title: First Republic of Armenia

text: Ending early 1920, the Paris Peace Conference was inconclusive in the resolution of the Transcaucasian territorial disputes, therefore, the Armenian Republic, by this time in a much stronger position to assert itself, took it upon themselves to free the Karabakh Council from its callous Azerbaijani governor. Subversive preparations began for a staged uprising in the region of the Karabakh Council, timed to coincide with Azerbaijani Novruz celebrations. The uprising due to its poor coordination was unsuccessful in ousting the Azerbaijani garrisons from Shusha and neighboring Khankend, resulting in a pogrom against Shushi's majority Armenian population, in which the Azerbaijani garrison and residents burned and looted half of the city.


title: First Republic of Armenia

text: Following the uprising, Armenian forces under the command of Garegin Nzhdeh and Dro Kanayan were dispatched by Yerevan to assist the Karabakh rebels, at the same time Azerbaijan moved most of its army westward to break the Armenian resistance and its reinforcements, despite the threat of the approaching 11th Red Army of Bolshevik Russia from the north. By Azerbaijan's Sovietization barely a month after the uprising began, Azerbaijani forces were able to maintain control over the central cities of Karabakh, Shushi and Khankend, whilst its immediate surroundings were firmly in the hands of Armenian villagers supplemented by the Armenian armed forces. This situation persisted until the overwhelming Bolshevik army drove out the Armenian army detachments from the region, after which the fears of the Armenians of Karabakh were alleviated by virtue of returning to the stability of Russian control.


title: First Republic of Armenia

text: The Treaty of Sèvres was signed between the Allied and Associated Powers and the Ottoman Empire at Sèvres, France on 10 August 1920. The treaty included a clause on Armenia: it made all parties signing the treaty recognize Armenia as a free and independent state. The drawing of definite borders was, however, left to President Woodrow Wilson and the United States State Department, and was only presented to Armenia on 22 November. The new borders gave Armenia access to the Black Sea and awarded large portions of the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire to the republic (known as Wilsonian Armenia in historiography).


title: First Republic of Armenia

text: On 20 September 1920, the Turkish general Kâzım Karabekir, operating under the orders of the Ankara Government led by Mustafa Kemal, invaded the region of Sarikamish. In response, Armenia declared war on Turkey on 24 September and the Turkish–Armenian War began. In the regions of Oltu, Sarikamish, Kars, Alexandropol (Gyumri) Armenian forces clashed with those of Karabekir's XV Corps. Fearful of possible Russian support for Armenia, Mustafa Kemal Pasha had earlier sent several delegations to Moscow in search of an alliance, finding a receptive response from the Soviet government, which started sending gold and weapons to the Turkish revolutionaries. This proved disastrous for the Armenians.


title: First Republic of Armenia

text: The 11th Red Army began its virtually unopposed advance into Armenia on 29 November 1920. The actual transfer of power took place on 2 December in Yerevan. The Armenian leadership approved an ultimatum, presented to it by the Soviet plenipotentiary Boris Legran. Armenia decided to join the Soviet sphere, while Soviet Russia agreed to protect its remaining territory from the advancing Turkish army. The Soviets also pledged to take steps to rebuild the army, protect the Armenians and to not pursue non-communist Armenians. The final condition of this pledge was reneged on when the Dashnaks were forced out of the country following an attempted uprising.


title: First Republic of Armenia

text: Armenia gave way to communist power in late 1920. In November 1920, the Turkish revolutionaries captured Alexandropol and were poised to move in on the capital. A ceasefire was concluded on 18 November. Negotiations were then carried out between Karabekir and a peace delegation led by Alexander Khatisian in Alexandropol; although Karabekir's terms were extremely harsh the Armenian delegation had little recourse but to agree to them. The Treaty of Alexandropol was thus signed on 3 December 1920.


title: First Republic of Armenia

text: On 5 December, the Armenian Revolutionary Committee ("Revkom", made up of mostly Armenians from Azerbaijan) also entered the city. Finally, on the following day, 6 December, Felix Dzerzhinsky's Cheka entered Yerevan, thus effectively ending the existence of the First Republic of Armenia. At that point what was left of Armenia was under the influence of the Bolsheviks. The part occupied by Turkey remained for the most part theirs, as laid out in the terms of the subsequent Treaty of Kars. Soon, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed, under the leadership of Aleksandr Myasnikyan. It was to be included in the newly created Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic.


title: First Republic of Armenia

text: The Sardarapat Memorial at the site of the Battle of Sardarabad is the symbol of the First Republic. Every year on May 28, Armenia's political leadership and thousands of ordinary people visit the memorial to celebrate the foundation of Armenian statehood.


title: First Republic of Armenia

text: In his "Antranik of Armenia" short story, Armenian-American writer William Saroyan writes about the First Republic of Armenia. "It was a small nation of course, a very unimportant nation, surrounded on all sides by enemies, but for two years Armenia was Armenia, and the capital was Erivan. For the first time in thousands of years Armenia was Armenia."


title: Quiznos

text: Quiz Holdings, LLC, doing business as Quiznos, is an American franchised fast-food restaurant based in Denver, Colorado, that specializes in offering toasted submarine sandwiches. It was founded in 1981 by Jimmy Lambatos and sold to Rick and Richard Schaden ten years later, before growing to nearly 5,000 restaurants afterwards. , Quiznos was the second-largest submarine sandwich shop chain in North America, behind Subway. A 2016 survey indicated that Quiznos was the ninth-largest submarine sandwich shop chain based on sales. The publications "Restaurant Business" and Mashed.com reported in mid-2018 that Quiznos had only 400 locations remaining by 2017 after a high of 4,700 locations in 2007 just a decade earlier, while "Money" reported in May 2018 that Quiznos had 1,500 locations across the U.S.


title: Quiznos

text: The first Quiznos restaurant was opened in Denver, Colorado, by founder Jimmy Lambatos. At the time, Lambatos was an experienced chef, having previously worked as an executive chef for the Colorado Mine Co. Steakhouse, and having founded the Italian restaurant Footers in 1978. He founded Quiznos with partner Todd Disner in the spring of 1981. The first location was at the corner of 13th and Grant Streets in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of the city. According to Kevin Jenkins, "It was there that recipes for Quiznos special baguette-style bread, special dressings and unique recipes were created."


title: Quiznos

text: According to Patrick Sweeney, "The sandwich shop earned a following for its toasted subs that Lambatos said were inspired by the oven-baked sandwiches he enjoyed while growing up in New York." Lambatos said of his decision to toast the submarine sandwiches at the first Quiznos that, "it's a signature type of thing. Heating anything brings out the flavors in food products." The restaurant menu featured toasted submarine sandwiches, as well as salads, soups, and desserts.


title: Quiznos

text: After two years, the restaurant started offering franchises to facilitate expansion offering its first franchises in 1983. The franchises were offered under the name Quiznos American, Inc. By 1987, 12 Quiznos restaurant locations were operating in the United States. That year, Rick Schaden, at the age of 23, and his father, aviation attorney Richard Schaden, opened their first Quiznos franchise in a Boulder, Colorado, shopping center. They opened three additional restaurants before purchasing the 18-restaurant chain from the founders in January 1991 and renamed it the Quiznos Franchise Corp. Rick Schaden became the president, and then CEO, of Quiznos after the purchase. Jenkins wrote that Schaden, "began building a professional infrastructure to support franchise owners that included volume purchasing, standardized training, and operations procedures, as well as marketing support." Quiznos was taken public in February 1994, with an initial public offering of one million shares of stock at $5 per share, resulting in a $4.4 million yield. By the end of 1995, Quiznos had 103 different locations.


title: Quiznos

text: In 1997, Quiznos became the number-three submarine sandwich franchise in the world, with 278 locations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The following year, Quiznos Canada acquired the master franchise rights to Quiznos restaurants in Canada, as well as the master rights in the United Kingdom in 1999. Glenvista Enterprises then acquired the rights for several states in Australia. KMN USA LLC acquired the franchise rights for Japan, opening its first location in early 1999. The company again went private in June 2001. In 2005, the company partnered with Ray Wilson to open a new chain of fitness clubs called 123 Fit. At its peak in 2007, there were more than 5,000 Quiznos franchise locations. In 2014, Quiznos opened locations in Iraq and Pakistan.


title: Quiznos

text: In 2002, Wendy's acquired the rights to the brand for franchises in Australia, and later, New Zealand, but was unsuccessful in launching the chain in either country. The first location in Mexico opened in Monterrey in 2002.


title: Quiznos

text: The first location in India opened in Hyderabad in 2011, followed by the first location in the Philippines opened in 2012.


title: Quiznos

text: Quiznos opened its first Taiwan location in Taipei and also its first United Arab Emirates location in Abu Dhabi in September 2014. Quiznos exited the Taiwan market in July 2018 based on a post on the Quiznostaiwan Facebook page.


title: Quiznos

text: Quiznos also operated restaurants across Ireland, operated by Supermacs. Today, all of these have been replaced by Supersubs and the only remaining Quiznos is located in Dublin city.


title: Quiznos

text: Between 2007 and 2009, 1,000 Quiznos stores in the United States closed. After the closure of around 2,000 restaurants during the Great Recession, a majority stake in the company was purchased by Avenue Capital Group of New York in January 2012. According to Ed Sealover, the purchase was done in "a deal that eliminated about one-third of the company's $900 million debt and infused about $150 million cash into the company." Avenue Capital Group brought on turnaround specialist Harsha V. Agadi as Quiznos executive chairman. They also brought on Stuart Mathis as CEO, and the former president of The UPS Store stated that the company would try to counteract shrinking sales by promoting "the quality of its food."


title: Quiznos

text: On March 14, 2014, Quiznos filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado. Quiznos said it would continue operating while it restructured its debt and made operational improvements. Quiznos emerged from bankruptcy about four months later on June 30, 2014, and reduced its debt by approximately $400 million.


title: Quiznos

text: On December 1, 2015, Quiznos opened a concept restaurant called Quiznos Grill hoping to re-brand its products and increase menu offerings. Initial reviews of this restaurant highlighted the high price (US$20) once items were added to the sandwich (vegetables, cheese, etc.) or meal (chips, drinks, etc.). In late 2016, the Quiznos Grill concept was abandoned and relaunched as Zeps Epiq Sandwiches. Some of the Quiznos Grill sandwiches remained on the menu, while vegetarian choices, salads, all-day breakfasts, and loaded tater tots were added.


title: Quiznos

text: On June 11, 2018, Quiznos announced that it was acquired by California-based High Bluff Capital Partners. The chain will maintain its headquarters in Denver.


title: Quiznos

text: In 2010 the chain said it planned to expand to locations in over 40 countries and territories, including Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Central and South America, by 2012. In July 2013, the company stated it planned to expand into Russia, where it is looking to open about 500 stores. "QSR" wrote in November 2013 that, "Following its most recent international successes in Mexico, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates, Quiznos will bring toasted sandwiches to Indonesia with the signature of PT Quiznosindo as the brand’s newest franchisor. The group, led by Tan Po Lian, plans to open 100 units in Indonesia over the next 10 years...Expansion into Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines, and Indonesia is part of Quiznos’ continued international development plan to open more than 1,000 international stores in more than 40 countries by 2020."


title: Quiznos

text: Bankruptcy and restructuring upset many of these plans. As of March 31, 2022, there were 176 Quiznos restaurants in the United States and around 200 in 30-plus countries.


title: Quiznos

text: The company's first major advertising push was a successful advertising campaign during the 2002 Super Bowl. Early TV spots advertised the innovation of toasting sandwiches, as compared to the inventor of pants (humorously contrasted with men wearing bushes). One commercial in 2003 depicted a man (played by Jim Parsons) who had been "raised by wolves" by suckling at a mother wolf's teat. Other promotions include an early 2004 campaign featuring bizarre, rodent-like, singing creatures called Spongmonkeys, edited by Joel Veitch as well as a series of Quiznos commercials in Canada featuring hockey commentator Don Cherry. In 2005, Quiznos launched a campaign featuring Baby Bob.


title: Quiznos

text: In June 2006, Quiznos revealed its new slogan: "Eat Up." Ads nationwide feature a Quiznos sub with steam emanating from it with the tagline, "Mmmm... toasty." Actor Michael Clarke Duncan formerly provided the voiceover for all Quiznos commercials. On September 18, 2006, Quiznos launched the most aggressive advertising campaign aimed at Subway. Dubbed the "Prime Rib Cheesesteak Challenge," customers were asked to compare the brand new Prime Rib Cheesesteak against Subway's Cheesesteak sandwich. The claim is that the Prime Rib Cheesesteak has twice the meat of Subway's Cheesesteak. If the customers are not satisfied, then they can fill out a form, mail the form along with their receipt, and they will receive a coupon for a free sandwich. In subsequent advertisements, Quiznos was shown competing with the fictional "Wrong Way" restaurant based on competing restaurants.


title: Quiznos

text: The Coca-Cola Company was originally the primary soft drink supplier for the franchise, until 2005. At that time, Coca-Cola signed an exclusive agreement to provide soft drinks to the competing Subway franchise. As a result, Quiznos signed an exclusive deal with PepsiCo (except in Canada and on college campuses that have exclusive deals with Coca-Cola) and Dr Pepper Snapple Group (to serve Dr Pepper). However, in 2019 Quiznos switched back to Coca-Cola products, ending their 14-year relationship with Pepsi.


title: Quiznos

text: In 2016, the company launched their mobile based loyalty program. This app was aimed at rewarding Quiznos' most loyal customers and to gather customer feedback to improve product and operations.


title: Quiznos

text: In 2004, Quiznos started using fuzzy-looking creatures called the Spongmonkeys (which were designed by Joel Veitch) in their advertising commercials. One of them plays a guitar, and the other sings a song called "We Love the Subs", in an apparent and shorter spoof of their original song, "We Like the Moon". Several commercials with the Spongmonkeys were released, including ones about rejoice and coupons. However, after a few months, Quiznos discontinued airing the commercials.


title: Quiznos

text: Quiznos has been the target of several lawsuits related to its treatment of franchisees, including lawsuits in New Jersey and Wisconsin. It has faced more lawsuits from franchisees than bigger chains, such as McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, and even its sandwich competitors Subway and Blimpie, according to an analysis by the legal research firm Thomson West. In February 2007, Quiznos franchisees filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status in Michigan. One lawsuit (filed in New Jersey and seeking class-action status) said that the astounding growth record of Quiznos was merely a mirage. In 2003 and 2004, Quiznos said it sold 234 "trade areas" in the state of New Jersey to franchisees, collecting the $25,000 franchisee fee, but none of these locations ever opened, according to the lawsuit. Three years after handing over her check for the fee, Elisa Whitehall said that she had yet to open a Quiznos in the location she bought and that Quiznos refused to return the fee.


title: Quiznos

text: One lawsuit cited a memorandum drafted by a Quiznos lawyer in 2003 that stated, "40 percent of Quiznos units are not breaking even," a fact that prospective franchisees say they were never told. The Small Business Administration said 23.4 percent of Quiznos franchises with SBA loans failed. In contrast, Subway had a 4.8 percent failure rate.


title: Quiznos

text: As a single example of an unprofitable franchise, Fredrick N. Westerfield was running three Quiznos in Wisconsin. After spending $14,000 in personal savings to keep the stores running, he realized he had a debt of $750,000. He closed all his stores in 2005. "Customers used to come into the store and say to me, 'You must be rolling in the money,'" recalled Mr. Westerfield. "If they only knew."


title: Quiznos

text: In 2002, the "Seattle Times" reported that the company initially ignored the plight of a Quiznos employee who took over operations of one Quiznos store after the true owner abandoned it. Months later, the store was closed. In June 2004, the Quiznos at Downtown Crossing, Boston, was at the center of a hepatitis scare.


title: Quiznos

text: In 2006, Quiznos sent letters to 300 franchises saying mystery shoppers would be coming to test their services. The company sued franchise owners Richard Piotrowski and Ellen Blickman for not putting enough meat in a prime rib sandwich. Piotrowski and Blickman countersued and won the lawsuit in 2009. Judge Morris Hoffman called the meat-weighing exercise and subsequent termination letters a "charade" aimed at bolstering a national ad campaign against rival Subway.


title: Quiznos

text: On November 27, 2006, Bhupinder Baber, franchise owner of two Long Beach, California, Quiznos locations, died by suicide after a legal battle with the company. In his suicide note, Baber said that the way he was treated by Quizno's drove him to suicide. The Toasted Subs Franchisee Association (TSFA), a group of franchisees, posted Baber's suicide note on its website, and intended to raise money for Baber's family. Quiznos attempted to terminate the TSFA's franchises. The TSFA in turn filed an injunction on December 15, 2006, in the District Court of Colorado. A 2014 article in the "Long Beach Post" suggested that the factors that contributed to Baber's suicide also led to the parent company's bankruptcy in 2014.


title: Quiznos

text: As of July 1, 2010, Quiznos was close to reaching a settlement over the multiyear class-action lawsuit that covers nearly 10,000 of its current and former franchisees. The case comprises four separate class-action lawsuits dating back to 2006 which consolidated in 2009 — involved allegations by attorneys for franchisees that Quiznos Franchise Co. LLC and other entities with ownership or control of the Quiznos chain had violated U.S. racketeering and corruption statutes. Also at issue was the chain's supply chain and food costs, marketing and advertising funds, and disputes among toad face agreed to, but did not open, locations and whether royalties are owed. Quiznos denied all claims made in the lawsuits and the settlement agreement involves no finding or admission of liability, nonetheless the cost to Quiznos has been estimated from $100 to $200 million while also forcing it to implement a new business plan "which puts more support into its franchisees".


title: Electronic voting in India

text: Electronic voting is the standard means of conducting elections using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in India. The system was developed and tested by the state-owned Electronics Corporation of India and Bharat Electronics in the 1990s. They were introduced in Indian elections between 1998 and 2001, in a phased manner. Prior to the introduction of electronic voting, India used paper ballots and manual counting. The paper ballots method was widely criticised because of fraudulent voting and booth capturing, where party loyalists captured booths and stuffed them with pre-filled fake ballots. The printed paper ballots were also more expensive, requiring substantial post-voting resources to count hundreds of millions of individual ballots. Embedded EVM features such as "electronically limiting the rate of casting votes to five per minute", a security "lock-close" feature, an electronic database of "voting signatures and thumb impressions" to confirm the identity of the voter, conducting elections in phases over several weeks while deploying extensive security personnel at each booth have helped reduce electoral fraud and abuse, eliminate booth capturing and create more competitive and fairer elections. Indian EVMs are stand-alone machines built with once write, read-only memory. The EVMs are produced with secure manufacturing practices, and by design, are self-contained, battery-powered and lack any networking capability. They do not have any wireless or wired internet components and interface. The M3 version of the EVMs includes the VVPAT system.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: In recent elections, various opposition parties have alleged faulty EVMs after they failed to defeat the incumbent. After rulings of Delhi High Court, the Supreme Court of India in 2011 directed the Election Commission to include a paper trail as well to help confirm the reliable operation of EVMs. The Election Commission developed EVMs with voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) system between 2012 and 2013. The system was tried on a pilot basis in the 2014 Indian general election. EVMs and accompanying Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) are now used in every assembly and general election in India and a small percentage of the VVPATs are verified. On 9 April 2019, Supreme Court of India ordered the Election Commission of India to use VVPAT paper trail system in every assembly constituency but verify only about 2% of the EVMs i.e., 5 polling stations per constituency before certifying the final results. The Election Commission of India has acted under this order and deployed VVPAT verification for 20,625 EVMs in the 2019 Indian general election.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: The Election Commission of India states that their machines, system checks, safeguard procedures, and election protocols are "fully tamper-proof". A team led by Vemuri Hari Prasad of NetIndia Private Limited has shown that if criminals get physical possession of the EVMs before the voting, they can change the hardware inside and thus manipulate the results. The Prasad team recommended a VVPAT paper trail system for verification. The Election Commission states that along with VVPAT method, immediately prior to the election day, a sample number of votes for each political party nominee is entered into each machine, in the presence of polling agents. At the end of this sample trial run, the votes counted and matched with the entered sample votes, to ensure that the machine's hardware has not been tampered with, it is operating reliably and that there were no hidden votes pre-recorded in each machine. Machines that yield a faulty result have been replaced to ensure a reliable electoral process.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: India used paper ballots till the 1990s. The sheer scale of the Indian elections with more than half a billion people eligible to vote, combined with election-related criminal activity, led Indian election authority and high courts to transition to electronic voting. According to Arvind Verma – a professor of Criminal Justice with a focus on South Asia, Indian elections have been marked by criminal fraud and ballot tampering since the 1950s. The first major election with large scale organized booth capturing were observed in 1957. The journalist Prem Shankar Jha, states Milan Vaishnav, documented the booth capturing activity by Congress party leaders, and the opposition parties soon resorted to the same fraudulent activity in the 1960s. A booth-capture was the phenomenon where party loyalists, criminal gangs and musclemen entered the booth with force in villages and remote areas, and stuffed the ballot boxes with pre-filled fake paper ballots. This problem grew between the 1950s and 1980s and became a serious and large scale problem in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, later spreading to Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal accompanied with election day violence. Another logistical problem was the printing of paper ballots, transporting and safely storing them, and physically counting hundreds of millions of votes.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: The Election Commission of India, led by T.N. Seshan, sought a solution by developing Electronic voting machines in the 1990s. These devices were designed to prevent fraud by limiting how fast new votes can be entered into the electronic machine. By limiting the rate of vote entered every minute to five, the Commission aimed to increase the time required to cast fake ballots, therefore, allow the security forces to intervene in cooperation with the volunteers of the competing political parties and the media.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: The Commission introduced other features such as EVM initialization procedures just before the elections. Officials tested each machine prior to the start of voting to confirm its reliable operation in the front of independent polling agents. They added a security lock “close” button which saved the votes already cast in the device's permanent memory but disabled the device's ability to accept additional votes in the case of any attempt to open the unit or tamper. The Commission decided to conduct the elections over several weeks in order to move and post a large number of security forces at each booth. On the day of voting, the ballots were also locked and then saved in a secure location under the watch of state security and local volunteer citizens. Additionally, the Election Commission also created a database of thumb impressions and electronic voting signatures, open to inspection by polling agent volunteers and outside observers. The EVMs-based system at each booth matches the voter with a registered card with this electronic database in order to ensure that a voter cannot cast a ballot more than once. According to Debnath and other scholars, these efforts of the Election Commission of India – developed in consultations with the Indian courts, experts and volunteer feedback from different political parties – have reduced electoral fraud in India and made the elections fairer and more competitive.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: EVM and electronic voting have been the subject of numerous court cases in Indian courts including the Supreme Court of India. The first case was filed in the 1980s even before EVMs were used in any election. The "AC Jose vs. Sivan Pillai" case was a case seeking a stay order on the use of EVMs for Kerala election. The case was reviewed by the Supreme Court. It ruled on March 5, 1984, that the extant laws of India – in particular, Sections 59–61 of the Representation of People Act 1951 – specified paper ballots and it, therefore, forbade the use of any other technology including electronic voting. And it was used in 1982 in Kerala for a limited number of polling stations. The EVMs were first time used on an experimental basis in selected constituencies of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Delhi. The Court stated that the use of an alternate technology would require the Indian parliament to amend the law.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: The parliament of India amended the Representation of People Act in December 1988. Section 61A of the amended law empowered the Election Commission to deploy voting machines instead of paper ballots. The amended law became effective from March 15, 1989. The use of EVMs, their reliability and speculations about fraud through the use of EVMs have been the subject of many lawsuits before state high courts and the Supreme Court of India. These courts have either dismissed the cases as frivolous or ruled in the favor of the Election Commission and the EVMs. Of these, in the 2002 ruling on the "J. Jayalalithaa and Ors vs. Election Commission of India" case, the Supreme Court of India stated that the use of EVMs in elections was constitutionally valid.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: Regarding the mismatch of EVM data, an election research organization Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India on 15 November 2019 asking for a court order directing the Election Commission of India to conduct actual and accurate reconciliation of (votes) data before the declaration of the final result of any election. ADR also made an appeal for an investigation into all discrepancies in the data related to the 2019 Lok Sabha election results.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: The Indian electronic voting machine (EVM) were developed in 1989 by Election Commission of India in collaboration with Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited. The Industrial designers of the EVMs were faculty members at the Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay. The EVMs were first used in 1982 in the by-election to North Paravur Assembly Constituency in Kerala for a limited number of polling stations. The EVMs were first time used on an experimental basis in selected constituencies of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. The EVMs were used first time in the general election (entire state) to the assembly of Goa in 1999. In 2003, all by-elections and state elections were held using EVMs, encouraged by this election commission decided to use only EVMs for Lok Sabha elections in 2004.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: The EVM was designed by two professors of IIT Bombay, A.G. Rao and Ravi Poovaiah. An EVM consists of two units, a control unit, and the balloting unit. The two units are joined by a five-meter cable. Balloting unit facilitates voting by a voter via labeled buttons while the control unit controls the ballot units, stores voting counts and displays the results on 7 segment LED displays. The controller used in EVMs has its operating program etched permanently in silicon at the time of manufacturing by the manufacturer. No one (including the manufacturer) can change the program once the controller is manufactured. The control unit is operated by one of the polling booth officers, while the balloting unit is operated by the voter in privacy. The officer confirms the voter's identification then electronically activates the ballot unit to accept a new vote. Once the voter enters the vote, the balloting unit displays the vote to the voter, records it in its memory. A "close" command issued from the control unit by the polling booth officer registers the vote, relocks the unit to prevent multiple votes. The process is repeated when the next voter with a new voter ID arrives before the polling booth officer.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: EVMs are powered by an ordinary 6 volt alkaline battery manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore and Electronics Corporation of India Limited, Hyderabad. This design enables the use of EVMs throughout the country without interruptions because several parts of India do not have the power supply and/or erratic power supply. The two units cannot work without each other. After a poll closes on a particular election day, the units are separated and the control units moved and stored separately in locked and guarded premises.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: Both units have numerous tamper-proof protocols. Their hardware, by design, can only be programmed once at the time of their manufacture and they cannot be reprogrammed. They do not have any wireless communication components inside, nor any internet interface and related hardware. The balloting unit has an internal real-time clock and a protocol by which it records every input-output event with a timestamp whenever they are connected to a battery pack. The designers intentionally opted for battery power, to prevent the possibility that the power cables might be used to interfere with the reliable functioning of an EVM.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: An EVM can record a maximum of 3840 (now 2000) votes and can cater to a maximum of 64 candidates. There is provision for 16 candidates in a single balloting unit and up to a maximum of 4 balloting units with 64 candidate names and the respective party symbols can be connected in parallel to the control unit. If there are more than 64 candidates, the conventional ballot paper/box method of polling is deployed by the Election Commission. After a 2013 upgrade, an Indian EVM can cater to a maximum of 384 candidates plus "None Of The Above" option (NOTA).


title: Electronic voting in India

text: The current electronic voting machines in India are the M3 version with VVPAT capability, the older versions being M1 and M2. They are built and encoded with once-write software (read-only masked memory) at the state-owned and high-security premises of the Bharat Electronics Limited and the Electronics Corporation of India Limited. The inventory of election EVMs is securely tracked by the Election Commission of India on a real-time basis with EVM Tracking Software (ETS). This system tracks its digital verification identity and physical presence. The M3 EVMs has embedded hardware and software that enables only a particular control unit to work with a particular voting unit issued by the Election Commission, as another layer of tamper-proofing. Additional means of tamper proofing the machines include several layers of seals. Indian EVMs are stand-alone non-networked machines.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: The control unit is with the presiding officer or a polling officer and the balloting Unit is placed inside the voting compartment. The balloting unit presents the voter with blue buttons (momentary switch) horizontally labeled with corresponding party symbol and candidate names. The Control Unit, on the other hand, provides the officer-in-charge with a "Ballot" marked button to proceed to the next voter, instead of issuing a ballot paper to them. This activates the ballot unit for a single vote from the next voter in the queue. The voter has to cast his vote by once pressing the blue button on the balloting unit against the candidate and symbol of his choice.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: As soon as the last voter has voted, the Polling Officer-in-charge of the Control Unit will press the 'Close' Button. Thereafter, the EVM will not accept any votes. Further, after the close of the poll, the Balloting Unit is disconnected from the Control Unit and kept separately. Votes can be recorded only through the Balloting Unit. Again the Presiding officer, at the close of the poll, will hand over to each polling agent present an account of votes recorded. At the time of counting of votes, the total will be tallied with this account and if there is any discrepancy, this will be pointed out by the Counting Agents. During the counting of votes, the results are displayed by pressing the 'Result' button. There are two safeguards to prevent the 'Result' button from being pressed before the counting of votes officially begins. (a) This button cannot be pressed till the 'Close' button is pressed by the Polling Officer-in-charge at the end of the voting process in the polling booth. (b) This button is hidden and sealed; this can be broken only at the counting center in the presence of a designated office.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: The cost per EVM was at the time the machines were purchased in 1989–90. The cost was estimated to be per unit as per an additional order issued in 2014. Even though the initial investment was heavy, it has since been expected to save costs of production and printing of crores of ballot papers, their transportation and storage, substantial reduction in the counting staff and the remuneration paid to them. For each national election, it is estimated that about 10,000 tonnes of the ballot paper is saved. EVMs are easier to transport compared to ballot boxes as they are lighter, more portable, and come with polypropylene carrying cases. Vote counting is also faster. In places where illiteracy is a factor, illiterate people find EVMs easier than ballot paper system. Bogus voting is greatly reduced as the vote is recorded only once. The unit can store the result in its memory before it is erased manually. The battery is required only to activate the EVMs at the time of polling and counting and as soon as the polling is over, the battery can be switched off. The shelf life of Indian EVMs is estimated at 15 years.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: A candidate can know how many people from a polling station voted for them. This is a significant issue particularly if lop-sided votes for/against a candidate are cast in individual polling stations and the winning candidate might show favoritism or hold a grudge on specific areas. The Election Commission of India has stated that the manufacturers of the EVMs have developed a Totaliser unit which can connect several balloting units and would display only the overall results from an Assembly or a Lok Sabha constituency instead of votes from individual polling stations.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: An international conference on the Indian EVMs and their tamperability was held under the chairmanship of Subramanian Swamy, President of the Janata Party and former Union Cabinet Minister for Law, Commerce, and Justice at Chennai on 13 February 2010. The conclusion was that the Election Commission of India was shirking its responsibility on the transparency in the working of the EVMs. In April 2010, an independent security analysis was released by a research team led by Hari K. Prasad, Rop Gonggrijp, and Alex Halderman.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: In order to mitigate these threats, the researchers suggest moving to a voting system that provides greater transparency, such as paper ballots, precinct count optical scan, or a voter verified paper audit trail, since, in any of these systems, skeptical voters could, in principle, observe the physical counting process to gain confidence that the outcome is fair.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: Manufacturers of Electronic Voting Machines, namely Electronics Corporation of India Limited, Hyderabad and Bharat Electronics Limited, Bengaluru have said that EVMs are unhackable and tamper-proof as programming for EVMs is done at a secure manufacturing facility in ECIL and BEL (where operations are logged electronically) and not with chip manufacturers. Control and ballot units in EVMs and VVPATs have an anti-tamper mechanism by which they become non-operational if it is illegally opened. EVMs are standalone machines, have no radio frequency transmission device features, operate on battery packs and cannot be reprogrammed. The Control Unit of EVMs has a real-time clock that logs every event on its right from the time it was switched on. The anti-tamper mechanism in the machine can detect even 100-millisecond variations.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: On 25 July 2011, responding to a PIL (Writ Petition (Civil) No. 312 of 2011), Supreme Court of India asked EC to consider request to modify EVMs and respond within three months. The petitioner Rajendra Satyanarayan Gilda had alleged that EC has failed to take any decision despite his repeated representation. The petitioner suggested that the EVMs should be modified to give a slip printed with the symbol of the party in whose favour the voter cast his ballot.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: On 17 January 2012, Delhi High Court in its ruling on Dr. Subramanian Swamy's Writ Petition (Writ Petition (Civil) No. 11879 of 2009) challenging the use of EVMs in the present form said that EVMs are not "tamper-proof". Further, it said that it is "difficult" to issue any directions to the EC in this regard. However, the court added that the EC should itself hold wider consultations with the executive, political parties and other stake holders on the matter.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: Swamy appealed against Delhi High Court's refusal to order a VVPAT system in Supreme Court. On 27 September 2012, Election Commission's advocate Ashok Desai submitted to a Supreme Court bench of Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi that field trial for the VVPAT system is in progress and that a status report will be submitted by early January 2013. Desai said that on pressing of each vote, a paper receipt will be printed, which will be visible to the voters inside a glass but cannot be taken out of the machine. Dr. Swamy said that the new system was acceptable to him.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: The Supreme Court posted the matter for further hearing to 22 January 2013<ref name="Supreme Court hearing in Special Leave to Appeal (Civil) No(s).13735/2012"></ref> and on 8 October 2013, it delivered a verdict, that the Election Commission of India will use VVPAT.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: Another similar writ petition filed by the Asom Gana Parishad is still pending before the Gauhati High Court.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: Syed Shuja, an expert on EVMs as claimed by "India Today", has alleged that Indian EVMs can be hacked and also made serious allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led government at the Centre, Shuja addressed a press conference in London via video conferencing and demonstrated hacking of the EVM. The cyber expert also claimed that late minister Gopinath Munde, who died in June 2014, was allegedly murdered because he was about to expose his own government over the hackings. Shuja appeared from a remote location using Skype in January 2019 for a press conference organized by the Indian Journalists’ Association and the London-based Foreign Press Association. He alleged that the EVM units can be wirelessly tampered with, and have been tampered with the help of Reliance Communications. He also made allegations of many murders and other criminal activity associated with EVMs tampering, allegations he could not substantiate nor did he present any evidence for his allegations before journalists gathered in London for the Shuja press interview.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: The possibility of EVM tampering as described by Shuja have been rejected by the Election Commission of India. The Commission stated that the Indian EVMs do not contain any wireless chips and related communication components. The Election Commission reiterated that their official EVMs are manufactured in India under very strict supervisory and security conditions and there are "rigorous Standard Operating Procedures meticulously observed at all stages under the supervision of a Committee of eminent technical experts constituted way back in 2010". The commission has charged Shuja under Section 505(1)(b) of the Indian Penal Code (titled "Punishment for Statements Conducing to Public Mischief") by lodging a First Information Report against him with the Delhi Police. The Bharatiya Janata Party attributed this claim to the opposing Indian National Congress as an attempt by them to manipulate the electorate with fake news before forthcoming elections.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: In January 2019, the London-based press conference organizer stated, "The Foreign Press Association strongly disassociates itself with any claims made by the speaker Syed Shuja during the #IJA event [about Indian EVMs and related matters] in London yesterday. Not one of the masked speaker’s accusations has so far been corroborated." The "India Today" called Shuja's allegations as "sensationalism without substance."


title: Electronic voting in India

text: On 30 March 2022, a Congress leader Shashi Tharoor tweeted that the mounting level of concerns about irregularities in the handling of EVMs requires a serious response from the Election Commission. He referred to the official confirmation of “missing EVMs” with a newspaper report.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: On 8 May 2022, a Karnataka Congress leader and MLA H.K. Patil urged the Legislative Assembly Speaker Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri to investigate into the issue of 19 lakh (1.9 million) missing EVMs. A delegation led by Patil demanded the probe to be carried out by a Special Committee headed by a Judge of the Supreme Court. Patil expressed his concern over the inordinate delays in taking up petitions by the courts regarding the use of EVMs.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: On 8 October 2010 Election Commission appointed an expert technical committee headed by Prof. P. V. Indiresan (former Director of IIT-M) when at an all-party meeting majority of political parties backed the proposal to have a VVPAT in EVMs to counter the charges of tampering. The committee was tasked to examine the possibility of introduction of a paper trail so that voters can get a printout that will show symbol of the party to which the vote was cast. After studying the issue, the committee recommended introduction of VVPAT system.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: On 21 June 2011, Election Commission accepted Indiresan committee's recommendations and decided to conduct field trials of the system. On 26 July 2011, field trials of the VVPAT system were conducted at Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, Cherrapunjee in Meghalaya, East Delhi in Delhi and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: The Election Commission on 19 January 2012 agreed to add a "paper trail" of the vote cast. The upgrade of EVMs that followed modified the EVM software and a printer was attached to the machine. With the VVPAT system, when a vote is cast, it is recorded in its memory and simultaneously a serial number and vote data is printed out. This states Anil Kumar, the managing director of the state-owned EVM manufacturer Bharat Electronic Limited, ensures more confidence in the voting results. The printouts, Kumar said, "are used later to cross-check the voting data stored in the EVMs".


title: Electronic voting in India

text: Voter-verifiable paper audit trail was first used in an election in India in September 2013 in Noksen in Nagaland. The voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) system was introduced in 8 of 543 parliamentary constituencies in 2014. VVPAT was implemented in the 2014 elections at Lucknow, Gandhinagar, Bangalore South, Chennai Central, Jadavpur, Raipur, Patna Sahib and Mizoram constituencies.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: On 8 October 2013, Supreme Court of India delivered its verdict on Subramanian Swamy's PIL, that Election Commission of India will use VVPAT along with EVMs in a phased manner. In June 2018, Election Commission of India decided that all VVPATs will have a built-in-hood to protect the printer and other devices from excess light and heat.


title: Electronic voting in India

text: Nepal, Bhutan, Namibia and Kenya have purchased India-manufactured EVMs. Fiji was expected to use Indian EVMs in its elections in 2014. In 2013, the Election Commission of Namibia acquired 1700 control units and 3500 ballot units from India's Bharat Electronics Limited; these units will be used in the regional and presidential elections in 2014. Several other Asian and African countries are reportedly interested in using them as well.


title: Nats Getty

text: Nats Getty (born November 30, 1992) is an American model, socialite, designer, and LGBTQ+ rights activist.


title: Nats Getty

text: Getty was born in Los Angeles to Ariadne Getty and Justin Williams. He is a member of the Getty family and uses that surname professionally. Getty is the grandchild of Sir John Paul Getty. Getty's maternal great-grandmother was actress Ann Rork Light, and maternal great-grandfather Jean Paul Getty was the founder of Getty Oil. Nats' brother is the fashion designer August Getty. He spent his early childhood in Santa Monica, California, and attended school at The Willows Community School before moving to England at age eight. While living in England, Getty attended a boarding school in Oxford. Raised in the Catholic faith, Getty is the godchild of Gavin Newsom.


title: Nats Getty

text: Nats, Ariadne and August Getty have worked to provide new infrastructures for the Los Angeles LGBT Center and works closely with GLAAD. Nats has a clothing and lifestyle brand, Strike Oil. The name references the family's oil business.


title: Nats Getty

text: In 2014, Getty directed and acted in the short film "Smoking Solitary," a one-minute film featuring him exhaling cigarette smoke. On July 24, 2017, Getty was interviewed on the podcast series "Shane and Friends". Getty arranged for the painting of a Mr. Brainwash mural to honor the 49 victims of the 2017 Orlando nightclub shooting, having it displayed in front of Pulse nightclub. Getty is signed with Next Management and has modeled for his brother, August Getty; August has cited Nats and his wife Gigi Gorgeous as muses.


title: Nats Getty

text: Getty began dating Canadian socialite and YouTuber Giselle Lazzarato, known as Gigi Gorgeous, in 2016 after spending time together during the Paris debut of August Getty's collection.


title: Nats Getty

text: Getty proposed to Lazzarato in March 2018 at the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte in France. The couple shared their engagement in a video posted to Lazzarato's YouTube channel. The couple married in July 2019 in a private ceremony at Rosewood Miramar Beach in Montecito, California.


title: Nats Getty

text: Getty initially came out as transgender non-binary in January 2021 via Instagram, sharing the start of a transition by undergoing a double mastectomy procedure. As of May 2021, Getty was still determining which pronouns to use. He came out as a trans man and changed his pronouns to he/him in June 2021.


title: Tosa (dog)

text: The is a breed of dog of Japanese origin that is considered rare. It was originally bred in Tosa, Shikoku (present day Kōchi) as a fighting dog and is the only breed still used (legally) in Japanese dog fighting. Ownership is restricted in some countries as a dangerous breed.


title: Tosa (dog)

text: The Tosa varies considerably in size, with the Japanese-bred dogs tending to be about half the size of those bred outside the country. The Japanese breed generally weighs between , while the non-Japanese breeders have focused on dogs that weigh from and stand at the withers. The coat is characterized by its short and smooth appearance and is often red, brindle or fawn, but occasionally it can be a dull black. Maintenance of the coat is usually minimal. Dogs can occasionally tip the scale at . In Japan they are considered the equivalent of Sumo wrestlers, and are even depicted in wrestling accoutrement.


title: Tosa (dog)

text: This breed originated in the second half of the 19th century. The breed started from the native Shikoku-Inu (an indigenous dog weighing about 25 kilograms (45 pounds) and standing about 55 centimetres high). These dogs were crossed with European dog breeds, such as the Old English Bulldog in 1872, English Mastiff in 1874, Saint Bernard and German Pointer in 1876, Great Dane in 1924, and Bull Terrier. The aim was to breed a larger, more powerful dog specifically for dog fighting competitions in Japan. The heyday of Tosa breeding was between 1924 and 1933, when it was said that there were more than 5,000 Tosa breeders in Japan.


title: Tosa (dog)

text: Ownership of Tosas is legally restricted in certain jurisdictions. In the United Kingdom ownership is regulated under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, and in Trinidad and Tobago under the Dog Control Act 2014. A specific exemption of a British court is required to own and import Tosas legally in the UK.


title: Animal suicide

text: Animal suicide is when an animal intentionally ends its own life through its actions. It implies a wide range of higher cognitive capacities that experts have been wary to ascribe to nonhuman animals such as a concept of self, death, and future intention. There is currently not enough empirical data on the subject for there to be a consensus among experts. For these reasons, the occurrence of animal suicide is controversial among academics.


title: Animal suicide

text: While it has not been proven that non-human animals do, or even can, die by suicide, many animals behave in ways that may seem suicidal. There are anecdotes of animals refusing to eat in periods of grief or stress. Some social insects have been known to defend their colony by sacrificing themselves. Other animals are victims of parasites that are known to alter the behavior of their host to complete their lifecycle, which result in the host's death.


title: Animal suicide

text: There are yet to be definitive, unanimously agreed upon, instances of non-human animal suicide. This is due to the many components of suicide which are difficult to empirically observe without interpretation bias. An animal would need to be aware of its own existence as distinct from other individuals. It would need to have an understanding of mortality and sufficient for it to realize that it is a possibility. To choose death for itself, the animal has to know about itself and that it can die. It would also need some concept of the future in order to intend to die. Each of these requisites have been studied independently, and there is some evidence of some animals being capable of each. The Mirror test is currently used to determine whether an animal has a concept of self. Some animals, such as some species of cetaceans and primates, are believed to grasp the concept of death enough to mourn conspecifics.


title: Animal suicide

text: Several risk-factors for suicide, such as addiction, depression, and PTSD, have already been modeled independently in animals. These animal models allow scientists to study the neuroscience behind these disorders as well as explore potential treatments. While demonstrating animal suicide itself in a lab is believed to be possible by some, the ethics of driving an animal to kill itself are debated. In the field, it can be difficult to not only find examples of suicide, but to be certain that the death was intentional, not accidental.


title: Animal suicide

text: Many animals that appear to be depressed or grieving begin to exhibit self-destructive behavior that sometimes ends in death, but this is not considered suicide, as the achieving of death was not necessarily the purpose or objective of the behaviors.


title: Animal suicide

text: In 1845, the "Illustrated London News" reported that a Newfoundland dog had been acting less lively over a period of days before being seen "to throw himself in the water and endeavor to sink by preserving perfect stillness of the legs and feet". Every time he was rescued he attempted to do this again before he finally held his head underwater until death. The newspaper ran stories on other dogs, as well as ducks, that had also allegedly drowned themselves, although the veracity or certainty of these cases is disputed. In one of the alleged cases, one duck did so after the death of its mate.


title: Animal suicide

text: Another example of an alleged case of animal suicide is the case of the dolphin which most often portrayed Flipper on the 1960s television show "Flipper". According to trainer Ric O'Barry in the film "The Cove," Kathy, the dolphin, suffocated herself before him. The veracity or accuracy of this case has not been established in rigorous, scientific or objective terms. Similarly, a male bottle nose dolphin named Peter who was a subject in a series of experiments led by John C. Lilly, a neuroscientist, and Margaret Howe Lovatt, volunteer naturalist, apparently stopped breathing after it was moved to a lab in a different location and separated from Lovatt.


title: Animal suicide

text: Some dogs will refuse food from some unknown person after the death of their owner, a behavior that might lead to disease or death in severe cases. The death of mourning animals is likely to be caused by depression leading to starvation or drowning, instead of the intent of suicide.


title: Animal suicide

text: Aristotle described an unverified story involving one of the King of Scythia's horses dying by suicide after having been made to unwittingly impregnate its mother in his "History of Animals".


title: Animal suicide

text: Some species of social insects will die by suicide in an act of altruism through autothysis. These insects will sacrifice themselves if the colony is in danger, to alert the colony of danger, or if they become diseased they will sacrifice themselves to prevent the colony from becoming diseased. Carpenter ants and some species of termite will rupture glands and expel a sticky toxic substance thought to be an aliphatic compound in a process called "autothysis". Termites will use autothysis to defend their colony, as the ruptured gland produces a sticky harmful secretion that leads to a tar baby effect in defense. When threatened by a ladybug, the pea aphid will explode itself, protecting other aphids and sometimes killing the ladybug. Another example is the "Camponotus saundersi," or Malaysian worker ant, which is capable of dying by suicide by exploding.


title: Animal suicide

text: Some social Hymenoptera including bees, wasps, and ants, may use their stinger to deliver poisonous chemicals to their attacker, effectively killing both the predator and the insect in the colony's defense. This self-destructive and often altruistic defense is known as sting autonomy. The stinger is easily torn from the animal's body, allowing the hazardous stinger to be left stuck in the predator.


title: Animal suicide

text: Lemmings are known to migrate when the population in their area becomes too large for its food supply. During these migrations, some will swim to cross bodies of water, but not all of them will make it back to land alive. This unfortunate consequence of migration has sometimes been perceived as an act of mass suicide. This myth has been popularized in various media.


title: Animal suicide

text: Certain types of parasites will cause their hosts to engage in suicidal behavior, through altering how the intermediate host acts, but this is not considered suicide (at least not considered suicide in a psychological or ethological sense). The change in the host's actions often benefit the parasite's search for a final host. A main example is the phylum Acanthocephala, which will direct its host to a predator so as to be eaten by the predator, their new definitive host. The parasitic worm "Spinochordodes tellinii" will develop in grasshoppers and crickets until it is grown, at which time it will cause its host to leap into water to its death so that the worm can reproduce in water. However, "S. tellinii" only causes its host to drown when the host is already close to water as opposed to seeking it out over large distances.


title: Animal suicide

text: Infection with "Toxoplasma gondii" has been shown to alter the behavior of mice and rats in ways thought to increase the rodents’ chances of being preyed upon by cats. Infected rodents show a reduction in their innate aversion to cat odors; while uninfected mice and rats will generally avoid areas marked with cat urine or with cat body odor, this avoidance is reduced or eliminated in infected animals. Moreover, some evidence suggests this loss of aversion may be specific to feline odors: when given a choice between two predator odors (cat or mink), infected rodents show a significantly stronger preference to cat odors than do uninfected controls.


title: Animal suicide

text: Suicide induction in intermediate hosts has been shown to help disperse the parasites to their final hosts. The intermediate host of "Parvatrema affinis" is the bivalve mollusc, "Macoma balthica". The clams feed when in the sublittoral and tidal flat muds, and usually leave no conspicuous marks in the mud that could indicate their presence. However, infected clams are concentrated in the higher parts of the tidal flats, closer to shore, and leave conspicuous zig-zag markings in the sand. Visual and tactile cues have shown to be used by oyster catchers and other shore birds, the definitive hosts of the parasite.


title: Animal suicide

text: A popular misconception is that the lemming will die by mass suicide during reproduction. This misconception was first popularized by media in the 1960s, such as a mention in the Cyril M. Kornbluth short story "The Marching Morons" in 1951 and the 1955 comic "The Lemming with the Locket", inspired by a 1953 "American Mercury" article. Perhaps one of the most influential factors in this misconception was the 1958 Academy Award-winning Disney film "White Wilderness", which showed staged footage of lemmings jumping off a cliff during reproduction.


title: Philosopher king

text: The philosopher king is a hypothetical ruler in whom political skill is combined with philosophical knowledge. The concept of a city-state ruled by philosophers is first explored in Plato's "Republic", written around 375 BC. Plato argued that the ideal state – one which ensured the maximum possible happiness for all its citizens – could only be brought into being by a ruler possessed of absolute knowledge, obtained through philosophical study. From the Middle Ages onwards, Islamic and Jewish authors expanded on the theory, adapting it to suit their own conceptions of the perfect ruler.


title: Philosopher king

text: Several historical figures, including Alexander the Great and Marcus Aurelius, have been described by ancient and modern writers as embodying the philosopher king ideal.


title: Philosopher king

text: The "Republic" is a Socratic dialogue, in which the character of Socrates is made a mouthpiece for Plato's ideas. In the first two books, Socrates is challenged to give a definition of justice, which he proposes to accomplish by imagining how an ideal city-state would function. He suggests that the ideal state would be ruled over by a specially-trained Guardian class, in whom a spirited nature would be combined with a philosophic disposition.


title: Philosopher king

text: Socrates goes on to discuss various aspects of life within the state. In the fifth book, Socrates' interlocutors ask him whether the state he is describing could ever exist in reality. He replies that this could only happen on one condition:


title: Philosopher king

text: Socrates clarifies this comment by distinguishing between true and false philosophers. The true philosopher (or "lover of wisdom") is one who loves "the truth in each thing", as opposed to those who only love the things themselves. This is a reference to Plato's belief that all particular things are only shadows of eternal Forms. Only the philosopher, therefore, is qualified to rule, as only the philosopher has knowledge of the absolute truth, and is able to apply this knowledge for the good of the state.


title: Philosopher king

text: Socrates next outlines the qualities which the ideal philosopher must possess, including truthfulness, temperance, justice, and a good memory. It is observed, however, that this ideal is in sharp contrast to reality, as many philosophers are "utter rogues", and the best of them are generally considered to be useless. Socrates explains the poor reputation of philosophers through the metaphor of the Ship of State, in which he compares Athenian democracy to a group of mutinous sailors vying with one another for control of the helm of a ship. The sailors, having themselves no knowledge of the art of navigation, deny that this is a necessary qualification for a pilot, and heap abuse on anyone who does not help them to achieve their goals. Socrates then acknowledges that many philosophers are indeed corrupt, but attributes this to the fact that they are brought up in a corrupt society. Only in the ideal state will a philosopher be able to achieve his full potential, "and be the saviour of his country, as well as of himself".


title: Philosopher king

text: Having returned to the subject of the ideal state, Socrates elaborates on the way in which his Guardians would be educated, in order to lead them to a full and total knowledge of the Forms. This education will last thirty-five years, and prospective Guardians must then spend a further fifteen years occupying lesser offices, in order to gain experience of life. At the age of fifty, they will be qualified to rule. As philosophers, however, they will have no desire to engage in politics; they will do so only from a sense of duty.


title: Philosopher king

text: Socrates concludes this portion of the dialogue by reaffirming that the ideal state is capable of being realised, but only if one or more philosophers were to somehow come to power in a city. He further suggests that if this were to happen, the quickest way for a philosopher king to bring the perfect state into existence would be to send away every inhabitant over the age of ten, so as to be able to bring up the younger generation in accordance with philosophic principles.


title: Philosopher king

text: Aristotle, in his "Politics", criticises many aspects of Plato's political theory, and sets out his own ideas about how a perfect city should be governed. Rather than proposing, as Plato does, the establishment of a ruling class, Aristotle argues that all citizens should take an equal share in the administration of the city. However, in one passage (book 3, ch. 13), Aristotle does write that if one or more people happened to be found who far excelled their fellow citizens in virtue, it would be against the natural order for such people to be subject to the rule of their inferiors, and they should therefore be made "kings in their state for life". While Aristotle here comes close to endorsing the philosopher-king ideal, he does not expressly state that this virtuous leader should be skilled in philosophy, and his writings more usually draw a sharp distinction between the theoretical wisdom of a philosopher and the political wisdom of a ruler.


title: Philosopher king

text: When the "Politics" was translated into Latin in the thirteenth century, it became the foundational text for political philosophy in the Christian world, and Plato's ideas were marginalised in favour of an Aristotelian separation of temporal and spiritual authority. Islamic scholars, on the other hand, were heavily influenced by Plato's "Republic", finding in the philosopher king a counterpart to the traditional figure of the "lawgiver-prophet". Al-Farabi, for example, followed Plato closely, writing that the ideal state was that which most carefully attended to the spiritual education of its citizens, and that its ruler must therefore have a highly developed understanding of the purpose of human existence. Where Al-Farabi departed from Plato was in asserting that the founder of the perfect state must not only be a philosopher but also a prophet, as the perfect law could only come from God. The founder's successors need not be prophets, but they must still be philosophers, able to correctly interpret and apply the received law.


title: Philosopher king

text: Medieval Islamic philosophers had many opportunities to put their political theories into practice, as they often held positions in the royal court, with many even serving as viziers. Despite their belief in the philosopher king ideal, no Islamic philosophers are known to have attempted to seize power for themselves, apparently being contented with a subservient position. Al-Farabi makes a concession to this state of affairs when he writes that, since rulers possessed of all the necessary virtues are rare, it is possible for the kingship of the ideal state to be shared between two people, "one of whom is a philosopher and the other fulfils the remaining conditions".


title: Philosopher king

text: The translation into Hebrew of the works of Al-Farabi and Averroes saw the concept of the philosopher king enter into Jewish political thought. Biblical figures such as Moses, Abraham and Solomon were held up as examples of ideal rulers, with Plato's theory undergoing further distortions in order to meet the needs of Jewish philosophers. The popularity of the idea finally declined during the seventeenth century, as influential authors such as Baruch Spinoza began to formulate more secular political philosophies modelled on the works of Machiavelli.


title: Philosopher king

text: It appears from the "Republic" that Plato did not think it impossible for his ideal state to be established in reality, and he did make one notable attempt to educate a ruler in the principles of philosophy. In 367 BC, Dionysius II came to power in Syracuse, Sicily, under the supervision of his uncle Dion, who was a friend and disciple of Plato. Dion invited Plato to Syracuse to serve as an advisor to Dionysius, and Plato accepted. However, he probably hoped for nothing more than to exercise a moderating influence on the tyrant; he is unlikely to have believed that he could transform Dionysius into a true philosopher king. In the event, Dionysius proved an unwilling student, and nothing came of the endeavor.


title: Philosopher king

text: Later, Dion attempted to seize power for himself, and was ultimately assassinated. In his possibly spurious "Seventh Letter", Plato regretted Dion's death, and wrote that


title: Philosopher king

text: Many other historical figures have been put forward as potential examples of philosopher kings. According to W. K. C. Guthrie and others, Plato's friend Archytas may have been the original inspiration behind the concept. Not only was Archytas a distinguished Pythagorean philosopher, he was also a skilled military general and a popular political leader, serving seven terms as "strategos" in the city of Tarentum, Italy.


title: Philosopher king

text: Alexander the Great, as a student of Aristotle, has often been described as a philosopher king. His contemporary Onesicritus spoke of him as a "philosopher in arms", and the 1st-century Platonist Plutarch wrote in laudatory terms of his wisdom, generosity, temperance and courage. Plutarch's justification for calling Alexander a philosopher was that he had actualised principles which had previously only been spoken of as ideals, and had "changed the brutish customs of countless nations". However, Alexander remains a controversial figure, as various historians have portrayed him very differently even into the modern day.


title: Philosopher king

text: Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius is also frequently cited as a fulfilment of the philosopher king ideal. Ancient sources such as the "Historia Augusta" call him "the philosopher" and praise him for the clemency of his reign, while his Stoic tome "Meditations" is still revered as a literary monument to a philosophy of service and duty.


title: Glenn Medeiros

text: Glenn Alan Medeiros (born June 24, 1970) is an American former musician, singer and songwriter who achieved chart success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is best known on the national and international music scene for his 1987 global smash, "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You", and "She Ain't Worth It", a US chart-topper in 1990. He has remained regularly involved in the music industry in his home state of Hawaii (including several headliner and related musical variety shows in Waikiki) long after achieving global success decades ago.


title: Glenn Medeiros

text: After his musical career peaked, Medeiros taught and was vice-principal at the Maryknoll School, a parochial school in Honolulu, Hawaii, and as a professor at Chaminade University, a private Marianist university which shares its grounds with Saint Louis School. On July 1, 2015, Medeiros became the Head of School/Principal of Saint Louis School in Honolulu, and in 2017 its president/CEO.


title: Glenn Medeiros

text: Medeiros attended Leeward Community College and transferred to University of Hawaii–West Oahu, where he received his bachelor's degree. He graduated from the University of Phoenix-Hawaii with an MA in elementary education.


title: Glenn Medeiros

text: In 2014, Medeiros received a doctorate degree in educational leadership from the University of Southern California.


title: Glenn Medeiros

text: Medeiros began his musical career at the age of 10 when he helped his father entertain guests on his tour bus on the island of Kauai.


title: Glenn Medeiros

text: In 1986, at the age of 16, Medeiros won Brown Bags to Stardom, a local radio talent contest in Hawaii, when he performed a cover version of George Benson's "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You" which was subsequently produced into an album by a small local independent label. A visiting radio executive, Guy Zapoleon, from KZZP in Phoenix, Arizona heard the song and took the record back to Phoenix, where, through word of mouth, it became a national hit. Later, a worldwide hit, it reached #12 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and spent four weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart in July 1988. It reached #3 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.


title: Glenn Medeiros

text: In 1988, he recorded the single "Un roman d'amitié (Friend You Give Me a Reason)", a duet in French and English with Elsa Lunghini that reached #1 in France for three weeks. He also achieved a 1990 United States #1 hit duet with Bobby Brown titled "She Ain't Worth It". The same track peaked at #12 in the UK Singles Chart. He had another hit duet with Ray Parker Jr. titled "All I'm Missing Is You" which peaked at #32 in the US.


title: Glenn Medeiros

text: In 1989, Medeiros recorded "Under Any Moon" with The Jets, which was included on the soundtrack of "The Karate Kid Part III" in which he made an appearance in the movie singing. In 1991, Medeiros did a song called "If Looks Could Kill (No Turning Back)" for the spy action/comedy film "If Looks Could Kill" starring Richard Grieco, which is the title song of the movie on the soundtrack. In 1992 Medeiros recorded a duet with Thomas Anders (of Modern Talking fame) titled "Standing Alone" and shot a video.


title: Glenn Medeiros

text: Medeiros wrote "Break These Walls" for the New Zealand singer Sam Verlinden. He also wrote the song "Follow the Sun" for Regine Velasquez, which was later recorded by the group Forte. In addition, Medeiros wrote the song entitled "These Tears I Cry" for Martin Nievera. Medeiros has written nearly two hundred songs, many of which have been recorded by various artists throughout the world.


title: Glenn Medeiros

text: Medeiros is the host and performer at the Hale Koa Hotel's luau in Waikiki. He also headlined in Waikiki for many years with Frank Delima.


title: Glenn Medeiros

text: Medeiros was the vice principal of Maryknoll Grade School and then its high school. He taught at various schools throughout Oahu, including Mililani Middle School, St. Joseph School in Waipahu, and Island Pacific Academy in Kapolei.


title: Glenn Medeiros

text: On July 1, 2015, Medeiros was appointed Head of School/Principal of St. Louis School, an all boys Catholic (Marianist Order) school (K-12) in Honolulu Oahu, where he has been its president/CEO since 2017.


title: Glenn Medeiros

text: Medeiros is of Portuguese ancestry. He and his wife, Tammy, have been married since 1996. They have a son, Chord, and a daughter, Lyric.


title: Electrophoresis

text: Electrophoresis, from Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ḗlektron, "amber") and φόρησις (phórēsis, "the act of bearing"), is the motion of dispersed particles relative to a fluid under the influence of a spatially uniform electric field. Electrophoresis of positively charged particles (cations) is sometimes called cataphoresis, while electrophoresis of negatively charged particles (anions) is sometimes called anaphoresis.


title: Electrophoresis

text: The electrokinetic phenomenon of electrophoresis was observed for the first time in 1807 by Russian professors Peter Ivanovich Strakhov and Ferdinand Frederic Reuss at Moscow University, who noticed that the application of a constant electric field caused clay particles dispersed in water to migrate. It is ultimately caused by the presence of a charged interface between the particle surface and the surrounding fluid. It is the basis for analytical techniques used in chemistry for separating molecules by size, charge, or binding affinity.


title: Electrophoresis

text: Electrophoresis is used in laboratories to separate macromolecules based on size. The technique applies a negative charge so proteins move towards a positive charge. Electrophoresis is used extensively in DNA, RNA and protein analysis.


title: Electrophoresis

text: Suspended particles have an electric surface charge, strongly affected by surface adsorbed species, on which an external electric field exerts an electrostatic Coulomb force. According to the double layer theory, all surface charges in fluids are screened by a diffuse layer of ions, which has the same absolute charge but opposite sign with respect to that of the surface charge. The electric field also exerts a force on the ions in the diffuse layer which has direction opposite to that acting on the surface charge. This latter force is not actually applied to the particle, but to the ions in the diffuse layer located at some distance from the particle surface, and part of it is transferred all the way to the particle surface through viscous stress. This part of the force is also called electrophoretic retardation force, or ERF in short.


title: Electrophoresis

text: When the electric field is applied and the charged particle to be analyzed is at steady movement through the diffuse layer, the total resulting force is zero :


title: Electrophoresis

text: Considering the drag on the moving particles due to the viscosity of the dispersant, in the case of low Reynolds number and moderate electric field strength "E", the drift velocity of a dispersed particle "v" is simply proportional to the applied field, which leaves the electrophoretic mobility μ defined as:


title: Electrophoresis

text: where ε is the dielectric constant of the dispersion medium, ε is the permittivity of free space (C² N m), η is dynamic viscosity of the dispersion medium (Pa s), and ζ is zeta potential (i.e., the electrokinetic potential of the slipping plane in the double layer, units mV or V).


title: Electrophoresis

text: The Smoluchowski theory is very powerful because it works for dispersed particles of any shape at any concentration. It has limitations on its validity. For instance, it does not include Debye length κ (units m). However, Debye length must be important for electrophoresis, as follows immediately from Figure 2,


title: Electrophoresis

text: Increasing thickness of the double layer (DL) leads to removing the point of retardation force further from the particle surface. The thicker the DL, the smaller the retardation force must be.


title: Electrophoresis

text: Detailed theoretical analysis proved that the Smoluchowski theory is valid only for sufficiently thin DL, when particle radius "a" is much greater than the Debye length:


title: Electrophoresis

text: This model of "thin double layer" offers tremendous simplifications not only for electrophoresis theory but for many other electrokinetic theories. This model is valid for most aqueous systems, where the Debye length is usually only a few nanometers. It only breaks for nano-colloids in solution with ionic strength close to water.


title: Electrophoresis

text: The Smoluchowski theory also neglects the contributions from surface conductivity. This is expressed in modern theory as condition of small Dukhin number:


title: Electrophoresis

text: In the effort of expanding the range of validity of electrophoretic theories, the opposite asymptotic case was considered, when Debye length is larger than particle radius:


title: Electrophoresis

text: Under this condition of a "thick double layer", Hückel predicted the following relation for electrophoretic mobility:


title: Electrophoresis

text: This model can be useful for some nanoparticles and non-polar fluids, where Debye length is much larger than in the usual cases.


title: Electrophoresis

text: There are several analytical theories that incorporate surface conductivity and eliminate the restriction of a small Dukhin number, pioneered by Overbeek. and Booth. Modern, rigorous theories valid for any Zeta potential and often any "aκ" stem mostly from Dukhin–Semenikhin theory.


title: Electrophoresis

text: In the thin double layer limit, these theories confirm the numerical solution to the problem provided by O'Brien and White.


title: Mister Ed

text: Mister Ed is an American television sitcom produced by Filmways that aired in syndication from January 5 to July 2, 1961, and then on CBS from October 1, 1961, to February 6, 1966. The show's title character is a talking horse which originally appeared in short stories by Walter R. Brooks.


title: Mister Ed

text: "Mister Ed" is one of the few series to debut in syndication and be picked up by a major network for prime time. All 143 episodes were filmed in black and white.


title: Mister Ed

text: The "Mister Ed" show concept was derived from a series of short stories by children's author Walter R. Brooks which began with "The Talking Horse" in the September 18, 1937, issue of "Liberty" magazine. Brooks is best known for the "Freddy the Pig" series of children's novels which feature talking animals that interact with humans. Arthur Lubin's secretary Sonia Chernus introduced him to the Brooks stories and is credited with developing the concept for television.


title: Mister Ed

text: The show's concept resembles that of the "Francis the Talking Mule" movies in which an equine character talks to only one person, thus causing a variety of opportunities and frustrations. The first six "Francis" films (1950–55) were also directed by Lubin. He wanted to make a "Francis" television series but had been unable to secure the rights, so he optioned the Brooks' stories for television. Comedian George Burns financed the pilot for "Mister Ed", which was shot at his McCadden Studio in Hollywood at a cost of $70,000. Scott McKay played Wilbur. Jack Benny was also involved behind the scenes.


title: Mister Ed

text: Lubin was unable to sell the show to a network, so he decided to sell it into syndication first. He managed to get single-sponsor identification for the program on over 100 stations. The show was recast with Alan Young in the lead. Production began in November 1960, although Lubin did not direct early episodes because he was working in Europe on a film. The first 26 episodes were received well enough for the show to be picked up by CBS.


title: Mister Ed

text: The show in effect had two leads operating as a comedy team. The title role of Mister Ed, a talking palomino, was played by gelding Bamboo Harvester and voiced by former Western film actor Allan Lane. The role of Ed's owner, a genial but somewhat klutzy architect named Wilbur Post, was played by Alan Young. The Posts resided at 17230 Valley Spring Road in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Many of the program's gags follow from Mister Ed's tendency to talk only to Wilbur, his mysteriously well cultured essence, his rapscallion tendencies, and his precociously human-like behavior that far exceeds anything those around Wilbur expect of a horse. A running gag is other characters hearing Wilbur talking to Ed and asking to whom he is talking. Another running gag centers on Wilbur being accident-prone and inadvertently causing harm to himself and others. According to Lubin, Young was chosen for the lead role because he "just seemed like the sort of guy a horse would talk to."


title: Mister Ed

text: The other main character throughout the series is Wilbur's generally tolerant young wife, Carol (Connie Hines). The Posts also have two sets of neighbors, to whom Ed delights in making Wilbur appear as eccentric as possible. They included the Addisons, Roger (Larry Keating) and his wife Kay (Edna Skinner), who both appeared from the pilot episode until Keating's death in 1963; thereafter, Skinner continued appearing as Kay, without mention of Roger's absence, until the neighbors were recast. During this period, Kay's brother Paul Fenton (Jack Albertson), who had made occasional appearances before, appears. Following the Addisons, the Posts' new neighbors were Col. Gordon Kirkwood, USAF (Ret.), Wilbur's former commanding officer (Leon Ames), and his wife Winnie (Florence MacMichael). They appeared on the series from 1963 to 1965. In the final season, the Kirkwoods were phased out, while Carol's grumpy and uptight father, Mr. Higgins (Barry Kelley), who appeared occasionally throughout the entire series, apparently moved in with Wilbur and Carol during the final episodes. Wilbur and his father-in-law did not get along at all because Mr. Higgins loathed Wilbur, whose quirky eccentricity and klutzy, half-hearted attempts to be friendly always clashed with Mr. Higgins's emotionless and uptight personality. Carol's father never stopped trying to persuade her to divorce Wilbur, whom he often and openly referred to as a "kook" because of Wilbur's clumsiness. Alan Young performed double duty during the final season of the series, also directing nearly all episodes.


title: Mister Ed

text: Mister Ed's ability to talk was never explained and rarely contemplated on the show. In the first episode, when Wilbur expresses an inability to understand the situation, Mister Ed offers the show's only remark on the subject: "Don't try. It's bigger than both of us!"


title: Mister Ed

text: The original, unaired pilot for the series was titled "Wilbur Pope and Mister Ed" and featured an unrelated instrumental big-band theme (with footage of Studebaker Hawk automobiles being driven underneath the opening credits). This pilot, which used a script that was nearly identical to that which would be used on the series premiere, used a totally different cast. Scott McKay played the title part of Wilbur Pope (surname later changed to "Post" prior to the series making it to air) and Sandra White played the role of Wilbur's wife.


title: Mister Ed

text: The first horse that played Mister Ed for the first, unaired pilot episode was a chestnut gelding. The horse proved to be unruly and difficult to work with and was replaced with the horse named Bamboo Harvester (1949–1970), a crossbred gelding of American Saddlebred, Arabian and grade ancestry. A second pilot episode was filmed and Bamboo Harvester remained with the series until its cancellation.


title: Mister Ed

text: "Mister Ed" producers left the talents that performed the title role uncredited. The show's credits listed Mister Ed as being played only by "Himself."


title: Mister Ed

text: The voice actor for Ed's spoken lines was Allan "Rocky" Lane, a former B-movie cowboy star. Sheldon Allman provided Ed's singing voice in episodes; his solo line ("I'm Mister Ed") at the close of the show's theme song was provided by its composer, Jay Livingston. Allan Lane was alluded to by the producers only as "an actor who prefers to remain nameless." After the show became a hit, Lane campaigned the producers for screen credit but accepted a raise in salary instead.


title: Mister Ed

text: The horse Bamboo Harvester portrayed Ed throughout the run. Ed's stablemate, a quarter horse named Pumpkin, also served as Bamboo Harvester's stunt double for the show. This horse later appeared again in the television series "Green Acres".


title: Mister Ed

text: Bamboo Harvester's trainer was Les Hilton. To create the impression that Ed was having a conversation, Hilton initially used a thread technique he had employed for Lubin's earlier "Mule" films; in time, though, this became unnecessary. As actor Alan Young recounted: "It was initially done by putting a piece of nylon thread in his mouth. But Ed actually learned to move his lips on cue when the trainer touched his hoof. In fact, he soon learned to do it when I stopped talking during a scene! Ed was very smart."


title: Mister Ed

text: Reports circulated during and after the show's run that the talking effect was achieved by crew members applying peanut butter to the horse's gums. Alan Young said in later interviews that he invented the story. "Al Simon and Arthur Lubin, the producers, suggested we keep the method [of making the horse appear to talk] a secret because they thought kids would be disappointed if they found out the technical details of how it was done, so I made up the peanut butter story, and everyone bought it."


title: Mister Ed

text: Young added that Bamboo Harvester saw trainer Les Hilton as the disciplinarian father figure. When scolded by Hilton for missing a cue, the horse would move to Young for comfort, treating the actor as a mother figure. Hilton told Young this was a positive development.


title: Mister Ed

text: There are conflicting stories involving of the death of Bamboo Harvester, the horse that played Mister Ed.


title: Mister Ed

text: Alan Young said that he had frequently visited Harvester in retirement. He states that the horse died inadvertently from a tranquilizer, administered while he was in a stable on Sparks Street in Burbank, California, where he lived with his trainer Lester Hilton. Young says Hilton was out of town visiting relatives, and a temporary caregiver might have seen Bamboo Harvester rolling on the ground, struggling to get up. Young said Harvester was a heavy horse, and he was not always strong enough to get back on his feet without struggling. He suggests that the caregiver thought the horse was in distress, administered a tranquilizer and, for unknown reasons, the horse died within hours. The remains were cremated and scattered by Hilton in the Los Angeles area at a spot known only to him.


title: Mister Ed

text: Another story claims that Bamboo Harvester, suffering from age-related ailments, was euthanized in 1970 with no publicity and buried at Snodgrass Farm in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.


title: Mister Ed

text: A third story claims that after "Mister Ed", Bamboo Harvester's health was failing. He suffered from arthritis and kidney problems, and had to be euthanized at the age of 19.


title: Mister Ed

text: A different horse who died in Oklahoma in February 1979 was widely thought to be Bamboo Harvester, but this horse was, in fact, a horse that posed for the still pictures of "Mister Ed" used by the production company for the show's press kits. The death of this horse, unofficially known as "Mister Ed," led to death reports in the mainstream press, as well as a mock interview of the grieving Mrs. Ed on "Saturday Night Live" Weekend Update segment.


title: Mister Ed

text: The theme song, titled "Mister Ed," was written by the songwriting team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans and sung by Livingston himself. The first seven episodes used only instrumental music to open the show; thereafter the version with lyrics was used. Livingston agreed to sing the song himself until a professional singer could be found; the producers liked the songwriter's vocals and kept them on the broadcast. During most of the show's run the ending theme song used only instrumental music. In some episodes, however, the theme song is sung during the closing credits. The theme was actually sung at the end in all but the first seven episodes. The severely shortened end credits imposed by the current distributor necessitated the use of a shortened instrumental version.


title: Mister Ed

text: The theme song received renewed publicity twenty years after the show went off the air when Jim Brown, a preacher from South Point, Ohio, claimed in May 1986 that it contained "satanic messages" if heard in reverse. Brown and his colleague Greg Hudson claimed that the phrases "Someone sung this song for Satan" and "the source is Satan" would be audible. At their behest teenagers burned over 300 records and cassettes of secular music with alleged satanic messages. The teens did not burn a copy of "Television's Greatest Hits", but Brown asserted that "Satan can be an influence whether they [the songwriters] know it or not. We don't think they did it on purpose and we're not getting down on "Mister Ed"."


title: Mister Ed

text: Before the theme song begins, the sound of Mr. Ed whinnying is heard before Mr. Ed's human voice is heard saying "Hello, I'm Mr. Ed." The theme starts out with the famous lyrics "A horse is a horse/Of course, of course."


title: Mister Ed

text: The series was sponsored from 1961 to 1963 by Studebaker-Packard Corporation and Studebaker Corporation. At first, sponsorship came from Studebaker's dealer association, with corporate sponsorship coming from South Bend once the series had been picked up by CBS. Studebakers were featured prominently in the show during this period. The Posts are shown owning a 1962 Lark convertible, and the company used publicity shots featuring the Posts and Mister Ed with their product (various cast members also appeared in "integrated commercials" for Lark at the end of the program). When another Lark convertible served as the official pace car at the 1962 Indianapolis 500, Connie Hines attended the race as part of the promotion.


title: Mister Ed

text: Studebaker's sales dropped dramatically in 1961 and, despite their exposure via sponsoring this program, never recovered. Studebaker ended U.S. motor vehicle production on December 20, 1963. Later, Studebaker's sponsorship and vehicle-supply agreement ended, and The Ford Motor Company provided the vehicles seen on-camera starting at the beginning of 1965. (Studebaker vehicle production ended in March 1966.)


title: Mister Ed

text: MGM Home Entertainment released two "Best-of" collections of "Mister Ed" on DVD in Region 1. Volume 1 (released January 13, 2004) contains 21 episodes and Volume 2 (released March 8, 2005) contains 20 episodes. Due to poor sales, further volumes were not released.


title: Mister Ed

text: MGM also released a single-disc release titled "Mister Ed's Barnyard Favorites" on July 26, 2005, which contains the first eight episodes featured on Volume One.


title: Mister Ed

text: Shout! Factory announced in June 2009 that they had acquired the rights to release "Mister Ed" on DVD, and subsequently released the six seasons on DVD in Region 1 in the U.S. Notably, Seasons 4 and 5 are not available outside of the continental U.S. The sixth and final season was released on May 12, 2015.


title: Mister Ed

text: Syndicated versions of eight episodes were utilized for the Season One DVD release. All other DVD releases contain unedited, full-length versions.


title: Mister Ed

text: One episode (the second-season episode "Ed the Beneficiary") has lapsed into the public domain. Also in the public domain is a 19-minute production of the United States Department of the Treasury, done in the style of a Mister Ed episode with the show's full cast (but without a laugh track), promoting Savings Bonds, and the original unaired pilot, which was published without a copyright notice.


title: Mister Ed

text: On December 9, 2014, Shout! Factory released "Mister Ed- Complete Series" on DVD in Region 1. The 22-disc set contains all 143 episodes (including the eight episodes of season one uncut) of the series as well as bonus features.


title: Mister Ed

text: In 2004, a remake was planned for the Fox network as a reboot, directed by Michael Spiller and written by Drake Sather. The remake starred Sherman Hemsley as the voice of Mister Ed, David Alan Basche as Wilbur, and Sherilyn Fenn as Carol.


title: Mister Ed

text: In 2012, Waterman Entertainment announced they were developing a new feature film based on "Mister Ed".


title: Mister Ed

text: A race horse named after the character in the television show took part in the 1994 Grand National steeplechase at Aintree, England, but did not complete the course.


title: Mister Ed

text: In 2007, it was reported that a housing developer intended to create a community near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, built around the supposed final resting place of Mister Ed (who died in 1970). It was intended to be themed to the style of the show and its period.


title: Mister Ed

text: The character of Mr. Ed was used in a cameo role of a teacher in an unofficial parody of "High School Musical" called "High School Musical But Different" written by musician Alex Meleras in 2021. The musical is not available to the public.


title: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth

text: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC (9 April 1649 – 15 July 1685) was a Dutch-born English nobleman and military officer. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland with his mistress Lucy Walter.


title: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth

text: The Duke of Monmouth served in the Second Anglo-Dutch War and commanded English troops taking part in the Third Anglo-Dutch War before commanding the Anglo-Dutch brigade fighting in the Franco-Dutch War. He led the unsuccessful Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, an attempt to depose his uncle King James II and VII. After one of his officers declared Monmouth the legitimate king in the town of Taunton in Somerset, Monmouth attempted to capitalise on his Protestantism and his position as the son of Charles II, in opposition to James, who had become a Roman Catholic. The rebellion failed, and Monmouth was beheaded for treason on 15 July 1685.