title: Your Song

text: In 2014, singer Aloe Blacc released “The Man” from his 2014 album “Lift Your Spirit” and the melody of this album hinges on the melody of this song.


title: Your Song

text: On 12 April 2021, Team Nick Jonas members Rachel Mac and Bradley Sinclair sang the song for the battle rounds of "The Voice", despite the battle being leaked online three days prior to its air date. Although both have strong effort, Jonas ultimately went with Mac as the winner, and Sinclair was eliminated from the competition.


title: Your Song

text: In December 2021, it was reported that the original plan was for John to sing "Your Song" at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, but the final choice was "Candle in the Wind 1997".


title: Your Song

text: English singer and songwriter Rod Stewart covered "Your Song" for the tribute album "" (1991). His version was released in April 1992 as a double A-side single with "Broken Arrow".


title: Your Song

text: English singer and songwriter Ellie Goulding covered "Your Song" for the reissue of her debut studio album, titled "Bright Lights". Produced by Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons, it was released digitally on 12 November 2010 as the re-release's lead single. The song was featured in the Christmas 2010 television advert for department store chain John Lewis.


title: Your Song

text: Goulding performed "Your Song" at the reception party of Prince William and Catherine Middleton's wedding at Buckingham Palace on 29 April 2011, to which the couple shared their first dance. She also performed the song on "Saturday Night Live" on 7 May 2011, along with "Lights". Goulding's version was featured at the end of the 29 July 2011 episode of the Syfy supernatural drama series "Haven", titled "Love Machine".


title: Your Song

text: Nick Levine of "Digital Spy" gave the song four out of five stars, commenting that producer Lovett "shrouds her beautifully fluttery vocals in little but piano and strings, just adding a few harmonies towards the finish, allowing her to draw out the tenderness in Bernie Taupin's lyrics and the utter loveliness of one of Elton John's very best melodies. The result is a quiet, modest triumph, but a triumph nonetheless." Caryn Ganz of "Spin" magazine opined that her cover is "everything Gaga's Grammy version wasn't—a tender, vulnerable gift". AllMusic critic Jon O'Brien, in his review for "Bright Lights", called it "unimaginative" and felt that it "sounds out of place alongside the rest of her rather more adventurous material."


title: Your Song

text: "Your Song" debuted at number 39 on the UK Singles Chart for the week of 14 November 2010. The single jumped to number three the following week, selling 84,896 copies. In its third week, it climbed to its peak position of number two (behind "The X Factor" Finalists 2010's cover of David Bowie's "'Heroes'") on sales of 72,292 copies, becoming Goulding's highest-peaking single until 2013. It maintained its position the following week, selling 63,753 units. The song also topped the UK Singles Downloads Chart for the week ending 11 December 2010.


title: Your Song

text: The single was certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 24 September 2021 and had sold 826,000 copies in the UK by August 2013. Elsewhere, "Your Song" reached number four in Austria, number five in Ireland, number 22 in Denmark, number 25 in Sweden and number 56 in Switzerland.


title: Your Song

text: The music video, directed by Ben Coughlan and Max Knight, premiered on YouTube on 14 November 2010. Shot in a home video look, it depicts Goulding's life on the road with friends. Areas from Goulding's hometown of Hereford can be seen throughout the video, including Hereford railway station.


title: Your Song

text: American singer Lady Gaga recorded a cover of "Your Song" for the 2018 tribute album "". It was released digitally as a promotional single on 30 March 2018. Gaga performed the song at The Recording Academy's tribute concert, titled "Elton John: I'm Still Standing – A Grammy Salute", which aired on CBS on 10 April 2018. In April, during the release of "Revamp" in Japan (there re-titled "Your Song: Elton John Best Hits Cover"), Lady Gaga's cover of "Your Song" was widely promoted on the country's radio stations, becoming the most played song on Japanese radio in mid-April. The song reached the top thirty in Hungary, Japan, Mexico, the digital downloads chart of Spain and the US Pop Digital Songs chart.


title: Romanesco broccoli

text: Romanesco broccoli (also known as Roman cauliflower, Broccolo Romanesco, Romanesque cauliflower, or simply Romanesco, and sometimes Broccoflower) is an edible flower bud of the species "Brassica oleracea". First documented in Italy in the 16th century, it is chartreuse in color, and has a form naturally approximating a fractal. When compared to a traditional cauliflower, it has a firmer texture and delicate, nutty flavor.


title: Romanesco broccoli

text: Romanesco superficially resembles a cauliflower, but it is chartreuse in color, with the form of a natural fractal. Nutritionally, romanesco is rich in vitamin C, vitamin K, dietary fiber, and carotenoids.


title: Romanesco broccoli

text: The inflorescence (the bud) is self-similar in character, with the branched meristems making up a logarithmic spiral, giving a form approximating a natural fractal; each bud is composed of a series of smaller buds, all arranged in yet another logarithmic spiral. This self-similar pattern continues at smaller levels. The pattern is only an approximate fractal since the pattern eventually terminates when the feature size becomes sufficiently small. The number of spirals on the head of Romanesco broccoli is a Fibonacci number.


title: Romanesco broccoli

text: The causes of its differences in appearance from the normal cauliflower and broccoli have been modeled as an extension of the preinfloresence stage of bud growth. A 2021 paper has ascribed this phenomenon to perturbations of floral gene networks that causes the development of meristems into flowers to fail, but instead to repeat itself in a self-similar way.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: The Qatar Stars League (), or the QSL, also called QNB Stars League for sponsorship reasons, is the top level football league in Qatar football league system. Contested by 12 teams, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Qatari Second Division (QSD). Seasons of the QSL usually run from September to April. The league's first season was played in 1963, although the first official season occurred in 1972. The league currently features 12 clubs, with one club being demoted to make room for one club being promoted.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: The Qatari league system provides 5 domestic cups that these clubs are able to participate in: the Emir of Qatar Cup, open to all teams in both the first and second divisions, the Qatar Crown Prince Cup a postseason tournament played by the top four first division teams, the Sheikh Jassem Cup, a prelude to the first division regular season, the Qatari Stars Cup, a round-robin tournament played midseason, and the Qatar FA Cup, were the bottom 8 teams from the QSL and the entire QSD participate. The league title has been officially won by 7 clubs since its inception. The club that has won the most championships is Al Sadd SC, with 16 titles.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: There are 2 divisions in the Qatari football structure and the league has previously seen one club promoted and relegated each year except in expansion seasons. The Qatar Stars League, previously known as the Q-League currently features 12 teams, with the 2nd division featuring 8 teams. The top four clubs at the end of the regular league system participate in the Qatar Crown Prince Cup, which was formed in the 1994/95 season.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: The Qatar Stars League has slowly expanded since the turn of the decade moving from 9 clubs to 10 clubs, and then latest setup of 12 clubs for the "Qatari League 2009-10" campaign. It was announced that in the 2013-14 season, the number of clubs in the top division would increase to 14, whereas the second division would increase to 18 clubs which includes the reserve teams of the top division clubs.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: It was announced on 15 April 2009 that no clubs would be relegated from the top flight in the "2008–09 Qatar Stars League" season, due to expansion reasons, however the announcement was made with only one game remaining. That year, the top league expanded to 12 clubs. In May 2013, the QFA again expanded the league by two more teams, bringing the total number of clubs in the first division to 14. In 2017 the number of teams moved back to 12.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: There are currently 4 official amateur football leagues in Qatar. Three amateur leagues are under the jurisdiction of the Qatar Community Football League (QCFL), established by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, and the fourth, known as the "Qatar Amateur League" (QAL) is recognized by the QFA. Inaugurated in November 2013, the QAL has 14 teams, all of which were established through the country's government, political and social sectors.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: The first unofficial season of the Qatar Stars League was the 1963–64 season, 3 years after the formation of the QFA. Similarly, a second division was also created during this time. For many years, there was no promotion or relegation system. Al-Maref, a club representing the Ministry of Education, was dissolved in 1966-67 by decision of the QFA and its players distributed to other clubs.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: In 1972–73, the first "official" season was played. Al Esteqlal, now known as Qatar SC, won the first championship.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: The first time there was a playoff for the championship was in 1980, between Al Sadd and Al Arabi. Al Sadd won the match 1–0.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: Although a second division had been in place for some time, there was no relegation or promotion system. However, in 1981, such a system was put in place for the first time. Five clubs participated in the second division that year.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: In 1984–85, there was no relegation or promotion due to a lack of players as members of the Qatar national football team were preparing for the qualification rounds of the 1986 FIFA World Cup.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: In 1994, for one season, the QFA launched a new system where matches ending in draws would end in a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner. This was put in place in an effort to improve attendance.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: Three second division clubs were dissolved in the 1990 season: Al Nasr, Al Tadamon, and Al Nahda. Many of their players were distributed to first division clubs and became prominent players in Qatari football history, such as Fahad Al Kuwari, Ahmed Al Kuwari and Hamad Al Khalifa. After the dissolution of these clubs, there was no longer any relegation or promotion for five years. In 1995/96, the second division was brought back with five clubs, while there were ten clubs participating in the first division.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: Another method the QFA attempted to develop the league was allocating each Q-League club with a sum of $10,000,000 to buy big-name foreign players in order to increase popularity in 2003. It succeeded, and players such as Ronald and Frank de Boer, Romário, Pep Guardiola, Fernando Hierro, Marcel Desailly, Stefan Effenberg, Claudio Caniggia, and Gabriel Batistuta soon appeared in the league.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: In addition, in 2004, the Aspire Academy was formed, which provides training facilities to young people in order to improve the footballing standard not only in Qatar, but internationally. Many notable players have graduated from the academy, including Abdelkarim Hassan, Saad Al Sheeb, and Ibrahim Majid.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: In 2009, no clubs were relegated from the top division. Due to the recent formation of Lekhwiya and El Jaish, this meant that the second division would lose two clubs while two more clubs would enter the first division, bringing the total number of clubs in the first division to 12, and the second division to 6. As part of the expansion campaign, the ""Q-League"" changed its name to what it is currently known as, ""Qatar Stars League"", and inaugurated a new domestic cup, the "Qatari Stars Cup".


title: Qatar Stars League

text: In 2012, Alkass Sports signed a deal to have the rights to broadcast Stars League in English. beIN Sports also bought rights to broadcast Stars League.


title: Qatar Stars League

text: An award system was developed in 2006 in which the best player and coach of the footballing season are selected by a panel of journalists. Each award winner receives $100,000. There are also awards for youth players and club staff.


title: Yamadonga

text: Yamadonga ( Big Thief "or" Thief of Yama) is a 2007 Indian Telugu-language fantasy action comedy film directed by S.S. Rajamouli who co-wrote the film with V. Vijayendra Prasad. It stars N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Mohan Babu, Priyamani, and Mamta Mohandas while Ali and Brahmanandam play supporting roles. The film is produced by Cherry and Urmila Gunnam and presented by Rama Rajamouli under the banner of Visvamithra Creations.


title: Yamadonga

text: Inspired by the 1977 film "Yamagola", the plot follows Raja, a thief who is killed by his rivals. Raja's soul travels to Naraka (hell) to face the trail for his sins by Yama, the Hindu god of death and justice. The film began its production in January 2007 and was made on a budget of 16–18 crore (US$4.3–4.8 million). Filming primarily took place in Hyderabad and Ramoji Film City. The film has music composed by M. M. Keeravani and cinematography by K. K. Senthil Kumar.


title: Yamadonga

text: "Yamadonga" released worldwide on 15 August 2007. Upon release, it received positive reviews from critics, and emerged as a commercial success collecting an estimated 29 crore ($7 million) as distributors' share. The film won four Nandi Awards while Jr. NTR went onto win the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu.


title: Yamadonga

text: Raja, an orphan boy, is a thief in Hyderabad. Mahi, a young girl, falls in love with him. Raja manipulates her by gaining her sympathy. She gives him a necklace, which he throws away because it is worthless; however, it always comes back to him. 10 years later, Mahi's family treats her like a slave while they enjoy the money that her grandfather left behind. Mahi waits for her "prince" to come to rescue her. Raja is still a conman, but when he enters into the debt of Dhanalakshmi, a beautiful but not-so-innocent lender, he flees.


title: Yamadonga

text: Meanwhile, Mahi's family wants Mahi out of the way so that they can inherit all of her money. They hire someone to kill her, only to find out that in the event of Mahi's death, all the money goes to charity. Raja saves Mahi and treats her like a princess, which she waited for from her childhood. Raja made a deal with Mahi's uncles, which goes wrong. They hire a goon to kill Raja, and he kills Raja. Raja reaches Yamaloka. He gets to know that Yama planned his death to take revenge on Raja who once made fun of Yama drunkenly. Raja creates confusion by stealing the Yamapasam, since one in possession of Yamapasam becomes the King of Hell. Raja promises festivals and parties and to make Hell better than Heaven. Yama contests his claim. Narada enters the scene and proposes an election. Both Yama and Raja agree.


title: Yamadonga

text: Yama, along with Chitragupta, tries to get the Yamapasam, but fail. Raja wins the elections; however, Yama angrily insults him. Raja decides to use the Yamapasam to make Yama a human; however, the plan backfires when Yama ends up with the Yamapasam. After regaining power, Raja flees back to Earth, challenging Yama. Raja finds out about the cruelty that Mahi has suffered and decides to fight back against her cruel family. Raja steals a whip and thrashes her family with it, forcing them to become servants. Raja gets drunk and insults Yama again. This time, Yama decides that he and Chitragupta will enter Bhulokam (Earth) to avenge his insult. Yama disguises himself as the beautiful Dhanalakshmi, and Chitragupta acts like her father.


title: Yamadonga

text: Yama successfully manages in separating Raja and Mahi, whose love prevented Yama from interfering. After Mahi's uncles call upon the goons that previously killed Raja, the chief hitman kidnaps Mahi for himself, and hits Raja with his car. Raja is severely injured and falls off a cliff into the temple of Lord Narasimha in Simhachalam. Yama sends the Yamapasam after him to take his life, however the divine power within the temple drives away the Yamapasam. Yama once again changes his form into Dhanalakshmi to lure Raja out, but Raja reveals that he knows Yama in disguise. Raja begs for only half an hour of life only in order to rescue Mahi, and apologizes to Yama for his sins and all he has said and done. Yama realizes his errors, and becomes sympathetic but regretfully informs him that he cannot call back the Yamapasam. Raja fights off his enemies and is close to death, when suddenly, the chain that followed him his whole life was revealed to have been blessed by Lord Narasimha himself, and it saves Raja's life. Raja and Mahi decide to live together and get married.


title: Yamadonga

text: "Yamadonga" is the third collaboration between S. S. Rajamouli and N. T. Rama Rao Jr. after "Student No.1" (2001) and "Simhadri" (2003). In an interview with "Telugucinema.com", Rajamouli revealed that the basic plot where the hero dies and goes to Yamalokam and comes back to Earth is inspired by the films "Devanthakudu" (1960) and "Yamagola" (1977) which starred Jr NTR's grandfather N. T. Rama Rao. Rajamouli mentioned that apart from the basic plot, "Yamadonga" has no similarities with earlier films.


title: Yamadonga

text: The film also features a scene with Jr NTR alongside his grandfather as an acknowledgement of "Yamagola". Rajamouli worked along with his father V. Vijayendra Prasad to develop the script. Rajamouli chose veteran actor Mohan Babu to play the role of Yama as he felt Mohan Babu was the "perfect and only choice" for the role. Following the suggestion of Rajamouli, Jr NTR underwent extensive weight loss especially for the film. Actress Priyamani is cast opposite Jr NTR. She slipped while walking on the stones and got her ankle sprained with a minor bleeding injury during shooting.


title: Yamadonga

text: Principal photography of the film began in January 2007. Scenes related to Naraka (or Yama Loka) were shot at a specially erected set at Ramoji Film City. A few sequences were filmed at Talakona forest in Andhra Pradesh. A song was shot at Golconda Fort in Hyderabad, for which a waterfall was created at the location.


title: Yamadonga

text: The film was initially planned to release on 9 July 2007, but was ultimately released on 15 August 2007. The Tamil version of the film was released on 29 November 2019 under the title "Vijayan". ARK Rajaraja have written the dialogues for the Tamil version.


title: Yamadonga

text: The DVD version of the film was released on 29 February 2008. This DVD release was distributed by "Tolly2Holly" all around the world, but for India. It is available in Anamorphic widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, progressive 24 FPS, widescreen and NTSC format. The film was also dubbed into Hindi language as "Lok Parlok", and in Odia as "Yamraja".


title: Yamadonga

text: "Oneindia.in" described as "The film is a visual treat for all ages and classes. Rajamouli has done an excellent job molding NTR Jr's character in the film much like his grandfather's and also for bringing NTR back on the screen in an animated form. NTR Jr's overall performance and his dialogue delivery are a joy to watch. Mohanbabu playing 'Yama' once again proved to be the versatile actor that he is".


title: Yamadonga

text: "Sify" gave an "average" verdict explained "This socio-fantasy film works, thanks to the new look of NTR and enigmatic performance of Mohan Babu. The songs and background score of MM Keeravani, the technical aspects and entertainer quotient in the first half make the film watchable". Jeevi of "Idlebrain.com" gave 3/5 stars said "First half of the film is entertaining. The second half should have been better. The plus points of the film are Mohan Babu, NTR, sets, cinematography and music. On the flip side, the screenplay of the film is not gripping in second half (after NTR returns to earth). The runtime of the film is pretty lengthy (3.05 hours)".


title: Yamadonga

text: "Yamadoga" was commercial success, earning distributor a share of over 29 crore. The film ran 50-days in 405 centers. It completed a 100-day run in 32 centres and become one of the top Telugu films of 2007 and gave NTR Jr. a massive success after his previous blockbuster Simhadri.


title: Baiji

text: The baiji (; ; Lipotes vexillifer, "Lipotes" meaning "left behind" and "vexillifer" "flag bearer") is a possibly extinct species of freshwater dolphin native to the Yangtze river system in China. It is thought to be the first dolphin species driven to extinction due to the impact of humans. This dolphin is listed as “critically endangered: possibly extinct” by the IUCN, has not been seen in 20 years, and several surveys of the Yangtze have failed to find it. In China, the species is also called the Chinese river dolphin, Yangtze river dolphin, Yangtze dolphin and whitefin dolphin. Nicknamed the "Goddess of the Yangtze" (), it was regarded as the goddess of protection by local fishermen and boatmen. It is not to be confused with the Chinese white dolphin ("Sousa chinensis") or the finless porpoise ("Neophocaena phocaenoides").


title: Baiji

text: The baiji population declined drastically in decades as China industrialized and made heavy use of the river for fishing, transportation, and hydroelectricity. It has been credibly claimed, after surveys in the Yangtze River during the 1980s, that baiji could be the first dolphin species in history that humans have driven to extinction. A Conservation Action Plan for Cetaceans of the Yangtze River was approved by the Chinese Government in 2001. Efforts were made to conserve the species, but a late 2006 expedition failed to find any baiji in the river. Organizers declared the baiji functionally extinct. The baiji represents the first documented global extinction of an aquatic "megafaunal" vertebrate in over 50 years since the demise of the Japanese sea lion ("Zalophus japonicus") and the Caribbean monk seal ("Neomonachus tropicalis") in the 1950s. It also signified the disappearance of an entire mammal family of river dolphins (Lipotidae). The baiji's extinction would be the first recorded extinction of a well-studied cetacean species (it is unclear if some previously extinct varieties were species or subspecies) to be directly attributable to human influence. The baiji is one of a number of extinctions to have taken place due to the degradation of the Yangtze, alongside that of the Chinese paddlefish, as well as the now extinct in the wild Yangtze sturgeon.


title: Baiji

text: Swiss economist and CEO of the baiji.org Foundation August Pfluger funded an expedition in which an international team, taken in part from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Fisheries Research Agency in Japan, searched for six weeks for signs of the dolphin. The search took place almost a decade after the last exploration in 1997, which turned up only 13 of the cetaceans.


title: Baiji

text: In August 2007, a Chinese man reportedly videotaped a large white animal swimming in the Yangtze. Although the animal was tentatively identified as a baiji, the presence of only one or a few animals, particularly of advanced age, is not enough to save a functionally extinct species from true extinction. The last known living baiji was Qiqi (), who died in 2002. The World Wildlife Fund is calling for the preservation of any possible baiji habitat, in case the species is located and can be revived.


title: Baiji

text: Baiji were thought to breed in the first half of the year, the peak calving season being from February to April. A 30% pregnancy rate was observed. Gestation would last 10–11 months, delivering one calf at a time; the interbirth interval was 2 years. Calves measured around at birth, and nursed for 8–20 months. Males reached sexual maturity at age four, females at age six. Mature males were about (7.5 ft) long, females , the longest specimen . The animal weighed , with a lifespan estimated at 24 years in the wild. The Yangtze River Dolphin is pale blue to gray on the dorsal (back) side, and white on the ventral (belly) side. It has a long and slightly upturned beak with 31–36 conical teeth on either jaw. Its dorsal fin is low and triangular in shape and resembles a light-colored flag when the dolphin swims just below the surface of the murky Yangtze River, hence the name "white-flag" dolphin. It has smaller eyes compared to oceanic dolphins.


title: Baiji

text: When escaping from danger, the baiji can reach , but usually stays within . Because of its poor vision, the baiji relies primarily on sonar for navigation. The sonar system also plays an important role in socializing, predator avoidance, group coordination, and expressing emotions. Sound emission is focused and highly directed by the shape of the skull and melon. Peak frequencies of echolocation clicks are between 70 kHz and 100 kHz.


title: Baiji

text: Historically the baiji occurred along of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze from Yichang in the west to the mouth of the river, near to Shanghai, as well as in Poyang and Dongting lakes, and the smaller Qiantang river to the south. This had been reduced by several hundred kilometres both upstream and downstream, and was limited to the main channel of the Yangtze, principally the middle reaches between the two large tributary lakes, Dongting and Poyang. Approximately 12% of the world's human population lives and works within the Yangtze River catchment area, putting pressure on the river.


title: Baiji

text: The Baiji is not closely related to any living species of dolphin, having diverged from the ancestors of the La Plata dolphin and Amazon River dolphin during the Miocene, estimated to be around 16 million years ago. The closest known relative of the Baiji is "Parapontoporia", native to the Western Coast of North America during the Latest Miocene and Pliocene. The Baiji was one of five species of dolphins known to have made fresh water their exclusive habitat. The other five species, including the boto and the La Plata dolphin, have survived in the Río de la Plata and Amazon rivers in South America and the Ganges and Indus rivers on the Indian subcontinent.


title: Baiji

text: It is well known the river dolphins are not a natural group. Their mitochondrial genome reveals a split of two separate lineages, "Platanista" and "Lipotes" + ("Inia" + "Pontoporia"), having no sister relationship with each other, and the "Platanista" lineage is always within the odontocete clade instead of having a closer affinity to Mysticeti. The position of the "Platanista" is more basal, suggesting separate divergence of this lineage well before the other one. The "Lipotes" has a sister relationship with "Inia + pontoporia", and they together formed the sister group to the Delphinoidea. This result strongly supports paraphyly of the classical river dolphins, and the nonplatanistoid river dolphins do represent a monophyletic grouping, with the Lipotidae as the sister taxa to (Iniidae + Pontoporiidae), and is well congruent with the studies based on short interspersed repetitive elements (SINEs).


title: Baiji

text: Low values of haplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity were found for the baiji of the Yangtze River. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) supported a high level of overall genetic structure. The males having a higher genetic differentiation than the females suggested a significant female-biased dispersal.


title: Baiji

text: The aquatic adaptations of the baiji and other cetaceans have happened slowly and can be linked to positively selected genes (PSGs) and/or other functional changes. Comparative genopic analyses have uncovered that the baiji have a slow molecular clock and molecular adaptations to their aquatic environment. This information leads scientists to conclude that a bottleneck must have occurred near the end of the last deglaciation, a time that coincided with rapid temperature decrease and a rise in eustatic sea level. Scientists have also looked into PSGs in the baiji genome which are used for DNA repair and response to DNA stimulus. These PSGs have not been found in any other mammal species. Pathways being used for DNA repair have been known to have a major impact on brain development and have been implicated in diseases including microcephaly. The slow down of the substitution rate among cetaceans may have been affected by the evolution of DNA damage pathways. Over time, river dolphins, including the baiji, have had a reduction in the size of their eyes and the acuity of their vision. This probably stems from poor visibility in fluvial and estuarine environments. When analyzing the baiji genome, scientists have found that there are four genes that have lost their function due to a frameshift mutation or premature stop codons. The baiji has the lowest single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) frequency reported thus far among mammals. This low frequency could be related to the relatively low rate of molecular evolution in cetaceans; however, considering that the decrease in the rate of molecular evolution in the baiji was not as great as the decrease in heterozygosity rate, it is likely that much of the low genetic diversity observed was caused by the precipitous decline in the total baiji population in recent decades and the associated breedings.


title: Baiji

text: The reconstructed demographic history over the last 100,000 years featured a continual population contraction through the last glacial maximum, a serious bottleneck during the last deglaciation, and sustained population growth after the eustatic sea level approached the current levels. The close correlation between population trends, regional temperatures, and eustatic sea levels suggest a dominant role for global and local climate changes in shaping the baiji's ancient population demography.


title: Baiji

text: Per Chinese folklore, a beautiful young girl is said to have lived with her stepfather on the banks of the river Yangtze. He was evil, and a greedy man out for his own self-interest. One day, he took the girl on a boat, intending to sell her on the market. Out on the river, though, he became infatuated with her beauty and tried to take advantage of her. But she freed herself by plunging into the river whereupon a big storm came and sank the boat. After the storm had thus settled, people saw a beautiful dolphin swimming – the incarnation of the girl – which became known as the "Goddess of the Yangtze". The baiji, in the region of Yangtze, is regarded as a symbol of peace and prosperity.


title: Baiji

text: In the 1950s, the population was estimated at 6,000 animals, but declined rapidly over the subsequent five decades. Only a few hundred were left by 1970. Then the number fell to 400 by the 1980s and then to 13 in 1997 when a full-fledged search was conducted. The baiji was last sighted in August 2004, though there was a possible sighting in 2007. It is listed as an endangered species by the U.S. government under the Endangered Species Act. It is now thought to be extinct.


title: Baiji

text: The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has noted the following as threats to the species: a period of hunting by humans during the Great Leap Forward, entanglement in fishing gear, the illegal practice of electric fishing, collisions with boats and ships, habitat loss, and pollution. Further studies have noted that a lack of information on the baiji's historical distribution or ecology, the environmental impact of the construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the living space of the baiji, and the failure to act for the protection of the baiji are also threats to the species.


title: Baiji

text: During the Great Leap Forward, when traditional veneration of the baiji was denounced, it was hunted for its flesh and skin, and quickly became scarce.


title: Baiji

text: As China developed economically, pressure on the river dolphin grew significantly. Industrial and residential waste flowed into the Yangtze. The riverbed was dredged and reinforced with concrete in many locations. Ship traffic multiplied, boats grew in size, and fishermen employed wider and more lethal nets. Noise pollution caused the nearly blind animal to collide with propellers. Stocks of the dolphin's prey declined drastically in the late 20th century, with some fish populations declining to one thousandth of their pre-industrial levels.


title: Baiji

text: A range of anthropogenic led causes (e.g. boat collisions, dam construction) which also threaten freshwater cetaceans in other river systems, have been implicated in the decline of the baiji population. However, the primary factor was probably unsustainable by-catch in local fisheries, which use rolling hooks, nets (gill nets and fyke nets) and electrofishing; similarly by-catch constitutes the principal cause of mortality in many populations of small cetaceans worldwide. Although there are relatively few data available on baiji mortality, at least half of all known baiji deaths in the 1970s and 1980s were caused by rolling hooks and other fishing gear, and electrofishing accounted for 40% of baiji deaths recorded during the 1990s. Unlike most historical-era extinctions of large-bodied animals, the baiji was


title: Baiji

text: the victim not of active persecution but of incidental mortality resulting from massive-scale human environmental impacts, primarily uncontrolled fishing.


title: Baiji

text: Its extinction merely reflects the latest stage in the progressive ecological deterioration of the Yangtze region. In the 1970s and 1980s, an estimated half of baiji deaths were attributed to entanglement in fishing gear and nets. By the early 2000s, electric fishing was considered "the most important and immediate direct threat to the baiji's survival". Though outlawed, this fishing technique is widely and illegally practiced throughout China. The building of the Three Gorges Dam further reduced the dolphin's habitat and facilitated an increase in ship traffic; these were thought to make it extinct in the wild.


title: Baiji

text: There are some scientists who have found that pollution has resulted in emerging diseases caused by parasitic infection in the Baiji population. The Baiji's reliance on aquatic environments could have resulted in interaction with both terrestrial and marine pathogen risks. Since the Baiji has a limited distribution endemic to the Yangtze River, the freshwater environment may have a higher pathogen level than marine waters (although systematic environmental studies have yet to be conducted). The pathogens in these waters could lead to viral infections that can result in epizootics, which has caused the deaths of thousands of marine mammals over the last twenty years. There have also been captured/killed individuals that have had helminth infestations in the stomach which leads scientists to believe that parasitic infections could be another cause of decline amongst the Baiji.


title: Baiji

text: It has been noted, however, that the declining geographical range that baiji have been spotted in is not connected to the population loss of baiji. A model provided by Yangtze fishing communities show that the baiji population was not connected by geographical range or fragmentation of location, as the baiji make long-term and periodic movements throughout several years. The movements of the baiji left the species unaffected by dwindling geographical range.


title: Baiji

text: During the 1970s, China recognized the precarious state of the river dolphin. The government outlawed deliberate killing, restricted fishing, and established nature reserves.


title: Baiji

text: In 1978, the Chinese Academy of Sciences established the Freshwater Dolphin Research Centre (淡水海豚研究中心) as a branch of the Wuhan Institute of Hydrobiology. In the 1980s and 1990s, several attempts were made to capture dolphins and relocate them to a reserve. A breeding program would then allow the species to recover and be reintroduced to the Yangtze after conditions improve. However, capturing the rare, quick dolphins proved to be difficult, and few captives survived more than a few months.


title: Baiji

text: The first Chinese aquatic species protection organisation, the Baiji Dolphin Conservation Foundation of Wuhan (武汉白鱀豚保护基金), was founded in December 1996. It has raised 1,383,924.35 CNY (about 100,000) and used the funds for in vitro cell preservation and to maintain the baiji facilities, including the Shishou Sanctuary that was flooded in 1998.


title: Baiji

text: Since 1992, five protected areas of the Yangtze have been designated as baiji reserves. Four were built in the main Yangtze channel where baiji are actively protected and fishing is banned: two national reserves (Shishou City and Xin-Luo) and two provincial (Tongling and Zhenjiang). In the past 20 years, five nature reserves have been


title: Baiji

text: in the reserves have not yet kept the baiji population from sharply declining. As humans continue to occupy the river and use the natural resources it provided, the question as to whether the river itself can reach a point later in the future to become a habitat for these species to live in once again remained, for the most part, unanswered by conservationists. In Shishou, Hubei Province, and Tongling, Anhui Province, the two semi-natural reserves established in these regions aimed to build in an environment for the baiji, as well as another mammalian species, the finless porpoise, to breed. Through careful management, both these species not only survived, but did in fact reproduce successfully enough to


title: Baiji

text: The fifth protected area is an isolated oxbow lake located off of the north bank of the river near to Shishou City: the Tian-e-Zhou Oxbow Semi-natural Reserve. Combined, these five reserves cover just over , about of the baijis range, leaving two-thirds of the species' habitat unprotected.


title: Baiji

text: As well as these five protected areas there are also five "Protection Stations" in Jianli, Chenglingji, Hukou, Wuhu and Zhengjiang. These stations consist of two observers and a motorized fishing boat with the aim of conducting daily patrols, making observations and investigating reports of illegal fishing.


title: Baiji

text: In 2001, the Chinese government approved a Conservation Action Plan for Cetaceans of the Yangtze River. This plan re-emphasised the three measures identified at the 1986 workshop and was adopted as the national policy for the conservation of the Baiji. Despite all of these workshops and conventions little money was available in China to aid the conservation efforts. It has been estimated that US$1 million was needed to begin the project and maintain it for a further 3 years.


title: Baiji

text: Efforts to save the mammals proved to be too little and too late. August Pfluger, chief executive of the Baiji.org Foundation, said, "The strategy of the Chinese government was a good one, but we didn't have time to put it into action." Furthermore, the conservation attempts have been criticized, as even with the international attention about the need for conservation for the baiji, the Chinese government did not "[make] any serious investment" to protect the baiji.


title: Baiji

text: Most scientists agreed that the best course of action was an "ex situ" effort working in parallel with an "in situ" effort. The deterioration of the Yangtze River had to be reversed to preserve the habitat. The ex-situ projects aimed to raise a large enough population over time so that some, if not all, of the dolphins could be returned to the Yangtze, so the habitat within the river had to be maintained anyway.


title: Baiji

text: The Shishou Tian-e-Zhou is a long, wide oxbow lake located near Shishou City in Hubei Province. Shishou has been described as being "like a miniature Yangtze ... possessing all of the requirements for a semi-natural reserve". From the designation as a national reserve in 1992 it has been intended to be used for not only the baiji but also the Yangtze finless porpoise. In 1990 the first finless porpoises were relocated to the reserve and since then have been surviving and reproducing well. As of April 2005 26 finless porpoises were known to live in the reserve. A baiji was introduced in December 1995, but died during the summer flood of 1996. To deal with these annual floods a dyke was constructed between the Yangtze and Shishou. Now water is controlled from a sluice gate located at the downstream mouth of the oxbow lake. It has been reported that since the installation of this sluice gate, water quality has declined since no annual transfer of nutrients can occur. Roughly 6,700 people live on the island within the oxbow lake and so some limited fishing is permitted.


title: Baiji

text: The success of Shishou with the porpoises and with migratory birds and other wetland fauna encouraged the local Wetlands Management Team to put forward an application to award the site Ramsar status. It has also been noted that the site has incredible potential for ecotourism, which could be used to generate much needed revenue to improve the quality of the reserve. The necessary infrastructure does not currently exist to realize these opportunities.


title: Baiji

text: A baiji conservation dolphinarium was established at the Institute of Hydrobiology (IHB) in Wuhan in 1980, and rebuilt in 1992. This was planned as a backup to any other conservation efforts by producing an area completely protected from any threats, and where the baiji could be easily observed. The site includes an indoor and outdoor holding pool, a water filtration system, food storage and preparation facilities, research labs and a small museum. The aim is to also generate income from tourism which can be put towards the baiji plight. The pools are not very large ( arc [kidney shaped] × wide × deep, diameter, deep and diameter, deep) and so are not capable of holding many baijis at one time.


title: Baiji

text: Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine documented their encounters with the endangered animals on their conservation travels for the BBC programme "Last Chance to See". Through firsthand experience, they went to China, drinking Baiji beer and Baiji cola, staying in the Baiji Hotel and using Lipotes vexillifer toilet paper. They came across Baiji weighing scales and Baiji fertilizer. They met Qi Qi, the beautiful bluish-grey dolphin with a long, narrow, slightly upturned beak, a low triangular dorsal fin, broad flippers with tiny eyes. Qi-Qi was just a year old then, injured by fishing hooks in 1980 and taken into captivity to be nursed back to health. Out of the seven times Mark and Douglas had visited China, never did they encounter a wild and free Yangtze river dolphin. It is even more impossible now with the likelihood that Lipotes vexillfer may be the first cetacean to have been driven to extinction by human activity. The book by the same name, published in 1990, included pictures of a captive specimen, a male named Qi Qi (淇淇) that lived in the Wuhan Institute of Hydrobiology dolphinarium from 1980 to July 14, 2002. Discovered by a fisherman in Dongting Lake, he became the sole resident of the Baiji Dolphinarium (白鱀豚水族馆) beside East Lake. A sexually mature female was captured in late 1995, but died after half a year in 1996 when the Tian-e-Zhou Oxbow Nature Reserve (石首半自然白鱀豚保护区), which had contained only finless porpoises since 1990, was flooded.


title: Baiji

text: The Xinhua News Agency announced on December 4, 2006, that no Chinese river dolphins were detected in a six-week survey of the Yangtze River conducted by 30 researchers. The failure of the Yangtze Freshwater Dolphin Expedition () raised suspicions of the first unequivocal extinction of a cetacean species due to human action (some extinct baleen whale populations might not have been distinct species). Poor water and weather conditions may have prevented sightings, but expedition leaders declared it "functionally extinct" on December 13, 2006, as fewer are likely to be alive than are needed to propagate the species. However, footage believed to be a baiji from August 2007 was released to the public.


title: Baiji

text: The Japanese sea lion and Caribbean monk seal disappeared in the 1950s, the most recent aquatic mammals to become extinct. Several land-based mammal species and subspecies have disappeared since then. If the baiji is extinct, the vaquita ("Phocoena sinus") has become the most endangered marine mammal species.


title: Baiji

text: A report of the expedition was published online in the journal "Biology Letters" on August 7, 2007, in which the authors conclude "We are forced to conclude that the baiji is now likely to be extinct, probably due to unsustainable by-catch in local fisheries".


title: Baiji

text: "Witness to Extinction: How We Failed To Save The Yangtze River Dolphin", an account of the 2006 baiji survey by Samuel Turvey, the lead author of the "Biology Letters" paper, was published by Oxford University Press in autumn 2008. This book investigated the baiji's probable extinction within the wider-scale context of how and why international efforts to conserve the species had failed, and whether conservation recovery programmes for other threatened species were likely to face similar potentially disastrous administrative hurdles.


title: Baiji

text: Some reports suggest that information about the baiji and its demise is being suppressed in China. Other reports cite government media English language reports in China Central Television and Xinhua News Agency as evidence to the contrary.


title: Baiji

text: In August 2007, Zeng Yujiang reportedly videotaped a large white animal swimming in the Yangtze in Anhui Province. Wang Kexiong of the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has tentatively confirmed that the animal on the video is a baiji.


title: Baiji

text: On October 11, 2007, Chinese state media announced that under a development plan an additional 4,000,000 people will be relocated from their homes near the dam by 2020 due to ecological concerns, while a forum of officials and experts warned of a possible "environmental catastrophe" if preventive measures are not taken. Currently, the quality of water in the Yangtze is falling rapidly, due to the dam's preventing dispersal of pollutants; algae blooms have risen progressively since the dam's construction; and soil erosion has increased, causing riverbank collapses and landslides. The report detailing this was officially released in September 2007. Senior Chinese government officials and scholars said the dam could cause a "huge disaster ... if steps are not taken promptly." The same scholars and officials previously had defended the Three Gorges Dam project. Xinhua also reported that tens of billions of yuan had been spent to prevent pollution and geological disasters by tree planting, measures to maintain species diversification, shutting down 1,500 polluting industrial and mining enterprises and building 70 sewage and waste treatment plants, all of which are "progressing well."


title: Baiji

text: In October 2016 several news sources announced a recent sighting of what has been speculated to be a baiji. However, the purported re-discovery was disputed by the conservation biologist Samuel Turvey, who was a member of the 2006 survey team. Turvey instead proposed to shift conservation focus to the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise, the only freshwater cetaceans left in China.


title: Baiji

text: There was a sighting claimed to belong to Baiji surfacing along with a pod of finless porpoises at Tongling in Anhui province in April 2018.


title: Czech koruna

text: The crown, or koruna, (sign: Kč; code: CZK, ) has been the currency of the Czech Republic since 1993. The crown is one of the European Union's 9 currencies, and the Czech Republic is legally bound to adopt the euro currency in the future.


title: Czech koruna

text: The official name in Czech is (plural , though the zero-grade genitive plural form is used on banknotes and coins of value 5 Kč or higher). The ISO 4217 code is CZK and the local acronym is Kč, which is placed after the numeric value (e.g., "50 Kč") or sometimes before it (as is seen on the 10-koruna coin). One crown is made up of 100 "hellers" (abbreviated as "h", official name in Czech: singular: , nominative plural: , genitive plural: – used with numbers higher or equal to 5 – e.g. ), but hellers have now been withdrawn from circulation, and the smallest unit of physical currency is 1 Kč.


title: Czech koruna

text: In 1892, the Austro-Hungarian crown replaced the florin, at the rate of one florin to two crowns (which is also the reason why the 10 Kč coin had been nicknamed or "fiver" - and has been in use in informal conversation up until nowadays). The name was suggested by the emperor, Franz Joseph I of Austria. After Austria-Hungary dissolved in 1918, Czechoslovakia was the only successor state to retain the name of its imperial-era currency. In the late 1920s, the Czechoslovak crown was the hardest currency in Europe. During the Second World War, the currency on the occupied Czech territory was artificially weakened. The Czechoslovak crown was restored after the war. It underwent a highly controversial monetary reform in 1953.


title: Czech koruna

text: The Czech crown replaced the Czechoslovakian crown when it was introduced in 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. It first consisted of overstamped 20 Kčs, 50 Kčs, 100 Kčs, 500 Kčs, and 1,000 Kčs banknotes, and a new series was properly introduced in 1993.


title: Czech koruna

text: In November 2013, the Czech National Bank (ČNB) intervened to weaken the exchange rate of the crown through a monetary stimulus to stop the currency from excessive strengthening. This was meant to support the Czech economy, mainly focused on export, but people were unhappy about this step because it was set up before Christmas, which led to raising the prices of imported goods. In late 2016, the ČNB stated that the return to conventional monetary policy was planned for mid-2017. After higher-than-expected inflation and other figures, the national bank removed the cap at a special monetary meeting on April 6, 2017. The crown avoided significant volatility and City Index Group stated: "If you want to drop a currency peg, then the ČNB can show you how to do it".


title: Czech koruna

text: The Czech Republic planned to adopt the euro in 2010, but its government suspended that plan indefinitely in 2005. Although the country is economically well positioned to adopt the euro, there is considerable opposition to the move within the Czech Republic. According to a survey conducted in April 2014, only 16% of the Czech population was in favour of replacing the crown with the euro. As reported by an April 2018 survey by CVVM (Public Opinion Research Center), this value has remained at nearly identical levels over the past four years, with only 20% of the Czech population above 15 years old supporting euro adoption.


title: Czech koruna

text: In 1993, coins were introduced in denominations of 10, 20 and 50 hellers (h), 1 Kč, 2 Kč, 5 Kč, 10 Kč, 20 Kč and 50 Kč. The 10 h and 20 h coins were taken out of circulation by 31 October 2003 and the 50 h coins by 31 August 2008 due to their diminishing purchasing power and circulation. However, financial amounts are still written with the accuracy of 1-haléř (CZK 0.01); prices in retail shops are usually multiples of CZK 0.10. When cash transactions are made, the amount is rounded to the nearest integer.


title: Czech koruna

text: In 2000, the 10 Kč and 20 Kč coins were minted with different obverses to commemorate the millennium. In 1993 and 1994, coins were minted in Winnipeg and Hamburg, then in the Czech Republic. The 10 Kč and 50 Kč coins were designed by (1934–2007).


title: Czech koruna

text: Since 1997, sets for collectors are also issued yearly with proof-quality coins. Also, a tradition exists of issuing commemorative coins – including silver and gold coins – for numismatic purposes.


title: Czech koruna

text: The first Czech banknotes were issued on 8 February 1993 and consisted of Czechoslovak notes with adhesive stamps affixed to them. Only the 100 Kčs, 500 Kčs and 1,000 Kčs notes were overstamped, the lower denominations circulated unchanged during this transitional period. Each stamp bears a Roman and Arabic numeral identifying the denomination of the banknote to which it is affixed (C and 100, D and 500, M and 1,000). Subsequent issues of the 1,000 Kč note replaced the adhesive stamp with a printed image of same.


title: Czech koruna

text: A newly designed series of banknotes in denominations of 20 Kč, 50 Kč, 100 Kč, 200 Kč, 500 Kč, 1,000 Kč and 5,000 Kč were introduced later in 1993 and are still in use at present – except for 20 Kč, 50 Kč and the first versions of 1,000 Kč and 5,000 Kč notes, since the security features of 1,000 Kč and 5,000 Kč notes were upgraded in the subsequent issues (The 2,000 Kč note, which was introduced in 1996, is still valid in all versions, with and without the new security features). These banknotes feature renowned Czech persons on the obverse and abstract compositions on the reverse. Modern protective elements can be found on all banknotes.


title: Czech koruna

text: In 2007, the Czech National Bank started issuing new upgraded banknotes with upgraded security features. These include a new colour-shifting security thread, additional watermarks and EURion constellations. The first denomination to be issued with the new features was the 2,000 Kč, followed by the 1,000 Kč in 2008, the 500 Kč and 5,000 Kč in 2009 and finally ending with the issuance of the 100 Kč and 200 Kč notes in 2018.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to distinguish him from his British counterpart Kenneth J. Alford. Among his best-known marches are "The Stars and Stripes Forever" (National March of the United States of America), "Semper Fidelis" (official march of the United States Marine Corps), "The Liberty Bell", "The Thunderer", and "The Washington Post".


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Sousa began his career playing violin and studying music theory and composition under John Esputa and George Felix Benkert. His father enlisted him in the United States Marine Band as an apprentice in 1868. He left the band in 1875, and over the next five years, he performed as a violinist and learned to conduct. In 1880 he rejoined the Marine Band, and he served there for 12 years as director, after which he was hired to conduct a band organized by David Blakely, P.S. Gilmore's former agent. Blakely wanted to compete with Gilmore. From 1880 until his death, he focused exclusively on conducting and writing music. Sousa aided in the development of the sousaphone, a large brass instrument similar to the helicon and tuba.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Upon the outbreak of World War I, Sousa was awarded a wartime commission of lieutenant commander to lead the Naval Reserve Band in Illinois. He then returned to conduct the Sousa Band until he died in 1932. In the 1920s, he was promoted to the permanent rank of lieutenant commander in the naval reserve.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: John Philip Sousa was born in Washington, D.C., the third of ten children of João António de Sousa (John Anthony Sousa) (September 22, 1824 – April 27, 1892), who was born in Spain to Portuguese parents, and his wife Maria Elisabeth Trinkhaus (May 20, 1826 – August 25, 1908), who was German and from Bavaria. He began his music education under the tuition of John Esputa Sr., who taught him solfeggio. This was short-lived, however, because of the teacher's frequent bad temper. His real music education began in 1861 or 1862 as a pupil of John Esputa Jr., the son of his previous teacher under whom Sousa studied violin, piano, flute, several brass instruments, and singing. Esputa shared his father's bad temper, and the relationship between teacher and pupil was often strained, but Sousa progressed very rapidly and was also found to have perfect pitch. He wrote his first composition, "An Album Leaf", during this period, but Esputa dismissed it as "bread and cheese", and the composition was subsequently lost.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: His father was a trombonist in the Marine Band, and he enlisted Sousa in the United States Marine Corps as an apprentice at age 13 to keep him from joining a circus band. In the same year he began studying music under George Felix Benkert. Sousa was enlisted under a minority enlistment, meaning that he would not be discharged until his 21st birthday.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Sousa completed his apprenticeship in 1875 and began performing on the violin. He then joined a theatrical pit orchestra where he learned to conduct. He returned to the Marine Band as its head in 1880 and remained as its conductor until 1892. He led "The President's Own" band under five presidents from Rutherford B. Hayes to Benjamin Harrison. His band played at the inaugural balls of James A. Garfield in 1881 and Benjamin Harrison in 1889.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: The marching brass bass or sousaphone is a modified helicon created in 1893 by Philadelphia instrument maker J. W. Pepper at Sousa's request, using several of his suggestions in its design. He wanted a tuba that could sound upward and over the band whether its player was seated or marching. C.G. Conn recreated the instrument in 1898, and this was the model that Sousa preferred to use.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Sousa organized The Sousa Band the year that he left the Marine Band, and it toured from 1892 to 1931 and performed at 15,623 concerts, both in America and around the world, including at the World Exposition in Paris and at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In Paris, the Sousa Band marched through the streets to the Arc de Triomphe, one of only eight parades that the band marched in during its 40 years.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: In 1868, Sousa enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 13 as an apprentice musician (his rank listed as "boy"). He left the Marine Corps in 1875. His second period of service began in 1880 and continued until 1892. During this period, Sousa led the Marine Band through its development into the country's premier military band.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: The Columbia Phonograph Company produced 60 recordings of the Marine Band conducted by Sousa, which led to his national fame. In July 1892, Sousa requested a discharge from the Marine Corps to pursue a financially promising civilian career as a band leader. He conducted a farewell concert at the White House on July 30, 1892, and was discharged from the Marine Corps the next day.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Sousa was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve on May 31, 1917, shortly after the United States declared war on Germany and entered World War I. He was 62 years old, the mandatory retirement age for Navy officers. During the war, he led the Navy Band at the Great Lakes Naval Station near Chicago, and he donated all of his naval salary except a token $1 per month to the Sailors' and Marines' Relief Fund. He was discharged from active duty after the end of the war in November 1918 and returned to conducting his own band. In the early 1920s, he was promoted to lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve but did not return to active duty. He frequently wore his Navy uniform during performances for the remainder of his life.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: For his service during the war, Sousa received the World War I Victory Medal and was elected as a Veteran Companion of the Military Order of Foreign Wars. He was also a member of the New York Athletic Club and Post 754 of the American Legion.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: On December 30, 1879, Sousa married Jane van Middlesworth Bellis (1862–1944), and their children were John Philip, Jr. (April 1, 1881 – May 18, 1937), Jane Priscilla (August 7, 1882 – October 28, 1958), and Helen (January 21, 1887 – October 14, 1975). All were buried in the John Philip Sousa plot in the Congressional Cemetery. Jane was descended from Adam Bellis who served in the New Jersey troops during the American Revolutionary War.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: On March 15, 1881, the "March King" was initiated to the Scottish Rite Freemasonry in the Hiram Lodge No. 10, Washington, DC and later became Master Mason for 51 years.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Late in his life, Sousa lived in Sands Point, New York. He died of heart failure at age 77 on March 6, 1932, in his room at the Abraham Lincoln Hotel in Reading, Pennsylvania. He had conducted a rehearsal of "The Stars and Stripes Forever" the previous day with the Ringgold Band as its guest conductor. He is buried in Washington, D.C.'s Congressional Cemetery. His house Wildbank has been designated as a National Historic Landmark, although it remains a private home and is not open to the public.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Sousa has surviving descendants today; one of his great-grandsons, John Philip Sousa IV, works as a political activist for the Republican Party.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Sousa was decorated with the palms of the Order of Public Instruction of Portugal and the Order of Academic Palms of France. He also received the Royal Victorian Medal from King Edward VII of the United Kingdom in December 1901 for conducting a private birthday concert for Queen Alexandra.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: In 1922, he accepted the invitation of the national chapter to become an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national honorary band fraternity. In 1932, he was initiated as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a national fraternity for men in music, by the fraternity's Alpha Xi chapter at the University of Illinois.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: The World War II Liberty ship was named in his honor. The Marine Band possesses the ship's bell, using it in performances of the "Liberty Bell March".


title: John Philip Sousa

text: In 1952, 20th Century Fox honored Sousa in their Technicolor feature film "Stars and Stripes Forever" with Clifton Webb portraying him. It was loosely based on Sousa's memoirs "Marching Along".


title: John Philip Sousa

text: In 1987, an act of Congress named "The Stars and Stripes Forever" as the national march of the United States.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Sousa was a member of the Sons of the Revolution, Military Order of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Freemasons, and the Society of Artists and Composers. He was also a member of the Salmagundi, Players, Musicians, New York Athletic, Lambs, Army and Navy and the Gridiron clubs of Washington.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Sousa wrote over 130 marches, 15 operettas, 5 overtures, 11 suites, 24 dances, 28 fantasies, and countless arrangements of nineteenth-century western European symphonic works.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Sousa wrote over 130 marches, published by Harry Coleman of Philadelphia, Carl Fischer Music, the John Church Company, and the Sam Fox Publishing Company, the last association beginning in 1917 and continuing until his death. Some of his more well-known marches include:


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Sousa wrote marches for several American universities, including the University of Minnesota, University of Illinois, University of Nebraska, Kansas State University, Marquette University, Pennsylvania Military College (Widener University), and the University of Michigan.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Marches and waltzes have been derived from many of these stage-works. Sousa also composed the music for six operettas that were either unfinished or not produced: "The Devils' Deputy", "Florine", "The Irish Dragoon", "Katherine", "The Victory", and "The Wolf".


title: John Philip Sousa

text: In addition, Sousa wrote a march based on themes from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera "The Mikado", the elegant overture "Our Flirtations", several musical suites, etc. He frequently added Sullivan opera overtures or other Sullivan pieces to his concerts.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Sousa ranked as one of the all-time great trapshooters and was enshrined in the Trapshooting Hall of Fame. He organized the first national trapshooting organization, a forerunner to today's Amateur Trapshooting Association (ATA). He also wrote numerous articles about trapshooting. He was a regular competitor representing the Navy in trapshooting competitions, particularly against the Army. Records indicate that he registered more than 35,000 targets during his shooting career. "Let me say that just about the sweetest music to me is when I call, 'pull,' the old gun barks, and the referee in perfect key announces, 'dead'."


title: John Philip Sousa

text: In his 1902 novella "The Fifth String", a virtuoso violinist makes a deal with the Devil for a magic violin with five strings. The first four strings excite the emotions of Pity, Hope, Love, and Joy, but the fifth string, made from the hair of Eve, will cause the player's death once played. The violinist wins the love of the woman he desires, but out of jealous suspicion, she commands him to play the death string, which he does. He published "Pipetown Sandy" in 1905, which includes a satirical poem titled "The Feast of the Monkeys". He wrote a 40,000-word story entitled "The Transit of Venus" in 1920. He also wrote the booklet "A manual for trumpet and drum", published by the Ludwig Drum Company with advice for playing drums and trumpet. An early version of the trumpet solo to "Semper Fidelis" was included in this volume.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Sousa held a very low opinion of the emerging recording industry. He derided recordings as "canned music", a reference to the early wax cylinder records that came in can-like cylindrical cardboard boxes. He argued to a congressional hearing in 1906:


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Sousa's antipathy to recording was such that he did not conduct his band when it was being recorded. Nevertheless, the band made numerous recordings, the earliest being issued on cylinders by several companies, followed by many recordings on discs by the Berliner Gramophone Company and its successor, the Victor Talking Machine Company (later RCA Victor). The Berliner recordings were conducted by Henry Higgins (one of Sousa's cornet soloists) and Arthur Pryor (Sousa's trombone soloist and assistant conductor). Sousa claimed that he had "never been in the gramophone company's office in my life". Sousa did conduct a few of the Victor recordings, but most were conducted by Pryor, Herbert L. Clarke, Edwin H. Clarke, Walter B. Rogers (who had also been a cornet soloist with Sousa), Rosario Bourdon, Josef Pasternack, or Nathaniel Shilkret. Details of the Victor recordings are available in the external link below to the EDVR.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Sousa also appeared with his band in newsreels and on radio broadcasts, beginning with a 1929 nationwide broadcast on NBC. In 1999, "Legacy" Records released some of his historic recordings on CD.


title: John Philip Sousa

text: Even after his death, Sousa continues to be remembered as "The March King" through the John Philip Sousa Foundation. The non-profit organization, founded in 1981, recognizes one superior student in marching band for "musicianship, dependability, loyalty, and cooperation." The John Philip Sousa Foundation provides awards, scholarships, and projects such as The Sudler Trophy, The Sudler Shield, The Sudler Silver Scroll, The Sudler Flag of Honor, The Historic Roll of Honor, The Sudler Cup, The Hawkins Scholarship, National Young Artists, The National Community Band, and The Junior Honor Band Project. He won many honorable awards across his lifetime.


title: Eccentricity (behavior)

text: Eccentricity (also called quirkiness) is an unusual or odd behavior on the part of an individual. This behavior would typically be perceived as unusual or unnecessary, without being demonstrably maladaptive. Eccentricity is contrasted with normal behavior, the nearly universal means by which individuals in society solve given problems and pursue certain priorities in everyday life. People who consistently display benignly eccentric behavior are labeled as "eccentrics".


title: Eccentricity (behavior)

text: From Medieval Latin "eccentricus", derived from Greek ', "out of the center", from '-, '- "out of" + ', "center". "Eccentric" first appeared in English essays as a neologism in 1551 as an astronomical term meaning "a circle in which the earth, sun, etc. deviates from its center." Five years later, in 1556, an adjective form of the word was used. In 1685, the definition evolved from the literal to the figurative, and "eccentric" is noted to have begun being used to describe unconventional or odd behavior. A noun form of the word – a person who possesses and exhibits these unconventional or odd qualities and behaviors – appeared by 1832.


title: Eccentricity (behavior)

text: Eccentricity is often associated with genius, intellectual giftedness, or creativity. People may perceive the individual's eccentric behavior as the outward expression of their unique intelligence or creative impulse. In this vein, the eccentric's habits are incomprehensible not because they are illogical or the result of madness, but because they stem from a mind so original that it cannot be conformed to societal norms. English utilitarian thinker John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) wrote that "the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigour, and moral courage which it contained", and mourned a lack of eccentricity as "the chief danger of the time". Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) wrote that eccentricity is "often a kind of innocent pride", also saying that geniuses and aristocrats are called eccentrics because "they are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd". Eccentricity is also associated with great wealth — what would be considered signs of insanity in a poor person, some may accept as eccentricity in wealthy people.


title: Eccentricity (behavior)

text: A person who is simply in a "fish out of water" situation is not, by the strictest definition, an eccentric since (presumably) they may be ordinary by the conventions of their native environment.


title: Eccentricity (behavior)

text: Eccentrics may or may not comprehend the standards for normal behavior in their culture. They are simply unconcerned by society's disapproval of their habits or beliefs.


title: Eccentricity (behavior)

text: Some eccentrics are pejoratively considered "cranks" rather than geniuses. Eccentric behavior is often considered whimsical or quirky, although it can also be strange and disturbing. Many individuals previously considered merely eccentric, such as aviation magnate Howard Hughes, have recently been retrospectively diagnosed as actually having had mental disorders (obsessive–compulsive disorder in Hughes' case).


title: Eccentricity (behavior)

text: Other people may have an eccentric taste in clothes, or eccentric hobbies or collections they pursue with great vigor. They may have a pedantic and precise manner of speaking, intermingled with inventive wordplay. Many of these behaviors share the characteristics of someone with an autistic spectrum disorder, such as the eccentric hobbies or the pedantic speech.


title: Eccentricity (behavior)

text: Many individuals may even manifest eccentricities consciously and deliberately in an attempt to differentiate themselves from societal norms or enhance a sense of inimitable identity. Given the overwhelmingly positive stereotypes (at least in popular culture and especially with fictional characters) often associated with eccentricity, as detailed above, certain individuals seek to be associated with this sort of character type. However, this is not always successful as eccentric individuals are not necessarily charismatic and the individual in question may simply be dismissed by others as just seeking attention.


title: Eccentricity (behavior)

text: Extravagance is a kind of eccentricity, related to abundance and wastefulness; refer to description in hyperbole.


title: Eccentricity (behavior)

text: Psychologist David Weeks believes people with a mental illness suffer from their behavior, while eccentrics are quite happy. He even states eccentrics are "less" prone to mental illness than everyone else.


title: Eccentricity (behavior)

text: According to Weeks' study, there are several distinctive characteristics that often differentiate a healthy eccentric person from a regular person or someone who has a mental illness. The first five characteristics on Weeks' list are found in most people regarded as eccentric:


title: True hermaphroditism

text: True hermaphroditism, sometimes referred to as ovotesticular syndrome, is an intersex condition in which an individual is born with both ovarian and testicular tissue. Commonly, one or both gonads is an ovotestis containing both types of tissue.


title: True hermaphroditism

text: Although it is similar in some ways to mixed gonadal dysgenesis, the conditions can be distinguished histologically.


title: True hermaphroditism

text: The first medical attempts to document cases appeared in the 16th century. Up until the Late Middle Ages individuals with these conditions were viewed as monsters.


title: True hermaphroditism

text: In ovotesticular syndrome, XX is the most common (55-80% of cases); most individuals with this form are SRY negative.


title: True hermaphroditism

text: Next most common are XX/XY (20-30% of cases) and XY (5-15% of cases), with the remainder being a variety of other chromosomal anomalies and mosaicisms.


title: True hermaphroditism

text: Encountered karyotypes include 46XX/46XY, or 46XX/47XXY or XX & XY with SRY mutations, mixed chromosomal anomalies or hormone deficiency/excess disorders, 47XXY.


title: True hermaphroditism

text: The exact number of confirmed cases is uncertain, but by 1991 approximately 500 cases had been confirmed.


title: True hermaphroditism

text: The gonad most likely to function is the ovary. The ovotestes show evidence of ovulation in 50% of cases. Spermatogenesis has only been observed in solitary testes and not in the testicular portions of ovotestes. According to a 1994 study, spermatogenesis has only been proven in two cases. One of the two cases, having XX,46/XY,46 mixture had fathered a child.


title: True hermaphroditism

text: In 1994 a study on 283 cases found 21 pregnancies from 10 true hermaphrodites, while one allegedly fathered a child.


title: True hermaphroditism

text: As of 2010, there have been at least 11 reported cases of fertility in true hermaphrodite humans in the scientific literature, with one case of a person with XY-predominant (96%) mosaic giving birth. All known offspring have been male. There has been at least one case of an individual being fertile as a male.


title: True hermaphroditism

text: There is a hypothetical scenario, in which it could be possible for a human to self-fertilize. If a human chimera is formed from a male and female zygote fusing into a single embryo, giving an individual functional gonadal tissue of both types, such self-fertilization is feasible. Indeed, it is known to occur in non-human species where hermaphroditic animals are common. However, no such case of functional self-fertilization or true bisexuality has been documented in humans.


title: True hermaphroditism

text: The term derives from the , from , which derives from Hermaphroditos (Ἑρμαϕρόδιτος), the son of Hermes and Aphrodite in Greek mythology. According to Ovid, he fused with the nymph Salmacis resulting in one individual possessing physical traits of both sexes; according to the earlier Diodorus Siculus, he was born with a physical body combining both sexes. Usage of the term dates back to the third century BC. The word "hermaphrodite" entered the English lexicon in the late fourteenth century.


title: True hermaphroditism

text: Having ovotesticular syndrome of sexual development can make one inadmissible for service in the United States Armed Forces.


title: True hermaphroditism

text: The U.S. legal case of "M.C. v. Aaronson", advanced by intersex civil society organization interACT with the Southern Poverty Law Center, was brought before the courts in 2013. The child in the case was born in December 2004 with ovotestes, initially determined as male, but subsequently assigned female and placed in the care of South Carolina Department of Social Services in February 2005. Physicians responsible for M.C. initially concluded that surgery was not urgent or necessary and M.C. had potential to identify as male or female, but, in April 2006, M.C. was subjected to feminizing medical interventions. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "The reconstruction of female genitalia was more readily performed than the reconstruction of male genitalia, so ambiguous individuals often were made to be female." He was adopted in December 2006. M.C. identified as male at the time the case was brought, at age eight. The defendant in the case, Dr. Ian Aaronson, had written in 2001 that "feminizing genitoplasty on an infant who might eventually identify herself as a boy would be catastrophic".


title: True hermaphroditism

text: The defendants sought to dismiss the case and seek a defense of qualified immunity, but these were denied by the District Court for the District of South Carolina. In January 2015, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed this decision and dismissed the complaint, stating that, it did not "mean to diminish the severe harm that M.C. claims to have suffered" but that in 2006 it was not clear that there was precedent that the surgery on a sixteen-month-old violated an established constitutional right. The Court did not rule on whether or not the surgery violated M.C.'s constitutional rights.


title: True hermaphroditism

text: State suits were subsequently filed. In July 2017, it was reported that the case had been settled out of court by the Medical University of South Carolina for $440,000. The university denied negligence, but agreed to a "compromise" settlement to avoid "costs of litigation."


title: Paul Schäfer

text: Paul Schäfer Schneider (4 December 1921 – 24 April 2010) was a Nazi, child rapist, German-Chilean Christian minister and the founder and leader of a sect and agricultural commune of 300 German immigrants called Colonia Dignidad ("Dignity Colony") (later renamed Villa Baviera) located in Parral in southern Chile, about south of Santiago from 1961 to 2005. Schäfer led his followers in the teachings of William Branham. Aside from human rights abuses against members of Colonia Dignidad, including the sexual and physical abuse (including torture) of young children, Schäfer maintained a relationship with Pinochet's military dictatorship (1973–1990) and was involved in weapons smuggling and the torture and extrajudicial killings of political dissidents. After the end of Pinochet's government, increased public awareness of the activities of Colonia Dignidad following testimony by former victims led to the issuing of a warrant for Schäfer's arrest. Living underground for eight years, he spent the last five years of his life in prison in Chile.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: Schäfer was born the town of Troisdorf, near Bonn, Germany, to Anna (née Schneider) and Jakob Schäfer. He was described as a poor and clumsy student. Schäfer's family was Lutheran. In an accident with a fork, he lost his right eye. He joined a German YMCA-„Eichenkreuz“-Group.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: During World War II he served by carrying stretchers of the wounded in a German field hospital in occupied France, later in life claiming that his glass eye was the result of a war wound.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: Following World War II in 1945, Schäfer served as a young people's leader in the Evangelical Free Church. He was removed from his position there after rumors arose that he was molesting young boys. He then set out as an itinerant preacher and singer, traveling around Germany and preaching. During the 1950s, Schäfer became a follower and promoter of the teachings of American preacher, William M. Branham, one of the founders of the post-World War II healing revival who was also an influence on Jim Jones. Schäfer had been following the ministry of Branham from Germany, and was very excited when Branham made a personal visit to Germany in 1955. Schäfer and other members of his church served as William Branham's personal security detail on his 1955 European tour. Branham advocated "a strict adherence to the Bible, a woman's duty to obey her husband and apocalyptic visions, such as Los Angeles sinking beneath the ocean." Branham held multiple revival campaigns across Europe and Germany during the early 1950s. Schäfer became a friend of Branham who promoted a return to "a more pristine time" of religious and racial purity.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: "Strong ties were forged" between Schäfer, William Branham, and Ewald Frank during Branham's time in Germany. Schafer "was completely fascinated" by Branham, "not only because of his supposed healings, but because behind the latter rain doctrine, the axis of what Branham preached, there was a totalitarian, misogynistic and apocalyptic message, perfect for brainwash all those who were willing to follow him." William Branham's second sermon during his visit to Karlsruhe, Germany, left a deep impression on Schäfer. The sermon was about the Pool of Bethesda, and in it Branham strongly taught that all illness and all sin are actually demons entrenched in the people's bodies. Schäfer claimed to experience a healing in the meeting, and thereafter began to preach very strongly teach that all sin and illness was the result of demonic possession. Following the 1955 meetings with Branham, Schäfer began to put more of William Branham's doctrines into practice in his group, and began to insist to his followers that they were the only "only faithful ones" to William Branham's teachings.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: By 1952 Schäfer had gathered a number of followers and in 1953 set up a children's home and orphanage. Schäfer's early followers were predominantly made up of war widows and their children who were refugees from Soviet occupied East Prussia. In 1959, he created the Private Sociale Mission, purportedly a charitable organization. That same year, Schäfer was charged with sexually abusing two young boys. Schäfer was charged and a warrant issued for his arrest by local authorities in Germany. Schäfer fled the children's home in Siegburg, West Germany with some of his followers to the Middle East to relocate his congregation. He came into contact with the Chilean ambassador to Germany, who invited him to Chile.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: In January 1961 Schäfer surfaced in Chile, where the government at the time, led by conservative President Jorge Alessandri, had granted him permission to create the "Dignidad Beneficent Society" on a farm outside of Parral. Schäfer purchased a 4400 acre ranch which he and 10 of his followers began to prepare for his congregation. In 1963, 230 members of his congregation traveled to Chile in the first wave of immigrants. Another 15 families immigrated in two more waves in 1966 and 1973. Schäfer may have been influenced to move to South America by prophecies of William Branham who repeatedly predicted an imminent nuclear war that would devastate the western nations. Schäfer founded his new community on principles espoused by William Branham, including anti-communism, and the society gradually evolved into the Colonia Dignidad cult community.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: Schäfer kept children away from their parents in a children's house. He said, "the problems in child education aren't the children; they are always the parents because the parents are responsible for the sins of the children" (original recording). With the sale of the German children's home, he bought a German stonecrusher, which he used in a quarry. The latter proved profitable in business with Chileans and after six years the first wheat could be harvested, barracks turned into houses and a hospital could be built. When Chilean children were treated and survived, their rescue brought fame to Schäfer in the region.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: After a nocturnal hunting accident with a gun, Schäfer was treated in a Santiago hospital for several months. Upon his return, he forbade all festivities, and separated boys from girls and men from women. In 1966, teenage fugitive Wolfgang Kneese hid in the German embassy in Chile and later talked to the press. Schäfer induced another teen named Hartmut Hopp to smear Kneese, accusing him of sexual misconduct at a trial. Kneese managed to flee to Germany. Schäfer allowed Hopp to study medicine in reward, also because he needed a physician in his hospital.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: After Salvador Allende came to power in 1970, Schäfer had his community turn the compound into a fortress in fear of dispossession. He smuggled weapons from Germany knowing that containers for his charitable organization were not checked by customs, including machine guns which were soon copied in his machine shops. Schäfer invited , a leader of the neo-Fascist group Patria y Libertad, as well as other opponents offering them the Colonia as a centre for planning a coup against Allende. During this time Schäfer started punishing children with electric shocks to their bodies, including to their genitalia, to keep them in line.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: After Augusto Pinochet came to power in 1973, Colonia Dignidad became one of the secret detention, torture and execution centers of the Chilean secret police, the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the National Intelligence Directorate during the Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–90)


title: Paul Schäfer

text: In 1974, Pinochet visited Schäfer at Colonia Dignidad. Schäfer received the right to dig for gold and uranium, and Pinochet a Mercedes Benz limousine. After the US weapon embargo against Chile, Schäfer dealt with Gerhard Mertins who supplied Pinochet with weapons—rockets, tanks and equipment to produce biological weapons.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: In 1976 the UN published a report about Pinochet and Amnesty International about torture at the colony, later verified by the Chilean National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation Report.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: The German Embassy could no longer ignore the reports, visited the colony, but said suspicions were without evidence. A delegation of the CSU visited as well and was greeted with Bavarian folkdances.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: In 1986 Norbert Blüm visited Chile asking Pinochet to stop the torture. Schäfer did not allow Blüm to visit the colony, which Blüm later said was a "model farm of contempt for mankind".


title: Paul Schäfer

text: In 1990, after Pinochet had stepped down, Patricio Aylwin cut off state funding for Schäfer's hospital, revoking its nonprofit, charitable status and audited the colony's businesses. In 1991, Schäfer privatized his various enterprises. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl visited Chile. He said that Chile needed to open the colony, but nothing further. Schäfer then mobilized the local residents to demonstrate against the closing of his hospital until the Chilean government reopened it. Chilean children were admitted to the colony, as the colony itself had no offspring. Schäfer started molesting Chilean boys but they started resisting. He used sedatives prescribed by physician Hartmut Hopp, and raped children.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: Only after 26 "colono" children who had attended the commune's free clinic and school reported their abuse, a judge in Santiago issued a warrant for Schäfer’s arrest, 6 years into Chile´s democratic transition. Police could not find him on the compound. Children continued to attend the boarding school, but support of local parents dwindled. Schäfer turned teary-eyed departures into propaganda to prove his innocence. Schäfer finally staged a farewell ceremony and disappeared into the network of tunnels and bunkers under Colonia Dignidad. He disappeared on 20 May 1997, escaping child sex abuse charges, filed by Chilean authorities under President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: In July 1997, two boys fled to the German embassy; one of them, Tobias Müller, was flown out to Germany.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: He was also under investigation in Chile in connection with the disappearance of Russian mathematician Boris Weisfeiler and alleged human rights abuses.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: As of 2005, Schäfer was also wanted in Germany and France in connection with earlier child abuse allegations.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: In March 2005, Schäfer was found nearly eight years after his disappearance, hiding in a townhouse in an expensive gated community known as Las Acacias, from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Following two days of negotiations between Chilean and Argentine authorities, Schäfer was extradited to Chile to face a court hearing. There, he was charged with being involved in the 1976 disappearance of the political activist Juan Maino.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: In July 2005, police unearthed Schäfer’s buried military weaponry, much of it World War II vintage, including grenades and machine guns that were produced by the colony.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: On 24 May 2006, Schäfer was sentenced to 20 years in jail for sexually abusing 25 children and was ordered to pay 770 million pesos (approximately US$1.5 million) to 11 minors whose representatives had filed claims against Schäfer. Schäfer was found guilty of 20 counts of dishonest abuses and five counts of child rape, all committed between 1993 and 1997.


title: Paul Schäfer

text: On 24 April 2010, Schäfer died aged 88 years at the Santiago de Chile's Ex-Penitentiary's Hospital due to heart failure. It was later revealed that he was suffering from a severe cardiac illness.


title: 1970s energy crisis

text: The 1970s energy crisis occurred when the Western world, particularly the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, faced substantial petroleum shortages as well as elevated prices. The two worst crises of this period were the 1973 oil crisis and the 1979 energy crisis, when, respectively, the Yom Kippur War and the Iranian Revolution triggered interruptions in Middle Eastern oil exports.


title: 1970s energy crisis

text: The crisis began to unfold as petroleum production in the United States and some other parts of the world peaked in the late 1960s and early 1970s. World oil production per capita began a long-term decline after 1979. The oil crises prompted the first shift towards energy-saving (particular, fossil fuel-saving) technologies.


title: 1970s energy crisis

text: The major industrial centers of the world were forced to contend with escalating issues related to petroleum supply. Western countries relied on the resources of countries in the Middle East and other parts of the world. The crisis led to stagnant economic growth in many countries as oil prices surged. Although there were genuine concerns with supply, part of the run-up in prices resulted from the perception of a crisis. The combination of stagnant growth and price inflation during this era led to the coinage of the term "stagflation". By the 1980s, both the recessions of the 1970s and adjustments in local economies to become more efficient in petroleum usage, controlled demand sufficiently for petroleum prices worldwide to return to more sustainable levels.


title: 1970s energy crisis

text: The period was not uniformly negative for all economies. Petroleum-rich countries in the Middle East benefited from increased prices and the slowing production in other areas of the world. Some other countries, such as Norway, Mexico, and Venezuela, benefited as well. In the United States, Texas and Alaska, as well as some other oil-producing areas, experienced major economic booms due to soaring oil prices even as most of the rest of the nation struggled with the stagnant economy. Many of these economic gains, however, came to a halt as prices stabilized and dropped in the 1980s.


title: 1970s energy crisis

text: Ever since the recreation of the State of Israel in 1948 there has been Arab–Israeli conflict in the Middle East. There was a List of wars involving Israel and Arab States including the Suez Crisis also known as the Second Arab–Israeli war (1956). This was in response to Israels southern port Eilat being blockaded by Egypt and Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal from mainly French and British investors. The invasions goal was regime change of Gamal Abdel Nasser who was aligning with the Soviet Union.


title: 1970s energy crisis

text: In 1967, the Six-Day War broke out, this was the invasion of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt all the way to the Suez Canal by Israel, and the Suez Canal was closed for 8 years by Egypt during the occupation. The canal was cleared in 1974 and reopened in 1975 after the 1973 Yom Kippur War in which Egypt tried to take back the occupied land of the Sinai Peninsula. OAPEC countries cut production of oil and placed an embargo on oil exports to the United States when Richard Nixon requested $2.2 billion to support Israel in the Yom Kippur War on October 19th, 1973. The embargo only lasted a few months until January 1974, but the price of oil remained high even after the embargo was lifted.


title: 1970s energy crisis

text: The real price of petroleum was stable in the 1970 timeframe, but there had been a sharp increase in American imports, putting a strain on American balance of trade, alongside other developed nations. During the 1960s, petroleum production in some of the world's top producers with extraction technology at the time began to peak. Germany reached its production peak in 1966, Venezuela and the United States in 1970, and Iran in 1974. Canada's conventional oil production peaked around this same time (though non-conventional production later helped revive Canadian production to some degree). The worldwide production per capita peaked soon afterward.


title: 1970s energy crisis

text: Although production in other parts of the world was increasing, the peaks in these regions began to put substantial upward pressure on world oil prices. Equally as important, control of the oil supply became an increasingly important problem as countries like West Germany and the U.S. became increasingly dependent on foreign suppliers for this key resource.


title: 1970s energy crisis

text: The 1973 oil crisis is a direct consequence of the US production peak in late 1960 and the beginning of 1971 (and shortages, especially for heating oil, started from there). The "embargo" as described below is the "practical name" given to the crisis. For the main Arab producers, the "embargo" allowed them to show to "the Arab street" that they were doing something for the Palestinians. In real market terms (number of barrels) the embargo was almost a non-event, and only from a few countries, towards a few countries.


title: 1970s energy crisis

text: The "Embargo" was never effective from Saudi Arabia towards the US, as reported by James E. Akins in interview at 24:10 in the documentary "la face cachée du pétrole part 2". Akins, who audited US capacity for Nixon after US peak, was US ambassador in Saudi Arabia at that time.


title: 1970s energy crisis

text: Lawrence Rocks and Richard Runyon captured the unfolding of these events at the time in The Energy Crisis book.


title: 1970s energy crisis

text: In October 1973, the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC (consisting of the Arab members of OPEC) proclaimed an oil embargo "in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military" during the Yom Kippur war; it lasted until March 1974. OAPEC declared it would limit or stop oil shipments to the United States and other countries if they supported Israel in the conflict. With the US actions seen as initiating the oil embargo, the long-term possibility of embargo-related high oil prices, disrupted supply and recession, created a strong rift within NATO; both European countries and Japan sought to disassociate themselves from the US Middle East policy. Arab oil producers had also linked the end of the embargo with successful US efforts to create peace in the Middle East, which complicated the situation. To address these developments, the Nixon Administration began parallel negotiations with both Arab oil producers to end the embargo, and with Egypt, Syria, and Israel to arrange an Israeli pull back from the Sinai and the Golan Heights after the fighting stopped. By January 18, 1974, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had negotiated an Israeli troop withdrawal from parts of the Sinai. The promise of a negotiated settlement between Israel and Syria was sufficient to convince Arab oil producers to lift the embargo in March 1974. By May, Israel agreed to withdraw from the Golan Heights.


title: 1970s energy crisis

text: Independently, the OPEC members agreed to use their leverage over the world price-setting mechanism for oil to stabilize their real incomes by raising world oil prices. This action followed several years of steep income declines after the recent failure of negotiations with the major Western oil companies earlier in the month.


title: 1970s energy crisis

text: For the most part, industrialized economies relied on crude oil, and OPEC was their major supplier. Because of the dramatic inflation experienced during this period, a popular economic theory has been that these price increases were to blame, as being suppressive of economic activity. However, the causality stated by this theory is often questioned. The targeted countries responded with a wide variety of new, and mostly permanent, initiatives to contain their further dependency. The 1973 "oil price shock", along with the 1973–1974 stock market crash, have been regarded as the first event since the Great Depression to have a persistent economic effect.