title: Lola Glaudini

text: Glaudini was born in Manhattan, New York. Her father, Robert Glaudini, is a playwright of Italian descent, and in whose play "The Poison Tree" she appeared at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Her mother, Nina Diane (née Kapler) Rosen, is from a Jewish family and is a writer and college instructor in California.


title: Lola Glaudini

text: Glaudini attended Bard College. She also starred in the drama "Demonology" at the Mark Taper Forum, for which she won a Drama-Logue Award as Best Actress.


title: Lola Glaudini

text: Between 2001 and 2004 Glaudini had a recurring role on the HBO series "The Sopranos" as Federal Agent Deborah Ciccerone-Waldrup. In 2005 she was a regular on the CBS series "Criminal Minds" as Elle Greenaway, but left the show early in the second season. Before those roles she appeared on "NYPD Blue" as Dolores Mayo, a heroin-addicted office assistant. She has guest starred in "The Good Guys", "The King of Queens", "Andy Richter Controls the Universe", "Boomtown", "Special Unit 2", "", "Las Vegas", "Monk", and "ER". Glaudini also appeared briefly in the Neil LaBute film "Your Friends & Neighbors".


title: Lola Glaudini

text: In the 2006 film "Invincible", Glaudini had a brief role as the first wife of Vince Papale, played by Mark Wahlberg, where she is seen berating Papale's career failures and informs him of divorce. She played Kat Damatto on the NBC mini-series "Persons Unknown" in 2010. She costarred with Mark Harmon in the 2011 USA original movie "Certain Prey", based on the bestselling book of the same name by John Sandford.


title: Tahnee Welch

text: Latanne Rene "Tahnee" Welch (born December 26, 1961) is an American model and actress and is the daughter of actress Raquel Welch.


title: Tahnee Welch

text: Welch was born December 26, 1961 in San Diego, California, the daughter of actress Raquel Welch and her first husband, James Welch.


title: Tahnee Welch

text: Welch's film career began in Italy starring opposite Virna Lisi. She starred in Ron Howard's "Cocoon" and its sequel, "", in which she portrayed an alien. She played the part of Princess Rosebud in the Golan Globus adaptation of "Sleeping Beauty". Returning to Europe, Welch worked mostly in Italian and German film and television productions. She appeared in American independent films "I Shot Andy Warhol", "Sue", and "Search and Destroy". She portrayed the role of Catherine Powell in the 1996 video game "Ripper".


title: Tahnee Welch

text: Welch posed on the cover and a nude pictorial in the November 1995 edition of "Playboy". Welch appeared in American "Vogue", "Italian Vogue", British "GQ", "Interview", French "Marie Claire", Italian "Moda", and German "Bunte" magazines.


title: Tracie Thoms

text: Tracie Nicole Thoms is an Emmy-nominated American television, film, and stage actress and singer. She is known for her roles in "Rent", "Cold Case", "The Devil Wears Prada", "Death Proof", and the short-lived Fox television series "Wonderfalls".


title: Tracie Thoms

text: Thoms was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, daughter of Donald H. Thoms, a VP of Programming at PBS and television director, and wife Mariana Davis. She has a younger brother, Austin. She started studying acting at age 10 and later on attended the Baltimore School for the Arts.


title: Tracie Thoms

text: She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Howard University in 1997. She then attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division as a member of "Group 30" (1997–2001), which also included actors Lee Pace and Anthony Mackie.


title: Tracie Thoms

text: Thoms is known for her role of Mahandra McGinty in the television show "Wonderfalls". She also played the part of Sasha in the US version of the T.V. series "As If", which was cancelled after three episodes. In 2005, she was added to the cast of the CBS crime drama "Cold Case", as the homicide detective, Kat Miller. Thoms has also made guest appearances on "Law & Order" and "The Shield".


title: Tracie Thoms

text: Thoms has appeared in several movies, most notably in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical "Rent" in which she plays Joanne Jefferson, lawyer and lover of Maureen Johnson (Idina Menzel). She took over the role from Fredi Walker, who played Joanne in the original Broadway production of "Rent" but, at age 43, was deemed too old to reprise the role. Prior to being cast as Joanne, Thoms had considered herself a fan of the show, having seen it on Broadway several times.


title: Tracie Thoms

text: She was featured in the 2002 Comedy Central film "Porn 'n Chicken" and the 2004 films "Brother to Brother" and "The Warrior Class". Thoms appeared in the 2006 film version of "The Devil Wears Prada" as Lily. Thoms has completed filming on the City Lights Pictures movie "Descent" along with "Rent" co-stars Wilson Jermaine Heredia and Rosario Dawson and will soon begin filming "Jimmie" with co-stars Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight. She appeared in Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof", alongside Zoë Bell, Rosario Dawson and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.


title: Tracie Thoms

text: Thoms made her Broadway debut in Regina Taylor's "Drowning Crow". She has also appeared in several off-Broadway and regional productions, including "Up Against the Wind" (New York Theater Workshop), "The Oedipus Plays" (The Shakespeare Theater), "A Raisin in the Sun" (Baltimore CenterStage) "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" (Missouri Rep), "The Exonerated" (Off Broadway's The Culture Project) and "The Antigone Project" (The Women's Project). On July 18, 2008, she joined the final cast of "Rent" starting July 26, 2008, reprising the character of Joanne, replacing Merle Dandridge. The final performance was made into a DVD: "".


title: Tracie Thoms

text: Thoms reprised her role as Joanne for another production of "Rent", directed by Neil Patrick Harris, at the Hollywood Bowl from August 6–8, 2010.


title: Tracie Thoms

text: In the fall of 2010 she appeared in the concert revue "For The Record: Quentin Tarantino" in Los Angeles, presented by ROCKLA for Show at Barre. It ran from August 12, 2010, to October 30, 2010, and also starred Jenna Leigh Green, Autumn Reeser, Ty Taylor, and Audra Mae. From November 2010 through January 2011, Thoms starred in Show at Barre's "For The Record: John Hughes", alongside Barrett Foa, Von Smith and Ty Taylor. In 2011 she appeared at Show at Barre in the revue "For the Record: Baz Luhrmann", from February 12, 2011, to June 30, 2011, with Jenna Leigh Green, Arielle Jacobs, Tinuke Oyefule and Kate Reinders.


title: Tracie Thoms

text: Thoms had a role in the 2014 version of "Annie", playing Annie's "fake mother", a character based on Lily St. Regis in the original musical.


title: Tracie Thoms

text: In 2016, Thoms was Emmy nominated in the Outstanding Actress In A Short Form Comedy Or Drama Series category for ""Send Me: An Original Web Series"" which was released on BET.com.


title: Community college

text: A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior secondary school or upper secondary school). The term usually refers to a higher educational institution that provides workforce education and college transfer academic programs. Some institutions maintain athletic teams and dormitories similar to their university counterparts.


title: Community college

text: In Australia, the term "community college" refers to small private businesses running short (e.g. 6 weeks) courses generally of a self-improvement or hobbyist nature. Equivalent to the American notion of community colleges are Tertiary and Further Education colleges or TAFEs; these are institutions regulated mostly at state and territory level. There are also an increasing number of private providers colloquially called "colleges".


title: Community college

text: TAFEs and other providers carry on the tradition of adult education, which was established in Australia around the mid-19th century, when evening classes were held to help adults enhance their numeracy and literacy skills. Most Australian universities can also be traced back to such forerunners, although obtaining a university charter has always changed their nature. In TAFEs and colleges today, courses are designed for personal development of an individual or for employment outcomes. Educational programs cover a variety of topics such as arts, languages, business and lifestyle. They usually are scheduled to run two, three or four days of the week, depending on the level of the course undertaken. A Certificate I may only run for 4 hours twice a week for a term of 9 weeks. A full-time Diploma course might have classes 4 days per week for a year (36 weeks). Some courses may be offered in the evenings or weekends to accommodate people working full-time. Funding for colleges may come from government grants and course fees. Many are not-for-profit organisations. Such TAFES are located in metropolitan, regional and rural locations of Australia.


title: Community college

text: Education offered by TAFEs and colleges has changed over the years. By the 1980s, many colleges had recognised a community need for computer training. Since then thousands of people have increased skills through IT courses. The majority of colleges by the late 20th century had also become Registered Training Organisations. They offer individuals a nurturing, non-traditional education venue to gain skills that better prepare them for the workplace and potential job openings. TAFEs and colleges have not traditionally offered bachelor's degrees, instead providing pathway arrangements with universities to continue towards degrees. The American innovation of the associate degree is being developed at some institutions. Certificate courses I to IV, diplomas and advanced diplomas are typically offered, the latter deemed equivalent to an undergraduate qualification, albeit typically in more vocational areas. Recently, some TAFE institutes (and private providers) have also become higher education providers in their own right and are now starting to offer bachelor's degree programs.


title: Community college

text: In Canada, colleges are adult educational institutions that provide higher education and tertiary education, and grant certificates and diplomas. Alternatively, Canadian colleges are often called “institutes” or “polytechnic institutes”. As well, in Ontario, the 24 colleges of applied arts and technology have been mandated to offer their own stand-alone degrees as well as to offer joint degrees with universities through "articulation agreements" that often result in students emerging with both a diploma and a degree. Thus, for example, the University of Guelph "twins" with Humber College and York University does the same with Seneca College. More recently, however, colleges have been offering a variety of their own degrees, often in business, technology, science, and other technical fields. Each province has its own educational system, as prescribed by the Canadian federalism model of governance. In the mid-1960s and early 1970s, most Canadian colleges began to provide practical education and training for the emerging and booming generation, and for immigrants from around the world who were entering Canada in increasing numbers at that time. A formative trend was the merging of the then separate vocational training and adult education (night school) institutions.


title: Community college

text: Canadian colleges are either publicly funded or private post-secondary institutions (run for profit).


title: Community college

text: In terms of academic pathways, Canadian colleges and universities collaborate with each other with the purpose of providing college students the opportunity to academically upgrade their education. Students can transfer their diplomas and earn transfer credits through their completed college credits towards undergraduate university degrees.


title: Community college

text: The term associate degree is used in western Canada to refer to a two-year college arts or science degree, similar to how the term is used in the United States. In other parts of Canada, the term advanced degree is used to indicate a three- or four-year college program.


title: Community college

text: In Quebec, three years is the norm for a university degree because a year of credit is earned in the CÉGEP (college) system. Even when speaking in English, people often refer to all colleges as Cégeps; however, the term is an acronym more correctly applied specifically to the French-language public system: Collège d'enseignement général et professionnel (CEGEP); in English: College of General and Vocational Education. The word "college" can also refer to a private high school in Quebec.


title: Community college

text: In India, 98 community colleges are recognized by the University Grants Commission. The courses offered by these colleges are diplomas, advance diplomas and certificate courses. The duration of these courses usually ranges from six months to two years.


title: Community college

text: Community colleges in Malaysia are a network of educational institutions whereby vocational and technical skills training could be provided at all levels for school leavers before they entered the workforce. The community colleges also provide an infrastructure for rural communities to gain skills training through short courses as well as providing access to a post-secondary education.


title: Community college

text: At the moment, most community colleges award qualifications up to Level 3 in the Malaysian Qualifications Framework (Certificate 3) in both the Skills sector (Sijil Kemahiran Malaysia or the Malaysian Skills Certificate) as well as the Vocational and Training sector but the number of community colleges that are starting to award Level 4 qualifications (Diploma) are increasing. This is two levels below a bachelor's degree (Level 6 in the MQF) and students within the system who intend to further their studies to that level will usually seek entry into Advanced Diploma programs in public universities, polytechnics or accredited private providers.


title: Community college

text: In the Philippines, a community school functions as elementary or secondary school at daytime and towards the end of the day convert into a community college. This type of institution offers night classes under the supervision of the same principal, and the same faculty members who are given part-time college teaching load.


title: Community college

text: The concept of community college dates back to the time of the former Minister of Education, Culture and Sports (MECS) that had under its wings the Bureaus of Elementary Education, Secondary Education, Higher Education and Vocational-Technical Education. MECS Secretary, Dr. Cecilio Putong, who in 1971 wrote that a community school is a school established in the community, by the community, and for the community itself. Dr. Pedro T. Orata of Pangasinan shared the same idea, hence the establishment of a community college, now called the City College of Urdaneta.


title: Community college

text: A community college like the one in Abuyog, Leyte can operate with only a PHP 124,000 annual budget in a two-story structure housing more than 700 students.


title: Community college

text: Except for Scotland, this term is rarely used in the United Kingdom. When it is, a community college is a school which not only provides education for the school-age population (11–18) of the locality, but also additional services and education to adults and other members of the community. This education includes but is not limited to sports, adult literacy and lifestyle education. Usually when students finish their secondary school studies at age 16, they move on to a sixth form college where they study for their A-levels (although some secondary schools have integrated sixth forms). After the two-year A-level period, they may proceed to a college of further education or a university. The former is also known as a technical college.


title: Community college

text: In the United States, community colleges, sometimes called junior colleges, technical colleges, two-year colleges, or city colleges, are primarily public institutions providing tertiary education, also known as continuing education, that focuses on certificates, diplomas, and associate degrees. After graduating from a community college, some students transfer to a liberal arts college or university for two to three years to complete a bachelor's degree.


title: Community college

text: Before the 1970s, community colleges in the United States were more commonly referred to as junior colleges. That term is still used at some institutions. Public community colleges primarily attract and accept students from the local community and are usually supported by local tax revenue. They usually work with local and regional businesses to ensure students are being prepared for the local workforce.


title: Community college

text: Some research organizations and publications focus upon the activities of community college, junior college, and technical college institutions. Many of these institutions and organizations present the most current research and practical outcomes at annual community college conferences.


title: Happy Mondays

text: Happy Mondays are an English rock band formed in Salford in 1980. The original line-up was Shaun Ryder (vocals), his brother Paul Ryder (bass), Gary Whelan (drums), Paul Davis (keyboard), and Mark Day (guitar). Mark "Bez" Berry later joined the band onstage as a dancer/percussionist. Rowetta joined as a second vocalist in 1990. They were initially signed to Tony Wilson's Factory Records label.


title: Happy Mondays

text: The group's work bridged the Manchester independent rock music of the 1980s and the emerging UK rave scene, drawing influence from funk, house, and psychedelia to pioneer the Madchester sound. They experienced their commercial peak with the releases "Bummed" (1988), "Madchester Rave On" (1989), and "Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches" (1990), with the last going platinum in the UK. They disbanded in 1993, and have reformed several times in subsequent decades.


title: Happy Mondays

text: The band were signed to Factory Records after passing a demo tape to Phil Saxe, a trader at Manchester Arndale who was on friendly terms with Mike Pickering, a DJ at the Haçienda nightclub. Saxe became the band's manager.


title: Happy Mondays

text: Their first release was the "Forty Five EP", often called the "Delightful EP" after its first track. It was released on Factory Records in September 1985. Their first album, "Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)", was released in 1987 and was produced by John Cale. This was followed by two further albums: "Bummed", in 1988, produced by Martin Hannett, and "Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches", in 1990, produced by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne. The latter, recorded at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, went platinum in the UK, selling more than 350,000 copies. Singles "Step On" and "Kinky Afro" from this album both reached number 5 in the UK singles chart.


title: Happy Mondays

text: By the late 1980s, the Happy Mondays were an important part of the Manchester music scene and personified rave culture. Numerous world tours meant the band had international success as well as massive success in their home country. The line-up of the band during this first and most important ten-year phase never changed, and the six original members Shaun Ryder, Paul Ryder, Gary Whelan, Paul Davis, Mark Day, and Mark "Bez" Berry remained a tight unit until the first incarnation came to an end in 1994. The band headlined the Friday night at Glastonbury Festival 1990. In November of that year, Paul McCartney commented in "NME": "I saw the Happy Mondays on TV, and they reminded me of the Beatles in their 'Strawberry Fields' phase."


title: Happy Mondays

text: Musically, the band fused indie pop guitars with a rhythmic style that owed much to house music, Krautrock, funk, and northern soul. Much of their music was remixed by popular DJs, emphasising the dance influences even further. In style and dress, they crossed hippy fashion and ideals with 1970s glamour. Sartorially and musically, the band helped to encourage the psychedelic revival associated with acid house. One of their most popular songs is "Lazyitis (One Armed Boxer)", featuring a surreal duet between Ryder and Karl Denver. In February 1991, Happy Mondays played in Rock in Rio 2 at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and famously went to meet Ronnie Biggs in Brazil with Piers Morgan, who at the time was a writer for "The Sun" newspaper. The Mondays also influenced many bands around the Northwest and beyond, including the Stone Roses, Oasis, and the Charlatans. A multi-city US tour followed, with the group returning home early in May 1991. In 1991, they played to 30,000 people at Elland Road, Leeds, said to be the Happy Mondays' own Spike Island. By July that year, they revealed details of a fourteen track 'official bootleg' live album, "Baby Big Head", recorded at the Elland Road concert. The official record label release, "Live" followed later in the year.


title: Happy Mondays

text: "Yes Please!" followed in 1992, produced by Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, recorded at Eddy Grant's studio in Barbados. The album was a commercial failure that bankrupted Factory Records.


title: Happy Mondays

text: Happy Mondays disbanded in 1993, and Shaun Ryder and Bez formed Black Grape with ex-Paris Angels guitarist "Wags" (who would later go on to serve in the 1999–2000 reincarnation of the Mondays) and ex-Ruthless Rap Assassins star Kermit. Seven years passed, and in 1999 Happy Mondays re-formed, with founding members Shaun Ryder, Paul Ryder, Gary Whelan and Bez but without Paul Davis and Mark Day. In the place of Day and Davis were Wags and a number of other session musicians including Ben Leach who had once been a member of The Farm, percussionist Lea Mullen, and rapper "Nuts". Also joining the new line-up was soul diva Rowetta Satchell (who sang back-up on Pills, Thrills, and Bellyaches, as well as Yes Please!, and who would go on to have solo success). The band toured extensively in the UK and internationally, selling out the 20,000 capacity Manchester Arena and two nights at Brixton Academy, and released a new single, a cover version of the Thin Lizzy hit "The Boys Are Back in Town". The single reached number 24 in the UK Singles Chart. They provided support for Oasis on their "Standing on the Shoulder of Giants" arena tour, played at the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan, numerous European festivals including T in the Park and also toured Australia the same year. Although critically acclaimed and playing to sell-out crowds, the band once more ceased their activity in 2001 following the departure of bass player and founding member Paul Ryder.


title: Happy Mondays

text: A fictionalised depiction of the band is featured in the 2002 film "24 Hour Party People", with Danny Cunningham as Shaun Ryder and Paul Popplewell as Paul Ryder. Paul Ryder himself had a cameo role in the film as a gangster and Rowetta appeared in the film as herself.


title: Happy Mondays

text: 2004 saw another re-formation, comprising original members Bez, Whelan and Shaun Ryder along with another group of musicians. Shaun Ryder recruited Kav Sandhu to join on guitar & bring in a new group of musicians. Kav brought on-board bassist Mikey Shine, keyboard player Dave Parkinson & guitarist Jonn Dunn. Dave Parkinson was later replaced by Dan Broad. Backing singers on the first tour were Angie Brown and Ron Carroll. from 2004 to 2006 the band were managed by Danny Newman, MD at London Club Turnmills brother of London Club DJ Tall Paul. Rowetta's backing vocal role was now being performed by Julie E. Gordon who toured with the band until 2010. Paul Ryder was not present, having sworn to never perform with his brother again following the 2000 break-up, and formed his own band Big Arm. That year, the Mondays released a live DVD of a show in Barcelona. The Mondays played a variety of festival dates in 2005 (including Global Gathering), capping it off with a concert at the Manchester Arena.


title: Happy Mondays

text: In June 2006, Happy Mondays performed in Liverpool, and on 30 July 2006 they were special guests at the Fuji Rock Festival. In August 2006, the band announced that they had completed their first album in fourteen years, with producers Sunny Levine and Howie B, and had signed to Sanctuary Records. A single "Playground Superstar", from the soundtrack for the football film "Goal!", was released a few months prior to completion of the new album, "Uncle Dysfunktional" released in mid 2007. on Noel Gallaghers label Big Brother Records.


title: Happy Mondays

text: Happy Mondays performed before another re-formed act, Rage Against the Machine, at the 2007 Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California. They were introduced by Tony Wilson. Bez missed the show because he could not get into the US due to "passport issues". The band then toured throughout the summer of 2007 including a trip to the Numusic Festival in Norway. They played Splendour in the Grass in Australia in July 2009, and the UK V Festival in August 2009.


title: Happy Mondays

text: Happy Mondays toured the US and Canada with The Psychedelic Furs in late 2009 with Paul Ryder's son and Shaun Ryder's nephew Jake Ryder filling in for Gaz Whelan on drums.


title: Happy Mondays

text: This version of the band continued until 2010. Members Mikey Shine, Jonn Dunn & Dan Broad continued to back Shaun Ryder for his solo tour until 2011, surrounding the release of his autobiography.


title: Happy Mondays

text: On 29 January 2012, Shaun Ryder announced on radio station Xfm that the band would return with the original and definitive lineup of himself, his brother Paul Ryder on bass, Gary Whelan on drums, Rowetta as female vocalist, Mark Day on guitar, Paul Davis on keyboards and dancer Mark Berry. They appeared on ITV's "This Morning", and were interviewed by Philip Schofield. Shaun Ryder pronounced that amends had been made, friendships reinstated and that it was just like the old days, but without the madness. They did a 13-date UK tour in May 2012, most of which were sold out, and an extra date was added at London's Brixton Academy due to the demand for tickets. The tour included other shows at the Manchester Arena, plus other dates in Bournemouth, Glasgow, Dublin, Leeds, Sheffield and Nottingham. To coincide with the band's reformation tour a best of album, "Double Double Good" was released in July 2012, as well as a live recording of the band's May 2012 gig in Brixton. The band went on to play gigs in Chile and Argentina in May 2012 and then a number of European festivals in the summer of 2012, including Ireland's Sea Sessions, Scotland's T in the Park, the band were headliners at Camp Bestival in Dorset in July 2012 and they performed at the V Festivals in August 2012. They then travelled to Majorca and Ibiza to play the Ibiza and Majorca Rocks events.


title: Happy Mondays

text: The band announced in September 2012 that they were writing their first album with the original lineup in more than 20 years.


title: Happy Mondays

text: The band played two nights at the Roundhouse, London and in Manchester in December 2012. They travelled to Dubai in April 2013 to perform and in May 2013 played gigs at Bristol's Vegfest and one in Brighton. June 2013 brought gigs at the Isle of Wight Festival and Scarborough, then in July 2013 they played at the Warrington Music Festival and at Sandown Park Racecourse in Esher, Surrey. They played dates in Belfast, Crewe and Dublin in August 2013. In October 2013 they travelled to Spain to do gigs in Barcelona and Madrid then in November 2013 they kicked off a 16 date UK tour to celebrate 25 years since their second critically acclaimed album "Bummed" was released, and the band plan to play most of the songs from that infamous album.


title: Happy Mondays

text: The band signed to Creation Management in 2015. They have announced an international tour to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the "Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches".


title: Happy Mondays

text: In September 2015, a special programme on Watch called "Singing in the Rainforest" followed the band as they travelled to Panama to record a new song with an isolated tribe called the Embera. The band composed a track with members of the tribe for a performance, penning the track "Ooo La La to Panama". Although billed as the first original line-up recording since 1992, Paul Davis was not present, and no mention of him was made. Gaz Whelan confirmed via the Happy Mondays Twitter account (in answer to a question from a Twitter user named ormi_shinobi) that Davis had left the band.


title: Happy Mondays

text: The band toured New Zealand and Australia in February and March 2019, performing their 1990 album "Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches".


title: Happy Mondays

text: On 15 July 2022, the band announced via their Facebook page that Paul Ryder had died in the early hours of that morning. He was 58 years old.


title: Lainey Wilson

text: Lainey Wilson (born May 19, 1992) is an American country music singer–songwriter. Wilson performed from an early age, before going to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a career as a country performer. In 2014, she released her first album, followed by a second on the Lone Chief label in 2016. Wilson secured a publishing deal and later released an extended play (EP) in 2019, which included the song "Things a Man Oughta Know". In 2020, it was issued as a single through the BBR Music Group and eventually reached number one on the American country songs chart.


title: Lainey Wilson

text: Wilson was raised in Baskin, Louisiana, a village of only 250 people. Her father Brian was a farmer while her mother Michelle was a schoolteacher. She became interested in music at a young age. Her family often listened to classic country music by Buck Owens and Glen Campbell. "Country music for me and my family, it was more than music. We lived the words to those songs," she told "The Advocate". At age nine, she attended a performance of the Grand Ole Opry and was drawn to the music. "I just remember looking up there, being like, ‘Man, I wanna do that'," she recalled. Wilson's father taught her a couple of chords and she was soon writing songs by her preteen years. In 2006, she released an extended play (EP) on Myspace titled "Country Girls Rule". In high school, Wilson took a job impersonating Hannah Montana. Often booking her own shows, she performed as Hannah Montana at birthday parties, fairs, and festivals across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas, even once performing for child cancer patients at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.


title: Lainey Wilson

text: Wilson finished high school and moved to Nashville, Tennessee in August 2011. She first lived in a camper trailer outside of a recording studio in Nashville. The studio owner paid for Wilson's water and electricity to help make ends meet. In 2021, Wilson explained that her early years in Nashville were difficult: "It taught me that this thing was not going to be easy. It taught me perseverance." For several years, Wilson played a variety of small shows and worked on her songwriting. In 2014, Wilson released a self-titled album on the Cupit label. It was followed in 2016 by her second album "Tougher". The disc was released on the Lone Chief label. The project garnered an audience and charted the "Billboard" Top Country Albums list in 2016. In 2018, she issued her second EP, a self-titled collection that was self-released. This led to Wilson signing a publishing deal with SONY/ATV in 2018. The same year, she also signed a management deal.


title: Lainey Wilson

text: In 2018, Wilson signed a major-label recording contract with the BBR Music Group. Her first major-label release was her third EP "Redneck Hollywood" (2019). Her debut major label single was also released in 2019 called "Dirty Looks". "Off the Record UK" praised the EP, highlighting Wilson's songwriting and the production from producer Jay Joyce. The publication concluded by saying, "The EP is raw and real, pushing the country music genre wider than ever and bringing it back to the traditional while still reinventing it to its modern surroundings." Wilson then received attention from Country Music Television, who included her in their "Listen Up" Class of 2019 and on their "2019 CMT Next Women of Country" tour. She also toured with Morgan Wallen in 2019. During this same period, several of her songs were featured in the Paramount Network show "Yellowstone".


title: Lainey Wilson

text: In August 2020, the BBR label issued Wilson's next single to radio titled "Things a Man Oughta Know". The track gained heavy media attention from sites like Apple Music, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Pandora. By 2021, "Things a Man Oughta Know" became her breakout single, reaching number three on the "Billboard" Country Airplay chart and number one on the Country Songs chart. It was included on her third studio album "Sayin' What I'm Thinkin'" (2021). The disc was her first full-length album collection issued on the BBR label and contained 12 tracks. It was her second to reach the "Billboard" country albums list, peaking at number 40. The disc received positive reviews. "Beyond writing and recording songs that satisfy country music fans, she succeeds at introducing her whole self through the music," concluded "Taste of Country"'s Billy Dukes. "Entertainment Focus" commented, "The rising star knocks it out of the park with her new album."


title: Lainey Wilson

text: Wilson appeared as a supporting act on Jason Aldean's "Back in the Saddle Tour" in 2021. In 2021, Wilson collaborated with Cole Swindell on his single "Never Say Never". The duet was released as the second single from Swindell's fourth studio album "Stereotype", and became Wilson's second single to top the "Billboard" country chart. It was followed by her 2022 solo single titled "Heart Like a Truck", then the album "Bell Bottom Country." Wilson received a leading six nominations at the 56th Annual Country Music Association Awards, becoming the fourth artist to receive six or more nominations as a first-time nominee. Wilson also joined the cast of "Yellowstone" in 2022.


title: Lainey Wilson

text: Wilson's musical style is rooted in country music, but also incorporates elements of pop, southern rock, contemporary country and classic country. In describing her style, AllMusic's Mark Deming commented, "Wilson's voice is clear and strong, with an unapologetic Southern accent, and her songs are tough but heartfelt contemporary country with an edge that has its roots in vintage Southern rock and classic rock, as well as a dash of modern-day pop." In describing her own musical style, Wilson characterized it as "bell-bottom country", which "Taste of Country" called "a cross between easy listening and hard truths." Wilson has been heavily influenced by Dolly Parton, paying tribute to her in the self-composed track "WWDD" (What Would Dolly Do). She also credits Lee Ann Womack as an influence on her career and music.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Kaziranga National Park is a national park in the Golaghat and Nagaon districts of the state of Assam, India. The park, which hosts two-thirds of the world's great one-horned rhinoceroses, is a World Heritage Site. According to the census held in March 2018 which was jointly conducted by the Forest Department of the Government of Assam and some recognized wildlife NGOs, the rhino population in Kaziranga National Park is 2,613. It comprises 1,641 adult rhinos (642 males, 793 females, 206 unsexed); 387 sub-adults (116 males, 149 females, 122 unsexed); and 385 calves.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: In 2015, the rhino population stood at 2401. Kaziranga National Park was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2006. The park is home to large breeding populations of elephants, wild water buffalo, and swamp deer. Kaziranga is recognized as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International for conservation of avifaunal species. When compared with other protected areas in India, Kaziranga has achieved notable success in wildlife conservation. Located on the edge of the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot, the park combines high species diversity and visibility.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Kaziranga is a vast expanse of tall elephant grass, marshland, and dense tropical moist broadleaf forests, criss-crossed by four major rivers, including the Brahmaputra, and the park includes numerous small bodies of water. Kaziranga has been the theme of several books, songs, and documentaries. The park celebrated its centennial in 2005 after its establishment in 1905 as a reserve forest.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: In 2017, Kaziranga came under severe criticism after a BBC News documentary revealed a hardliner strategy to conservation, reporting the killing of 20 people a year in the name of rhino conservation. As a consequence of this reporting, BBC News was banned from filming in protected areas in India for 5 years. While several news reports claimed that BBC had apologized for the documentary, the BBC stood by its report, with its Director General, Tony Hall, writing in a letter to Survival International that "the letter "in no way constitutes an apology for our journalism."" As a response to the report, researchers in India have provided more nuanced understanding of the matter, calling out BBC for the carelessness of its journalism, but also pointing to the problems of conservation in Kaziranga and questioning whether shoot-at-sight has been a useful conservation strategy at all.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: The history of Kaziranga as a protected area can be traced back to 1904, when Mary Curzon, Baroness Curzon of Kedleston, the wife of the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon of Kedleston, visited the area. After failing to see a single-horned rhinoceros, for which the area was renowned, she persuaded her husband to take urgent measures to protect the dwindling species which he did by initiating planning for their protection. On 1 June 1905, the Kaziranga Proposed Reserve Forest was created with an area of .


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Over the next three years, the park area was extended by , to the banks of the Brahmaputra River. In 1908, Kaziranga was designated a "Reserve Forest".


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: In 1916, it was redesignated the "Kaziranga Game Sanctuary" and remained so till 1938, when hunting was prohibited and visitors were permitted to enter the park.. In 1934 Kaziranga was changed to Kaziranha. A few people call it by its original name till today!


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: The Kaziranga Game Sanctuary was renamed the "Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary" in 1950 by P. D. Stracey, the forest conservationist, in order to rid the name of hunting connotations.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: In 1954, the government of Assam passed the Assam (Rhinoceros) Bill, which imposed heavy penalties for rhinoceros poaching. Fourteen years later, in 1968, the state government passed the Assam National Park Act of 1968, declaring Kaziranga a designated national park. The park was given official status by the central government on 11 February 1974. In 1985, Kaziranga was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO for its unique natural environment.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Kaziranga has been the target of several natural and man-made calamities in recent decades. Floods caused by the overflow of the river Brahmaputra, leading to significant losses of animal life. Encroachment by people along the periphery has also led to a diminished forest cover and a loss of habitat. An ongoing separatist movement in Assam led by the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) has crippled the economy of the region, but Kaziranga has remained unaffected by the movement; indeed, instances of rebels from the United Liberation Front of Assam protecting the animals and, in extreme cases, killing poachers, have been reported since the 1980s.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Although the etymology of the name Kaziranga is not certain, there exist a number of possible explanations derived from local legends and records. According to one legend, a girl named Rawnga, from a nearby village, and a youth named Kazi, from Karbi Anglong, fell in love. This match was not acceptable to their families, and the couple disappeared into the forest, never to be seen again, and the forest was named after them. According to another legend, Srimanta Sankardeva, the sixteenth-century Vaisnava saint-scholar, once blessed a childless couple, Kazi and Rangai, and asked them to dig a big pond in the region so that their name would live on.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Testimony to the long history of the name can be found in some records, which state that once, while the Ahom king Pratap Singha was passing by the region during the seventeenth century, he was particularly impressed by the taste of fish, and on asking was told it came from Kaziranga. Kaziranga also could mean the "Land of red goats (Deer)", as the word "Kazi" in the Karbi language means "goat", and "Rangai" means "red".


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Some historians believe, however, that the name Kaziranga was derived from the Karbi word "Kajir-a-rong", which means "the village of Kajir" ("kajiror gaon"). Among the Karbis, Kajir is a common name for a girl child, and it was believed that a woman named Kajir once ruled over the area. Fragments of monoliths associated with Karbi rule found scattered in the area seem to bear testimony to this assertion.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Kaziranga is located between latitudes 26°30' N and 26°45' N, and longitudes 93°08' E to 93°36' E within three districts in the Indian state of Assam—the Kaliabor subdivision of Nagaon district, Bokajan subdivision of Karbi Anglong and the Bokakhat subdivision of Golaghat district.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: The park is approximately in length from east to west, and in breadth from north to south. Kaziranga covers an area of , with approximately lost to erosion in recent years. A total addition of along the present boundary of the park has been made and designated with separate national park status to provide extended habitat for increasing the population of wildlife or, as a corridor for safe movement of animals to Karbi Anglong Hills. Elevation ranges from to . The park area is circumscribed by the Brahmaputra River, which forms the northern and eastern boundaries, and the Mora Diphlu, which forms the southern boundary. Other notable rivers within the park are the Diphlu and Mora Dhansiri.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Kaziranga has flat expanses of fertile, alluvial soil, formed by erosion and silt deposition by the River Brahmaputra. The landscape consists of exposed sandbars, riverine flood-formed lakes known as, "beels", (which make up 5% of the surface area), and elevated regions known as, "chapories", which provide retreats and shelter for animals during floods. Many artificial "chapories" have been built with the help of the Indian Army to ensure the safety of the animals. Kaziranga is one of the largest tracts of protected land in the sub-Himalayan belt, and due to the presence of highly diverse and visible species, has been described as a ""biodiversity hotspot"". The park is located in the Indomalayan realm, and the dominant ecoregions of the region are Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests of the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome, and the frequently-flooded Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands of the tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome. Kaziranga is also surrounded by lush green tea plantations, most of them contributing heavily to Assam's economy.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: The park experiences three seasons: summer, monsoon, and winter. The winter season, between November and February, is mild and dry, with a mean high of and low of . During this season, "beels" and "nullahs" (water channels) dry up. The summer season between March and May is hot, with temperatures reaching a high of . During this season, animals usually are found near water bodies. The rainy monsoon season lasts from June to September, and is responsible for most of Kaziranga's annual rainfall of . During the peak months of July and August, three-fourths of the western region of the park is submerged, due to the rising water level of the Brahmaputra. It was found that 70% of the National Park was flooded as on 3 August 2016. The flooding causes most animals to migrate to elevated and forested regions outside the southern border of the park, such as the Mikir hills. 540 animals, including 13 rhinos and mostly hog deers perished in unprecedented floods of 2012. However, occasional dry spells create problems as well, such as food shortages and occasional forest fires.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Kaziranga contains significant breeding populations of 35 mammalian species, of which 15 are threatened as per the IUCN Red List. The park has the distinction of being home to the world's largest population of the Indian rhinoceros (2,401), wild water buffalo (1,666) and eastern swamp deer (468). Significant populations of large herbivores include indian elephants (1,940), gaur (1300) and sambar (58). Small herbivores include the chital, Indian muntjac, Indian boar and Indian hog deer. Kaziranga has the largest population of the Wild water buffalo anywhere accounting for about 57% of the world population. The One-Horned rhinoceros, Royal Bengal Tiger, Asian elephant, wild water buffalo and swamp deer are collectively known as 'Big Five' of Kaziranga.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Kaziranga is one of the few wild breeding areas outside Africa for multiple species of large cats, such as Bengal tigers and Indian leopard. Kaziranga was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2006 and has the highest density of tigers in the world (1 per 5 km), with a population of 118, according to the latest census. Other felids include the jungle cat, fishing cat and leopard cat. Small mammals include the rare hispid hare, Indian gray mongoose, small Indian mongooses, large Indian civet, small Indian civets, Bengal fox, golden jackal, sloth bear, Chinese pangolin, Indian pangolins, hog badger, Chinese ferret-badger, and particoloured flying squirrel. Nine of the 14 primate species found in India occur in the park. Prominent among them are the Assamese macaque, capped and golden langur, as well as the only ape found in India, the hoolock gibbon. Kaziranga's rivers are also home to the endangered Ganges dolphin.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Kaziranga has been identified by Birdlife International as an Important Bird Area. It is home to a variety of migratory birds, water birds, predators, scavengers, and game birds. Birds such as the lesser white-fronted goose, ferruginous duck, Baer's pochard duck and lesser adjutant, greater adjutant, black-necked stork, and Asian openbill stork migrate from Central Asia to the park during winter. Riverine birds include the Blyth's kingfisher, white-bellied heron, Dalmatian pelican, spot-billed pelican, Nordmann's greenshank, and black-bellied tern. Birds of prey include the rare eastern imperial, greater spotted, white-tailed, Pallas's fish eagle, grey-headed fish eagle, and the lesser kestrel.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Kaziranga was once home to seven species of vultures, but the vulture population reached near extinction, supposedly by feeding on animal carcasses containing the drug Diclofenac. Only the Indian vulture, slender-billed vulture, and white-rumped vulture have survived. Game birds include the swamp francolin, Bengal florican, and pale-capped pigeon.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Other families of birds inhabiting Kaziranga include the great pied hornbill and wreathed hornbill, Old World babblers such as Jerdon's and marsh babblers, weaver birds such as the common baya weaver, threatened Finn's weavers, thrushes such as Hodgson's bushchat and Old World warblers such as the bristled grassbird. Other threatened species include the black-breasted parrotbill and the rufous-vented grass babbler.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Two of the largest snakes in the world, the reticulated python and Indian rock python, as well as the longest venomous snake in the world, the king cobra, inhabit the park. Other snakes found here include the Indian cobra, monocled cobra, Russell's viper, and the common krait. Monitor lizard species found in the park include the Bengal monitor and the Asian water monitor. Other reptiles include fifteen species of turtle, such as the endemic Assam roofed turtle and one species of tortoise, the brown tortoise. 42 species of fish are found in the area, including the "Tetraodon".


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Four main types of vegetation exist in this park. These are alluvial inundated grasslands, alluvial savanna woodlands, tropical moist mixed deciduous forests, and tropical semi-evergreen forests. Based on Landsat data for 1986, percent coverage by vegetation is: tall grasses 41%, short grasses 11%, open jungle 29%, swamps 4%, rivers and water bodies 8%, and sand 6%.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: There is a difference in altitude between the eastern and western areas of the park, with the western side being at a lower altitude. The western reaches of the park are dominated by grasslands. Tall elephant grass is found on higher ground, while short grasses cover the lower grounds surrounding the beels or flood-created ponds. Annual flooding, grazing by herbivores, and controlled burning maintain and fertilize the grasslands and reeds. Common tall grasses are sugarcanes, spear grass, elephant grass, and the common reed. Numerous forbs are present along with the grasses. Amidst the grasses, providing cover and shade are scattered trees—dominant species including kumbhi, Indian gooseberry, the cotton tree (in savanna woodlands), and elephant apple (in inundated grasslands).


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Thick evergreen forests, near the Kanchanjhuri, Panbari, and Tamulipathar blocks, contain trees such as "Aphanamixis polystachya", "Talauma hodgsonii", "Dillenia indica", "Garcinia tinctoria", "Ficus rumphii", "Cinnamomum bejolghota", and species of "Syzygium". Tropical semi-evergreen forests are present near Baguri, Bimali, and Haldibari. Common trees and shrubs are "Albizia procera", "Duabanga grandiflora", "Lagerstroemia speciosa", "Crateva unilocularis", "Sterculia urens", "Grewia serrulata", "Mallotus philippensis", "Bridelia retusa", "Aphania rubra", "Leea indica", and "Leea umbraculifera".


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: There are many different aquatic floras in the lakes and ponds, and along the river shores. The invasive water hyacinth is very common, often choking the water bodies, but it is cleared during destructive floods. Another invasive species, "Mimosa invisa", which is toxic to herbivores, was cleared by Kaziranga staff with help from the Wildlife Trust of India in 2005.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: The Wildlife wing of the forest department of the Government of Assam, headquartered at Bokakhat, is responsible for the administration and management of Kaziranga. The administrative head of the park is the Director, who is a Chief Conservator of Forests-level officer. A divisional Forest Officer is the administrative chief executive of the park. He is assisted by two officers with the rank of Assistant Conservator of Forests. The park area is divided into five ranges, overseen by Range Forest Officers. The five ranges are the Burapahar (HQ: Ghorakati), Western (HQ: Baguri), Central (HQ: Kohora), Eastern (HQ: Agaratoli) and Northern (HQ: Biswanath). Each range is further sub-divided into beats, headed by a forester, and sub-beats, headed by a forest guard. The official website of the Park is http://kaziranga.assam.gov.in


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: The park receives financial aid from the State Government as well as the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change of Government of India under various Plan and Non-Plan Budgets. Additional funding is received under the Project Elephant from the Central Government. In 1997–1998, a grant of US$ 100,000 was received under the Technical Co-operation for Security Reinforcement scheme from the World Heritage Fund. Additional funding is also received from national and international Non-governmental organizations.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Kaziranga National Park has been granted maximum protection under the Indian law for wildlife conservation. Various laws, which range in dates from the "Assam Forest Regulation of 1891" and the "Biodiversity Conservation Act of 2002" have been enacted for protection of wildlife in the park. Poaching activities, particularly of the rhinoceroses for its horn, has been a major concern for the authorities. Between 1980 and 2005, 567 rhinoceroses were hunted by poachers. Following a decreasing trend for the past few years, 18 one-horned rhinoceroses were killed by poachers in 2007. Reports have suggested that there are links between these poaching activities and funding of terrorist organizations. But these could not be substantiated in later years.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Preventive measures such as construction of anti-poaching camps and maintenance of existing ones, patrolling, intelligence gathering, and control over the use of firearms around the park have reduced the number of casualties. Since 2013, the park used cameras on drones which are monitored by security guards to protect the rhino from armed poachers.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Perennial flooding and heavy rains have resulted in death of wild animals and damage to the conservation infrastructures. To escape the water-logged areas, many animals migrate to elevated regions outside the park boundaries where they are susceptible to hunting, hit by speeding vehicles, or subject to reprisals by villagers for damaging their crops. To mitigate the losses, the authorities have increased patrols, purchased additional speedboats for patrol, and created artificial highlands for shelter. Several corridors have been set up for the safe passage of animals across National Highway–37 which skirts around the southern boundary of the park. To prevent the spread of diseases and to maintain the genetic distinctness of the wild species, systematic steps such as immunization of livestock in surrounding villages and fencing of sensitive areas of the park, which are susceptible to encroachment by local cattle, are undertaken periodically.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Water pollution due to run-off from pesticides from tea gardens, and run-off from a petroleum refinery at Numaligarh, pose a hazard to the ecology of the region. Invasive species such as Mimosa and wild rose have posed a threat to the native plants in the region. To control the growth and irradiation of invasive species, research on biological methods for controlling weeds, manual uprooting and weeding before seed settling are carried out at regular intervals. Grassland management techniques, such as controlled burning, are effected annually to avoid forest fires.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Observing the wildlife, including birding, is the main visitor activity in and around the park. Guided tours by elephant or Jeep are available. Hiking is prohibited in the park to avoid potential human-animal conflicts. Observation towers are situated at Sohola, Mihimukh, Kathpara, Foliamari, and Harmoti for wildlife viewing. The Lower Himalayan peaks frame the park's landscape of trees and grass interspersed with numerous ponds. An interpretation centre is being set up at the Bagori range of Kaziranga, to help visitors learn more about the park. The park remains closed for visitors from 1 May to end-October due to monsoon rains. Four tourist lodges at Kohora and three tourist lodges outside the park are maintained by the Department of Environment and Forests, Government of Assam. Private resorts are available outside the park borders. Increase in tourist inflow has led to the economic empowerment of the people living at the fringes of the park, by means of tourism related activities, encouraging a recognition of the value of its protection. A survey of tourists notes that 80 percent found rhino sightings most enjoyable and that foreign tourists were more likely to support park protection and employment opportunities financially, while local tourists favored support for veterinary services. Recently set up Kaziranga National Orchid and Biodiversity Park established at Durgapur village is a latest attraction to the tourists. It houses more than 500 species of orchids, 132 varieties of sour fruits and leafy vegetables, 12 species of cane, 46 species of bamboo and a large varieties of local fishes.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Authorised guides of the forest department accompany all travelers inside the park. Mahout-guided elephant rides and Jeep or other 4WD vehicles rides are booked in advance. Starting from the Park Administrative Centre at Kohora, these rides can follow the three motorable trails under the jurisdiction of three ranges—Kohora, Bagori, and Agaratoli. These trails are open for light vehicles from November to end Apr. Visitors are allowed to take their own vehicles when accompanied by guides.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Buses owned by Assam State Transport Corporation and private agencies between Guwahati, Tezpur, and Upper Assam stop at the main gate of Kaziranga on NH 37 at Kohora. The nearest town is Bokakhat, Golaghat situated at 23 km and 65 km away. Major cities near the park are Guwahati, Dimapur and Jorhat . Furkating , which is under the supervision of Northeast Frontier Railway, is the nearest railway station. Jorhat Airport at Rowriah ( away), Tezpur Airport at Salonibari (approx away), Dimapur Airport and Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati (approximately away) are the nearby airports.. Transportation is also available from Guwahati to Kaziranga National Park and other places in Assam and Nagaland.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Kaziranga has been the theme of, or has been mentioned in, several books, songs, and documentaries. The park first gained international prominence after Robin Banerjee, a physician-turned-photographer and filmmaker, produced a documentary titled "Kaziranga", which was aired on television in Berlin in 1961 and became a runaway success. American science fiction and fantasy author, L. Sprague de Camp wrote about the park in his poem, ""Kaziranga, Assam"". It was first published in 1970 in "Demons and Dinosaurs", a poetry collection, and was reprinted as "Kaziranga" in "" in 2005.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: "Kaziranga Trail" (Children's Book Trust, 1979), a children's storybook by Arup Dutta about rhinoceros poaching in the national park, won the Shankar's Award. The Assamese singer Bhupen Hazarika refers to Kaziranga in one of his songs. The BBC conservationist and travel writer, Mark Shand, authored a book and the corresponding BBC documentary "Queen of the Elephants", based on the life of the first female mahout in recent times—Parbati Barua of Kaziranga. The book went on to win the 1996 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the , providing publicity simultaneously to the profession of mahouts as well as to Kaziranga.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: In 2017, Kaziranga came under severe criticism after a BBC News documentary revealed a hardliner strategy to conservation, reporting the killing of 20 people a year in the name of rhino conservation. As a consequence of this reporting, BBC News was banned from filming in protected areas in India for 5 years. While several news reports claimed that BBC had apologized for the documentary, the BBC stood by its report, with its Director General, Tony Hall, writing in a letter to Survival International that "the letter “in no way constitutes an apology for our journalism.”" As a response to the report, researchers in India have provided more nuanced understanding of the matter, calling out BBC for the carelessness of its journalism, but also pointing to the problems of conservation in Kaziranga and questioning whether shoot-at-sight has been a useful conservation strategy at all.


title: Kaziranga National Park

text: Kaziranga Tiger Reserve estimated its annual flow benefits to be 9.8 billion rupees (0.95 lakh / hectare). Important ecosystem services included habitat and refugia for wildlife (5.73 billion), gene-pool protection (3.49 billion), recreation value (21 million), biological


title: Panda Express

text: Panda Express is an American fast food restaurant chain that serves American Chinese cuisine. With over 2,200 locations, it is the largest Asian-segment restaurant chain in the United States, where it was founded, and is mainly located in North America and Asia (in addition to other countries and territories). Panda Express restaurants were traditionally located in shopping mall food courts, but the chain now operates units in many other environments and formats, including stand-alone restaurants, as well as universities, casinos, airports, military bases, amusement parks and other venues.


title: Panda Express

text: The chain offers a variety of Chinese-cuisine-inspired dishes, including orange chicken, sweet fire chicken breast, Beijing beef, grilled teriyaki chicken, and Kung Pao chicken, with certain premium dishes such as honey walnut shrimp and black pepper Angus steak having additional costs for the patron.


title: Panda Express

text: The company is headquartered in Rosemead, California. The Panda Express brand is a casual, fast-food variation of corporate sibling Panda Inn (a chain of upscale, table service restaurants).


title: Panda Express

text: The Panda Restaurant Group, parent company of Panda Inn, Panda Express, and Hibachi-San, was founded by Andrew Cherng, Peggy Cherng and Andrew's father, Master Chef Ming Tsai Cherng. Andrew Cherng and his father are Chinese born, while Peggy was born in Burma and raised in Hong Kong. Both Andrew and Peggy Cherng are alumni of Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas (where they first met).


title: Panda Express

text: Andrew went into business with his father in the United States in 1973, opening their first Panda Inn restaurant in Pasadena, California. At the beginning, business was lacking to the degree that Andrew had to offer special deals and freebies so that customers would dine at Panda Inn. In 1982, Peggy joined Andrew in the restaurant business. While operating Panda Inn, Andrew became acquainted with then-UCLA head football coach Terry Donahue, as well as Terry's brother Dan, who happened to be in the real estate business. It was because of this connection that in 1983, Donahue Schriber Real Estate, the manager of the Glendale Galleria, invited the Cherngs to develop a fast-food version of Panda Inn for the Galleria's food court, and Panda Express was launched that October. A second location was opened two years later at the Westside Pavilion in 1985. The chain has steadily expanded across the United States since then. Chef Andy Kao claims to have developed the original Chinese-American orange chicken recipe at a Panda Express in Hawaii in 1987.


title: Panda Express

text: At first, Panda Express restaurants were found solely in food courts in major shopping malls. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Cherngs began experimenting with supermarket-based branches, through a deal with Vons, and then stand-alone restaurant locations. In 1997, the company opened its first stand-alone, drive-through restaurant, in Hesperia, California. Today less than 2% of its restaurants are in malls.


title: Panda Express

text: Because Peggy had worked for several years as a software designer and engineer for defense contractors like McDonnell Douglas, Panda Express computerized its operations early on. Peggy also brought a systems analysis perspective to the business and worked through the logistics and standardization issues necessary to scale up the concept.


title: Panda Express

text: In 2005, Panda Express began to open units in food courts on college campus, some of which participate in the residential student meal plans. In 2008, the Cherngs were the recipients of the City of Angels Award, given by the LAX Coastal Area Chamber of Commerce, for their contributions to the greater Los Angeles area. As of 2007, the company's highest revenue location, bringing in over US$4 million annually, was located at the Ala Moana Center food court in Honolulu, Hawaii. On November 23, 2009, it was announced that Panda Express had selected Trusonic to provide Asian themed background music to its store locations.


title: Panda Express

text: On the ABC News TV program "Nightline", April 18, 2011, there was a feature segment on Panda Express and its success. The segment described how Andrew Cherng encourages his workers and management to go through self-help programs emphasizing Landmark Education.


title: Panda Express

text: In 2011, a suit was filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Panda Express because it was reportedly treating its Hispanic employees differently than Asian employees. In June 2013, it was announced that the restaurant chain will pay $150,000 to settle another EEOC action on behalf of at least three female teenagers who were allegedly sexually harassed between 2007 and 2009 by one male kitchen supervisor in Kauai, Hawaii. In addition to the fines, Panda Express revised its policies and was required to provide anti-discrimination and sexual harassment training for employees.


title: Panda Express

text: Later that year, Panda Express opened its first location in the western Pacific by opening a location in the American territory of Guam. The first location in the state of Alaska was later opened in December 2015.


title: Panda Express

text: As of 2017, the Panda Restaurant Group had annual sales of over $3 billion and close to 39,000 employees. The Cherngs also opened Panda Innovation Kitchen in Pasadena with their daughter, Andrea Cherng, overlooking a majority of the restaurant's business. The idea for Panda Innovation Kitchen is to experiment with new flavours and ingredients to come up with new menu items. In addition, they also opened a tea bar to introduce Taiwanese drinks such as boba milk tea and new drinks like the Fortune Cookie Shake.


title: Panda Express

text: In December 2017, Panda Express had opened the chain's 2,000th location, which is located in New York City near Columbia University.


title: Panda Express

text: In February of 2022, Panda Restaurant Group filed a U.S. trademark application for the name PANDAVERSE for “downloadable virtual goods, namely, food items and beverages for use in virtual worlds" and "virtual food and beverage products.” The filing marked an intention to expand the Panda Express brand into the Metaverse.


title: Panda Express

text: Panda Express also operates in Canada, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, El Salvador, Philippines, South Korea, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates. The first location in Mexico opened in Mexico City in September 2011.


title: Panda Express

text: In October 2013, the first Panda Express located in Canada opened its doors on Hunt Club Road in Nepean, Ontario but has since closed. The first location in Calgary was opened in October 2016.


title: Panda Express

text: On May 26, 2014, it was reported by Arabian Business news that Panda Express would be opening a restaurant in the United Arab Emirates. The first Panda Express restaurant in the Middle East was open in Dubai in November 2014.


title: Panda Express

text: The first location in South Korea was opened in Seoul in September 2014 as a joint venture with Seoul-based SF Innovation Co.


title: Panda Express

text: In September 2017, Panda Express opened its first location on the Dutch Caribbean country of Aruba at the Queen Beatrix International Airport.


title: Panda Express

text: Although no reliable source can be located when and where Panda Express had opened its first restaurant in Saudi Arabia, there is reliable information that the second Panda Express in Saudi Arabia was opened in the capital city of Riyadh in January 2018. Both Saudi Arabian restaurants are operated by Gourmet Gulf.


title: Panda Express

text: In July 2018, Panda Express entered El Salvador for the first time by opening 2 locations in the capital city of San Salvador


title: Panda Express

text: In September 2018, Panda Express announced its joint venture with Jollibee Foods Corporation to bring its stores in the Philippines. A year later, in December 2019, the first Panda Express restaurant in the Philippines opened at SM Megamall in Mandaluyong. This was followed by a branch in SM City North EDSA in Quezon City in 2021. As of August 2022, it now has eleven branches in the Philippines, all located in Metro Manila.


title: Panda Express

text: Panda Express previously had eight locations in Japan that were operated under a franchise agreement that later lapsed. In November 2016, the company returned to the country by opening a new location in Kawasaki. This new location is operated as part of a joint partnership with Ippudo. As of August 2022, there are nine locations in the nation.


title: Panda Express

text: In October 2020, the "South China Morning Post" reported that a fake Panda Express restaurant in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming had been reported for trademark infringement, and was closed during an investigation. The reportedly fake restaurant used the same Panda Express logo, and its menu reportedly included the same Kung Pao Chicken and Tangerine Peel Chicken as the company's restaurants.


title: Panda Express

text: In August 2022, Panda Express opened its first European location in Kaiserslautern Military Community Center food court, Ramstein Air Base, Germany.


title: Panda Express

text: In 1999, Panda Express launched Panda Cares to give back to the community. They provide funding, food and volunteer services to children in need and disaster relief efforts. The company installed donation boxes in all the Panda Express restaurants in 2010. The charity has raised $107 million, with $89 million coming from in-store donation boxes, and $41 million has been donated to "The Leader In Me", a program to teach leadership and life skills that has been rolled out to 865 elementary schools in 39 states. The organization has also donated $37 million to Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, to support medical costs for poor children, and also supports disaster relief efforts.


title: Early world maps

text: The earliest known world maps date to classical antiquity, the oldest examples of the 6th to 5th centuries BCE still based on the flat Earth paradigm.


title: Early world maps

text: The developments of Greek geography during this time, notably by Eratosthenes and Posidonius culminated in the Roman era, with Ptolemy's world map (2nd century CE), which would remain authoritative throughout the Middle Ages.


title: Early world maps

text: Since Ptolemy, knowledge of the approximate size of the Earth allowed cartographers to estimate the extent of their geographical knowledge, and to indicate parts of the planet known to exist but not yet explored as "terra incognita".


title: Early world maps

text: With the Age of Discovery, during the 15th to 18th centuries, world maps became increasingly accurate; exploration of Antarctica, Australia, and the interior of Africa by western mapmakers was left to the 19th and early 20th century.


title: Early world maps

text: The Saint-Bélec slab discovered in 1900 by Paul du Châtellier, in Finistère, France, is dated to between 1900 BCE and 1640 BCE. A recent analysis, published in the Bulletin of the French Prehistoric Society, has shown that the slab is a three-dimensional representation of the River Odet valley in Finistère, France. This would make the Saint-Bélec slab the oldest known map of a territory in the world. According to the authors, the map probably wasn’t used for navigation, but rather to show the political power and territorial extent of a local ruler’s domain of the early Bronze age.


title: Early world maps

text: The map as reconstructed by Eckhard Unger shows Babylon on the Euphrates, surrounded by a circular landmass including Assyria, Urartu (Armenia) and several cities, in turn surrounded by a "bitter river" (Oceanus), with eight outlying regions ("nagu") arranged around it in the shape of triangles, so as to form a star. The accompanying text mentions a distance of seven "beru" between the outlying regions.


title: Early world maps

text: Anaximander (died c. 546 BCE) is credited with having created one of the first maps of the world, which was circular in form and showed the known lands of the world grouped around the Aegean Sea at the center. This was all surrounded by the ocean.


title: Early world maps

text: Hecataeus of Miletus (died BCE) is credited with a work entitled "Periodos Ges" ("Travels round the Earth" or "World Survey'), in two books each organized in the manner of a periplus, a point-to-point coastal survey. One on Europe, is essentially a periplus of the Mediterranean, describing each region in turn, reaching as far north as Scythia. The other book, on Asia, is arranged similarly to the "Periplus of the Erythraean Sea" of which a version of the 1st century CE survives. Hecataeus described the countries and inhabitants of the known world, the account of Egypt being particularly comprehensive; the descriptive matter was accompanied by a map, based upon Anaximander's map of the Earth, which he corrected and enlarged. The work only survives in some 374 fragments, by far the majority being quoted in the geographical lexicon the "Ethnica", compiled by Stephanus of Byzantium.


title: Early world maps

text: Eratosthenes (276–194 BCE) drew an improved world map, incorporating information from the campaigns of Alexander the Great and his successors. Asia became wider, reflecting the new understanding of the actual size of the continent. Eratosthenes was also the first geographer to incorporate parallels and meridians within his cartographic depictions, attesting to his understanding of the spherical nature of the Earth.


title: Early world maps

text: Posidonius (or Poseidonius) of Apameia (c. 135–51 BCE), was a Greek Stoic philosopher who traveled throughout the Roman world and beyond and was a celebrated polymath throughout the Greco-Roman world, like Aristotle and Eratosthenes. His work "about the ocean and the adjacent areas" was a general geographical discussion, showing how all the forces had an effect on each other and applied also to human life. He measured the Earth's circumference by reference to the position of the star Canopus. His measure of 240,000 stadia translates to , close to the actual circumference of .


title: Early world maps

text: He was informed in his approach by Eratosthenes, who a century earlier used the elevation of the Sun at different latitudes. Both men's figures for the Earth's circumference were uncannily accurate, aided in each case by mutually compensating errors in measurement. However, the version of Posidonius' calculation popularised by Strabo was revised by correcting the distance between Rhodes and Alexandria to 3,750 stadia, resulting in a circumference of 180,000 stadia, or . Ptolemy discussed and favored this revised figure of Posidonius over Eratosthenes in his "Geographia", and during the Middle Ages scholars divided into two camps regarding the circumference of the Earth, one side identifying with Eratosthenes' calculation and the other with Posidonius' 180,000 stadion measure.


title: Early world maps

text: Strabo is mostly famous for his 17-volume work "Geographica", which presented a descriptive history of people and places from different regions of the world known to his era. The "Geographica" first appeared in Western Europe in Rome as a Latin translation issued around 1469. Although Strabo referenced the antique Greek astronomers Eratosthenes and Hipparchus and acknowledged their astronomical and mathematical efforts towards geography, he claimed that a descriptive approach was more practical. "Geographica" provides a valuable source of information on the ancient world, especially when this information is corroborated by other sources. Within the books of "Geographica" is a map of Europe. Whole world maps according to Strabo are reconstructions from his written text.


title: Early world maps

text: Pomponius is unique among ancient geographers in that, after dividing the Earth into five zones, of which two only were habitable, he asserts the existence of antichthones, people inhabiting the southern temperate zone inaccessible to the folk of the northern temperate regions due to the unbearable heat of the intervening torrid belt. On the divisions and boundaries of Europe, Asia and Africa, he repeats Eratosthenes; like all classical geographers from Alexander the Great (except Ptolemy) he regards the Caspian Sea as an inlet of the Northern Ocean, corresponding to the Persian (Persian Gulf) and Arabian (Red Sea) gulfs on the south.


title: Early world maps

text: Marinus of Tyre's world maps were the first in the Roman Empire to show China. Around 120 CE, Marinus wrote that the habitable world was bounded on the west by the Fortunate Islands. The text of his geographical treatise however is lost. He also invented the equirectangular projection, which is still used in map creation today. A few of Marinus' opinions are reported by Ptolemy. Marinus was of the opinion that the "Okeanos" was separated into an eastern and a western part by the continents (Europe, Asia and Africa). He thought that the inhabited world stretched in latitude from Thule (Shetland) to Agisymba (Tropic of Capricorn) and in longitude from the Isles of the Blessed to Shera (China). Marinus also coined the term Antarctic, referring to the opposite of the Arctic Circle. His chief legacy is that he first assigned to each place a proper latitude and longitude; he used a "Meridian of the Isles of the Blessed (Canary Islands or Cape Verde Islands)" as the zero meridian.


title: Early world maps

text: Surviving texts of Ptolemy's "Geography", first composed , note that he continued the use of Marinus's equirectangular projection for its regional maps while finding it inappropriate for maps of the entire known world. Instead, in Book VII of his work, he outlines three separate projections of increasing difficulty and fidelity. Ptolemy followed Marinus in underestimating the circumference of the world; combined with accurate absolute distances, this led him to also overestimate the length of the Mediterranean Sea in terms of degrees. His prime meridian at the Fortunate Isles was therefore around 10 actual degrees further west of Alexandria than intended, a mistake that was corrected by Al-Khwārizmī following the translation of Syriac editions of Ptolemy into Arabic in the 9th century. The oldest surviving manuscripts of the work date to Maximus Planudes's restoration of the text a little before 1300 at Chora Monastery in Constantinople (Istanbul); surviving manuscripts from this era seem to preserve separate recensions of the text which diverged as early as the 2nd or 4th century. A passage in some of the recensions credits an Agathodaemon with drafting a world map, but no maps seem to have survived to be used by Planude's monks. Instead, he commissioned new world maps calculated from Ptolemy's thousands of coordinates and drafted according to the text's 1st and 2nd projections, along with the equirectangular regional maps. A copy was translated into Latin by Jacobus Angelus at Florence around 1406 and soon supplemented with maps on the 1st projection. Maps using the 2nd projection were not made in Western Europe until Nicolaus Germanus's 1466 edition. Ptolemy's 3rd (and hardest) projection does not seem to have been used at all before new discoveries expanded the known world beyond the point where it provided a useful format.


title: Early world maps

text: Cicero's "Dream of Scipio" described the Earth as a globe of insignificant size in comparison to the remainder of the cosmos. Many medieval manuscripts of Macrobius' "Commentary on the Dream of Scipio" include maps of the Earth, including the antipodes, zonal maps showing the Ptolemaic climates derived from the concept of a spherical Earth and a diagram showing the Earth (labeled as "globus terrae", the sphere of the Earth) at the center of the hierarchically ordered planetary spheres.


title: Early world maps

text: The "Tabula Peutingeriana" ("Peutinger table") is an itinerarium showing the "cursus publicus", the road network in the Roman Empire. It is a 13th-century copy of an original map dating from the 4th century, covering Europe, parts of Asia (India) and North Africa. The map is named after Konrad Peutinger, a German 15th–16th century humanist and antiquarian. The map was discovered in a library in Worms by Conrad Celtes, who was unable to publish his find before his death, and bequeathed the map in 1508 to Peutinger. It is conserved at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Hofburg, Vienna.


title: Early world maps

text: Around 550 Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote the copiously illustrated "Christian Topography", a work partly based on his personal experiences as a merchant on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean in the early 6th century. Though his cosmogony is refuted by modern science, he has given a historic description of India and Sri Lanka during the 6th century, which is invaluable to historians. Cosmas seems to have personally visited the Kingdom of Axum in modern Ethiopia and Eritrea, as well as India and Sri Lanka. In 522 CE, he visited the Malabar Coast (South India). A major feature of his "Topography" is Cosmas' worldview that the world is flat, and that the heavens form the shape of a box with a curved lid, a view he took from unconventional interpretations of Christian scripture. Cosmas aimed to prove that pre-Christian geographers had been wrong in asserting that the earth was spherical and that it was in fact modelled on the Tabernacle, the house of worship described to Moses by God during the Jewish Exodus from Egypt.


title: Early world maps

text: The medieval T and O maps originate with the description of the world in the "Etymologiae" of Isidore of Seville (died 636). This qualitative and conceptual type of medieval cartography represents only the top-half of a spherical Earth. It was presumably tacitly considered a convenient projection of the inhabited portion of the world known in Roman and Medieval times (that is, the northern temperate half of the globe). The "T" is the Mediterranean, dividing the three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa, and the "O" is the surrounding Ocean. Jerusalem was generally represented in the center of the map. Asia was typically the size of the other two continents combined. Because the sun rose in the east, Paradise (the Garden of Eden) was generally depicted as being in Asia, and Asia was situated at the top portion of the map.


title: Early world maps

text: The Albi Mappa Mundi is a medieval map of the world, included in a manuscript of the second half of the 8th century, preserved in the old collection of the library Pierre-Amalric in Albi, France. This manuscript comes from the chapter library of the Sainte-Cécile Albi Cathedral. The Albi Mappa Mundi was inscribed in October 2015 in the Memory of the World Programme of UNESCO.


title: Early world maps

text: The manuscript bearing the card contains 77 pages. It is named in the eighteenth century ""Miscellanea"" (Latin word meaning "collection"). This collection contains 22 different documents, which had educational functions. The manuscript, a Parchment probably made from a goat or sheep skin, is in a very good state of preservation.


title: Early world maps

text: The map itself is 27 cm high by 22.5 wide. It represents 23 countries on 3 continents and mentions several cities, islands, rivers and seas. The known world is represented in the form of a horseshoe, opening at the level of the Strait of Gibraltar, and surrounding the Mediterranean, with the Middle East at the top, Europe on the left and North Africa on the right.


title: Early world maps

text: Ibn Hawqal was an Arab scientist of the 10th century who developed a world map, based on his own travel experience and probably the works of Ptolemy. Another such cartographer was Istakhri.


title: Early world maps

text: This map appears in a copy of a classical work on geography, the Latin version by Priscian of the "Periegesis", that was among the manuscripts in the Cotton library (MS. Tiberius B.V., fol. 56v), now in the British Library. It is not intended purely as an illustration to that work, for it contains much material gathered from other sources, including some which would have been the most up-to-date available, although it is based on a distant Roman original (similar to the source of another 11th-century world map, illustrating an edition of Isidore of Seville) – on which the network of lines appears to indicate the boundaries of imperial provinces. The date of drawing was formerly estimated at CE, based on suggested links to the journey of Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury from Rome but more recent analysis indicates that, although the information was revised about that time, the map was probably drawn between 1025 and 1050.


title: Early world maps

text: Like the later map by al-Idrisi (see below) this map is clearly outside the largely symbolic early medieval mapping tradition, but equally it is not based on the famous Ptolemaic co-ordinate system. East is at the top, but Jerusalem is not in the centre, and the Garden of Eden is nowhere to be seen. Unusually, all the waterways of Africa, not just the Red Sea, are depicted in red (mountains are green). The depiction of the far East is ambitious, including India and Taprobane (Sri Lanka) – the latter depicted according to the exaggerated classical conception of its size. Unsurprisingly, Britain itself is depicted in some detail. Great Britain, unusually by medieval standards, is shown as one island, albeit with an exaggerated Cornish promontory, and Mona, Ireland and the many Scottish islands are all indicated. The cartographer is slightly confused by Iceland, depicting it both by a version of its classical name 'Thule', north-west of Britain, and as 'Island', logically linked with Scandinavia.


title: Early world maps

text: An open-access high-resolution digital image of the map with place and name annotations is included among the thirteen medieval maps of the world edited in the Virtual Mappa project.


title: Early world maps

text: Beatus of Liébana (c. 730–798) was an Asturian monk and theologian. He corresponded with Alcuin, and took part in the Adoptionist controversy, criticizing the views of Felix of Urgel and Elipandus of Toledo. He is best remembered today as the author of his "Commentary on the Apocalypse", published in 776. An illustrated manuscript known as the Saint-Sever Beatus, featuring the "Commentary", was produced around 1050 at the Abbey of Saint-Sever, Aquitaine, France. It contains one of the oldest Christian world maps as an illustration of the "Commentary". Although the original manuscript and map has not survived, copies of the map survive in several of the extant manuscripts.


title: Early world maps

text: Qarakhanid Uyghur scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari compiled a "Compendium of the languages of the Turks" in the 11th century. The manuscript is illustrated with a 'Turkocentric' world map, oriented with east (or rather, perhaps, the direction of midsummer sunrise) on top, centered on the ancient city of Balasagun in what is now Kyrgyzstan, showing the Caspian Sea to the north, and Iraq, Armenia, Yemen and Egypt to the west, China and Japan to the east, Hindustan, Kashmir, Gog and Magog to the south. Conventional symbols are used throughout – blue lines for rivers, red lines for mountain ranges etc. The world is shown as encircled by the ocean. The map is now kept at the Pera Museum in Istanbul.


title: Early world maps

text: The Moroccan geographer, Muhammad al-Idrisi, incorporated the knowledge of Africa, the Indian Ocean and the Far East gathered by Arab merchants and explorers with the information inherited from the classical geographers to create the most accurate map of the world at the time. It remained the most accurate world map for the next three centuries.


title: Early world maps

text: The "Tabula Rogeriana" was drawn by Al-Idrisi in 1154 for the Norman King Roger II of Sicily, after a stay of eighteen years at his court, where he worked on the commentaries and illustrations of the map. The map, written in Arabic, shows the Eurasian continent in its entirety, but only shows the northern part of the African continent.


title: Early world maps

text: The Ebstorf Map was an example of a European mappa mundi, made by Gervase of Ebstorf, who was possibly the same man as Gervase of Tilbury, some time in the thirteenth century. It was a very large map: painted on 30 goatskins sewn together, it measured about . The head of Christ was depicted at the top of the map, with his hands on either side and his feet at the bottom. The Map was a greatly elaborated version of the medieval tripartite or T and O map; it was centred on Jerusalem with east at the top of the map. It represented Rome in the shape of a lion, and had an evident interest in the distribution of bishoprics. The original was destroyed in the bombing of Hanover in 1943 during World War II, but some photographs and colour copies remain.


title: Early world maps

text: The Hereford Mappa Mundi is a detailed mappa mundi based on the T and O map style, dating to . The map is signed by one "Richard of Haldingham or Lafford". Drawn on a single sheet of vellum, it measures . The writing is in black ink, with additional red and gold, and blue or green for water (with the Red Sea coloured red). The captions demonstrate clearly the multiple functions of these large medieval maps, conveying a mass of information on Biblical subjects and general history, in addition to geography.


title: Early world maps

text: Jerusalem is drawn at the centre of the circle, east is on top, showing the Garden of Eden in a circle at the edge of the world (1). Great Britain is drawn at the northwestern border (bottom left, 22 & 23). Curiously, the labels for Africa and Europe are reversed, with Europe scribed in red and gold as 'Africa', and vice versa.


title: Early world maps

text: An open-access high-resolution digital image of the map with more than 1,000 place and name annotations is included among the thirteen medieval maps of the world edited in the Virtual Mappa project.


title: Early world maps

text: Italian geographer Pietro Vesconte was a pioneer of the field of the portolan chart. His nautical charts are among the earliest to map the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions accurately. He also produced progressively more accurate depictions of the coastlines of northern Europe. In his world map of 1321 he brought his experience as a maker of portolans to bear; the map introduced a previously unheard of accuracy to the mappa mundi genre. The world map, as well as a map of the Holy Land and plan of Acre and Jerusalem were made for inclusion in Marino Sanuto's "Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis".


title: Early world maps

text: The Catalan World Atlas was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school and is attributed to Cresques Abraham. It has been in the royal library of France (now the Bibliothèque nationale de France) since the time of Charles V. The Catalan Atlas originally consisted of six vellum leaves folded down the middle, painted in various colours including gold and silver. The first two leaves contain texts in the Catalan language covering cosmography, astronomy, and astrology. These texts are accompanied by illustrations. The texts and illustration emphasize the Earth's spherical shape and the state of the known world. They also provide information to sailors on tides and how to tell time at night.


title: Early world maps

text: Unlike many other nautical charts, the Catalan Atlas is read with the north at the bottom. As a result of this the maps are oriented from left to right, from the Far East to the Atlantic. The first two leaves, forming the oriental portion of the Catalan Atlas, illustrate numerous religious references as well as a synthesis of medieval mappae mundi (Jerusalem located close to the centre) and the travel literature of the time, notably "The Travels of Marco Polo" and the "Travels" of Sir John Mandeville. Many Indian and Chinese cities can be identified.


title: Early world maps

text: shows China at the centre and Europe, half-way round the globe, depicted very small and horizontally compressed at the edge. The coast of Africa is also mapped from an Indian Ocean perspective, showing the Cape of Good Hope area.


title: Early world maps

text: It is believed that maps of this type were made since about the 1320s, but all earlier specimens have been lost, so the earliest survivor is the elaborate, colourful "Da Ming Hunyi Tu", painted on of silk.


title: Early world maps

text: The "Gangnido" ("Map of Integrated Lands and Regions of Historical Countries and Capitals (of China)") is a world map and historical map of China, made in Korea in 1402, although extant copies, all in Japan, were created much later. It plays a key role in reconstructing the content of the now-lost 14th-century Chinese map of the world named "Shengjiao Guangbei Tu", which was based on Chinese cartographic techniques with additional input from western sources, via Islamic scholarship in the Mongol Empire. It also demonstrates the post-Mongol era stagnation of East Asian cartography as geographic information about the West was not updated until the introduction of European knowledge in the 16-17th centuries. Superficially similar to the "Da Ming Hun Yi Tu" (which has been less well known in the West because it is kept in closed archive storage) the Gangnido shows its Korean origin in the enlargement of that country, and incorporates vastly improved (though wrongly positioned, scaled and oriented) mapping of Japan. Elsewhere, the map betrays a decorative rather than practical purpose, particularly in the portrayal of river systems, which form unnatural loops rarely seen on Chinese maps. Nonetheless, it is considered as "superior to anything produced in Europe prior to the end of the fifteenth century".


title: Early world maps

text: The De Virga world map was made by Albertinus de Virga between 1411 and 1415. Albertin de Virga, a Venetian, is also known for a 1409 map of the Mediterranean, also made in Venice. The world map is circular, drawn on a piece of parchment . It consists of the map itself, about in diameter, and an extension containing a calendar and two tables.


title: Early world maps

text: Andrea Bianco's atlas of 1436 comprises ten leaves of vellum, measuring , in an 18th-century binding. The first leaf contains a description of the "Rule of marteloio" for resolving the course, with the "circle and square", two tables and two other diagrams. The next eight leaves contain various navigation charts. The ninth leaf contains a circular world map measuring in circumference. And the final leaf contains the Ptolemaic world map on Ptolemy's first projection, with graduation. Some believe Bianco's maps were the first to correctly portray the coast of Florida, as a macro-peninsula is attached to a large island labeled Antillia. Bianco also collaborated with Fra Mauro on the Fra Mauro world map of 1459.


title: Early world maps

text: Mainly a decoration piece, the Borgia map is a world map made sometime in the early 15th century, and engraved on a metal plate.


title: Early world maps

text: The Genoese map of 1457 is a world map that relied extensively on the account of the traveller to Asia Niccolo da Conti, rather than the usual source of Marco Polo. The author is unknown, but is a more modern development than the Fra Mauro world map, less intricate and complete, with fairly good proportions given to each of the continents. The map depicts the main landmarks of the time, and figures such as the legendary Prester John in Africa, the Great Khan in China, "Xilam" (Ceylon) and Sumatra, and the design of a three-masted European ship in the Indian Ocean, something which had not occurred, suggesting that a sea-lane was a possibility.


title: Early world maps

text: The Fra Mauro map was made between 1457 and 1459 by the Venetian monk Fra Mauro. It is a circular planisphere drawn on parchment and set in a wooden frame, about in diameter.


title: Early world maps

text: The original world map was made by Fra Mauro and his assistant Andrea Bianco, a sailor-cartographer, under a commission by king Afonso V of Portugal. The map was completed on April 24, 1459, and sent to Portugal, but did not survive to the present day. Fra Mauro died the next year while he was making a copy of the map for the Seignory of Venice, and the copy was completed by Andrea Bianco.


title: Early world maps

text: The world map of Henricus Martellus Germanus (Heinrich Hammer), c. 1490, was remarkably similar to the terrestrial globe later produced by Martin Behaim in 1492, the "Erdapfel". Both show heavy influences from Ptolemy, and both possibly derive from maps created around 1485 in Lisbon by Bartolomeo Columbus. Although Martellus is believed to have been born in Nuremberg, Behaim's home town, he lived and worked in Florence from 1480 to 1496.


title: Early world maps

text: The "Erdapfel" () produced by Martin Behaim in 1492 is considered to be the oldest surviving terrestrial globe. It is constructed of a laminated linen ball reinforced with wood and overlaid with a map painted on gores by Georg Glockendon. The Americas are not included yet, as Columbus returned to Spain no sooner than March 1493. It shows a rather enlarged Eurasian continent and an empty ocean between Europe and Asia. The Caribbean islands may already be represented as well, even before Columbus's return, under the name of the mythical Saint Brendan's Island. Japan and Asian islands are disproportionately large. The idea to call the globe "apple" may be related to the Reichsapfel ("Imperial Apple", Globus cruciger) which was also kept in Nuremberg along with the Imperial Regalia (Reichskleinodien). In 1907, it was transferred to the Germanic Museum in Nuremberg.