title: Hanu Man

text: After successfully directing "Zombie Reddy" (2021), Varma announced his fourth film on 29 May 2021, coinciding with his birthday. It was announced that the film will be the first superhero film in Telugu cinema. In an interview with "Deccan Chronicle" said that "the film is inspired by the Hindu God Hanuman", adding "As for the title of the film, Prasanth says he chose it because it was a dedication to many who, when they think of any superpower or a superhero in Hindu mythology, we remember Lord Hanuman. In the film, the name of the protagonist is Hanu-Man", regarding the title of the film.


title: Hanu Man

text: Anudeep Dev, Hari Gowra and Krishna Saurabh were hired for composing the music of the film. It is edited by SB Raju Tallari. Teja Sajja joined the production on the launch day of the film, as the lead actor. The name of the fictional village was announced as Anjanadri.


title: Hanu Man

text: The film was officially launched on 25 June 2021 in Hyderabad, with a pooja ceremony and muhurtam shot done. Principal photography of the film was also on the same day. As of August 2021, 40% of filming was completed. Filming of few action sequences and songs took place at Maredumilli and Paderu of Andhra Pradesh in September 2021.


title: Hanu Man

text: During the teaser launch event held in Hyderabad in November 2022, Varma revealed that the production budget increased six times from the initial valuation.


title: Hanu Man

text: The film is expected to release in 2023 in Telugu, along with the dubbed versions of Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.


title: Hanu Man

text: In February 2022, "Eenadu" reported that the non-theatrical rights (which includes satellite and post-theatrical digital streaming) of the film's Telugu and Hindi versions were sold to ZEE5 and Zee Network at a cost of .


title: Block and tackle

text: A block and tackle or only tackle is a system of two or more pulleys with a rope or cable threaded between them, usually used to lift heavy loads.


title: Block and tackle

text: The pulleys are assembled to form blocks and then blocks are paired so that one is fixed and one moves with the load. The rope is threaded through the pulleys to provide mechanical advantage that amplifies the force applied to the rope.


title: Block and tackle

text: Hero of Alexandria described cranes formed from assemblies of pulleys in the first century. Illustrated versions of Hero's "Mechanica" (a book on raising heavy weights) show early block and tackle systems.


title: Block and tackle

text: A block is a set of pulleys or sheaves mounted on a single frame. An assembly of blocks with a rope threaded through the pulleys is called tackle. The process of threading ropes or cables through blocks is called "reeving", and a threaded block and tackle is said to have been "rove". A block and tackle system amplifies the tension force in the rope to lift heavy loads. They are common on boats and sailing ships, where tasks are often performed manually, as well as on cranes and drilling rigs, where once rove, the tasks are performed by heavy equipment.


title: Block and tackle

text: Note that the gun tackle, double tackle and threefold purchase all have the same number of pulleys in both blocks (one, two and three, respectively) whereas the Luff tackle and Gyn tackle have mis-matched blocks with differing numbers of pulleys.


title: Block and tackle

text: A block and tackle is characterized by the use of a single continuous rope to transmit a tension force around one or more pulleys to lift or move a load. Its mechanical advantage is the number of parts of the rope that act on the load. The mechanical advantage of a tackle dictates how much easier it is to haul or lift the load.


title: Block and tackle

text: If frictional losses are neglected, the mechanical advantage of a block and tackle is equal to the number of parts in the line that either attach to or run through the moving blocks—in other words, the number of supporting rope sections.


title: Block and tackle

text: An ideal block and tackle with a moving block supported by "n" rope sections has the mechanical advantage (MA),


title: Block and tackle

text: Consider the set of pulleys that form the moving block and the parts of the rope that support this block. If there are "n" of these parts of the rope supporting the load "F," then a force balance on the moving block shows that the tension in each of the parts of the rope must be "F/n." This means the input force on the rope is "F"="F/n." Thus, the block and tackle reduces the input force by the factor "n."


title: Block and tackle

text: Ideal mechanical advantage correlates directly with velocity ratio. The velocity ratio of a tackle is the ratio between the velocity of the hauling line to that of the hauled load. A line with a mechanical advantage of 4 has a velocity ratio of 4:1. In other words, to raise a load at 1 metre per second, the hauling part of the rope must be pulled at 4 metres per second. Therefore, the mechanical advantage of a double tackle is 4.


title: Block and tackle

text: The mechanical advantage of any tackle can be increased by interchanging the fixed and moving blocks so the rope is attached to the moving block and the rope is pulled in the direction of the lifted load. In this case the block and tackle is said to be "rove to advantage."


title: Block and tackle

text: Diagram 3 shows three rope parts supporting the load "W", which means the tension in the rope is "W/3". Thus, the mechanical advantage is three-to-one.


title: Block and tackle

text: By adding a pulley to the fixed block of a gun tackle the direction of the pulling force is reversed though the mechanical advantage remains the same, Diagram 3a. This is an example of the Luff tackle.


title: Block and tackle

text: The decision of which to use depends on pragmatic considerations for the total ergonomics of working with a particular situation. Reeving to advantage is the most efficient use of equipment and resources. For example, if the load is to be hauled parallel to the ground, reeving to advantage enables the pulling force to be in the direction of the load movement, allowing obstacles to be managed more easily.


title: Block and tackle

text: Reeving to disadvantage adds an extra sheave to change the direction of the pulling line to a potentially more ergonomic direction, which increases friction losses without improving the velocity ratio. Situations in which reeving to disadvantage may be more desirable include lifting from a fixed point overhead--the additional pulley allows pulling downwards instead of upwards so that the weight of the lifter can offset the weight of the load, or allows pulling sideways, enabling multiple lifters to combine effort.


title: Block and tackle

text: where formula_3 is the force applied to the hauling part of the line (the input force), formula_4 is the weight of the load (the output force), formula_5 is the ideal mechanical advantage of the system (which is the same as the number of segments of line extending from the moving block), and formula_6 is the mechanical efficiency of the system (equal to one for an ideal frictionless system; a fraction less than one for real-world systems with energy losses due to friction and other causes). If formula_7 is the number of sheaves in the purchase, and there is a roughly formula_8% loss of efficiency at each sheave due to friction, then:


title: Block and tackle

text: This approximation is more accurate for smaller values of formula_7 and formula_8. A more precise estimate of efficiency is possible by use of the sheave friction factor, formula_12 (which may be obtainable from the manufacturer or published tables). The relevant equation is:


title: Block and tackle

text: Typical formula_12 values are 1.04 for roller bearing sheaves and 1.09 for plain bearing sheaves (with wire rope).


title: Block and tackle

text: The increased force produced by a tackle is offset by both the increased length of rope needed and the friction in the system. In order to raise a block and tackle with a mechanical advantage of 6 a distance of 1 metre, it is necessary to pull 6 metres of rope through the blocks. Frictional losses also mean there is a practical point at which the benefit of adding a further sheave is offset by the incremental increase in friction which would require additional force to be applied in order to lift the load. Too much friction may result in the tackle not allowing the load to be released easily, or by the reduction in force needed to move the load being judged insufficient because undue friction has to be overcome as well.


title: Block and tackle

text: When installing a block on an existing line, it is often inconvenient at best to thread the rope through the block to be added.


title: Block and tackle

text: Examples of use (in an arborocultural setting) include: tail minding/tending, and for setting a rigging point in the tree above the cut to take place - a positive rigging situation.


title: Block and tackle

text: Examples of use (again, in relation to tree care) may include setting a block below the current cut, resulting in a 'negative' rigging situation, in which shock loads can be significant - especially if removing large sections of vertical stem.


title: Sarada Devi

text: Sarada Devi (Bengali: সারদা দেবী; ; 22 December 1853 – 20 July 1920), born Kshemankari / Thakurmani / Saradamani Mukhopadhyay, was the wife and spiritual consort of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a nineteenth-century Hindu mystic. Sarada Devi is also reverentially addressed as the Holy Mother ("Sri Sri Maa") by the followers of the Sri Ramakrishna monastic order. The Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission situated at Dakshineshwar is based on the ideals and life of Sarada Devi. She played an important role in the growth of the Ramakrishna Movement.


title: Sarada Devi

text: Sarada Devi was born in Joyrambati, a village in present-day Bankura District in the state of West Bengal, India. She was married to Ramakrishna in 1859 when she was only six years old and Ramakrishna was 23 years old, but remained with her family until she was 18, when she joined Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar Kali temple. According to her biographers, both lived "lives of unbroken continence, showing the ideals of a householder and of the monastic ways of life". After Ramakrishna's death, Sarada Devi stayed most of the time either at Joyrambati or at the Udbodhan office, Calcutta. The disciples of Ramakrishna regarded her as their own mother, and after their guru's death looked to her for advice and encouragement. The followers of the Ramakrishna movement and a large section of devotees across the world worship Sarada Devi as an incarnation of the Adi Parashakti or the Divine Mother.


title: Sarada Devi

text: Saradamani Devi was born of Brahmin parents as the eldest daughter on 22 December 1853, in the quiet village of Jayrambati in present-day West Bengal, India. Her parents, Ramachandra Mukhopadhyay and Shyama Sundari Devi, were poor. Her father Ramchandra earned his living as a farmer and through the performance of priestly duties. According to traditional accounts, Ramachandra and Syama Sundari had visions and supernatural events foretelling the birth of a divine being as their daughter.


title: Sarada Devi

text: Sarada lived the simple life of an Indian village girl. As a child, Sarada—then known as Saradamani—was fascinated by traditional Hindu folklore and narratives. As in the case of most girls of rural upbringing, she did not receive any formal education but learned to serve others as she helped her mother run a large household and looked after her younger brothers. During the terrible famine of 1864, Sarada worked ceaselessly as her family served food to hungry people. She was interested in the clay models of goddesses Kali and Lakshmi, which she worshiped regularly. She is said to have started meditating from her childhood, and traditional accounts recount her mystic visions and experiences. According to Sarada Devi, she used to see a bevy of eight girls of her age coming from an unknown place and escorting her in her chores during her childhood.


title: Sarada Devi

text: The mother and brother of Ramakrishna thought that a marriage would be a good steadying effect on him, by diverting his attention away from spiritual austerities and visions. It is reported that Ramakrishna himself indicated Saradamani as the bride. In May 1859, Sarada was betrothed to Ramakrishna. Sarada was 5 years old and Ramakrishna was 23; the age difference was typical for 19th century rural Bengal.


title: Sarada Devi

text: After the betrothal, Sarada was left to the care of her parents and Ramakrishna returned to Dakshineswar. Sarada next met Ramakrishna when she was fourteen years old, and she spent three months with him at Kamarpukur. There, Ramakrishna imparted to Sarada instructions on meditation and spiritual life. Ramakrishna's frequent bhava samadhi (ecstasy) and unorthodox ways of worship led some onlookers to doubt his mental stability, while others regarded him as a great saint. Sarada joined Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar in 1872 on her own accord when she was eighteen, after hearing these rumours about his mental health. She found Ramakrishna to be a kind and caring person.


title: Sarada Devi

text: At Dakshineswar, Sarada Devi stayed in a tiny room in the "nahabat" (music tower). She stayed at Dakshineswar until 1885, except for short periods when she visited Jayrambati. By this time Ramakrishna had already embraced the monastic life of a sannyasin; as a result, the marriage was never consummated. As a priest, Ramakrishna performed the ritual ceremony—the "Shodashi Puja" where Sarada Devi was made to sit in the seat of goddess Kali, and worshiped as the divine mother Tripurasundari. According to Swami Saradananda a direct disciple of Ramakrishna, Ramakrishna married to show the world an ideal of a sexless marriage. Ramakrishna regarded Sarada as an incarnation of the Divine Mother, addressing her as "Sree Maa" (Holy Mother) and it was by this name that she was known to Ramakrishna's disciples.


title: Sarada Devi

text: Sarada Devi's days began at 3 am. After finishing her ablutions in the Bhāgirathi-Hooghly, she would practice "japa" and meditation until daybreak. Ramakrishna taught her the sacred "mantras", and instructed her how to initiate people and guide them in spiritual life. Sarada Devi is regarded as Ramakrishna's first disciple. Except for her hours of meditation, most of her time was spent in cooking for Ramakrishna and the growing number of his devotees. While Sarada Devi remained completely in the background, her unassuming, warm personality attracted some female devotees to become her lifelong companions.


title: Sarada Devi

text: During Ramakrishna's last days, during which he suffered from throat cancer, Sarada Devi played an important role in nursing him and preparing suitable food for him and his disciples. It is reported that after Ramakrishna's death in August 1886, when Sarada Devi tried to remove her bracelets as the customs dictated for a widow, she had a vision of Ramakrishna in which he said, "I have not passed away, I have gone from one room to another." According to her, whenever she thought of dressing like a widow, she had a vision of Ramakrishna asking her not to do so. After Ramakrishna's death, Sarada Devi continued to play an important role in the nascent religious movement. She remained the spiritual guide of the movement for the next 34 years.


title: Sarada Devi

text: After Ramakrishna's death, Sarada Devi began her pilgrimage through North India, accompanied by a party of women disciples including Lakshmi Didi, Gopal Ma, and Ramakrishna's householder and monastic disciples. The party visited the Vishwanath Temple of god Shiva at Banaras and the city of Ayodhya, which is associated with the life of the god Rama. Later, she visited Vrindavan which is associated with the god Krishna. According to traditional accounts, at Vrindavan, she experienced "nirvikalpa samadhi" and began her role as "guru". She initiated several of Ramakrishna's disciples including Mahendranath Gupta, Yogen with a mantra. According to her traditional biographers and disciples, to call her "Mother" was no mere expression of respect and all those who met her became aware of a maternal quality in her.


title: Sarada Devi

text: After the pilgrimage, Sarada Devi lived alone in Kamarpukur, the village where Ramakrishna was born. There, she endured poverty, verging on starvation for a year. In 1888, when the news reached the lay and monastic disciples of Ramakrishna that she needed their care and attention, they invited her to Calcutta and arranged for her stay. Swami Saradananda built a permanent house for Sarada Devi in Calcutta. The house was named the Udbodhan House, after the Bengali monthly magazine published by the Ramakrishna Math. The house, also known as "Mayerbati" ("Holy Mother's House"), is where she spent the longest period of her life outside Jayrambati.


title: Sarada Devi

text: Sarada Devi went to Calcutta because she had many hardships in Kamarpukur. She had no financial resources and no one could take care of her. She tried to hide her situation, but it leaked out. When the devotees at Calcutta heard this, they persuaded Sarada Devi to come to Calcutta.


title: Sarada Devi

text: At Udbodhan House, Sarada Devi was accompanied by other women disciples and devotees of Ramakrishna, Golap Ma, Yogin Ma, Gopaler Ma, Lakshmi Didi and Gauri Ma being the best known. An increasing number of people began to flock for guidance, instructions and spiritual initiation. Other Western women followers of Ramakrishna Order including Sister Nivedita formed close relationship with her.<ref name="Levinsky 1984 https://books.google.com/books?id=SXEQCnvzK5AC&pg=PA140 140"></ref> According to her biographers, her innate motherliness put visitors at ease. Swami Nikhilananda, her direct disciple writes, "Though she had no children of the flesh, she had many of the spirit." She regarded all her disciples as her own children.


title: Sarada Devi

text: Sarada Devi received the highest reverence from the Ramakrishna Order and its devotees. Ramakrishna had bade her continue his mission after his death and wanted his disciples not to make any distinction between himself and her. According to her devotees and traditional biographers, the hospitality of Sarada Devi was unique and was characterised by motherly care and solicitude. Traditional accounts recount the mystical experiences of her devotees. Some dreamt of her as a goddess in human form, though they had never seen her picture before. Others reportedly received their initiation from her in their dream. One such example is of Girish Chandra Ghosh, the father of Bengali drama, who reportedly saw Sarada Devi in a dream when he was nineteen years old and received a mantra. When he met her many years later, to his astonishment, she was the same person in the dream.


title: Sarada Devi

text: Sarada Devi spent her final years moving back and forth between Jayrambati and Calcutta. In January 1919, Sarada Devi went to Jayrambati and stayed there for over a year. For the next five months, she continued to suffer. Shortly before her death, she gave the last advice to the grief-stricken devotees, "But I tell you one thing—if you want peace of mind, do not find fault with others. Rather, see your own faults. Learn to make the whole world your own. No one is a stranger, my child: this whole world is your own!" This is considered as her last message to the world.


title: Sarada Devi

text: She died at 1.30 am on Tuesday the 21 July 1920 at Mayer Badi (in the first floor of the Shrine Room), Kolkata. Her body was cremated at the Belur Math, opposite side of River Ganga where Ramakrishna's body was cremated at Kashipore, Baranagore, Ratan, Babu ghat. The place where she was cremated is now known as Holy Mother's ghat at Belur Math. Today a temple stands at that spot.


title: Sarada Devi

text: Sarada Devi did not write any books; her utterances and reminiscences have been recorded by her disciples including Swami Nikhilananda, Swami Tapasyananda. Though uneducated Sarada Devi's spiritual insight and utterances are highly regarded by scholars like Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, who writes, "We have bits and pieces of her exquisite remarks as testimony."


title: Sarada Devi

text: Sarada Devi played an important role as the advisory head of a nascent organisation that became a monastic order devoted to social work—the Ramakrishna Mission. Gayatri Spivak writes that Sarada Devi "performed her role with tact and wisdom, always remaining in the background." She initiated several prominent monks into the Ramakrishna Order. Swami Nikhilananda, who was a freedom fighter and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, accepted Sarada Devi as his "guru" and joined the Ramakrishna Order. He eventually founded the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center in New York.


title: Sarada Devi

text: Although uneducated herself, Sarada Devi advocated education for women. Nivedita started a school for Indian women with her blessings. She entrusted Devamata with the implementation of her dream—a girls' school on the Ganges, where Eastern and Western pupils could study together. In 1954, Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, a monastic order for women was founded in the honour of Sarada Devi.


title: Sarada Devi

text: Swami Vivekananda wrote a letter to her to get her opinion about his intention to attend the Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Only after receiving the blessing from her did he decide to go to the United States.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: Entertainment Studios, Inc., also known as Allen Media Group, is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved in the production and distribution of first-run television series for U.S. television syndication. Under the Entertainment Studios Networks division, it also operates a group of digital cable and satellite channels, which broadcast a mix of original programs and the company's syndicated content.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: In the late 2010s, the company made several major expansions to its operations, including: entering the film distribution market; acquiring The Weather Channel from NBCUniversal and Bain Capital; partnering with Sinclair Broadcast Group to operate the regional sports network chain Bally Sports via Diamond Sports Group; and its acquisition of television stations from another minority-owned media group, Bayou City Broadcasting.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: Entertainment Studios was founded in 1993 as CF Entertainment by Byron Allen. The company was initially focused on producing low-cost, syndicated non-fiction programming, including interview series and court shows (largely scripted from actual testimony). Allen served as host for some of these programs. In December 2003, CF became Entertainment Studios.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: Entertainment Studios green-lit its first film and stage projects in December 2011, when it acquired the rights to develop a biographical film and theatrical play on the life of Sammy Davis, Jr. from Davis' daughter with actor/singer, Tracey Davis.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: The company ventured into scripted programming in 2012, with the third-quarter launch of the sitcoms "Mr. Box Office" and "The First Family". Both are set for 104 episodes over two years under a model of accelerated production similar to Debmar-Mercury's 10-90 Model. The two half hour shows were picked up as a two-hour weekend primetime programming block with two episodes of each show back to back by Tribune, Weigel and CBS Television Station groups. The company launched its eighth cable channel and first ad-supported service, Justice Central.TV, on December 10, 2012.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: In October 2015, Entertainment Studios acquired Freestyle Releasing for an undisclosed amount "said to be sealed for high-eight figures". Freestyle also had an output deal with Netflix. The Freestyle purchase was used to bolster an expansion into film distribution, via its new Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures division. Its first release, "47 Meters Down", took in $44 million in box office revenue.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: In June 2016, Entertainment Studios acquired TheGrio, a news website focusing on stories of interest to African Americans. In mid-September 2017, the company announced plans to launch an over the top sports streaming service known as Sports.tv.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: On March 22, 2018, Entertainment Studios announced its intent to acquire The Weather Channel's television assets from an NBCUniversal/Bain Capital/Blackstone Inc. partnership. The actual value was undisclosed, but was reported to be around $300 million; the channel's non-television assets, which were separately sold to IBM two years prior, were not included in the sale.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: In September 2018, Entertainment Studios announced that it had arranged $500 million worth of credit facilities through Deutsche Bank Securities, Jefferies Financial Group, Brightwood Capital Advisors and Comerica. Allen explained that these funds were to be used for further "large-scale" acquisitions, productions, and other general expenses. In an interview with "Variety", Allen stated that he was "not a seller", and that he was "one or two acquisitions away from being a fairly large company". On May 3, 2019, it was announced that, under the subsidiary Diamond Sports Group, Entertainment Studios would be an equity and content partner in Sinclair Broadcast Group's acquisition of Fox Sports Networks (now known as Bally Sports).


title: Entertainment Studios

text: On May 6, 2019, Entertainment Studios announced that it would expand into television station ownership by acquiring the stations of Bayou City Broadcasting for $165 million, including Evansville, Indiana's WEVV-TV and WEEV-LD, and Lafayette, Louisiana's KADN-TV and KLAF-LD. The stations will operate under the new unit, Allen Media Broadcasting. The sale was completed on July 31, 2019. On October 1, 2019, Allen Media Group agreed to purchase 11 stations from USA Television for $290 million. The sale of the Heartland stations was approved by the FCC on November 22, 2019, and it was completed on February 11, 2020. On August 17, 2020, the company announced its purchase of Hawaii ABC affiliate KITV from SJL Broadcasting for $30 million.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: In June 2020, Comcast agreed to carry Entertainment Studios' Comedy.TV, JusticeCentral.TV, Recipe.TV, and The Weather Channel, and to retransmission consent for the Allen Media Broadcasting television stations, as part of a settlement of the Supreme Court racial discrimination lawsuit.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: In May 2021, Allen sued fast food chain McDonald's for $10 billion, alleging that the company "intentionally discriminated against Entertainment Studios and Weather Group through a pattern of racial stereotyping and refusals to contract" for advertising across its properties.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: Across 2015, the company separately sued AT&T, Comcast and Charter Communications for racial discrimination in being biased against minority run entertainment companies in not carrying its cable channels. AT&T settled in December with the addition of 7 of Entertainment Studios' channels added to AT&T's DirecTV line up. Entertainment Studios added similar suits against Charter and the FCC. The Comcast case, though initially dismissed at the district court, was allowed to go forward by the Ninth Circuit; Comcast was able to successfully petition the Supreme Court to hear its case in "Comcast v. National Association of African-American-Owned Media" in November 2019.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: Allen Media Broadcasting, LLC is an American television station operating company owned by Entertainment Studios.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: On May 6, 2019, Entertainment Studios announced that it would expand into television station ownership by acquiring the stations of Bayou City Broadcasting for $165 million, including Evansville, Indiana's WEVV-TV and WEEV-LD, and Lafayette, Louisiana's KADN-TV and KLAF-LD. The stations will operate under the new division Allen Media Broadcasting. Allen Media made an offer for Tegna TV station group as the third known bidder.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: On April 29, 2021, it was announced that Allen Media would purchase 10 stations in seven markets from Gray Television for $380 million, from a divestiture of stations owned by Quincy Media, as a condition of Gray's purchase of Quincy. These are stations where Gray already owned a station, and are mostly in the Upper Midwest. In a separate deal with Gray, Allen has acquired WJRT-TV in Flint, Michigan, while Gray will retain competing WNEM-TV through its merger with Meredith Corporation's local news division.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: The following over-the-air specialty networks were acquired by Allen Media Group from MGM Television in October 2020.


title: Entertainment Studios

text: In 2016, Entertainment Studios began to make major expansions into film distribution; at the Sundance Film Festival, the company made a surprise $20 million bid for "The Birth of a Nation", losing to Fox Searchlight. In July 2016, Entertainment Studios signed a multi-year home video and on-demand distribution deal with Anchor Bay Entertainment, covering future theatrical releases by the company. The studio acquired its first film later that month, with the North American rights to "47 Meters Down" from Dimension Films. At the 2017 Toronto Film Festival, Entertainment Studios also bought "Chappaquiddick", "Replicas", and "Hostiles". Entertainment Studios aimed to distribute at least 18 films in 2018. In January of that year, on his film distribution model, Allen said:


title: Entertainment Studios

text: A subsidiary of the Sinclair Broadcast Group operated in partnership with Entertainment Studios, Diamond Sports Group is the mass media company that operates Bally Sports, a group of regional sports networks formerly known as the Fox Sports Networks. The company was founded in 2019 to acquire the networks from The Walt Disney Company, which was required to sell the chain as part of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox.


title: ER (season 15)

text: The fifteenth and final season of the American fictional drama television series "ER" premiered on September 25, 2008, and concluded on April 2, 2009, in a two-hour episode preceded by a one-hour retrospective special. It consists of 22 episodes.


title: ER (season 15)

text: The final season opens up revealing Gregory Pratt is the victim of the ambulance explosion. Despite the rallying efforts of his workplace colleagues, he succumbs to his injuries and dies. The season introduces Cate Banfield as new ER chief, a woman with a seemingly mysterious past with County General. Luka Kovač and Abby Lockhart leave for a new life in Boston, Brenner must deal with issues surrounding his childhood, and he comes to a crossroads in his relationship with Neela, Samantha Taggart and Tony Gates' relationship suffers a major setback after an accident involving Alex Taggart while Neela Rasgotra is forced to make some tough decisions, both personal and professional.


title: ER (season 15)

text: To mark the end of the series after 15 years, several former cast members make a return to the show. Mark Greene and Robert Romano appear in a flashback episode that explores Banfield's history with County General while John Carter returns to work at County although, unbeknown to his colleagues, he is in desperate need of a kidney transplant. Peter Benton, Doug Ross, Carol Hathaway, Susan Lewis, Elizabeth Corday, Kerry Weaver and Ray Barnett return in various episodes. The series ends with one final multiple casualty incident that brings multiple patients to the ER, and shows that life goes on at County General.


title: Yi people

text: The Yi or Nuosu people, historically known as the Lolo, are an ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Numbering nine million people, they are the seventh largest of the 55 ethnic minority groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They live primarily in rural areas of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, usually in mountainous regions. The Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture is home to the largest population of Yi people within mainland China, with two million Yi people in the region. For other countries, as of 1999, there were 3,300 Mantsi-speaking Lô Lô people living in the Hà Giang, Cao Bằng, and Lào Cai provinces in Northern Vietnam.


title: Yi people

text: The Yi speak various Loloish languages, closely related to Burmese. The prestige variety is Nuosu, which is written in the Yi script.


title: Yi people

text: Of the more than 9 million Yi people, over 4.5 million live in Yunnan Province, 2.5 million live in southern Sichuan Province and 1 million live in the northwest corner of Guizhou Province. Nearly all the Yi live in mountainous areas, often carving out their existence on the sides of steep mountain slopes far from the cities of China.


title: Yi people

text: The altitudinal differences of the Yi areas directly affect the climate and precipitation of these areas. These striking differences are the basis of the old saying that "The weather is different a few miles away" in the Yi area. Yi populations in different areas are very different from one another, making their living in completely different ways.


title: Yi people

text: Although different groups of Yi refer to themselves in different ways (including Nisu, Sani, Axi, Lolo, and Acheh) and sometimes speak mutually unintelligible languages, they have been grouped into a single ethnicity by the Chinese and the various local appellations can be classified into three groups:


title: Yi people

text: According to Yi legend, all life originated in water and water was created by snowmelt, which as it dripped down, created a creature called the Ni. The Ni gave birth to all life. Ni is another name for the Yi people. It is sometimes translated as black because black is a revered color in Yi culture. Yi tradition tells us that their common ancestor was named Apu Dumu or ("Axpu Ddutmu" or "Axpu Jjutmu"). Apu Dumu had three wives, each of whom had two sons. The six sons migrated to the area that is now Zhaotong and spread out in the four directions, creating the Wu, Zha, Nuo, Heng, Bu, and Mo clans. The Yi practiced a lineage system where younger brothers were treated as slaves by their elders, which resulted in a culture of migration where younger brothers constantly left their villages to create their own domains.


title: Yi people

text: The Heng clan divided into two branches. One branch, known as the Wumeng, settled along the western slope of the Wumeng Mountain range, extending their control as far west as modern day Zhaotong, Yunnan. The other branch, known as the Chele, moved along the eastern slope of the Wumeng Mountain range and settled to the north of the Chishui River. By the Tang dynasty (618–907), the Chele occupied the area from today Xuyong county in Sichuan to Bijie city in Guizhou. The Bu clan fragmented into four branches. The Bole branch settled in Anshun, the Wusa branch settled in Weining, the Azouchi branch settled in Zhanyi, and the Gukuge branch settled in northeast Yunnan. The Mo clan, descended from Mujiji (), split into three branches. One branch known as the Awangren, led by Wualou, settled in southwest Guizhou and formed the Ziqi Kingdom. Wuake led the second branch, the Ayuxi, to settle near Ma'an Mountain south of Huize. Wuana led the third branch to settle in Hezhang. In the 3rd century AD, Wuana's branch split into the Mangbu branch in Zhenxiong, led by Tuomangbu, and Luodian () in Luogen, led by Tuoazhe. By 300, Luodian covered over much of the Shuixi region. Its ruler, Mowang (), moved the capital to Mugebaizhage (modern Dafang), where he renamed his realm the Mu'ege kingdom, otherwise known as the Chiefdom of Shuixi.


title: Yi people

text: After the Eastern Han dynasty, the Shu of the Three Kingdoms conducted several wars against the ancestors of Yi under the lead of Zhuge Liang. They defeated the king of Yi, ("Mot Hop", ) and expanded their conquered territory in Yi area. After that, the Jin Dynasty succeeded Shu as the suzerain of Yi area but with weak control.


title: Yi people

text: Some historians believe that the majority of the kingdom of Nanzhao were of the Bai people, but that the elite spoke a variant of Nuosu (also called "Yi"), a Tibeto-Burman language closely related to Burmese. The Cuanman people came to power in Yunnan during Zhuge Liang's Southern Campaign in 225. By the fourth century they had gained control of the region, but they rebelled against the Sui dynasty in 593 and were destroyed by a retaliatory expedition in 602. The Cuan split into two groups known as the Black and White Mywa. The White Mywa (Baiman) tribes, who are considered the predecessors of the Bai people, settled on the fertile land of western Yunnan around the alpine fault lake Erhai. The Black Mywa (Wuman), considered to be predecessors of the Yi people, settled in the mountainous regions of eastern Yunnan. These tribes were called Mengshe (蒙舍), Mengxi (蒙嶲), Langqiong (浪穹), Tengtan (邆賧), Shilang (施浪), and Yuexi (越析). Each tribe was known as a "zhao". In academia, the ethnic composition of the Nanzhao kingdom's population has been debated for a century. Chinese scholars tend to favour the theory that the rulers came from the aforementioned Bai or Yi groups, while some non-Chinese scholars subscribed to the theory that the Tai ethnic group was a major component, that later moved south into modern-day Thailand and Laos.


title: Yi people

text: In 649, the chieftain of the Mengshe tribe, Xinuluo (細奴邏), founded the Great Meng (大蒙) and took the title of Qijia Wang (奇嘉王; "Outstanding King"). He acknowledged Tang suzerainty. In 652, Xinuluo absorbed the White Mywa realm of Zhang Lejinqiu, who ruled Erhai Lake and Cang Mountain. This event occurred peacefully as Zhang made way for Xinuluo of his own accord. The agreement was consecrated under an iron pillar in Dali. Thereafter the Black and White Mywa acted as warriors and ministers respectively.


title: Yi people

text: In the year 737 AD, with the support of the Tang dynasty, the great-grandson of Xinuluo, Piluoge (皮羅閣), united the six "zhao"s in succession, establishing a new kingdom called Nanzhao (Mandarin, "Southern Zhao"). The capital was established in 738 at Taihe, (the site of modern-day Taihe village, a few miles south of Dali). Located in the heart of the Erhai valley, the site was ideal: it could be easily defended against attack and it was in the midst of rich farmland. Under the reign of Piluoge, the White Mywa were removed from eastern Yunnan and resettled in the west. The Black and White Mywa were separated to create a more solidified caste system of ministers and warriors.


title: Yi people

text: Nanzhao existed for 165 years until A.D. 902. After 35 years of tangled warfare, Duan Siping () of the Bai birth founded the Kingdom of Dali, succeeding the territory of Nanzhao. Most Yi of that time were under the ruling of Dali. Dali's sovereign reign lasted for 316 years until it was conquered by Kublai Khan. During the era of Dali, Yi people lived in the territory of Dali but had little communication with the royalty of Dali.


title: Yi people

text: Kublai Khan included Dali in his domain, grouping it with Tibet. The Yuan emperors remained firmly in control of the Yi people and the area they inhabited as part of Kublai Khan's Yunnan Xingsheng () at current Yunnan, Guizhou and part of Sichuan. In order to enhance its sovereign over the area, the Yuan dynasty set up a dominion for Yi, Luoluo Xuanweisi (), the name of which means local appeasement government for Lolos. Although technically under the rule of the Yuan emperor, the Yi still had autonomy during the Yuan dynasty. The gulf between aristocrats and the common people increased during this time.


title: Yi people

text: Beginning with the Ming dynasty, the Chinese empire expedited its cultural assimilation policy in Southwestern China, spreading the policy of "gaitu guiliu" (, 'replacing "tusi" (local chieftains) with "normal" officials'). The governing power of many Yi feudal lords had previously been expropriated by the successors of officials assigned by the central government. With the progress of "gaitu guiliu", the Yi area was dismembered into many communities both large and small, and it was difficult for the communities to communicate with each other as there were often Han-ruled areas between them.


title: Yi people

text: The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty defeated Wu Sangui and took over the land of Yunnan and established a provincial government there. When Ortai became the Viceroy of Yunnan and Guizhou during the era of Yongzheng Emperor, the policy of "gaitu guiliu" and cultural assimilation against Yi were strengthened. Under these policies, Yi who lived near Kunming were forced to abandon their convention of traditional cremation and adopt burial, a policy which triggered rebellions among the Yi. The Qing dynasty suppressed these rebellions.


title: Yi people

text: After the Second Opium War (1856–1860), many Christian missionaries from France and Great Britain visited the area in which the Yi lived. Although some missionaries believed that Yi of some areas such as Liangshan were not under the ruling of Qing dynasty and should be independent, most aristocrats insisted that Yi was a part of China despite their resentment against Qing rule.


title: Yi people

text: Long Yun, a Yi, was the military governor of Yunnan, during the Republic of China rule on mainland China.


title: Yi people

text: The Fourth Front Army of the CCP encountered the Yi people during the Long March and many Yi joined the communist forces.


title: Yi people

text: After the establishment of the PRC, several Yi autonomous administrative districts of prefecture or county level were set up in Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou. With the development of automotive traffic and telecommunications, the communications among different Yi areas have been increasing sharply.


title: Yi people

text: The Chinese government recognizes six mutually unintelligible Yi languages, from various branches of the Loloish family:


title: Yi people

text: Northern Yi is the largest with some two million speakers and is the basis of the literary language. It is an analytic language. There are also ethnically Yi languages of Vietnam which use the Yi script, such as Mantsi.


title: Yi people

text: Many Yi in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi know Standard Chinese and code-switching between Yi and Chinese is common.


title: Yi people

text: The Yi script was originally logosyllabic like Chinese and dates to at least the 13th century, but seems to be completely independent of any other known script. Until the early 20th century, usage of this script was primarily the domain of "bimo" priests for transmitting ritual texts from generation to generation. It was not until the mid-twentieth century that elite families in Liangshan began to use the script for non-religious purposes, such as letter writing.


title: Yi people

text: There were perhaps 10,000 characters, many of which were regional, since the script had never been standardized across the Yi peoples. A number of works of history, literature and medicine, as well as genealogies of the ruling families, written in the Old Yi script are still in use and there are Old Yi stone tablets and steles in the area.


title: Yi people

text: An attempt to romanize the script was made in the 1950s but it failed to gain traction. In the 1970s and 1980s, the traditional script was standardized into a syllabary. Syllabic Yi is widely used in books, newspapers, street signs, and education, although with increasing influence from Chinese.


title: Yi people

text: The Yi use a son-father patronymic naming system. The last character of the father's name transfers to become the first character of the son's name. The last character of the son's name is then used as the first character of the grandson's name. A complete Yi name is composed of the clan name, the branch clan name, the father's name, and the person's own name (ex. Aho Bbujji Jjiha Lomusse). Aho is the name of a tribe, Bbuji is the name of a clan, Jjiha is the father's name, and Lomusse is a personal name. The name therefore means Lomusse the son of Jjiha of the Bbujji clan of the Aho tribe. Within the clan he would just be called Lomusse and within the tribe he would be called Jjiha Lomusse.


title: Yi people

text: This is a tradition closely tied to Tibeto-Burman traditions and suggests that the rulers of Nanzhao were not Tai people.


title: Yi people

text: Descent and inheritance in Yi society was traditionally patrilineal and men were generally considered superior to women. Men practiced polygamy and levirate marriage. Women were excluded from oral genealogies. In certain locales, Yi women still lag behind men in terms of primary education and very few Yi women become educational instructors or political leaders. Yi women noticeably drank and smoked more than Han Chinese women.


title: Yi people

text: Traditional Yi society was divided into four castes, the aristocratic "nuohuo"/"nzymo" Black Yi, the commoner "qunuo"/"quho" White Yi, the "ajia"/"mgajie", and the "xiaxi"/"gaxy". The Black Yi made up around 7 per cent of the population while the White Yi made up 50 per cent of the population. The two castes did not intermarry and the Black Yi were always considered of higher status than the White Yi, even if the White Yi was wealthier or owned more slaves. The White and Black Yi also lived in separate villages. The Black Yi did not farm, which was traditionally done by White Yi and slaves. Black Yi were responsible only for administration and military activities. The White Yi were not technically slaves but lived as indentured servants to the Black Yi. The Ajia made up 33 per cent of the population. They were owned by both the Black and White Yi and worked as indentured laborers lower than the White Yi. The Xiaxi were the lowest caste. They were slaves who lived with their owners' livestock and had no rights. They could be beaten, sold, and killed for sport. Membership of all four castes was through patrilineal descent. The prevalence of the slave culture was so great that sometimes children were named after how many slaves they owned. For example: Lurbbu (many slaves), Lurda (strong slaves), Lurshy (commander of slaves), Lurnji (origin of slaves), Lurpo (slave lord), Lurha, (hundred slaves), Jjinu (lots of slaves).


title: Yi people

text: Cases of the caste slavery system's influence could be found as late as the 1980s and early 1990s, when "nuohuo" clans prevented marriage with "qunuo" or punished members who did.


title: Yi people

text: The most famous hero in Yi mythology is Zhyge Alu. He was the son of a dragon and an eagle who possessed supernatural strength, anti-magic, and anti-ghost powers. He rode a nine-winged flying horse called "long heavenly wings." He also had the help of a magical peacock and python. The magical peacock was called Shuotnyie Voplie and could deafen the ears of those who heard its cry, but if invited into one's house, would consume evil and expel leprosy. The python, called Bbahxa Ayuosse, was defeated by Zhyge Alu, who wrestled with it in the ocean after transforming into a dragon. It was said to be able to detect leprosy, cure tuberculosis, and eradicate epidemics. Like the Chinese mythological archer, Hou Yi, Zhyge Alu shoots down the suns to save the people. In the Yi religion Bimoism, Zhyge Alu aids the bimo priests in curing leprosy and fighting ghosts.


title: Yi people

text: Jiegujienuo was a ghost that caused dizziness, slowness in action, dementia and anxiety. The ghost was blamed for ailments and exorcism rituals were conducted to combat the ghost. The bimo erected small sticks considered to be sacred, the kiemobbur, at the ritual site in preparation.


title: Yi people

text: The Torch Festival is one of the Yi people's main holidays. According to Yi legend, there were once two men of great strength, Sireabi and Atilaba. Sireabi lived in heaven while Atilaba on earth. When Sireabi heard of Atilaba's strength, he challenged Atilaba to a wrestling match. After suffering two defeats, Sireabi was killed in a bout, which greatly angered the bodhisattavas, who sent a plague of locusts to punish the earth. On the 24th day of the 6th month of the lunar calendar, Atilaba cut down many pine trees and used them as torches to kill the locusts, protecting the crops from destruction. The Torch Festival is thus held in his honor.


title: Yi people

text: The Yi play a number of traditional musical instruments, including large plucked and bowed string instruments, as well as wind instruments called "bawu" (巴乌) and "mabu" (马布). The Yi also play the hulu sheng, though unlike other minority groups in Yunnan, the Yi do not play the hulu sheng for courtship or love songs (aiqing). The kouxian, a small four-pronged instrument similar to the Jew's harp, is another commonly found instrument among the Liangshan Yi. Kouxian songs are most often improvised and are supposed to reflect the mood of the player or the surrounding environment. Kouxian songs can also occasionally function in the aiqing form. Yi dance is perhaps the most commonly recognized form of musical performance, as it is often performed during publicly sponsored holidays and/or festival events.


title: Yi people

text: Artist Colette Fu, great-granddaughter of Long Yun has spent time from 1996 till present photographing the Yi community in Yunnan Province. Her series of pop-up books, titled "We are Tiger Dragon People", includes images of many Yi groups.


title: Yi people

text: In Yunnan, some of the Yi have adopted Buddhism as a result of exchanges with other predominantly Buddhist ethnic groups present in Yunnan, such as the Dai and the Tibetans. The most important god of Yi Buddhism is Mahākāla, a wrathful deity found in Vajrayana and Tibetan Buddhism. In the 20th century, many Yi people in China converted to Christianity, after the arrival of Gladstone Porteous in 1904 and, later, medical missionaries such as Alfred James Broomhall, Janet Broomhall, Ruth Dix and Joan Wales of the China Inland Mission. According to missionary organization OMF International, the exact number of Yi Christians is not known. In 1991 it was reported that there were as many as 1,500,000 Yi Christians in Yunnan Province, especially in Luquan County where there are more than 20 churches.


title: Yi people

text: The Yi are known for the extent of their inter-generational transmission of traditional medicine through oral tradition and written records. Their traditional medicine system has been academically inventoried. Since the prefecture the Yi medicinal data was collected from also contains the cave containing human-infectable SARS clades and it is known that people living in the vicinity SARS caves show serological signs of past infection, it has been suggested that the Yi were repeatably exposed to coronavirus over their history, passively learned to medicinally fend off coronavirus infection centuries ago, and committed the results into their inter-generational record of medicinal indications.


title: Paul Wanner

text: Paul Wanner (born 23 December 2005) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Bundesliga club Bayern Munich. Born in Austria, he is a youth international for Germany.


title: Paul Wanner

text: Wanner played for the youth team of FV Ravensburg, before joining Bayern Munich's youth team in mid-2018. Wanner was called up by Julian Nagelsmann to the Bayern Munich first team in January 2022, as many of the team's regulars were missing after testing positive for COVID-19. He made his professional debut for Bayern in the Bundesliga on 7 January 2022 against Borussia Mönchengladbach, coming on as a substitute in the 75th minute for Marc Roca. In doing so, he became the youngest player in Bayern Munich's history at the age of 16 years and 15 days, and the second-youngest in Bundesliga history behind Youssoufa Moukoko (who was 14 days younger). The match finished as a 2–1 home loss for Bayern. On 12 October 2022, at the age of 16 years and 293 days, Wanner became Bayern's youngest player in the Champions League, when he came on as a second-half substitute to Dayot Upamecano in a 4–2 away win against Viktoria Plzeň.


title: Paul Wanner

text: Wanner made his debut for the Germany national under-17 team on 6 August 2021 in a 10–1 win over Poland. In total, he has played seven matches at the under-17 level, and scored two goals in 2022 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification.


title: Paul Wanner

text: Wanner was born in the Austrian city of Dornbirn and grew up in Amtzell, Germany. He holds both Austrian and German citizenship. His father Klaus is a German mechanical engineer and former footballer who played as a midfielder, he helped Austria Lustenau as its captain to promotion to second tier 2. Liga and reached the round of last 16 of the Austrian Cup in 1991–92.


title: Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai

text: Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai ( ; born 1967), also known as Abdul Hakim Haqqani ( ) and Abdul Hakim Sharie ( ; also spelt Sharai or Sharia), is an Afghan Islamic scholar, writer and the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan since 2021 and Minister of Justice. He has also served as chief justice of the Supreme Court in the 1996–2001 Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. He was the chairman of the negotiation team in the Qatar office. He is one of the founding members of the Taliban and was a close associate of the late leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.


title: Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai

text: He was born to Mawlawi Khudaidad in 1967 in the Panjwayi District of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. He graduated from Darul Uloom Haqqania, a Deobandi Islamic seminary (darul uloom), in Pakistan, and taught there.


title: Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai

text: Apart from teaching at the Darul Uloom Haqqania, until recently he also ran his own Islamic seminary or madrasa in the Ishaqabad area of Quetta, in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.


title: Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai

text: During the rule of the first Islamic Emirate, in addition to teaching, he also served in the Appellate Court and at the Central Darul Ifta. Following the appointment of Hibatullah Akhundzada as Supreme Leader, Ishaqzai was appointed Chief Justice.


title: Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai

text: In September 2020, he was appointed the Taliban's chief negotiator for peace talks in Qatar with the government of Afghanistan, replacing Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, who became his deputy in the 21-member negotiating team.


title: Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai

text: Specializing in Islamic jurisprudence, especially its justice system, he has books on various subjects which have been translated into many languages, including Bengali.


title: Sam Hazeldine

text: Sam Hazeldine was born in Hammersmith, London. He is the son of actors James Hazeldine. and Rebecca Moore.


title: Sam Hazeldine

text: Hazeldine left R.A.D.A. in 1993 to pursue a career in music, only returning to acting ten years later in 2003 when he made his professional debut as D.C. David Butcher in "Prime Suspect 6".


title: Sam Hazeldine

text: In 2019, he was cast in "The War Below", which released in 2021. That same year he appeared in Ridley Scott's "The Last Duel". Hazeldine will replace Joseph Mawle in the role of Adar for season two of "".


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: Gulfport is the second-largest city in Mississippi after the state capital, Jackson. Along with Biloxi, Gulfport is the co-county seat of Harrison County and the larger of the two principal cities of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the city of Gulfport had a total population of 72,926, with 416,259 in the metro area as of 2018. It is also home to the US Navy Atlantic Fleet Seabees.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: This area was occupied by indigenous cultures for thousands of years, culminating in the historic encounter between the Choctaw and the first European explorers of the area. Along the Gulf Coast, French colonists founded nearby Biloxi, and Mobile in the 18th century, well before the area was acquired from France by the United States in 1803 in the Louisiana Purchase. By the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the United States completed treaties to extinguish Choctaw and other tribal land claims and removed them to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. In that period, the other four of the Five Civilized Tribes in the Southeast were also removed, to make way for white settlers to take over the lands and develop them for agriculture, especially cotton.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: An early settlement near this location, known as Mississippi City, appeared on a map of Mississippi from 1855. Mississippi City was the county seat of Harrison County from 1841 to 1902, but is now a suburb in east Gulfport.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: Gulfport was incorporated on July 28, 1898. The city was founded by William H. Hardy, who was president of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad (G&SIRR) that connected inland lumber mills to the coast. He was joined by Joseph T. Jones, who later took over the G&SIRR, dredged the harbor in Gulfport, and opened the shipping channel to the sea. In 1902, the harbor was completed and the Port of Gulfport became a working seaport. On April 28, 1904 the Treasury Department changed the port of entry for the district of the Pearl River from Shieldsboro to Gulfport. It now accounts for millions of dollars in annual sales and tax revenue for the state of Mississippi.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: In 1910, the U.S. Post Office and Customhouse was built here. This Gulfport Post office was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: In March 1916, Mayor George M. Foote announced that the Andrew Carnegie foundation was going to aid in construction of a Carnegie Library in Gulfport. The city had agreed to providing matching funds for the construction as well as committing to provide operating funds. In the 20th century, the city developed as an important port; as it was served by railroads from the interior, it stimulated town growth by providing a way to get products to markets.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: The city's location on the coast made it vulnerable to hurricanes and it weathered several. But on August 17, 1969, Gulfport and the Mississippi Gulf Coast were hit by Hurricane Camille. Measured by central pressure, Camille was the second-strongest hurricane to make U.S. landfall in recorded history. The area of total destruction in Harrison County was 68 square miles (180 km2).[11] The total estimated cost of damage was $1.42 billion (1969 USD, $9 billion 2012 USD).[12] Camille was the second-most expensive hurricane in the United States, up to that point (behind Hurricane Betsy).[13] The storm directly killed 143 people in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: In December 1993, the City annexed north of Gulfport, making it the second-largest city in Mississippi.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: On August 29, 2005, Gulfport was hit by the strong eastern side of Hurricane Katrina. Much of the city was flooded or destroyed that day by the strong, hurricane-force winds, which lasted more than 16 hours, and a storm surge exceeding 28 feet (9 m) in some sections.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: Hurricane Katrina damaged more than 40 Mississippi libraries, gutting the Gulfport Public Library, first floor, and breaking windows on the second floor, beyond repair. It required total reconstruction.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: Although Katrina's damage was far more widespread, it was not the fiercest hurricane to hit Gulfport. Katrina, a Category 3 storm at landfall, was dwarfed by Hurricane Camille, a Category 5 storm, which had hit Gulfport and neighboring communities on August 17, 1969 with 175 mph sustained winds compared to Katrina's 120 mph sustained winds.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: "The Sun Herald" newspaper in Biloxi-Gulfport, under the executive editor Stanley R. Tiner, won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in journalism for its Katrina coverage. The local ABC television affiliate, WLOX, won the Peabody Award for its Hurricane Katrina coverage.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total area of , of which is land and (11.40%) is water.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: Gulfport Formation, here named in Harrison Co., southeastern MS, described as barrier ridge composed of white, medium- to fine-grained sand, yellow-orange near surface. Thickness ranges form 5.0 to 9.5 m. Overlies Biloxi Formation. Age is late Pleistocene.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: Gulfport Formation is limited to a 1- to 3-km-wide discontinuous barrier ridge belt that borders the Gulf mainland shore. Commonly overlies Prairie Formation (alluvium) landward and Biloxi Formation (shelf deposits) near shore. Grades upward from poorly to moderately sorted shoreface sands to foreshore sand and dunes. Fig. 1 shows unit extending from Gulfport, MS, eastward to the mouth of the Ochlockonee River, Franklin Co., FL. Deposited during the Sangamonian.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: The city listed 39 official neighborhoods in 2000. These neighborhoods are sometimes subdivisions or accumulations of gradual home development. These include:


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: Gulfport has a humid subtropical climate, which is strongly moderated by the Gulf of Mexico. Winters are short and generally mild; cold spells do occur, but seldom last long. Snow flurries are rare in the city, with no notable accumulation occurring most years. Summers are generally long, hot and humid, though the city's proximity to the Gulf prevents extreme summer highs, as seen farther inland. Gulfport is subject to extreme weather, most notably tropical storm activity through the Gulf of Mexico.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 72,926 people, 25,559 households, and 15,584 families residing in the city.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: According to the census of 2010, there were 67,793 people living in the city. The population density was 1,191.4 people per square mile (459.9/km). The city had 50,825 or 74.97% of its population at the age of 18 and above. The racial makeup of the city was 56.86% White, 36.07% African American, 0.39% Native American, 1.69% Asian, 0.14% Pacific Islander, 2.13% from other races, and 2.73% from two or more races. Results show that 5.19% of the population was Hispanic/Latino of any race.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: There were 31,602 housing units at an average density of 555.4 per square mile (214.4/km) with 83.24% of housing units occupied and an average of 2.57 persons living in each occupied housing unit.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: Comparing the 2000 and 2010 Census, the population of the city went down while the total number of housing units rose. This can be attributed to Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed housing and displaced people. New housing development has continued with a mixture of redevelopment from hurricane damage, though not all of the displaced population returned.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 26,943 households, out of which 32.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.6% were married couples living together, 18.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.5% were non-families. 27.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 3.07.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: In Gulfport, the population dispersal was 26.0% under the age of 18, 11.1% from 18 to 24, 30.4% from 25 to 44, 21.1% from 45 to 64, and 11.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.1 males. The median income for a household in the city was $32,779, and the median income for a family was $39,213. Males had a median income of $29,220 versus $21,736 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,554. 17.7% of the population and 14.1% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 25.8% of those under the age of 18 and 13.7% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: Gulfport is the location of Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport. The airport suffered extensive damage due to Hurricane Katrina. A major renovation project is for the most part completed and it has resumed commercial air service.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: According to Gulfport's 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city were:


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: From its beginnings as a lumber port, Gulfport evolved into a diversified city. With about 6.7 miles (10.7 kilometres) of white sand beaches along the Gulf of Mexico, Gulfport has become a tourism destination, due in large part to Mississippi's coast casinos. Gulfport has served as host to popular cultural events such as the "World's Largest Fishing Rodeo," "Cruisin' the Coast" (a week of classic cars), “Black Spring Break” and "Smokin' the Sound" (speedboat races). Gulfport is a thriving residential community with a strong mercantile center. There are historic neighborhoods and home sites, as well as diverse shopping opportunities and several motels scattered throughout to accommodate golfing, gambling, and water-sport tourism. Gulfport is also home to the Island View Casino, one of twelve casinos on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: The U.S. Coast Guard operates 9 boats out of the port of Gulfport 4 of which are Patrol Boats. The Gulfport station has 110 members which include Active, Reserve and Coast Guard Auxiliary who respond to an average of 300 search and rescue cases annually.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: The Gulfport Fire Department was founded in 1908 and currently provides fire suppression, HAZMAT response, and technical rescue services within the city limits of Gulfport, Mississippi . The GFD operates out of 11 active stations and is staffed by professional firefighters. The GFD works in conjunction with American Medical Response for EMS related emergencies.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: Major roads and highways serve Gulfport. Interstate 10 runs east-west through the middle section of Gulfport. U.S. 90, following the coast in this region, runs east-west through the downtown area. U.S. 49 from the north terminates in Gulfport.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: Until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Amtrak's "Sunset Limited" from Los Angeles to Orlando made stops in Gulfport station. Well into the 1960s, the Louisville and Nashville ran several trains daily, making stops in Gulfport--"Crescent," "Gulf Wind," "Humming Bird," "Pan-American" and "Piedmont Limited"—varied destinations including New Orleans, Cincinnati, Atlanta, New York City and Jacksonville.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: The City of Gulfport is served by the Gulfport School District and the Harrison County School District. The Harrison County Campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College is also located in Gulfport.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: Before Hurricane Katrina, William Carey University had a satellite campus in Gulfport. In 2009, the university moved to its new Tradition Campus, constructed off Mississippi Highway 67 in north Harrison County.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: The Gulf Park Campus of the University of Southern Mississippi is located in Long Beach, just west of Gulfport. In 2012, repairs and renovations to campus buildings were still in progress following extensive damage in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.


title: Gulfport, Mississippi

text: Gulfport's local newspaper is The Sun Herald. It is also served by two television stations, the ABC affiliate WLOX and CBS on WLOX-DT2, the Fox affiliate WXXV, WXXV Digital signal on Channel 25.2 as NBC 25 NBC affiliate, and WXXV Digital signal on Channel 25.3 as The Gulf Coast CW CW+ affiliate. There are also seven radio stations in the Gulfport area.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: Pope Adrian VI (; ; ), born Adriaan Florensz Boeyens (2 March 1459 – 14 September 1523), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 January 1522 until his death on 14 September 1523. The only Dutchman to become pope, he was the last non-Italian pope until the Polish John Paul II 455 years later.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: Born in the Episcopal principality of Utrecht, Adrian studied at the University of Leuven in the Low Countries, where he rose to the position of professor of theology, also serving as its rector (the equivalent of president or vice-chancellor). In 1507, he became the tutor of the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who later trusted him as both his emissary and his regent.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: In 1516, Charles, now King of Castile and Aragon, appointed Adrian bishop of Tortosa, Spain, and soon thereafter Grand Inquisitor of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile. Pope Leo X made him a cardinal in 1517 and after Leo's death he was elected pope in 1522 as a compromise candidate.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: Adrian came to the papacy in the midst of one of its greatest crises, threatened not only by Lutheranism to the north but also by the advance of the Ottoman Turks to the east. He refused to compromise with Lutheranism theologically, demanding Luther's condemnation as a heretic. However, he is noted for having attempted to reform the Catholic Church administration in response to the Protestant Reformation. Adrian's admission that the Roman Curia itself was at fault for the turmoil in the Church was read at the 1522–1523 Diet of Nuremberg.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: His efforts at reform, however, proved fruitless, as they were resisted by most of his contemporaries, and he did not live long enough to see his efforts through to their conclusion. He was succeeded by the second Medici pope, Clement VII.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: Adrian VI and Marcellus II are the only popes of the modern era to retain their baptismal names after their election. Adrian VI is the last pope to date to take on the pontifical name "Adrian".


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: Adriaan Florensz was born on 2 March 1459 in the city of Utrecht, which was then the capital of the Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht, a part of the Burgundian Netherlands in the Holy Roman Empire. He was born into modest circumstances as the son of Florens Boeyensz, also born in Utrecht, and his wife Geertruid. He had three older brothers, Jan, Cornelius, and Claes. Adrian consistently signed with "Adrianus Florentii" or "Adrianus de Traiecto" ("Adrian of Utrecht") in later life, suggesting that his family did not yet have a surname but used patronymics only.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: Adrian was probably raised in a house on the corner of the Brandstraat and Oude Gracht that was owned by his grandfather Boudewijn (Boeyen, for short). His father, a carpenter and likely shipwright, died when Adrian was 10 years or younger. Adrian studied from a very young age under the Brethren of the Common Life, either at Zwolle or Deventer and was also a student of the Latin school (now "Gymnasium Celeanum") in Zwolle.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: In June 1476, he started his studies at the University of Leuven, where he pursued philosophy, theology and Canon Law, thanks to a scholarship granted by Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy. In 1478 he had the title of "Primus Philosophiae", as well as that of "Magister Artium" (that is, he took his undergraduate degree). In 1488 he was chosen by the Faculty of Arts to be their representative on the Council of the University.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: After the regular 12 years of study, Adrian became a Doctor of Theology in 1491. He had been a teacher at the University since 1490, was chosen vice-chancellor of the university in 1493, and Dean of St. Peter's in 1498. In the latter function he was permanent vice-chancellor of the University and de facto in charge of hiring. His lectures were published, as recreated from his students' notes; among those who attended was the young Erasmus. Adrian offered him a professorate in 1502, but Erasmus refused.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: In November 1506 Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy, became Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands and chose Adrian as her advisor. The next year Emperor Maximilian I appointed him also tutor to his seven-year-old grandson, and Margaret's nephew, who in 1519 became Emperor Charles V. By 1512 Adrian was Charles's advisor, and his court obligations were so time-consuming that he quit his positions at the university.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: In 1515, Charles sent Adrian to Spain to convince his maternal grandfather, Ferdinand II of Aragon, that the Spanish lands should come under his rule, and not Charles's Spanish-born younger brother Ferdinand, whom his grandfather had in mind. Adrian succeeded in that just before Ferdinand's death in January 1516. Ferdinand of Aragon, and subsequently Charles V, appointed Adrian Bishop of Tortosa, which was approved by Pope Leo X on 18 August 1516. He was consecrated by Bishop Diego Ribera de Toledo.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: In his fifth Consistory for the creation of cardinals, on 1 July 1517, Pope Leo X (1513–21) named thirty-one cardinals among whom was Adrianus de Traiecto, naming him Cardinal Priest of the Basilica of Saints John and Paul on the Coelian Hill.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: During the minority of Charles V, Adrian was named to serve with Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros as co-regent of Spain. After the death of Jimenez, Adrian was appointed (14 March 1518) General of the Reunited Inquisitions of Castile and Aragon, in which capacity he acted until his departure for Rome. When Charles V left Spain for the Netherlands in 1520, he appointed Cardinal Adrian Regent of Spain, during which time he had to deal with the Revolt of the Comuneros.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: In the conclave after the death of the Medici Pope Leo X, Leo's cousin, Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, was the leading figure. With Spanish and French cardinals in a deadlock, the absent Adrian was proposed as a compromise and on 9 January 1522 he was elected by an almost unanimous vote. Charles V was delighted upon hearing that his tutor had been elected to the papacy but soon realised that Adrian VI was determined to reign impartially. Francis I of France, who feared that Adrian would become a tool of the Emperor, and had uttered threats of a schism, later relented and sent an embassy to present his homage.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: Fears of a Spanish Avignon based on the strength of his relationship with the Emperor as his former tutor and regent proved baseless, and Adrian, having notified the College of Cardinals of his acceptance, left for Italy after six months of preparations and trying to decide which route to take, making his solemn entry into Rome on 29 August. He had forbidden elaborate decorations, and many people stayed away for fear of the plague that was raging. Pope Adrian was crowned at St. Peter's Basilica on 31 August 1522, at the age of 63.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: He immediately entered upon the path of the reformer. The 1908 edition of the "Catholic Encyclopedia" characterised the task that faced him:


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: His plan was to attack notorious abuses one by one; however, in his attempt to improve the system of indulgences he was hampered by his cardinals. He found reduction of the number of matrimonial dispensations to be impossible, as the income had been farmed out for years in advance by Pope Leo X.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: Adrian VI was not successful as a peacemaker among Christian princes, whom he hoped to unite in a war against the Turks. In August 1523 he was forced into an alliance with the Empire, England, and Venice against France; meanwhile, in 1522 Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–66) had conquered Rhodes.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: In his reaction to the early stages of the Lutheran revolt, Adrian VI did not completely understand the gravity of the situation. At the Diet of Nuremberg, which opened in December 1522, he was represented by Francesco Chieregati, whose private instructions contain the frank admission that the disorder of the Church was perhaps the fault of the Roman Curia itself, and that it should be reformed. However, the former professor and Inquisitor General was strongly opposed to any change in doctrine and demanded that Martin Luther be punished for teaching heresy.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: He made only one cardinal in the course of his pontificate, Willem van Enckevoirt, made a cardinal-priest in a consistory held on 10 September 1523.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: Adrian VI held no beatifications in his pontificate but canonized Saints Antoninus of Florence and Benno of Meissen on 31 May 1523.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: Charles V's ambassador in Rome, Juan Manuel, lord of Belmonte, wrote that he was worried that Charles's influence over Adrian waned after Adrian's election, writing "The Pope is "deadly afraid" of the College of Cardinals. He does whatever two or three cardinals write to him in the name of the college."


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: Adrian VI died in Rome on 14 September 1523, after one year, eight months and six days as pope. Most of his official papers were lost after his death. He published "Quaestiones in quartum sententiarum praesertim circa sacramenta" (Paris, 1512, 1516, 1518, 1537; Rome, 1522), and "Quaestiones quodlibeticae XII." (1st ed., Leuven, 1515). He is buried in the Santa Maria dell'Anima church in Rome.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: He bequeathed property in the Low Countries for the foundation of a college at the University of Leuven that became known as Pope's College.


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: The first series of engravings used to educate Dutch school children at the turn of the 18th century includes Adrian VI in its woodcut on 'Famous Dutch Men and Women' with the following poem:


title: Pope Adrian VI

text: Pope Adrian VI appears as a character in Christopher Marlowe's stage drama "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" (1604).


title: Bowfin

text: The bowfin ("Amia calva") is a bony fish, native to North America. Common names include mudfish, mud pike, dogfish, grindle, grinnel, swamp trout, and choupique. It is regarded as a relict, being the sole surviving species of the Halecomorphi, a group of fish that first appeared during the Early Triassic, around 250 million years ago. The bowfin is often considered a "primitive fish" because they have retained some morphological characteristics of their early ancestors. The closest living relatives of bowfins are gars, with the two groups being united in the clade Holostei.


title: Bowfin

text: Bowfins are demersal freshwater piscivores, commonly found throughout much of the eastern United States, and in southern Ontario and Quebec. Fossil deposits indicate Amiiformes were once widespread in both freshwater and marine environments across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Now, their range is limited to much of the eastern United States and adjacent southern Canada, including the drainage basins of the Mississippi River, Great Lakes, and various rivers exiting in the Eastern Seaboard or Gulf of Mexico. Their preferred habitat includes vegetated sloughs, lowland rivers and lakes, swamps, and backwater areas; they are also occasionally found in brackish water. They are stalking, ambush predators known to move into the shallows at night to prey on fish and aquatic invertebrates such as crawfish, mollusks, and aquatic insects.


title: Bowfin

text: Like gars, bowfin are bimodal breathers – they have the capacity to breathe both water and air. Their gills exchange gases in the water allowing them to breathe, but they also have a gas bladder that serves to maintain buoyancy, and also allows them to breathe air by means of a small pneumatic duct connected from the foregut to the gas bladder. They can break the surface to gulp air, which allows them to survive conditions of aquatic hypoxia that would be lethal to most other species. The bowfin is long-lived, with age up to 33 years reported.


title: Bowfin

text: The typical length of a bowfin is ; females typically grow to , males to . They can reach in length, and weigh . Young of the year typically grow to by October. Females tend to grow larger than males.


title: Bowfin

text: The body of the bowfin is elongated and cylindrical, with the sides and back olive to brown in color, often with vertical bars and dark reticulations or another camouflaged pattern. The dorsal fin has horizontal bars, and the caudal fin has irregular vertical bars. The underside is white or cream, and the paired fins and anal fin are bright green. During larval stage, hatchlings from about total length are black and tadpole-like in appearance. At approximately total length they have been described as looking like miniature placoderms. They grow quickly, and typically leave the nest within 4 to 6 weeks after hatching. Young males have a black eyespot on the base of the tail (caudal peduncle) that is commonly encircled by an orange-yellowish border, while the female's is black, if present at all. It is thought the purpose of the eyespot is to confuse predators, deflecting attacks away from the head of the fish to its tail, which affords the bowfin an opportunity to escape predation. The bowfin is so named for its long, undulating dorsal fin consisting of 145 to 250 rays that runs from the middle of the back to the base of the tail.


title: Bowfin

text: The skull of the bowfin is made of two layers of skull, the dermatocranium and the chondrocranium. The chondrocranium layer cannot be seen because it is located below the dermal bones. The bowfin skull is made up of 28 fused bones, which compose the dermatocranium. The roof of the mouth is made up of three bones, the ectopterygoid, the palantine, and the vomer. They have two sets of teeth, including one set of larger sharp teeth coming out of the mandibular and premaxillary bones to grasp and control the prey. The other set of teeth, located posteriorly and connected to the hyomandibular bone, is made up of pharyngeal tooth patches, which are used for sorting out nutrients and grinding down larger pieces of food. " "Another three bones make up the lower jaw: the dentary, the angular, and the surangular. The cranial surface of the skull is made up of the nasals, the antorbital, the lacrimal, the parietal, the intertemporal, the post parietal, the supratemporal, the extra scapular, the post temporal, and the opercular. The entirety of the skull is attached to the girdle through another set of bones.


title: Bowfin

text: Bowfin are often referred to as "living fossils", or "primitive fish" because they retained some of the primitive characters common to their ancestors, including a modified (rounded externally) heterocercal caudal fin, a highly vascularized gas bladder lung, vestiges of a spiral valve, and a bony gular plate. The bony gular plate is located underneath the head on the exterior of the lower jaw between the two sides of the lower jaw bone. Other distinguishing characteristics include long, sharp teeth, and two protruding tube-like nostrils. Unlike all of the most primitive actinopterygians, the scales of bowfin differ in that they are not ganoid scales, rather they are large, single-layered cycloid scales closer in similarity to more derived teleosts.


title: Bowfin

text: Northern snakeheads ("Channa argus") are commonly mistaken for bowfin because of similarities in appearance, most noticeably their elongated, cylindrical shape, and long dorsal fin that runs along their backs. Northern snakeheads are piscivorous fish native to the rivers and estuaries of China, Russia, and Korea. However, unlike bowfin which are native to North America, the northern snakehead is considered an invasive species and environmentally harmful. Some contrasting differences in bowfin include a black eyespot on their caudal peduncle, a tan and olive coloration, a shorter anal fin, a more rounded head, and an upper jaw that is longer than its lower jaw. Another noticeable difference is that bowfin scales do not continue uniformly from their body to their head. Bowfin heads are smooth and free of scales, whereas the northern snakehead has scales that uniformly continue from their body through to their head.


title: Bowfin

text: The burbot, a predatory fish native to streams and lakes of North America and Eurasia, is also commonly mistaken for bowfin. Burbots can be distinguished by their flat head and chin barbel, long anal fin, and pelvic fins situated beneath the pectoral fins.


title: Bowfin

text: The first fish lacked jaws and used negative pressure to suck their food in through their mouths. The jaw in the bowfin is a result of their evolutionary need to be able to catch and eat bigger and more nutritious prey. As a result of being able to gather more nutrients, Bowfin are able to live a more active lifestyle. The jaw of a bowfin has several adaptations. The maxilla and premaxilla are fused and the posterior chondrocranium articulates with the vertebra which allows the jaw freedom to rotate. The suspensorium includes several bones and articulates with the snout, brain case, and the mandible. When the jaw opens epaxial muscles lift the chondrocranium, which is attached to the upper jaw, while adductor muscles act to close the lower jaw. This ability to open and close the jaw helps the bowfin to be an active predator that can catch bigger prey and digest them.


title: Bowfin

text: The vertebral column in bowfin is ossified and in comparison to earlier fish, the centra are the major support for the body, whereas in earlier fish the notochord was the main form of support. In bowfin neural spines and ribs also increase in prominence, an evolutionary aspect that helps provide additional support and stabilize unpaired fins. The evolution of the vertebral column allows the bowfin to withstand lateral bending that puts the column under compression without breaking. This, in turn, allows the bowfin to have more controlled and powerful movements, in comparison to fish that had only a notochord. The bowfin has a rounded heterocercal tail that resembles a homocercal tail. This type of tail gives the body a streamlined shape which allows the bowfin to improve its swimming ability by reducing drag. These types of tails are common in fish with gas bladders, because the bladder supplies the fish with natural buoyancy.


title: Bowfin

text: The bowfin is a member of actinopterygii which means that the pectoral girdle is partly endochondral but mostly dermal bone. In this group of fish the fins function to maneuver, brake, and for slight positional adjustments. The pectoral girdle of the bowfin has six parts. The post temporal, supracleithrum, postcleithrum, cleithrum, scapulacoracoid, and the clavicle make up the pectoral girdle. The pectoral girdle is attached to the skull. The paired pectoral and pelvic fins of fish are homologous with the limbs of tetrapods.


title: Bowfin

text: Bowfin, like other physostomes such as bichirs (Polypteridae), gars (Lepisosteidae), and the lungfish (Dipnoi), are capable of bimodal respiration. They can extract oxygen from the water when breathing through their gills, and can also break the water's surface to breathe or gulp air through a small pneumatic duct connected from their foregut to the gas bladder. When performing low-level physical activity, bowfin obtain more than half of their oxygen from breathing air. Bowfin have two distinct air-breathing mechanisms used to ventilate the gas bladder. Air breathing "type I" is consistent with the action of exhale / inhale exchange, stimulated by either air or water hypoxia, to regulate gas exchange; "type II" air breaths are inhalation alone, which is believed to regulate gas bladder volume, to control buoyancy. Bimodal respiration helps bowfin survive and maintain their metabolic rate in hypoxic conditions. The rate of air breathing is higher in darkness, when the fish is more active.


title: Bowfin

text: Bowfin blood can adapt to warm, acidic waters. The fish becomes inactive in waters below ; at this temperature they breathe almost no air; however, with increasing temperature their air breathing increases. Their preferred temperature range is between , with the temperature of maximum activity. Air breathing is at a maximum in the range . Bowfin do not use central chemoreceptor regulation for respiration control. Experiments manipulating the oxygen content, carbon dioxide content, and pH of bowfin extradural fluid did not affect breathing rate, heart rate, or blood pressure pointing to a lack of central chemoreceptor regulation. Instead, bowfin respiratory patterns respond to water oxygen content and water temperature, as water temperatures play a role in oxygen content. In the lab, bowfin showed an increase in the breathing rate when the temperatures were raised above 10°C. Bowfin also showed an increase in breathing rate when exposed to lower oxygen levels in the water.


title: Bowfin

text: Herpetologist W.T. Neill reported in 1950 that he unearthed a bowfin aestivating in a chamber below the ground surface, in diameter, from a river. It was further noted that flood levels had previously reached the area, and receded. It is not unusual for riverine species like bowfin to move into backwaters with flood currents, and become trapped when water levels recede. While aestivation is anecdotally documented by multiple researchers, laboratory experiments have suggested instead that bowfin are physiologically incapable of surviving more than three to five days of air exposure. However, no field manipulation has been performed. Regardless of the lack of evidence confirming the bowfin's ability to aestivate, it has been noted that bowfin can survive prolonged conditions of exposure to air because they have the ability to breathe air. Their gill filaments and lamellae are rigid in structure which helps prevent the lamellae from collapsing and aids gas exchange even during air exposure.


title: Bowfin

text: Competing hypotheses and debates continue over the evolution of "Amia" and relatives, including their relationship among basal extant teleosts, and organization of clades. Bowfin are the last remaining member of Halecomorphi, a group that includes many extinct species in several families. Halecomorphs were generally accepted as the sister group to Teleostei but not without question. While a halecostome pattern of neopterygian clades was produced in morphology-based analyses of extant actinopterygians, a different result was produced with fossil taxa which showed a monophyletic Holostei. Monophyletic Holostei were also recovered by at least two nuclear gene analyses, in an independent study of fossil and extant fish, and in an analysis of ultraconserved genomic elements.


title: Bowfin

text: The extant ray-finned fish of the subclass Actinopterygii include 42 orders, 431 families and over 23,000 species. They are currently classified into two infraclasses, Chondrostei (holosteans) and Neopterygii (teleost fishes). Sturgeons, paddlefish, bichirs and reed fish compose the thirty-eight species of chondrosteans, and are considered relict species. Included in the over 23,000 species of neopterygians are eight relict species comprising gars and the bowfin.


title: Bowfin

text: Neopterygians are the second major occurrence in the evolution of ray-finned fish and today include the majority of modern bony fish. They are distinguished from their earlier ancestors by major changes to the jaws, shape of the skull, and tail. They are divided into three divisions:


title: Bowfin

text: The bowfin genome contains an intact ParaHox gene cluster, similar to the bichir and to most other vertebrates. This is in contrast, however, with teleost fish, which have a fragmented ParaHox cluster, probably because of a whole genome duplication event in their lineage. The presence of an intact ParaHox gene cluster suggests that bowfin ancestors separated from other fish before the last common ancestor of all teleosts appeared. Bowfin are thus possibly a better model to study vertebrate genome organization than common teleost model organisms such as zebrafish.


title: Bowfin

text: Bowfin are stalking, ambush predators that customarily move into the shallows at night to prey on fish, and aquatic invertebrates such as crawfish, mollusks, and aquatic insects. Young bowfin feed mostly on small crustaceans, while adults are mostly piscivorous, but also known to be opportunistic. Bowfin are remarkably agile, can move quickly through the water, and they have a voracious appetite. Their undulating dorsal fin propels them silently through the water while stalking their prey. The attack is straightforward and swift with a movement that lasts approximately 0.075 seconds. There were also some studies regarding the capacity of the bowfin to survive without food. In 1916, A female bowfin was starved for twenty months. It was the longest period that any vertebrate had been without food, as far the writer was aware during the observation. Some independent studies focus on the bowfin's ability to use organic material as a source of food and studied the structure of the gill raker. They concluded that it did not benefit from the organic material in the water because the gill rakers were short with blunt processes and a short space between them. Even bacteria could enter and exit through the gill easily. Its structure alone indicated that the "Amia" don't use microorganisms as a source of food.


title: Bowfin

text: Fossil deposits indicate amiiforms included freshwater and marine species that were once widely distributed in North America, South America, Eurasia and Africa. Today, bowfin ("Amia calva") are the only remaining species in the order Amiiformes; they are demersal freshwater piscivores, and their range is restricted to freshwater environments in North America, including much of the eastern United States and adjacent southern Canada from the St. Lawrence River and Lake Champlain drainage of southern Ontario and Quebec westward around the Great Lakes in southern Ontario into Minnesota. Historically, their distribution in North America included the drainage basins of the Mississippi River from Quebec to northern Minnesota, the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes, including Georgian Bay, Lake Nipissing and Simcoe, Ontario, south to the Gulf of Mexico; Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain from the Susquehanna River drainage in southeastern Pennsylvania to the Colorado River in Texas.


title: Bowfin

text: Research from the late 1800s to the 1980s suggests a trend of intentional stockings of non-indigenous fish into ponds, lakes and rivers in the United States. At that time, little was known about environmental impacts, or long-term effects of new species establishment and spread as a result of "fish rescue and transfer" efforts, or the importance of nongame fish to the ecological balance of aquatic ecosystems. Introductions of bowfin to areas they were considered a non-indigenous species included various lakes, rivers and drainages in Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Many of the introductions were intentional stockings by various resource management; however, there is no way to positively determine distribution resulting from flood transfers, or other inadvertent migrations. Bowfin are typically piscivorous, but as an introduced species are capable of being voracious predators that pose a threat to native fish and their prey.


title: Bowfin

text: Bowfin prefer vegetated sloughs, lowland rivers and lakes, swamps, backwater areas, and are occasionally found in brackish water. They are well camouflaged, and not easy to spot in slow water with abundant vegetation. They often seek shelter under roots, and submerged logs. Oxygen-poor environments can be tolerated because of their ability to breathe air.


title: Bowfin

text: Bowfin spawn in the spring or early summer, typically between April and June, more commonly at night in abundantly vegetated, clear shallow water in weed beds over sand bars, and also under stumps, logs, and bushes.


title: Bowfin

text: Optimum temperatures for nesting and spawning range between . The males construct circular nests in fibrous root mats, clearing away leaves and stems. Depending on the density of surrounding vegetation there may be a tunnel-like entrance at one side. The diameter of the nests commonly range between , at a water depth of .


title: Bowfin

text: During spawning season, the fins and underside of male bowfin often change in color to a bright lime green. The courtship/spawning sequence lasts one to three hours, and can repeat up to five times. Courtship begins when a female approaches the nest. The ritual consists of intermittent nose bites, nudges, and chasing behavior by the male until the female becomes receptive, at which time the pair lie side by side in the nest. She deposits her eggs while he shakes his fins in a vibratory movement, and releases his milt for fertilization to occur. A male often has eggs from more than one female in his nest, and a single female often spawns in several nests.