title: Victor Buono

text: In the summer of 1959, a talent scout from Warner Bros. saw the heavy-set Buono play "Falstaff" at the Globe and took him to Hollywood for a screen test. Buono made his first network TV appearance playing the bearded poet Bongo Benny in an episode of "77 Sunset Strip." Over the next few years, he played menacing heavies in series on TV and appeared on "The Untouchables." After appearing in a few uncredited film roles, he was cast by director Robert Aldrich in the psychological horror movie "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962). The film starred Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, and Buono played the hapless musical accompanist Edwin Flagg, a performance for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.


title: Victor Buono

text: Shortly after "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?", Buono appeared in "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (1964) as Big Sam Hollis, the father of Bette Davis, who played the title role. The film was also directed by Aldrich. In the Biblical epic "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965), Buono portrayed the High Priest Sorak, and in "The Strangler", a film based on the actual Boston Strangler Murders of the time, he portrayed Leo Kroll.


title: Victor Buono

text: He also appeared in "4 for Texas" (1963), "Robin and the 7 Hoods" (1964), "The Silencers" (1966), "Who's Minding the Mint?" (1967), "" (1969), "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1970), "The Mad Butcher" (1972) and "The Evil" (1978).


title: Victor Buono

text: Though Buono had a vast body of work in movies, he also had extensive television appearances to his credit; one was in the recurring role of Count Manzeppi in "The Wild Wild West." He also played unrelated characters in that series' premiere episode and in the second and final "Wild Wild West" reunion movie "More Wild Wild West" (1980).


title: Victor Buono

text: Buono was cast to play villains of various ethnic origins on many television programs between 1960 and 1970. He was cast twice in 1960 in the western series "The Rebel," starring Nick Adams, in the episodes "Blind Marriage" and "The Earl of Durango". In 1962, he played Melanthos Moon in an episode of "The Untouchables," titled "Mr. Moon", where he played a San Francisco art and antique dealer who hijacked a supply of the paper used for printing United States currency. In a 1963 episode of the same series, titled "The Gang War", he played Pamise Surigao, a liquor smuggler competing with the Chicago mob.


title: Victor Buono

text: In the episode "Firebug" (January 27, 1963) of the anthology series "GE True", hosted by Jack Webb, Buono plays a barber in Los Angeles, who is by night a pyromaniac. In the storyline, the United States Forest Service believes one arsonist is causing a series of fires in California.


title: Victor Buono

text: Buono appeared in four episodes of "Perry Mason". In season 5, (March 17, 1962), he portrayed Alexander Glovatsky, a small-town sculptor, in "The Case of the Absent Artist". In season 7, (April 2, 1964), he played murderer John (Jack) Sylvester Fossette in the episode "The Case of the Simple Simon". In season 8, (April 29, 1965) he played murderer Nathon Fallon in "The Case of the Grinning Gorilla". In season 9, (February 27, 1966), he appeared in "The Case of the Twice Told Twist", the only color episode, as Ben Huggins, the ringleader of a car-stripping ring.


title: Victor Buono

text: Buono played the villain King Tut on the television series "Batman". A Jekyll-and-Hyde character, William McElroy is a timid Yale professor of Egyptology who, after being hit in the head with a brick at a peace rally, assumes the persona of the charismatic, monomaniacal Egyptian King Tut. When he suffers another blow to the head, the villain recovers his meek academic personality. The role, which proved to be the most frequently featured original villain in the series, was one of Buono's favorites because he was delighted at being able to overact without restraint.


title: Victor Buono

text: He played another campy villain, “Mr. Memory”, in a 1967 unsold TV pilot film based on the "Dick Tracy" comic strip, from the same producers of "Batman" and "The Green Hornet".


title: Victor Buono

text: Buono also played a scientist bent on world domination in the "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" in an episode titled "The Cyborg".


title: Victor Buono

text: Buono made a guest appearance as Hannibal Day in the "Get Smart" episode "Moonlighting Becomes You", originally airing January 2, 1970, and appeared three times as Dr. Blaine in the sitcom "Harrigan and Son", starring Pat O'Brien and Roger Perry as a father-and-son team of lawyers. He appeared in a segment of "Night Gallery" titled "Satisfaction Guaranteed". He also appeared in an episode of "Hawaii Five-O, ""The $100,000 Nickel", in which he played thief Eric Damien. It first aired on December 11, 1973. He made two memorable appearances on "The Odd Couple", once in the episode "The Exorcists" and again in "The Rent Strike", where he portrayed Mr. Lovelace. In 1976, he appeared in comedy "The Practice," portraying Bernard on the episode "Jules and the Bum". He also made nine appearances on the 1977 series "Man from Atlantis", appearing all nine times as Mr. Schubert, the enemy of the main character.


title: Victor Buono

text: In the 1970s, Buono released several comedy record albums which poked fun at his large stature, the first of which was "Heavy!", as well as a book of comic poetry called "It Could Be Verse". He began to style himself as "the fat man from Batman". During guest appearances on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," he frequently recited his poetry. The most popular of his poems was "Fat Man's Prayer", a work often erroneously attributed to Dom DeLuise or Jackie Gleason. It included many widely quoted couplets such as:


title: Victor Buono

text: In the late 1970s and in 1980, Buono played the millionaire father of the memory-impaired Reverend Jim Ignatowski on "Taxi". Buono died before the end of the series. One episode was made where Jim learns to cope with his father's death.


title: Victor Buono

text: In 1980, Buono appeared in the television movie "Murder Can Hurt You" as Chief Ironbottom, a parody of the title character from "Ironside". His later roles were more of pompous intellectuals and shady con men, although he also played straight roles. In the miniseries "Backstairs at the White House" (1979), he portrayed President William Howard Taft. Buono also appeared on 4 different episodes of the ABC series Vega$ with Robert Urich, playing a sage and yet also street wise Las Vegas casino high roller, named 'Diamond Jim'.


title: Victor Buono

text: Buono was found dead at his home in Apple Valley, California on New Year's Day 1982; he died of a heart attack.


title: Victor Buono

text: He is entombed with his mother, Myrtle, in Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego, but his name is not inscribed on the crypt.


title: Victor Buono

text: Buono liked to read and write, and one of his main interests was Shakespeare. "The more you study him," he said, "the greater he grows." He was also highly regarded as a gourmet chef.


title: Victor Buono

text: In regard to relationships (and the implicit questioning of his sexuality), Buono is quoted as saying, "I've heard or read about actors being asked the immortal question, 'Why have you never married?' They answer with the immortal excuse, 'I just haven't found the right girl.' Because I'm on the hefty side, no one's asked me yet. If they do, that's the answer I'll give. After all, if it was good enough for Monty Clift or Sal Mineo..." Buono was closeted, like most gay actors at the time, but lived with boyfriends, and referred to himself as a "conscientious objector" in the "morality revolution" of the 1960s.


title: Air compressor

text: An air compressor is a pneumatic device that converts power (using an electric motor, diesel or gasoline engine, etc.) into potential energy stored in pressurized air (i.e., compressed air). By one of several methods, an air compressor forces more and more air into a storage tank, increasing the pressure. When the tank's pressure reaches its engineered upper limit, the air compressor shuts off. The compressed air, then, is held in the tank until called into use. The kinetic energy provided by the compressed air can be used for a variety of applications such as pneumatic tool as it is released air and the tank depressurizes. When tank pressure reaches its lower limit, the air compressor turns on again and re-pressurizes the tank.


title: Air compressor

text: An air compressor must be differentiated from a pump because it works for any gas/air, while pumps work on a liquid.


title: Air compressor

text: Approximately 70~80% of the air compressor total life time cost is energy consumption, so using the high efficiency air compressor is one of energy saving methods.


title: Trishula

text: The trishula () is a trident, a divine symbol, commonly used as one of the principal symbols in Hinduism.


title: Trishula

text: In Nepal and Thailand, the term also often refers to a short-handled weapon which may be mounted on a "daṇḍa" "staff". Unlike the Okinawan sai, the "trishula" is often bladed. In Indonesian, "trisula" usually refers specifically to a long-handled trident, while the diminutive version is more commonly known as a "cabang" or "tekpi".


title: Trishula

text: The name "trishula" ultimately derives from the Sanskrit word त्रिशूल (triśūla), from त्रि (trí), meaning "three", and शूल (śū́la), meaning "a sharp iron pin or stake", referring in this case to the weapon's three prongs.


title: Trishula

text: The "trishula" symbolism is polyvalent and rich. It is wielded by the god Shiva and is said to have been used to sever the original head of Ganesha. Durga also holds a "trishula", as one of her many weapons. The three points have various meanings and significance, and, common to Hinduism, have many stories behind them. They are commonly said to represent various trinities—creation, maintenance, and destruction; past, present, and future; body, mind and atman; dharma or dhamma (law and order), bliss/mutual enjoyment and emanation/created bodies; compassion, joy and love; spiritual, psychic and relative; happiness, comfort and boredom; pride, repute and egotism; clarity, knowledge and wisdom; heaven, mind and earth; soul, fire and earth; soul, passion and embodied-soul; logic, passion and faith; prayer, manifestation and sublime; insight, serenity and bodhisattvahood or arhatship (anti-conceit); practice, understanding and wisdom; death, ascension and resurrection; creation, order and destruction; the three "gunas": satva, rajas and tamas.


title: Trishula

text: According to the Shiva Purana, Shiva is "swayambhu", self-created, born of his volitions. He emerges as a direct incarnation of Sadashiv and has a "trishula" from the very beginning. According to the Vishnu Purana, Surya married Sanjana, the daughter of Vishvakarma. However, Sanjana soon became unhappy with her married life, owing to the unbearable heat emanating from Surya. She complained to Vishvakarma, who agreed to solve the problem and came to an arrangement with Surya to reduce his heat. The solar matter fell to the earth, reducing 1/8th of his original power. This material was later used by Vishvakarma to create the Trishula for Shiva, Sudarshana Chakra for Vishnu, and the Pushpaka Vimana for Brahma. The goddess Durga holds a "trishula" among other weapons and attributes in her hands and amongst her accouterment, having received celestial weapons from both Shiva and Vishnu.


title: Trishula

text: A similar word, "trishel", is the Romani word for 'cross'. "Trisula" is also the name of by the ABRI to crack down on PKI remnants in southern Blitar.


title: JD.com

text: JD.com, Inc., also known as Jingdong (), internationally known as Joybuy and formerly called 360buy, is a Chinese e-commerce company headquartered in Beijing. It is one of the two massive B2C online retailers in China by transaction volume and revenue, a member of the Fortune Global 500 and a major competitor to Alibaba-run Tmall. When classified as a tech company, it is the largest in China by revenue, and 7th in the world in 2021.


title: JD.com

text: The company was founded by Liu Qiangdong on June 18, 1998, and its retail platform went online in 2004. It started as an online magneto-optical store, but soon diversified, selling electronics, mobile phones, computers, and similar items. The company changed its domain name to 360buy.com in June 2007 and then to JD.com in 2013. The latter purchase is understood to have cost $5,000,000. At the same time, JD.com announced its new logo and mascot. It is partly owned by Tencent, which has a 20% stake in the company.


title: JD.com

text: JD.com has invested in high tech and AI delivery through drones, autonomous technology and robots, and possesses the largest drone delivery system, infrastructure and capability in the world. It has recently started testing robotic delivery services and building drone delivery airports, as well as operating driverless delivery by unveiling its first autonomous truck.


title: JD.com

text: The company was founded in 1998 as Jingdong Century Trading Co., Ltd selling magneto-optical in Beijing, China.


title: JD.com

text: In 2004, the company's B2C site went online as jdlaser.com, starting their internet operations and competing directly with others firms like Alibaba The Shanghai subsidiary was established in 2006, while the Guangzhou subsidiary was established in 2007. The company began using the domain name 360buy.com, and the name was changed to Jingdong Mall in June 2007.


title: JD.com

text: In 2010, 360buy.com started an online bookstore. CDs, DVDs, and ebooks were added in the following months. The following year, 360buy.com launched a platform named “POP” for brand owners. en.360buy.com was launched for the international market in October 2012.


title: JD.com

text: Tencent acquired a 15% stake in JD.com in 2014 by paying cash and handing over its e-commerce businesses Paipai & QQ Wanggou plus a stake in Yixun to JD.com, in order to build a stronger competitor to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. That same year, a subsidiary's lawsuit against JD.com was accepted by court.


title: JD.com

text: In 2015, JD.com launched its Russian site aimed to expand its business globally. Wal-Mart sold its Chinese e-Commerce business Yihaodian to JD.com in 2016 in exchange for a 5.9% equity stake valued at $1.5 billion. In October, Wal-Mart filed 13G, revealing it nearly doubled its stake in JD.com to 10.9%


title: JD.com

text: In February 2017, Wal-Mart increased investment in JD.com to 289.1 million shares, or 12.1%. In April, JD.com participated in the Salone del Mobile, featuring the installation Matrix, at the Università Statale of Milan. JD.com invested $397 million into Farfetch, a marketplace for luxury brands, in June as part of a new strategic partnership. JD.com and Walmart launch the first annual JD-Walmart August 8 shopping festival in July. JD.com also committed to further develop China's parcel delivery efficiency, investing US$101 million to subsidize merchants on JD.com for warehousing and distribution costs, for the upcoming 2017 Singles' Day. In November, JD.com achieved a sales record of US$19.1 billion.


title: JD.com

text: JD.com opened its first chain of high-tech supermarkets "7Fresh" in January 2018. That same month, JD.com invested in Vietnam's online retail service tiki.vn for $50 million. In February, JD.com invested in France & the Uk, and also released its spin-off "JD Finance", raising $2.1 billion in a capital raise. Metcash partnered with JD.Com in May to sell groceries in China.


title: JD.com

text: JD.com acquired Jade Palace Hotel in Beijing for US$400M in 2019. The company also partnered with Jiangsu Xinning Modern Logistics in order to automate its logistic services. In November, JD.com removed all items related to Houston Rockets in response to the organization's general manager posting a tweet about Hong Kong.


title: JD.com

text: the company reported net profits of $2.3 billion for the Q2 of 2020, and it reached a customer base of 417 million users. JD.com also announced that would be investing $830 million in its JD Health unit provided by private equity firm Hillhouse Capital. In October, Ping An Bank partnered with JDD to launch a joint credit card.


title: JD.com

text: In January 2022, JD.com partnered with Shopify to begin selling Shopify's brands via its cross-border e-commerce site in China.


title: JD.com

text: In 2015, JD.com and Tencent announced the launch of the "Jingteng Plan" (), a portmanteau of the two companies' names, which will provide merchants with a complete solution to establish a brand and promote marketing effectiveness by linking JD.com consumption data with Tencent social data. JD.com provides online shopping and claims "authentic low price and quality assurance" and "customer first".


title: JD.com

text: The Jingteng Plan has made progress in three areas: Jingdong has ~170 million E-Commerce platform users, and Tencent has the largest WeChat and mobile QQ users in China. The plan integrates consumer behaviour data and social data. The Jingteng Plan integrates marketing solutions for shopping and social data. “The precise orientation, closed-loop experience, user portraits, personalized creativity, unity of product and effect, and scientific measure of effectiveness” are said to be the six major aspects of the Jingteng Plan.


title: JD.com

text: In light of the increasing number of mobile consumers in China, in 2017, Jingdong invested $397 million in Farfetch, which provided luxury e-commerce service based on the headquarters in London. The deal focussed on Farfetch's respect for intellectual property which has been contrasted with Alibaba's reputation. The Jingdong and Farfetch partnership aims to increase their market share in China.


title: JD.com

text: On 4 September 2018, JD.com signed a strategic agreement with Ruyi, a leading textile and fashion giant who owns global fashion brands including Aquascutum, CERRUTI1881, Sandro and Maje. As stated in the press release, JD would deploy its smart logistics, supply chain solutions, big data-enabled inventory management and membership systems for Ruyi's subsidiary brands. Based on this partnership, JD and Ruyi will jointly establish fashion and lifestyle concept stores in core cities, such as Shanghai and Beijing.


title: JD.com

text: On December 10, 2010, JD's founder Liu Qiangdong announced through his Weibo account that every book sold on JD.com would be priced at 20 percent cheaper than its competitors. Although Liu did not give a specific name of his opponent, journalists thought Dangdang was JD.com's obvious rival in the field of online book sale. Dangdang is an electronic business platform well known for its core business, selling books, and ranked first among all online B2C booksellers of 2010 in China.


title: JD.com

text: The price war between JD.com and Dangdang started on December 14; users of JD.com found out that the books were cheaper than Dangdang. In response, Dangdang also began to offer discounts to customers such as 30 yuan off when they spent 199 yuan or more. On the morning of December 16, Dangdang stated that the company would invest 40 million Chinese yuan to give discounts to customers. As a result, JD.com launched the second promotion to sell books at a lower price than Dangdang that afternoon. On the same day, Liu Qiangdong posted through his Weibo account that JD.com would give coupons instead of reducing prices to protect the benefits of publishers, which marked a phase of the price war.


title: JD.com

text: Liu said that JD.com could not get supplies from some book publishers due to contracts between Dangdang and the publishers. From Liu's perspective, Dangdang were not allowing publishers to supply books to JD.com. However, the publishers refuted the allegation. Su Huiyan, a business consultant of iResearch pointed out that JD.com wanted to attract more customers by the price war.


title: JD.com

text: In November 2011, the second stage of the competition was triggered by Suning.com, a B2C shopping platform, announcing they would expand their business to include bookselling. JD.com and Dangdang competed with each other on lowering the prices of books again. JD.com provided its customers with a 10 percent discount on books while Dangdang sent promotional messages to its users stating that they would be offered 200 yuan if they purchased books for more than 100 yuan total. Dangdang used the slogan “争当败家子” meaning 'striving to be a spendthrift' aiming to increase their website traffic.


title: JD.com

text: The sudden increase of orders not only caused network errors but also postponed transits of books, which fueled customers’ complaints.


title: JD.com

text: On December 21, 2011, Dangdang launched its electronic book service online. More than 50,000 e-books were available on dangdang.com with over 90 percent of the e-books sold at 30 percent of the price of the physical books. JD.com started the e-book selling business online on February 20, 2012, and provided customers with more than 80,000 electronic books. JD.com also offered discounts to the buyers, this situation was the unfoldment of a new round of price war.


title: JD.com

text: On April 17, 2013, most of the e-books on Dangdang's website were free for users to download. Consequently, JD.com priced 50,000 electronic books at 0 yuan to match. Liu Zhenyou, an author, criticized that both of them had raised their brand awareness, but their actions caused damage to book publishers.


title: Salvation (TV series)

text: Salvation is an American suspense drama television series, that premiered on July 12, 2017. The series was originally announced as being developed in September 2013, but received its straight-to-series 13-episode order in October 2016. On October 18, 2017, CBS renewed the series for a 13-episode second season, which premiered on June 25, 2018. On November 20, 2018, CBS canceled the series after two seasons.


title: Salvation (TV series)

text: The show centers on the discovery of an asteroid that will impact the Earth in just six months, highlighting the attempts to prevent it and its worldwide ramifications. The show looks at how different individuals and groups of people react to the impending doom.


title: Salvation (TV series)

text: The first season was filmed in Toronto, Ontario. The show relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia for its second season.


title: Salvation (TV series)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 47% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 5.75/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Neither remarkably bad nor impressively well-made, Salvation is stereotypical summer television – a low-stakes diversion that may pass the time well enough for undemanding audiences without ever being particularly memorable along the way." On Metacritic, the series has a score of 48 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Robert Kuok

text: Robert Kuok Hock Nien (; Hokchew: "Guoh24 Houk5 Nieng55"; born 6 October 1923), is a Malaysian business magnate and investor. Since 1973, Kuok has lived in Hong Kong. According to "Forbes", his net worth is estimated at $12.6 billion as of April 2021, making him the wealthiest Malaysian and 104th wealthiest in the world. As of April 2019, according to the "Bloomberg Billionaires Index", Kuok has an estimated net worth of $18.4 billion, making him the 53rd richest person in the world.


title: Robert Kuok

text: Kuok is media-shy; most of his businesses are privately held by him or his family. Apart from a multitude of businesses in Malaysia, his companies have investments in many countries throughout Asia. His business interests (collectively known as the Kuok Group of Companies) range from sugarcane plantations "(Perlis Plantations Bhd)", sugar refineries, flour milling, animal feed, oil, mining, finance, hotel "(Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts)", property "(Kerry Properties)", trading, freight "(Kerry Logistics)" and publishing. His biggest source of wealth is a stake in Wilmar International, the world's largest listed palm oil trader company.


title: Robert Kuok

text: Kuok was appointed the Council of Eminent Persons member to advise the new Malaysian government elected in 2018.


title: Robert Kuok

text: Kuok was born on 6 October 1923, in Johor Bahru to a Malaysian Chinese family. Kuok's father Kuok Keng Kang arrived in Malaya from Fuzhou, China, at the beginning of the 20th century, and Robert was the youngest of three brothers born to Kuok Keng Kang and Robert's mother Zheng Ge Ru. He grew up speaking his parents' Fuzhou dialect, English and Japanese during Japan's wartime occupation of Malaya. He studied at Raffles Institution (where he was classmates with Lee Kuan Yew) and English College Johore Bahru.


title: Robert Kuok

text: According to Kuok himself, he began in business as an office boy, and later started a business with relatives' support. Upon graduation, he became a collaborator and worked as a clerk in the rice-trading department of Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha during the Japanese occupation period between 1942 and 1945, in Singapore, a conglomerate that with the help of Japanese military unit monopolized the rice trade in Malaya during the occupation period. He was soon promoted to head the rice-trading department. After the war, he took the skills he learned from the occupying force to the family's business in Johor.


title: Robert Kuok

text: After the senior Kuok died in 1948, Kuok and his two brothers and a cousin, Kuok Hock Chin founded "Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd" in 1949, trading agricultural commodities. Kuok's relationship with the Japanese continued after Malaya gained independence. In 1959, Kuok formed Malayan Sugar Manufacturing Co. Bhd. together with two prominent Japanese partners. He also brought many influential Malay elites into his company as directors and shareholders, including politicians and royalty. In 1961, he bought cheap sugar from India before the prices shot up, and continued to invest heavily in sugar refineries, at one time controlling 80% of the Malaysian sugar market with production of 1.5 million tonnes, equivalent to 10% of world production, earning himself the nickname "Sugar King of Asia".


title: Robert Kuok

text: In 1971, he built the first Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore; with land acquired through Petaling Garden Berhad, a Malaysian based developer. His first foray into Hong Kong property was in 1977, when he acquired a plot of land on the newly reclaimed Tsim Sha Tsui East waterfront, where he built his second hotel, the Kowloon Shangri-La. In 1993, his Kerry Group acquired a 34.9% stake in the South China Morning Post from Murdoch's News Corporation. Kuok officially retired from the Kerry Group on 1 April 1993.


title: Robert Kuok

text: His companies have investments in many countries, including Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Mainland China, Indonesia, Fiji, and Australia. Businesses in China include 10 bottling companies for Coca-Cola and ownership of the Beijing World Trade Centre.


title: Robert Kuok

text: In 2007, Kuok combined his plantations, edible oil, and grains businesses with Wilmar International, making it the world's biggest palm-oil processor.


title: Robert Kuok

text: On 31 October 2009, PPB Group under the flagship of Robert Kuok issued a statement to the Bursa Malaysia that it had decided to dispose of its sugar units along with land used to cultivate sugar cane for RM 1.29 billion to FELDA. The sales resulted in a one-off gain for the company.


title: Robert Kuok

text: In February 2014, Kuok's Singapore-based oil services company PACC Offshore Services Holdings (POSH) started pre-IPO talks with investors to list on the Singapore Stock Exchange to raise $400 million.


title: Robert Kuok

text: His political influence is attested by his selection as one of the Hong Kong Affairs Advisors in the run-up to the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong, and his minority stake in CITIC Pacific. He was also instrumental in conveying information and setting up the meetings between Malaysian and Chinese governments leading to full diplomatic cross recognition of the two countries.


title: Robert Kuok

text: In the aftermath of 2018 Malaysian general election (GE14) which saw a change of government, on 12 May Kuok was appointed one of the five-member of the Council of Eminent Persons along with Tun Daim Zainuddin, Tan Sri Datuk Seri Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Tan Sri Hassan Marican and Jomo Kwame Sundaram to advise the new Pakatan Harapan (PH)'s federal government.


title: Robert Kuok

text: Kuok is married twice; with Joyce Cheah and Pauline Ho Poh Lin. He has eight children out of the marriages. His son, Kuok Khoon Ean born in 1955 married Kuok Cheng Sui and holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nottingham, England. His other son, Kuok Khoon Ho is the chairman of Kuok Brothers, born in 1951 and holds a bachelor's degree from McGill University, Canada. Kuok Hui Kwong, his daughter, is the managing director and chief executive of SCMP Group and chairperson of Shangri-La Asia. One of his sons, Kuok Khoon Ean, handles most of the day-to-day operations of his businesses. He currently resides in Kuala Lumpur.


title: Robert Kuok

text: Kuok's brother, Philip Kuok Hock Khee was a former Malaysian Ambassador to Germany, Yugoslavia, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Denmark. Philip married Eileen Kuok and had two sons and two daughters. Philip Kuok died in 2003. Another brother, William Kuok Hock Ling, was a member of the Malayan Communist Party and was killed during the Malayan Emergency in 1952. According to his memoir, Kuok described that of all the brothers, his mother Zheng Ge Ru doted on and adored William the most, and was heartbroken when she received news of William's death.


title: Robert Kuok

text: His nephew, Kuok Khoon Hong is the chairman of Wilmar International, and one of the richest people in Singapore. Kuok Khoon Hong's father, Kuok Hock Swee, was an older cousin of Robert Kuok.


title: Robert Kuok

text: In March 2018, Kuok published a book about his life entitled, "Robert Kuok: A Memoir." It won Best Book of the Year at the Singapore Book Publishers Association awards 2018.


title: Gar

text: Gars are members of the family Lepisosteidae, which are the only surviving members of the Ginglymodi, an ancient holosteian group of ray-finned fish, which first appeared during the Triassic, over 240 million years ago. Gars comprise seven living species of fish in two genera that inhabit fresh, brackish, and occasionally marine waters of eastern North America, Central America and Cuba in the Caribbean, though extinct members of the family were more widespread. Gars have elongated bodies that are heavily armored with ganoid scales, and fronted by similarly elongated jaws filled with long, sharp teeth. Gars are sometimes referred to as "garpike", but are not closely related to pike, which are in the fish family Esocidae. All of the gars are relatively large fish, but the alligator gar ("Atractosteus spatula") is the largest; the alligator gar often grows to a length over and a weight over , and specimens of up to in length have been reported. Unusually, their vascularised swim bladders can function as lungs, and most gars surface periodically to take a gulp of air. Gar flesh is edible and the hard skin and scales of gars are used by humans, but gar eggs are highly toxic.


title: Gar

text: The name "gar" was originally used for a species of needlefish ("Belone belone") found in the North Atlantic and likely took its name from the Old English word for "spear". "Belone belone" is now more commonly referred to as the "garfish" or "gar fish" to avoid confusion with the North American gars of the family Lepisosteidae. Confusingly, the name "garfish" is also commonly used for a number of other species of the related genera "Strongylura, Tylosurus", and "Xenentodon" of the family Belonidae.


title: Gar

text: The generic name "Lepisosteus" comes from the Greek "lepis" meaning "scale" and "osteon" meaning "bone". "Atractosteus" is similarly derived from Greek, in this case from "atraktos", meaning "arrow."


title: Gar

text: Gars are considered to be the only surviving members of the Ginglymodi, a group of bony fish that flourished in the Mesozoic. The oldest known ginglymodians appeared during the Middle Triassic, over 240 million years ago. The closest living relative of gars is the bowfin, with the gars and bowfin together forming the clade Holostei. The oldest known fossils of anatomically modern gars are from the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) of Mexico, around 157 million years old.


title: Gar

text: Fossils indicate that gars formerly had a wider distribution, having been found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. Living gars are confined to North America. The distribution of the gars in North America lies mainly in the shallow, brackish waters off of Texas, Louisiana, and the eastern coast of Mexico, as well as in some of the rivers and lakes that flow into them. A few populations are also present in the Great Lakes region of the United States, living in similar shallow waters.


title: Gar

text: Gar bodies are elongated, heavily armored with ganoid scales, and fronted by similarly elongated jaws filled with long, sharp teeth. Their tails are heterocercal, and the dorsal fins are close to the tail.


title: Gar

text: As their vascularised swim bladders can function as lungs, most gars surface periodically to take a gulp of air, doing so more frequently in stagnant or warm water when the concentration of oxygen in the water is low. Experiments on the swim bladder has shown that the temperature of the water affects which respiration method the gar will use - aerial or aquatic. They increase the aerial breathing rate (breathing air) as the temperature of the water is increased. Gars can live completely submerged in oxygenated water without access to air and remain healthy while also being able to survive in deoxygenated water if allowed access to air. This adaptation can be the result of environmental pressures and behavioral factors. As a result of this organ, they are extremely resilient and able to tolerate conditions that most other fish could not survive.


title: Gar

text: The gar has paired pectoral fins and pelvic fins, as well as an anal fin, a caudal fin, and a dorsal fin. The bone structures within the fins are important to study as they can show homology throughout the fossil record. Specifically, the pelvic girdle resembles that of other actinopterygians while still having some of its own characteristics. Gars have a postcleithrun - which is a bone that is lateral to the scapula, but do not have postpectorals. Proximally to the postcleithrum, the supracleithrum is important as it plays a critical role in opening the gar's jaws. This structure has a unique internal coracoid lamina only present in the gar species. Near the supracleithrum is the posttemporal bone, which is significantly smaller than other actinopterygians. Gars also have no clavicle bone, although elongated plates have been observed within the area.


title: Gar

text: All the gars are relatively large fish, but the alligator gar ("Atractosteus spatula") is the largest. The largest alligator gar ever caught and officially recorded was long, weighed , and was around the girth. Even the smaller species, such as "Lepisosteus oculatus", are large, commonly reaching lengths of over , and sometimes much longer.


title: Gar

text: Gars tend to be slow-moving fish except when striking at their prey. They prefer the shallow and weedy areas of rivers, lakes, and bayous, often congregating in small groups. They are voracious predators, catching their prey in their needle-like teeth with a sideways strike of the head. They feed extensively on smaller fish and invertebrates such as crabs. Gars are found across much of the eastern portion of North America. Although gars are found primarily in freshwater habitats, several species enter brackish waters and a few, most notably "Atractosteus tristoechus", are sometimes found in the sea. Some gars travel from lakes and rivers through sewers to get to ponds.


title: Gar

text: The largest member of the gar family, the alligator gar "(Atractosteus spatula"), can measure up to 10 feet long and weigh over 300 pounds. Its body and snout are wide and stocky, and it was named "alligator gar" because locals often mistook it for an alligator. The species can be found in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, the Mississippi River, Ohio, the Missouri river, and the southern drainages into Mexico. Its habitat consists of lakes and bays with slow currents. The gars grow rapidly when young and continue to grow at a slower rate after reaching adulthood. They are deep green or yellow in color. Recreational fishing of the alligator gar became popular due to its massive size and its meat is sold for food. Over five decades of overfishing have brought it close to extinction, and man-made dams have contributed to this loss by restricting the gar's access to the flood plain areas in which it spawns. Some U.S. states have enacted laws to combat overfishing, and reintroduction programs are being carried out in some states, such as Illinois, where human activity has extirpated the gar. Before being released, each gar must meet a length requirement to ensure that it has the best chance of survival in the wild. Some states, such as Texas, restrict the number of gar that may be caught in a day, the season in which they may be caught, and the equipment anglers may use to catch them. Some states also impose a minimum length requirement to prevent gar from being caught at too early an age. Scientists have found that the alligator gar can help maintain ecosystem balance by eating invasive species such as the Asian carp, and their success in a particular area can show scientists that area may also make a suitable habitat for other migratory species.


title: Gar

text: The Florida gar "(Lepisosteus platyrhincus") can be found in the Ocklockonee river, Florida, and Georgia, and prefers muddy or sandy bottoms with bountiful vegetation. It is commonly confused with its cousin, the spotted gar. Uneven black spots cover its head, body, and fins. Green-brown scales run along the back of its body, and the scales on its underbelly are white or yellow. This coloration, which blends well with the gar's surroundings, allows it to ambush its prey. The Florida gar has no ganoid scales on its throat. Female Florida gars grow to lengths between 13 and 34 inches, bigger than their male counterparts.


title: Gar

text: The spotted gar "(Lepisosteus oculatus)" is a smaller species of gar, measuring just under four feet long and weighing 15 pounds on average. Like Florida gars, female spotted gars are typically larger than male spotted gars. This gar has dark spots covering its head, body, and fins. Its body is compact, and it has a shorter snout. It prefers to live in clearer shallow water with a depth of 3–5 meters, and to surround itself in foliage. Its habitat ranges from the waters of Lake Michigan, the Lake Erie Basin, the Mississippi River System, and river drainages along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico from the Nueces River in Texas east to the lower Apalachicola River in Florida. It shares its habitat with the alligator gar, its main predator. These smaller gar live an average of 18 years.


title: Gar

text: The shortnose gar ("Lepisosteus platostomus)" is found in the Mississippi River Basin, Indiana, Wisconsin, Montana, Alabama, and Louisiana. It prefers to live in lakes, swamps, and calm pools. The shortnose gar takes its name from its snout, which is shorter and broader than that of other gar species. Like the longnose gar, it has one row of teeth. The upper jaw is longer than the rest of its head. The shortnose gar is deep green or brown in color, similar to the alligator gar. Depending on the clarity of water, spots can be present on the caudal, dorsal, and anal fins. The shortnose gar has a lifespan of 20 years, reaches up to 5 pounds in weight, and grows to lengths of 24-35 inches. It consumes more invertebrates than any other gar, and their stomachs have been found to contain higher Asian carp content than any other native North American fish.


title: Gar

text: The Longnose gar "(Lepisosteus osseus)" has a longer, narrower, more cylindrical body, and can be distinguished from other species of gar by its snout, which is more than twice the length of the rest of its head. It can reach up to 6 feet and 8 inches in length and weigh up to 35-80 pounds. Like the shortnose gar, it has only a single row of teeth. Unlike its relatives, it enters brackish water from time to time. Females are larger and live longer than the male longnose gar. Females living 22 years, and males about half as long. There are spots on the head, dorsal, anal, and caudal fins. Depending on the water clarity, the longnose gar comes in two colors. In clear water, they're a dark deep green color. In muddy waters, it's more brown in color. Edges of the ganoid scales and in between are black. These types of gar are occasionally fished by locals, and blamed for eating other fish in the rivers. The longnose gar has a large range of territory in North America, into the Gulf of Mexico. Located in Florida, Quebec, all Great Lakes except Lake Superior, Missouri, Mississippi, Texas, and northern Mexico.


title: Gar

text: The flesh of gar is edible, but its eggs contain an ichthyotoxin, a type of protein toxin which is highly toxic to humans. The protein can be denatured when brought to a temperature of 120 degrees Celsius, but as the roe's temperature does not typically reach that level when it is cooked, even cooked roe causes severe symptoms. It was once thought that the production of the toxin in gar roe was an evolutionary adaptation to provide protection for the eggs, but bluegills and channel catfish fed gar eggs in experiments remained healthy, even though they are the natural predators of the gar eggs. Crayfish fed the roe were not immune to the toxin, and most died. The roe's toxicities to humans and crayfish may be coincidences, however, and not the result of explicit natural selection.


title: Gar

text: Several species are traded as aquarium fish. The hard ganoid scales of gars are sometimes used to make jewelry whereas the tough skin is used to make such items as lamp shades. Historically, Native Americans used gar scales as arrowheads, native Caribbeans used the skin for breastplates, and early American pioneers covered the blades of their plows with gar skin. Not much is known about the precise function of the gar in Native American religion and culture other than the ritual "garfish dances" that have been performed by Creek and Chickasaw tribes.


title: Central university (India)

text: Central universities in India are public universities established by an Act of Parliament and are under the purview of the Department of Higher Education in the Ministry of Education, except for nine universities which are under the purview of other ministries. In general, universities in India are recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC), which draws its power from the "University Grants Commission Act, 1956". In addition, 15 Professional Councils are established, controlling different aspects of accreditation and coordination. Central universities, in addition, are covered by the "Central Universities Act, 2009", which regulates their purpose, powers, governance etc., and established 12 new universities.


title: Central university (India)

text: , The list of central universities published by the UGC includes 55 central universities. However, , Sindhu Central University, which is listed by the UGC as a central university in Ladakh, is still not operational.


title: Central university (India)

text: The region with the most central universities in India is Delhi with seven universities. There are central universities in all of the states of India except Goa. Of the union territories, there are central universities in Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Puducherry.


title: Central university (India)

text: The establishment Act of universities established by the "Central Universities Act, 2009", or after it, is noted. All other universities were established by a specific Act.


title: Central university (India)

text: In August 2021, India's education minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced a bill in the Parliament of India to amend the Central Universities Act, 2009 which will lead to a central university in the Union territory of Ladakh. Earlier in July, the Union Council of Ministers approved the setting up the new university for ₹750 crore. The new campus will come up at village Khalatse, located in between Leh and Kargil. , the university is still not operational.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: Nashville International Airport is a public/military airport in the southeastern section of Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Established in 1937, its original name was Berry Field, from which its ICAO and IATA identifiers are derived. The current terminal was built in 1987, and the airport took its current name in 1988. Nashville International Airport has four runways and covers of land.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: The airport is served by 30 airlines, 26 passenger and 4 cargo-only ones (and of which 7 are foreign airlines) and has 585 daily arriving and departing flights with nonstop flights to 101 airports in North America and Europe. Joint Base Berry Field, formerly Berry Field Air National Guard Base is located at Nashville International Airport. The base is home to the 118th Wing and the 1/230th Air Cavalry Squadron Tennessee Army National Guard.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: Nashville's first airport was Hampton Field, which operated until 1921. It was replaced by Blackwood Field in the Hermitage community, which operated between 1921 and 1928. The first airlines to serve Nashville, American Airlines and Eastern Air Lines, flew out of Sky Harbor Airport in nearby Rutherford County.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: By 1935 the need for an airport larger and closer to the city than Sky Harbor Airport was realized and a citizens' committee was organized by Mayor Hilary Ewing Howse to choose a location. A plot along Dixie Parkway (now Murfreesboro Road) composed of four farms was selected, and construction began in 1936 as one of the first major Works Progress Administration projects in the area. The airport was dedicated on November 1, 1936, as Berry Field, named after Col. Harry S. Berry, the Tennessee administrator for the Works Progress Administration. It opened in June 1937 with much fanfare, including parades, an air show, and an aerial bombardment display by the 105th Aero Squadron, which was based at the field. Passenger service began in mid-July through American Airlines and Eastern Airlines, both of which operated Douglas DC-3s. The new airport had three asphalt runways, a three-story passenger terminal, a control tower, two hangars and a beacon, and was built at a cost of $1.2 million. In its first year Berry Field served 189,000 passengers.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: During World War II, the airfield was requisitioned by the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command as the headquarters for the 4th Ferrying Command for movement of new aircraft overseas. During this time, the Federal government expanded the airport to . At the end of the war, the airport was returned to the control of the city, with a number of facilities remaining for support of the tenant unit of the Tennessee National Guard.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: The airport had been enlarged by the military during World War II, but in 1958 the City Aviation Department started planning to expand and modernize the airport. In 1961, a new terminal opened off of Briley Parkway, west of runway 2L. 1961 also saw the first scheduled jets at Berry Field, American Airlines 720/720Bs. For the first time more than half a million people passed through the airport when the six airlines that served Nashville carried 532,790 passengers. These renovations also included expansion of an existing runway, with 2L/20R being extended by , and the construction of a new crosswind runway, 13/31. In 1962 Nashville became the first municipal airport in the United States with a public reading room when the Nashville Public Library opened a branch inside the terminal.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: By the 1970s the airport was again in need of expansion and modernization. In 1973 the newly created Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA) finalized a plan for the long-term growth of the airport; the plan included a new terminal and a new parallel runway across Donelson Pike to increase capacity by reducing time between takeoffs and landings.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: In the early 1980s the MNAA commissioned Robert Lamb Hart, in association with the firm of Gresham, Smith and Partners, to design a modern terminal; construction began in 1984 and was completed in 1987. It had three main concourses and a smaller commuter concourse radiating from a distinctive three-story atrium. An international wing was built in Concourse A; the airport was renamed Nashville International Airport/Berry Field. It is now rare to see the "Berry Field" portion used, but the airport's IATA code (BNA) is short for Berry Field Nashville, and the military facilities at the airport are still commonly known by this name. In 1989 a new parallel runway (2R/20L) was opened for use.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: American Airlines announced in 1985 that it would establish a hub at Nashville, and it officially opened in 1986. The hub was intended to compete with Delta Air Lines, Eastern Air Lines and Piedmont Airlines for north–south traffic in the eastern United States. Besides providing nonstop flights to many cities in the U.S. and Canada, American also operated a transatlantic flight from Nashville to London. The American hub was touted as a selling point in bringing companies such as Nissan and Saturn Corporation to the Nashville area. Nonetheless, the hub operated at a loss even during its heyday in the early 1990s, like the similarly sized hub American had at Raleigh/Durham.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: American's service peaked in 1993 with 265 daily departures to 79 cities, after which flights were gradually scaled back until the hub closed in December 1995. American cited the aftermath of the early 1990s recession and the lack of local passengers as reasons for the closure.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: In the aftermath of the hub closure, Southwest Airlines gradually filled the void by subleasing American's gates and seizing a majority of the Nashville market. Southwest continues to dominate the airport to this day.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: In 2002 Embraer Aircraft Maintenance Services (EAMS) selected Nashville as the location for its Regional Airline Support Facility, which was built on the site of the demolished 1961 terminal building.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: In October 2006 the Nashville Metropolitan Airport Authority started an extensive renovation of the terminal building, designed by Architectural Alliance of Minneapolis and Thomas, Miller & Partners, PLLC of Nashville, the first since the terminal opened 19 years prior. Phase one of the project involved updating and expanding food and vending services, improving flight information systems, and construction of a new consolidated security checkpoint for all terminals. Phase one was completed in 2009. Phase two of the project involved the expansion of the ticketing and check-in areas, the construction and renovation of bathrooms, and the renovation of the baggage claim areas. Completion of the second phase of the renovation project was completed in 2011. These renovations brought the total size of the terminal building to over . In addition to the terminal renovation and expansion, the renovations included expanding parking and a new rental car facility. The renovated terminal was named the Robert C. H. Mathews Jr. Terminal in honor of a MNAA board chair in 2011.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: In addition to passenger amenities in the terminal and parking areas, the renovations included improvements to the airport's infrastructure. The largest project was the complete demolition and rebuilding of Runway 2L/20R, which was completed in August 2010. In addition to the rebuilding of Runway 2L/20R, Runway 2C/20C was closed from September through December 2010 for pavement and concrete rehabilitation. BNA's of tarmac were also rehabilitated during this project after being funded entirely by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allotments.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: In August 2017, British Airways announced nonstop service between Nashville and London, which began on May 4, 2018. This marked the return of transatlantic service at BNA for the first time since 1995, when American ended their London flight.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: To accommodate growth at BNA, the Metro Nashville Airport Authority has commenced a renovation of the airport dubbed as BNA Vision. Projects include expanding and reopening Concourse D, renovating/expanding the central terminal area and constructing a new international arrivals facility, constructing a satellite concourse and constructing new parking garages, access roads and a hotel. The majority of the project will be completed in late 2023, with roadway constructing wrapping up in 2026. A second round will expand Concourses A and D with additional gates, leaving the airport with 69 gates when the entire Vision is completed.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: The airport has one terminal with four concourses and a total of 40 gates. All non pre–cleared international flights are currently processed in Concourse A.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: The airport is served by I-40, which has an eastbound exit and westbound entrance ramp to the terminal road. The airport can also be accessed via the Donelson Pike exit. Taxi's and ride share pick up in the Ground Transportation Center on Level 1 of Terminal Garage 2.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: Nashville International Airport could eventually be connected to downtown Nashville via a light rail line, and the ongoing expansion allows for a connection to be made in the plaza on top of the parking garages.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: Berry Field Air National Guard Base (ANGB) was located on the premises of Nashville International Airport. Since 1937 it hosted the 118th Airlift Wing (AW). Berry Field faced the removal of its flying mission with the BRAC 2005 recommendation to realign its assets to other units. It initially averted this fate by taking on a new role as the C-130 International Training Center. The C-130s assigned to the unit were eventually transferred and the 118th AW became the 118th Wing, supporting unmanned aircraft operations.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: Approximately 1,500 personnel are assigned to both HQ, Tennessee Air National Guard and to the 118 AW at Berry ANGB. Approximately 400 are full-time Active Guard and Reserve (AGR) and Air Reserve Technician (ART) personnel, augmented by approximately 1100 traditional part-time air guardsmen.


title: Nashville International Airport

text: The last C-130 left Nashville in December 2012 and on April 17, 2015, the first UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters belonging to the Tennessee Army National Guard's 1/230th Air Cavalry Squadron relocated to what is now known as Joint Base Berry Field from Army Aviation Support Facility #1 in Smyrna, Tennessee.


title: Request for Comments

text: A Request for Comments (RFC) is a publication in a series from the principal technical development and standards-setting bodies for the Internet, most prominently the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). An RFC is authored by individuals or groups of engineers and computer scientists in the form of a memorandum describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems. It is submitted either for peer review or to convey new concepts, information, or, occasionally, engineering humor.


title: Request for Comments

text: The IETF adopts some of the proposals published as RFCs as Internet Standards. However, many RFCs are informational or experimental in nature and are not standards. The RFC system was invented by Steve Crocker in 1969 to help record unofficial notes on the development of ARPANET. RFCs have since become official documents of Internet specifications, communications protocols, procedures, and events. According to Crocker, the documents "shape the Internet's inner workings and have played a significant role in its success", but are not widely known outside the community.


title: Request for Comments

text: Outside of the Internet community, other documents also called "requests for comments" have been published in U.S. Federal government work, such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.


title: Request for Comments

text: The inception of the RFC format occurred in 1969 as part of the seminal ARPANET project. Today, it is the official publication channel for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), and to some extent the global community of computer network researchers in general.


title: Request for Comments

text: The authors of the first RFCs typewrote their work and circulated hard copies among the ARPA researchers. Unlike the modern RFCs, many of the early RFCs were actual Requests for Comments and were titled as such to avoid sounding too declarative and to encourage discussion. The RFC leaves questions open and is written in a less formal style. This less formal style is now typical of Internet Draft documents, the precursor step before being approved as an RFC.


title: Request for Comments

text: In December 1969, researchers began distributing new RFCs via the newly operational ARPANET. RFC1, titled "Host Software", was written by Steve Crocker of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and published on April 7, 1969. Although written by Steve Crocker, the RFC had emerged from an early working group discussion between Steve Crocker, Steve Carr, and Jeff Rulifson.


title: Request for Comments

text: In RFC 3, which first defined the RFC series, Crocker started attributing the RFC series to the Network Working Group. Rather than being a formal committee, it was a loose association of researchers interested in the ARPANET project. In effect, it included anyone who wanted to join the meetings and discussions about the project.


title: Request for Comments

text: Many of the subsequent RFCs of the 1970s also came from UCLA, because UCLA is one of the first of what were Interface Message Processors (IMPs) on ARPANET. The Augmentation Research Center (ARC) at Stanford Research Institute, directed by Douglas Engelbart, is another of the four first of what were ARPANET nodes and the source of early RFCs. The ARC became the first network information center (InterNIC), which was managed by Elizabeth J. Feinler to distribute the RFCs along with other network information. From 1969 until 1998, Jon Postel served as the RFC editor. On his death in 1998, his obituary was published as RFC 2468.


title: Request for Comments

text: Following the expiration of the original ARPANET contract with the U.S. federal government, the Internet Society, acting on behalf of the IETF, contracted with the Networking Division of the University of Southern California (USC) Information Sciences Institute (ISI) to assume the editorship and publishing responsibilities under the direction of the IAB.


title: Request for Comments

text: Bob Braden took over the role of RFC project lead, while Joyce K. Reynolds continued to be part of the team until October 13, 2006.


title: Request for Comments

text: In July 2007, "streams" of RFCs were defined, so that the editing duties could be divided. IETF documents came from IETF working groups or submissions sponsored by an IETF area director from the Internet Engineering Steering Group. The IAB can publish its own documents. A research stream of documents comes from the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), and an independent stream from other outside sources. A new model was proposed in 2008, refined, and published in August 2009, splitting the task into several roles, including the RFC Series Advisory Group (RSAG). The model was updated in 2012. The streams were also refined in December 2009, with standards defined for their style. In January 2010 the RFC Editor function was moved to a contractor, Association Management Solutions, with Glenn Kowack serving as interim series editor. In late 2011, Heather Flanagan was hired as the permanent RFC Series Editor. Also at that time, an RFC Series Oversight Committee (RSOC) was created.


title: Request for Comments

text: In 2020, the IAB convened the RFC Editor Future Development program to discuss potential changes to the RFC Editor model. The results of the program included the RFC Editor Model (Version 3) as defined in RFC 9280 published in June 2022. Generally, the new model is intended to clarify responsibilities and processes for defining and implementing policies related to the RFC series and the RFC Editor function. Changes in the new model included establishing the position of the RFC Consulting Editor, the RFC Series Working Group (RSWG), and the RFC Series Approval Board (RSAB). It also established a new Editorial Stream for the RFC Series and concluded the RSOC.


title: Request for Comments

text: Requests for Comments were originally produced in non-reflowable text format. In August 2019 the format was changed so that new documents can be viewed optimally in devices with varying display sizes.


title: Request for Comments

text: The RFC Editor assigns each RFC a serial number. Once assigned a number and published, an RFC is never rescinded or modified; if the document requires amendments, the authors publish a revised document. Therefore, some RFCs supersede others; the superseded RFCs are said to be "deprecated", "obsolete", or "obsoleted by" the superseding RFC. Together, the serialized RFCs compose a continuous historical record of the evolution of Internet standards and practices. The RFC process is documented in RFC 2026 ("The Internet Standards Process, Revision 3").


title: Request for Comments

text: The RFC production process differs from the standardization process of formal standards organizations such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Internet technology experts may submit an Internet Draft without support from an external institution. Standards-track RFCs are published with approval from the IETF, and are usually produced by experts participating in IETF Working Groups, which first publish an Internet Draft. This approach facilitates initial rounds of peer review before documents mature into RFCs.


title: Request for Comments

text: The RFC tradition of pragmatic, experience-driven, after-the-fact standards authorship accomplished by individuals or small working groups can have important advantages over the more formal, committee-driven process typical of ISO and national standards bodies.


title: Request for Comments

text: Most RFCs use a common set of terms such as "MUST" and "NOT RECOMMENDED" (as defined by RFC 2119 and RFC 8174), augmented Backus–Naur form (ABNF) (RFC 5234) as a meta-language, and simple text-based formatting, in order to keep the RFCs consistent and easy to understand.


title: Request for Comments

text: The RFC series contains three sub-series for IETF RFCs: BCP, FYI, and STD. Best Current Practice (BCP) is a sub-series of mandatory IETF RFCs not on standards track. For Your Information (FYI) is a sub-series of informational RFCs promoted by the IETF as specified in RFC 1150 (FYI 1). In 2011, RFC 6360 obsoleted FYI 1 and concluded this sub-series. Standard (STD) used to be the third and highest maturity level of the IETF standards track specified in RFC 2026 (BCP 9). In 2011 RFC 6410 (a new part of BCP 9) reduced the standards track to two maturity levels.


title: Request for Comments

text: There are four streams of RFCs: IETF, IRTF, IAB, and "independent submission". Only the IETF creates BCPs and RFCs on the standards track. An "independent submission" is checked by the IESG for conflicts with IETF work; the quality is assessed by an "independent submission editorial board". In other words, IRTF and "independent " RFCs are supposed to contain relevant info or experiments for the Internet at large not in conflict with IETF work; compare RFC 4846, RFC 5742, and RFC 5744.


title: Request for Comments

text: The official source for RFCs on the World Wide Web is the RFC Editor. Almost any published RFC can be retrieved via a URL of the form <nowiki>http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5000.txt</nowiki>, shown for RFC 5000.


title: Request for Comments

text: Every RFC is submitted as plain ASCII text and is published in that form, but may also be available in other formats.


title: Request for Comments

text: For easy access to the metadata of an RFC, including abstract, keywords, author(s), publication date, errata, status, and especially later updates, the RFC Editor site offers a search form with many features. A redirection sets some efficient parameters, example: .


title: Request for Comments

text: Not all RFCs are standards. Each RFC is assigned a designation with regard to status within the Internet standardization process. This status is one of the following: "Informational", "Experimental", "Best Current Practice", "Standards Track", or "Historic".


title: Request for Comments

text: Standards-track documents are further divided into "Proposed Standard" and "Internet Standard" documents.


title: Request for Comments

text: Only the IETF, represented by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), can approve standards-track RFCs.


title: Request for Comments

text: If an RFC becomes an Internet Standard (STD), it is assigned an STD number but retains its RFC number. The definitive list of Internet Standards is the Official Internet Protocol Standards. Previously STD 1 used to maintain a snapshot of the list.


title: Request for Comments

text: When an Internet Standard is updated, its STD number stays the same, now referring to a new RFC or set of RFCs. A given Internet Standard, STD "n", may be RFCs "x" and "y" at a given time, but later the same standard may be updated to be RFC "z" instead. For example, in 2007 RFC 3700 was an Internet Standard—STD 1—and in May 2008 it was replaced with RFC 5000, so RFC 3700 changed to "Historic", RFC 5000 became an Internet Standard, and STD 1 is RFC 5000. RFC 5000 is replaced by RFC 7100, updating RFC 2026 to no longer use STD 1.


title: Request for Comments

text: (Best Current Practices work in a similar fashion; BCP "n" refers to a certain RFC or set of RFCs, but which RFC or RFCs may change over time).


title: Request for Comments

text: An "informational" RFC can be nearly anything from April 1 jokes to widely recognized essential RFCs like Domain Name System Structure and Delegation (RFC 1591). Some informational RFCs formed the FYI sub-series.


title: Request for Comments

text: An "experimental" RFC can be an IETF document or an individual submission to the RFC Editor. A draft is designated experimental if it is unclear the proposal will work as intended or unclear if the proposal will be widely adopted. An experimental RFC may be promoted to standards track if it becomes popular and works well.


title: Request for Comments

text: The Best Current Practice subseries collects administrative documents and other texts which are considered as official rules and not only "informational", but which do not affect "over the wire data". The border between standards track and BCP is often unclear. If a document only affects the Internet Standards Process, like BCP 9, or IETF administration, it is clearly a BCP. If it only defines rules and regulations for Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) registries it is less clear; most of these documents are BCPs, but some are on the standards track.


title: Request for Comments

text: The BCP series also covers technical recommendations for how to practice Internet standards; for instance, the recommendation to use source filtering to make DoS attacks more difficult (RFC 2827: ""Network Ingress Filtering: Defeating Denial of Service Attacks which employ IP Source Address Spoofing"") is BCP 38.


title: Request for Comments

text: A "historic" RFC is one that the technology defined by the RFC is no longer recommended for use, which differs from "Obsoletes" header in a replacement RFC. For example, RFC 821 (SMTP) itself is obsoleted by various newer RFCs, but SMTP itself is still "current technology", so it is not in "Historic" status. However, since BGP version 4 has entirely superseded earlier BGP versions, the RFCs describing those earlier versions, such as RFC 1267, have been designated historic.


title: Request for Comments

text: Status "unknown" is used for some very old RFCs, where it is unclear which status the document would get if it were published today. Some of these RFCs would not be published at all today; an early RFC was often just that: a simple Request for Comments, not intended to specify a protocol, administrative procedure, or anything else for which the RFC series is used today.


title: Request for Comments

text: The general rule is that original authors (or their employers, if their employment conditions so stipulate) retain copyright unless they make an explicit transfer of their rights.


title: Request for Comments

text: An independent body, the IETF Trust, holds the copyright for some RFCs and for all others it is granted a license by the authors that allows it to reproduce RFCs. The Internet Society is referenced on many RFCs prior to RFC4714 as the copyright owner, but it transferred its rights to the IETF Trust.


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: A national hero of the Philippines is a Filipino who has been recognized as a national hero for his or her role in the history of the Philippines. Loosely, the term may refer to all Filipino historical figures recognized as heroes, but the term more strictly refers to those officially designated as such. In 1995 the Philippine National Heroes Committee officially recommended several people for the designation, but this was not acted upon. , no one had ever been officially recognized as a Philippine national hero.


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: The reformist writer Jose Rizal, today generally considered the greatest Filipino hero and often given as "the" Philippine national hero, has never been explicitly proclaimed as the (or even "a") national hero by the Philippine government. Besides Rizal, the only other Filipino currently given implied recognition as a national hero is Andrés Bonifacio, based on the Philippine government's policy on national holidays. While other historical figures are commemorated in public municipal or provincial holidays. Only Rizal and Andrés Bonifacio to date are commemorated in full or "regular" national holidays- the only ones, based on this metric. The National Heroes Committee recommended Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Aguinaldo, Apolinario Mabini, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Sultan Dipatuan Kudarat, Juan Luna, Melchora Aquino, and Gabriela Silang to be recognized as national heroes on November 15, 1995. No action was taken on the recommendation.


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: Already admired in his lifetime for his nationalistic writings and activities, Jose Rizal was executed for treason on December 30, 1896, by the Spanish colonial government. His writings had helped inspire the Philippine Revolution against colonial rule. On December 20, 1898, Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the Philippine government, decreed December 30 of every year a day of national mourning in honor of Rizal and other victims of the revolution. Henceforth, December 30 has been celebrated as "Rizal Day".


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: By the start of the 20th century, the Philippines had become a territory of the United States. Rizal was given special attention as a hero by the American colonial administration because, unlike more radical figures whose ideas could inspire resistance against American rule, he was interpreted to represent peaceful political advocacy. Rizal was selected over the revolutionaries Andres Bonifacio, who was viewed as too radical, and Apolinario Mabini, who was considered unregenerate. In June 1901, Act No. 137 of the Taft Commission reorganized the district of Morong into the Province of Rizal.


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: On February 23, 1918, the Philippine Legislature issued Act No. 2760 which promoted the creation, maintenance, and improvement of national monuments, particularly the creation of a monument in memory of Andres Bonifacio, leader of the "Katipunan" secret society which spearheaded the Philippine Revolution.


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: On February 16, 1921, the Philippine Legislature enacted Act No. 2946, which made November 30 of each year a legal holiday to commemorate the birth of Andres Bonifacio, henceforth called "Bonifacio Day".


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: On October 28, 1931, the Philippine Legislature enacted Act No. 3827, declaring the last Sunday of August of every year as "National Heroes Day".


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: By 1960, Rizal was already held in such esteem that he was referred to as "the" Philippine national hero, even though no legislation had been passed making it official. That year, historian Teodoro Agoncillo wrote in his "History of the Filipino People" that the Philippine national hero, unlike those of other countries, was not "the leader of its liberation forces". Agoncillo noted the sentiments of certain quarters calling for Rizal's replacement as the national hero by Andres Bonifacio, since Rizal was interpreted as ultimately a reformist content to be under Spain, not a revolutionary wishing for independence. A distant relative of Emilio Aguinaldo who took over the reins of revolutionary power from Bonifacio and ordered the "execution" of the former, Agoncillo opined that Bonifacio should not replace Rizal as the national hero but be honored alongside him.


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: Historian Renato Constantino, building upon sentiments noted by Agoncillo, wrote in his 1970 essay "Veneration Without Understanding" that Rizal was unworthy of his high status since he was a "United States-sponsored hero".


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: In 1990, historian Ambeth Ocampo stated that Rizal was a "conscious hero", i.e., he had projected himself as a national figure prior to his execution and he was deemed as the national hero by Bonifacio, who even named Rizal as the honorary president of the Katipunan, long before Rizal was given reverence by the American colonial administrators.


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: President Fidel V. Ramos formed the "National Heroes Committee" on March 28, 1993, under Executive Order No. 75, titled "Creating the National Heroes Committee Under the Office of the President". The National Heroes Committee was tasked to study, evaluate and recommend Filipino national heroes to recognize their heroic character and remarkable achievements for the country.


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: On November 30, 1994 (Bonifacio Day), President Ramos issued Proclamation No. 510 which declared the year 1996 (the centennial of the Philippine Revolution) as the "Year of Filipino Heroes".


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: The National Heroes Committee recommended the following nine individuals to be recognized as national heroes on November 15, 1995:


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: Their report was submitted to the Department of Education, Culture and Sports on November 22 of that year. However, no action was taken afterwards. It was speculated that any action might cause a number of requests for proclamation or trigger debates that revolve around the controversies about the concerned historical figures.


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: On July 24, 2007, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo approved Republic Act No. 9256, which declared the Monday nearest August 21 a nationwide special holiday in honor of Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., called "Ninoy Aquino Day". August 21 is Aquino's death anniversary. On the same date President Macapagal-Arroyo also approved Republic Act No. 9492, which decreed that National Heroes Day be celebrated on the last Monday of August, Bonifacio Day on the Monday nearest November 30, and Rizal Day on the Monday nearest December 30.


title: National hero of the Philippines

text: Following the death of President Corazon "Cory" Aquino on August 1, 2009, two resolutions, House Joint Resolution Nos. 41 and 42, have been filed proposing her official recognition as a national hero with her birthdate January 25 as "Cory Aquino Day".


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: The western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) is one of two Critically Endangered subspecies of the western gorilla ("Gorilla gorilla") that lives in montane, primary and secondary forest and lowland swampland in central Africa in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. It is the nominate subspecies of the western gorilla, and the smallest of the four gorilla subspecies.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: The western lowland gorilla is the only subspecies kept in zoos with the exception of Amahoro, a female eastern lowland gorilla at Antwerp Zoo, and a few mountain gorillas kept captive in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: The western lowland gorilla is the smallest subspecies of gorilla but still has exceptional size and strength. This species of gorillas exhibits pronounced sexual dimorphism. They possess no tails and have jet black skin along with coarse black hair that covers their entire body except for the face, ears, hands and feet. The hair on the back and rump of males takes on a grey coloration and is also lost as they get older. This coloration is the reason why older males are known as "silverbacks". Their hands are proportionately large with nails on all digits (similar to those of humans) and very large thumbs. They have short muzzles, prominent brow ridges, large nostrils and small eyes and ears. Other features are large muscles in the jaw region along with broad and strong teeth. Among these teeth are strong sets of frontal canines and large molars in the back of the mouth for grinding fruits and vegetables.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: A male standing erect can be up to tall and weigh up to . Males have an average weight of , females of . Males in captivity, however, are noted to be capable of reaching weights up to . Males stand upright at , females at . Zoo owner John Aspinall claimed a silverback gorilla in his prime has the physical strength of seven or eight Olympic weightlifters, but this claim is unverified. Western gorillas frequently stand upright, but walk in a hunched, quadrupedal fashion, with hands curled and knuckles touching the ground. This style of movement requires long arms; indeed, the arm span of western gorillas is greater than their standing height.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: The only known albino gorilla – named Snowflake – was a wild-born western lowland gorilla originally from Equatorial Guinea. Snowflake, a male gorilla, was taken from the wild and brought to the Barcelona Zoo in 1966 at a very young age. He presented the typical traits and characteristics of albinism seen in humans, including white hair, pinkish skin, light colored eyes, reduced visual perception and photophobia, and was diagnosed with non-syndromic albinism. The genetic variant for Snowflake’s albinism was identified by the scientists as a non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism located in a transmembrane region of SLC45A2. This transporter is also known to be involved in oculocutaneous albinism type 4 in humans. As it is a recessive allele, and his parents were an uncle and niece who were both carriers, this revealed the first evidence of inbreeding in western lowland gorillas.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: Western lowland gorilla groups travel within a home range averaging . Gorillas do not display territorial behavior, and neighboring groups often overlap ranges. The group usually favours a certain area within the home range but seems to follow a seasonal pattern depending upon the availability of ripening fruits and, at some sites, localised large open clearings (swamps and "bais"). Gorillas normally travel per day. Populations feeding on high-energy foods that vary spatially and seasonally tend to have greater day ranges than those feeding on lower-quality but more consistently available foods. Larger groups travel greater distances in order to obtain sufficient food.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: It is easier for males to travel alone and move between groups, as before reaching the age of sexual maturity, males leave their natal group and go through a “bachelor stage” that can last several years either in solitary or in a nonbreeding group. However, while both sexes leave their birth group, females are always part of a breeding group. Males like to settle with other male members of their family. Their breeding groups consist of one silverback male, three adult females and their offspring. The male gorilla has the role of the protector. Females tend to make bonds with other females in their natal group only, but form strong bonds with males. Males also aggressively compete for contact with females.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: The group of gorillas is led by one or more adult males. In cases where there is more than one silverback male in a group, they are most likely father and son. Groups containing only one male are believed to be the basic unit of the social group, gradually growing in size due to reproduction and new members migrating in. In the study done at Lope, gorillas harvest most of their food arboreally, but less than half of their night nests are built in trees. They are often found on the ground and are made up of up to 30 gorillas. Western lowland gorillas live in the smallest family groups of all gorillas, with an average of four to eight members in each. The leader (the silverback) organizes group activities, like eating, nesting and travelling in their home range. Those who challenge this alpha male are apt to be cowed by impressive shows of physical power. He may stand upright, throw things, make aggressive charges, and pound his huge chest with open or cupped hands while barking out powerful hoots or unleashing a frightening roar. Despite these displays and the animals' obvious physical power, gorillas are generally calm and nonaggressive unless they are disturbed. Young gorillas, from three to six years old, remind human observers of children. Much of their day is spent in play, climbing trees, chasing one another and swinging from branches.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: Female western lowland gorillas do not produce many offspring due to the fact that they do not reach sexual maturity until the age of 8 or 9. Female gorillas give birth to one infant after a gestation period of nearly nine months. Female gorillas do not show signs of pregnancy. Unlike their powerful parents, newborns are tiny, weighing , but are able to cling to their mothers' fur. These infants ride on their mothers' backs from the age of four months through the first two or three years of their lives. Infants can be dependent on their mother for up to five years.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: A study of over 300 births to captive female gorillas revealed that older females tend to give birth to more male offspring as opposed to females under 8 years old. This pattern is likely to result from selective pressures on females to have males at a time when they can provision them most effectively, as male reproductive success probably varies more than that of females and depends more on the maternal role.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: Female western lowland gorillas living in a group led by a single male have been observed to display sexual behavior during all stages of their reproductive cycle and during times of non-fertility. Three out of four females have been observed to engaged in sexual behavior while pregnant, and two out of three females have been observed to engage in sexual behavior while lactating. Females are significantly more likely to engage and participate in sexual behavior and activity on a day when another female is sexually active. It has been found that female western lowland gorillas participate in non-reproductive sexual behavior in order to increase their reproductive success through sexual competition. By increasing the female’s own reproductive success, she then decreases the reproductive success of other female gorillas, regardless of their reproductive state.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: Infanticide by adult male gorillas has occasionally been observed in this subspecies. Victims are never related to the killer. A male does this in order to have the opportunity to mate with the mother, who otherwise would be unavailable while caring for her young offspring.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: Their intelligence is displayed through their ability to fashion natural materials into tools that help them gather food more conveniently. While the use and manufacture of tools to extract ants and termites is a well-documented behavior in wild chimpanzees, it has never been observed in other great apes in their natural habitat and never seen to be done by other primates in captivity.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: In terms of manufacturing tools for the use of extracting for western lowland gorillas, they are able to adapt tools to a particular use by selecting branches, removing projections such as leaves and bark and adapting their length to the depth of the holes. It appears that they also anticipate the use of the tool since they begin with the biggest sticks available and progressively modify it until it is the perfect fit for inserting into a hole that contains food. This demonstrates the gorillas' acquisition of high level sensorimotor intelligence, similar to that of young human children.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: In the past, there was a gorilla that used a stick to measure the depth of water. In 2009, a western lowland gorilla at Buffalo Zoological Gardens used a bucket to collect water. In an experiment, one adult male gorilla and three adult female gorillas were given five-gallon buckets near a standing pool. Two of the younger females were able to fill the buckets with water. This is the first record of gorillas spontaneously using tools to drink in zoos.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: Another example of gorillas' significant intelligence is their ability to comprehend simple sign language. In the mid-1970s, researchers turned their attention to communicating with gorillas via sign language. One gorilla, Koko, was born in San Francisco Zoo on July 4, 1971. Francine Patterson officially started working with Koko on July 12, 1972, with the goal of teaching her sign language. In the beginning, Patterson focused on teaching Koko only three basic signs: "food", "drink", and "more". Koko would learn signs through observation and from Patterson or one of her colleagues molding Koko's hands into the correct sign. On August 7, Patterson began a more formal routine of teaching Koko the signs, "food", "drink", and "more". In the couple weeks before that, Koko had been using gestures that seemed like attempts at the signs taught, but were deemed as coincidental and random and not intended for the actual purpose. Only two days after they started the more formal routine, Koko started responding consistently with the sign "food" when prompted to. Within the first three months, Koko made 16 different combinations of signs and was also starting to form simple questions by using eye contact and different positioning of signs by the body. Koko mastered more than 1,000 signs and was said to be able to connect up to eight words together to form a statement expressing wants, needs, thoughts, or simple responses.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: There has been a study examining the ability of western lowland gorillas to give to and exchange with humans. This involved humans holding objects such as fruit, leaves or peanuts in one hand. Once the gorillas had given twigs to the humans, they would receive one of these objects. If the gorillas did not give them a twig, they would not get their desired object. The gorillas were shown to quickly learn about receiving rewards as mistakes made by the gorillas in the beginning of the experiments gradually decreased.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: Western lowland gorillas primarily live in rainforest, swamp forest, brush, secondary vegetation, clearing and forest edges, abandoned farming fields and riverine forest. They live in primary and secondary lowland tropical forest at elevations that extend from sea level up to . The average amount of rainfall in the areas where western lowland gorillas typically reside is about a year with the greatest rainfall between the months of August and November. Western lowland gorillas are not typically observed in areas that are close to human settlements and villages. They have been known to avoid areas with roads and farms that show signs of human activity. These gorillas favor areas where edible plants are more copious. Swamp forest is now considered an important food source and habitat for the western lowland gorilla. These areas support the gorillas in both the wet and the dry season of the forest. The forest of the Republic of Congo is currently considered to host the majority of the western lowland gorilla population. They protect the gorillas with the isolation of their large swampy forest areas.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: As primarily herbivorous, the main diet of western lowland gorilla groups is roots, shoots, fruit, wild celery, tree bark and pulp which is provided for in the thick forest of Central and West Africa. During the wet season gorillas commonly consume fruits. While in the dry season, there is a decrease in the consumption of fleshy fruits, but they still continue to eat other kinds of fruits. The diversity of fruits consumed was higher in the poor fruit year, when favored fruit species failed to produce large crops. They may also eat insects from time to time. The common food item within fibers are the herbaceous stems.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: Important food species have been divided into three categories. Staple foods which are eaten on a daily/weekly basis throughout the year, seasonal foods which are present in the majority of resources when available and fallback foods which are always available, but eaten only or mainly during fruit-scarce months. The adult will eat around of food per day. Gorillas will climb trees up to 15 meters in height in search of food. They never completely strip vegetation from a single area since the rapid regrowth of the vegetation allows them to stay within a reasonably confined home range for extended periods of time.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: They eat a combination of fruits and foliage, providing a balance of nutrients, depending on the time of year. However, when ripe fruit is available, they tend to eat more fruit as opposed to foliage. When ripe fruit is in scarce supply, they eat leaves, herbs and bark. During the rainy months of July and August, fruit is ripe; however, in the dry seasons, ripe fruit is scarce. Gorillas choose fruit that is high in sugar for energy, as well as fiber.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: The presence of western lowland gorillas has allowed humans to further the study of how gorillas compare with humans in regards to human diseases, behavior, linguistic and psychological aspects of their lives. They are hunted illegally for their skins and meat in Africa and captured to be sold to zoos. While defended as being economically profitable for restaurants and local people, it is a large contributor to the endangered status of the western lowland gorilla. They are also seen as a crop pest in western Africa because they raid native plantations and therefore destroy what would have otherwise been valuable crops.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: In tropical forest, gorillas are hunted to provide meat for the bushmeat trade. Logging also destroys gorilla habitats. Although logging diminishes gorilla habitats, it may also provide for increased herbaceous vegetation as a result of gaps in the tree cover. Destruction of gorilla habitat may harm the overall forest ecosystem. Western lowland gorillas are seed dispersers, which is beneficial to many of the animals in the forest, so their extinction could impact many other animals, which could over time destroy their current ecosystem.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: The western lowland gorilla population in the wild is faced by a number of factors that threaten its extinction. Such factors include deforestation, farming, grazing and the expanding human settlements that cause forest loss. There is a correlation between human intervention in the wild with the destruction of habitats and an increase in bushmeat hunting. Another of these factors is infertility. Generally, female gorillas mature at 10–12 years of age (or earlier at 7–8 years) and their male counterparts mature more slowly, rarely strong and dominant enough to reproduce before 15–20 years of age. The fecundity of females, or capacity of producing young in great numbers, appears to decline by the age of 18. Of one half of captive females of viable reproductive age, approximately 30% of those had only a single birth. However, these non-reproductive gorillas may prove to be a valuable resource since the use of assisted reproductive techniques aid in the maintaining of genetic diversity in the limited populations in zoos.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: In the 1980s, a census of the gorilla populations in equatorial Africa was thought to be 100,000. Researchers later adjusted the figure to less than half because of poaching and diseases. Surveys conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society in 2006 and 2007 found about 125,000 previously unreported gorillas have been living in the swamp forests of Lake Télé Community Reserve and in neighboring Marantaceae (dryland) forests in the Republic of the Congo. However, gorillas remain vulnerable to Ebola, deforestation and poaching.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: In 2002 and 2003, there was an Ebola outbreak in the Lossi sanctuary population, and in 2004, there was an Ebola outbreak in the Lokoué forest clearing in Odzala-Kokoua National Park, both in the Republic of the Congo. The Ebola outbreak in the Lokoué forest clearing negatively affected the individuals living in groups and the adult females more than the solitary males, resulting in an increase in the proportion of solitary males to those living in groups. This population decreased from 377 individuals to 38 individuals two years after the outbreak and to 40 individuals six years after the outbreak. The population is still slowly recovering, even today, it is hoped, towards a population that has the same demographic structure as an unaffected population, because of new births and breeding groups. This Ebola outbreak also affected the Maya Nord population (52 kilometres northwest from Lokoué) from 400 individuals to considerably fewer. Because of these outbreaks, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) updated the status of western lowland gorillas from "endangered" to "critically endangered".


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: In the northeastern part of the Republic of the Congo, even though poaching is illegal, western lowland gorillas are still being hunted for their bushmeat and the young for pets; five percent of the subspecies is killed each year because of this. Deforestation of this area allows for the trade of bushmeat and even more poaching. Commercial poaching of chimpanzees, forest elephants and western gorillas in the Republic of the Congo resulted from the increased amount of commercial logging and infrastructure. Deforestation and logging allowed for the creation of roads which allowed hunters to hunt deeper into the forest, increasing the amount of poaching and bushmeat trade in the area. The Republic of the Congo has put in place a conservation effort to conserve different species such as chimpanzees, forest elephants and western gorillas from poaching and deforestation. This conservation effort would allow these species to benefit from vegetation and ecologically important resources.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: Bush meat hunting and timber harvesting in the western lowland gorilla’s habitat have negatively affected the probability of its survival. The western lowland gorilla is considered to be critically endangered by the IUCN. The western lowland gorillas, like many gorillas, are essential to the composition of the rainforest due to their seed distribution. The conservation of the western lowland gorilla has been made a priority by many organizations. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has been working with the local community in the Congo Basin to establish wildlife management programs. The WCS is also working in Congo and surrounding countries to limit the bush meat trade by enforcing laws and hunting restrictions and also helping the local people find new sources of protein.


title: Western lowland gorilla

text: Zoos worldwide have a population of 550 western lowland gorillas, and the Cincinnati Zoo leads the United States in western lowland gorilla births.