title: Madchester

text: The Charlatans came to prominence through appearances in Manchester, particularly as a support act to the Stone Roses and became strongly associated with the scene. They released a debut single "Indian Rope" in October 1989 and their second "The Only One I Know" made the UK top ten. A number of other Manchester bands gained the attention of the music press during 1990, including World of Twist, New Fast Automatic Daffodils, the High, Northside, the Paris Angels, and Intastella. These "second wave" bands, according to John Robb, "copped the critical backlash, but were making great music". and they also received a great deal of local support with TV appearances on various Granada shows and local radio play.


title: Madchester

text: Bands associated with the Madchester scene released material almost exclusively on indie records labels, with the significant exception of James, who signed to Fontana Records in 1989. The Madchester was growing in popularity and was not just a local trend in Manchester with an article entitled "Stark Raving Madchester" appearing in the Newsweek Magazine in 1990 describing the Madchester scene. The main Madchester bands dominated the UK Indie Charts during late 1989 and much of 1990.


title: Madchester

text: The success in the UK Singles and Albums charts of a number of indie acts associated with a "scene" was unprecedented at the time. "Step On" and "Kinky Afro" by the Happy Mondays both made number 5 in the singles chart, whilst James scored the biggest Madchester hit, making number 2 in 1991 with a re-recording of "Sit Down". In the albums chart, the Happy Mondays made number 4 with "Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches", and the Inspiral Carpets got to number 2 with "Life". The Charlatans were the only Madchester band to take the number 1 spot, with the album "Some Friendly" in the autumn of 1990.


title: Madchester

text: Outside the UK, the success of Madchester was limited, although some releases gained recognition in specialist charts around the world. In the U.S., the albums "The Stone Roses", "Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches" and "Some Friendly" reached the lower echelons of the U.S. album chart. Several singles by the Stone Roses, the Inspiral Carpets, the Happy Mondays and the Charlatans were successful on the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks chart. The Happy Mondays toured the US in 1990 and charted on the "Billboard" Hot 100 with "Step On" reaching No. 57 in 1990. They also reached No. 1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, with "Kinky Afro" in 1990. The only other Madchester artist to reach No. 1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart was the Charlatans, whose single "Weirdo" was No. 1 for the week of 23 May 1992.


title: Madchester

text: On 27 May 1990, the Stone Roses performed at Spike Island in Widnes, supported by DJs Frankie Bones, Dave Haslam, Phonso Buller, and Dave Booth. The concert was described as a "Woodstock for the E generation". A rapid succession of chart hits followed during the summer, including "One Love" by the Stone Roses, "This Is How It Feels" by the Inspiral Carpets, "The Only One I Know" by the Charlatans, and "Kinky Afro" by the Happy Mondays. The end of the year saw triumphant concerts by James and a double-header with the Happy Mondays and 808 State, both at Manchester G-Mex.


title: Madchester

text: The Stone Roses cancelled their June 1990 tour of America and issued a press statement saying, "America doesn't deserve us yet." However, their debut album sold more than 350,000 copies in the U.S. that year. The band also cancelled a gig in Spain and an appearance on the UK chat show "Wogan". They did not face the public again until the end of 1994, spending the intervening time in and out of studios in Wales, where they recorded the album "Second Coming", and fighting in court to release themselves from their contract with Silvertone Records.


title: Madchester

text: The making of the next Happy Mondays album, "Yes Please!" was also problematic, and it would not be released until October 1992. The band flew to Barbados to record it, and went "crack crazy" according to Paul Ryder, making repeated requests to Factory Records for extra time and additional funds. This is reputed to have been the major factor in the bankruptcy of the label in November 1992.


title: Madchester

text: With the two bands seen as the most central to the scene out of action, media fascination with Madchester dwindled. James, the Inspiral Carpets, the Charlatans, and 808 State continued to record with varying degrees of success during the 1990s, but ceased to be seen as part of a localised scene. Local bands catching the tail-end of Madchester, such as the Mock Turtles, became part of a wider baggy scene. The music press in the UK began to place more focus on shoegazing bands from southern England and the U.S. grunge scene, which in turn was overtaken by Britpop acts such as Manchester's Oasis and London's Blur.


title: Madchester

text: The immediate influence of Madchester was an inspiration to the wider baggy movement in the UK, with bands from various parts of the country producing music in the early 1990s heavily influenced by the main Madchester players. These bands included Flowered Up (from London), the Farm and the Real People (from Liverpool), the Bridewell Taxis (from Leeds), the Soup Dragons (from Glasgow) and Ocean Colour Scene (from Birmingham). Blur, from Colchester, adopted a baggy style in their early career, although in an interview with Select Magazine in 1991 they claimed to have "killed" the genre. Blur famously shared a rivalry throughout the 1990s with fellow Britpop band Oasis, who hailed from Manchester.


title: Madchester

text: Bands formed in Manchester during the Madchester era included the Chemical Brothers, The Verve, Sub Sub (who would later become Doves) and Oasis (Noel Gallagher had been a roadie for the Inspiral Carpets). More generally, the Madchester scene brought together electronic dance music and alternative rock, in particular the combination of the types of drumming found in funk and disco music (and sampled in '80s hip-hop music) with jingle-jangle guitar. In the 1990s, this became a commonplace formula, found frequently in even the most commercial music.


title: Madchester

text: There have been numerous polls in the years following the Madchester movement to find the best song of the era. In 2005, "Voodoo Ray" by A Guy Called Gerald was voted as the best song from the Madchester scene. The song beat "Step On" by the Happy Mondays and "Waterfall" by the Stone Roses for first place.


title: Madchester

text: In 2010, a new nightclub managed by Peter Hook of New Order, FAC251 opened in Manchester, with musical emphasis on Madchester music. Although Madchester faded by the mid-1990s, various bands have reformed for one-off concert tours. Notable bands which reformed in 2012 include the Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays and the Inspiral Carpets.


title: Madchester

text: "The Guardian" critic Penny Anderson looked unfavourably upon the scene, calling it a "breeding ground for aggressively marketed mediocrity".


title: Madchester

text: The sound of the scene influenced the electronic and dance influenced album by U2 "Achtung Baby". Elysa Gardner of "Rolling Stone" compared the layering of dance beats into guitar-heavy mixes of the album to songs by British bands Happy Mondays and Jesus Jones. "Mysterious Ways" combines a funky guitar riff with a danceable, conga-laden beat, for what Bono called "U2 at our funkiest... Sly and The Family Stone meets Madchester baggy." It also influenced The Cure's song "Never Enough".


title: Madchester

text: The mushrooming of Manchester's nightlife during the Madchester period has had a long-term impact, particularly with the subsequent development of the Gay Village and Northern Quarter. City centre living is also something that began to catch on in Manchester in the wake of Madchester, and which continues to this day.


title: Madchester

text: The attraction of the city was such that, at the height of Madchester in 1990, the University of Manchester was the most sought-after destination for university applicants in the UK.


title: Madchester

text: The scene also gave a boost to the city's media and creative industries. Channel 4 already had great success with The Word and in its wake the BBC launched "", a Saturday morning kids' TV show (with a themetune by the Inspiral Carpets, a re-write of "Find out Why") and Granada Television also jumped on the bandwagon with a cheaper version of The Word, called 'Juice' presented by John Bramwell and Joan Collins' daughter Tara Newley.


title: Madchester

text: Organised crime became an unfortunate side-story to Madchester, with the vibrancy of the clubbing scene in the city (and the popularity of illegal drugs, particularly ecstasy) providing a fertile environment for opportunist gangsterism. Violent incidents at the Haçienda led to a campaign against it by Greater Manchester Police, and contributed to its closure in 1997.


title: Madchester

text: In the late 1990s, a Manchester musical walk of fame was commissioned for Oldham Street in the Northern Quarter of Manchester. The walk includes a triangular slab for each music group and pays homage to bands such as the Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays, the Inspiral Carpets, 808 State, and James.


title: Madchester

text: A blue plaque marks the site of The Boardwalk, another club seminal to the Madchester scene, where Oasis played their first gig and Dave Haslam hosted the Yellow club night until the club's closure in 1999. It reads "Madchester venue nightclub and rehearsal rooms" and features a yellow smiley face beneath. Funkademia, a club night that began at the Boardwalk in 1995, is now still held at Mint Lounge in the Northern Quarter.


title: Western jackdaw

text: The western jackdaw (Coloeus monedula), also known as the Eurasian jackdaw, the European jackdaw, or simply the jackdaw, is a passerine bird in the crow family. Found across Europe, western Asia and North Africa; it is mostly resident, although northern and eastern populations migrate south in the winter. Four subspecies are recognised, which differ mainly in the colouration of the plumage on the head and nape. Linnaeus first described it formally, giving it the name "Corvus monedula". The common name derives from the word "jack", denoting "small", and daw, a less common synonym for "jackdaw", and the native English name for the bird.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Measuring in length, the western jackdaw is a black-plumaged bird with a grey nape and distinctive pale-grey irises. It is gregarious and vocal, living in small groups with a complex social structure in farmland, open woodland, on coastal cliffs, and in urban settings. Like its relatives, jackdaws are intelligent birds, and have been observed using tools. An omnivorous and opportunistic feeder, it eats a wide variety of plant material and invertebrates, as well as food waste from urban areas. Western jackdaws are monogamous and build simple nests of sticks in cavities in trees, cliffs, or buildings. About five pale blue or blue-green eggs with brown speckles are laid and incubated by the female. The young fledge in four to five weeks.


title: Western jackdaw

text: The western jackdaw was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th century work "Systema Naturae". Owing to its supposed fondness for picking up coins, Linnaeus gave it the binomial name "Corvus monedula", choosing the specific name "mǒnēdŭla", which is derived from "moneta", the Latin stem of the word "money". Jackdaws are sometimes placed in the genus "Coloeus", from the Ancient Greek κολοιός ("koloios") for jackdaw, though most subsequent works have retained the two jackdaw species in "Corvus".


title: Western jackdaw

text: The original Old English words "ċēo" and "ċeahhe" (pronounced with initial "ch") gave modern English "chough"; Chaucer sometimes used this word to refer to the western jackdaw, as did Shakespeare in "Hamlet" although there has been debate about which species he was referring to. This onomatopoeic name, based on the western jackdaw's call, now refers to corvids of the genus "Pyrrhocorax"; the red-billed chough ("Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax"), formerly particularly common in Cornwall, became known initially as the "Cornish chough" and then just the "chough", the name transferring from one species to the other.


title: Western jackdaw

text: The common name "jackdaw" first appeared in the 16th century, and is thought to be a compound of the forename "Jack", used in animal names to signify a small form (e.g. jack snipe), and the archaic native English word "daw". Formerly, western jackdaws were simply called "daws". The metallic "chyak" call may be the origin of the "jack" part of the common name, but this is not supported by the "Oxford English Dictionary". "Daw", first used for the bird in the 15th century, is held by the "Oxford English Dictionary" to be derived from the postulated Old English "dawe", citing the cognates in Old High German "tāha", Middle High German "tāhe" or "tāchele", and modern German "Dahle" or "Dohle", and dialectal "Tach, Dähi, Däche" and "Dacha".


title: Western jackdaw

text: Names in English dialects are numerous. Scottish and north English dialects have included "ka" or "kae" since the 14th century. The Midlands form of this word was "co" or "coo". "Caddow" is potentially a compound of "ka" and "dow", a variant of "daw". Other dialectal or obsolete names include "caddesse", "cawdaw", "caddy", "chauk", "college-bird", "jackerdaw", "jacko", "ka-wattie", "chimney-sweep bird" (from their nesting propensities), and "sea-crow" (from the frequency with which they are found on coasts). It was also frequently known quasi-nominally as "Jack".


title: Western jackdaw

text: An archaic collective noun for a group of jackdaws is a "clattering". Another name for a flock is a "train".


title: Western jackdaw

text: A study in 2000 found that the genetic distance between western jackdaws and the other members of "Corvus" was greater than that within the rest of the genus. This led Pamela Rasmussen to reinstate the genus name "Coloeus", created by Johann Kaup in 1829, in her "Birds of South Asia" (2005), a treatment also used in a 1982 systematic list in German by Hans Edmund Wolters. A study of corvid phylogeny undertaken in 2007 compared DNA sequences in the mitochondrial control region of several corvids. It found that the western jackdaw, and the closely related Daurian jackdaw ("C. dauuricus") of eastern Russia and China, were basal to the core "Corvus" clade. The names "Coloeus monedula" and "Coloeus dauuricus" have since been adopted by the International Ornithological Congress in their official list. The two species of jackdaw have been reported to hybridise in the Altai Mountains, southern Siberia, and Mongolia. Analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of specimens of the two species from their core ranges show them to be genetically distinct.


title: Western jackdaw

text: There are four recognized subspecies of the western jackdaw. All European subspecies intergrade where their populations meet. "C. m. monedula" intergrades into "C. m. soemmerringii" in a transition zone running from Finland south across the Baltic and eastern Poland to Romania and Croatia.


title: Western jackdaw

text: The western jackdaw measures in length and weighs around . Most of the plumage is a shiny black, with a purple (in subspecies "monedula" and "spermologus") or blue (in subspecies "cirtensis" and "soemmerringii") sheen on the crown, forehead, and secondaries, and a green-blue sheen on the throat, primaries, and tail. The cheeks, nape and neck are light grey to greyish-silver, and the underparts are slate-grey. The legs are black, as is the short stout bill, the length of which is about 75% of the length of the rest of the head. There are rictal bristles covering around 40% of the maxilla and 25% of the lower mandible. The irises of adults are greyish or silvery white while those of juveniles are light blue, becoming brownish before whitening at around one year of age. The sexes look alike, though the head and neck plumage of male birds fades more with age and wear, particularly just before moulting. Western jackdaws undergo a complete moult from June to September in the western parts of their range, and a month later in the east. The purplish sheen of the cap is most prominent just after moulting.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Immature birds have duller and less demarcated plumage. The head is a sooty black, sometimes with a faint greenish sheen and brown feather bases visible; the back and side of the neck are dark grey and the underparts greyish or sooty black. The tail has narrower feathers and a greenish sheen.


title: Western jackdaw

text: There is very little geographic variation in size. The main differences are the presence or absence of a whitish partial collar at the base of the nape, the variations in the shade of the nape and the tone of the underparts. Populations in central Asia have slightly larger wings and western populations have a slightly heavier bill. Body colour becomes darker further north, in mountain regions and humid climates, and paler elsewhere. However, individual variation, particularly in juveniles and also during the months before moulting, can often be greater than geographic differences.


title: Western jackdaw

text: A skilled flyer, the western jackdaw can manoeuvre tightly as well as tumble and glide. It has characteristic jerky wing beats when flying, though these are not evident when birds are migrating. Wind tunnel experiments show that the preferred gliding speed is between per second and that the wingspan decreases as the bird flies faster. On the ground, western jackdaws have an upright posture and strut briskly, their short legs giving them a rapid gait. They feed with their heads held down or horizontally.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Within its range, the western jackdaw is unmistakable; its short bill and grey nape are distinguishing features. From a distance, it can be confused with a rook ("Corvus frugilegus"), or when in flight, with a pigeon or chough. Flying western jackdaws are distinguishable from other corvids by their smaller size, faster and deeper wingbeats and proportionately narrower and less fingered wing tips. They also have shorter, thicker necks, much shorter bills and frequently fly in tighter flocks. They can be distinguished from choughs by their uniformly grey underwings and their black beaks and legs. The western jackdaw is very similar in morphology, behaviour, and calls to the Daurian jackdaw, with which its range overlaps in western Asia. Adults are readily distinguished, since the Daurian has a pied plumage, but immature birds are much more similar, both species having dark plumage and dark eyes. The Daurian tends to be darker, with a less contrasting nape than the Western.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Western jackdaws are voluble birds. The main call, frequently given in flight, is a metallic and squeaky "chyak-chyak" or "kak-kak". This is a contact or greeting call. A feeding call made by adults to call young, or males when offering food to their mates, has been transcribed as "kiaw" or "kyow". Females in return give a more drawn out version when begging for food from males, written as "kyaay", "tchaayk" or "giaaaa". Perched birds often chatter together, and before settling for the night, large roosting flocks make a cackling noise. Western jackdaws also have a hoarse, drawn-out alarm call, "arrrrr" or "kaaaarr", used when warning of predators or when mobbing them. Nestlings begin making a soft "cheep" at about a week of age. As they grow, their voice becomes louder until their call is a penetrating screech around day 18. After this, the voice deepens and softens. From day 25, the young cease calling and become silent if they hear an unfamiliar noise. The European jackdaw can be trained to imitate human speech.


title: Western jackdaw

text: The western jackdaw is found from Northwest Africa through all of Europe, except for the subarctic north, and eastwards through central Asia to the eastern Himalayas and Lake Baikal. To the east, it occurs throughout Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwestern India. However, it is regionally extinct in Malta and Tunisia. The range is vast, with an estimated global extent between . It has a large global population, with an estimated 15.6 to 45 million individuals in Europe alone. Censuses of bird populations in marginal uplands in Great Britain show that western jackdaws greatly increased in numbers between the 1970s and 2010, although this increase may be related to recovery from previous periods when they were regarded as pests. The UK population was estimated at 2.5 million individuals in 1998, up from 780,000 in 1970.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Most populations are resident, but the northern and eastern populations are more migratory, relocating to wintering areas between September and November and returning between February and early May. Their range expands northwards into Russia to Siberia during summer and retracts in winter. They are vagrants to the Faroe Islands, particularly in the winter and spring, and occasionally to Iceland. Elsewhere, western jackdaws congregate over winter in the Ural Valley in northwestern Kazakhstan, the northern Caspian, and the Tian Shan region of western China. They are winter visitors to the Quetta Valley in western Pakistan, and are winter vagrants to Lebanon, where they were first recorded in 1962. In Syria, they are winter vagrants and rare residents with some confirmed breeding taking place. The subspecies "soemmerringii" occurs in south-central Siberia and extreme northwestern China and is accidental to Hokkaido, Japan. A small number of western jackdaws reached northeastern North America in the 1980s and have been found from Atlantic Canada to Pennsylvania. They have also occurred as vagrants in Gibraltar, Mauritania, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and one is reported to have been seen in Egypt.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Western jackdaws inhabit wooded steppes, pastures, cultivated land, coastal cliffs, and towns. They thrive when forested areas are cleared and converted to fields and open areas. Habitats with a mix of large trees, buildings, and open ground are preferred; open fields are left to the rook, and more wooded areas to the Eurasian jay ("Garrulus glandarius"). Along with other corvids such as the rook, common raven ("Corvus corax"), and hooded crow ("C. cornix"), some western jackdaws spend the winter in urban parks; populations measured in three urban parks in Warsaw show increases from October to December, possibly due to western jackdaws migrating there from areas further north. The same data from Warsaw, collected from 1977 to 2003, showed that the wintering western jackdaw population had increased four-fold. The cause of the increase is unknown, but a reduction in the number of rooks may have benefited the species locally, or rooks overwintering in Belarus may have caused western jackdaws to relocate to Warsaw.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Generally wary of people in the forest or countryside, western jackdaws are much tamer in urban areas.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Highly gregarious, western jackdaws are generally seen in flocks of varying sizes, though males and females pair-bond for life and pairs stay together within flocks. Flocks increase in size in autumn and birds congregate at dusk for communal roosting, with up to several thousand individuals gathering at one site. At Uppsala, Sweden, 40,000 birds have been recorded at a single winter roost with mated pairs often settling together for the night. Western jackdaws frequently congregate with hooded crows or rooks, the latter particularly when migrating or roosting. They have been recorded foraging with the common starling ("Sturnus vulgaris"), Northern lapwing ("Vanellus vanellus"), and common gull ("Larus canus") in northwestern England. Flocks are targets of coordinated hunting by pairs of lanner falcons ("Falco biarmicus"), although larger groups are more able to elude the predators. Western jackdaws sometimes mob and drive off larger birds such as European magpies, common ravens, or Egyptian vultures ("Neophron percnopterus"); one gives an alarm call which alerts its conspecifics to gather and attack as a group. Occasionally, a sick or injured western jackdaw is mobbed until it is killed.


title: Western jackdaw

text: In his book "King Solomon's Ring", Konrad Lorenz described and analysed the complex social interactions in a western jackdaw flock that lived around his house in Altenberg, Austria. He ringed them for identification and caged them in the winter to prevent their annual migration. He found that the birds have a linear hierarchical group structure, with higher-ranked individuals dominating lower-ranked birds, and pair-bonded birds sharing the same rank. Young males establish their individual status before pairing with females. Upon pairing, the female assumes the same social position as her partner. Unmated females are the lowest members in the pecking order, and are the last to have access to food and shelter. Lorenz noted one case in which a male, absent during the dominance struggles and pair bondings, returned to the flock, became the dominant male, and chose one of two unpaired females for a mate. This female immediately assumed a dominant position in the social hierarchy and demonstrated this by pecking others. According to Lorenz, the most significant factor in social behaviour was the immediate and intuitive grasp of the new hierarchy by each of the western jackdaws in the flock.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Social hierarchy in western jackdaw flocks is determined by supplanting, fighting, and threat displays—several of which have been described. In the "bill-up posture", the western jackdaw tilts its bill and head upwards and sleeks its plumage. Indicating both appeasement and assertiveness, the posture is used by birds intending to enter feeding flocks. A "bill-down posture" is another commonly used agonistic behaviour. In this display, a bird lowers its bill and erects its nape and head feathers, and sometimes slightly lifts its wings. Western jackdaws often face off in this posture until one backs down or a fight ensues. In the "forward-threat posture", a bird holds its body horizontally and thrusts its head forwards. In intense versions, the bird ruffles its feathers and spreads or raises its tail and wings. This extreme is seen when facing off over nests or females. In the "defensive-threat posture", the bird lowers its head and bill, spreads its tail and ruffles its feathers. "Supplanting" is where one bird moves in and displaces another from a perch-site. The second bird usually retreats without resorting to a fight. Western jackdaws fight by launching themselves at each other feet-first and then wrestling with their feet intertwined and pecking at each other. Other individuals gather and call noisily.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Western jackdaws entreat their partners to preen them by showing their nape and ruffling their head feathers. Birds mainly preen each other's head and neck. Known as "allopreening", this behaviour is almost always done between birds of a mated pair.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Western jackdaws become sexually mature in their second year. Genetic analysis of pairs and offspring shows no evidence of extra-pair copulation and there is little evidence for couple separation even after multiple instances of reproductive failure. Some pairs do separate in the first few months, but almost all pairings of over six months' duration are lifelong, ending only when a partner dies. Widowed or separated birds fare badly, often being ousted from nests or territories and unable to rear broods alone.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Western jackdaws usually breed in colonies with pairs collaborating to find a nest site, which they then defend from other pairs and predators during most of the year. They nest in cavities in trees or cliffs, in ruined or occupied buildings and in chimneys, the common feature being a sheltered site for the nest. The availability of suitable sites influences their presence in a locale. They may also use church steeples for nesting, a fact reported in verse by 18th century English poet William Cowper:


title: Western jackdaw

text: Nest platforms can attain a great size. A mated pair usually constructs a nest by improving a crevice by dropping sticks into it; it is then built on top of the platform formed. This behaviour has led to the blocking of chimneys and even resulted in nests crashing down into fireplaces, sometimes with birds still on them.


title: Western jackdaw

text: In his "The Natural History of Selborne", Gilbert White notes that western jackdaws used to nest in crevices beneath the lintels of Stonehenge, and describes an example of the bird using a rabbit burrow for nesting. The species has been recorded outcompeting the tawny owl ("Strix aluco") for nest sites in the Netherlands. They can take over old nest sites of the black woodpecker ("Dryocopus martius") and stock dove ("Columba oenas"). Breeding colonies may also edge out those of the red-billed chough, but in turn be ousted by larger corvids such as the carrion crow, rook or magpie.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Nests are lined with hair, wool, dead grass and many other materials. The eggs are a lighter colour than those of other corvids, being smooth, a glossy pale blue or blue-green with darker speckles ranging from dark brown to olive or grey-violet. Egg size and weight varies slightly between subspecies; those of subspecies "monedula" average and in weight, those of subspecies "soemmerringii" in size and in weight, and those of subspecies "spermologus" in size and in weight. Clutches usually contain 4 or 5 eggs, although a Slovakian study found clutch sizes ranging from 2 to 9 eggs. The eggs are incubated by the female for 17–18 days until hatching as naked altricial chicks, which are completely dependent on the adults for food. They fledge after 28–35 days, and the parents continue to feed them for another four weeks or so.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Western jackdaws hatch asynchronously and incubation begins before clutch completion, which often leads to the death of the last-hatched young. If the supply of food is low, parental investment in the brood is kept to a minimum as little energy is wasted on feeding a chick that is unlikely to survive. Replacement clutches are very rarely laid in the event of clutch failure.


title: Western jackdaw

text: The great spotted cuckoo ("Clamator glandarius") has been recorded as a brood parasite of the western jackdaw, depositing its eggs in their nests in Spain and Israel. Nest robbers include the common raven in Spain, tawny owl, and least weasel ("Mustela nivalis") in England, and brown rat ("Rattus norvegicus") in Finland. The European pine marten ("Martes martes") raids isolated nests in Sweden but is less successful when nests are part of a colony.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Foraging takes place mostly on the ground in open areas and to some extent in trees. Landfill sites, bins, streets, and gardens are also visited, more often early in the morning when there are fewer people about. Various feeding methods are employed, such as jumping, pecking, clod-turning and scattering, probing the soil, and occasionally, digging. Flies around cow pats are caught by jumping from the ground or at times by dropping vertically from a few metres onto the cow pat. Earthworms are not usually extracted from the ground by western jackdaws but are eaten from freshly ploughed soil. Jackdaws will ride on the backs of sheep and other mammals, seeking ticks as well as actively gathering wool or hair for nests, and will catch flying ants in flight. Compared with other corvids, the western jackdaw spends more time exploring and turning over objects with its bill; it also has a straighter and less downturned bill and increased binocular vision which are advantageous for this foraging strategy.


title: Western jackdaw

text: The western jackdaw tends to feed on small invertebrates up to in length that are found above ground, including various species of beetle (particularly cockchafers of the genus "Melolontha", and weevil larvae and pupae.), "Diptera", and "Lepidoptera" species, as well as snails and spiders. Also eaten are small rodents, bats, the eggs and chicks of birds, and carrion such as roadkill. Vegetable items consumed include farm grains (barley, wheat and oats), weed seeds, elderberries, acorns, and various cultivated fruits. Examination of the gizzards of western jackdaws shot in Cyprus in spring and summer revealed a diet of cereals (predominantly wheat) and insects (notably cicadas and beetles). The diet averages 84% plant material except when breeding, when the main food source is insects. A study in southern Spain examining western jackdaw pellets found that they contained significant amounts of silicaceous and calcareous grit to aid digestion of vegetable food and supply dietary calcium.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Opportunistic and highly adaptable, the western jackdaw varies its diet markedly depending on available food sources. They have been recorded taking eggs and nestlings from the nests of the skylark ("Alauda arvensis"), Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus"), razorbill ("Alca torda"), common murre ("Uria aalge"), grey heron ("Ardea cinerea"), rock pigeon ("Columba livia"), and Eurasian collared dove ("Streptopelia decaocto"). A field study of a large city dump on the outskirts of León in northwestern Spain showed that western jackdaws forage there in the early morning and at dusk, and engage in some degree of kleptoparasitism. The saker falcon ("Falco cherrug") has been reported stealing food from western jackdaws on powerlines in Vojvodina in Serbia.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Western jackdaws practice active food sharing – where the initiative for the transfer lies with the donor – with a number of individuals, regardless of sex or kinship. They also share more of a preferred food than a less preferred food. The active giving of food by most birds is found mainly in the context of parental care and courtship. Western jackdaws show much higher levels of active giving than has been documented for other species, including chimpanzees. The function of this behaviour is not fully understood, though it has been found to be detached from nutrition and compatible with hypotheses of mutualism, reciprocity and harassment avoidance. It has also been proposed that food sharing may be motivated by prestige enhancement.


title: Western jackdaw

text: Western jackdaws have learned to peck open the foil caps of milk bottles left on the doorsteps after delivery by the milkman. The bacterium "Campylobacter jejuni" has been isolated from their beaks and cloacae so milk can become contaminated as they drink. This activity was linked to cases of "Campylobacter" gastroenteritis in Gateshead in northeast England and led the Department of Health to suggest that milk from bottles which had been pecked open should be discarded. It was recommended that steps be taken to prevent birds from pecking open bottles in the future.


title: Western jackdaw

text: An outbreak of a gastrointestinal illness in Spain which was causing mortalities in humans has been linked to western jackdaws. During a post-mortem on an affected bird, a polyomavirus was isolated from the spleen. The illness appeared to be a co-infection of this with "Salmonella" and the virus has been provisionally named the crow polyomavirus (CPyV). Segmented filamentous bacteria have been isolated from the small intestine of a western jackdaw, although their pathogenicity or role is unknown.


title: Western jackdaw

text: The western jackdaw has been hunted as vermin, though not as heavily culled as other species of corvid. After a series of poor harvests in the early 1500s, introduced a Vermin Act in 1532 "ordeyned to dystroye Choughes (i.e. jackdaws), Crowes and Rokes" to protect grain crops from their predations. Western jackdaws were notorious as they also favoured fruit, especially cherries. This act was taken up in a piecemeal fashion, but passed the "Act for the Preservation of Grayne" in 1566 that was taken up with more vigour. The species was hunted for its threat to grain crops and for propensity for nesting in belfries until the mid-20th century. Particularly large numbers were culled in the county of Norfolk. Western jackdaws were also culled on game estates as they raid nests of other birds for eggs. In a 2003 dissertation on public opinion of corvids, Antonia Hereth notes that the German naturalist Alfred Brehm considered the western jackdaw to be a lovable bird, and did not describe any negative impacts of this species on agriculture.


title: Western jackdaw

text: The western jackdaw is one of a very small number of birds that it is legal to use as a decoy or to trap in a cage in the United Kingdom. The other pest species that can be controlled by trapping are the crow, jay, magpie and rook. An authorised person must comply with the requirements of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and does not need to show that the birds were a nuisance before trapping them. As of 2003 the western jackdaw was listed as a potential species for targeted hunting in the European Union Birds Directive, and hunting has been encouraged by German hunting associations. Permission to shoot western jackdaws in spring and summer exists in Cyprus as they are thought (incorrectly) to prey on gamebirds.


title: Western jackdaw

text: An ancient Greek and Roman adage runs "The swans will sing when the jackdaws are silent", meaning that educated or wise people will speak only after the foolish have become quiet. In Ancient Greek folklore, a jackdaw can be caught with a dish of oil. A narcissistic creature, it falls in while looking at its own reflection. The mythical Princess Arne Sithonis was bribed with gold by King Minos of Crete, and was punished by the gods for her greed by being transformed into an equally avaricious jackdaw, who still seeks shiny things. The Roman poet Ovid described jackdaws as harbingers of rain in his poetic work "Amores". Pliny notes how the Thessalians, Illyrians, and Lemnians cherished jackdaws for destroying grasshoppers' eggs. The Veneti are fabled to have bribed the jackdaws to spare their crops.


title: Western jackdaw

text: In some cultures, a jackdaw on the roof is said to predict a new arrival; alternatively, a jackdaw settling on the roof of a house or flying down a chimney is an omen of death, and coming across one is considered a bad omen. A jackdaw standing on the vanes of a cathedral tower is said to foretell rain. The 12th-century historian William of Malmesbury records the story of a woman who, upon hearing a jackdaw chattering "more loudly than usual," grew pale and became fearful of suffering a "dreadful calamity", and that "while yet speaking, the messenger of her misfortunes arrived". Czech superstition formerly held that if jackdaws are seen quarreling, war will follow, and that jackdaws will not build nests at Sázava after being banished by Saint Procopius.


title: Western jackdaw

text: The jackdaw was considered sacred in Welsh folklore as it nested in church steeples – it was shunned by the Devil because of its choice of residence. Nineteenth century belief in the Fens held that seeing a jackdaw on the way to a wedding was a good omen for a bride.


title: Western jackdaw

text: The jackdaw is featured on the Ukrainian town of Halych's ancient coat of arms, the town's name allegedly being derived from the East Slavic word for the bird. In "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" (1979), Milan Kundera notes that Franz Kafka's father Hermann had a sign in front of his shop with a jackdaw painted next to his name, since "kavka" means "jackdaw" in Czech.


title: Woman Is the Nigger of the World

text: "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" is a song by John Lennon and Yoko Ono with Elephant's Memory from their 1972 album "Some Time in New York City". Released as the only single from the album in the United States, the song sparked controversy at the time due to the use of the word "nigger" in the title.


title: Woman Is the Nigger of the World

text: The phrase "woman is the nigger of the world" was coined by Yoko Ono in an interview with "Nova" magazine in 1969 and quoted on the magazine's cover. Literary analysts note that the phrase owes much to Zora Neale Hurston's novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God", in which the protagonist Janie Crawford's grandmother says "De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see." The song describes women's subservience to men and misogyny across all cultures.


title: Woman Is the Nigger of the World

text: In a 1972 interview on "The Dick Cavett Show", Lennon said that Irish revolutionary James Connolly was an inspiration for the song. Lennon cited Connolly's statement that "the female worker is the slave of the slave" in explaining the pro-feminist inspiration behind the song.


title: Woman Is the Nigger of the World

text: Due to its use of the racial epithet "nigger" and what was criticized as an inappropriate comparison of sexism to racism against Black Americans, most radio stations in the United States declined to play the record. It was released in the U.S. on 24 April 1972 and peaked at number 57 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, based primarily on sales, making it Lennon's lowest-charting U.S. single in his lifetime. The song also charted at number 93 on the "Cash Box" Top 100.


title: Woman Is the Nigger of the World

text: The National Organization for Women (NOW) awarded Lennon and Ono a "Positive Image of Women" citation for the song's "strong pro-feminist statement" in August 1972. "Cash Box" described the song as the "most powerful epic to come out of the women's movement so far."


title: Woman Is the Nigger of the World

text: Through radio and television interviews, Lennon described his use of the term "nigger" as referring to any oppressed person. Apple Records placed an advertisement for the single in the 6 May issue of "Billboard" magazine featuring a recent statement, unrelated to the song, by prominent black Congressman Ron Dellums to demonstrate the broader use of the term. Lennon also referred to Dellums's statement during an appearance on "The Dick Cavett Show", where he and Ono performed the song with the band Elephant's Memory. Because of the controversial title, ABC asked Cavett to apologise to the audience in advance for the song's content; otherwise the performance would not have been shown. Cavett disliked giving the statement, saying in the 2010 documentary "LENNONYC":


title: Woman Is the Nigger of the World

text: I had John and Yoko on, and the suits said: "We're gonna write a little insert just before the song for you to say." I said, "You are going to censor my guests after I get them on the show? This is ludicrous." So they wrote this thing, and I went in and taped it in order to retain the song. About 600 protests did come in. None of them about the song! All of them about, quote: "that mealy-mouthed statement you forced Dick to say before the show. Don't you believe we're grown up..." Oh, God. It was wonderful in that sense; it gave me hope for the republic.


title: Woman Is the Nigger of the World

text: Lennon also visited the offices of "Ebony" and "Jet" magazines with comedian/activist Dick Gregory and appeared in a cover story, "Ex-Beatle Tells How Black Stars Changed His Life", in the 26 October 1972 issue of "Jet".


title: Woman Is the Nigger of the World

text: An edited version of the song was included on the 1975 compilation album "Shaved Fish". The song was reissued as the B-side to "Stand by Me" on 4 April 1977. It was also included on "" and the "Gimme Some Truth" box set.


title: Woman Is the Nigger of the World

text: An episode of the television series "Better Things", written by Pamela Adlon and Louis C.K., named "Woman is the Something of the Something", features characters discussing the saying "woman is the nigger of the world".


title: Macrolide

text: The Macrolides are a class of natural products that consist of a large macrocyclic lactone ring to which one or more deoxy sugars, usually cladinose and desosamine, may be attached. The lactone rings are usually 14-, 15-, or 16-membered. Macrolides belong to the polyketide class of natural products. Some macrolides have antibiotic or antifungal activity and are used as pharmaceutical drugs. Rapamycin is also a macrolide and was originally developed as an antifungal, but is now used as an immunosuppressant drug and is being investigated as a potential longevity therapeutic.


title: Macrolide

text: Macrolides are bacteriostatic in that they suppress or inhibit bacterial growth rather than killing bacteria completely.


title: Macrolide

text: In general, any macrocyclic lactone having greater than 8-membered rings are candidates for this class. The macrocycle may contain amino nitrogen, amide nitrogen (but should be differentiated from cyclopeptides), an oxazole ring, or a thiazole ring. Benzene rings are excluded, in order to differentiate from tannins. Also lactams instead of lactones (as in the ansamycin family) are excluded. Included are not only 12-16 membered macrocycles but also larger rings as in tacrolimus.


title: Macrolide

text: The first macrolide discovered was erythromycin, which was first used in 1952. Erythromycin was widely used as a substitute to penicillin in cases where patients were allergic to penicillin or had penicillin-resistant illnesses. Later macrolides developed, including azithromycin and clarithromycin, stemmed from chemically modifying erythromycin; these compounds were designed to be more easily absorbed and have fewer side-effects (erythromycin caused gastrointestinal side-effects in a significant proportion of users).


title: Macrolide

text: Antibiotic macrolides are used to treat infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria (e.g., "Streptococcus pneumoniae") and limited Gram-negative bacteria (e.g., "Bordetella pertussis", "Haemophilus influenzae"), and some respiratory tract and soft-tissue infections. The antimicrobial spectrum of macrolides is slightly wider than that of penicillin, and, therefore, macrolides are a common substitute for patients with a penicillin allergy. Beta-hemolytic streptococci, pneumococci, staphylococci, and enterococci are usually susceptible to macrolides. Unlike penicillin, macrolides have been shown to be effective against "Legionella pneumophila", mycoplasma, mycobacteria, some rickettsia, and chlamydia.


title: Macrolide

text: Macrolides are "not" to be used on nonruminant herbivores, such as horses and rabbits. They rapidly produce a reaction causing fatal digestive disturbance. It can be used in horses less than one year old, but care must be taken that other horses (such as a foal's mare) do not come in contact with the macrolide treatment.


title: Macrolide

text: Macrolides can be administered in a variety of ways, including tablets, capsules, suspensions, injections and topically.


title: Macrolide

text: Macrolides are protein synthesis inhibitors. The mechanism of action of macrolides is inhibition of bacterial protein biosynthesis, and they are thought to do this by preventing peptidyltransferase from adding the growing peptide attached to tRNA to the next amino acid (similarly to chloramphenicol) as well as inhibiting bacterial ribosomal translation. Another potential mechanism is premature dissociation of the peptidyl-tRNA from the ribosome.


title: Macrolide

text: Macrolide antibiotics do so by binding reversibly to the P site on the 50S subunit of the bacterial ribosome. This action is considered to be bacteriostatic. Macrolides are actively concentrated within leukocytes, and thus are transported into the site of infection.


title: Macrolide

text: The macrolide antibiotics erythromycin, clarithromycin, and roxithromycin have proven to be an effective long-term treatment for the idiopathic, Asian-prevalent lung disease diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB). The successful results of macrolides in DPB stems from controlling symptoms through immunomodulation (adjusting the immune response), with the added benefit of low-dose requirements.


title: Macrolide

text: With macrolide therapy in DPB, great reduction in bronchiolar inflammation and damage is achieved through suppression of not only neutrophil granulocyte proliferation but also lymphocyte activity and obstructive secretions in airways. The antimicrobial and antibiotic effects of macrolides, however, are not believed to be involved in their beneficial effects toward treating DPB. This is evident, as the treatment dosage is much too low to fight infection, and in DPB cases with the occurrence of the macrolide-resistant bacterium "Pseudomonas aeruginosa", macrolide therapy still produces substantial anti-inflammatory results.


title: Macrolide

text: Ketolides are a class of antibiotics that are structurally related to the macrolides. They are used to treat respiratory tract infections caused by macrolide-resistant bacteria. Ketolides are especially effective, as they have two ribosomal binding sites.


title: Macrolide

text: Fluoroketolides are a class of antibiotics that are structurally related to the ketolides. The fluoroketolides have three ribosomal interaction sites.


title: Macrolide

text: The drugs tacrolimus, pimecrolimus, and sirolimus, which are used as immunosuppressants or immunomodulators, are also macrolides. They have similar activity to ciclosporin.


title: Macrolide

text: Polyene antimycotics, such as amphotericin B, nystatin etc., are a subgroup of macrolides. Cruentaren is another example of an antifungal macrolide.


title: Macrolide

text: A variety of toxic macrolides produced by bacteria have been isolated and characterized, such as the mycolactones.


title: Macrolide

text: The primary means of bacterial resistance to macrolides occurs by post-transcriptional methylation of the 23S bacterial ribosomal RNA. This acquired resistance can be either plasmid-mediated or chromosomal, i.e., through mutation, and results in cross-resistance to macrolides, lincosamides, and streptogramins (an MLS-resistant phenotype).


title: Macrolide

text: Two other types of acquired resistance rarely seen include the production of drug-inactivating enzymes (esterases or kinases), as well as the production of active ATP-dependent efflux proteins that transport the drug outside of the cell.


title: Macrolide

text: Azithromycin has been used to treat strep throat (Group A streptococcal (GAS) infection caused by "Streptococcus pyogenes") in penicillin-sensitive patients, however macrolide-resistant strains of GAS are not uncommon. Cephalosporin is another option for these patients.


title: Macrolide

text: A 2008 "British Medical Journal" article highlights that the combination of some macrolides and statins (used for lowering cholesterol) is not advisable and can lead to debilitating myopathy. This is because some macrolides (clarithromycin and erythromycin, not azithromycin) are potent inhibitors of the cytochrome P450 system, particularly of CYP3A4. Macrolides, mainly erythromycin and clarithromycin, also have a class effect of QT prolongation, which can lead to torsades de pointes. Macrolides exhibit enterohepatic recycling; that is, the drug is absorbed in the gut and sent to the liver, only to be excreted into the duodenum in bile from the liver. This can lead to a buildup of the product in the system, thereby causing nausea. In infants the use of erythromycin has been associated with pyloric stenosis.


title: Macrolide

text: Some macrolides are also known to cause cholestasis, a condition where bile cannot flow from the liver to the duodenum. A new study found an association between erythromycin use during infancy and developing IHPS (Infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis) in infants. However, no significant association was found between macrolides use during pregnancy or breastfeeding.


title: Macrolide

text: A Cochrane review showed gastrointestinal symptoms to be the most frequent adverse event reported in literature.


title: Macrolide

text: Macrolides should not be taken with colchicine as it may lead to colchicine toxicity. Symptoms of colchicine toxicity include gastrointestinal upset, fever, myalgia, pancytopenia, and organ failure.


title: Shining Time Station

text: Shining Time Station is an American children's television series jointly created by British television producer Britt Allcroft and American television producer Rick Siggelkow. The series was produced by Quality Family Entertainment (the American branch of The Britt Allcroft Company), in association with Catalyst Entertainment in seasons 2 and 3, for New York City's PBS station WNET, and was originally taped in New York City during its first season and in Toronto during the rest of its run. It incorporated sequences from the British television show "Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends", which was in turn based on the books of "The Railway Series" written by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry. The series aired on PBS from January 29, 1989, until June 11, 1993, with four hour-long "Family Specials" premiering in primetime throughout 1995. Reruns continued to air on PBS until June 11, 1998. It aired on Fox Family from 1998 to 1999. Reruns of the show aired on Nick Jr. to promote the theatrical release of "Thomas and the Magic Railroad" beginning June 5, 2000, and continuing until August 11 that same year, when it was replaced by "Dora the Explorer" beginning the following Monday. The series also aired on Canadian television networks such as APTN and SCN. Elements from the show were incorporated into the 2000 Thomas and Friends film "Thomas and the Magic Railroad".


title: Shining Time Station

text: The initial 1989 season featured a cast that included Ringo Starr as Mr. Conductor, Didi Conn as Stacy Jones, Brian O'Connor as Horace Schemer, Leonard Jackson as Harry Cupper, Jason Woliner as Matt Jones and Nicole Leach as Tanya Cupper. The show was retooled for the second (1991) and third (1993) seasons, with only Conn and O'Connor reprising their prior roles. George Carlin replaced Starr as Mr. Conductor, while Erica Luttrell, Ari Magder, Danielle Marcot, and Tom Jackson joined the primary cast in newly created roles. In addition to the three main seasons, a Christmas special featuring the original cast, aired in 1990, and four "family specials" aired in 1995 featuring the second cast. Providing the musical numbers for the show was "The Jukebox Band", a group of puppets. In 1996, only Carlin appeared in a spin-off series called "Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales", which featured only six episodes with five Thomas stories and one Music video each. The station Interior was kept for the spin-off.


title: Shining Time Station

text: After the success of "Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends" in the United Kingdom, Britt Allcroft and her production company teamed up with PBS station WNET in New York City to produce and distribute the sitcom-esque "Shining Time Station", every episode of which would include a couple of episodes of "Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends". The series starred Ringo Starr, George Carlin, Didi Conn, Brian O'Connor, and the Flexitoon Puppets. Ringo Starr, who had already been providing the narration for the British series, agreed to extend the role to include the on-screen character called Mr. Conductor in "Shining Time Station". He left the show after its initial season to focus on his musical career and was replaced by George Carlin.


title: Shining Time Station

text: "Shining Time Station" received critical acclaim. In a review for "Entertainment Weekly", Ken Tucker states that, compared to the faster paced "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?", "'Shining Time Station' wants to slow things down. It's an old-fashioned show that creates a gentle, lulling atmosphere to convince children that life is fun and that trains are the way to travel." It was a ratings success as well. In its first season, the show averaged a 0.9 Nielsen rating, translating to about 1.2 million viewers on average. At the peak of its popularity, the show brought in up to 7.5 million viewers per week.


title: Shining Time Station

text: The Shining Time Station is a train station on the Indian Valley Railroad in an unknown part of the United States. It is managed by Stacy Jones. Its workshop is run in the first season by Harry Cupper, and thereafter by Billy Twofeathers. A local named Horace Schemer, simply referred to as Schemer, runs the station's arcade and serves as the series' comic relief. He often comes up with tricks and schemes (hence his surname) to get his ways, although they usually backfire on him as a result of his foolishness. The narrative is driven by regular and incidental visitors to the station.


title: Shining Time Station

text: Mr. Conductor is a tiny man who lives in a signal house inside the station's mural and tells the stories taken from "Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends" to the kids. He also introduces songs to the kids in The Anything Tunnel. Sometimes, he may present a magic bubble to the kids that has the song inside as a way of introducing it. On occasion, the kids may look through a film viewer to see the song or film.


title: Shining Time Station

text: The songs were arranged and performed by Steve Horelick with Larry Wolf. They featured vocal performances by Rory Dodd, Vaneese Thomas, Emily Bindinger and Jonathan Freemen.


title: Shining Time Station

text: The intro to each episode consists of the main theme song of the show, played to footage of the Union Pacific Steam Locomotive 844 and the credits of the series' characters. Only the first verse is sung for the beginning theme. The closing credits contain more shots of the Union Pacific 844, in addition to the full "Shining Time Station" theme song. For the Christmas special "'Tis A Gift" the footage used for the opening and closing sequences were filmed at the Grand Canyon Railway in Williams, Arizona and features their locomotive #18.


title: Shining Time Station

text: The beginning of each VHS release (except for "Tis a Gift", "Shining Time Station Singsongs", "Schemer Presents: The World According to Me", "The Jukebox Band: A Day in the Life", and "The Jukebox Band: Lullaby") featured a model scale of a typical 1950s drive-in movie theater called the "Shining Time Drive-In Movie Theater" with parody commercials before the episode started. Then, after the episode of "Shining Time Station" was shown, a short segment known as "Schemer Presents!" was shown. Each segment featured Schemer teaching the viewers how to do something, with one of the other regular characters helping him. Afterwards, the announcer wishes everyone a safe drive home. The Drive-In segments were created by Chip Lord & Mickey McGowan.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a disease of the vagina caused by excessive growth of bacteria. Common symptoms include increased vaginal discharge that often smells like fish. The discharge is usually white or gray in color. Burning with urination may occur. Itching is uncommon. Occasionally, there may be no symptoms. Having BV approximately doubles the risk of infection by a number of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. It also increases the risk of early delivery among pregnant women.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: BV is caused by an imbalance of the naturally occurring bacteria in the vagina. There is a change in the most common type of bacteria and a hundred to thousand fold increase in total numbers of bacteria present. Typically, bacteria other than "Lactobacilli" become more common. Risk factors include douching, new or multiple sex partners, antibiotics, and using an intrauterine device, among others. However, it is not considered a sexually transmitted infection and, unlike gonorrhoea and chlamydia, sexual partners are not treated. Diagnosis is suspected based on the symptoms, and may be verified by testing the vaginal discharge and finding a higher than normal vaginal pH, and large numbers of bacteria. BV is often confused with a vaginal yeast infection or infection with "Trichomonas".


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: Usually treatment is with an antibiotic, such as clindamycin or metronidazole. These medications may also be used in the second or third trimesters of pregnancy. However, the condition often recurs following treatment. Probiotics may help prevent re-occurrence. It is unclear if the use of probiotics or antibiotics affects pregnancy outcomes.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: BV is the most common vaginal infection in women of reproductive age. The percentage of women affected at any given time varies between 5% and 70%. BV is most common in parts of Africa and least common in Asia and Europe. In the United States about 30% of women between the ages of 14 and 49 are affected. Rates vary considerably between ethnic groups within a country. While BV-like symptoms have been described for much of recorded history, the first clearly documented case occurred in 1894.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: Although about 50% of women with BV are asymptomatic, common symptoms include increased vaginal discharge that usually smells like fish. The discharge is often white or gray in color. There may be burning with urination. Occasionally, there may be no symptoms.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: The discharge coats the walls of the vagina, and is usually without significant irritation, pain, or erythema (redness), although mild itching can sometimes occur. By contrast, the normal vaginal discharge will vary in consistency and amount throughout the menstrual cycle and is at its clearest at ovulation—about two weeks before the period starts. Some practitioners claim that BV can be asymptomatic in almost half of affected women, though others argue that this is often a misdiagnosis.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: Although previously considered a mere nuisance infection, untreated bacterial vaginosis may cause increased susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and pregnancy complications.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: It has been shown that HIV-infected women with bacterial vaginosis (BV) are more likely to transmit HIV to their sexual partners than those without BV.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: There is evidence of an association between BV and increased rates of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV/AIDS. BV is associated with up to a six-fold increase in HIV shedding. BV is a risk factor for viral shedding and herpes simplex virus type 2 infection. BV may increase the risk of infection with or reactivation of human papillomavirus (HPV).


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: In addition, bacterial vaginosis as either pre-existing, or acquired, may increase the risk of pregnancy complications, most notably premature birth or miscarriage.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: Pregnant women with BV have a higher risk of chorioamnionitis, miscarriage, preterm birth, premature rupture of membranes, and postpartum endometritis. Women with BV who are treated with in vitro fertilization have a lower implantation rate and higher rates of early pregnancy loss.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: Healthy vaginal microbiota consists of species that neither cause symptoms or infections, nor negatively affect pregnancy. It is dominated mainly by Lactobacillus species. BV is defined by the disequilibrium in the vaginal microbiota, with decline in the number of lactobacilli. While the infection involves a number of bacteria, it is believed that most infections start with "Gardnerella vaginalis" creating a biofilm, which allows other opportunistic bacteria to thrive.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: One of the main risks for developing BV is douching, which alters the vaginal microbiota and predisposes women to developing BV. Douching is strongly discouraged by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and various medical authorities, for this and other reasons.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: BV is a risk factor for pelvic inflammatory disease, HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and reproductive and obstetric disorders or negative outcomes. Although BV can be associated with sexual activity, there is no clear evidence of sexual transmission. It is possible for sexually inactive persons to develop bacterial vaginosis.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: Also, subclinical iron deficiency may correlate with bacterial vaginosis in early pregnancy. A longitudinal study published in February 2006, in the "American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology", showed a link between psychosocial stress and bacterial vaginosis persisted even when other risk factors were taken into account. Exposure to the spermicide nonoxynol-9 does not affect the risk of developing bacterial vaginosis.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: To make a diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis, a swab from inside the vagina should be obtained. These swabs can be tested for:


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: The Center for Disease Control (CDC) defines STIs as "a variety of clinical syndromes and infections caused by pathogens that can be acquired and transmitted through sexual activity." But the CDC does not specifically identify BV as sexually transmitted infection.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: A modification of the Amsel criteria accepts the presence of two instead of three factors and is considered equally diagnostic.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: An alternative is to use a Gram-stained vaginal smear, with the Hay/Ison criteria or the Nugent criteria. The Hay/Ison criteria are defined as follows:


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: "Gardnerella vaginalis" is the main culprit in BV. "Gardnerella vaginalis" is a short, Gram-variable rod (coccobacillus). Hence, the presence of clue cells and gram variable coccobacilli are indicative or diagnostic of bacterial vaginosis.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: The Nugent score is now rarely used by physicians due to the time it takes to read the slides and requires the use of a trained microscopist. A score of 0-10 is generated from combining three other scores. The scores are as follows:


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: DNA hybridization testing with Affirm VPIII was compared to the Gram stain using the Nugent criteria. The Affirm VPIII test may be used for the rapid diagnosis of BV in symptomatic women but uses expensive proprietary equipment to read results, and does not detect other pathogens that cause BV, including "Prevotella" spp, "Bacteroides" spp, and "Mobiluncus" spp. The cervicovaginal microbiome measured using 16S rRNA sequencing has the capacity to increase throughput of the Nugent Score and has demonstrate to be directly comparable to clinical Nugent Score measurement.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: Some steps suggested to lower the risk include: not douching, avoiding sex, or limiting the number of sex partners.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: One review concluded that probiotics may help prevent re-occurrence. Another review found that, while there is tentative evidence, it is not strong enough to recommend their use for this purpose.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: Early evidence suggested that antibiotic treatment of male partners could re-establish the normal microbiota of the male urogenital tract and prevent the recurrence of infection. However, a 2016 Cochrane review found high-quality evidence that treating the sexual partners of women with bacterial vaginosis had no effect on symptoms, clinical outcomes, or recurrence in the affected women. It also found that such treatment may lead treated sexual partners to report increased adverse events.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: Treatment is typically with the antibiotics metronidazole or clindamycin. They can be either given by mouth or applied inside the vagina with similar efficacy. About 10% to 15% of people, however, do not improve with the first course of antibiotics and recurrence rates of up to 80% have been documented. Recurrence rates are increased with sexual activity with the same pre-/posttreatment partner and inconsistent condom use although estrogen-containing contraceptives decrease recurrence. When clindamycin is given to pregnant women symptomatic with BV before 22 weeks of gestation the risk of pre-term birth before 37 weeks of gestation is lower.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: Bacterial vaginosis is not considered a sexually transmitted infection, and treatment of a male sexual partner of a woman with bacterial vaginosis is not recommended.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: A 2009 Cochrane review found tentative but insufficient evidence for probiotics as a treatment for BV. A 2014 review reached the same conclusion. A 2013 review found some evidence supporting the use of probiotics during pregnancy. The preferred probiotics for BV are those containing high doses of lactobacilli (around 10 ) given in the vagina. Intravaginal administration is preferred to taking them by mouth. Prolonged repetitive courses of treatment appear to be more promising than short courses.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: The lack of effectiveness of commercially available "Lactobacillus" probiotics may be because most do not actually contain vaginal lactobacilli strains. LACTIN-V is a live biopharmaceutical medication containing the vaginally important "Lactobacillus crispatus" which is under development for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis and recurrent urinary tract infections. It has shown initial effectiveness in considerably reducing recurrence of bacterial vaginosis following antibiotic treatment. LACTIN-V is not yet Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved or commercially available.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: Topical antiseptics, for example dequalinium chloride, policresulen, hexetidine or povidone-iodine vaginal suppositories may be applied, if the risk of ascending infections is low (outside of pregnancy and in immunocompetent people without histories of upper genital tract infections). One study found that vaginal irrigations with hydrogen peroxide (3%) resulted in a slight improvement but this was much less than with the use of oral metronidazole. Intravaginal boric acid in conjunction with other medications may be helpful in the treatment of recurrent BV. TOL-463, a formulation of boric acid enhanced with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), is under development as an intravaginal medication for the treatment of BV and has shown preliminary effectiveness.


title: Bacterial vaginosis

text: BV is the most common infection of the vagina in women of reproductive age. The percentage of women affected at any given time varies between 5% and 70%. BV is most common in parts of Africa, and least common in Asia and Europe. In the United States, about 30% of those between the ages of 14 and 49 are affected. Rates vary considerably between ethnic groups within a country.


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: "Ghostbusters" is a song written by Ray Parker Jr. as the theme to the film of the same name, and included on the film's soundtrack. Debuting at number 68 on June 16, 1984, the song peaked at No. 1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 on August 11, staying there for three weeks (Parker Jr.'s only number one on that chart), and at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart on September 16, staying there for three weeks. The song reentered the UK Top 75 on November 2, 2008 at No. 49 and again on November 5, 2021, at No. 38.


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: The song was nominated at the 57th Academy Awards for Best Original Song but lost to Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You". A lawsuit accusing Parker of basing the song's melody on Huey Lewis and the News's song "I Want a New Drug" resulted in Lewis receiving a settlement.


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: Parker was approached by the film's producers to create a theme song, although he only had a few days to do so and the film's title seemed impossible to include in any lyrics. However, when watching television late at night, Parker saw a cheap commercial for a local service that reminded him that the film had a similar commercial featured for the fictional business. This inspired him to write the song as a pseudo-advertising jingle that the business could have commissioned as a promotion.


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: Lindsey Buckingham, on his interview disc "Words & Music [A Retrospective]", stated that he was approached to write the "Ghostbusters" theme based on his successful contribution to "National Lampoon's Vacation", "Holiday Road". He declined the opportunity as he did not want to be known as a soundtrack artist. Glenn Hughes and Pat Thrall also submitted a demo that was ultimately rejected. The Hughes and Thrall version was later rewritten and used as the track "Dance or Die" for the 1987 film "Dragnet".


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: The music video for the song was directed by Ivan Reitman, who also directed the "Ghostbusters" film, and produced by Jeffrey Abelson. It features a young woman played by actress Cindy Harrell who is haunted by a ghost portrayed by Parker, roaming a nearly all-black house interior (with vibrant neon designs outlining the sparse architectural and industrial features) until the woman finally calls the service.


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: Directed by Reitman, the "Ghostbusters" music video was No. 1 on MTV and features cameos by celebrities Chevy Chase, Irene Cara, John Candy, Melissa Gilbert, Ollie E. Brown, Jeffrey Tambor, George Wendt, Al Franken, Danny DeVito, Carly Simon, Peter Falk and Teri Garr. None of the actors were paid for participating but did so as a favor to Reitman.


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: The video concludes with Parker and the stars of the film, in full Ghostbuster costume, dancing down the streets of New York City. Times Square was closed in order to film the scene, although a sizable crowd may still be seen in the background. The Ghostbusters also perform the same dance in the closing credits to "The Real Ghostbusters" cartoon series, as well as in a trailer for the 2009 .


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: Shortly after the film's release, Huey Lewis sued Ray Parker Jr. for plagiarism, alleging that Parker had copied the melody (primarily the bassline) from Lewis's 1983 song "I Want a New Drug". The case was settled out of court in 1985 for an undisclosed sum and a confidentiality agreement that prohibited discussion of the case. According to Parker, there were several lawsuits at the time, because "when you sell that many records, I think everybody wants to say that they wrote the song." Parker later sued Lewis for breaching the confidentiality agreement in a 2001 episode of VH1's "Behind the Music" by reasserting that Parker stole the song. Regarding his case against Lewis, Parker said, "I got a lot of money out of that."


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: In a 2004 article for "Premiere" magazine, the filmmakers admitted to using the song "I Want a New Drug" as temporary background music in many scenes. They also noted that they had offered to hire Huey Lewis and the News to write the main theme but the band had declined. The filmmakers then gave film footage, with Lewis's song in the background, to Parker to aid him in writing the theme song.


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: Ray Parker, Jr.'s "Ghostbusters" reached number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart on August 11, 1984, two months after the film's release, and remained there for three weeks. It spent a total of 21 weeks on the charts.


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: For the soundtrack of the film's 1989 sequel, "Ghostbusters II", Run-D.M.C. recorded a hip hop version of "Ghostbusters", featuring new lyrics. It was released on 7-inch vinyl and cassette as a standard single, as well as on 12-inch vinyl and CD as a double A-side maxi single with the track "Pause" from Run-D.M.C.'s fifth studio album, "Back from Hell".


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: The song's music video begins with Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts climbing out of a limousine in front of a large crowd, with Run-D.M.C., dressed in the standard beige Ghostbusters' uniform, accompanying them. The group then performs the song on stage to a packed audience for the remainder of the video, intercut with clips from the film. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson also cameo at the beginning of the video as security personnel.


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: Finnish rock band The Rasmus recorded a cover of the song which is included on their debut album" Peep" and EP album" 3rd", both from 1996, as well as their compilation album" Hellofacollection" by 2001.


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: In 2005, the original song was covered by the animated character Mickael Turtle, reaching No. 5 in France on December 3, 2005, and No. 23 in Switzerland on January 15, 2006.


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: "Ghostbusters (I'm Not Afraid)", a version of the song by American rock band Fall Out Boy, featuring hip hop recording artist Missy Elliott, was released on June 23, 2016, from the soundtrack of the 2016 reboot "Ghostbusters". The cover received negative reviews from critics, who criticized its musical structure.


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: Another cover version of the song appears on the soundtrack album to the "Ghostbusters" reboot film. Unlike the very different song first released by Fall Out Boy and Missy Elliott, Walk the Moon's version is much closer to the original song.


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: Over the years, a handful of local and national businesses across North America and around the world have done parodies of the Ghostbusters theme for advertising or promotional purposes, and used an instrumental version of either the original theme or a remake. The most notable parodies were used by CBS station KMOX-TV (now KMOV) in St. Louis, AutoNation, and the Carpet Mart chain of Central and Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania among others. In the UK, the 118 118 directory assistance telephone service also used the Ghostbusters theme in one of their ads, and featured Ray Parker Jr. performing the parody. In Romania, Automobile Dacia released a television advertisement in 2018 for one of its models, the Duster, accompanied by the song, in an instrumental version, but with people in various costumes singing "Go, Duster!" when in the standard song the chorus says "Ghostbusters!".


title: Ghostbusters (song)

text: American musician and comedian Neil Cicierega uses the song in "Bustin", released on his 2017 album "Mouth Moods". It takes Parker Jr.'s vocals and edits them to feature many innuendos, most notably by repeating the titular line "Bustin makes me feel good" to use it as slang for ejaculation.


title: K. Chandru

text: Justice K. Chandru (born 1951), is an Indian advocate and former judge of Madras High Court. Chandru has disposed of 96,000 cases during his tenure as a Judge. Chandru is known for a case which took place in 1993 when he was practising as a lawyer, to which the film Jai Bhim is dedicated.


title: K. Chandru

text: Chandru was born in Srirangam in Tiruchirappalli District, Tamil Nadu. He was a former student activist of Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was expelled from Loyola College, Chennai for leading student agitations. He then joined Madras Christian College in his third year of college to finish his undergraduate education. After graduation, he did community service and full-time political and party work of CPI (M) till 1988. He later joined the law college in 1973 where he was not given a hostel seat due to him being a student leader, he later got his seat after going for an indefinite fast before the college campus. Chandru then worked at a law firm, Row & Reddy for eight years. He was expelled from the party in 1988 for opposing Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War since CPI(M) supported it. Chandru was inspired by B. R. Ambedkar.


title: K. Chandru

text: He traveled throughout Tamil Nadu, lived with different people and understood the plurality of the society and culture.


title: K. Chandru

text: K. Chandru as an advocate practiced both in criminal and civil side in the Madras High Court. He was made an Additional Judge of the High Court on July 31, 2006, and was made a permanent Judge on November 9, 2009. Justice K. Chandru was a well-respected judge among the judiciary and is known for his judgments that impacted the lives of many impoverished and downtrodden people. During his judicial career, Justice K. Chandru pronounced over 96,000 verdicts. He was known for fighting against caste discrimination and for the rights of backward communities in Tamil Nadu. He did not want a security guard and didn't want to be addressed as "My Lord" in courts. He retired as a judge in 2013 and did not accept a farewell. He now lives in Chennai.


title: K. Chandru

text: The 2021 movie "Jai Bhim" was made around a legal case fought by K. Chandru in 1993. Actor Suriya played the role of Chandru. Chandru was involved in the making of the film from the story discussion to post-production.


title: Peyton Meyer

text: Peyton Meyer (born November 24, 1998) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Lucas Friar on the Disney Channel television series "Girl Meets World", and his earlier recurring role as Wes Manning on Disney Channel's "Dog with a Blog". He starred in the 2021 Netflix film "He's All That".


title: Peyton Meyer

text: In 2013, Meyer made his debut with Disney Channel Original Series "Dog with a Blog". In 2014, he landed a main role in the Disney Channel Original Series "Girl Meets World", spinoff of "Boy Meets World" where he plays the role of Lucas Friar. Meyer also guest starred on "Best Friends Whenever", where he reprised his role as Lucas Friar.


title: Peyton Meyer

text: In 2016, Meyer starred as Tommy in the family comedy film "Gibby", which tells the story of a monkey who brings happiness to a grief-stricken girl. In 2017, he played the role of Ethan in Go90's web series "Versus". From 2018 to 2021, he played the recurring role of Trip, Taylor's (Meg Donnelly) new boyfriend, in the ABC series "American Housewife".


title: Peyton Meyer

text: In October 2021, Meyer announced that he had married musician Taela and that the two were expecting their first child together, who was born in March 2022. He is also stepfather to her son.


title: Caudal regression syndrome

text: Caudal regression syndrome, or sacral agenesis (or hypoplasia of the sacrum), is a rare birth defect. It is a congenital disorder in which the fetal development of the lower spine—the caudal partition of the spine—is abnormal. It occurs at a rate of approximately one per 60,000 live births.


title: Caudal regression syndrome

text: Some babies are born with very small differences compared to typical development, and others have significant changes. Most grow up to be otherwise typical adults who have difficulty with walking and incontinence.


title: Caudal regression syndrome

text: This condition exists in a variety of forms, ranging from partial absence of the tail bone regions of the spine to absence of the lower vertebrae, pelvis and parts of the thoracic and/or lumbar areas of the spine. In some cases, where only a small part of the spine is absent, there may be no outward sign of the condition. In cases where more substantial areas of the spine are absent, there may be fused, webbed or smaller lower extremities and paralysis. Bowel and bladder control is usually affected.


title: Caudal regression syndrome

text: The condition arises from some factor or set of factors present during approximately the 3rd week to 7th week of fetal development. Formation of the sacrum/lower back and corresponding nervous system is usually nearing completion by the 4th week of development. Due to abnormal gastrulation, the mesoderm migration is disturbed. This disturbance results in symptoms varying from minor lesions of the lower vertebrae to more severe symptoms such as complete fusion of the lower limbs. While the exact cause is unknown, it has been speculated that the condition has a combination of environmental and genetic causes, and that various types of the condition may have differing causes.


title: Caudal regression syndrome

text: Sacral agenesis syndrome (a type of caudal regression syndrome involving agenesis of the lumbar spine, sacrum, and coccyx, and hypoplasia of the lower extremities) is a well-established congenital anomaly associated with maternal diabetes mellitus. Other causes are presumably involved, as demonstrated by the rare overall incidence of caudal regression syndrome (1:60,000) compared to diabetes; however, the condition does have a greatly increased incidence among infants born to mothers with diabetes, estimated at 1 in 350 newborns of mothers with diabetes.


title: Caudal regression syndrome

text: The dominant inherited sacral agenesis (also referred to as Currarino syndrome) is very often correlated with a mutation in the Hb9 (also called HlxB9) gene (shown by Sally Ann Lynch, 1995, Nature Genetics).


title: Caudal regression syndrome

text: It was previously thought to be related to sirenomelia ("Mermaid syndrome") but has now been determined not to be related to this condition.


title: Caudal regression syndrome

text: There are four levels (or types) of malformation. The least severe indicates partial deformation (unilateral) of the sacrum. The second level indicates a bilateral (uniform) deformation. The most severe types involve a total absence of the sacrum.


title: Caudal regression syndrome

text: Depending on the type of sacral agenesis, bowel or urinary bladder deficiencies may be present. A permanent colostomy may be necessary in the case of imperforate anus. Incontinence may also require some type of continence control system (e.g., self-catheterization) to be utilized. The condition often impacts the formation of the knees, legs or feet that is sometimes addressed through surgery. For some with tightly webbed, bent knees or knees that are fused straight, disarticulation surgery at the knee may be a viable option to maximize mobility options.


title: Caudal regression syndrome

text: Before more comprehensive medical treatment was available, full amputation of the legs at the hip was often performed. More recently, the amputation (actually a disarticulation because no cutting of the bone is involved) is done at the knee for those who have bent knee positions and webbing between thigh and calf to enable more ease of mobility and better seating. Some children with knee disarticulation use prosthetic legs to walk. Prosthetics for children without substantial hip and trunk control is usually abandoned in favor of faster and easier wheelchair mobility as the child's weight and age increase. Children may walk on their hands and generally are able to climb and move about to accomplish whatever they need and want to accomplish. Children more mildly affected may have normal gait and no need for assistive devices for walking. Others may walk with bracing or crutches.


title: Caudal regression syndrome

text: There is typically no cognitive impairment associated with this disability. Adults with this disability live independently, attend college, and have careers in various fields. In 2012, Spencer West, a man with sacral agenesis and both legs amputated, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro using only his hands. In 2021, athlete Zion Clark broke the Guinness World Record 20 m running on hands.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: As of February 2018, the number of separatist forces were estimated at 31,000 out of which 80% (25,000) were Donbas residents, 15% (≈5,000) were military contractors from Russia and other countries and 3% (900–1,000) were regular Russian armed forces personnel. This proportion has significantly changed from earlier years, with "Russian command gradually filling up the military of the 'republics' with locals" since peaking in 2015.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: Igor Girkin, a Russian citizen from Moscow who commanded the Donbas People's Militia in Sloviansk, initially denied Russian involvement in the insurgency. He said his unit was formed during the Crimean crisis, and that two-thirds of its members were Ukrainian citizens. Girkin also said that the Sloviansk insurgents had agreed to work with the leadership of the Donetsk People's Republic, despite some conflict between insurgent groups. According to a spokesman for the Donetsk People's Republic, the militants that occupied Sloviansk were "an independent group...supporting the Donetsk protest", while insurgents in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk identified themselves as members of Pavel Gubarev's Donbas People's Militia.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: The group's forces at Sloviansk included some professional soldiers amongst their ranks, as well as retired veterans, civilians, and volunteers, while those in Donetsk have been confirmed to include former Berkut special police officers. When asked by "The Sunday Telegraph" where their weapons had come from, one veteran of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan nodded at the Russian flag flying from the police station and said: "Look at that flag. You know which country that represents". An insurgent commander in Donetsk, Pavel Paramonov, told journalists he was from Tula Oblast in Russia. In Horlivka, police who defected were commanded by a retired Lieutenant Colonel of the Russian Army, later identified as Igor Bezler. Former Soviet military veteran Vyacheslav Ponomarev, who declared himself mayor of Sloviansk, said that he appealed to old military friends to take part in the militia: "When I called on my friends, practically all of whom are ex military, they came to our rescue, not only from Russia but also from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Moldova."


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: A former separatist militant corroborated these stories in an interview with Radio Free Europe. He said that fighters, including some Cossack units, arrived from Russia to support the separatists. Another interview with an insurgent from Saint Petersburg was published in "Gazeta". He claimed to be fighting voluntarily as part of the Russian Imperial Movement.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: In late July 2014, the local support for the militia within the city of Donetsk was estimated to be 70% by a local entrepreneur interviewed by "Die Welt". Armed groups affiliated with the Luhansk People's Republic were merged with the Donbas People's Militia on 16 September to form the "United Armed Forces of Novorossiya".


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: The Army of the South-East (, "Armiya Yugo-Vostoka") was a pro-Russian militant group that occupied various buildings in Luhansk Oblast. According to "The Guardian", their personnel include former members of the disbanded Berkut special police. They were affiliated with the Luhansk People's Republic, but were merged with the Donbas People's Militia on 16 September to form the United Armed Forces of Novorossiya.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: The Russian Orthodox Army (, "Russkaya pravoslavnaya armiya"), a pro-Russian insurgent group in Ukraine, originated in May 2014 as part of the insurgency. It reportedly had 100 members at the time of its founding, including locals and Russian volunteers. As fighting between separatists and the Ukrainian government worsened in Donbas, membership rose to 350, and later to 4,000.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: Notable engagements of the ROA include the June 2014 skirmishes in Mariupol and Amvrosiivka Raion. The headquarters of the ROA is located in an occupied Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) building in Donetsk city. Members swore allegiance to Igor Girkin ("Strelkov"), insurgent and Minister of Defence of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic. According to the Defence Ministry of Ukraine, the ROA has been in conflict with another pro-Russian militia, the Vostok Battalion, which accused the ROA of looting, and of avoiding combat.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: The Vostok Battalion (, ; lit. "East Battalion") was formed in early May 2014. It is commanded by Alexander Khodakovsky, a defector from the Security Service of Ukraine. Khodakovsky is the chief of the DPR's security service, and of the Patriotic Forces of Donbas, an insurgent battalion.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: Khodakovsky said that the "overwhelming majority" of his men came from eastern Ukraine. According to the US government funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Vostok reportedly includes former members of the original Vostok Battalion, a special forces unit of the Russian intelligence directorate (GRU) that participated in the Second Chechen and Russo-Georgian Wars. The original battalion was incorporated in 2009 into a Russian Defence Ministry reserve unit that is based in Chechnya. Khodakovsky said he had about 1,000 men at his disposal, and that more "volunteers" with experience in the Russian security sector were expected to join the battalion. A report by Radio Free Europe said that there were suspicions that the battalion was either created directly by the GRU, or that it was at least sanctioned by it. The battalion includes both fighters from Russia and from Ukraine. A BBC News report said that the battalion was composed largely of untrained locals from eastern Ukraine, with a smattering of Russian volunteers. Colombian and United States citizens have volunteered in Vostok battalion. A number of the Vostok insurgents were killed at the First Battle of Donetsk Airport. 30 bodies were repatriated to Russia after the fighting. Some of the members said they received salaries of 100 US dollars a week, though they maintained that were only volunteers. An Armenian volunteer in the unit said the battalion was composed of Slavs, and that roughly 80% of militants were from Russia.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: In May 2014, then Ukrainian president Oleksandr Turchynov stated that numerous Ukrainian military and security personnel had joined the separatists, alongside stolen Ukrainian military equipment. In October 2014, Internal Affairs minister Arsen Avakov told journalists that about 15,000 Ukrainian policemen in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts had defected to the separatists.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: Some identified maverick neo-Cossack volunteers, particularly Don Cossacks who live on both sides of the border, are participants in the war, along with some self-styled neo-Cossack groups. Several of these Cossacks formed a paramilitary unit called the 'Terek Wolves Sotnia', a reference to a detachment of White emigre Cossacks that fought against the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Prominent fighters include Alexander "Boogeyman" Mozhaev (a Russian military veteran from Belorechensk) and the unit's commander, Evgeny Ponomarev. Ponomarev was killed in August 2014.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: Although Cossack units have been prohibited from crossing the Russian border into Ukraine en masse, it has been reported that Russian elements tacitly support the individual fighters in crossing the border into Ukraine. The Cossacks claim that it is their faith in Cossack brotherhood, Russian imperialism, and the Russian Orthodox Church that has driven them to take part in the insurgency with the aim of conquering what they perceive as "historically Russian lands." Mozhaev also stated that some of the more extreme views of the Cossacks include destroying "the Jew-Masons," who they claim have been "fomenting disorder all over the world" and "causing us, the common Orthodox Christian folk, to suffer." On 25 May, the SBU arrested 13 Russian Cossacks in Luhansk.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: The Foreign Affairs ministry of Ukraine said that the presence of foreign soldiers amounted to "undisguised aggression" from Russia, and "the export of Russian terrorism to our country". "There are grounds to affirm that Russian terrorists funnelled on to the territory of Ukraine are being organised and financed through the direct control of the Kremlin and Russian special forces," the ministry said. To date, reports and interviews have shown the presence of Chechen, Ossetian, Tajik, Afghan, Armenian, and various Russian paramilitary forces operating in Ukraine.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: Chechen paramilitaries were spotted in Sloviansk on 5 May 2014. Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov threatened on 7 May that he would "send tens of thousands of Chechen volunteers to southern and eastern Ukraine if the junta in Kiev continued its punitive operations." It was reported that Kadyrov engaged in an aggressive recruitment campaign in Chechnya for this operation, and that there were recruitment centres for it in Grozny, Achkhoy-Martan, Znamenskoye, and Gudermes. The Kavkazcenter, the official website of the North Caucasus Islamic insurgency, reported that Chechen authorities had opened recruiting offices for volunteers wishing to fight in Ukraine, and that those offices had suddenly closed.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: Five lorries crossed the Ukraine-Russia border carrying militants aboard on 24 May, with some reports suggesting among the militants were veteran Chechen soldiers. On the following day, the Vostok Battalion arrived in Donetsk in a convoy of eight lorries, each filled with 20 soldiers. Several of the soldiers looked Chechen, spoke the Chechen language, and said that they were from Chechnya. Two insurgents told CNN reporters that these were Chechen volunteers.


title: Combatants of the war in Donbas

text: Ramzan Kadyrov denied knowledge of the presence Chechen troops in Ukraine, but a separatist commander later confirmed that Chechens and militants of other ethnicities fought for the Donetsk People's Militia. In the aftermath of the First Battle of Donetsk Airport, local authorities said that some wounded militants were Chechens from Grozny and Gudermes. One Donetsk resident said that the presence of Chechen fighters showed "that this war is not clean. It is artificially created. If this is an uprising by the Donetsk People's Republic, what are foreigners doing here?"