "amphorae" depict winged centaurs.


title: Centaur

text: Centaurs were also frequently depicted in Roman art. One example is the pair of centaurs drawing the chariot of Constantine the Great and his family in the Great Cameo of Constantine ("circa" AD 314–16), which embodies wholly pagan imagery, and contrasts sharply with the popular image of Constantine as the patron of early Christianity.


title: Centaur

text: Centaurs preserved a Dionysian connection in the 12th-century Romanesque carved capitals of Mozac Abbey in the Auvergne. Other similar capitals depict harvesters, boys riding goats (a further Dionysiac theme), and griffins guarding the chalice that held the wine. Centaurs are also shown on a number of Pictish carved stones from north-east Scotland erected in the 8th–9th centuries AD (e.g., at Meigle, Perthshire). Though outside the limits of the Roman Empire, these depictions appear to be derived from Classical prototypes.


title: Centaur

text: The John C. Hodges library at The University of Tennessee hosts a permanent exhibit of a "Centaur from Volos" in its library. The exhibit, made by sculptor Bill Willers by combining a study human skeleton with the skeleton of a Shetland pony, is entitled "Do you believe in Centaurs?". According to the exhibitors, it was meant to mislead students in order to make them more critically aware.


title: Centaur

text: Centaurs are common in European heraldry, although more frequent in continental than in British arms. A centaur holding a bow is referred to as a sagittarius.


title: Centaur

text: Jerome's version of the "Life" of St Anthony the Great, written by Athanasius of Alexandria about the hermit monk of Egypt, was widely disseminated in the Middle Ages; it relates Anthony's encounter with a centaur who challenged the saint, but was forced to admit that the old gods had been overthrown. The episode was often depicted in "The Meeting of St Anthony Abbot and St Paul the Hermit" by the painter Stefano di Giovanni, who was known as "Sassetta". Of the two episodic depictions of the hermit Anthony's travel to greet the hermit Paul, one is his encounter with the demonic figure of a centaur along the pathway in a wood.


title: Centaur

text: Lucretius, in his first-century BC philosophical poem "On the Nature of Things," denied the existence of centaurs based on their differing rate of growth. He states that at the age of three years, horses are in the prime of their life while humans at the same age are still little more than babies, making hybrid animals impossible.


title: Centaur

text: Centaurs are among the creatures which 14th-century Italian poet Dante placed as guardians in his "Inferno". In Canto XII, Dante and his guide Virgil meet a band led by Chiron and Pholus, guarding the bank of Phlegethon in the seventh circle of Hell, a river of boiling blood in which the violent against their neighbours are immersed, shooting arrows into any who move to a shallower spot than their allotted station. The two poets are treated with courtesy, and Nessus guides them to a ford. In Canto XXIV, in the eighth circle, in Bolgia 7, a ditch where thieves are confined, they meet but do not converse with Cacus (who is a giant in the ancient sources), wreathed in serpents and with a fire-breathing dragon on his shoulders, arriving to punish a sinner who has just cursed God. In his "Purgatorio", an unseen spirit on the sixth terrace cites the centaurs ("the drunken double-breasted ones who fought Theseus") as examples of the sin of gluttony.


title: Centaur

text: C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia" series depicts centaurs as the wisest and noblest of creatures. Narnian Centaurs are gifted at stargazing, prophecy, healing, and warfare; a fierce and valiant race always faithful to the High King Aslan the Lion.


title: Centaur

text: In J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series, centaurs live in the Forbidden Forest close to Hogwarts, preferring to avoid contact with humans. They live in societies called herds and are skilled at archery, healing, and astrology, but like in the original myths, they are known to have some wild and barbarous tendencies.


title: Centaur

text: With the exception of Chiron, the centaurs in Rick Riordan's "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" are seen as wild party-goers who use a lot of American slang. Chiron retains his mythological role as a trainer of heroes and is skilled in archery. In Riordan's subsequent series, "Heroes of Olympus", another group of centaurs are depicted with more animalistic features (such as horns) and appear as villains, serving the Gigantes.


title: Centaur

text: Philip Jose Farmer's "World of Tiers" series (1965) includes centaurs, called Half-Horses or Hoi Kentauroi. His creations address several of the metabolic problems of such creatures—how could the human mouth and nose intake sufficient air to sustain both itself and the horse body and, similarly, how could the human ingest sufficient food to sustain both parts.


title: Centaur

text: Brandon Mull's "Fablehaven" series features centaurs that live in an area called Grunhold. The centaurs are portrayed as a proud, elitist group of beings that consider themselves superior to all other creatures. The fourth book also has a variation on the species called an Alcetaur, which is part man, part moose.


title: Centaur

text: The myth of the centaur appears in John Updike's novel "The Centaur". The author depicts a rural Pennsylvanian town as seen through the optics of the myth of the centaur. An unknown and marginalized local school teacher, just like the mythological Chiron did for Prometheus, gave up his life for the future of his son who had chosen to be an independent artist in New York.


title: Centaur

text: Other hybrid creatures appear in Greek mythology, always with some liminal connection that links Hellenic culture with archaic or non-Hellenic cultures:


title: Centaur

text: Additionally, "Bucentaur", the name of several historically important Venetian vessels, was linked to a posited ox-centaur or "βουκένταυρος" "(boukentauros)" by fanciful and likely spurious folk-etymology.


title: Jackie Stallone

text: Jacqueline Frances Stallone (née Labofish; November 29, 1921 – September 21, 2020) was an American astrologer, dancer and wrestling promoter. She was the mother of actor Sylvester Stallone, singer Frank Stallone, and actress Toni D'Alto, the latter by her former husband Anthony Filiti.


title: Jackie Stallone

text: Jacqueline Frances Labofish was born on November 29, 1921, in Washington, D.C., the older of two girls. Her father, John Paul Labofish (January 15, 1891–September 11, 1956), was a Washington lawyer. Her mother, Jeanne Victoria Anne "Adrienne" Clerec (July 29, 1901–February 4, 1974), was French, from Brittany. Her parents had met while her father was serving in the U.S. Navy at Brest (Brittany) after the First World War. Her paternal grandparents, Rose (Lamlec) and Charles Labofisz, were Jewish immigrants from Odessa, Ukraine, then a part of the Russian Empire.


title: Jackie Stallone

text: Her family lived with body builder Charles Atlas who trained the family in gymnastics, weight lifting, and jogging, when she was a girl. Stallone was the first woman to have a daily television show on exercise and weight lifting in Washington, D.C., and later opened a women-only gym, named Barbella's. During her youth, Stallone was a trapeze artist in a circus and a chorus girl in a nightclub. She was also a hairdresser. Her son Sylvester's father was Italian American Frank Stallone Sr. She lived relatively quietly for most of her life. Even after Sylvester starred in the film "Rocky" in 1976 she remained unknown to the general public as his mother.


title: Jackie Stallone

text: In the 1970s she owned and operated a facial salon in which she used her own concoctions to treat several


title: Jackie Stallone

text: skin issues. In her salon, which was on 71st Collins Ave in Miami Beach, she had a huge poster of Sylvester Stallone and The Lords of Flatbush. Stallone was just starting to make it big as an actor and she was very proud. She talked often to her clients about her 3 children and what they were doing and if they were traveling. She enjoyed talking for hours to one client in particularly, she would read her palm and entertain her with her love for astrology.


title: Jackie Stallone

text: Stallone appeared on the 1980s wrestling program "GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling". Stallone was shown rapping with Americana, Mt. Fiji, and Susie Spirit behind her. She rapped about Aunt Kittie's girls and making them kitty litter. Stallone became famous in her own right during the mid-1990s, by publishing astrology books, making television appearances, and setting up a psychic hotline where she would charge telephone callers for advice from her and other operators. She also invented the term "rumpology", which, according to her, is an art similar to that of palm reading except that the procedure is done by examining pictures of people's rear ends. She also claimed that she could consult dogs to find out about the future. She also became involved in the cosmetics industry, launching facial masks and other products that she claimed cured skin problems.