title: 2022 ITF Women's World Tennis Tour

text: The 2022 International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women's World Tennis Tour is the entry-level and mid-level tour for women's professional tennis. It is organized by the International Tennis Federation and is a tier below the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour. The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour provides a professional pathway between the ITF Junior World Tennis Tour and the WTA Tour. The results of ITF tournaments are incorporated into the WTA ranking, which enables professionals to progress through to the elite levels of women's professional tennis. The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour offers approximately 500 tournaments across 65 countries and incorporates five prize money levels of tournaments: $15,000, $25,000, $60,000, $80,000 and $100,000


title: 2022 ITF Women's World Tennis Tour

text: Tournaments at $15,000 level include reserved main draw places for Top-100 ranked ITF Juniors, providing a smooth pathway for the best new talent to break through into elite professional tennis. The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour is also designed to target prize money effectively to help reduce costs for players and ultimately enable more players to make a living.


title: 2022 ITF Women's World Tennis Tour

text: From 1 March, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine the ITF announced that players from Belarus and Russia could still play on the tour but would not be allowed to play under the flag of Belarus or Russia.


title: 2022 ITF Women's World Tennis Tour

text: The following tournaments were formally announced by the ITF before being subsequently cancelled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic or other reasons.


title: 2022 ITF Women's World Tennis Tour

text: These tables present the number of singles (S) and doubles (D) titles won by each player and each nation during the season. The players/nations are sorted by:


title: 2022 ITF Women's World Tennis Tour

text: "To avoid confusion and double counting, these tables should be updated only after all events of the week are completed."


title: David French (political commentator)

text: David Austin French (born January 24, 1969) is an American political commentator and former attorney who has argued high-profile religious liberty cases. Formerly a fellow at the National Review Institute and a staff writer for "National Review" from 2015 to 2019, French currently serves as senior editor of "The Dispatch" and a contributing writer for "The Atlantic".


title: David French (political commentator)

text: French graduated "summa cum laude" from Lipscomb University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then went on to Harvard Law School where he graduated "cum laude" in 1994 with a Juris Doctor degree.


title: David French (political commentator)

text: French has served as a senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice and the Alliance Defending Freedom, has lectured at Cornell Law School, and spent much of his career working on religious rights issues. He served as president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). French retired from FIRE in 2005, citing plans to serve in the United States Army Reserve as a judge-advocate general officer. A staff writer for "National Review" from 2015 to 2019, and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, French has authored several books.


title: David French (political commentator)

text: In August 2017, French was one of several co-authors of the so-called Nashville Statement, which affirmed "that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness." The statement was criticized by egalitarian Christians and LGBT campaigners, as well as by several conservative religious figures.


title: David French (political commentator)

text: In November 2022, French announced that he had "changed his mind" on the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, although stating he was still morally opposed to the matter. He wrote that his "reasoning tracked my lifelong civil libertarian beliefs" and that: Millions of Americans have formed families and live their lives in deep reliance on "Obergefell" being good law. It would be profoundly disruptive and unjust to rip out the legal superstructure around which they’ve ordered their lives.


title: David French (political commentator)

text: French is a former major in the United States Army Reserve and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. French was deployed to Iraq in 2007 during the Iraq War, serving in Diyala Governorate as squadron judge-advocate. He was awarded a category of Bronze Star.


title: David French (political commentator)

text: French briefly considered entering the 2016 U.S. presidential race, citing his strong moral objections to U.S. Republican Party presumptive nominee Donald Trump. He ultimately decided that he had neither the name recognition nor the financial support to mount a viable campaign.


title: David French (political commentator)

text: In 2016, French and his wife and family were the subject of online attacks when he criticized then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and the alt-right. French was bombarded with hateful tweets, including an image of his daughter in a gas chamber.


title: David French (political commentator)

text: A dispute between French and conservative "New York Post" editor Sohrab Ahmari broke out in the summer of 2019 as a result of the publication of Ahmari's polemical "First Things" article entitled "Against David French-ism." The dispute centered on their differing opinions on how conservatives should approach cultural and political debate and issues, with Ahmari arguing for a more ideologically firm approach against French's libertarian views.


title: David French (political commentator)

text: French is an evangelical Christian. He is married to author Nancy French. French and his family live in Franklin, Tennessee. They have three children, including a daughter adopted from Ethiopia.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: Year of the Dragon is a 1985 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Michael Cimino and starring Mickey Rourke, Ariane Koizumi and John Lone. The screenplay was written by Cimino and Oliver Stone and adapted from the novel by Robert Daley.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: Cimino's first film after the box office failure of "Heaven's Gate" (1980), "Year of the Dragon" is a New York crime drama and an exploration of gangs, the illegal drug trade, ethnicity, racism, and stereotypes. Despite mixed reviews and being a box office flop, it has gained a cult following in the years since its release.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: Stanley White is New York's most decorated police captain and a Vietnam War veteran assigned to New York City's Chinatown, where he makes it a personal mission to crack down on Chinese organized crime. He is obsessed with his career and neglects his marriage to his wife Connie.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: White comes into conflict with Joey Tai, a young man who ruthlessly rises to become the head of the Chinese Triad societies, and as a result of his ambition, creates a high profile for himself and the Triads' activities. Together, they end the uneasy truce that has existed between the Triads and the police precinct, even as they conduct a personal war between themselves and the Italian Mob and Thai gangsters who have traditionally been involved in their heroin supply chain.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: The married captain also becomes romantically involved with Tracy Tzu, a television reporter, who comes under brutal attack from the criminals, as does White's long-suffering wife. This makes him even more determined to destroy the triads, and especially Joey Tai.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: White also hires an up-and-coming Chinese rookie cop, Herbert, to go undercover as one of Tai's restaurant workers. Herbert manages to get inside information on a drug shipment but is betrayed by corrupt cop Alan Perez and loses his life when Tai is informed by Perez that Herbert is a cop. Now that Tai has raped Tracy, killed his wife and Herbert, White wastes no time in confronting Tai just as the shipment comes in.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: At the harbor, Tai and his bodyguard are on their way to the shipment when White attempts to arrest them. Perez drives by yelling abuse, White shoots and kills Perez but Tai draws a gun and shoots White in the hand, accidentally killing his bodyguard. Tai flees on a train bridge. This leads to a showdown where White and Tai run at each other while firing recklessly. White shoots Tai, leaving him wounded in both legs. Rather than suffer, and losing face, Tai asks for White's gun in order to commit suicide. He kills himself in front of White.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: The movie ends happily as White and Tracy come together in the streets of Chinatown at Tai's funeral.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: Michael Cimino was approached many times to helm an adaptation of Robert Daley's novel, but consistently turned the opportunity down. When he finally agreed, Cimino realized he was unable to write and direct in the time allotted; The producers already had an approximate start date for the film. He brought in Oliver Stone, who he had met through his producer and friend Joann Carelli, to help him write the script.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: Cimino was prompted to seek out Stone after reading, and being impressed by, Stone's (at the time) unproduced "Platoon" screenplay. Cimino asked Stone to work on "Year of the Dragon" for a lower-than-normal wage as part of a "quid pro quo" deal, namely, that "Year of the Dragon" producer Dino De Laurentiis would help in finding the funding for Stone to make "Platoon". Stone agreed to this deal.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: "With Michael, it's a 24-hour day", said Stone. "He doesn't really sleep ... he's truly an obsessive personality. He's the most Napoleonic director I ever worked with". Cimino did a year and a half of research on the project.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: While De Laurentiis gave director Cimino final cut in his contract, De Laurentiis also sent Cimino a side letter that said, notwithstanding the contract, he would not have final cut. This information was revealed when the producers of "The Sicilian" sued Cimino over the length of that film.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: Because the production was moving so fast, casting began before the script was completed. Originally, Stone and Cimino had either Nick Nolte or Jeff Bridges in mind for the role of Stanley White, but after seeing Mickey Rourke in "The Pope of Greenwich Village" and working with him on "Heaven's Gate", Cimino changed his mind. According to Rourke, the difficulty with playing White was making himself appear 15 years older to suit the character. Cimino drew heavily on the real-life boxing prowess of Rourke. At first, Rourke did not take his physical training seriously, so Cimino hired Hells Angels member Chuck Zito to be Rourke's instructor. Rourke has often quoted in many interviews that he loved working with Cimino despite the disapproved reputation he earned himself over the years since his previous box office failures, quoting, "He was a ball of fire. I hadn't seen anyone quite like him".


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: As with "Streets of Fire", most of the film was shot not on location but on soundstages in Wilmington, North Carolina, after meticulous research of various locales which could be passed off as Chinatown and/or East Asia. The sets proved realistic enough to fool even Stanley Kubrick, who attended the movie's premiere. Cimino actually had to convince the Bronx-born Kubrick that the film's exteriors were shot on the DEG backlot, and not on location.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: Other cities used in filming included New York City, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Bangkok and Shangirey. Cimino said he often liked to shoot in different cities, with interiors in one city and exteriors in another. In one scene, Joey Tai and his lawyer walk through a Chinese textile mill, past a guard-rail and into a shoddy apartment building to meet up with two of his assassins. The textile mill was in Bangkok, the guard-rail was in New York and the apartment building was in Wilmington. When one of the script supervisors commented that the scene "wouldn't cut" (edit seamlessly together), Cimino bet her $1,000 that it would. Upon seeing the cut, the script supervisor conceded and Cimino won the bet but refused to take the $1,000.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: At the end of the film, White's final line is "You were right and I was wrong. I'd like to be a nice guy. But I just don't know how to be nice". According to Cimino, the final line of White was supposed to be "Well, I guess if you fight a war long enough, you end up marrying the enemy". The studio vetoed the original line, written by Stone. Cimino feels that either the studio or the producers thought the original line was politically incorrect.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: The film opened at #5 on the box office charts, grossing $4,039,079 in 982 theaters on its opening weekend of August 16, 1985. It opened to decent business in major American cities including Washington, D.C., Detroit, and Pittsburgh, but the draw soon dropped, which was perceived to be the result of protest against it from Asian American groups (see below). "Year of the Dragon" was a box office flop, costing $24 million but grossing only $18 million through its run.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: "Year of the Dragon" received polarized reviews upon its release in 1985. Vincent Canby wrote for "The New York Times": ""Year of the Dragon" is light years away from being a classic, but then it makes no pretense at being anything more than what it is — an elaborately produced gangster film that isn't boring for a minute, composed of excesses in behavior, language and visual effects that, eventually, exert their own hypnotic effect." Janet Maslin, in contrast, also writing for "The New York Times", deplored a lack of "feeling, reason and narrative continuity", under which the actors fared "particularly badly", especially Ariane Koizumi whose role in the movie was "ineffectual".


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: Rex Reed of the "New York Post" gave "Dragon" one of its most ecstatic reviews: "Exciting, explosive, daring and adventurous stuff." In his review of Cimino's later film "The Sicilian", Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" wrote that "Year of the Dragon" was "strongly plotted and moved along with power and efficiency." Leonard Maltin gave the film two and a half stars, calling it a "Highly charged, arresting melodrama ... but nearly drowns in a sea of excess and self-importance." Pauline Kael of "The New Yorker" dismissed the film as "hysterical, rabble rousing pulp, the kind that goes over well with subliterate audiences."


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: The film has a 56% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 18 reviews, with a weighted average of 6.08/10.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: Quentin Tarantino has praised this film as one of his favorites, naming its climactic train tracks shoot-out as one of his favorite "Killer Movie Moments" in 2004, remarking, "You forget to breathe during it!".


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: Melanie Chisholm from the Spice Girls is shown in the music video for their 1997 single "Too Much" singing in a Chinatown, dressed in a red cheongsam; this scene is based upon the film.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: There is a Carpenter Brut song titled "Looking For Tracy Tzu", in an apparent reference to the character of the same name.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: Members of the Chinese American and Asian American communities protested against the film, criticizing the film for its racial stereotyping, widespread xenophobia, and use of slurs (especially the use of the derogatory terms "chinks", "slant-eyed", and "yellow niggers"), and sexism. Some groups worried that the film would make Chinatown unsafe and cause an economic downturn in the community. As a result of the controversy, a disclaimer was attached to its opening credits, which read:


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: This film does not intend to demean or to ignore the many positive features of Asian Americans and specifically Chinese American communities. Any similarity between the depiction in this film and any association, organization, individual or Chinatown that exists in real life is accidental.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: In her negative review, Pauline Kael added, ""Year of the Dragon" isn't much more xenophobic than "The Deer Hunter" was, but it's a lot flabbier; the scenes have no tautness, no definition, and so you're more likely to be conscious of the bigotry."


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: The film was accused of racism, but they didn't pay attention to what people say in the film. It's a film which deals with racism, but it's not a racist film. To deal with this sort of subject, you must inevitably reveal its tendencies. It's the first time that we deal with the marginalization which the Chinese were subject to. On that subject, people know far too little. Americans discover with surprise that the Chinese were excluded from American citizenship up until 1943. They couldn't bring their wives to America. Kwong's speech to Stanley is applauded. For all these reasons, the Chinese love the film. And the journalists' negative reactions are perhaps a shield to conceal these unpleasant facts.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: The film was nominated for a Best Foreign Film (Meilleur film étranger) César Award. John Lone received a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe nomination and David Mansfield received a Best Original Score nod.


title: Year of the Dragon (film)

text: The film was nominated for five Razzie Awards, including Worst Screenplay, Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actress and Worst New Star (both for Ariane).


title: Relay race

text: A relay race is a racing competition where members of a team take turns completing parts of racecourse or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games. Relay races are common in running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating (usually with a baton in the fist). In the Olympic Games, there are several types of relay races that are part of track and field. Relay race, also called Relay, a track-and-field sport consisting of a set number of stages (legs), usually four, each leg run by a different member of a team. The runner finishing one leg is usually required to pass the next runner a stick-like object known as a "baton" while both are running in a marked exchange zone. In most relays, team members cover equal distances: Olympic events for both men and women are the 400-metre (4 × 100-metre) and 1,600-metre (4 × 400-metre) relays. Some non-Olympic relays are held at distances of 800 m, 3,200 m, and 6,000 m. In the less frequently run medley relays, however, the athletes cover different distances in a prescribed order—as in a sprint medley of 200, 200, 400, 800 metres or a distance medley of 1,200, 400, 800, 1,600 metres.


title: Relay race

text: A swimming relay of four swimmers usually follows this strategy: second-fastest, third-fastest, slowest, then fastest (anchor). However, it is not uncommon to see either the slowest swimmer racing in the second slot (creating an order of second-fastest, slowest, third-fastest, and then fastest), or an order from slowest to fastest (an order of slowest, third-fastest, second-fastest, fastest).


title: Relay race

text: FINA rules require that a foot of the second, third or fourth swimmer must be contacting the platform while (and before) the incoming teammate is touching the wall; the starting swimmer may already be in motion, however, which saves 0.6–1.0 seconds compared to a regular start. Besides, many swimmers perform better in a relay than in an individual race owing to a team spirit atmosphere. As a result, relay times are typically 2–3 seconds faster than the sum of best times of individual swimmers.


title: Relay race

text: In medley swimming, each swimmer uses a different stroke (in this order): backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle, with the added limitation that the freestyle swimmer cannot use any of the first three strokes. At competitive levels, essentially all freestyle swimmers use the front crawl. Note that this order is different from that for the individual medley, in which a single swimmer swims butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle in a single race, in that order.


title: Relay race

text: The three standard relays raced at the Olympics are the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay, 4 × 200 m freestyle relay and 4 × 100 m medley relay.


title: Relay race

text: Mixed-gendered relays were introduced at the 2014 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) (4 × 50 m freestyle and medley) and the 2015 World Aquatics Championships (4 × 100 m freestyle and medley). The event will debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics (4 × 100 m medley).


title: Relay race

text: In open water swimming, mixed-gendered relays were introduced at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships (4 × 1250 m).


title: Relay race

text: In athletics, the two standard relays are the 4 × 100 metres relay and the 4 × 400 metres relay. 4 × 200, 4 × 800, and 4 × 1500 m relays exist as well, but they are rarer. Mixed-gendered 4 × 400 metres relays were introduced at the 2017 IAAF World Relays, repeated at the 2018 Asian Games, the 2019 World Championships in Athletics and were added to the 2020 Summer Olympics. In addition, a 2 × 2 × 400 m and shuttle hurdles mixed relay races were introduced at the 2019 IAAF World Relays.


title: Relay race

text: Traditionally, the 4 × 400 m relay finals are the last event of a track meet, and is often met with a very enthusiastic crowd, especially if the last leg is a close race. It is hard to measure exact splits in a 4 × 400 (or a 4 × 100) relay. For example, if a team ran a 3-minute 4 × 400, it does not mean every runner on the team has to run a 45-second open 400, because a person starts accelerating before they have the baton, therefore allowing for slightly slower overall open 400 times. A 4 × 400 relay generally starts in lanes for the first leg, including the handoff. The second leg then proceeds to run in lanes for the first 100 metres, after which point the runners are allowed to break into the first lane on the backstretch, as long as they do not interfere with other runners. A race organizer then puts the third-leg runners into a line depending on the order in which they are running (with the first place closest to the inside). The faster teams pass first, while the slower teams have to slide in to the inside lanes as they come available.


title: Relay race

text: According to the IAAF rules, world records in relays can only be set if all team members have the same nationality. Several superior marks were established by teams from a mixture of countries and were thus never ratified.


title: Relay race

text: Major USA Track and Field events, f.e. the Penn Relays, Drake Relays, Kansas Relays, Mt. SAC Relays, Modesto Relays, Texas Relays, West Coast Relays, include different types of relays.


title: Relay race

text: Each runner must hand off the baton to the next runner within a certain zone, usually marked by triangles on the track. In sprint relays, runners typically use a "blind handoff", where the second runner stands on a spot predetermined in practice and starts running when the first runner hits a visual mark on the track (usually a smaller triangle). The second runner opens their hand behind them after a few strides, by which time the first runner should be caught up and able to hand off the baton. Usually a runner will give an auditory signal, such as "Stick!" repeated several times, for the recipient of the baton to put out his hand. In middle-distance relays or longer, runners begin by jogging while looking back at the incoming runner and holding out a hand for the baton.


title: Relay race

text: Based on the speed of the runners, the generally accepted strategy used in setting up a four-person relay team is: second-fastest, third-fastest, slowest, then fastest (anchor); however some teams (usually middle school or young high school) use second-fastest, slowest, third-fastest, then the fastest (anchor). But if a runner is better in the starting blocks than the others, they may be moved to the first spot because it is the only spot that uses starting blocks.


title: Relay race

text: The largest relay event in the world is the Norwegian Holmenkollstafetten, 2,944 teams of 15 starting and ending at Bislett Stadium in Oslo which had a total of 44,160 relay-competitors on May 10, 2014.


title: Relay race

text: Another large relay event is the Penn Relays, which attracts over 15,000 competitors annually on the high-school, collegiate and professional levels, and over its three days attracts upwards of 100,000 spectators. It is credited with popularizing relay racing in the sport of track & field.


title: Relay race

text: Long-distance relays have become increasingly popular with runners of all skill levels. These relays typically have 5 to 36 legs, each usually between long, though sometimes as long as .


title: Relay race

text: The IAAF World Road Relay Championships was held from 1986 to 1998, with six-member teams covering the classic marathon distance.


title: Relay race

text: Races under are run in a day, with each runner covering one or two legs. Longer relays are run overnight, with each runner typically covering three legs.


title: Relay race

text: The world's longest relay race was Japan's Prince Takamatsu Cup Nishinippon Round-Kyūshū Ekiden, which begins in Nagasaki and continues for .


title: Relay race

text: The Crusader Team Sprint Cross Country Relay Race is a fun and unique venue specifically designed to get runners familiar with distance running and excited for the rest of the cross country season.  Teams will be pairs of runners.  The team will run four loops of a 1-mile course.  Runner “A” will run loop 1 and hand off to Runner “B.”  Runner “B” will run the same loop and hand off back to Runner “A.”  “A” runs one more loop, hands off to “B,” and “B” finishes. 3 race categories: boys, girls, and co-ed.  Awards will be given in each of the three categories.


title: Relay race

text: The Shuttle hurdle relay is a Men's and Women's competition that is part of Relay meetings like Drake Relays or Penn Relays. A mixed version was introduced at the 2019 IAAF World Relays, it consist of a race in which two men and two women on each team, are running a 110 m hurdles.


title: Relay race

text: Medley relay events are also occasionally held in track meets, usually consisting of teams of four runners running progressively longer distances. The distance medley relay consists of four legs run at distances of 1200, 400, 800, and 1,600 metres, in that order. The sprint medley relay usually consists of four legs run at distances of 400, 200, 200, and 800 metres, though a more uncommon variant of 200, 100, 100 and 400 metres (sometimes called a short sprint medley) also exists. See also Swedish relay.


title: Relay race

text: Relay race events have been selected as a main motif in numerous collectors' coins. One of the recent samples is the €10 Greek Relays commemorative coin, minted in 2003 to commemorate the 2004 Summer Olympics. In the obverse of the coin three modern athletes run, holding their batons while in the background three ancient athletes are shown running a race known as the dolichos (a semi-endurance race of approximately 3,800 metres' distance).


title: Relay race

text: The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships features a relay race since 1933, and a women's race since 1954. Each team has four skiers, each of whom must complete 10 kilometres / 6.2 miles (men) or 5 kilometres / 3.1 miles (women).


title: Relay race

text: In biathlon, the relay race features a mass start, with teams consist of four biathletes. Each competitor must complete 7.5 kilometres / 4.66 miles (men) or 6.0 kilometres / 3.73 miles (women). Each leg is held over three laps, with two shooting rounds; one prone, one standing.


title: Relay race

text: A mixed biathlon relay race was first held at the Biathlon World Championships 2005 in Khanty-Mansiysk, and it was added to the 2014 Winter Olympics.


title: Relay race

text: The World Triathlon Mixed Relay Championships is a mixed-gendered relay triathlon race held since 2009. Previously, the Triathlon Team World Championships were held in 2003, 2006 and 2007. Also, the triathlon at the Youth Olympic Games has a mixed relay race since 2010, and the event was introduced at the 2020 Summer Olympics. As in standard triathlons, each triathlon competitor must do a segment of swimming, cycling and running.


title: Relay race

text: The madison is a track cycling event where two riders take turns to complete the race. Riders can alternate at any moment by touching the partner with the hand. The madison is featured at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships since 1995 and the Olympics since 2000. The format has been used in six-day racing. In road racing, the Duo Normand is a two-man time trial relay held annually in Normandy, France. In mountain biking, the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships has a mixed team relay race since 1999.


title: Relay race

text: The game show "Triple Threat" had a bonus round called the "Triple Threat Relay Round" which was played like a relay race. The winning team had to take turns matching song titles to its corresponding musical artists.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: Zubaira Alikhanovich Tukhugov (born January 15, 1991) is a Russian mixed martial artist who fights in the Lightweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). A professional MMA competitor since 2010, Tukhugov made a name for himself, fighting in promotions like Cage Warriors, ProFC, Fight Nights (EFN) and others, before joining the UFC in 2014.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: Tukhugov made his professional debut in 2010 beating his three opponents by winning Pankration Atrium Cup 2 eight man, one night tournament. After a 10-3 mixed martial arts records, he would be signed by the Russian promotion, Fight Nights, where he won all of his 3 fights, defeating Romano De Los Reyes, Harun Kina and Vaso Bakocevic. During his time on Fight Nights, Tukhugov did a fight for Cage Warriors, defeating Denys Pidnebesnyi at CWFC 58.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: In December 2013, it was announced that Tukhugov had signed a contract with UFC and was scheduled to make his promotional debut against Thiago Tavares on February 15 at . However, Tavares was forced to pull out due to an undisclosed injury, and was replaced by UFC newcomer Douglas Silva de Andrade. Tukhugov dominated the fight and got a unanimous decision win.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: Tukhugov later faced Ernest Chavez on October 4, at . He won the fight via technical knockout due to punches in the first round.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: Tukhugov was expected to face Thiago Tavares on June 6, 2015 at However, the pairing was scrapped after Tukhugov suffered a rib injury.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: Tukhugov faced Phillipe Nover on December 10, 2015 at UFC Fight Night 80. He won the fight by split decision.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: Tukhugov next faced Renato Moicano on May 14, 2016 at UFC 198. In a controversial series of events, despite Tukhogov suffering a kick to the groin in the first round and again in the second round, referee Eduardo Herdy signaled the competitors to continue. Tukhogov lost the fight via split decision.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: Tukhugov was expected to face Tiago Trator on December 9, 2016 at UFC Fight Night 102. However, on November 14, Tukhugov was pulled from the card after being notified by USADA of a potential anti-doping violation stemming from an out-of-competition sample collected earlier. In February 2018, it was announced that Tukhugov received a two years USADA suspension and contributed USD ten thousand dollar for the arbitration proceedings in testing positive for ostarine from a sample collected on October 29, 2016.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: Tukhugov was scheduled to face Artem Lobov on October 27, 2018 at UFC Fight Night 138. However, it was reported that Tukhugov was removed from the fight due his role in the UFC 229 post-fight melee.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: After a three-year lay-off, Tukhugov returned to face Lerone Murphy on September 7, 2019 at UFC 242. The back-and-forth fight ended in a split draw with one judge assigning each fighter a 29-28 win and the third seeing it as a 28-28 draw.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: Tukhugov faced Kevin Aguilar on February 23, 2020 at UFC Fight Night 168. He won the fight via TKO in the first round.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: Tukhugov faced Hakeem Dawodu on September 27, 2020 at UFC 253. At the weigh-ins, Tukhugov weighed in at 150 pounds, four pounds over the non-title featherweight fight limit. The bout proceeded at a catchweight and Tukhugov was fined a percentage of his purse, which went to his opponent Dawodu. Tukhugov lost the fight via split decision.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: Tukhugov was scheduled to face Ricardo Ramos on March 13, 2021 at UFC Fight Night 187. A week before the event, Tukhugov pulled out due to undisclosed reasons. Promotion officials elected to remove Ramos from the card entirely. The Ramos bout was rescheduled for October 30, 2021 at UFC 267. He won the bout via unanimous decision.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: Tukhugov was scheduled to face Nate Landwehr on August 6, 2022 at UFC on ESPN 40, However, Tukhugov pulled out of the fight due to alleged visa issues which restricted his travel.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: Tukhugov was scheduled to face Lucas Almeida on October 22, 2022 at UFC 280. The bout was canceled just minutes before weigh-ins, due to weight management issues.


title: Zubaira Tukhugov

text: At UFC 229, Khabib Nurmagomedov jumped the cage after his victory and charged toward Conor McGregor's team mate Dillon Danis. Soon after, McGregor and Khabib's cousin Abubakar Nurmagomedov attempted to exit the octagon, but a scuffle broke out between them after McGregor hit Abubakar, who then punched him back. Tukhugov jumped the cage and punched McGregor before security pulled him and Asadulla Emiragaev away. On January 29, 2019, the NSAC announced a one-year suspension for Tukhugov, (retroactive to October 6, 2018) and a $25,000 fine. On May 22, 2019, NSAC reduced the suspensions by 35 days which allowed Tukhugov to be eligible to compete again on September 1, 2019.


title: Dawn Lyn

text: Dawn Lyn Nervik (born January 11, 1963) is an American former child actress who acted from age 4 to 15. She is best known for her role as Dodie Douglas during the last three seasons of the sitcom "My Three Sons". Her brother, Leif Garrett, is a singer and actor.


title: Dawn Lyn

text: Dawn Lyn Nervik was born in Los Angeles, California, to Carolyn Stellar and Rik Nervik. Her father was absent for most of her life.


title: Dawn Lyn

text: She and her older brother Leif Garrett began performing as child actors within a year or two of each other. She financially supported her mother and brother from 1969 until her brother's fame eclipsed hers.


title: Dawn Lyn

text: Dawn Lyn started her entertainment career at age five. She first appeared as an American Indian boy in the 1967 B-grade western "Cry Blood, Apache" at age 4. She stated that she'd only found out that she'd played a character of the opposite sex years later.


title: Dawn Lyn

text: In 1969, Lyn played the character Prudence Everett in the pilot for the ABC series "Nanny and the Professor" but when the television pilot did not initially sell, she was released from her contract with ABC.


title: Dawn Lyn

text: She was cast as Dodie Douglas on the long-running family comedy television series "My Three Sons". ABC sued unsuccessfully to get Lyn to perform in "Nanny and the Professor" after she had already been cast for "My Three Sons". After ABC's lawsuit against Lyn failed, Kim Richards was cast as Prudence Everett.


title: Dawn Lyn

text: Later, Lyn worked steadily in her youth on many popular series like "Adam-12"; "Emergency!"; "Marcus Welby, M.D."; "Barnaby Jones"; and "Gunsmoke".


title: Dawn Lyn

text: In 1971 Lyn had a major role in the western "Shoot Out" as Gregory Peck's character's daughter. She also appeared in movies such as the "Walking Tall" trilogy. (Her brother was also among the cast.) In 1973 Lyn auditioned for the role of Regan in "The Exorcist", but was considered too young for the subject matter.


title: Dawn Lyn

text: Dawn played the daughter of a slain man in a leading role in the 1973 Mannix episode, "Little Girl Lost".


title: Dawn Lyn

text: She had a recurring role as Reagan in the 1974 NBC series "Born Free". She also had a recurring role in the 1977 series "The Red Hand Gang".


title: Dawn Lyn

text: In 1974, Lyn appeared in the cult classic "Devil Times Five", where Lyn's character Moe dumps a bucket of piranhas into a bathtub to creatively kill the character Lovely, played by Lyn's mother. (In "Cry Blood Apache", the cowboy played by Lyn's father murdered the character played by her mother.)


title: Dawn Lyn

text: Her last onscreen acting credit was in the 1978 "Wonder Woman" episode "My Teenage Idol is Missing" which starred her brother as a character similar to himself, a teen pop star, and in which Lyn played a devoted fan.


title: Dawn Lyn

text: Like with many other petite child actors, Lyn's height began to work against her when in her teen years.


title: Dawn Lyn

text: During a 1990 appearance in New York City for Nickelodeon, she was invited for an in-studio radio broadcast of "The Howard Stern Show" along with actress Erin Murphy (of "Bewitched" fame). Lyn and Murphy discussed international politics while egged on by Stern. It was Lyn's second appearance on Stern's program.


title: Dawn Lyn

text: While living in Avalon on Catalina Island from 1997 to 2006, Lyn performed live voice acting with the Avalon Community Theater Radio Troupe. Actor Tony Dow (of "Leave It To Beaver" fame) participated in an in-studio show and later appeared with Lyn at an island charity fundraiser along with his TV brother Jerry Mathers and TV mother Barbara Billingsley. Actor Johnny Whitaker, a childhood friend of Lyn's when "Family Affair" was being shot on the same studio lot as "My Three Sons", joined her in a live broadcast of the troupe's satire of the film "Pearl Harbor" (2001).


title: The Last Leaf

text: The Last Leaf is a short story by O. Henry published in his 1907 collection "The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories". The story first appeared on October 15, 1905, in the "New York World".


title: The Last Leaf

text: The story is set in Greenwich Village during a pneumonia epidemic. It tells the story of an old artist who saves the life of a young neighbouring artist, dying of pneumonia, by giving her the will to live. Through her window she can see an old ivy creeper (growing on a nearby wall), gradually shedding its leaves as autumn turns into winter, and she has taken the thought into her head that she will die when the last leaf falls. The leaves fall day by day, but the last lone leaf stays on for several days. The ill woman's health quickly recovers. At the story's end, we learn that the old artist, who always wanted to produce a masterpiece painting but had never had any success, spent considerable time painting with great realism a leaf on the wall for the whole night. Furthermore, the old artist himself dies of pneumonia contracted while being out in the wet and cold.


title: The Last Leaf

text: The scene of the story of "The Last Leaf" is the Greenwich artist colony in New York City. Over the past century, it has developed from a poor literati settlement to a world-famous art center and tourist attraction.


title: The Last Leaf

text: "The Last Leaf" has been adapted frequently on the stage and the big screen. Notable short film adaptations include


title: Travancore royal family

text: The Travancore royal family was the ruling house of the Kingdom of Travancore. They gave up their ruling rights in 1949 when Travancore merged with India and their political pension privileges were abolished in 1971. The family is descended from the Ay/Venad family and the Chera dynasty.


title: Travancore royal family

text: The royal family is alternatively known as the Kupaka Swaroopam, Thripappur Swaroopam, Venad Swaroopam, Vanchi Swaroopam etc. It has its seat today at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, India. In the early 18th century CE, the Travancore royal family adopted some members from the royal family of Kolathunadu based at Kannur, and Parappanad based in present-day Malappuram district.


title: Travancore royal family

text: The history of the Travancore royal family is always fascinating to Southern Indians a major section still has the love and faith towards the descendants despite the change of monarchy and the establishment of democracy.


title: Travancore royal family

text: Kings. The first recorded inscription of the Venad chiefdom that later became Travancore is in the copper-plate grants of land and privileges on Jewish & Christian tradesmen. The grants were made by the rulers of Kerala, the Perumal Viceroys of South Indian Kingdoms of the East Coast who were deputed to rule Kerala and witnessed by Nair Chiefs including the then Chief of Venad.


title: Travancore royal family

text: In the beginning, when aristocratic lineages rose to power, as in the case of small group broken away from its earlier tharavad through conquest. When they acquired office, these groups seem to have severed ties with their former lineages and clans and to have conferred on themselves, a higher ritual rank as independent castes. These myths are likely to have been created to add to the aura of the dynasty. The ruler in that bloodline was Maharaja Sree Moolam Thirunal, as the family of Maharaja Chithira Thirunal and successors were adopted in early 1900s from the ancient Kolathunad royal family who were rulers in Malabar until the invasion of Tippu Sultan.


title: Travancore royal family

text: According to existing myths, the founding members of the Travancore royal family are said to have come to Kerala, from the banks of the Narmada river. Another claim is that Parashurama himself crowned the first official ruler in the dynasty. There is a claim that their history can be traced back to 820 C.E, which is based on the claim of descent from the Later Cheras of the three southern Indian "Mandala" Kingdoms namely "Chera Mandalam", "Pandya Mandalam" and "Chola Mandalam". According to another legend, a branch of the Chera family was sent to the extreme north of the Kerala region, where they settled and came to be known as the "Mooshika" royal family, or the later Kolathiris, while another branch was deputed to go south to grapple with the Pandyan invasions.


title: Travancore royal family

text: One of the two branches of the Chera dynasty shifted to Venad / Quilon where it merged with the Ay kingdom. Sangramadhira Ravivarman Kulaśēkhara (1266–1314) was the most famed ruler of this Chera Ay dynasty.Numerous places are named after this Chera-Ay dynasty. Ravi Varman invaded the territories of the Pandyas and Cholas and performed imperial coronations at Madurai and Kanchipuram and thus threw off the Pandyan hegemony in the region. However his success was short lived and after him his successors could not hold on to these acquisitions of the Pandyas and Cholas. Sangramadhira Ravivarman Kulaśēkhara adopted two princesses from the related Kolathiri dynasty called Attingal and Kunnumel Ranis in 1305 C.E. The line of kings after Ravi Varman followed the Marumakkathayam law of matrilineal succession. The royal family continued thus in the female line. Whenever there were no females to take forth the line, princesses were adopted from the Kolathiri family, the latest adoption being in 1994. Umayamma Rani who reigned towards the end of the 17th century was a prominent ruler. Marthanda Varma, the "maker of modern Travancore" and Dharma Raja were powerful rulers who re-established the power of monarchy in the state and destroyed that of the nobles. By the early 19th century the kingdom became a princely state under the British. The British government accorded the Maharajah of Travancore a high 19 gun salute outside Travancore, whereas locally and for all temple festivals, the highest salute of 21 guns were fired. Swathi Thirunal was one of the most popular rulers of the 19th century. He made contributions both in the field of administration as well as music. During the reign of Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma reforms like the Temple Entry Proclamation were brought about. He was referred to as the "Father of Travancore industrialization" by A. Sreedhara Menon. V. P. Menon in his book stated that, under Chithira Thirunal's reign, Travancore had become the second most prosperous Princely State in the British Empire.


title: Travancore royal family

text: The women of the family were popularly referred to as Attingal Queens. Attingal was also considered as the ancestral homes of Travancore royals. Historians like V. Nagam Ayya, A. Sreedhara Menon etc. say that Attingal was never a separate Kingdom but the estates and provinces given to the royal women by the male head of the family (King). As the Kings of Travancore were the sons of Attingal Queens, the latter were held in high respect by the royal family as well as the public. This respect and high status led to the wrong notion that Attingal Queens were once sovereigns which was further compounded by the writings of many foreign historians and travellers. Even if they had any power, it was taken away by Maharajah Sree Anizham Thirunal Veerabaala Marthanda Varma. Many Attingal Queens misused their status and signed potentially dangerous treaties with foreign forces, without even consulting with the reigning Travancore Kings. Maharajah Sree Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma, anticipating the threat to the Kingdom's security, removed the powers of the Attingal Queens permanently and brought them under the complete control of the King. Thus, the Attingal Queens lost all private rights in the family properties, their power limited to the role of just a supervisor of such properties.


title: Travancore royal family

text: Kerala historian, Prof. A. Sreedhara Menon wrote: "Early in his reign Marthanda Varma assumed direct control over the so-called Attingal 'Queendom.' This was not an annexation or conquest, but "the amalgamation of Travancore with Attingal." The theory that the Ranis of Attingal exercised sovereign powers is incorrect. The fact is that in political matters, the Ranis exercised no sovereign rights. Any grant of rights over immovable property by the Ranis required the King's previous assent or subsequent confirmation for its validity. The so-called Queendom of Attingal had its origin in the 5th century when two Princesses were adopted into the Venad family and the revenues from certain estates in and around Attingal were assigned to them. Since then, the female members of the ruling family of Travancore had come to be known as Attingal Ranis. It was only the male children of these Tamburatties who could inherit the throne. When Marthanda Varma decided to assume direct control over the estates of Attingal, he was not interfering in the affairs of a sovereign State. As the head of the royal family and the ruler of the State, he had every right to interfere in the affairs of a part of his kingdom. The Rani had neither territory nor subjects. What she possessed was nothing more than the control over the revenues of the estates, powers she exercised were delegated to her by the sovereign of the State."


title: Travancore royal family

text: Maharajah Sree Anizham Thirunal dedicated the Kingdom of Travancore to his family deity Sri Padmanabhaswamy in 1750 January 3 and after that he was referred to as Sree Padmanabhadasa Vanchipaala Maharajah Sree Anizham Thirunal Veerabaala Marthanda Varma Kulasekharaperumal. The Kings of Travancore, taking the title of "Sree Padmanabhadasa," ruled the kingdom as the servant of that deity. This important donation of the Kingdom to the Temple was known as "Thripadidaanam." Travancore as a whole, thus became the property of Sri Padmanabhaswamy, the deity of the Travancore royal family or in other words ""God's Own Country."" It is erroneously believed that use of the title "Sree Padmanabhadasa" before royal male members' names came into being after Thrippadidaanam, but this title was in use even in the 16th century. During the first birthday ceremony of Maharajah Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma (Dharmaraja) in 1725, he is referred to as "Sree Padmanabhadasa" which was much before the Thrippadidaanam (1750) by Maharajah Anizham Thirunal Veerabaala Marthanda Varma. The title of "Sree Padmanabhadasa" is prefixed to the name of every Travancore King while the royal women are "Sree Padmanabhasevinis." In order to get the eligibility for attaining the title of "Sree Padmanabhadasa," certain rituals must be completed at the birth of new royal male members. On the first birthday of every royal male members would be put on the 'Ottakkalmandapam' of the Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple and holy water from the temple will be sprinkled on the baby and only after completion of this ceremony, the royal child is proclaimed as "Sree Padmanabhadasa." The female members also have a ritual called "Padiyettam" which is conducted only after their "Pallikettu" (wedding of Travancore Princesses and Queens). Only those male and female members who complete these ceremonies are allowed in the temple affairs and are also provided respect as well as the titles associated with temple as well as the royal family.'


title: Travancore royal family

text: The females of the royal family are styled as the "Queens of Attingal" with the titles of "Attingal Mootha Thampurati" (Senior Queen of Attingal) and "Attingal Elaya Thampurati" (Junior Queen of Attingal) and "Attingal Kochu Thampurati" (First Princess of Attingal). The first adoption to the Travancore royal family was in the early 14th century from the Kolathiri family because the Kolathiris are considered a sister dynasty by the Travancore Royalty. This adoption resulted in the branching of the royal family into four families namely the branch at Trivandrum, another at Kottarakara known as "Elayadathu" Swaroopam, the "Peraka Thavazhi" branch of Nedumangad and the Quilon branch. The later two branches died out into the 18th century whereas the last Rani of Kottarakara fled after battle with Maharajah Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma. In 1630 two males were adopted from the Cochin royal family sowing the seed of dissension between the branches of the royal family. Later in 1684 one male and two females were adopted from the Kolathiri family, from which family all subsequent adoptions were made, by Umayamma Rani. In 1688 two males, including Rajah Rama Varma, and 2 females were adopted and the famous Travancore King Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma was born to one of these princesses. In 1718 a princess was adopted, whose son was the later King Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma Dharma Raja. In 1748 again four princesses were adopted and Balarama Varma (1798–1810) belonged to this line. The next adoption of 1788 brought forth the famous Maharanis, Gowri Lakshmi Bayi and Gowri Parvati Bayi and all the male rulers up to 1924, the last ruler in this line being Maharajah Moolam Thirunal.


title: Travancore royal family

text: In 1857 two princesses, including Rani Lakshmi Bayi, were adopted from a branch of the Kolathiri family residing at Mavelikara since the 1790s, but by 1901 both these princesses and all their issue died. These adoptions were against the Travancore laws of succession. <nowiki> </nowiki> In 1900 again two princesses were adopted from Mavelikara, granddaughters of Raja Ravi Varma, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi and Sethu Parvathi Bayi (gave birth to the last ruling monarch of Travancore, Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma). The latest adoption occurred in 1994 by Princess Aswathi Thirunal Gowri Lakshmi Bayi who adopted a princess named Lekha Parvathi Bayi. She currently travels between India and abroad.


title: Travancore royal family

text: All members of the ruling family receive two names — an official personal name, and a name associated with the 'star' or 'Thirunal' under which they are born (e.g.: Maharajah Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma).


title: Travancore royal family

text: The Travancore royal family follows matrilineal inheritance. Marumakkathayam or the matrilineal system with inheritance and succession through the sisters' children in the female line.


title: Travancore royal family

text: The last ruling Maharajah of Travancore was Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, died on 20 July 1991 after a stroke. Sree Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma, the younger brother of the last ruling monarch of the Kingdom of Travancore, Maharajah Chitra Thirunal Rama Varma, died at a private hospital in the early hours on 16 December 2013. He was succeeded by Sree Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma, son of Maharani Karthika Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi and Lt. Col. Goda Varma G. V. Raja.


title: Travancore royal family

text: According to an insider's account, as the current Maharaja is without issue,the next in line of succession would be his nephews, the sons of the princesses of Travancore. Therefore Maharaja Mulam Thirunal Ramavarma's nephews Prince Ravi, Prince Raghu and Prince Aditya are expected to be the successors from the Trivandrum branch of the family. Prince Balagopala and Prince Jay are the Elaya Rajas from the Bangalore line of the family


title: Travancore royal family

text: The kings of Thiruvithamkoor though Nairs and had Chera lineages , to acquire the title of Chera and other kshetriya title , They performed with periodic performance of 16 mahādānams (great gifts in charity) such as Hiranya-garbhā, Hiranya-Kāmdhenu, and Hiranyāswaratā in which each of which thousands of Brahmins had been given costly gifts apart from each getting a minimum of 1 kazhanch (78.65 gm) of gold. In 1848 the Marquess of Dalhousie, then Governor-General of British India, was appraised that the depressed condition of the finances in Thiruvithamkoor was due to the mahādanams by the rulers. Lord Dalhousie, instructed Lord Harris, Governor of the Madras Presidency, warn the then King of Thiruvithamkoor Martanda Varma (Uttram Tirunal 1847–60) that if he did not put a stop to this practice, the Madras Presidency would take over his Kingdom's administration. This led to the cessation of the practice of mahādanams. All Travancore Kings including Sree Moolam Thirunal conducted "Hiranyagarbham" and "Tulapurushadaanam" ceremony. Maharajah Chithira Thirunal is the only King of Travancore not to have conducted "Hiranyagarbham" or "Tulaapurushadaanam" as he considered these as an extremely costly ceremonies.


title: Travancore royal family

text: Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma married Ammachi Panapillai Amma Shrimathi Radhadevi Pandalai of Kayamkulam (the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Krishnan Gopinathan Pandalai, MB, CM, FRCS, LRCP, Madras), and has a son, Ananthapadmanabhan Thampi and a daughter, Parvathidevi Kochamma. He used to reside at Pattom Palace, Trivandrum, till his death on 16 December 2013.


title: Travancore royal family

text: The current head of the Travancore royal family is Sree Padmanabhadasa Sree Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma, born on 12 June 1949 at Kowdiar Palace as the youngest son of Maharani Karthika Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi by her husband, Lieutenant-Colonel P.R. Godavarma Raja/G. V. Raja of Poonjar Palace. He became the Titular Heir Apparent or "Elaya Rajah" on 20 July 1991, after the death of Maharajah Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma. Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma is a Physics graduate from Mar Ivanios College, Trivandrum and also studied business management in London. After his education, he joined Aspinwall and Co Ltd in Mangalore 1971, and served as a consultant and in various executive positions like "Additional Director 2004–2005, Director of Planning 2005–2007, Executive Director Aspinwall & Co (Travancore) Ltd since 2005, Member of Aspinwall Promoter Group since 2005, managing director of Aspinwall and Co Ltd in Mangalore since 2008". In 1976 he married Ammachi Panapillai Amma Srimathi Rema Varma of Kilimanoor Palace but divorced in 2002.


title: Travancore royal family

text: Princess Aswathi Thirunal Gowri Lakshmi Bayi was married to the late Sri Sukumaran Raja Raja Varma of Palikkara West Palace, Thiruvalla. He died from injuries after a car accident, at the Ochira District Hospital, Kerala, 30 December 2005. The couple has three children: Prince Pooruruttathi Thirunal Marthanda Varma, Prince Avittom Thirunal Aditya Varma, and Princess Bharani Thirunal Lekha Parvathi Bayi(adopted). Prince Pooruruttathi Thirunal Marthanda Varma married Ammachi Panapillai Amma Srimathi Gopika Nair alias Kalaimamani Gopika Marthanda Varma or Gopika Varma, the Mohiniyattam dancer as well as Director of Dasya Dance School, Member Advisory Board of the Ability Foundation in Chennai etc. they have a son, Sri Vishnu Thampi. Prince Avittom Thirunal Aditya Varma married Shrimathi Resmi Varma of Mariapalli Palace, Kottayam in 2000.


title: Travancore royal family

text: The Constitutional Amendment of 1971 terminated the status of the Maharajahs of the erstwhile princely states as rulers and abolished their rights to receive privy purses. However the other clauses of the agreements signed between the Government of India and the Princes in 1947 legally still hold. The royal family of Travancore has no administrative authority since 1971. Till 1956 Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma served as "Rajpramukh" of Thiru-Kochi. Later in 1971 while the family lost their privy purse and other privileges, the rights of the family in the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple were respected and the current head of the family, Sree Padmanabhadasa Sree Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma, fulfills his duty towards the temple as the Titular Maharajah of Travancore and as the Trustee of Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple, Trivandrum, even though he has no part in the administration of the temple.


title: Travancore royal family

text: The Padmanabhapuram Palace was the main residence of the Travancore Maharajahs whereas the Ranis of Attingal resided at that place in their own palaces. Later the royal family moved to Trivandrum wherein the females resided at the Sree Padam Palace and the men in many other Palaces like Thulsi Hill Palace, Rangavilaasom Palace, Kuthiramalika Palace etc.


title: Travancore royal family

text: The branch of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi had sold all their properties in Kerala in the late 1940s and early 1950s itself and moved outside the State. Most of them are settled at places like Chennai, Bangalore, also in foreign countries like United States of America, Australia, South Africa etc.


title: Travancore royal family

text: After the Constitutional Amendment of 1971, the properties and estates of the royal family were partitioned and divided into two equal halves among the branches of Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi and Maharani Sethu Parvathi Bayi. However certain legal disputes continued between Balagopala Varma (the grandson of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi) and Maharajah Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, regarding the ownership of the Stalemond Palace in Poojapura. According to the verdict given by the Supreme Court of India in the matter, the terms of division of properties was accepted by all members of both branches of the royal family. But later Balagopal Varma(Revathi Nal), who at the time of property division was a minor, accused that Sree Chithira Thirunal had unlawfully taken away a property, Poojappura Stalemond Palace, that rightly belonged to his grandmother, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi . Sree Chithira Thirunal had given away this Palace to the Government of Kerala to construct a new Medical Centre, the now famous, Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, in 1974. Balagopala Varma(Revathi Nal) also accused that Sree Chithira Thirunal had unlawfully taken away the traditional holdings of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, as Senior Rani of Attingal. The court also dismissed this argument while giving the final verdict in 1991. Sethu Lakshmi Bayi's case was presented to the then Viceroy of India in the 30s but was dismissed by him, as former Maharajah of Travancore, Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma had already removed all the powers of Attingal Queens in 18th century itself. Revathi Nal Balagopala Varma took his grievance first to the High Court of Kerala and later to the Supreme Court of India. However, at both courts, the verdicts came in favour of Sree Chithira Thirunal and the appelant, Revathi Nal's, case was dismissed in the final judgement of 1991 by the Supreme Court of India. The Maharajah had donated the "Stalemond Palace" for the creation of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology, Trivandrum The case was won by Maharajah Sree Chithira Thirunal after the final verdict given by the Supreme Court Of India in 1991.


title: Travancore royal family

text: Presently only the descendants of Sethu Parvathi Bayi live at Kowdiar Palace as it belongs to her legal heirs and their descendants. They are all based in Trivandrum and are also the ones who keep alive the traditions and rituals of their ancient dynasty including the upkeep of the famous Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple.


title: Ursus (mammal)

text: Ursus is a genus in the family Ursidae (bears) that includes the widely distributed brown bear, the polar bear, the American black bear, and the


title: Ursus (mammal)

text: A hybrid between grizzly bears and polar bears has also been recorded. Known commonly as a pizzly, prizzly, or grolar bear, the official name is simply "grizzly–polar bear hybrid".


title: Ursus (mammal)

text: The mating systems within the genus "Ursus" are primarily classified as polygynous, polyandrous and promiscuous. Both males and females mate with more than one partner and use various strategies to increase their reproductive success. Since bears are sexually dimorphic, sexual conflict is a primary driving force behind sexual selection influencing intra-sexual and inter-sexual competition. Unlike more social species bears, being solitary mammals, have wide-ranging habitats to locate potential mates. Due to the asynchrony of oestrous phases and lengthy parental care by females, bear populations are usually male-biased, meaning that females are more choosy and males are more competitive. Intra-sexual selection is then characterized by male-male competitions influenced by female mate choice.


title: Ursus (mammal)

text: Mating seasons fluctuate based on species dependent on geographical location. American black bears "(Ursus amercanus)", brown bears "(Ursus arctos)" and polar bears "(Ursus maritimus)" all have mating seasons occurring within a three-month duration during the spring and summer months (approximately May – July), with delayed implantation occurring in late fall (November), and cubs born within the den during early winter (January). Females, on average, mate with three to four males during a mating season and mating males have more variation, mating with one to eight females during a mating season. Since reproductive success is positively correlated with age and size in bear populations, there are also males that do not mate at all until they are able to compete with larger males. There is a very loose dominance hierarchy within bear mating systems due to their solitary nature. Majority of dominance hierarchies are found at food congregations in which population density is high and individuals are ranked based on size, mass, aggressiveness and willingness to fight. Overall, dominance hierarchies have lower adaptive strategies in solitary species and dominance is established based on encounters during the breeding season.


title: Ursus (mammal)

text: The mating system is generally characterised by two main components, the search phase and the encounter phase. During the breeding season, both males and females expand their home ranges to help increase the likelihood of finding potential mates. Males, especially, adapt a roaming strategy, covering a large geographic range to find receptive females and tracking them via chemoreceptors. Male bears are not considered to be territorial, but they do have large home ranges that may overlap with female home ranges, giving them access to a range of 3–15 females.


title: Ursus (mammal)

text: Males compete for females using contest competition, scramble competition and sperm competition as mechanisms for sexual selection. The pre-copulatory mechanisms, including contest and scramble competition, are conditional mating tactics that are used based on an individual's phenotype. Males that are larger in size compete more in physical contests to access potential mates, while males that are smaller or medium-sized use scramble competition as a strategy by increasing their ranges to encounter potential mates. Age and size are positively correlated and as males mature, they grow in size and experience, monopolizing receptive females. Observations of broken canines, cuts, wounds and scars demonstrate the costs associated with contests and the importance of physical intra-sexual conflict within polygamous mating systems.


title: Ursus (mammal)

text: There is also post-copulatory male-male competition that has been documented in species within the genus "Ursus". The presence of dual paternity within a litter implies that sperm competition may take place after copulation.


title: Ursus (mammal)

text: Another male strategy observed by male bears is sexually selected infanticide. This results in males killing the offspring of other males to directly and indirectly improve their own reproductive success. This can directly influence their success by mating with the female when she re-enters oestrus or indirectly by lowering intra-sexual competition with other males and resources.


title: Ursus (mammal)

text: Female choice is based on the cost of searching for a mate and the quality of a mate. Since females are induced ovulators, studies suggest that they may have control over the paternity of their offspring. This may be done through pre- and post-copulatory counter-strategies that involve cryptic female choice and sexually selected infanticide. The hypothesis of sexually selected infanticide is a female counterstrategy that can directly and indirectly improve their fitness. This is done by selecting for infanticidal males to enforce mate and offspring recognition and indirectly by mating with multiple males in order to have multiple paternity.


title: Ursus (mammal)

text: Within "Ursus", there may be a high variation within the mating strategies observed by both females and males, demonstrating overall plasticity depending on external factors. This demonstrates the conditional mating tactics that male bears may consider based on their age and size, as well as the counter-strategies of females, including sexually selected infanticide and cryptic female choice.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: Tehmina Durrani (; born 18 February 1953) is a Pakistani author, artist, activist on women's and children's rights, and the current First Lady of Pakistan being married to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Her first book, "My Feudal Lord" (1991), shocked the conservative Pakistani society because of the sensational exposure of her politically famous but abusive husband, Mustafa Khar.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: Her three-year tenure of service alongside Abdul Satar Edhi was transformational and life changing. It also resulted in her authoring his (narrated) autobiography, "A Mirror to the Blind" (1996). The influence of Edhi spurred her into social work and inspired her to establish the 'Tehmina Durrani Foundation', with a mission to further Edhi's way of "humanitarianism", and his vision of Pakistan as a Social Welfare State.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: Tehmina Durrani, born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan into a Pashtun family, she is the daughter of a former Governor of State Bank of Pakistan and managing director of Pakistan International Airlines, Shahkur Ullah Durrani. Tehmina Durrani's paternal grandfather was Major Muhammad Zaman Durrani. Tehmina's mother, Samina Durrani, is the daughter of Nawab Sir Liaqat Hayat Khan, the prime minister of the former princely state of Patiala. Sir Liaqat Hyat Khan's brother, Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, was a pre-1947 Punjab Premier, a statesman and leader.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: At seventeen, she married Anees Khan, and they had one daughter together. Durrani and Khan divorced in 1976. Durrani later married Ghulam Mustafa Khar, a former Chief Minister and Governor of Punjab. Khar had been married five times. Durrani and Khar had four children. After being abused by Khar for several years, she ended her marriage of fourteen years in divorce.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: In 1991, Durrani wrote an autobiography titled "My Feudal Lord" alleging abuse by Khar. She argued in the book that the real power of feudal landlords, like Khar, is derived from the distorted version of Islam that is supported by the silence of women and of society as a whole.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: As a reaction to her expository book, her family on both the paternal and maternal sides disowned her and her five children for thirteen years.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: In the years after leaving her second husband, Khar, one prominent event was her hunger strike in 1993 against government corruption, and the newly coined term, 'accountability', came into being. After seven days she was admitted to hospital and it was only when the prime minister of Pakistan, Moin Quraishi, visited her to break her fast did she do so.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: After many years of political exposure through her ex-husband, Mustafa Khar, who was a political leader, and in her struggle against corruption, she realized that the answers she was seeking would not come through politicians. In her search for someone who was in touch with the problems of the common man, and who had found a solution, she found Pakistan's most celebrated humanitarian, Abdul Sattar Edhi.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: She moved in with the Edhi family and spent three years serving at Edhi Homes in Mithadar, Sorab Goth, and Kharadar, Karachi. She became his apprentice, and also got his permission to author his autobiography. These years shadowing Edhi sahab were a thesis for the dissertation of the book. These years were perhaps her most transformational as they laid the seeds for her further work as well as her spiritual quest for truth. "While I tied coffins to abandoned babies, stepped over corpses, and drove with him in a ‘peoples’ ambulance, I recorded the thoughts, inspirations, motives, observations, views and works of Pakistan's most revered and renowned social reformer." In 1994, ‘"A Mirror to the Blind’", Mr. Edhi's official ‘narrated’ autobiography, was endorsed and published by the Edhi Foundation.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: In 2003, Durrani married thrice-elected Chief Minister of Punjab, Shehbaz Sharif. They were married in a private ceremony in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Durrani resides in Lahore with her husband, who is the current Prime Minister of Pakistan and a part of the politically prominent Sharif family, and the brother of Nawaz Sharif, the Ex- Prime Minister of Pakistan.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: In June 1991, "My Feudal Lord" was released by Vanguard Books, a company owned by the journalists Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin. Durrani denied she signed a contract vesting complete foreign rights with Mohsin rather than with herself and her estate. The dispute was settled in 1992.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: On 19 May 1999, Durrani accused Sethi of stealing her book profits. She said, "[his actions were] an even bigger case of hypocrisy than my experience with the feudal system." At the time, Sethi was being detained without charge by Intelligence Bureau (Pakistan) for his comments to a British Broadcasting Corporation news team about government corruption. Durrani sued Sethi for mental torture, and he countersued for defamation. A review of the book contracts by the English newspaper "The Independent" described Sethi as acting in good faith and described him and Mohsin as "the injured party".


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: Since 2005, Durrani has supported the social rehabilitation of women. In 2001, Durrani cared for Fakhra Younus, a former wife of Bilal Khar, the son of Khar from his third marriage. Younus had been attacked with acid, allegedly by her husband. Durrani's arrangements to take Younus abroad captured media attention. Younus was denied a passport to leave Pakistan but under public pressure was later allowed to leave. Durrani engaged the Italian cosmetics firm Sant' Angelica and the government of Italy to treat Younus. Smile Again, an Italian NGO head by Clarice Felli entered Pakistan to assist in the care of mutilated women. Italian mother left Pakistan after falling out with the chapter run by Musarat Misba of Depilex over financial discrepancies. On 17 March 2012, Younus died by suicide in Italy and was buried in Karachi. Durrani received Younus' body draped in an Italian and a Pakistan flag.The funeral prayers for Younus took place at the Edhi centre in Kharadar. The 2012 Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge directed critically acclaimed documentary film "Saving Face" was made on Younus' life, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, among several other accolades.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: Founded in 2015, Tehmina Durrani Foundation (www.tehminadurranifoundation.org) officially launched its activities in January, 2017. Tehmina Durrani explains, "We are picking the mission of Edhi, where he left. His duty was to serve the humanity without distinction of caste and creed – and so is ours.”


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: Her most famous book, which was an overnight best seller and sensation in Pakistan as well as around the world. It is based on her life. Tehmina Durrani was born into one of Pakistan's most aristocratic families. Her parents married her to Anees Khan when she was seventeen and they had a daughter together. While married, she met Mutafa Khar, an eminent Pakistani politician, who along with Bhutto founded the PPP political party. Tehmina and Khar got married after she divorced, but their honeymoon period turned bitter very quickly. The intense and grotesque abuse is described vividly in her book with gory details. She was brave enough to expose her then famous husband publicly in an extremely conservative Pakistani Muslim society. She paid a heavy price for it because she was shunned by society and her own parents disowned her. Her rebellious nature also cost her losing all financial support from her ex-husband, as well as the custody of her children. It did make her search for answers for the position of women within Islam and made her stand up for women's rights.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: As no publisher was willing to take the liability of such a controversial book, she initially printed it herself, and after it became a hot selling book, it was published by Vanguard books. "My Feudal Lord" has been translated into 40 languages and has received many awards.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: Durrani's second book, "A Mirror to the Blind", is the biography of Abdul Sattar Edhi, who was Pakistan's highly decorated social worker. Over a three-year period, Durrani lived in Edhi's home and accompanied him on his visits. The book was published in 1996 by the National Bureau of Publications with the Edhi Foundation. It is the official document Abdul Sattar Edhi's life and message.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: Her third book, "Blasphemy" (1998), was successful but also controversial. In the novel she describes the secret lives of the Muslim clergy and spiritual leaders or "pirs". Durrani said that the story is factual, with some names and events altered to protect the identity of the women who are at the center of the story. The book also delves into a critical approach to the tradition and practice of Nikah Halala. She describes several cases resulting in the humiliation and torture of Muslim women. The book also made it into Pakistan's best-seller list.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: Durrani's fourth book "Happy Things in Sorrow Times" (2013) is a novel based on the childhood and youth of an Afghan girl Rabia. The novel was published by Pakistani Publishing group Ferozsons. In contrast to Blasphemy that is based on the issue of domestic violence, Hypocrisy of religious figures in rural Sindh (Pakistan), and distortion of Islamic values, this novel explores the dynamics of Afghan politics in the pre/post 9/11. The setting of the novel is Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, the protagonist of the novel is an Afghan girl. The novel critiques interventions of Russia and America in Afghanistan. This is the first novel where Durrani uses her artwork as well.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: Tehmina Durrani is also a painter. She says she found another way of expressing and conveying her feelings through art, in addition to writing.


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: Her first exhibit, "Catharsis", was held in 1992. One of those paintings became the cover of her third book "Blasphemy".


title: Tehmina Durrani

text: Tehmina Durrani's next exhibit, "A Love Affair", took place in 2016. She will be intertwining her writing and painting in her coffee table book by the same name, "A Love Affair", with a print version of these paintings along with poems and songs that inspired her paintings.


title: Giant tortoise

text: Giant tortoises are any of several species of various large land tortoises, which include a number of extinct species, as well as two extant species with multiple subspecies formerly common on the islands of the western Indian Ocean and on the Galápagos Islands.


title: Giant tortoise

text: As of March 2022, two different species of giant tortoise are found on two remote groups of tropical islands: Aldabra Atoll and Fregate Island in the Seychelles and the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. These tortoises can weigh as much as and can grow to be long. Giant tortoises originally made their way to islands from the mainland via oceanic dispersal. Tortoises are aided in such dispersal by their ability to float with their heads up and to survive for up to six months without food or fresh water. Giant tortoises were once all placed in a single genus (often referred to as "Testudo" or "Geochelone"), but more recent studies have shown that giant tortoises represent several distinct lineages that are not closely related to one another. These lineages appear to have developed large size independently and, as a result, giant tortoises are polyphyletic. For example, the Aldabra Atoll ("Aldabrachelys") giant tortoises are related to Malagasy tortoises ("Asterochelys") while the Galapagos giant tortoises are related to South American mainland tortoises, particularly the Chaco tortoise ("Chelonoidis chiliensis"). The recently extinct Mascarene giant tortoises ("Cylindraspis") are thought to have belonged to their own branch of the tortoise family, being sister to all other modern tortoise genera aside from "Manouria", "Gopherus", and "Testudo". Giant tortoises are classified into several distinct genera, including "Aldabrachelys", "Centrochelys" (in part, often excluding the extant African spurred tortoise ("Centrochelys sulcata")), "Chelonoidis" (in part), †"Cylindraspis" (extinct c. 1840)"," †"Hesperotestudo" (extinct c. 9,000 years Before Present)"," †"Megalochelys" and †"Titanochelon." Both "Megalochelys" and "Titanochelon" reached sizes substantially greater than modern giant tortoises, with up to and shell lengths respectively.


title: Giant tortoise

text: The phenomenon of animal species evolving in cache to unusually large size on islands (in comparison to continental relatives) is known as island gigantism or insular gigantism. This may occur due to factors such as relaxed predation pressure, competitive release, or as an adaptation to increased environmental fluctuations on islands. However, giant tortoises are no longer considered to be classic examples of island gigantism, as similarly massive tortoises are now known to have once been widespread. Giant tortoises were formerly common (prior to the Quaternary extinctions) across the Cenozoic faunas of Eurasia, Africa and the Americas.


title: Giant tortoise

text: Giant tortoises are notably absent from Australia and the South Pacific. However, extinct giant horned turtles (Meiolaniidae) likely filled a similar niche, with Late Pleistocene-Holocene meiolaniid species being known from Australia, New Caledonia, Lord Howe Island, Vanuatu, and the Fijian Archipelago. The identity of the Vanuatu meiolaniid has been controversial, however, with some studies concluding the remains actually belong to a giant tortoise, which are otherwise unknown from this region. Older (Early Miocene) meiolaniids are also known from the St. Bathans fauna in New Zealand.


title: Giant tortoise

text: Although often considered examples of island gigantism, prior to the arrival of "Homo sapiens" giant tortoises also occurred in non-island locales, as well as on a number of other, more accessible islands. During the Pleistocene, and mostly during the last 50,000 years, tortoises of the mainland of southern Asia (†"Megalochelys atlas"), North America (†"Hesperotestudo" spp.) and South America ("Chelonoidis" spp.), Indonesia, Madagascar (†"Aldabrachelys") and even the island of Malta all became extinct. Giant tortoises (†"Titanochelon") also inhabited mainland Europe until the Early Pleistocene (2.0 Mya). The giant tortoises formerly of Africa died out somewhat earlier, during the Late Pliocene. While the timing of the disappearances of various extinct giant tortoise species seems to correlate with the arrival of humans, direct evidence for human involvement in these extinctions is usually lacking; however, such evidence has been obtained in the case of the distantly-related giant meiolaniid turtle "Meiolania damelipi" in Vanuatu. One interesting relic is the shell of an extinct giant tortoise found in a submerged sinkhole in Florida with a wooden spear piercing through it, carbon dated to 12,000 years ago. Today, only one of the subspecies of the Indian Ocean survives in the wild; the Aldabra giant tortoise (two more are claimed to exist in captive or re-released populations, but some genetic studies have cast doubt on the validity of these as separate species) and 10 extant species in the Galápagos.


title: Giant tortoise

text: Giant tortoises are among the world's longest-living animals, with an average lifespan of 100 years or more. The Madagascar radiated tortoise Tu'i Malila was 188 at her death in Tonga in 1965. Harriet (initially thought to be one of the three Galápagos tortoises brought back to England from Charles Darwin's "Beagle" voyage, but later shown to be from an island not even visited by Darwin) was reported by the Australia Zoo to be 176 years old when she died in 2006. Also, on 23 March 2006, an Aldabra giant tortoise named Adwaita died at the Alipore Zoological Gardens in Kolkata. He was brought to the zoo in the 1870s from the estate of Lord Clive and is thought to have been around 255 years old when he died. Around the time of its discovery, they were caught for food in such large numbers that they became virtually extinct by 1900. Giant tortoises are now protected by strict conservation laws and are categorized as threatened species.


title: Giant tortoise

text: The Aldabra giant tortoise ("Aldabrachelys gigantea)" lives on the remote Aldabra Atoll, one of the Seychelles group of islands in the Indian Ocean It is the only living species in the genus "Aldabrachelys." Two other species in the genus, "Aldabrachelys abrupta," and "Aldabrachelys grandidieri" were formerly endemic to Madagascar, but became extinct after the arrival of people.


title: Giant tortoise

text: Aldabra giant tortoises have large dome-shaped shells in order to protect their delicate bodies that lie beneath their shells. They also have long necks in order to eat leaves from the higher branches of trees. The males, although not much bigger than the females, weigh nearly 100 kg (220 lbs) more. They move slowly and have small, thick legs and round, almost flat feet that assist them in walking on sand.


title: Giant tortoise

text: The Aldabra giant tortoise mainly inhabits grasslands and swamps on Aldabra Atoll's islands, which form a part of the Seychelles island chain in the Indian Ocean. In the past, they shared the islands with multiple other giant tortoise species, but many of them were hunted to extinction in the 1700s and 1800s. Despite the fact that they are usually found in regions of dense low-lying vegetation, they have been known to wander into areas with more sparse vegetation and rocks when food is scarce. They can also be seen resting in shaded areas or shallow pools of water in order to cool themselves on hot days. Aldabra giant tortoises tend to spend their lives grazing, but will cover surprising distances in search of food and have also been observed on bare rock and thin soil. They can drink from very shallow pools through their nostrils; the former genus "Dipsochelys" refers to this adaptation.


title: Giant tortoise

text: The closest living relative of the Galápagos giant tortoise ("Chelonoidis niger") is the small Chaco tortoise from South America, although it is not a direct ancestor. Scientists believe the first tortoises arrived to the Galápagos 2–3 million years ago by drifting 600 miles from the South American coast on vegetation rafts or on their own. They were already large animals before arriving in the Galápagos. Colonizing the easternmost islands of Española and San Cristóbal first, they then dispersed throughout the archipelago, eventually establishing about 16 separate populations on 10 of the largest of the Galápagos Islands. Currently, there are only 10 subspecies of Galápagos giant tortoises left of the original 16 subspecies. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Galápagos were frequented by buccaneers preying on Spanish treasure ships. Filling a ship's hold with tortoises was an easy way to stock up on food, a tradition that was continued by whalers in the centuries that followed: "whaling skippers were almost lyrical in their praise of tortoise meat, terming it far more delicious than chicken, pork or beef". They said the meat of the giant tortoise was 'succulent meat and the oil from their bodies as pure as butter, but best of all, the giants could hibernate in a ship's damp for a year or more." The tortoises also conveniently held water in their necks that could be used as drinking water.


title: Giant tortoise

text: These buccaneers stocked giant tortoises not only because of their meat and oil but because of these animals' ability to survive for six months to one year without food or water. Once buccaneers, whalers and fur sealers discovered that they could have fresh meat for their long voyages by storing live giant tortoises in the holds of their ships, massive exploitation of the species began. Tortoises were also exploited for their oil, which was used to light the lamps of Quito. Two centuries of exploitation resulted in the loss of between 100,000 and 200,000 tortoises. Three subspecies have been extinct since the 19th century, and a fourth subspecies lost its last member, Lonesome George, in June 2012. In February 2019, a tortoise subspecies once thought to have been extinct since 1906, the Fernandina giant tortoise, was discovered on its namesake island in the Galápagos. It is estimated that 20,000–25,000 wild tortoises live on the islands today.


title: Giant tortoise

text: Galápagos tortoises are herbivorous, feeding primarily on cactus pads, grasses, and native fruit. They drink large quantities of water when available that they can store in their bladders for long periods of time. There are two main types of shell among them, the saddle-backed shell and the domed shell. They both provide special adaption to different environments. The saddle-backed tortoises are the smallest Galápagos tortoises, but present a very long neck and pairs of legs. They live on arid zone and feed on cactus. The domed tortoises are bigger with shorter neck and legs, they are found in the more vegetated islands and feed on grass.


title: Giant tortoise

text: They spend an average of 16 hours a day resting. Their activity level is driven by ambient temperature and food availability. In the cool season, they are active at midday, sleeping in during the morning and afternoon. In the hot season, their active period is early morning and late afternoon, while midday finds them resting and trying to keep cool under the shade of a bush or half-submerged in muddy wallows.


title: Giant tortoise

text: Tortoises breed primarily during the hot season from January to May; however, tortoises can be seen mating any month of the year. During the cool season (June to November), female tortoises migrate to nesting zones, which are generally located in low lands of the islands, to lay their eggs. A female can lay from 1–4 nests over a nesting season from June to December. She digs the hole with her hind feet, then lets the eggs drop down into the nest, and finally covers it again with her hind feet. The number of eggs ranges from 2 to 7 for saddle-backed tortoises to sometimes more than 20 to 25 eggs for domed tortoises. The eggs incubate from 110 to 175 days (incubation periods depend on the month the clutch was produced, with eggs laid early in the cool season requiring longer incubation periods than eggs laid at the end of the cool season, when the majority of their incubation will occur at the start of the hot season). After hatching, the young hatchlings remain in the nest for a few weeks before emerging out a small hole adjacent to the nest cap. Usually, the temperature of the nest influences on the sex of the hatchling. Warm temperatures would yield more females, while colder temperatures would yield more males.


title: Giant tortoise

text: The Mascarene Islands of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues once harboured five species of giant tortoise belonging to the extinct genus "Cylindraspis", comprising two species occurring on Mauritius, another two on Rodrigues, and one on Réunion. The tortoises were unique to these islands and had gained a number of special adaptations in the absence of ground predators. They differed from any other giant tortoise species because of their modified jaws, reduced scales on the legs and shells averaging just 1mm thick. The shells of the giant tortoises were open-ended; the name "Cylindraspis" actually means "cylinder-shaped". This was a specific adaptation in response to the lack of predators, where thick, heavily armored shells were no longer necessary. They belonged to a far more ancient lineage than the two extant giant tortoises, having diverged from all other tortoises during the Eocene, with divergence between the individual species far greater than that between the insular subspecies of the extant tortoises. The divergences between some "Cylindraspis" species are thought to be even older than the geologic history of the modern Mascarenes themselves, indicating that "Cylindraspis" originally inhabited several now-submerged island chains of the Mascarene Plateau before colonizing the modern Mascarene islands following their formation.


title: Giant tortoise

text: Around the 16th century, with human arrival and the subsequent introduction of domestic animals, particularly pigs, the tortoises were rapidly hunted to extinction. Unfortunately, the thin shells were of no protection against these new invaders; rats, cats and pigs devoured the eggs and young and thousands were collected alive for provisioning ships. Sometimes they were even hunted for their oil, which was very valuable around that time because it provided a cure for many ailments, including scurvy.


title: Giant tortoise

text: On Mauritius, the giant tortoise disappeared from the main island by the end of the 17th century and the very last tortoises survived until the 1730s on the islets in the north. Around the late 1800s, large number of tortoise bones were discovered in the Mare aux Songes excavations. These resulted in the description of the two species of giant tortoise endemic to Mauritius, the Mauritius saddle-backed ("Cylindraspis inepta") and the Mauritius domed ("Cylindraspis triserrata").


title: Giant tortoise

text: Today, the only remains from these five species are a number of fossil bones and shells, a few drawings of live animals and one stuffed Rodrigues saddle-backed giant tortoise in France's National Museum of Natural History.


title: 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

text: The 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2021) was a Formula One motor race, held on 5 December 2021 at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, in Saudi Arabia. The inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, it was the 21st round of the 2021 Formula One World Championship.


title: 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

text: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won the race ahead of Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, while Mercedes's Valtteri Bottas edged out Alpine's Esteban Ocon for third by 0.102 seconds. As of , this is Hamilton’s most recent win.


title: 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

text: The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was announced to be on the 2021 Formula One World Championship calendar in November 2020. The race was originally to take place on 28 November, but it was rescheduled due to the postponement of the Australian Grand Prix owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

text: On 28 November, one week before the race, Williams co-founder and former owner Sir Frank Williams died at the age of 79. Teams sported tributes on their cars, and a minute's silence took place approximately one hour before the start of the race. On Sunday, former Williams driver Damon Hill did a lap of honour in the FW07, Williams's first championship winning car. Alpine ran a special livery for the weekend to commemorate their 100th race with one of their sponsors Castrol. On the eve of the race weekend, Williams CEO Jost Capito announced that he was tested positive for coronavirus, therefore missing the weekend with the team.


title: 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

text: Max Verstappen was the Drivers' Championship leader with 8 points separating him and Lewis Hamilton, with 351.5 points and 343.5 points respectively. In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes led Red Bull Racing by 5 points. Behind them, Ferrari in 3rd place led McLaren by 39.5 points.


title: 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

text: The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race or practice.


title: 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

text: This race was the last Formula One race start for Nikita Mazepin, who withdrew from the final race of the season due to a positive COVID-19 test, and was replaced ahead of the 2022 season, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

text: Sole tyre supplier Pirelli allocated the C2, C3, and C4 compounds of tyre to be used during this Grand Prix weekend.


title: 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

text: There were three practice sessions, each scheduled for one hour. The first two practice sessions took place on Friday 3 December at 16:30 and 20:00 local time () and the third practice session took place at 17:00 on 4 December.


title: 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

text: Qualifying took place on 4 December at 20:00 local time and lasted for one hour. Qualifying began with Sergio Pérez taking top spot of the first segment of qualifying (Q1) with a time of 1.28.021. The second segment (Q2) ended with Lewis Hamilton taking the top spot with a time of 1.27.712. Hamilton set this time on 8 lap old medium tyres giving him a strong tyre disadvantage for the race (when drivers in the top 10 have to start on the tyre with which they set their fastest Q2 time) compared to his title rival Max Verstappen who had 4 lap old medium tyres.


title: 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

text: All cars who made it through Q2, qualified on the medium tyres apart from Lando Norris who ran the soft tyres. Carlos Sainz Jr. struggled with his Ferrari after spinning at turn 10 and brushing the wall with his rear wing, causing minor damage. On his final run in Q2, he had another loss of control, declaring the car was "undrivable" and being forced to back out of the attempt. Q3 began with Hamilton having a slide and aborting his opening attempt. Hamilton then set his pole lap of a 1.27.511. Max Verstappen was on his flying lap at the end of the session, setting the fastest time of the session in the first two sectors, whilst almost clipping the wall at the exit of turn 2. Coming into the final corner, he locked his front left tyre and after going wide and applying the throttle he lost control of the rear and hit the wall causing his suspension to break. This gave Hamilton pole, ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Verstappen.


title: 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

text: The race started at 20:30 local time on 5 December and lasted for 50 laps. The race was interrupted with incidents that resulted in one safety car period, two red flags, and four virtual safety car periods.


title: 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

text: On lap 10, Mick Schumacher lost control of his Haas and smashed into the barriers. This caused the safety car to be deployed, and both of the Mercedes to pit, demoting them to second and third. The race was then red flagged, which meant that Max Verstappen could change tyres and would lead the race.